Gerard Terry case leads N. Hempstead to enforce 25-year-old law

North Hempstead town officials, for the first time in 25 years, are enforcing the municipal requirement that party leaders file financial disclosure forms.

The move comes after Newsday reported last month that former town Democratic chairman Gerard Terry amassed nearly $1.4 million in federal and state tax debts — information that was not disclosed to the town. Without the disclosure, town officials had no documentation of Terry’s tax debts — all for failure to pay personal income taxes.

Terry resigned the day after Newsday’s report and town officials say his replacement and the Republican counterpart, Nassau OTB President Joseph Cairo, must file financial disclosure forms. Town officials have recommended Terry be replaced by Great Neck resident John Ryan, who is awaiting confirmation.

Despite a 1990 North Hempstead requirement that town party leaders complete the annual forms, “there is no record of the town ever requesting that party leaders file financial disclosure,” Town Attorney Elizabeth Botwin said in a statement. North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth has asked officials to collect financial disclosure forms from the town’s party leaders by the May 15 deadline.

Mark Davies, the former executive director of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board, questioned why North Hempstead officials hadn’t been enforcing the law that’s existed for years. Such disclosures are necessary to demonstrate “transparency in government,” he said.

“I cannot speak to the decisions that were made in the past, but Judi instructed that we start enforcing it,” Botwin said in an interview.

Every official required to complete the forms — including those in elected offices, town commissioners and the party leaders — must list debts of more than $5,000 that they, their children or their spouse owe. The North Hempstead ethics board met last Monday to review what they said was an “omission” in the disclosure forms of Terry’s wife Concetta, who is the deputy town clerk. She had not listed her husband’s tax liens on recent her disclosure forms.

Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas is investigating Gerard Terry’s public contracts and any “financial disclosure statements filed with the Town of North Hempstead Board of Ethics in Terry’s capacity as a party officer,” her spokesman, Shams Tarek, said earlier this month.

Former Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman, who held the office between 2004 and 2013 and also was the town’s Democratic chairman, said he was not aware of the requirement that party leaders file disclosure statements.

“First I’m hearing of that,” Kaiman said in an interview last week.

Kaiman stepped down as a storm recovery adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority in order to run for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills).

Paul Sabatino, a municipal lawyer based in Huntington who served as a Suffolk County deputy county executive, said that if Terry had disclosed his tax debts, it would have “raised some red flags” for other governments looking to hire him. Terry held six public jobs last year and was paid, in total, more than $217,000.

“To the extent that you have the opportunity to see more information, the better chance there is you can avoid these kinds of embarrassing situations,” Sabatino added. “You’re putting somebody on six public payrolls that has some significant difficulties complying with the state and federal government.”

Terry said in a January interview that he has “never been asked to file financial disclosures” with North Hempstead Town. “I have never received a notice that I should file,” Terry said.

North Hempstead Town hired Terry to work as an attorney for the town’s zoning board and special counselor to the town attorney, and was paid nearly $74,000 for that work. Bosworth has said the town would not renew his contracts. He resigned or was terminated from three other contracts.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.