Nassau OKs police retirement incentives

Nassau lawmakers Monday unanimously approved a police retirement incentive plan and agreed to borrow $26.5 million to pay for it.

The vote was delayed 5½ hours while County Executive Edward Mangano negotiated separate memorandums of agreement with the county's three police unions concerning staffing and patrol levels.

The retirement incentive, intended to encourage highly paid officers to retire, was a key ingredient in Mangano's plan to reorganize the police department by turning four of Nassau's eight precincts into "community policing centers" staffed by just two officers around the clock.

Mangano predicted he could save as much as $20 million annually by cutting 100 officers from the force while protecting public safety by reassigning desk cops to neighborhood crime prevention.

Democratic legislators, who opposed the reorganization plan, insisted they would not vote to borrow for the incentive program unless they had written agreements from Mangano that he would maintain the same level of patrol and would provide more staffing at the policing centers.

Because borrowing requires a two-thirds vote of the 19-member legislature the 10-member Republican majority needed at least three Democrats to pass. Monday, Republicans needed four Democrats because Legis. Denis Dunne (R-Levittown) was absent.

Democrats also demanded that the amount of borrowing be cut nearly in half from the $50 million requested by Mangano, saying the $26.5 million would cover the cost of officers expected to retire.

After Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker assured Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) publicly that the county executive had signed the memorandums, Democrats voted with Republicans for the incentive and borrowing.

Abrahams said after the vote: "After the disastrous move by the county executive and the Republican majority to close half the police precincts in Nassau, the Democratic caucus was successful in pushing Ed Mangano's back against the wall so that he gave us a signed guarantee that there would not be one less patrol car in any neighborhood in Nassau County."

He said the guarantee also ensures "that there would be more law enforcement personnel in all of the policing centers and that the excessive amount of $50 million he originally asked us to approve in borrowing was decreased to less than $27 million."

But Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) said the unions did the negotiating, not the Democrats. "It's the unions who are leading the Democrats around," he said.

Mangano said: "I'm happy everybody was able to come together to support my plan to save taxpayers up to $20 million and increase public safety. We've said it all along and now we've put it in writing."

Although Democrats contend the new agreement will increase staff at the community centers to up to eight officers, both Mangano and Schmitt said the staffing is the same as planned.

Police Benevolent Association president James Carver said the staffing agreement "is a step in the right direction" but he still wanted to see more police assigned to special units.