What's Up in Recreation & Parks ???

[rob677]

after only 6 months on the job, Recreation & Parks Chief Deputy Commissioner Susan Gordon Ryan has been replaced by Paul Richard Murphy from NYC Parks.

What's the real story here ???

===================================

Newsday.com

BY BILL BLEYER
STAFF WRITER

September 17, 2004


Paul Richard Murphy, who retired Tuesday as Queens County parks commissioner, has been named Nassau County's chief deputy parks commissioner.

Murphy replaces Susan Gordon Ryan, a former state parks regional director for Long Island who was brought in by the Suozzi administration six months ago to be the department's No. 2 administrator and oversee day-to-day operations. Ryan left last week to return to the nonprofit sector.

With Nassau Parks Commissioner Doreen Banks concentrating on fund-raising for a new nonprofit parks conservancy under a reorganization instituted earlier this year by County Executive Thomas Suozzi, the deputy commissioner has been running the department on a daily basis.

While Ryan had been paid $97,000 a year, Murphy will start at $105,000. He said he accepted a $6,000 pay cut from his Queens salary because of the challenge of running a parks system that has seen budget cuts in recent years. In Queens, he was in charge of 450 full-time workers and 400 seasonal employees. Nassau has 215 full-time workers, 190 part-timers and 825 seasonals.

Murphy, 59, a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, was commissioner of Queens parks since 1995. He spent 34 years in the city Department of Parks and Recreation, starting out as a pruner. The Queens resident said he will relocate to Nassau.

"I'm excited because it's a new clean slate for me," Murphy said. "I'm filled with so many ideas. Initially, I want to improve the entrances and perimeters of the parks. If they are inviting, people will come into them."

Murphy said he was not worried about the financial challenges of running a department with a limited budget and staff. "I come from financial challenges," he said. He added that Nassau has "an excellent professional work force."

Ryan, 54, of Point Lookout, left Friday to become chief administrative officer for the National Center for Disability Services in Albertson. Ryan, who contracted polio as a child, held her first job there as a special education teacher.

She will report to the president, Edmund Cortez, and will oversee day-to-day operations at the center, which employs more than 500 people.

Ryan said the move had nothing to do with the financially strapped county park system. "It was an opportunity to go back to my grassroots," she said.

[Park Worker]

Could it be that Klein & Magwood are so dumb that Ms. Ryan could not stand it any longer:"> . Klein and Magwood could not supervise a playground sandbox, let alone a whole park system. Plus Ms. Ryan was a county resident. Mr. Suozzi only likes city losers .

[More Non Residents For Na]

We elect Mr. Suozzi on the promise that he will appoint experienced professionals to positions of authority.
We get Doreen Banks as commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Museums.
We soon learn that she has no experience running a Park or arranging Recreation or administering Museums.
We have a parade of amateurs filing in and out of the department planting bushes and building fountains.
We have a mass exit of anyone who knows anything about anything.
We learn that Ms. Banks will now work out of the offices of her announced arch enemy the Friends for Long Islands Heritage, whom she vowed to dismantle.
We are informed that although she is still the Commissioner, her new role will be development and fund raising.
We learn that she has no experience raising funds or developing. She is paid close to six figures to beg, and is not held to any standard familiar to the experienced fund raisers of the world.
We are delighted to see Ms. Banks wearing a funny hat and hob nobbing with the rich and famous. She declares that she is looking forward to having some fun, after all of that dreadful administrative work she undertook.
We are silent. We are stupified.
We open our papers to see yet another hack being delivered upon us from an adjoining failure. He too is paid six figures to manage affairs and administrative work.
We are informed that his first order of business will be to build new entrances to the parks to make them more inviting, something he and his pals did in another Parks system from which he has since retired.
We have two commissioners.
We have a sinking ship and two captains. One will raise money so that the other can build a better door to our empty house.
We have no expectations that sufficient monies will be raised by our commissioner of fund raising to pay for the new doors being planned by the commissioner of doors.
We are embedded in nonsense and we know it.
We deserve better.
We will be intimadated and threatened from within that if We speak we will be gone.
We are silent. We are gone, and our system is betrayed to a point that it must suffer privatization.
We had better think this over and make a stand...or fall.

