A state judge ruled last week that the leader of the Nassau County Legislature, Norma Gonsalves, violated state campaign finance disclosure rules eight times between 2013 and 2015.
The judge, Christina Ryba of Albany County Supreme Court, ordered Friends of Norma Gonsalves, the East Meadow Republican’s campaign committee, to pay $14,000 in fines for failing to file financial disclosure reports with the state Board of Elections.
The Board of Elections brought legal action against Gonsalves in March after finding in December that she failed to file reports listing her campaign’s donors and expenses at least 34 times between January 2006 and February 2015.
Gonsalves’ explanation has more or less been along the lines of the dog ate my homework — or rather the dog ate her campaign treasurer’s homework.
She blamed the missing filings on confusion with the Board of Elections’ electronic filing system and campaign treasurer Joseph Parisi’s failure to file them.
The campaign finance violations are not to be confused with taxpayer-funded campaign mailers Gonsalves and two other Republican county legislators sent out in 2015 that claimed county legislators did not raise property taxes during the past five years, despite a 3.4 percent increase in 2015.
Then Acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas asked for an investigation by federal prosecutors of the mailers.
Republican legislators responded on Jan. 4 to the charges brought by the state election board and Singas by re-electing Gonsalves the presiding officer of the Legislature.
All of which helps explain why Nassau County — one of the wealthiest counties in the state — is in its 16th year under state supervision of its finances. And, apparently, counting.
In July, The Nassau Interim Finance Authority gave Nassau County has 30 days to come up with a plan to reduce a $103 million deficit for 2016 without using borrowing, reserves or other prohibited revenue sources.
Rather than considering Gonsalves’ removal as presiding officer, Republican legislators are currently considering a voter referendum that would create an independent inspector general to review county contracts.
Or, rather, not considering the referendum.
Democratic legislator proposed the referendum after Republicans legislators refused to approve an independent inspector general that had the backing of the Democrats, Singas and a panel that Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano appointed to address contracting reforms. Both Mangano and the Republican legislators say the inspector general is unnecessary after Mangano’s hiring of someone to oversee county contracts.
The call for an independent inspector general who Mangano can’t fire followed the disclosure that hundreds of county contracts were awarded without competitive bidding for just under the $25,000 limit that required legislative review, some apparently in return for political favors. And a $12 million county contract that resulted in former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son being convicted of felony corruption charges.
Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker, another Mangano hire, testified during the Skelos trial that he is under investigation for allegedly awarding county contracts to campaign contributors.
But Mangano and GOP legislators still ask us to trust them. With a straight face.
The referendum on an inspector general needs the approval of the Republican-controlled rules committee, the Republican-controlled Legislature and Mangano, the Republican county executive.
With the deadline for holding a referendum this November rapidly approaching, the Republicans came up with an ingenuous solution — allow the proposed referendum to be “reviewed” by the county attorney.
This, of course, is ingenuous in the political sense, allowing Republican legislators a way to defeat the referendum without voting against it.
In the responsible government sense, it is just more of the same.
Our Views: 2 symbols of Nassau’s mess
