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JUNE 17, 2013 | www.cityandstateny.com
Office of Purchasing, contributed $4,000, while Michael Sposato, the acting Nassau County sheriff, contributed $3,500 to the Hicksville club. With the exception of Mack and Codignotto, none of these donors returned phone calls from City & State. When asked about the nature of his relationship with the committee and his reason for his contribution, Codignotto responded, “No comment.” Mack, who now runs a real estate company based in New Jersey, said that his contribution wasn’t solicited by Mangano or Walker, and that “there was a cause involved,” though one he could not recall. “It has nothing to do with [Mangano’s] campaign, not at all,” Mack said. “I wasn’t solicited for it. I heard they were raising money. You can see I give a lot of money to a lot of different friends. They were shocked and thanked me very much, and that’s it. I hope Mangano wins.” These donors were not the only ones with problematic ties to Mangano. An Associated Press report found that Friends of Ed Mangano received $144,000 in donations from Sandy contractors in the weeks after they were hired by Nassau County. Many of the companies that gave to Mangano’s campaign also contributed $6,000 to the Hicksville committee, and some of these companies’ high-ranking employees have close familial relations with county officials. For instance, Dejana Industries, a sanitation firm, gave $12,575 to Mangano’s campaign, and a subsidiary, Dejana Truck and Equipment Company, gave $550 to the Hicksville committee. Mangano’s brother, John Mangano Jr., is the director of business development and municipal sales director for Dejana Industries. Dejana was one of the county’s Sandy contractors, receiving $36,288 for a “fuel truck rental.” Among the other contractors that contributed to the Hicksville club was Nelson & Pope Engineers, a surveying and engineering firm that previously employed Walker as a project manager and currently employs Walker’s wife, Elizabeth, as an administrative assistant. On September 12 of last year, Nelson & Pope made separate contributions of $425 and $700 to the Hicksville club. The firm also contributed $5,895 to Friends of Ed Mangano from 2010 to 2012. After Sandy hit in late October, Nelson & Pope received a $400,000 contract to assist in tree and debris removal at various sites throughout the county. Grace Industries, a company that services roads and highways, donated $1,000 to Hicksville and $13,000 to Mangano, while the company’s chairman, William Haugland, also made a $2,612 in-kind contribution that was not itemized in Mangano’s filings. Grace Industries received two contracts for Sandy cleanup totaling $8 million. John and Anthony Gulino, owners of surveying and engineering company Laser
Industries, gave a $13,000 in-kind contribution to Mangano, as well as $1,000 to the Hicksville club. Laser Industries received up to $6 million in contracts for Sandy work, according to the Associated Press. Yet another company, 192 Branch Interior Services, gave only $150 to the Hicksville committee but $5,000 to Friends of Ed Mangano. The company was awarded a $1 million contract to assist in the removal and disposal of water from various sites in the county. No one from these companies responded to requests for comment. Lastly, between 2011 and 2012 CSM Engineering contributed $5,375 to Friends of Ed Mangano, and $600 to the Hicksville committee in 2012. The firm is owned by Carolyn Shah Moehringer, sister of Shila Shah-Gavnoudias, the commissioner of the Nassau County Department of Public Works, the body responsible for procuring contracts for the design, construction, repair, maintenance and cleaning of all the streets and bridges in the county. CSM was one of the companies to receive an emergency contract for tree and debris removal after Sandy, in the amount of $250,000. In response to an inquiry from City & State, Shah-Gavnoudias wrote in a statement that recovering from Sandy “was the chief factor in securing all contracts necessary to restoring functionality and safety to Nassau County.” She should have recused herself in procuring the contract for CSM, she added. “In retrospect, while I recused myself from the technical selection committee I regret any impression created by the signing of a procedural routing slip and Comptroller Approval Form for CSM Engineering,” read Shah-Gavnoudias’ statement.
A HISTORY OF PATRONAGE The apparent rewarding of family members and associates of county officials with patronage jobs and county contracts has been endemic to Nassau County dating back to the reign of former county Republican leader Joseph Margiotta. Famous for rewarding loyalty by recommending party supporters for political patronage jobs on municipal payrolls, Margiotta served as a mentor to such successful Nassau Republicans as former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato and current state Senate Majority Coalition Leader Dean Skelos. Multiple sources with knowledge of Nassau County politics maintain that D’Amato enjoys a good relationship with Mangano. Campaign finance disclosure reports show that D’Amato contributed $2,500 to Mangano’s campaign in 2011. According to a Newsday report, wellknown Republican Party supporter Robert McBride, the vice president of D’Amato’s lobbying firm, Park Strategies, held a fund-
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