Latest from 'Bo' Dietl: 'Bo Dietl is not a political hack'

Retired NYPD detective-turned-consultant Bo Dietl is hitting back at critics of contracts he received from Nassau for amounts just below the $25,000 threshold for legislative approval. Dietl in 2011 got a $24,947 deal to study security at a county sewer plant and a $24,000 deal last year to study a village police merger.

Newsday first reported on the pacts in June, but after it noted them again last week -- in context of a larger report on contracts that skirt lawmaker scrutiny -- Dietl tried to separate himself from all the others.

He said county officials proclaimed they were "satisfied" with his sewer security report, and that the much-criticized police merger document was only meant to be a starting point.

"All these other guys, they're stooges," Dietl said. "I have no idea what they do, but Bo Dietl is not a political hack."