I read with amazement Jack Schnirman’s recent opinion piece in The Island Now and the article where he outlined how he is going to “fix” Nassau County as he said he did for Long Beach.
Schnirman, the Democrat Candidate for Nassau County Comptroller, has been the Long Beach city manager since 2012.
As a former City Council President and a 50 year lifelong resident of Long Beach, I can unequivocally tell Nassau County voters and residents that they do not want or need Schnirman to do for Nassau what he has done for our city. If he is elected comptroller, you can rest assured he will raise taxes, and increase spending and borrowing.
Schnirman is unethical, dishonest, and he lacks the transparency and experience to help continue moving Nassau in the right direction. He was recently censored and banned for life by the International City/County Management Association, the leading agency for city and county managers.
Schnirman was censored and banned for life because he violated the ICMA’s code of ethics. In addition Schnirman has completely ignored multiple complaints filed with the Long Beach Board of Ethics against his administration.
Schnirman has turned Long Beach City Hall into a finely tuned political patronage machine hiring political operatives from all over Brookhaven and Nassau County resulting in the waste of millions in taxpayer dollars.
In early 2012, immediately after declaring a so-called “fiscal emergency” in Long Beach (the fiscal emergency others called the “Great Recession”) Schnirman imposed a citywide “hiring freeze” yet in the next few weeks he hired nearly 30 political operatives at a taxpayer cost of over $1.2 million!
Schnirman also violated the Long Beach City Charter when awarded the city’s politically connected police commissioner an contract and paid him nearly $2 million since 2012, averaging nearly $400,000 a year to head a police department of about 80 police officers! Under Schnirman’s “leadership,” he raised city taxes and fees over 30 percent and increased the city’s debt by 100 percent from $48 million to over $113 million in five short years!
In fact, according to a 2015 Newsday report “Long Beach is home to a fraction of L.I.’s population but eight of the 10 highest paid town and city employees island wide work for the city of Long Beach.”
All of this occurred under Schnirman’s failed leadership.
In addition and according to Newsday, under Schnirman, Long Beach has the highest per capita payroll expenses on Long Island and the highest overtime budget!
And now Schnirman wants to do for Nassau what he did for Long Beach?
Jack Schnirman is the very last thing Nassau County needs.
Schnirman calls his policies in Long Beach the “SMART RECOVERY” and he loves to point out that he graduated from Harvard.
But, let’s be honest here; it doesn’t take a Harvard graduate to run a government simply by raising taxes 30 percent, raising water, sewer and sanitation fees, increasing spending by $30 million dollars and increasing borrowing by 100 percent in five short years!
There’s nothing “SMART” about a run of the mill “tax, borrow and spend” politician like Jack Schnirman.
The last thing Nassau County needs is another political machine crony like Jack Schnirman.
Don’t let him ruin Nassau like he has ruined the City by the Sea, Long Beach.
Nassau County needs a public official like Steve Labriola, he tells the truth and he has the experience Nassau needs and deserves.
James P. Hennessy
Former Long Beach
City Council President
