Newsday – Blakeman uses county money to throw shade at Hochul

By Randi Marshall

Nassau County sent out a mailer this week to residents with a message about the Nassau University Medical Center.

But it wasn’t a promise by the county to fund it, or a pledge to rid it of patronage.

“Tell Governor Hochul: Keep NUMC Open! Sign our petition!” the mailer’s headline demanded. It’s a continuation of Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s public jabs at Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The mailer was sent countywide, which includes about 350,000 homes, according to a county legislative official, who estimated that the postage alone for a postcard mailer like the NUMC one costs more than $80,000. The mailer, which included a photo and quote from Blakeman, featured a chart portraying a decline in state aid from 2017 to 2023, suggesting that aid had fallen from $188.4 million in 2017 to $88.1 million in 2021 to $66.8 million last year.

“Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) is in jeopardy of closing its doors in East Meadow because of state funding cuts by the Governor and her allies in the State Legislature,” the mailer said.

There was no source listed for that information. State budget officials have said that while some funding dried up over time as temporary programs expired, state funding has actually risen over the last few years, from $101.2 million in 2021 when Blakeman was first elected to $164.9 million last year.

“While the Governor is cutting funding for Long Island hospitals and schools, her budget includes 2.4 billion for illegal immigrants,” the mailer said “It’s insanity! Sign the petition today to keep NUMC open and properly funded.”

It’s unknown how much the county spent in taxpayer dollars on the mailer, and it’s unclear how a mailer criticizing Hochul would encourage the state to fund the hospital. Blakeman spokesman Chris Boyle did not return multiple requests for comment. The petition is housed on Nassau County’s website.

But some state and local officials criticized Blakeman’s strategy.

“It would be better if taxpayer dollars were spent helping the hospital, rather than helping yourself,” said Richard Kessel, the chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the county’s financial control board, which has been sounding the alarm on NUMC’s dire finances.

Hochul spokesman Gordon Tepper told The Point in a statement that NUMC’s leadership “has clearly mismanaged the hospital, jeopardizing the health and well-being of the community.”

“It is essential that any proposed plan not only addresses immediate financial woes but also establishes a sustainable path forward for the hospital,” Tepper said in the statement.

And Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton lashed out at Blakeman, calling for an investigation into “the mess at NUMC” and into “these trash mailers.”

“It seems County Executive Blakeman has mistaken the county’s budget for his personal propaganda fund,” DeRiggi-Whitton said in a statement.

The mailer marks the latest move in an ongoing battle between the county, NUMC and the state, as NUMC’s financial situation grows more dire. NUMC also has issued appeals to its employees, patients and others, even including an option on its website to “Tell Albany to Stop Defunding NUMC,” which leads to a form email that website visitors can send that’s addressed to the secretary to the governor Karen Persichilli Keogh, State Sens. Kevin Thomas and Steve Rhoads, and Assembs. Taylor Darling and John Mikulin.

A consultant for NIFA has suggested the hospital could run out of money by the end of this month. NUMC has asked the state for as much as $125 million in aid, but state officials have told NUMC they would help fund the hospital only if the hospital commits to a series of steps to improve management and governance. NUMC has responded in two different letters, but neither made a full, clear commitment to comply with all of the state’s requests. Tepper said the Department of Health “is reviewing NUMC’s response” and the Governor’s office is waiting for “the results of their determination.”

Newsday – Thomas Valva case update: Grand jury recommends no criminal charges against CPS workers in boy’s 2020 death

By Nicole Fuller and Grant Parpan

A special grand jury convened to investigate Suffolk County’s Department of Social Services following the hypothermia death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva in 2020 recommends no criminal charges against Child Protective Services caseworkers investigating allegations of abuse by the child’s father and his fiancee, a 75-page report released Thursday concluded.

The caseworkers in charge of protecting Thomas Valva, who died after his NYPD officer father and his father’s fiancee forced him to sleep in the garage of their Center Moriches home in freezing temperatures, shielded themselves from public review of their actions — and potential criminal charges — due to confidentiality laws that must be reformed, the grand jury impaneled by Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney found.

“No one looking at this can come to any other conclusion other than CPS failed these boys, failed these boys miserable, and as a result Thomas died,” Tierney said at a news conference at his Hauppauge office Thursday. 

The grand jury report does not recommend criminal charges against the Child Protective Services caseworkers or supervisors assigned to investigate the case of Thomas Valva and his brother Anthony — who were both autistic — from the abuse they endured, which included beatings, starvation and verbal abuse.

WHAT TO KNOW

• A special grand jury convened to investigate Suffolk County’s Department of Social Services following the hypothermia death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva in 2020 recommends no criminal charges against Child Protective Services caseworkers.
• The caseworkers in charge of protecting Thomas Valva, who died after his NYPD officer father and his father’s fiancee forced him to sleep in the garage of their Center Moriches home in freezing temperatures, shielded themselves from public review of their action, the grand jury impaneled by Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney found.
• Instead, the grand jury issued a number of recommendations, including amending a state law that shields unfounded CPS reports from grand juries and district attorneys, the report says.

