Courthouse chatter all proves moot
A judge's gavel arranged on his bench with the seal that included the scales of justice on the wall in background. Credit: Sunday/Jim Peppler
The state judiciary is a politically shaped world, with most judges elected with party backing. That said, some Democratic players privately cast as suspicious -- albeit without proof of irregularity -- certain circumstances surrounding a pro-GOP ruling in the Nassau redistricting case last month in the midlevel appellate division in Brooklyn.
One target of partisan grumbling: A party-line deadlock between two Democrats and two Republicans was broken in the GOP's favor by Justice Reinaldo Rivera, a Democrat promoted to the post by then-Gov. George Pataki, a Republican. Assignment of Rivera to the case was, as is routine, the domain of the presiding judge, Gail Prudenti, whose father, the late Anthony Prudenti, once served as Suffolk Republican chairman. Pataki selected her for the court and the key post.
Also noted with interest by Democrats: The week the case was argued before the panel, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano -- a Republican proponent of the redistricting move -- signed an unrelated retainer agreement, for advice on county governance matters, with New York City lawyer Ravi Batra, a Democrat whose bipartisan social acquaintances in the judiciary are well known. Rivera's 2002 appellate swearing-in included introductory remarks by Batra.
But Batra and county officials noted emphatically he's had nothing to do with the case or with Nassau redistricting.
As for Rivera, he has at times ruled against the GOP in the past.
All this became moot anyway when the Court of Appeals, the state's top tribunal, overruled the appellate ruling -- by a unanimous vote of four GOP Pataki appointees and three Democrats.
HOW FROZEN?:Newsday reported in April that Nassau hired 113 full-time employees and 28 part-time and seasonal employees after Mangano in December announced a hiring freeze on all but essential personnel.
Now, information culled from a report on Nassau's budget by an accounting firm -- distributed in recent days to county officials -- updates those figures, indicating that since Dec. 17 at least 154 additional full-time county employees were hired, plus dozens of others in offices the county executive does not directly control. There were about 28 part-timers hired since December, and since early April, more than 260 seasonal employees.
The urgency of the hires will undoubtedly draw discussion as county and Nassau Interim Finance Authority officials react to the report.
