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 Here is the Santos sequel: There are no big newsmakers, just a number of solid community leaders on the local ballots this November. The candidates appear to be known and have verifiable credentials -- unlike the flamboyant fabulist, U.S. Rep. George Santos, an unknown Republican who voters later learned had fabricated most of his public resume when he ran and won in the North Shore 3rd Congressional District last year.   The official November candidate list is out after political insiders stayed mum for weeks about who the parties were nominating this year -- particularly for the redistricted county legislature -- even as hopefuls were introduced at fundraisers and their names circulated on nominating petitions. So let's look at the county legislature, where district lines were redrawn in February and some incumbents moved out of their longtime districts. In addition, four of the 19 current legislators are not seeking re-election. Take the 1st District, represented for years by M

                                                                                    Nassau County government building in Mineloa that includes the County Clerk's office                                                                                   Nobody can say Nassau wasn't warned, including former Democratic Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and successor Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman -- and even the county's control board, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority . Both county executives imposed exorbitant tax map certification fees and NIFA approved budgets that included those fees even though they were found to be unconstitutional by a state court judge in 2020. Now the state Appellate Division has weighed in and agreed that the fees are too high to be legally justified. Last Wednesday, a four court appellate division panel affirmed the lower court decision that found "the county's current fee associated with issuing a Tax Map Certification let

                                                                                    Sands Ad on Newsday website today   Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman's plans for a casino in the Nassau HUB hit a speed bump this week. The county's Open Space Parks and Advisory Committee yesterday voted against transferring the county's lease with the Nassau Coliseum to the Las Vegas Sands, which hopes to build a casino and resort on the 72-acres Uniondale site.  OSPAC makes recommendations to the County Planning Commission. But the Nassau Planning Commission today put off its review of the transfer until April 27, saying it needed more information, including an environmental review. The county legislature will make the final decision on whether to approve a lease for the casino. Lawmakers can ignore or accept the OSPAC and Planning Commission recommendations. Usually -- but not always -- the legislature accepts the committees' advice. Whatever happened  at OSPAC -- a very non-t

                                                                                   As predicted, Republican Congressman George Santos announced his 2024 re-election campaign in a tweet today. And as expected, local Democrats are making hay with it  -- as they do with every unflattering story and critique of the 3rd District representative, who has admitted to lying about much of his background. Nassau and State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs issued a statement saying that Santos is 16 days late.  "April Fool's Day was on the first of this month and that would have been a more appropriate date to announce his re-election campaign." Jacobs said. Nassau Legis. Josh Lafazan, who lost a primary for the Democratic 3rd District nomination last year, used the Santos announcement to raise money to run again for Congress -- even though he is also a candidate for re-election to the Nassau legislature this year. In his fundraising appeals by email and text, Lafazan accused Santos of

                                                                                Santos tweet today of old Lafazan photo Fabulist Republican Congressman George Santos and failed Congressional candidate Josh Lafazan, a Nassau Democratic County legislator, got into a Twitter war Saturday, each accusing the other of misdeeds and dishonesty. Nobody looks good in this fight. It started with a story in the New York Post. Despite numerous calls for Santos to resign because he lied about most of background, the 3rd District Congressman will announce his re-election campaign on Monday, the Post reported. Lafazan. who lost his bid to win the Democratic primary for the 3rd District seat last year, tweeted his outrage. And then asked for donations to his 2024 Congressional campaign for the Santos seat. But Lafazan is supposedly running for re-election to his 18th District county legislative seat this year. Shouldn't he be raising money for that race, which he came close to losing two years ago?

                                                                                     Owen Smith Former Nassau Deputy County Executive Owen Smith, a top aide to the late Republican County Executive Fran Purcell from 1978 through 1987, died Monday after a long illness, Newsday reported today. But Newsday didn't mention Smith's lasting mark on Nassau County as the chief planner and architect in developing the former Mitchel Field air base in Uniondale into a county-owned and leased office complex. Smith set the terms for most of the 23 deals to develop 245-acres of former military property acquired from the federal government and then leased to private developers --  without competitive bidding and without appraisals on more than half of the commercial land. Some 73 percent of the property went to firms with principals or lawyers connected to the then-dominant Nassau Republican party. But hey, this is Nassau County after all. The leases set below-market rents for the 99-year lease

                                                                                    The Nassau Inspector General's 2022 annual report was posted on the county website this morning after a week-end delay. Inspector Jodi Francese says she emailed the report to county leaders and the county IT department for posting just after 6 p.m. Friday -- just squeaking through a charter-imposed March 31 deadline.         "§192. Reporting.   Not later than March 31st of each year, the Inspector General shall prepare and publish a written annual report summarizing the activities of the office during the immediately        preceding fiscal year. The report shall be furnished to the County Executive, and the County Comptroller as well as the Presiding Officer and the Minority Leader of the County Legislature. The annual report shall be posted with a link on the Inspector General's web page."                                                                                Arguably, th

From the Nassau Inspector General website, as of April 2 Nassau County Democrats have pushed for the reappointment of Inspector General Jodi Franzese after her four-year-term expired in December. But the Republican majority on the county legislature has balked. Presiding Officer Rich Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) told Newsday that Franzese would serve as a holdover this year, leaving it up to the new legislature elected in November to decide if she should continue in her job. So maybe, Franzese has retaliated against the delay with a work slowdown of sorts. She hasn't issued her charter-required annual report for 2022, which is supposed to be published and posted on her website before March 31. In fact, there are no public reports posted on the site for all of 2022. And that leaves the public in the dark as to what their $165,000-a-year inspector general, with a staff of eight and an office budget of more than $1 million, has been up to for the past year. Democrats had pressed and lo