Instead, the grand jury issued a number of recommendations, including amending a state law that shields unfounded CPS reports from grand juries and district attorneys, the report says.

The report by the grand jury, which sat from Sept. 13 to March 15, does not name Thomas, instead referring to him as “Child A,” or his siblings or even those who were convicted of killing him. But the facts laid out in the report, including dates and previously reported abuse allegations, mirror those that occurred in the Valva case.

Thomas’ father, Michael Valva, and his fiancee, Angela Pollina, forced Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, to sleep overnight in their unheated garage. Michael Valva and Pollina were convicted of second-degree murder and child endangerment charges at separate trials. Both are serving sentences of 25 years to life in prison in Thomas’ death and abuse of the two boys.

“After [Thomas’]  death, CPS employees could have obviated the injustice in this case by migrating the 10 unfounded reports and underlying investigative material into the subsequent indicated report relating to [his], which would have made those reports and material accessible to this grand jury,” the grand jury report dated March 12 said. “The failure of CPS to do so can only be interpreted as a transparent attempt to shield their own inaction from public scrutiny.”

The grand jury noted CPS, a division of the Department of Social Services, received more than 10 reports from mandated reporters alleging abuse against Thomas, but deemed those reports “unfounded,” which ultimately shielded CPS and its caseworkers from any potential criminal charges, following CPS determinations in 2018 against Thomas’ biological mother, who lost custody of Thomas and his brothers before Thomas’ death.

None of the unfounded reports or the reports’ underlying information were ever migrated into the “indicated case” — meaning a case in which CPS found enough evidence to support the claim that a child has been abused or neglected — against Michael Valva or Angela Pollina, a decision that was at the sole discretion of CPS personnel, the grand jury said.

“The absence of this information, which is essential to any effort to determine whether, or to what extent, CPS as an agency or individual CPS employees, failed in their duty to protect [Thomas], is due solely to the current confidentiality laws and rules governing access to unfounded CPS files,” the report says.”These laws and rules, while intended to protect the privacy rights of citizens, have had the unintended consequence of shielding CPS and its employees from investigation into criminal culpability.”

Suffolk AME President Daniel C. Levler, who heads the union representing case workers, said the report “reaffirms our position from Day One-the CPS caseworkers in the Valva case performed their jobs in accordance with their training and within the legal guidelines set forth by Suffolk County’s Social Services Department and New York State law.”

Levler’s statement urged: “It’s well past time for the media and others to stop trying to convict these caseworkers in the court of public opinion and to instead focus on the systemic failures highlighted in the District Attorney’s report, which require immediate legislative action by our county and state lawmakers. AME has spent over seven years sounding the alarm about the dangers stemming from the shortage of caseworkers and the heavy caseloads caused by the previous administration’s failure to address this problem.”

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, in a statement, said he is “immediately” bringing in new leadership. The current five-year term for DSS Commissioner Frances Pierre, who ran the department when Thomas died, expires Tuesday. 

“The death of Thomas Valva is an enduring stain on Suffolk County, and the grand jury report unveiled today by District Attorney Tierney underscores the failure of the prior administration’s policies and the leadership of Suffolk CPS to take real action that could have saved a child’s life and protected an untold number of others,” Romaine said. “We did not need a grand jury report to know that Suffolk County failed Thomas Valva.”

The report said the grand jury was further “hampered” by state law and a subsequent court ruling that shields even law enforcement from access to CPS reports that were not “indicated” or substantiated. 

“This has severely hampered this grand jury’s ability to investigate whether CPS caseworkers and other personnel engaged in willful misconduct or gross negligence in their investigation of those reports.”

During the six-month grand jury term, the district attorney’s office sought a court order in Suffolk County Supreme Court to compel Suffolk’s Department of Social Services to “fully comply with those subpoenas by providing the underlying records relating to the unfounded reports.”

The court sided with the Department of Social Services, saying the statute seals all records relating to unfounded reports — not just the reports themselves. Unfounded CPS records must remain on file for 10 years from the date of receipt, after which they are expunged, the grand jury report said.

The court’s denial “hampered this grand jury’s ability to conduct a thorough investigation of the conduct of CPS personnel, not only in connection with [Thomas’] case, but in connection with other cases as well,” the grand jury said.

“If a CPS employee in an unfounded case were to have falsified CPS records by, for example, indicating in CONNECTIONS that they had made a field visit when, in fact, they had not, the current disclosure laws and rules for unfounded cases would prevent a criminal investigation and/or prosecution of that employee’s misconduct. Moreover, without access to unfounded files, it would be virtually impossible to prove  gross negligence or willful misconduct by a CPS employee in an unfounded case,” the report said.

Three CPS employees who played key roles in the agency’s investigations into abuse allegations against Valva and Pollina were promoted after Thomas died, Newsday reported previously.