[Parks]

Ok, first of all Banks may not have had previous parks experience, but she did have experience managing departments that had fallen into disrepair. She also has a good record of achievement in that area. The previous Republican Commissioners had no previous Parks experience, but I don't see you complaining about that.

The real story is that Klein hated Banks from the start and used everything possible to turn Suozzi on her and it worked.

Now the residents are stuck with Klein and Magwood running things into the ground.

Suozzi is starting to realize he made a mistake (he will never admit it to Banks, of course) and he hired Murphy to try to salvage what is now unsalvageable.

End of story.

[Real World]

An organization and its leader should be judged on its accomplishments.

Its success can be predicted by the individuals selected to fill the most important positions and run the key departments.

Let's review the bidding by department:

Public Safety Cancellieri, Helena Williams, somebody, and now somebody else, Roy Mazzappella,

Health & Social Service Jack Gallagher, Mitch Sahn, Mary Curtis, Bob Sherman

Parks & Public Works Hez Brown, Mike Kline, Peter Gerbasi, Bill Jantzen, Doreen Banks, Magwood, now somebody else

Finance and Budget Art Gianelli, Craig Love, Henry Dachowitz, Mark Young, Frank Ryan

Economic Development Peter Sylver Patrick Duggan

Chief Deputies Bill Cunningham Tony Cancellieri

PR Bruce Nyman Louise Tripoli Arda Nazerian, Ian Siegel

Computers Craig Love now somebody else

Attorney Lorna Goodman Liz Botwin

Personnel Sharon Asip John Donnelly now somebody else

Real Estate Sheldon Cohen

And our specialists:

DWI's Gur Courbois Rob Ben Ruby Bill Jantzen

crooks Peter Sylver Patrick Williams

*****************************************

So what do you think? Closer to the Yankees or the pathetic Mets?

the champion Islanders or more like sad sack Rangers?

My assessment: Finance has had the most stability (after 4 horrid months with Craig Love) and the most consistent accomplishments

Shelly Cohen has been quietly durable dealing with ferocious political attacks and has accomplished as much as humanly possible.

Donnelly, love him or hate him, has served Suozzi well

Peter Gerbasi knows his stuff, handles the bull**** well and gets the job done without fanfare

Biggest disasters:

Peter Sylver

Craig Love

Mitch Sahn

Mike Kline

Lorna Goodman


Empty Suits (what do theyt REALLY do?):

Bill Cunningham

Tony Cancellieri

Helena Williams

Ian Siegel

****************************************

What do you think?

[How Can Gerbasi Be Consid]

The suggestion that past commissioners of the Parks Rec. Dept. shared similar inadequacies in regards to experience is indeed truth. This decay has suffered a long, deep cavity, and the fillings simply fell out. Can we realistically expect anyone to make quick work of the necessary adjustments to an infection so long in abscess? Meaningful plans for a reorganization of the department were proposed and promises to implement change fell into the excuse or retirement basket. Can anyone sharing herein imagine the quagmire of obstacles which must be conquered before change can begin? I have a starting line to offer for the current crop of transients.
Ladies and Gentleman STOP WHERE YOU STAND.

1. Check your egos at the door. Climb down from your singular world of absolute authority and study the situation before you pour the concrete and spend the dollars.
2. Lose the notion that there is such a thing as an easy fix.
3. Identify the actual problem before you attempt to fix it.
4. Listen to ideas from outside of the box. Don't try to re-invent the wheel.
5. Do not spend penny one until and unless you create a feasibility study created by "detached from the dollar chain" experts in each area of study.
6. Remove fear.
7. Identify and Concentrate on the public need, and meet it one step at a time.
8. Do not be seduced into special interest impossible projects which serve the rich and want to be rich.
9. Shelve the entrance work until you create an acceptable and "mission consistent" experience to enter.
10. Accept the responsibility concomitant with your authority.
11. Create a Master Plan, and share it with everyone.

[Counting noses]

Check out the pit of a mainetenance yard between Frances Lewis Blvd. and Cunningham Park off Union Turnpike and you will see what a slock type operater we inherit from queens in Murphy. Just like Klein and Magwood, no museum or golf experience and now a NYC tree pruner w/o college (for $105K??) and one who "promises" to move to Nassau. What a joke. Magwood and Murphy will are a total communications embarrassment for Suozzi in the upcoming election year with Klein dragging in the NYC Haitian and Caribian community for dangerous nights in the park and Mitchell field.

