Effort to end Suffolk's state of emergency related to cyberattack stalls 

A legislative attempt to end Suffolk County's emergency declarations related to a Sept. 8 ransomware attack stalled Wednesday amid questions over whether the legislature has the authority to stop them.

Legis. Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holbrook), who chairs a legislative committee investigating the attack, tabled a resolution he had introduced to immediately terminate the monthly states of emergency issued by County Executive Steve Bellone, a Democrat. Bellone issued a ninth declaration on May 9, more than three months after declaring declaring “Suffolk County is back online."

The state of emergency allows Bellone to issue no-bid contracts and hire personnel without the legislature's endorsement. Newsday has submitted a Freedom of Information Law request to learn how many contracts have been issued.

Piccirillo's measure was poised to advance through the legislature's government operations committee. But Piccirillo, who chairs the committee, said during its meeting the resolution could be "procedurally deficient," may require a change in the county's charter and needs more input from the county's attorney.

He told Newsday he would be a "hypocrite" to proceed because he had described Bellone's continued issuance of emergency orders as executive overreach.

Introduced in late May as frustration with the states of emergencies increased, the resolution states there “no longer exists a necessity to suspend local procurement laws, rules and regulations" and cites the legislature's authority to terminate emergency orders "at any time."

Piccirillo said Wednesday that state law appears to allow this for some county legislatures but not others. 

Bellone's office has said the emergency declarations have been needed because some county functions remain offline, including remote document searches, and require "a complete overhaul," according to Bellone spokeswoman Marykate Guilfoyle.

She said the office is working with the Suffolk's new county clerk, Vincent Puleo, to implement upgrades.

Bellone's office will continue "coordination efforts on any future purchases necessary due to the outstanding impacts of the cyberattack," she said.

With Mark Harrington

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.