The grand jury, which heard testimony from 27 witnesses and consulted 56 exhibits that consisted of thousands of pages, proposed a slew of legislative and administrative reforms, including:

• The New York State Legislature should amend the state’s Social Services Law § 422(5)(a), which currently seals unfounded CPS reports, to allow a grand jury or a district attorney to access the reports and the corresponding underlying documents after obtaining a court order, and to allow the documents to be introduced into evidence before a grand jury for possible charges and during a prosecution.
• The Suffolk County Legislature should amend the county’s administrative code to require Child Protective Services to have a casework supervisor review any case when three or more reports are made from any mandated reporter.
• The governor should form a task force to review all the confidentiality laws and rules regarding CPS investigations, which should include examining whether more information sharing with mandatory reporters would further the investigative process without also compromising a subject’s right to confidentiality.
• The governor should form a task force to review the feasibility of extending the waiver of the Civil Service examination for new CPS caseworkers beyond the current expiration date of December 2024, or perhaps eliminate the test altogether for new CPS caseworkers, because it does not affect the job responsibilities of a caseworker.
• The Suffolk County executive should create a task force to determine the feasibility of creating and/or providing funding for a Suffolk County Training Academy for CPS caseworkers to better address the patterns and needs peculiar to Suffolk, modeled after the one created for Administration for Children Services in New York City; the hiring of retired police officers as investigative consultants by the Suffolk County Department of Social Services, providing Suffolk DSS employees with an Employee Assistance Program, which would make mental health professionals available to those dealing with vicarious trauma; the creation of an Office of Safety First, modeled after the one created in New York City within the Administration for Children’s Services, which would provide a dedicated hotline for mandated reporters to call to assist in connecting the mandated reporter with the person at CPS assigned to a case; the hiring of more CPS office assistants.

The governor’s office said it would review the report.

“Gov. Hochul is committed to keeping children and families safe, and our heart breaks for the family who has been devastated by this horrific incident,” said Gordon Tepper, the governor’s Long Island spokesperson.

Thomas died on Jan. 17, 2020, after his father and his fiancee forced Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, to sleep overnight in their unheated garage when the temperature was 19 degrees.

Trial testimony showed Thomas’ teachers and school counselors — who are mandated by state law to report if they have reasonable suspicion of the abuse of any minor child — filed several reports with the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, alleging the children came to school bruised, bloodied, dirty, hungry and soaked in urine. Thomas once told a teacher he was sleeping in the garage, but a caseworker dismissed the notion, according to trial testimony.

In 2022, a federal judge said “CPS did not step in to protect the children” and allowed the abuse to continue “with impunity” as part of a ruling in the $200 million civil case filed against Suffolk County and individual caseworkers by Thomas’ mother, Justyna Zubko-Valva.

Newsday previously reported the state Office of Children and Family Services has refused to release its Child Fatality Review Report that is critical of Suffolk Child Protective Services. A Suffolk “program improvement plan” created in response to the state report said CPS was not always effectively documenting the history of its case, did not give enough emphasis to child-abuse hotline reports in its decision-making, did not coordinate enough with law enforcement and did not give enough priority to abuse reports from school employees.

A Suffolk legislative task force that examined the Valva case has been largely inactive since 2021. Newsday has reported that a planned review by the state court system on how judges handled custody and visitation issues before Thomas died never happened.

The grand jury report was also critical of the Office of Children and Family Services, saying it relied solely on the factual representations made by Child Protective Services when monitoring the agency. Office of Children and Family Services should not just meet with the caseworkers assigned to cases that the office is monitoring, it should also conduct independent investigations, the report said. OCFS should also facilitate better communication regarding trainee evaluations, the report said.

After Thomas’ death, the report said, the Office of Children and Family Services placed Suffolk’s CPS on “heightened monitoring” after completing a “comprehensive review of the casework practice of Suffolk County’s CPS regarding, not only the previous investigations related to [Thomas Valva] and that child’s family, but also a sampling of other CPS investigations as well as foster care and preventive cases.”

Office of Children and Family Services, the report said, noticed “a number of practice concerns” regarding the adequacy of supervision, CPS history reviews and safety assessments and plans. The heightened monitoring included monthly meetings with Suffolk CPS, instead of quarterly, and randomly selecting and reviewing at least five active cases every month. But it ended on March 17, 2022, after the Office of Children and Family Services said Suffolk CPS had made “substantial progress” in correcting its deficiencies.

The grand jury report was also critical of the administration of former Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, who oversaw the passage of the 2020 CPS Transformation Act, which passed six months after Thomas’ death. Before leaving office, Bellone said the county had met all the act’s mandates but acknowledged the county had failed to keep CPS caseload levels below its reform goal of 12 cases or fewer per caseworker.

The report affirmed those findings, and said that CPS has almost achieved its goal due to a temporary rule change set to expire in December that waives the requirement for new caseworker applicants to take the Civil Service exam.

