Court to hear fired Nassau workers' appeal

The Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, said Thursday it will hear the appeal of members of a Nassau County tax panel who said they were improperly fired by Republican Edward Mangano shortly after he became county executive in January 2010.

The nine members of the Assessment Review Commission were holdovers from the administration of Democrat Thomas Suozzi, and some of them sued, arguing that they had been appointed to fixed terms of up to five years and could not be fired without cause. However, the Appellate Division in Brooklyn ruled in November that the county charter required only that the county give those workers notice and an opportunity to comment before firing them.

"The language of the Nassau County Charter is clear and unambiguous . . ." the midlevel appeals court wrote in a 4-0 ruling. "If the Nassau County Legislature intended for ARC commissioners to be removable only 'for cause' during their statutory terms, then it could have included the appropriate language in the Nassau County Charter."

Mangano had contended that revamping the commission, which rules on property tax appeals, was the first step in fixing the troubled property tax assessment system.