Blogger starts Nassau County job

While 128 county workers were laid off Friday, Marty Schwartz of the online "Schwartz Report" began working as Nassau Executive Edward Mangano's $80,000-a-year assistant fiscal director of housing and community development -- an appointed post paid by separate grant funds. On his site at LIpolitics.com, bloggers gossip and vent, subject to Schwartz's editing. A former county employee, Schwartz previously worked part-time at Nassau's Off-Track Betting Corporation, earning $35,400 last year, OTB reported. Mangano aide Brian Nevin said Schwartz was hired for expertise in housing and homeless issues. "I have no knowledge of his blog activities as it is a private unrelated venture," Nevin said. Schwartz said: "If you look at the blog about Nassau issues, there is a lot of stuff about Mangano, both good and bad" and his new job "will cause absolutely no change." -- Celeste Hadrick