And while the Department of Social Services is currently budgeted for the number of investigative caseworkers deemed necessary, it is “not sufficiently budgeted” for the office assistants that handle paperwork and make it possible for caseworkers to investigate in the field, the report said.

“Requests for more money for support staff have regularly been made to the previous administration in Suffolk County, but to no avail,” the report said.

The Suffolk County Department of Social Services also needs to conduct yearly employee evaluations, provide training for evaluators, revamp its disciplinary process to do away with the current process, which allows one person to make all disciplinary decisions, the report said.

CPS employees should also do training sessions on how to investigate abuse cases with members of the police department and district attorney’s office, the report said.

Police department detectives in the Special Victims Unit, who currently only investigate cases involving children under the age of 13, should also investigate cases involving children between the ages of 13 and 17, the report said.

 Former Suffolk Social Services Commissioner Gregory Blass, who also served as a family court judge, called the grand jury report “spot on,” keying in on reforms that would address concerns over caseloads and a lack of support staff. Blass said when working through county budgets, support staff was often “the first place to cut.”

“The lowest priority when the pencils are sharpened is to just drop the support staff when feasible, and that is as much a factor and a burden in a caseworker’s caseload,” said Blass, who worked for former Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and the Bellone administration. “It’s not just the cases themselves, but the ability to keep up with something as simple as returning a phone call.”

Mental health support for caseworkers, better training and performance evaluations are all areas Blass agreed should be prioritized. 

Thomas’ mother, who long maintained that various officials ignored the plight of her sons, rejected a $3 million offer by the county to settle her pending lawsuit last year.

Attorney Tom Bosworth, who represent the child’s mother, said Thomas’ death was preventable.

“CPS was provided countless opportunities to intervene in the face of clear danger to the child at the hands of his father and the father’s fiancee,” he said in a statement. “To say that CPS failed in this regard would be a gross understatement. They consciously ignored red flag after red flag, knowing that children were starving, abused, and made to sleep in a freezing basement.”

Newsday – In New Hyde Park, a $5M plan to shift commuter parking, build new park

By Darwin Yanes

New Hyde Park officials want to use part of a $5 million state grant to buy land near the village’s Long Island Rail Road station and turn it into a commuter parking lot, while using the rest of the money for the construction of a new park nearby.

Village officials introduced the plan at a March 21 meeting and said they are under contract to purchase the land for $3.5 million from the $5 million state grant.

The project still needs final state approval, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.

“The state looks forward to continuing the discussion with local officials about the future of this site,” said Gordon Tepper, a Hochul spokesman.

Mayor Christopher Devane said village officials are “happy to work with the state to move the project forward.”

Under the plan, the property at 300 South 12th Street — which contains two empty commercial buildings and a vacant home — would be converted into a new parking lot for LIRR commuters.

The village wants to use about two-thirds of an existing LIRR parking lot, in between South 11th Street and South 12th Street, to create the new park. The preliminary design shows it would include pickleball courts, a dog park and a shaded seating area.

The remaining $1.5 million from the grant would pay for the demolition of the buildings and construction of the new park and the new parking lot, village officials said.

“After years of construction, noise and disruption … to able to transform this area into a park would be just a wonderful tribute and really making a very positive outcome,” Mayor Christopher Devane said, referring to the LIRR’s $2.6 billion Third Track project.

It took about four years to complete. The LIRR grade crossing at South 12th Street was permanently closed during the construction project. The crossing point between the south and north side of the track was eliminated and replaced with a pedestrian underpass.

Devane said there are about 120 spots in the current commuter lot, but the village has determined only about 80 commuters use it daily.

Under the proposed plan, the village would keep 37 spaces in the existing lot and add 52 new parking spots across the street. The village also would lose about 31 spots on the south side of the railroad tracks.

Devane noted that a parking lot on the north side of the tracks has 95 spaces.

Five years ago, a large number of residents opposed a different plan to bring a four-story building with apartments and retail space to the same area and eventually that proposal was scrapped, Newsday previously reported.

Village officials said there was another proposal to convert 300 South 12th Street into a storage facility, but it never came to fruition.

Longtime village residents Daniela Weinstock, 70, and her husband, Gary Weinstock, 64, said after the new plan’s introduction at the recent meeting that they welcomed the proposal for more green space.

“We just wanted it to look nice,” Daniela Weinstock said. “If you go to the north side it looks really nice. It’s suburban with trees.”

Gary Weinstock said the couple wants something new in that spot after years of looking at the vacant properties from their nearby home.

“We welcome big development, but we didn’t know what we’d hear, and this was very pleasing to hear,” he said.

The village is working with Aryeh Lemberger of the Manhattan-based consulting firm WSP for design and engineering work. Lemberger said at the March 21 meeting that New Hyde Park officials looked at several different options for the land but they were limited because of the lack of village-owned property.

“We tried to hone in to something that could really benefit the village without causing any disruptions,” Lemberger added.

