Hearing into NUMC chief devolves into shouting match

A legislative hearing Friday into the appointment of Matthew Bruderman to the board that runs Nassau University Medical Center devolved into a shouting match that prompted an abrupt recess to the proceedings.

During the hearing, Bruderman also suggested his campaign donations to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman would enable him to get Blakeman to funnel more money to the hospital, saying "I gave him a lot of money ... He's gonna listen.”

At the nearly five-hour hearing in Mineola, lawmakers questioned Bruderman, a Republican financial adviser from Centre Island whom Blakeman has picked to lead the board, about remarks he made at a March 20 board meeting of hospital trustees.

During an executive session at that meeting, Bruderman made statements in which he distinguished between "good" and "bad" racism.

In a public session, he threatened to "mow down" hospital board members who opposed him.

"What I meant by 'good racism' was I thought that racism meant making a decision or treating someone differently based on race," Bruderman said Friday.

Bruderman referred to President Joe Biden's nomination of federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court to make the point that, "in a good sense, that you might make a decision based on race, is like what President Biden did in appointing Miss Brown Jackson, the first Black female justice."

Bruderman continued: "And so what I was trying to say is that, you know, there are reasons which I would love to expand upon, reasons for making decisions based on race that it can be good or bad."

Bruderman also said he had looked up the term racism and found the way he had used it was wrong.

"By the way, I Googled it … Racism is a negative connotation. And I didn't mean anything harmful or negative by saying that."

Minority leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport), the legislature's first Black caucus leader, interrupted.

"Your clarification is almost as offensive as the comment you made," Abrahams said.

"What have you done for the African American community yourself?" Bruderman asked Abrahams. "And I don't care if you're African American, you're doing the wrong thing."

The exchange became so heated that Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) called a recess.

The outburst occurred before the GOP-controlled legislature voted 13-6 for Bruderman's appointment to the board of NuHealth, the public benefit corporation that runs NUMC.

Legis. Carrié Solages (D-Lawrence) joined Republicans in voting for Bruderman, on the condition that he undergo sensitivity training at his own expense. Bruderman agreed.

Republican lawmakers said Bruderman deserved a shot at fixing NUMC, which ran an operating deficit of $102.3 million in 2020.

But Legis. Steve Rhoads (R-Bellmore) said: "The one thing that I'm concerned about, Mr. Bruderman, is that we have to make sure the passion for the mission that you have, we have to make sure that — you can't allow yourself to be a distraction from the passion and from the mission, and I think some of the feedback that you've gotten today … I know that you've taken it to heart, and I know you're going to make sure that's not the case,"

Bruderman also said he believed he could use county payments to plug NUMC budget deficits.

NuHealth says on its Facebook page that the county sent a payment of $12.8 million on Monday.

But Bruderman said the hospital needs another $10 million from the county.

" … Someone's gotta shake down Blakeman for the other $10 million," Bruderman said to laughter from the audience. "I gave him a lot of money. Did you see that in the papers? He's gonna listen.”

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.