Judge OKs Mangano's plan to fire tax appeals panel

A judge has lifted a court order and cleared the way for Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano to fire all nine members of a tax appeals panel, six of whom had been appointed to new terms just before Mangano took office in January.

The Thursday ruling by Justice Roy Mahon of State Supreme Court in Mineola became public Friday morning.

A spokesman for Mangano said in a statement that the decision meant the county was "one step closer to our goal of fixing the property tax assessment system."

"The county executive is determined to let nothing stand in his way to make that happen for the people," the statement said.

One of the attorneys for the fired commissioner, John Dunne, said he disagreed with the judge's opinion and intended to seek a stay from the Appellate Division later in the day.

A county lawyer said in the termination notice to the members of the Assessment Review Commission that Mangano wanted to appoint his own people, who would earn less and share his views as he tried to fix the troubled assessment system, which results in about $100 million in annual refunds because of overcharges.

Attorneys for the commission members facing dismissal said they had been appointed to fixed terms by County Executive Thomas Suozzi in late December and could not be removed without cause.

"The reasons given were not anything peculiar to those specific commissioners," Kenneth Gartner, representing three commissioners, had told the judge. " . . . They can be fired, but the reasons cannot be pretextual."

At least two of the nine commissioners have not contested their dismissal, but several formally requested a hearing at which they could contest the dismissal, and those commissioners are on paid leave, Mangano spokesman Michael Martino said.