Newsday – Bruce Blakeman’s salary rises to $227,959 for 2024, records show

By Scott Eidler

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman received a $16,000 raise this year as part of a cost of living adjustment for elected officials, bringing his total 2024 salary to $227,959, county records show.

Blakeman, a Republican in his third year in office, is making 7.6% more than he did in 2022 and 2023, when his salary was $211,821.

A 2007 county law governs the salaries of the county executive and other elected positions. They are entitled to cost of living adjustments of either 4% or an amount equal to the change in the area’s consumer price index, whichever is smaller.

Blakeman, 68, of Atlantic Beach, did not receive a cost of living adjustment in 2023, which would have raised his salary to $220,294.

Chris Boyle, a county spokesman, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Ron Gurrieri, president of Nassau’s Civil Service Employees Association, Local 830, the county’s largest public employee union, said: “I think he’s well worth the money. The county executive’s position has been underpaid for years. And if that’s what he makes now, I think he’s doing a job that’s commensurate with a salary like that.”

Nassau Legis. Arnold Drucker (D-Plainview) said Blakeman should have followed the example of his predecessor, Democrat Laura Curran, whose pay stayed the same during her tenure from 2018 through 2021. Curran made $196,375 each year, payroll records show.

When Blakeman took office in 2022, he collected a salary of $211,821. Blakeman accepted cost-of-living increases that Curran had declined, which he was legally allowed to do, county officials had said.

“The problem isn’t that the County Executive gets yearly raises, it’s that he’s profiting from the cash his predecessor, Laura Curran, justly declined,” Drucker said in a statement. “If Nassau County is so flush that he can personally benefit from those backdated pay bumps, why aren’t we seeing any cuts to taxes or fees?” 

Blakeman’s 2024 budget did not lower or increase the county’s overall tax levy. In 2023, the county lowered its tax map verification fee — a charge on most real estate transactions — from $355 to $270 after courts deemed it an illegal tax.

Nassau legislators received pay raises totaling 3.5% over last year. The base salary for legislators, who serve part-time, 2-year terms, is $87,306 this year, up from $84,370 in 2023. Suffolk legislators received a 4% hike that raised their salaries from $107,051 to $111,333. 

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, a Republican who took office in January, has a $241,409 salary. His predecessor, Democrat Steve Bellone, made $222,124 in 2023.

Nassau and Suffolk County executives make almost as much as the governor of New York.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, makes $250,000 annually under a fixed salary, spokesman Gordon Tepper said. 

County executives of both political parties have declined pay increases over the years only to accept them after they’ve been reelected.

In 2020, after reelection to a third and final term, Bellone accepted $35,000 in salary increases, boosting his pay from $187,000 to $222,124.

In July 2016, former Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano accepted a pay raise of $17,007, bringing his salary to $191,621, county records show.

Mangano, who was under federal indictment, had declined pay increases for the prior six years, citing the county’s perilous finances.

A jury convicted him of federal corruption charges in 2019, and he began serving a 12-year prison sentence in 2022. His attorneys are appealing in federal court.

Newsday – Bruderman rejects demands for new leadership at NUMC

By Candice Ferrette

Nassau University Medical Center’s board chairman on Tuesday rejected state demands for an immediate search for a new hospital CEO and creation of detailed plans for reducing budget deficits in order for the hospital to receive $83 million in emergency funding.

State Health Commissioner James McDonald made the demands in a Friday letter to hospital leaders in which he pointed to “a distinct lack of transparency and clear communications,” with the health department about NUMC’s fiscal condition.

Board chairman Matthew Bruderman fired back Tuesday during a two-hour employee town hall in which he accused the state of “extortion,” and Gov. Kathy Hochul and state and Nassau County Democrats of “defunding” the safety net hospital in an effort to close it.

“I’m not going to comply with the state’s demand to … remove the CEO,” Bruderman said. “We’re not exchanging things that they want: to remove myself and the organization that’s fighting for it. We’re not going to give them that in exchange for basically ‘extortion.’ ”

Bruderman also said he wasn’t “going anywhere” after Democrats called on him to step down as chairman of NuHealth, the public benefit corporation that runs NUMC.

The dispute comes as the hospital faces the possibility of running out of money by late April, according to a report released last month by consultants for the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state board that controls both NuHealth and county finances.

Bruderman told Newsday the hospital had about $31 million in cash on-hand as of Tuesday morning, but did not answer questions about how many days of operations it would fund. He said cuts to hospital staff and patient programs were possible, but provided no details.

Interim NUMC president and CEO Meg Ryan and chief financial officer Perry Sham said Tuesday they were taking steps to stop the fiscal crisis at the hospital.

The county backs more than $100 million in borrowing and would be responsible for the debt if the hospital system were to shut down.

NUMC serves a patient population that relies largely on public health plans such as Medicaid and Medicare, and also provides care to patients without health insurance. It is a Level 1 trauma center and houses the only unit to treat burn victims between Stony Brook Medical Center and Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, appointed Bruderman as chairman 23 months ago. Bruderman, a GOP donor and an investor with private-sector finance experience, vowed to turn the hospital’s finances around, and last month called on the state to provide $83 million in additional funding.