Hez Brown and Banks ran the park wil less for two years and now we get another stooge from NYC. The betting is 3-2 that Murphy nevers moves to Nassau.....

[cty park worker]

Word came down today that any and all seasonal workers switching to part-time for the winter (along w/ new hires) must shell out $75.00 of their own money for fingerprinting. Payinf the $75.00 does not guarantee that you will be re-hired.

If you can see the look and their faces when they were told this.

Most seasonals are kids who make $7-9 an hour. $ 75.00 is a lot of money to some people. Thats a couple of books at school or a weeks worth of food. GREAT DECISION.

Where's the union? who knows.

How many will tell them to shove it and leave us even more shorthanded than we already are.

According to the article on the hiring of our third commisssioner in 3 years, we have 850 seasonals. That's over $60,000.00 in revenues for the county stolen from it's workers. Great for moral too.

[cty park worker]

What's next? make them pay $20.00 (each) for their cheesy county shirts.

[shake down]

I am so glad that when I was mowing the lawn at Eisenhower no one gave me goggles to protect myself.
When the glass came flying out, the only thing protecting me was my prescription glasses.

You think the County would pay for the lenses.
No way.

[Suozzi's Union Busting Ta]

for wearing mini skirts and doing nothingl all day long except hiring bad accountants. Viva Ian Siegel!

[commonsense]

These posts are on the mark. I bought a leisure pass for $15 as I thought it helps Nassau. I also thought it was our parks and playgrounds, however it now belongs to Queens residents. This is the change Tom Suozzi brought to Nassau??

I will stay with the Town parks. At least they are for Town residents who pay the taxes.

Suozzi is a typical Queens punk. He was the kid with the big mouth who would run from the first sign of trouble and blame the next guy.

[Nassau Parks Pal]

Past commissioners were a joke and had no experience?? Come on people lets get real. Kiernan (the last offical parks commissioner) ran the parks on a shoe string budget and managed to make it look the system great during the Goodwill Games in 1998. While he was TONH Supervisor he reconstructed every park in the town and finished what had to be done at now what is now Tully Park (P.S. the Democrats haven't done any major work to any of the town's parks since he left office in '89. It's gotten to the point sprinkler systems can't even get put into parks with baseball and soccer fields). He manged to get Nassau Beach's and Cantiague Park's pools completely redone and fix any other major problems they had. Plus he had his work force cut by 75% from '92 on.

Brohm Williams (Kiernan's predecessor) was the Commissioner of Parks in TOH while Fran Purcell was Supervisor there. There were no more than 5 deputies and the bulk of the time there were only 2 deputies.

BTW, Kiernan's deputies all had worked their way up the Parks Ladder (both of them started off as laborers and proved themselves) One had a B.A. from Cornell in Horticulture and provided expert advice on the management of the County's. Darling Doreen had some ridiculous number of deputies (I believe it's 9) plus a deputy county executive reviewing all of her decisions because she was screwing things up so badly.

Look like Tom's plan on Waste Corruption and Fraud wasn't to eliminate it but simply expound on any element of it. Even though there wasn't much of it to begin with.

Next time pal, get your numbers and facts straight.

[Parkswkr]

You forgot to mention that Kiernan had a door installed in his office so he could sneak out without having to use the front door. Also you forgot to mention that he let dept cronies rack up over 900k in overtime per year. Banks and Suozzi have not let that number go about 250k.

Go back to your republican club and you may get more sympathy there.

[socrates]

With all due respect I submit that the blame for these inequities lives in the past, directly alongside the complacency of you who know, but will not organize and speak up. Alone you are an easy target for the mean axe weilded by these petty tyrants. You have a UNION to work with and for. I suggest that all of you need to be there to work with these good people who are trying their best to represent you. They need you as you need them. The union has some of the finest people I have encountered in the County breast. Your Lawyer Lou Stober is one of the most caring and able legal minds in the whole of the lot. Get together, in the open and get to work listening to the directions already written. If you have a better idea, speak it softly and let the wind of rational discussion move it around. I am not criticizing anyone. Rather I am submitting the notion that if you do nothing something will happen. Your legacy will wind up in the pockets of the privateers who seek to drain the good work of the civil service so hard fought for. Please get off the soapbox and get in the fray.....all who really want change must make it so by DOING and losing the fear that these impossible folks instill in each of us when we stand alone. Don't wait for a slap in the face which you will answer with a greivance. Act now to help those whose jobs and future are threatened today. Tomorrow it could be you....or even you.

