Does Nassau SOA, and maybe PBA, have a deal?

It just may be gossip on a Saturday night but multiple sources say Nassau's Superior Officers Association has reached a new labor agreement with County Executive Laura Curran -- a deal  already tacitly approved by the county's financial control board.

And, the story goes, the SOA has been pressuring the county's Police Benevolent Association to agree to a deal: small raises with stipends for senior officers.

The two police unions have been working without contracts since the end of Dec. 2017. Nassau Detective Association's contract also expired in 2017, but the union reached an agreement with Curran last year.

In the past, the PBA always led negotiations for police contracts.

Also in the past, the deals were negotiated by the unions and the county executive. But this time, the county's control board, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, demanded a seat at the table.

NIFA hired attorney Gary Dellaverson of Westchester County to participate in union negotiations -- after the county legislature refused Curran's request to hire Dellaverson.

The legislature said Dellaverson was too expensive. Ironically, though, the county still has to pay for Dellaverson because NIFA is financed through county sales taxes.

If the SOA has a deal, Dellaverson would have agreed to it.

Several Republicans suspect the county is pressing ahead with the deals during a pandemic  to secure police union support for the faltering re-election bids this November of Nassau's Democratic senators and assembly members, who all voted for criminal justice and bail reforms.

Bail reform, which allows most accused criminals to be released back onto the streets within hours of arrest, along with  progressive's calls for defunding police and rising violence in New York City and the state have tanked Long Island Democrats in the polls.


It would be astonishing for the police unions to support the re-election of Democratic state officials -- or even for the unions to sit on their hands.  It also would seem foolish for Democrat Curran, who is up for re-election next year, to give away good news to state elected officials that could be used to bolster her own prospects.

But again, that's the story that's out there.

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