To get the money, the hospital within 30 days must create a five-year transformation plan demonstrating how it would improve operations and decrease operating losses, McDonald said. The state also demanded 2023 gross compensation information for the 20 highest-paid medical and nonmedical staffers.

On Tuesday, Bruderman spoke to hospital employees in the NUMC auditorium, at times using expletives in criticizing Hochul, NIFA, state and county Democrats and Newsday, whose coverage he derided as unfair.

At one point Bruderman put up a slide of a Newsday headline on Feb. 22 that said the hospital could run out of money in April. A bright red stamp across the image read “FALSE.”

The Newsday story quoted a report by the consultants NIFA hired to review the hospital’s finances. The consultants reported NuHealth had about $19 million in cash on hand and could have a negative balance of $4 million by April 27.

On Tuesday, Hochul spokesman Gordon Tepper called Bruderman’s assertions “as baseless as they are misguided.”

Tepper said in a statement New York “remains fully committed to health care accessibility for all. However, the State cannot give a bail out using taxpayers’ dollars without ensuring structural reforms.”

Nassau County Legis. Siela Bynoe (D-Westbury), who on Monday called on Bruderman to resign, said Tuesday his “recent actions only serve to validate our apprehensions and underscore the necessity for immediate change. His inability to provide the leadership required for navigating the hospital through its financial difficulties is alarming and indicative of a broader problem that must be addressed … ”

Ron Gurrieri, president of CSEA Local 830, which represents 3,200 hospital employees, said workers were worried about their jobs and how Bruderman and the state would be able to continue to fund hospital operations, including its payroll.

“Governor Hochul is not going to let this hospital close, CSEA is not going to let this hospital close,” Gurrieri told Newsday.

Newsday – NUMC must cut deficits to get more state money, health chief says

By Candice Ferrette

Nassau University Medical Center must immediately conduct a professional and public search for its next CEO and create a detailed plan for reducing operating deficits in order to get $83 million in emergency state funding to stay open, the state’s top health official said.

In a March 1 letter to hospital leaders, state Health Commissioner James McDonald pointed to “a distinct lack of transparency and clear communications” between the Nassau Health Care Corporation, which runs the hospital, and state Health Department officials.

“This is particularly concerning considering the now apparent long-term financial decline of NHCC, its current cash position, and its outstanding request for State funding,” McDonald wrote. “It is unclear to the Department why systemic financial difficulties were not identified and communicated sooner, or whether internal processes to improve these financial problems have been established.”

State intervention comes as the financial picture is becoming more dire at the county’s “safety net” hospital, located in East Meadow. After decades of fiscal challenges, the hospital could run out of money by late April, according to a report released last month by consultants for the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state board that controls both NHCC and county finances.

McDonald’s letter, addressed to Matthew Bruderman, NHCC chairman, and Megan Ryan, the hospital’s interim president and CEO, requires the health system within 30 days to submit a five-year transformation plan that demonstrates how the hospital will improve operations and decrease operating losses. The hospital also must provide “monthly written progress reports towards achieving the goals laid out in the transformation plan.”

The state asked for information such as an organizational chart identifying its corporate structure, 2023 gross compensation for the 20 highest-paid medical and nonmedical staffers and costs associated with consultant or lobbying efforts for 2023.

The state Health Department also is requiring NUMC management to get NIFA approval for hires and personnel appointments and contracts totaling more than $10 million. The health system also must report its cash position and all other financial information to NIFA on a daily basis, along with any payments of more than $10 million, excluding payroll and utilities.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman on Monday did not directly answer a question about whether he would urge the hospital board to comply with McDonald’s recommendations outlined in the letter.

Instead, Blakeman called out the state for a drop in funding in recent years. He called the reductions and McDonald’s call for immediate leadership changes a “blatantly political, cynical and dangerous attempt by the governor of this state and the Democratic Party to destroy Nassau University Medical Center.”   

“It’s very clear what their objective is: It’s to close the hospital and blame my administration,” Blakeman said.

Gordon Tepper, spokesman for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said in a statement: “NUMC is a County subsidiary, and County Executive Blakeman has a responsibility to address ongoing problems with its management and operations. The State Department of Health has made recommendations on how to address these issues, and we urge the County Executive to review them.”

Ryan said Bruderman “has put in place a variety of new fiscal controls for NHCC,” and that “many of the recommendations” in McDonald’s letter “are already in place.”

Democrats on the Nassau County Legislature have criticized Blakeman and Republicans for appointees such as Bruderman and Ryan, who they say have mismanaged hospital finances.

Legis. Siela Bynoe (D-Westbury) said Blakeman and the legislature need to make sure NUMC complies with state directives to continue to provide health care to people who are uninsured or the underinsured.

