Ex-lawmaker tells why he opposed Toussie

A former Suffolk legislator testified Wednesday that he led the opposition to real-estate developer Robert Toussie buying surplus county land starting in 2001 because of concerns over Toussie's business dealings and the quality of his home-building.

George Guldi, who is serving a 4-to-12-year sentence on an unrelated state fraud and grand larceny conviction, said he opposed Toussie for two reasons. One was numerous complaints from residents who ultimately sued Toussie over the quality of homes that he built. Second was his feeling that "something hinky was going on" in Toussie's purchases of surplus county land before 2001.

Guldi said he felt that Toussie was getting unusually favorable financial terms from the county because he didn't have to close or pay the full price on properties for several years after submitting the winning bid. Guldi said he couldn't get answers from the county administration on why.

Toussie is suing the county, claiming his rights were violated because local lawmakers would not allow the county to accept his bids in 2001, 2002 and 2004. He is claiming county legislators were corrupt when they voted to block him and failed to contact him directly, instead relying on accounts reported in Newsday about his business activities.

But Guldi, under questioning by Toussie's attorney Scott Balber, said, "I never considered them relevant," referring to the news stories.

Toussie has never been convicted of a crime and has denied any wrongdoing. In 2010, he and a local mortgage bank agreed to pay $455,000 to settle a nearly decade-old class action suit accusing them of conspiring to sell shoddily built overpriced homes to more than 250 minority homeowners. Toussie and the bank denied the allegations.

Suffolk County administration officials are scheduled to testify later.

SEE PHOTOSGeorge Guldi

Another county legislator at the time, Virginia Fields, said she opposed Toussie's bids because of newspaper coverage about his business activities and complaints from some Central Islip neighbors that three houses Toussie owned were left in disrepair and open to vagrants using them as "crack dens."

Fields said that she had sent three letters to Toussie asking him to correct the condition, but he never responded. "Every property I wrote about in my district was taken care of, but [Toussie's]," she said.

Fields said she thought it was reasonable to block Toussie's purchases until he responded to complaints. She acknowledged under cross-examination by Lowell that she did not have copies of the three letters, but said they had been destroyed when she left office.

Another former legislator, Allan Binder, who has been convicted of taking bribes for steering a golf course contract, took the stand before being excused by U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert after he said he wanted to consult an attorney before answering further questions about his criminal case.