Nassau GOP chief won't block layoff plan

Nassau Republican chairman Joseph Mondello signaled Thursday that he won't stand in the way of County Executive Edward Mangano's plan to lay off as many as 800 employees. According to Republican sources, Mondello told a meeting of GOP leaders that taxpayers don't want tax hikes and would understand that Mangano had no choice but to order layoffs. He likened Mangano's dilemma to his own in late 1991. Mondello was Hempstead's presiding supervisor, and effective leader of the former county Board of Supervisors, when the board approved a budget with layoffs of some 3,000 full-time and part-time employees of the county, which faced a fiscal crunch. Then, the full-time county workforce totaled about 16,000; now it's about 8,000. -- Celeste Hadrick