Nassau comptroller reviewing Suozzi's December contracts

Nassau Comptroller George Maragos said Friday that he has begun investigating contracts the administration of Thomas Suozzi finalized in his last month in office, valued at more than twice the amount he completed in each of the two previous Decembers.

MORE: See the contracts that were finalized during the last month of Suozzi's term

"We are reviewing all of these contracts to ensure that taxpayer money is being well spent," Maragos said. "Unnecessary or patronage contracts will be canceled or renegotiated. Some contracts are especially disconcerting."

Maragos said the Suozzi administration gave $68.3 million in contracts, compared with $33 million in December 2008, and $22 million in that month in 2007. Suozzi, who is a consultant for Cablevision - Newsday's owner - said he had no comment.

Maragos listed 170 contracts, 37 of which were legislated in December. The others had been in the pipeline for months, county officials said.

Minority Leader Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove), the majority leader and presiding officer last year, said: "The actions taken by the then-Democratic majority were always legal, prudent and proper."

She said that many of those contracts are 100 percent federal- or state-grant funded. "Obviously the new team at the comptroller's office is a bit confused," Yatauro said.

Maragos, while not specifically naming a contractor, did refer to three contracts, including one lease approved on Dec. 24 last year, to house a police precinct in Baldwin.

That lease, with Grand Baldwin Associates, has been controversial since it was first proposed by the Suozzi team.

The county legislature's lame-duck Democratic majority rejected Mangano's request to not approve the controversial 30-year lease with Grand Baldwin Associates for the police station, which would cost Nassau $9.3 million in construction costs.

"Suozzi's actions were not so unusual," said political pundit Lawrence Elovich of Long Beach, a Democrat. "In fact, it can be perceived as trying to make sure the right thing was done before he left office. And except for the Baldwin precinct, I think the Republicans supported most of the contracts."

Republicans supported 18 of the 37 contracts in December.

Maragos added that the Department of Social Services contracted to spend millions for services "well above the retail or market costs."

He also said a last-minute contract by the Department of Public Works violated county law by approving a 34 percent overrun of $1.23 million without a required 10-day notice for any overrun of more than 10 percent.

Maragos noted that when Suozzi's predecessor, Republican Thomas Gulotta, spent his last month in office - in 2001 - he approved less than $1 million more in contracts than he had in December 2000: $14.6 million to $13.8 million.