“We need to move forward to ensure that NUMC is funded appropriately, not only in the immediate future but to have sustainability into the future,” Bynoe said at a news conference in Mineola. “NUMC is critical to all of Nassau but in particular to communities that are typically underserved or find some other type of impediment to access to health care.”

Bynoe, who last year called on Bruderman to resign, said she and the legislature’s Democratic caucus repeatedly have called on Blakeman and the legislature’s GOP majority to address the hospital’s deepening financial crisis.

The public benefit corporation that runs NUMC is a quasi-governmental agency run by officials appointed by the Nassau County executive and New York State.

Newsday – New Staffer for Hochul’s Long Island Office

By Randi Marshall

Showing that she’s certainly not staying out of Long Island, Gov. Kathy Hochul has added a new position to her Long Island office — a regional press secretary.

Hochul has hired Gordon Tepper, who previously handled communications for the Town of North Hempstead until the town board’s majority switched into Republican hands last year, to fill the job.

Before that, Tepper, a Long Beach resident, had served as public relations director for the City of Long Beach and, before that, worked for Long Island University.

“Long Island is a diverse and dynamic region, and I am excited to work toward amplifying the governor’s message and fostering engagement across Nassau and Suffolk,” Tepper told The Point.

With a month to go before the state budget is due, Tepper likely will be hitting the ground running, as the Long Island to-do list already could include everything from housing to school funding to the future of the Nassau University Medical Center.

And he’ll likely also be the one to dash off any future responses to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who in January famously told a Long Island Association breakfast that he wanted the state to “stay out of Long Island.”

Hochul at the time retorted that “Nothing will keep me away from Long Island.” With Tepper’s appointment, she seems to be doubling down on that plan.

Newsday – Glen Cove school bus camera program kicks off next week

By Joseph Ostapiuk

A 30-day warning period for Glen Cove’s school bus camera program will begin next week before ticketing starts in December for drivers who blow by the extended stop arm of such a vehicle, city officials said Thursday.

The program, operated by vendor BusPatrol, uses artificial intelligence and cameras affixed to school buses to capture images of scofflaws passing as children are being picked up or let off.

Glen Cove is the latest Long Island municipality to join the program, after Suffolk County universally adopted the program in 2021 and the Town of Hempstead and City of Long Beach voluntarily agreed to participate within the past year.

During Glen Cove’s warning period, drivers who would have been slated for a ticket instead will get a notification that advises them of the violation but has no financial penalty.

Beginning around mid-December, motorists will get a $250 ticket for a first offense, followed by a $275 ticket for a second offense and a $300 ticket for a third offense, according to city officials.

Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck said at a news conference Thursday that the program is “really not about revenue — it’s really about safety.”

 She added: “Our precious children are really our most valuable asset.”  

The company Hendrickson runs a fleet of 21 large buses and 50 smaller buses within Glen Cove that will have cameras in operation, said Paul Mori, the company’s director of client relations.

Glen Cove will receive 55% of revenue from the program and BusPatrol will receive the remaining 45%.  Panzenbeck said revenue will be deposited into the city’s general fund.  

Glen Cove resident Roni Jenkins, 54, said Thursday she had two children already educated in the city’s school district and now has a 16-year-old who takes the bus daily. She said drivers, especially during the morning commute, can be distracted or impatient, endangering children.

“I’m all for it,” Jenkins said of the program.

BusPatrol spokesman Jason Elan said each bus camera, infused with artificial intelligence, is able to account for the location of the bus and other vehicles.

Elan said after violation images are captured, a company reviewer checks visual evidence before making a recommendation and sending a package over to law enforcement officials, who make the final decisions on whether to issue tickets.

Most drivers who receive a citation don’t offend again, according to Elan.

 “We’re not asking much. We’re asking for people to slow down and stop for the bus,” the BusPatrol spokesman added.  

A driver cannot pass a school bus with its stop arm extended, even if the motorist is traveling in the opposite direction or separated from the stopped bus by a divider, according to the New York State Department of Transportation.

A 2019 state law allowed municipalities to partner with districts to use cameras that catch violators in the act, Newsday previously reported.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman declined to participate in the BusPatrol program at the county level, leaving Nassau’s three towns and two cities to decide if they wanted to enroll.

Town of Oyster Bay spokesman Brian Nevin said officials there expect the program to start being implemented in January. He noted that individual school districts still need to enter into memorandums of understanding with the town.

Town of North Hempstead spokesman Gordon Tepper said the town is negotiating terms for its school bus camera program with BusPatrol, but “haven’t finalized the terms of the agreement.” 

North Hempstead’s town board unanimously passed a resolution in September 2022 to hire the Virginia company for a five-year term with the option to renew for another five years.

Glen Cove Police Chief William Whitton said he hopes the city’s program will lead to safer streets.

“What we want to do is change driver behavior because ultimately the goal here is to keep our roadways safe,” he said.

Newsday – North Hempstead supervisor pitches nearly $164M budget

By Darwin Yanes

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena is proposing a $163.9 million budget that includes a decrease in taxes for property owners and an increase in funding for parks and senior citizen programs. 

