Nassau politicians to get safer place to work

Nassau County police are planning a major security upgrade at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola, but officials are hush-hush about the details.

The Police Department issued a request for bids on the project Wednesday, but the department and aides to County Executive Edward Mangano refused to discuss most aspects of it, saying it dealt with "security matters."

However, the bid documents gave some indication of the scope of the project. It calls for installation of an automated entry system - such as a swipe card system - surveillance cameras, locks and an alarm system.

The bid document said the specifics of the project were based on a March "security assessment report performed by members of the Nassau County Police Department."

"Each category has been identified as deficient as it relates to providing adequate security for the facility," the bid document said.

A Police Department spokesman, Det. Lt. Kevin Smith, and a spokesman for Mangano, Brian Nevin, refused to release the security assessment or discuss its contents.

The building is a former county courthouse that had been in poor repair for many years. It was renovated under County Executive Thomas Suozzi at a cost of $63.5 million and reopened in the spring of 2008 as the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building. It houses the county executive and his top staff as well as all 19 members of the county legislature and their staffs.

The bid documents envisioned a system that would have a central control room in the building, but "must have a secondary, fully operational, and a built-out location for remote operation in the event the primary control location becomes uninhabitable," according to the bid documents.

Nevin said the cost of the system would be determined by the features included in the bid responses, and that funding would come from Homeland Security grants and forfeiture funds.

The winning bidder would also be required to provide staffing to supplement the county police officers and county public safety officers that now provide security.

The bid documents did not list what the specific security shortcomings were, but the requirement for new equipment hinted at current inadequacies.

Keys, for example, should be numbered so they do not indicate what door they open, but can be traced back to the persons to whom they were issued. And the locks should have hardened steel inserts and "provide a high degree of drill resistance."