County Dems Critical of Outside Law Firm Contracts

Nassau County Democrats are crying cronyism over a series of contracts with outside law firms that were approved by the Legislative Rules Committee Monday afternoon at the County Legislature.

Amounting to $1.2 million, Democratic Minority Leader Diane Yatauro, D-Glen Cove, said that the Democratic caucus is “disgusted” with the “wastefulness” being spent on the contracts for “outside counsel for issues that don’t need to be addressed now.”

The amount budgeted for 2011 for these types of contracts is only $2 million.

“To say that we’re frustrated is certainly an understatement,” Yatauro said. “We’ve fought long and hard to balance the budget and now it's being squandered away.”

Described by Legis. David Denenberg, D-Merrick, as “sweetheart contracts,” the Democrats contend that the deals are to former employers of the Republican majority, specifically Uniondale firm Rivkin Radler, the former employer of Republican County Executive Ed Mangano for a real estate tax certiorari case and the Manhattan firm of Louis & Fiore, which specializes in election law, who “have no expertise in civil rights,” have been hired for the section 1983 cases, which deals with civil rights abuse suits. Mangano severed ties with the firm before he took office last year.

One of the legal contracts with Rivkin Radler was for work involving the Nassau Coliseum.

“What would we be doing?” Yatauro asked. “Unless you’re talking landscaping to kill the weeds there I can’t imagine legally what we’re doing at the Coliseum.”

Democrats said they discovered the issue on Jan. 3 after the most recent Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) meeting. Yatauro confirmed that she had been in contact with the state-watchdog group, but had not spoken to them on this particular matter.

“It’s Jan. 10 so either we’re trying to beat the NIFA cycle because there’s a concern that no contracts will be pushed or there’s something wrong,” Yatauro said.

Under a “personal service contract,” which does not have to be put out for bid, agreements under $25,000 do not require legislative approval. Mangano had proposed raising that limit to $250,000, but was turned down.

“We’ve had contracts where we initially we were told the legislature did not have to vote on, that anything over $25,000 did not have to be voted on,” Legis. Judi Bosworth, D-Great Neck, said, adding that the contracts had been “enhanced and enhanced” to the $1.2 million total. “I’m questioning the process and I’m questioning the procedure.”

At a time where the county’s finances are being called into question by NIFA, Democrats are asking why outside firms are being hired instead of using in-house counsel.

“We saw a period of 10 years where legal contracts had been diminished to the tune of saving the county $29 million because the County Attorney’s office was doing the legal work that they were always supposed to do,” Denenberg said. “Instead we’re going to spend over $200,000 on a no-bid sweetheart deal.”

North Merrick Community Association President Claudia Borecky cited a 2009 report reportedly from one of Mangano’s workers where county attorneys save the county money.

“Nothing’s changed since then," Borecky said. "The facts don’t lie."

Patricia Friedman of the Tax Revolt Coalition said that contractual amounts had increased from $25,000 to $125,000 in August, then again by $250,000 in December to $375,000.

“I cannot find in this packet one accountability of one hour, one court presentation or anything that has been done for six months of a fee,” she said of the six contracts in question, including one for mailings to residents.

The committee only passed three contracts–both along party lines–to the tune of approximately $550,000. The Rivkin Radler contract for the Coliseum for approximately $170,000 was put on hold as was the $250,000 agreement for civil rights counsel with Lewis & Fiore over allegations that the firm had violated labor laws within the past 5 years.

The legislature’s mailing contract passed unanimously. All of the items will be on the full legislative agenda at the Jan. 24 meeting.

“Our point here is not only the size of the giveaways on these no-bid contracts, but we have qualified attorneys in-house to handle these cases and we’re going to outside counsel that often aren’t even qualified in the fields that they’re being hired for,” Denenberg said.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Mangano Senior Policy Advisor Brian Nevin said that “County Executive Mangano is cleaning up the $343 million deficit created by Diane Yatauro and her Democrat colleagues. Rather than play politics, Legislator Yatauro should recognize that these firms were hired to protect taxpayers wallets.”