[Confusious]

The parks, museums and rec area is the product of elections. It is the freedom that and elected official such as Suozzi has to hire a moron like Klein to implement what ever they feel like.

So Socraetes I would suggest you run for County Executive in 2005 because that is the only change that happens. 51% of the vote gives the elected offical the right to do what ever he chooses, good or bad.

If not wait for 2009.

[NassauParksPal]

Parkswkr, these numbers you're spewing out, where'd ya get them?? Did you FOIL the county and get the payroll documents for 11 years or did you just listen to the spew of BS that came from your Zone Leader's mouth?? Now 1998 I can believe because of the Goodwill games, but 900K a year in overtime is probably THE ENTIRE DEPARTMENT. In fact, Kiernan and his deputies nailed one of the director of one county park for time abuse and had enough documentation to prevent him from suing the couty. I bet the only reason they only have 250K in overtime so far is because Tom nad Doreen hired so many people from outside the county, no one wnated to stay and take a late drive home to Suffolk or Brooklyn. If you can give me specific years and pay periods, then I'll gladly accept you're argument as true, but if you can't too bad. Just because you believe something doesn't me you can validate it yourself.

And As far as I know, there hasn't been anything done to that building on the outside since they built it, and the door in question was probably put in by WIlliams (Kiernan's predacessor) who was known to take a nap during the day and probably slipped out early everyday.

Oh, and Kiernan used to tour the County Parks weekly on his own time and never asked for a dime in overtime. This I know for a fact, you can FOIL the Timesheets.

[ABOUT TIME]

I could not agree with the prior poster more. I am getting just sick and tired of hearing Democratic rhetoric when it comes to failed departments and ideas (sorry not everything is because of the Republicans. I can see maybe a year or two after the coup, but at year three and four, it is your mess, now fix it.). The Park Department is just a mess, besides being the Gulag for certain employees, it is just a failure. You have Deputy Commissioners who do absolutely nothing. Look at Andrew Hardwick, sure I guess you can drive a county vehicle around with a police light kit in it, sure, but what about work? Of course there is always the comp time scandal from 2003, but again who talks about that. Talk to his staff about him...not the easiest guy to work for. Then there is Klien......ahhhhh....New York City's best....surely you must be kidding. What works in NYC really does not work in Nassau. Have you seen our proud park system? What a joke....nothing is painted, it is decaying, but then there is the garbage that is being stored on county park land. But hey, we always wanted a county run land fill. Come one people, look at what has been created...nothing, nothing at all.
________
Mercury Milan specifications (http://www.ford-wiki.com/wiki/Mercury_Milan)

[Reporter]

Comp Time Controversy / 11,885 hours logged in '02, despite Suozzi edict

By Errol A. Cockfield Jr. STAFF WRITER

When Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi took office last year, he issued a memo to his managers that nonunion employees should receive comp time only in "extraordinary circumstances."

Some managers heeded the warning, but a Newsday review of time records shows that throughout 2002 others ignored Suozzi's edict, clearing the way for employees to log hundreds of hours of comp time. All told, 54 employees received credit for 11,885 hours.

Deputy Undersheriff Sidney Head, the top county comp time earner in 2002, received 879 hours. With the typical government workday at 6.75 hours, that amounts to 130 days.

But officials said Head and others deserved the hours for heavy workloads.

Sheriff Edward Reilly said Head and Undersheriff John Maguire, who logged 692 hours, or 103 days, received those hours partly for his work in complying with the U.S. Department of Justice's mandates to improve inmate conditions at the county correction center.

"It takes an awful lot of time to do that," Reilly said.

But county officials say some of the comp time awards were clearly indefensible. Officials said they were not even aware that employees had been improperly accruing the hours until after a Newsday report in February that Nassau County Police Commissioner James Lawrence had logged 255 hours of comp time to which officials later conceded he was not entitled.

