Enough is Enough

All I can say is, “Enough is enough.”

This week must have held the record for reports of ineptness, waste, fraud and abuse in both Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead governments. 

First, NIFA took over Nassau’s finances.  It was embarrassing to watch our county executive use scare tactics to try to deceive people to believe that NIFA will raise our taxes when we know that NIFA lacks the authority to do. The people of Nassau County are smart. Mangano and the Republican legislators should stop their campaign to discredit the NIFA team and work toward fixing their budget.

This administration believes that just getting elected on promises of fiscal responsibility is enough. Mangano and the Republican legislators were elected under false pretences with empty campaign promises. The people have been duped. Their arrogant disregard for our troubled economy became apparent when the new Republican majority decided to give their staff hefty raises and write contracts for million dollar giveaways to Mangano’s old law firm and others who contribute to the Republican Party. And now, they bring a lawsuit against NIFA, wasting more of our tax dollars.

Under state law, NIFA "shall" impose a control board if it determines the budget has a 1 percent deficit, or if "there is a substantial likelihood and imminence" of such a deficit. You don’t need to go to court to determine that  “shall” means that NIFA “must” impose a control board. They don’t have a choice.

Later in the week, we learned that Kate Murray and the town board rubber-stamped a $7.1 million budget for an animal shelter that allegedly abuses and neglects its animals. About $3.6 million of that budget goes to its employees, nine of which make more than $100,000 and yet not one of them is a veterinarian or trained in animal behavior.

As a government employee myself, I am very conscious of the fact that I am a public servant. I take pride in working for the people of Nassau County and look for economic ways to do my job. But my salary is less than half of those hired by Kate Murray and the town board. In this difficult economy when so many of us are underpaid or unemployed, I fail to understand how Kate Murray and the town board justify their employees’ bloated salaries? And even more arrogant was the town board voting to give themselves between 7 percent and 10 percent raises.  When is enough, enough already?

But I never realized how cold and heartless the town board can be until I went down to the town board meeting on Tuesday regarding a Merrick parking lot issue.  There, I met a group of people that I can only call “angels.”  One after another, these selfless people spoke of incidents of animal cruelty and neglect and how animals that they loved were saved by two women who were banned from the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter. 

Dianne Madden from East Meadow and Lucille DeFina from Merrick are volunteers who help find home for dogs and cats that are caged at the shelter.  What struck me about these women is their compassion for the animals. They are truly guardian angels that spend their lives rescuing our town’s unwanted and abused animals. And spending a morning listening to case after case of  medical neglect and abuse, I was outraged that these women were not allowed to continue their extraordinary acts of kindness. 

Before meeting these people, I had no idea that sick animals were left unattended; that necessary medical procedures were not being done and that animals were euthanized for having a cold or a skin rash. District attorney Kathleen Rice is still investigating the animal shelter.

The problem with the Town of Hempstead is that there is no oversight. Our county, state and country governments have ethics committees. Yet, the Town has no watchdog. And our town board rubber-stamps everything that’s put before them. I wonder how many other bloated budgets with high-salaried positions are rubber-stamped every year.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And the same party has been in power in the Town of Hempstead for more than 100 years. Enough is enough.