The average homeowner who lives in the unincorporated areas of the town would save about $183 annually under the proposal, while those in incorporated villages would save about $38, according to DeSena’s office.

The proposed budget allocates $91.9 million to the town’s general fund. It proposes $41.9 million in funding for its outside village fund, which provides services to residents who live in unincorporated areas of the town that include road maintenance, code enforcement and building inspections.

DeSena’s proposal also allocates $30.1 million for 20 town-operated special districts such as parks and water districts. 

The overall proposal is an increase of about $1 million compared with this year’s adopted spending plan of $162.8 million and would use money from the town’s reserve fund and projected surpluses to decrease taxes, according to the supervisor.

“Residents are still hurting from high inflation, higher prices of food and higher prices of everything and that’s why we were determined to give taxpayers the relief that they need,” DeSena said Tuesday in an interview. 

Town council members received the budget Friday, are reviewing the plan and declined to comment on it, town spokesman Gordon Tepper said Tuesday.

The proposed budget also includes an increase in funding of about $180,000 for senior citizen services and programs and an increase of $1.5 million for the parks budget, DeSena noted. 

The town is expected to have a nearly $2 million surplus this year, according to the town’s Director of Finance Paul Wood, who is serving as acting comptroller. He said the surplus is thanks in part to the “sale of excess property.”

Wood is helping in the budget process for the second year in a row, following the August resignation of Kristen Schwaner, who served as comptroller for just four months.

The tentative budget also includes salaries for about 474 employees.

Under DeSena’s proposal, several departments that include her office and the public safety and information technology departments would get a budget increase of more than $100,000, while the “Yes We Can” Community Center would get a more than $200,000 bump in funding.

Many of the increases are because of payroll adjustments for raises the town board approved this year, town officials said. The IT department’s budget increase is due to purchases of software licenses and hardware.

The town board will hold a budget work session Oct. 17.

The public can comment at the Oct. 18 regular board meeting and a Nov. 2 hearing, with the board scheduled to vote on the final budget before Election Day.

Newsday – TikTok ban on government phones put into practice by Nassau and Suffolk municipalities

By Robert Brodsky

New York City this week banned government employees from downloading the popular social media app TikTok on all government devices, joining a host of municipalities throughout the nation and across the state, including on Long Island.

The administration of Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday that the video sharing platform, which has more than 150 million American users, would be removed from all city-owned devices within 30 days, citing a “security threat to the city’s technical networks” posed by the video sharing platform, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance.

Lawmakers across the country have raised concerns about TikTok, arguing that the app is beholden to the Chinese government and that it can use data it collects to spy on Americans.

“While social media is great at connecting New Yorkers with one another and the city, we have to ensure we are always using these platforms in a secure manner,” Jonah Allon, an Adams spokesperson, said in a statement Thursday. “ … As part of these ongoing efforts, NYC Cyber Command determined that the TikTok application posed a security threat to the city’s technical networks and directed its removal from city-owned devices.”

The city is not alone in its concerns.

In 2020, New York joined more than 30 other states by banning the use of TikTok on its mobile devices, with a small number of exceptions made for promotional or public relations accounts.

And in late-2022 the Biden administration ordered federal employees to delete TikTok from their government-issued cellphones amid concerns that its parent company could give user data to the Chinese government.

Nassau and Suffolk counties, along with the Town of North Hempstead said they’ve already banned the app on its government-issued devices, while the Town of Oyster Bay said they are exploring a similar restriction.

“The TikTok website and the Web app is blocked if a user tries to access it while on the county network,” said Suffolk County spokeswoman Marykate Guilfoyle.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said he banned employees from downloading and using the app shortly after taking office last year.

“As a result of various concerns including cybersecurity concerns, on the advice of experts, I banned TikTok on all county devices,” Blakeman said.

North Hempstead spokesman Gordon Tepper said: “TikTok is not allowed on any phones. Some employees, for instance my department, may have social media apps if they are posting items on behalf of the town. However, it is not commonly allowed. IT has to approve any app downloads.”

Newsday on Thursday polled officials at all Long Island townships and cities about whether they’ve barred TikTok or plan to do so in the future.

Many localities confirmed they do not allow their employees to download any social media apps on their government devices.

“The majority of Brookhaven Town computers and devices are blocked from accessing any social media sites,” said Scott Bradley, the town’s IT commissioner. “The only exceptions are computers within departments, such as public information, that must be able to access social media to perform their job duties. TikTok is not permitted on any town devices.”

The Towns of Babylon, Southold and Hempstead each said that they prohibit employees from downloading software on government-issued devices that are not work related, including social media apps.

Long Beach spokesman John McNally said, although the city didn’t employ a TikTok policy, “our phones are on a management system that effectively prohibits users from downloading such apps unless authorized.”

Bipartisan federal legislation to completely ban TikTok in the United States has been introduced by members of Congress. The measure has run into legal roadblocks.