As comptroller, Maragos eyes special districts differently

Earlier this week, Howard Weitzman, who has been Nassau comptroller since 2002, matter-of-factly offered a visitor a certain kind of message.

"I hope this office continues its work," he said, "and it is not allowed to return to the mediocrity that existed before."

Over his two terms, Weitzman has repeatedly cited his innovative prescription-drug discount program. He's promoted his team's critical audits of county departments and contractors. And as stated in his official biography, he "launched an unprecedented series of audits of town garbage districts, becoming the first County comptroller in history to audit any of Nassau's 140 special town taxing districts."

"In the process," Weitzman wrote, he "uncovered millions in waste and abuse, and large discrepancies in the price of garbage, water and fire service in neighboring communities."

Now that the Great Neck Democrat has lost his bid for a third term in an upset to Republican George Maragos, the tenor and priorities of the office will undergo changes still to be determined.

Maragos has unflinchingly vowed to push for better audit follow-ups in light of the disclosure that Oceanside's $199,750-a-year garbage supervisor got a raise after his pay package came under fire from the office.

But both Maragos, an experienced businessman and president of SDS Financial Technologies, and Frank Moroney, the North Hempstead GOP leader heading his transition team, sound different, at least in tone, from Weitzman when asked about these smallest units of suburban government.

Maragos said after his election that he was interested in helping Republican County Executive-elect Edward Mangano tackle the county's assessment problems, for example. Moroney elaborated a bit yesterday along those same lines.

"One of the things that the comptroller-elect is looking to do is take a look at some of the county's big-ticket items," Moroney said. "He's trying to create priorities within that for purposes of closing what could be a deficit of up to $200 million going into next year."

On special taxing districts, the transition team is reviewing audits under way. They do warrant "continuing observation and oversight," Moroney said. "I don't know exactly where it'll fit in the top 10 priorities."

He said Maragos would focus on how audits "are utilized by government to correct any egregious situation that may exist."

Moroney argued against targeting all special districts, which differ in structure and operation - and indicated he's among those who believe a broad-brush approach by Weitzman backfired politically on the Democrat. Moroney cited advantages to "personal" neighborhood services offered by local districts that are less possible from bigger government - as distinguished from instances of abuse.

As to the elections, political consultant and lobbyist Tom Shanahan said, "The public realizes that you are not going to find significant property-tax savings within the 10 percent of the bill that special districts represent, especially since you need essential services like water."

But Weitzman, who was out ill for much of the campaign season, has repeatedly shrugged off the district-backlash analysis of the election, saying that in a 600-vote loss in a county of nearly 1.4 million people "you could point to anything" as a factor.

"I'd do the same thing again" on special districts, he said.

Transition meetings have been under way between the camps. Staff changes in the office's non-civil-service positions have yet to be announced.