LIuncoverednews

A state supreme court justice today declined to dismiss most of a lawsuit that alleges Nassau's property tax reassessment was arbitrary, secretive and violated state law. Justice Stephen Bucaria in Mineola, in a 23-page decision,  also granted class action status to the lawsuit brought by Sands Point resident Eric Berliner and three other Nassau homeowners in April. A schedule for discovery on the lawsuit was expected to be set at a 2 pm. hearing today. While dismissing some allegations, Bucaria allowed arguments to go forward on the lawsuit's claims that the county did not disclose how it came up with the new residential values, violated state constitutional requirement for equal protection when applying them and should be permanently barred from using the new assessments in the school tax bills that go out in October. "The court finds the matters herein to be of great significance," Bucaria wrote. Berliner said the homeowner's attorney Scott  Mollen h...

While County Executive Laura Curran and Nassau's detective's union say a proposed labor contract will attract new detectives, its appeal hinges on whatever deals and benefits are negotiated by the county's other four unions, according to a financial review. The legislature's Budget Review Office last Thursday issued a seven-page report analyzing the terms of the county's proposed  8-1/2 year contract with the Detectives Association -- the first of the county's five major unions to reach an agreement with the administration since their contracts expired at the end of 2017. The administration has said the deal will solve a chronic and growing detective shortage.  It told legislators that 15 police officers have already applied to become detective after learning about the new terms. Because of pay scales negotiated in 2014 that limited detective salaries, fewer and fewer police officers asked to be promoted to the once-coveted job. Some detectives even turned...

Pay attention. This is complicated. Talk around political circles this week is that Nassau Republican Elections Commissioner Louis Savinetti will be leaving his county post and moving back to a commissioner's job in Oyster Bay Town. Under this scenario, Nassau Republican Deputy Elections Commissioner Joseph Kearney, a close friend of Nassau GOP chairman Joseph Cairo, would take Savinetti's place as acting commissioner. Kearney, who served as executive director of the Nassau Industrial Development Agency for eight years while Republican Ed Mangano was county executive,  would make some personnel shuffles on the Republican side of the elections board. Then Cairo would then appoint a Hempstead Town leader to the $180,300-year Republican elections post -- allegedly Joseph Ra, the Hempstead Town attorney and longtime Franklin Square GOP leader. Newly elected Republican Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin reportedly has wanted to replace Ra, a close ally of Cairo, with his...

Nassau Comptroller Jack Schnirman, whose fundraising appeals consistently tout his efforts toward increased transparency, gave less than clear answers when questioned Wednesday about his office falling for a $710,000 phishing scam. At a hearing of the county legislature's Finance Committee, the Democratic comptroller refused to give specifics about the cyberattack he announced at a news conference Jan. 10 with Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder. At the news conference, Schnirman and Ryder said a scammer had impersonated a real county vendor in an email and directed the comptroller's office to make payments to a new account. The $710,000 in taxpayer money subsequently was recovered after a joint investigation by the comptroller's office, the county treasure, police, banks and the district attorney. No arrests have been made. Citing security concerns, Schnirman and his staff representatives at yesterday's hearing declined to say how many payments were made to ...

Bail reform in New York took effect Jan. 1. Three weeks later, Long Island Democrats are getting clobbered in the polls. Yesterday,  Jan. 21,  the Siena College Research Institute released a poll that showed 64 percent of downstate suburbanites -- ie Long Islanders -- were opposed to bail reform. That was a significant swing from last year when a majority of voters -- 55 percent -- across the state thought bail reform would be good for New York. All of Long Island's Democratic senators and assembly members joined with the new progressive Democratic majority in Albany last year to eliminate bail for most crimes in the state. All of Long Island's Republicans in Albany voted against it. The move made sense on paper. Poor people accused of low-level crimes, such as shoplifting, should not stay in jail because they, or their relatives, cannot afford to post bail.  Bail is supposed to ensure that suspects return to court when their case is heard. But Albany Democ...