Schnirman asking for money again

Nassau Comptroller Jack Schnirman

While Long Island's unemployment rate remains high and businesses are still struggling to survive,
Nassau Comptroller Jack Schirman is hoping that his supporters have enough cash to share with him despite the government-imposed coronavirus shutdowns.


Schnirman today emailed a plea for campaign donations even though he doesn't face re-election until Nov. 2021 -- assuming the Nassau Democratic party renominates him to another four-year term.

"Thanks to the support of folks like you, we’re in a strong position to keep up our work, and ensure Jack stays in office come 2021. Will you chip in to his re-election campaign?," his re-election committee asks.

Schnirman's past fundraising emails stopped around the same time Gov. Andrew Cuomo locked down all but essential businesses on March 22, putting thousands of Long Islanders out of work while pushing scores of businesses into the red.


But a July 15 deadline is just around the corner for political candidates, like Schnirman, to disclose the state of their campaign finances.

As you can see in the below email, Schnirman's campaign committee says the county comptroller has been working hard even during the shutdown but needs help to prepare for his re-election campaign.

Some doubt, however, that Schnirman will be renominated because of questions over his handling of Long Beach finances while he was city manager from 2012 through 2017.


Before the coronavirus hit, Schnirman had been under fire for taking nearly $53,000 more in severance pay than allowed by city code or his own employment contract when he left Long Beach   to become Nassau's top financial watchdog in Jan. 2018. Schnirman said he depended upon staff to calculate the amount of accrued sick and vacation time he was owed.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a Democrat who had endorsed fellow Democrat Schnirman for the county job, found after a 16-month examination of Long Beach's books that Schnirman and nine other current and former employees--mostly member's of Schnirman's management team -- were overpaid by more than $500,000 in separation payments between 2017 and 2018.

After DiNapoli's draft audit was delivered last August, Schnirman returned nearly $53,000 of the total $108,000 he was paid in severance.

Other state reviews found that Long Beach for years had run multi-million-dollar budget deficits, hidden by borrowing.

Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas was investigating the city's financial practices as were federal prosecutors. Former and current Long Beach city council members were called to testify before a federal grand jury late last year about the excess payments.

Then the coronavirus shutdown hit, the courts closed and the investigations, seemingly, ended.