JFA chief attends meeting despite Levy ban

The chairman of the state agency overseeing Suffolk County's multimillion-dollar jail project attended an agency meeting Tuesday, in defiance of County Executive Steve Levy, who sought to bar him from attending the meetings.

Levy fired Martin Cantor earlier this month, saying in a letter he had "terminated" Cantor because he joined a news conference with county legislators who sought to compel the county to return all records related to the Yaphank jail project. Then, in a June 23 letter to agency attorney Matthew Pachman, Levy said Cantor cannot be "sitting in on meetings of the authority."

"This is sheer nonsense," said Cantor, Levy's appointee to the Judicial Facilities Agency. "This is a public meeting."

He said he remains chairman until his replacement has been finalized.

The county and the agency have been sparring over agency records for months. In 2007, at the Levy administration's request, the agency agreed to let the county hold the jail records. Last November, agency Vice Chairman Michael O'Donohoe formally requested the project records, according to meeting minutes.

Levy spokesman Dan Aug said in an email Tuesday that a county public works official thought the JFA only asked that the county comply with Freedom of Information requests filed by Newsday and that there was no formal request for all project records until May 10. Newsday filed suit in February for jail records.

Tuesday, O'Donohoe reiterated that he had, in fact, asked for the project records in November. Pointing to a Newsday story detailing nearly $1 million in contributions made by jail vendors to Levy's campaign fund, he said the agency was compelled to press the issue.

In March, Levy agreed to forfeit his $4.3-million campaign fund to the Suffolk district attorney's office because of questions about his fundraising.

"When the county executive turns back $4 million to the District Attorney . . . it raises a red flag," O'Donohoe said in an interview.
In the email, Aug said that not a single donation was improper. As for Tuesday's meeting, Aug said it was not an official one. O'Donohoe said it was an informational meeting about the status of the records.

At Tuesday's meeting, Department of Public Works Commissioner Gilbert Anderson told agency officials they would have jail records held by his department by the end of the week.