MTA's chief negotiator left his mark on Nassau County

The year was 2018 and Nassau’s first woman county executive, Laura Curran, a Democrat, took office and found herself in the sticky position of having to negotiate new contracts with five public employee unions — none of whom had endorsed her campaign against Republican Ed Mangano.

Enter Gary Dellaverson.

Dellaverson, former chief financial officer and lead negotiator at the MTA, had spent much of his 40-year career in public labor relations law. Curran’s deputy county executive, Helena Williams, a Garden City resident and former LIRR president, brought him in to sit across the table from the county’s politically powerful unions, who had been working under the terms of an expired contract.

Republicans and Democrats on the county legislature rejected Curran’s request to hire Dellaverson for a flat fee of $25,000 per month, but he wound up working for the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the county’s state-appointed fiscal watchdog as a consultant and then for the outside counsel that does all of Nassau’s labor contracts.

In the end, Dellaverson helped set the contracts currently in place for all of Nassau County’s five public unions, representing more than 7,000 workers.

He put in place a template that each collective bargaining unit would then follow: total raises of 15% over 8½ years. The pattern was established first with the contracts between the county and its detectives union and then the high-ranking officers, Superior Officers Association, followed by the Police Benevolent Association.

Peter Bee, whose Mineola law firm served as outside labor counsel to Nassau County since 1980, told Newsday he has a “great respect” for Dellaverson.

“He’s extremely smart and knowledgeable in the field of public sector labor relations," Bee said. "In my opinion, he wisely counsels his clients but ultimately carries out their directives in a very professional manner.”

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.