NIFA hits Nassau for withholding contracts

The Nassau Interim Finance Authority criticized county officials yesterday for not providing contracts that the fiscal watchdog had requested and said they were misleading vendors about why they haven't been paid.

"County officials are telling vendors that they are not being paid because of NIFA's involvement" in Nassau's finances, NIFA executive director Evan Cohen told the board.

Cohen also said he had asked the administration to order the county attorney to send all approved contracts over $50,000 for review by NIFA, as required in guidelines issued March 24. On that date, NIFA declared a financial crisis in Nassau and imposed a wage freeze on all county workers.

At the public meeting in Mineola, NIFA director George Marlin said he was deeply concerned by County Attorney John Ciampoli's recent statement "that he would pick and choose what contracts over $50,000 he and the county would send to NIFA."

NIFA chairman Ronald Stack said: "We are now going to order Nassau to give us that [contract] information."

But Ciampoli said the "claim that NIFA has been sent nothing is simply untrue. The clerk of the county legislature sent a copy of every contract it received to NIFA. The administration has engaged in a detailed process involving all county agencies as well as the county comptroller so as to determine exactly which contracts must be forwarded to NIFA for review."

Marlin, though, said "as of this morning, we had received only two contracts, that's all."

Also Monday, NIFA approved a contract for Armor Correctional Health Services of New York Inc. to provide medical coverage for the county jail's inmate population for $11 million a year over two years.

Nassau University Medical Center formerly did the work, said Civil Service Employee Association Local 830 president Jerry Laricchiuta. The new contract "will put about 80 of my county workers out of work," he said. County officials say the contract will save $3 million.

The NIFA board also approved an $88-million general obligation bond for capital projects.