Nassau County blackout: No way to hear if taxes are up or police officers down

                                                                              

Past Meeting of the Nassau Legislature


So much for the public's right to know.

The Nassau County legislature's livestream  has been on the blink for the past two meetings.

The livestream, which allows residents at home to watch their lawmakers in action,  comes up for a few moments and then stops; it starts again for a few moments, and then completely freezes, making it impossible to follow any discussion or decisions.

Today's topic was next year's budget: Will there be property tax cuts to Republican Bruce Blakeman's $4.l billion budget? Both Republicans and Democrats have called for cuts. Will police officers be added to the budget? Both Republicans and Democrats have called for more police.

Nassau residents outside of the Mineola meeting chambers won't know.

Staff on both sides of the aisle say the livestream problems have been reported or that they're "working on it."

If there had been livestream in the past, you could have bet that former Democratic firebrands -- David Denenberg, Lisanne Altmann, David Mejias, Barbara Johnson -- would not have put up with administrative incompetence even when Democrats were in the minority. Polite firebrands like Judy Jacobs and Wayne Wink would have called administrators on the carpet publicly to explain the difficulty.

The late Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt, a Massapequa Republican, would not accept such ineptness from either side of the political aisle. Even Blakeman, a former Presiding officer himself, would have demanded answers.


Rich Nicolello

Kevan Abrahams

But few legislators are left with that kind of energy and enthusiasm.Two of the better longime lawmakers:Presiding officer Rich Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) and Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) are not seeking re-election next month and will be leaving the legislature at the end of the year.

Too bad.

 


 

 

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