Range of penalties for defying NIFA

If Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli or other county officials do not comply with a state control board's order to immediately submit for approval all contracts of $50,000 or more, they could face suspension or removal from office and a misdemeanor conviction, according to the law that set up the Nassau Interim Finance Authority.

"An order from NIFA must be complied with," Chairman Ronald Stack said. "The statute states certain penalties attendant with not complying with a NIFA order. This is a formal order."

Before the NIFA board voted unanimously Monday to order Ciampoli to turn over the contracts, Stack added, "We regret it has come to this."

NIFA members had complained that only two contracts had been submitted to the agency for approval since it took control of Nassau's finances in January and adopted guidelines on March 24 for approving county contracts of $50,000 and more.

Ciampoli, however, denies delays and accused NIFA of "grandstanding in the media" -- though NIFA officials say they made several private calls and sent emails to the county seeking the contracts before the public meeting.

The county attorney also accused NIFA Board member George Marlin of making an "untrue" statement that the agency had received nothing -- when Marlin actually had complained that NIFA had received only two contracts.

"I made it perfectly clear," Marlin said Tuesday. "As of that morning we had received only two contracts. That is fact. That is fact."

Marlin said that a disc of contracts to be approved by the county legislature that day was delivered to NIFA Monday afternoon. But, he noted, the disc did not include NIFA-required forms showing the source of funds, county attorney approval and other information.

NIFA's published guidelines state: "Contracts will only be submitted to NIFA for approval upon completion of the county's internal approval process."

Ciampoli retorted, "It is unfortunate that George Marlin is attempting to derail the process and trying to create bad relations between NIFA directors and the County.NIFA receives all of the information on every contract that goes to the legislature before it is approved so that they may properly analyze a contract ahead of time."

Stack sent Ciampoli a letter Monday directing him to comply with NIFA's contract approval procedures

"Our prior efforts to obtain contracts from the county have not been satisfied, necessitating this formal order, Stack wroteThe state law that created NIFA states that no county officer or employee "shall take any action in violation of any valid order of the authority or shall fail or refuse to take any action required by any such order . . . " Anyone who violates an order "shall be subject to appropriate administrative discipline" by order of either the governor or the county executive." Willful violations are misdemeanors.

@celestehadrick