Nassau legislators approve Blakeman budget to pay county's legal bills, boost cybersecurity

Nassau County legislators on Monday approved several of County Executive Bruce Blakeman's budget requests, including one to transfer an additional $2 million to the county attorney's office and another to create a reserve fund that would help pay for unexpected, costly legal judgments.   

Members of two legislative committees, rules and finance, unanimously allowed for the administration to reallocate $4.3 million from the 2023 general fund initially intended to pay for employee fringe benefits. Of that amount, $2 million went to the county attorney's office, $2 million went to the public works department and $320,000 to the county's information technology department for cybersecurity. 

"The funds allocated today will be used to bolster the county's cybersecurity preparedness, provide much-needed upgrades to county facilities, and resolve one million dollars in outstanding legal bills accumulated by the previous administration. This smart investment will allow us to better protect residents and ensure the continued financial stability of the county," said Blakeman, a Republican who took office in January 2022.

Nassau's budget is  $3.88 billion; it was unanimously approved by the 19-member legislature in October. The committee budget resolutions are pending full approval in the legislature, where Republicans hold a 12-7 majority. 

The budget for the county attorney's office is about $15 million, up from $14.6 million last year, $14.2 million in 2021 and $11.7 million in 2020, according to an Office of Legislative Budget Review report from October. 

The OLBR report also noted salaries increasing, with full-time head count decreasing by four and part-time head count remaining constant.

The rules committee also approved the hiring of several outside law firms to handle litigation beyond the scope of the county attorney's office. 

Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) questioned whether there was adequate staffing in the county attorney's office. "I feel there's a lot of money going to outside counsel and I'd like to see work going to our own attorneys," DeRiggi-Whitton said.

Also Monday, lawmakers approved Blakeman administration officials' request to move $300 million into the new reserve fund from 2022 surpluses.

About $100 million is earmarked for litigation and tax certiorari and $40 million for other judgments, officials said.

The rules committee legislators also approved an agreement between Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead for use of the county's traffic court to adjudicate tickets issued through the town's school bus camera program. 

Under the agreement, the county will receive $18 per ticket issued through the town program and another $18 for each ticket adjudicated. 

Legis. Siela Bynoe (D-Westbury) asked Paul Meli, executive director of the county's Traffic & Parking Violations Agency, why the county hadn't addressed the program sooner. She expressed concern over the backlog of cases and whether it would be a burden on TPVA's staffing. 

"If they [Hempstead town] were going to run a program, they should have come to us and we should've done this earlier," Bynoe said. 

Meli said about 1,500 tickets are pending adjudication and hearings will begin on April 21. 

A Newsday report in February noted that Hempstead town began its program without a formal agreement in place with the county to use its traffic court.

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.