Bobby Kumar Kalotee appointed to Nassau Health Care Corp. board

Former Nassau Independence Party chairman and one-time political power broker Bobby Kumar Kalotee is back in the thick of Nassau County government.

The county legislature last month appointed Kalotee to a five-year term on the Nassau Health Care Corp. board, which runs Nassau University Medical Center. Kalotee had been on and off the board since 1999 and served as chairman for a while. He was on the board in 2001 when he staged his own kidnapping — “a mistake” he attributed to personal difficulties.

Kalotee also is the new chairman of the county’s Human Rights Commission, replacing Zahed Syed. The legislature voted in May to appoint Kalotee to the commission while refusing to reappoint Syed as chairman after Syed was suspended from a part-time county job because of time card irregularities. After the legislative vote, County Executive Edward Mangano named Kalotee the commission chairman.

Still actively involved in local, state and national politics, Kalotee helped organize support for Mangano’s re-election four years ago in Nassau’s South Asian community.

Kalotee said he was honored to be appointed to the Human Rights Commission and promised to aggressively investigate allegations of human rights violations. He said he was “very humbled” that Republicans and Democrats voted to appoint him to the hospital board.

“I love the hospital,” he said. “I think you need somebody there who can stand up and speak for the public and the patients. And I am not intimidated by anybody.”