Since then, four employees, including the police commissioner, have seen that comp time stripped as administration officials have pressed department heads to aggressively enforce the policy.

According to the county charter, nonunion employees, commonly called "exempts," are barred from receiving comp time unless a department head approves it under "extraordinary circumstances" such as inclement weather or public safety emergencies. Employees cannot be paid for the time, and department heads can deny requests to take it.

Anthony Cancellieri, deputy county executive for operations, said he took a closer look at the issue after Lawrence's case arose.

"If we saw instances where people should not have been receiving comp time then we took it away," he said.

Employees who had hours taken away include Gertrude Mayo, Cancellieri's administrative assistant, who logged 439 hours; James Caracciolo, a parks employee who logged 125 hours; and parks employee Andrew Hardwick, who logged 241 hours.

None of the employees responded to requests to be interviewed.

Reilly said he did not become aware of Suozzi's new policy until January. He said he misinterpreted Suozzi's memo last year, concluding it applied only to him, not his staff. Reilly logged 917 hours in 2001, but none in 2002.

Reilly's apparent confusion about the policy highlights the difficulty the administration faces as it tries to introduce practices that are popular in the private sector to a government that had become notorious for mismanagement.

"You're bringing in a mind-set that this is an organization of professionals - you're not on the public dole," said John Donnelly, the county's director of human resources.

In the last days of the administration of former County Executive Thomas Gulotta, some nonunion employees took months of comp time leave as managers tried to reap those benefits before Suozzi took office.

While administration officials concede some lapses, they say they continue to make progress in stamping out improper comp time. The amount of comp time awarded in 2002 dropped by 43 percent compared with 2001, when Gulotta was county executive and 180 employees received a total of 21,094 hours.

Department heads said many employees who received comp time did so because of Nassau's fiscal crisis.

Comptroller Howard Weitzman allowed a total of 1,583 hours for five of his employees, but said those hours came before his office was fully staffed.

Assessor Charles O'Shea said he approved comp time for five employees -including 524 hours for his chief deputy, Patricia Sasso - who were among those working on Nassau's countywide reassessment.

Arthur Gianelli, deputy county executive for budget and finance, said he approved hours for 18 employees who last year helped craft county budget documents necessary to meet state and local deadlines.

Gianelli's staff includes Salomon Guajardo, director of research for budget and finance, who earned 806 hours last year, which would entitle him to about 24 weeks of leave. Guajardo declined requests to be interviewed.

Gianelli defended the time Guajardo and other employees received, however, saying the staff had to produce two multiyear budget plans, three quarterly reports, a capital budget and an annual budget.

"I had people working 20 hours a day," Gianelli said. "I had people sleeping in offices."

Top Earners

Top 10 compensatory time earners in Nassau County in 2002:

Sidney Head, deputy undersheriff, 879 hours.

Salomon Guajardo, director of research for budget and finance, 806 hours.

Thomas Stokes, deputy budget director, 757 hours.

Martha Wong, deputy budget director, 727 hours.

John Maguire, undersheriff, 692 hours.

Wayne Haughton, manager of budget analysis, 681 hours.

Michael Kornfeld, comptroller's office press secretary, 637 hours.

Maria Kwiatkowski, deputy budget director, 613 hours.

Angeliki Chios, budget examiner, 526 hours.

Patricia Sasso, chief deputy assessor, 524 hours.

[socrates]

WE FACE A FAR MORE DEVASTATING ENEMY THAN OUR INEPT COMMISSIONERS AND THEIR GANG OF CRUISERS ON THEIR DAILY JOY RIDES. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL LEST A CURVE HITS US ALL IN THE BACK. WE ARE FACING, AND HAVE RECOGNIZED FOR SOME LONG YEARS THE PRIVATEERS PLAN TO EVAPORATE THE PUBLIC SECTOR. CONTROLLING INTERESTS ARE MEASURING YOUR OFFICE AS WE FIDDLE AROUND A DOOR AND WHO INSTALLED IT. YOUR UNION IS FIGHTING PRIVATIZATION WHICH IS FAR AND AWAY THE WORST ENEMY OF THE TAXPAYER AND THE CONTINUATION OF PUBLIC SERVICE. I URGE EVERY ONE WHO READS HERE TO GET INVOLVED WITH YOUR UNION. SHOW UP AT THESE LEGISLATURE MEETINGS AND QUESTION WHERE YOU DO NOT AGREE. FEAR GROWS BEST IN THE DARK....GET OUT IN THE LIGHT AND SPEAK YOUR MIND. QUESTION THE UNION ABOUT THEIR PLANS TO FIGHT. YOU PAY THE DUES THAT PAY FOR WHAT THEY DO ........OR DO NOT DO.

