Audit: Fired Suffolk official ineffective

Suffolk's fired senior deputy labor commissioner, Lawrence Cooley, was largely ineffective in enforcing the county's fair-hiring laws and "failed to perform duties commensurate with his title and $116,000 salary," a new county comptroller audit disclosed Wednesday.

Comptroller Joseph Sawicki said his eight-page investigative audit "did not uncover any specific instances of misconduct," but raised serious questions about Cooley's work. "It's disturbing that Cooley, who was hired by the Levy administration, did not do the job of a senior deputy commissioner and appears that he was not capable of doing the job and yet was paid a hefty salary," Sawicki said.

The audit said department officials disclosed Cooley "did not administer programs or supervise employees" as required and "he was most often assigned to work under the direction of other supervisors . . . "

Cooley, who was deputy commissioner from 2004 until last Oct. 27, was fired two days after he testified with immunity at a federal corruption trial where, as a drywall contractor, he admitted giving cash bribes to union officials so he could hire nonunion workers, run longer shifts and skimp on benefits.

In his testimony, Cooley, 70, of Greenlawn, admitted selling his company to another contractor to circumvent a federal investigation; in the sale, he got $85,000 to pay off company debts, 18 months of consulting fees totaling $156,000, and use of a leased car, which he reported on his county financial disclosure form. Sawicki's audit comes after the Levy administration did a report last January. It found "no conflicts" because the county did no business with Cooley's former drywall company.

Mark Manello, Cooley's attorney, called Sawicki's audit an "after-the-fact witch hunt to demean my client's job performance," noting his county "job appraisals were always satisfactory."

The audit stated county labor department officials found his "monitoring of contractor compliance . . . less than desirable and often ineffective" in detecting whether firms followed the law to make sure employees had the proper documentation to work in the United States.

"I disagree with him [Sawicki]," said Cooley. " . . . I find his comments inaccurate."Sawicki's audit found that financial disclosure forms that Cooley filed in 2006 and 2007 showing his consulting fees "should have raised concerns and or inquiries from the county ethics commission" whether his consulting work "compromised his county employment."Thomas Nolan, ethics commission chairman, called it "wrong" for Sawicki's office "to take potshots like that." Nolan noted that the commission must deal with nearly 650 county employees who file financial disclosures, and said the commission "does not have the resources to investigate" details of employees' outside work unless there is a clear problem.

Sawicki in his audit also called for a more comprehensive county policy to deal with fired employees, such as ending their computer access and securing county data in their possession. He said the administration did not properly monitor Cooley in his last hours at the office, did not secure his computer and office files to "maintain the integirty of piotential evidence."

County Attorney Christine Malafi noted that her office had done a report in January that "looked to see if Mr. Cooley's unknown malfeasance prior to his county employment ... negatively affected county taxpayers. We did not see evidence of that, and this comptroller's report does not contradict that finding."