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It's hard to keep up in Long Beach. Besides warning the Long Beach City Council against waiving client privilege in response to a request from the District Attorney for information about questionable separation payments, Acting Corporation Counsel Greg Kalnitsky today apparently also shared his thoughts with Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas' office. And Singas office slapped back. The district attorney did not request a "blanket waiver" as Kalnitsky suggested, but asked for a waiver specific to internal legal communications about the separation payments, which have roiled the city for more than a year,  wrote the head of Singas' public corruption unit, Christine Maloney. She also pointed out that Kalnitsky himself had violated attorney-client privilege by revealing publicly that a late corporation counsel some 20 years ago opined that employees in some instances could receive more in separation pay than stipulated by the code. Maloney added that ...

A letter from the Nassau District Attorney this week requesting information about excessive separation payments that occurred under former City Manager Jack Schnirman raises a familiar question. Who runs Long Beach? Is it the elected City Council or the city manager hired by the City Council? Christine Maloney, chief of the Public Corruption Bureau under Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas, wrote council members Tuesday that the office cannot conclude its investigation into the payments unless it knows "what, if any, guidance was provided to the city and its employees by members of its legal staff." Since April, 2018, Singas and the U.S. Attorney's office have been investigating outsized separation and "drawdown" payments made to current and former employees, including Schnirman, who left on Jan. 1, 2018 to become Nassau's elected county comptroller. A draft audit from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in August reported that more than $500,000...

On Thanksgiving Eve, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran asked the county legislature to approve a proposed settlement with the Long Island Power Authority to reduce taxes on the Glenwood Landing and Island Park power generation plants. The settlement, filed with the legislative clerk on Wednesday afternoon, calls for the total amount LIPA now pays in lieu of taxes to be cut in half over seven years. According to Newsday, LIPA now currently makes $65 million in "pilot" payments for the two plants. That amount would be reduced to $32.5 million and then extended at that 50 percent level for another four years. In return, LIPA would discontinue its long-standing tax challenges against the county's assessments on the Glenwood Landing facility and the Island Park E.F. Barrett power generating plant. The county estimates it  could pay $245.5 million in tax refunds if LIPA wins those challenges while LIPA contends the county's liability could total $500 million. ...

First a Democratic Supreme Court Justice recused himself from a legal dispute between Hempstead Town and the former operators of the town's Lido Beach golf course after Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen complained that Nassau Republican Chairman Joseph Cairo had been paid nearly $1 million by the vendor. With no explanation, Justice Timothy Driscoll, a deputy for former Democratic County Executive Thomas Suozzi,  recused himself from the Double Eagle Golf Inc. lawsuit. Then a Conservative justice removed himself. After being assigned the case, Justice Vito DeStefano in Mineola recused. Next  Republican Justice Jerome Murphy recused himself. Murphy is the son-in-law of former U.S. Senator Al D'Amato. Murphy's wife Lisa has a high-level town job. Now Double Eagle has landed with a Westchester County judge. Nassau court spokesman Dan Bagnuola said in an email today, " The Hon. Vito C. Caruso, Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for Courts outside NYC,  in consu...

Politicians are a favorite punching bag, especially losing politicians. So it wasn't too surprising that people who post on the Open Nassau Facebook forum have periodically complained about Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen, the first Democrat in a century to win the supervisor's job in the Republican-controlled town two years ago. Gillen did not respond to the gibes until she conceded defeat last week  losing her bid for a second term to  Republican Hempstead Tax Receiver Don Clavin. That's when a comment about her hair colorist apparently pushed Gillen over the edge. A poster claimed, "Her color girl says she's mean." Gillen retorted that the poster had a fake profile, "and by the way, my highlights are done by a man, a Republican who voted for me. " The two went back and forth ten times,  arguing about Gillen's hair colorist. "My colorist is a man. Liar," Gillen repeated..."Fake profile and Lies." A first tho...

The timing of Jack Schnirman's  fundraising email seemed a bit embarrassing at first. On Wednesday, Nov. 20, his campaign committee sent out an invitation to  join Schnirman, the former Long Beach city manager, at a New Year's celebration Jan. 9 at the Garden City Hotel. Tickets range from $100 to $10,000. "We're throwing a party early next year to celebrate and support our favorite comptroller," the email said. On Friday, the Long Beach City Council released a draft response to a state audit critical of excessive termination and "drawdown" payments made to former employees, including Schnirman. As the newly elected county comptroller,  Schnirman, a Democrat, took county office on Jan. 1, 2018 after receiving $108,000 in taxpayer money from Democrat-controlled Long Beach for unused leave time--nearly $53,000 more than allowed by city code or Schnirman's own employment contract. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli pointed this out in a draft a...

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran is quietly floating a settlement with the Long Island Power Authority to cut taxes on its Island Park and Glenwood Landing power plants, several county sources said Thursday. Details were not available, but it is expected that the settlement will be submitted to the legislature just before the Thanksgiving holiday, perhaps as early as Friday. It is expected to include some kind of tax phase-out. LIPA has longstanding legal challenges to the property tax assessments on its four power plants on Long Island, including stations in Northport and Port Jefferson. Communities that depend on tax revenues generated by the plants have vigorously objected to the court challenges, which seek to reduce the plants' assessed values by as much as 90 percent. Residents in Island Park and Northport even joined together earlier this year to protest the proposed reduction in the taxes they receive, saying the revenues were intended to offset the burden o...

Politics in Long Beach are very confusing After council members complained for months that then-acting city manager Michael Tangney had hired lawyer Anthony Capozzolo last year without council approval to investigate questionable separation payments,   the council last week cancelled a meeting to formally retain their own outside counsel to respond to an audit of separation payments. The council instead accepted the assistant corporation counsel’s opinion that current acting city manager John Mirando could retain the Ingerman Smith law firm without a council vote. This is the same assistant corporation counsel who wrote and submitted a resolution last month that Councilman John Bendo characterized as a “piece of horseshit.” And it’s the same acting city manager who wrote the state comptroller that Capozzolo’s response was the city’s official response. Capozzolo in September had written a response to a draft comptroller audit without city council i...