[HUMMUS]

lets list the Suozzi appointees that should be privatized:
Reggie Magwood- just plain dumb
James Caracciolo- what do I say about this clown
Andrew Hardwick- how did he become a deputy anyway?
Mike Klein and his entire team- ship them back to NYC

Is Mr. Murphy the professional that the parks department needs? Who knows.

[itsworsthanuthink]

Lets see:

Cunningham - babysat prince suozzi - big job but somebody had to do it

Cancelleri - eats lunch plays golf and talks out of both sides of his mouth

Williams - youre wrong here this is one appointment of Suozzis who puts in an honest days work but alas shes not a member of the boys club

Seigel - hallway monitor

[Tracker]

You got a great start.

The Klein entourage days are number based on certain activities.

[Is Klein that stupid??? N]

revenue, and number of employees are down.
What's up- expenditures and bs.
Whats new- nothing.
Whats stalled- all improvement projects.

[The Parks are A Mess]

The only ones apparently getting OT are the top heavy managment team Suozzi employed. The actual laborers doing all the work are the ones who are really working the OT and not allowed to put in for it.

[Elliot]

Deputy Murphy

the guy can prune trees, and... and...

can he speak... can he read..

Not college material.

seems like a Reggie clone who can't read, speak or prune trees, but is related to Klein.

not college material.

Klein is good at faking NYC employee time sheets. Definitely Elliot Spitzer material.

didn't stay awake at City college in NY near his NYC home.

With Schumer's announcement the Soz should go back to getting elected in Nassau and dump the 200 NYC high paid stooges.

[golf worker]

I work for golf operation in nassau county. I started my career on private golf courses. I was promised a grade from G_n_ C
whats going on?????


hahahahhaahahahhaahhhhahaahhahah

keep on thinking its coming u A-- H--e

[new street]

golf worker i played north woodmere yesterday . if you worked there you should forget about getting a raise and be more concerned about keeping tour job ,as compared to bay park north woodmere has most greens unplayable ,i blame the workers who get a decent salary ,with health benefits . and they dont do a good enough ob in my opinion . it is time to PRIVATISE most county golf hire latinos get them off the street and you willl see a big improvement in playing conditions

[old street]

does murphy allow golf workers to work on golf course anymore?????

[Interesting]

It appears that Andrew Hardwick was demoted or moved from Deputy Commissioner of Parks to some liason job with the Nassau EMO. There is a letter floating around from hardwick to Klein. Saw it today, also heard it was published. Seems this all started when Hardwick said he wanted to run for mayor in freeport, guess suozzi has his own pick...wow...what a law suit.
________
LIVE SEX (http://livesexwebshows.com/)

[nt]

Hardwick was demoted because he treated the job like it was a no-show position. He just didn't want to do any work. It has nothing to do with his interest in running for mayor.

[H Weitzman]

Andrew is not from NYC.

Andrew doesn't drive an SUV to NYC every day like Klein's hand pick morons do.

Andrew doesn't lie to Suozzi like Klein always does.

Andrew didn't start programs in attempt to drag in NYC residences to our parks. Klein did. As usual Klein's programs failed except for Haitain night.

Andrew didn't promise Suozzi that he would have a full schedule of events at Chapin theater last summer, and failed misserably as Klein did. No programs.

Andrew didn't drag in a NYC resident to run SET and subsequently failed so badly that the leg pulled the plug on SET. Klein did.

Andrew came into the county with Hez Brown. The last competent DCE that Suozzi pushed out for a lap dog named Klein.

Andrew doesn't falsify time sheets for NYC residents on vacation without vacation time due. Klein does.

Makes perfectly good sense that Klein would move Andrew out.

