Jodi Franzese, Nassau's first inspector general, faces cloudy future

Nassau Inspector General Jodi Franzese, the first person ever to hold the position, will serve as a holdover for the rest of 2023, a status that could muzzle the watchdog office, experts said.

Franzese, who was appointed following the indictments of former County Executive Edward Mangano and other top Republican officials in Nassau, has been serving in the job as a holdover since the start of the year, when her first four-year appointment expired. 

Only the majority Republican caucus can bring a nomination to the floor.

Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park), who is not running for reelection, told Newsday his caucus will leave Franzese in her job until at least the end of the year.

Nicolello said the next county legislature should decide if she is reappointed to a four-year term after it is seated in January.

Without an appointment, Franzese is in a tenuous position, experts said: responsible for oversight of a Republican administration, but lacking job security from the Republican county legislators who have the power to grant a full appointment.

The inspector general's office, with eight employees and a yearly budget of more than $1 million, reviews hundreds of county contracts annually and can investigate examples of waste, fraud and abuse.

The office identifies red flags in county vendor submissions, including whether a company bidding on work has failed to disclose a campaign contribution, or has been under criminal or civil investigation in the past.

The IG can investigate all Nassau agencies, except the 19-member county legislature, where Republicans hold a 12-7 majority.

A supermajority of 13 legislators is needed to approve an IG appointment. 

Franzese, 52, of Massapequa, said in a statement Friday she "would prefer to continue serving under a fixed term of office. This would also present less of a challenge in hiring staff."

She said she recognizes she serves at "the discretion of the Legislature and, for as long as I'm privileged to serve as Nassau County Inspector General, I will remain dedicated to OIG's mission of fostering accountability, integrity, efficiency and enhancing trust in our county's government."

Ethics experts say it's important for an inspector general to have a set term.

“The whole point of having a term there is to insulate the inspector general from political influence by having them not be worried about whether or not they can be fired,” Sharon Fairley, a professor at the University of Chicago's Law School and a former first deputy inspector general for the city of Chicago, told Newsday. 

“It’s important not to have the [role] be temporary or have the underflow of, 'Listen, you started an investigation, we didn't like it, and we’re not going to renew or confirm your appointment,' " said Gregory Hill, executive director for the Association of Inspectors General in Manhattan.

“To have that indecisiveness, to have that lack of permanence in that position, just kind of creates an underflow of temporariness of 'Be careful where you walk,' " Hill told Newsday.

Nicolello defended the delay in Franzese's reappointment.

Nicolello noted the composition of the county likely will change significantly in 2024.

Earlier this month, Nicolello and two other GOP caucus members said they would not seek reelection in November.

New legislative lines will be in effect for November's general election, after a once-a-decade redistricting process.

Lawyers are expected to challenge the new maps in court on the grounds they are gerrymandered in favor of Republicans and dilute the rights of minority voters.

"I don't think it's appropriate that I, we make that decision, with all that uncertainty," Nicolello said.

Office formed after contracting scandals

The Nassau County Legislature created the Office of Inspector General in December 2017.

A year later, the legislature voted unanimously to hire Franzese, a former senior inspector general from the New York City Department of Investigation, and a former prosecutor in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, to lead it. She is paid $165,000 annually.

Democrats were among the first public officials to call for creation of the office.

Mangano, a Republican, was arrested on federal corruption charges in 2016. Prosecutors said he had accepted bribes and kickbacks in exchange for official government action.

A federal jury convicted him of corruption charges in 2019, and last year a judge sentenced Mangano to 12 years in prison.

In 2021, a federal jury convicted Mangano former Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker of covering up a $5,000 cash payment he took from a county contractor. In January, Walker was released from prison after serving one year of an 18-month sentence.

Democrats and Republicans had fought over establishing the IG office while Mangano was in office.

Democratic legislators withheld votes on borrowing projects until Republicans agreed to establish the office, weeks after Democrat Laura Curran was elected county executive in 2017.

Nicolello initially resisted the concept.

"If you're worried about public corruption, the last thing you want to do is create an office with virtually unlimited powers in this county," Nicolello said during a legislative meeting in May 2017.

"This individual, with all this power, is held accountable to no one. I think it's a prescription for absolute corruption," Nicolello said.

 Political quarreling

Nassau Minority Leader Legis. Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) criticized Nicolello's decision to delay reappointment.

"With Nassau County’s disturbing history of corruption, it is unfathomable that anyone would think it is wise to undermine the Inspector General’s office, which was created for the sole purpose of preventing future scandals,” Abrahams told Newsday in a statement.

“The Minority Caucus is not willing to accept the risk of a return to the waste, fraud, and abuse of the past. It is time to end the gamesmanship, reappoint the Inspector General, and fully commit to the independence of Nassau County's public integrity watchdog."

Abrahams had urged Franzese's reappointment in a letter to Nicolello in December.

In an interview, Abrahams said after "Laura Curran, a Democrat, won, they were all gung-ho about pushing for an IG."

He added, “If it was good enough for the Curran administration," the same principles should apply under Blakeman. 

Nicolello said in response to such criticism that Franzese's "approach has not changed one bit" from Curran to Blakeman.

"I have confidence in her she's not going to vary what she does based on anybody."

A spokesman for Blakeman did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2017, as a member of Hempstead's Town Board, Blakeman co-sponsored a proposal to require the town to hire an inspector general to review all contracts.

Franzese's record

The inspector general's office has issued several reports criticizing the county and its vendors.

In 2020, Franzese questioned the "business integrity" of a company that won an $86 million contract to build a new Family and Matrimonial Court building in Mineola.

An IG report found Nassau failed to identify key officials who ran the company, and by doing so, neglected to disclose important campaign contributions that one of the principals had made to elected officials.

In 2020, Franzese criticized the office of former Nassau Comptroller Jack Schnirman, a Democrat, after the office lost, but later recovered, more than $700,000 in a phishing scam.

In 2022, Franzese’s office took credit for scuttling a request from a developer who asked the county to waive tax liens assigned to a property before he acquired it. 

Legislators had been asked to approve the waiver of approximately $450,000 in back taxes. The IG's office said Nassau could not justify whether the arrangement was in Nassau's "best interests," and administration officials pulled the request.

It also has launched investigations based on requests from county taxpayers and legislators, according to the office's annual reports.

The office investigated more than 200 complaints or tips in 2021, compared with 55 in 2019, its first year.

Asked to review the way the county's horse stables operate, she found it was run "as a private horse farm on county property."

As for the low number of bidders for a preschool bus program, she said she found no impropriety.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler covers Nassau County government and politics for Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.