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Lynbrook/East Rockaway Herald 02-02-2023

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Lynbrook/east rockaway

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Vol. 30 No. 6

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A flood of complaints Public session focuses on drainage project By BEN FiEBERt bfiebert@liherald.com

Ben Fiebert/Herald

NAssAU CoUNtY REpREsENtAtiVEs including Public Works Commissioner Kenneth Arnold, second from right, and Project Manager Juan Medina, center, answering questions from concerned residents who have dealt with flooding.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into the East Rockaway drainage improvement project, but not even a dam could hold back the project’s stream of problems. Nassau County representatives provided updates at the East Rockaway and Bay Park drainage improvement public information session on Jan. 25. Community members had the opportunity to question the representatives and air their grievances about the project. The project was announced in March 2014, following the destruction of Hurricane Sandy. According to HempsteadNY.Gov, “The Project will help mitigate the effects of tidal Continued on page 19

Mysterious state of emergency in Nassau may be illegal By MARK NolAN mnolan@liherald.com

Nassau County may have illegally declared a state of emergency for cybersecurity — a declaration that was not even known until revealed in a letter to a reporter by a county official. Deputy County Attor ney Gregory Kalnitsky confirmed the existence of a state of emergency in response to a request for more information on a cybersecurity contract approved by the county Legislature’s Rules Committee in December. The Herald sought basic information about the agreement, including who the contract is with, and

how much it will cost taxpayers. “The county executive and Nassau County Legislature enacted a local state of emergency with respect to the county of Nassau’s cybersecurity and information technology assets,” Kalnitsky wrote in a letter, without providing further details. State law generally requires a government body like a county legislature to announce the need of an executive session during a public meeting, provide a specific reason for such a session, and then hold a public vote on whether to allow such a session to take place. While New York state laws are a bit broad on what can be

discussed in executive session, they generally prohibit any action by formal vote that would spend public dollars. A review of the December public meeting does include an announcement of an executive session and a vote. All that was provided for its reason, however, was a control number for the cybersecurity contract the legislature was set to approve. “It is a clear violation of the open meetings law to appropriate public funds in a closed-door private meeting, if that is what occurred,” said Paul Wolf, president of the independent New York Coalition for Open Government.

“Any vote to spend taxpayer dollars — even in an emergency situation — should occur in public.” The contract came on the heels of a massive computer network hack in Suffolk County that shut down government services there temporarily, and is said to have cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

Nassau lawmakers voted unanimously to enter into executive session on Dec. 5 to discuss “E-137-22,” which was listed in the agenda as a shared services agreement between the county’s information and technology department and an unnamed vendor. After an hour of deliberation Continued on page 4


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Lynbrook/East Rockaway Herald 02-02-2023 by Richner Communications, Inc - Issuu