[Moving out]

Weitzman makes a good catch. Look at all the people either demoted or fired under this administration and you will see people with integrity who refused to ignore all the abuses being levied by this administration. People who worked under both the GOP and the Dems can tell you that this administration is nothing but bloated salaries and overstaffed, top heavy agencies with too many people and too little to do. That's where all the money from the tax hikes has gone and that's why Gulotta held the line on tax hikes until the re-assessment was ordered after Democrats brought a lawsuit claiming a few minorities in crime ridden neighborhoods were unhappy with their tax bills. Gulotta's crews worked at half the staff and even the patronage filled jobs weren't paid nearly as much as their equivalents under Suozzi's administration on being paid - and they haven't ever worked in the County before, and most of the appointees don't even live here.

[Reality]

It really is very simple....Hardwick wants to run for Mayor, but Suozzi wants the director of CASA to run. Real simple....Andrew is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Suozzi isn't cleaning up]

by ignoring the african american community. He was there four years ago asking for our support, guess he figures he does not need it now.

[editorial]

this was oin the community journal paper:

Dear Mr. Klein:

I am in receipt of your Interoffice Memorandum of November 17, 2004, wherein you purport to unilaterally and summarily transfer me from my appointed and sworn administrative position as Deputy Commissioner of Parks of the County of Nassau to some nebulous and apparently made-up (non-exempt) position as Office of Minority Affairs Liaison to the Office of Emergency Management in the basement of the Nassau County Department of Corrections.

Please be advised that I was appointed as the first-ever Deputy Commissioner of Parks in the history of Nassau County if African-American descent. I am also the only surviving African-American Administrator who is a county resident (outside of the usual EEO-type appointments) who remains from Democratic County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi’s original appointments; i.e. from among the ranks of those Nassau County Blacks who worked tirelessly to elect Mr. Suozzi in the dispositive and emotionally draining 2001 primary election. During the height of the battle, when we were so direly needed, Mr. Suozzi assured the Nassau County African-American Clergy and Community that he would ensure that County Government looks like the array of the County’s Citizenry. Unfortunately, the reality did not match his rhetoric.

With the exception of the Police Department and the usual EEO positions in the Minority Affairs and Human Rights (who Black, female Executive Director the County Executive attempted to fire), there are no African American Department Heads or Deputy Department in any of the approximately thirty-five (35) Nassau County Department. In fact, there are several County Departments and all County Commissions that are All-White.

Moreover, the few upper administration positions that were occupied by Nassau County African-American residents have been systematically purged in favor of non-resident strangers. This was done despite our community’s usefulness to Tom Suozzi would seem to be at practical end. The clear perception is that the County Executive and his senior advisors are so certain of his re-election that the African American vote is irrelevant. Where Mr. Suozzi and the County Democratic Party go from here will be climatic and lasting; this is clearly a test of the reliability of promises.

In any event, I am and will remain a Deputy Commissioner unless and until County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi personally terminates me from that position and my employment with the County. To be clear, I will continue to report to my post in the Parks Department until Mr. Suozzi informs me otherwise. I will not be overtly or covertly humiliated into quitting. If the County Executive wants me gone; he must personally fire me, just as he personally hired me.

It is not lost on me that the current onslaught against my appointive office began when I announced that I would be seeking the Office of Mayor of the Incorporated Village of Freeport in the upcoming 2005-election cycle. This decision was against the express wishes of the County Executive and the Chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Party, whose reputed candidate of choice is not a person of color. This is clearly a matter of proscribed retaliation in violation of the Election Law of the State of New York. Accordingly, I am consulting with Frederick K. Brewington, Esq. with respect to my rights and recourse under State and Federal Election and Civil Rights Law.

On too many occasions, where an African-American has stood for election for State (Carl McCall and Hooper), County-wide (Cooper), Town-wide (Goosby and Patton) and now for Village Mayoralties (Petus and Hardwick), there have been a series of obstacles thrown up by the Democratic Party to impede them—THIS MUST STOP! And, if I must be the sacrificial lamb to challenge the proverbial wolf; then so be it.

