Nassau public administrator cleans up office

Nassau Comptroller Jack Schnirman, a Democrat, has given a high grade to Republican Public Administrator Brian Curran for cleaning up an office that administers millions of dollars in estates of residents who died without a will.

A year ago Schnirman  sharply criticized operations under former Republican public administrator Jeff DeLuca. An audit by Schnirman's office cited poor record-keeping, missing cash receipts and the potential for mishandling millions of dollars because of a lack of checks and balances.  It also said DeLuca was not involved in daily office operations and accused him of misreporting his time.

All in all, auditors made 55 recommendations to improve the public administrators' office.


Last week, Schnirman issued a follow-up report that said the current public adminstrator "is making positive strides" to upgrade the office. It found that Curran "is engaged in the daily operations of the Office" and  "has implemented or is in the process of implementing 95 percent of the recommendations provided by the Comptroller’s audit."

The report commended Curran--by title, not by name--and said his changes will "decrease the risk for fraud, waste and abuse."

Curran, who is not related to Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, could not be reached for comment.

The public administrator manages the estates of people who die without a will and leave no known heirs or relatives willing to administer the estate. Schnirman's audit, which was begun by his Republican predecessor, sampled the office's handling of $33.2 million in estates from 2014 through 2016.

 

DeLuca, who is Salisbury's Republican leader, resigned his $154,000 appointed job, in Nov. 2018 after the comptroller's office issued its draft results. Curran, Lynbrook's Republican leader who had just lost his bid for re-election to the state assembly, was appointed by Republican Surrogate Court Judge Margaret Reilly to replace DeLuca last December.

Though DeLuca was not cited by name, the audit reported that the public administrator had misreported his time at work on at least 15 days sampled from November 2017 through March 2018.
The audit also said the public administrator came to work late but altered his time sheets to say he had arrived at 9 a.m. For at least three of those days, the audit reported, he wasn’t doing anything related to his job before he came into the office.

DeLuca's attorney Dennis Lemke responded to the audit by saying his client  “categorically" denied altering any timesheets  and never claimed any time he didn’t work.

A spokesman for District Attorney Madeline Singas this week said no charges were filed following the audit.