Nassau County is months late in payments for social services

Dozens of social service agencies used by Nassau County to provide mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment say they are at risk of having to cut services and lay off staff because the county has not paid them for the past three months.

Agency directors say they have taken out loans, stopped paying bills and in some cases delayed employee paychecks to keep their programs open as they wait for county funds.

Nassau typically pays the groups one-third of the value of their annual contracts at the start of each year — but that this year, increased scrutiny of all county contracts has held up some payments.

Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin said last week that the delays “are troubling as we work through a new procurement process.” Nevin said the county hopes to pay all the agencies in the next two weeks.

But agency leaders say that with April approaching and no payments in hand, they are struggling to make payroll and pay rent.

“I don’t know how much longer we can keep going,” said Sal LaFemina, executive director of Community Counseling Services of Western Nassau, a Franklin Square nonprofit that annually treats about 400 Nassau residents with mental health and substance abuse issues.

LaFemina said he is awaiting about $200,000 in county funding and has not paid the nonprofit’s 20 employees since Feb. 29. He said he applied recently for a $150,000 loan against his home’s equity to keep the clinic afloat.

Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos said the payment delays were caused in part by increased scrutiny of all county contracts after last year’s arrest and conviction of former state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and his son, Adam, on federal corruption charges partially involving Dean Skelos’ efforts to influence a Nassau County contract. Dean and Adam Skelos are appealing.

Maragos said his office is working to expedite payments to the nonprofits. But he said he can act only when the contracts are approved by County Executive Edward Mangano’s office and the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the state board that controls the county’s finances.

Other contracts are awaiting certification by the clerk of the Nassau County Legislature, Maragos said.

As of last Wednesday, 24 of 39 county contracts totaling $2.5 million were awaiting some level of approval, according to comptroller data.

Jeffrey Reynolds, executive director of Family and Children’s Association, a Mineola nonprofit that operates the county’s youth homeless shelter and two substance abuse clinics, said local nonprofits have come to “expect delays” and plan around them.

This year’s delays have caused more hardship because local lenders have become reluctant to approve loans to the nonprofits after one of the region’s largest social service agencies, FEGS, declared bankruptcy and shut down last year.

“Almost every lender I’ve spoken to says, ‘We heard about the FEGS collapse,’ ” Reynolds said. “It’s like trying to get a mortgage after the housing collapse.”

Reynolds said FCA is waiting on nearly $2 million in county funding for programs that serve some 15,000 Nassau residents, including jail diversion for youth offenders and counseling for seniors. Reynolds said the agency has stopped paying vendors and used charitable donations to keep the program afloat.

“If we were tree cutters, we could tell the county, ‘We’ll start cutting trees once you pay us,’ but because we’re dealing with human lives, the last thing I want to do . . . at the height of the heroin crisis, is tell clients trying to recover, ‘We’ll see you in April and May when the money starts coming in again,’ ” Reynolds said.

Joseph Smith, executive director of Long Beach Reach, a nonprofit that runs a high school for at-risk students and operates drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs that serve more than 1,000 Nassau residents, said the agency has relied on a $450,000 credit line to meet costs as they wait on nearly $800,000 in county funding.

“While money that is owed to our organizations is sitting in the county’s bank account earning interest, we’re borrowing money and paying interest that is not reimbursable by the county,” Smith said. “It’s really an untenable situation.”

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.