Very truly yours, Andrew Hardwick, Deputy Commissioner

[Rudy]

klein has succeeded in convincing suozzi that he (klein) actually has a clue. klein never did anything of value in nyc. more of the same in nassau.

in suozzi's kitchen cabinet nyc reigns.

get rid of nassau minorities and bring in nyc problem minorities. ruin the parks and fail to manage dpw.

more of the same from the suozz and kleinites.
________
Glass Bong (http://glassbongs.org/)

[Mr Gullible]

Nah - really? Everyone's fooled him. Either that or he honestly doesn't give a damn who he's hired. The whole management team at the county attorney's office, and 1/2 the high paid attorneys have fooled him into thinking they're something they aren't. Eventually his own team will be his downfall whether he sees it coming or not. Frankly, the only people who have kept his administration from completely crumbling are the republican holdovers he's kept on the payroll. Look at Karl Kampe - anybody else would have been protecting the civil servants being abused under this administration. Look at Helena Williamson - she negotiated and settled the whole HUD problem with an entire fleet of county attorneys and other advisors standing on the sidelines hiding for cover. These are the traitors saving his butt and when it gets kicked next year, all those republican traitors still on his payroll better switch parties because no republican leader who expects any kind of following better touch these people with a ten foot pole. There's no room for them. OUT OUT OUT with them all!

[m k]

mk should be a taxi driver, hes a waste of money

your a loser

[curious]

did Suozzi fire Hardwick or demote him? How could Suozzi allow that type of letter get published?
________
Live Sex (http://livesexwebshows.com/)

[why]

Suozzi is a That is what happens when you build a hack government. Since nobody is really qualified to do anything, and you established your baseline level of incompetency with the Kleins, Goodmans, and Loves of the world... All white.... All political.... All retarded.... You can get pushed around by anyone who is the member of a "suspect class"(i.e. female, minority, gay, take your pick) who wants more money than the schmuck directly above him or her, and will cry discrimination to get it.

If Suozzi ran a straight up government, he could call this moron on the carpet, and boot his ass out of the government. Because Suozzi hired a bunch of donors, morons, and eff ups, he's stuck with Hadwick playing him like the little spoiled Northshore that he is. Edited by: x5-x5-x5-x5-x5-s at: 12/6/04 8:02 pm

________
marijuana vaporizer (http://weedvaporizer.info/)

[rosa apt]

Suozzi's sending Andrew to the back of the bus. We all know that the office of Minority Affairs is the Suozzi adminsitration's version of the back of the bus. Get back there andrew, and be seen and not heard. ya know they don't like you talking nonsense about pride and respect. Just shut up amd be happy you have a job!

....when will Suozzi learn?.......NEVER.

[caught 2 missed 200]

The two are only the tip of the iceberg - now the rocks are being uncovered. Go Jerry - go !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Where is Howard W]

Come in Howie-do an audit. Hello? No oversight? time for you to be bounced Howie W. Lousy job-lousy lousy performance. Go hire an ex-assemblyman's kid........................

[Can Hevesi audit?]

Hevesi is just another stupid democrat that wants to send suozzi upstate to buffalo to teach them how to turn the county around. And why does newsday keep saying that? Where's the proof? Suozzi has done nothing. Anything he plans on doing - and that's all he's done for 4 years is plan - is money either bonded or gifts from the State.

[Pandadoll]

OK....

What is it doing now?

I see this Thread is ancient.....

[Absolutely Panda Doll]

Youre right. All Spaniards suck!

[Park Land]

There will be no Nassau County Parks left if Suozzi has his way, he is giving them all to the towns. My taxes paid for these parks to be built, a 50 million dollar bond issue was passed to fix and maintain them. This is a joke to give them away (plus paying the towns millions to take them). If you don't live in the certain town the park was given to you won' t get in like you used to. Will my county taxes go down with these parks being give away? I doubt it.

[Verrazano Bound]

Lets face it, the day will come when the county is out of the parks business, roads, fleet and sewer treatment. If the operation is not passed on to the towns then a private firm will take over. Inevitably, times change the only constant is that your taxes won't go down. P.D and other "mandated services" will eat up any surplus. I'm taking my pension down south and as I travel for the last time over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge I wll role down my window and flip the bird

[joey lopez]

Park doufiss
It's the third one
no matter which way you start

It will be good for circulation
once you rmove from rektum

the plan is to get rid ofall
so retire quick