Nassau Legislature Approves New Vets Agency Head

The Nassau Office of Veterans Affairs has a new director in Michael Kilbride after a contentious 11-8 vote along party lines Monday in the .

While numerous veterans and organizations have come out in support of Kilbride’s nomination, a few have in charge of Nassau’s estimated 200,000 veterans. A similar sentiment was felt when the county chose Matthew Rufrano as a replacement for then-director Ed Aulman in January 2010.

He “does not have the proper administration experience and has no skills for that job,” Dan Brandi, a former member of the county executive’s veterans affairs advisory committee said. “He will not attain the same standards of accomplishment that (former director) Mr. (Pat) Yngstrom did.” Brandi had submitted three letters to the legislature extolling the Yngstrom’s qualifications and charging that Kilbride’s appointment was a political maneuver by Republican Executive Ed Mangano.

Kilbride has reportedly worked at the agency since 1995 and is a former Marine who was discharged in 1994, having completed tours in Kuwait. According to testimony Monday, he had only just transferred his membership in the American Legion to the Levittown post from Albany this past Friday.

“It’s like a month and a half of hatchet jobs,” Kilbride’s father Jack said at the meeting. “This whole thing started as a pity party for the former director. It’s the county executive’s prerogative who he wants to appoint in that position as every director has been appointed politically. That’s no secret.”

Brandi also made reference to a police report allegedly made against Brandi by a former employee who worked under him, which occurred on March 8 in the office of the veteran’s service committee building. “The truth is that the new appointee is not qualified,” he said.

Kilbride said that the complaint was not made against him. The report reportedly focuses on a knife hanging out of a ceiling in the office of veterans affairs.

“Anybody can file a complaint against anybody,” Legislator John Ciotti, R-Valley Stream, said. “Anybody can walk into a room and stick a knife in a ceiling and then make an accusation.”

Majority Leader Peter Schmitt, R-Massapequa, said that if criminal charges are brought against Kilbride “appropriate steps will be taken. This is an investigation, no more, no less.”

Kilbride has also come under scrutiny for an inability to produce figures on he number of cases he handled personally as well as the agency overall.

“I couldn’t tell you right off the bat,” Kilbride said when Legislator Kevan Abrahams, D-Hempstead, asked for an estimate of how many cases he saw in 2010. Kilbride did say the office handled about 175 new claims in the last month.

Legislator Joseph Scannell, D-Baldwin, called it a “disgrace” that Kilbride had known he would be coming before the legislature for a month but did not have the “basic” figures with him. “I think its disrespectful to this board that you don’t even do the basic due diligence for the job that you want,” he said.

“I saw figures that were less than $30,000,” David Denenberg, D-Great Neck said about the number of claims Kilbride handled.

Several veterans defended Kilbride including Vietnam Veterans Association No. 82 President Joseph Ingino who said Kilbride “has to have a chance to go out there and prove himself. I don’t want to play political games, I’m trying to keep veterans alive walking the streets.”

Veterans group leaders from Mineola have said that they intend to work with Kilbride. “They really don’t like what happened but they’ll help him,” VFW Commander Manny Grilo said. “It’s not an easy job.”

Kilbride said that he intends to become more involved with veterans’ groups particularly in Hempstead and Freeport, “because they have a foothold of what’s going on around there” and inform veterans of what benefits for which they qualify. “They don’t know until you go tell them; nobody’s been telling them,” he said.

When asked by Denenberg if he intended to continue veterans standowns, Kilbride said that he saw “no reason to stop them.”