Nassau Democrat Legislators Support Increased Police Hiring

Party eyes rift before election

Nassau Democrats alarmed as Suozzi loses legislative support on correction officers’ deal, gets involved in altercation with colleague

BY MICHAEL ROTHFELD AND CELESTE HADRICK
STAFF WRITERS

September 23, 2005

Six weeks before election day, tensions between County Executive Thomas Suozzi and his allies in the Nassau legislature have exploded as Democratic lawmakers have defied their party's standard bearer on policy and politics.

Within the past week, Suozzi suffered a defeat when three Democrats voted with Republican lawmakers to kill his contract deal with correction officers; Suozzi and a lawmaker were pulled apart by bystanders who feared they were about to come to blows; and Suozzi infuriated another Democrat who opposed the jail contract by calling his boss.

Yesterday, two Suozzi allies appeared with leaders of three police unions who have endorsed Republican Gregory Peterson for county executive, demanding at a news conference for the county to hire more officers than Suozzi has budgeted. When Police Benevolent Association Gary DelaRaba called Suozzi "a spoiled brat," Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick) and Joseph Scannell (D-Baldwin) sat silently beside him.

"It bothers me," Suozzi said yesterday. "I think they are wrong to be as heavily influenced by the police unions as they are."

Suozzi added, "We are not going to march lockstep with each other. Hopefully, at the end of the day, we have a better policy."

Suozzi and the Democrats who hold a 10-9 legislative majority have often sparred over county issues and what some lawmakers perceive as his insistence on getting his way.

But the latest quarreling has alarmed county Democrats both in its scope -- it has involved five different Democratic lawmakers -- and its proximity to the Nov. 8 election, in which Suozzi and all 19 legislators are up for re-election. In the background is wide speculation that Suozzi hopes to launch a campaign for governor early next year.

Stanley Klein, a political science professor at C.W. Post who is a Republican committeeman in Suffolk, said this reflects badly on Suozzi "because he can't get his own party to support him."

Lawmakers say their differences with Suozzi are based mostly on substance. "I'm not here to be fighting Tom Suozzi or to be complementing Tom Suozzi," Denenberg said at the police news conference. "I'm here as a legislator looking at a budget."

Most of the recent conflict surrounded the legislature's rejection Monday of Suozzi's contract deal for correction officers. Last Friday, before the vote, Suozzi called Steven Schlesinger, the law chairman for Nassau Democrats and a partner in the Garden City firm employing Legis.Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington), who opposed the contract.

Schlesinger said he and Suozzi talk often, and the county executive asked how he could alleviate Johnson's concerns, but did not suggest pressuring him. "No one has that ability to lean on me, and it would never happen," Schlesinger said.

Before Monday's legislative meeting, Suozzi went to the Democrats' caucus room trying to convince Johnson, Legis. Lisanne Altmann (D-Great Neck) and Legis. Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove), his close ally, to drop their opposition to the contract.

Johnson declined to comment on the meeting. But according to Scannell and witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity, Johnson and Suozzi began to argue. "Craig was very upset about the fact that Suozzi had apparently called Steve Schlesinger," Scannell said, though Suozzi "denied it was an attempt to intimidate Craig."

After Suozzi called for the Democrats to stick together as a team, Scannell exploded, calling Suozzi a hypocrite in expletive-filled language, according to others in the room. Scannell cited numerous slights, including Suozzi's attempt to relocate Nunley's Carousel, a landmark in Scannell's Baldwin district, to Oyster Bay.

Suozzi retained his composure, according to several witnesses, and walked toward Scannell, who was sitting at the end of a conference table. According to Scannell, Suozzi stood behind him.

"I turned my chair around and stood up. We were nose to nose ... He got right in my face and said, 'You got a problem with me?' I said, 'Get out of my face.'"

Legis. Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead) and Bill Cunningham, Suozzi's counsel, pulled them apart.

A few hours later Johnson, Altmann and Yatauro voted against the contract, marking the first time so many Democrats joined in killing one of his initiatives.

Posted Friday, September 23, 2005

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