NIFA drama still unfolding for Mangano

Democrats who see Ed Mangano as political toast may be disappointed.

The same goes for backers of the county executive who bet he will come out of this mess doused in civic glory.

For the Bethpage Republican, the bottom line today is that an elected executive who sees his domain seized by a financial board sustains a staggering blow.

And in a year of immense pressure on budget-makers all around, Mangano gets himself the heaviest burden to carry.

His unseating of Tom Suozzi in 2009, a tax-revolt year, jolted the region. His triumphant entry was underscored with repeal of an unpopular utility tax. Now, his budget has been declared inadequate - with three years left to his term.

His chance of political recovery depends on his fiscal rehabilitation.

Six Nassau Interim Finance Authority members voted unanimously for a control period this week. The actions of one of them frame the political story.

Investment banker George Marlin of New Hyde Park, a longtime Conservative Party activist, noted in the wake of the vote that he supported Mangano's election, but that his budget rested "on a foundation of sand."

Contacted Thursday, Marlin wasn't making any final pronouncements on Mangano's status. "I've urged him and others have urged him for many weeks to reach out to NIFA and ask us to help him and work to fix the county. He still has an opportunity to do that," Marlin said.

"I sincerely hope the talk of a lawsuit [against NIFA] is just talk. It would serve no purpose but to hurt him in the eyes of the people and cost taxpayer dollars. To me, it would be a ridiculous lawsuit."

Marlin, 58, has had public disillusionments before. Ex-Gov. George Pataki made Marlin executive director, for a time, of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Years later, Marlin would publish a book about the Pataki years titled "Squandered Opportunities."

Marlin said he does not see his NIFA role as Nassau politics, but as public service and fiduciary duty.

But those in partisan politics around Nassau know what vulnerability looks like. District Attorney Kathleen Rice is keeping a political staff with funds left over from her prior runs, something that has not gone unnoticed by those who see her as a potential Democratic opponent to Mangano in 2013.

"There's no question he's seriously damaged," said one Democratic stalwart from the county. "The question is whether he's damaged beyond repair."

But again, this drama is still unfolding. Former Democratic Assembly Ways and Means chairman Arthur J. Kremer, a lawyer and lobbyist from Nassau, said, "If I'm Mangano, I use this situation to extract more . . . to leverage things."

Erie County was in a control period, too, and by all accounts there was conflict over the legitimacy of an appointed board's role. Joel Giambra, the former GOP county executive, who's now with ex-Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's Park Strategies consulting firm, carries a dim view of the control period as having failed to provide the authority to squelch costly work contracts. A control board in Erie County intervened during what proved to be Giambra's second and final term. He announced in 2007 he would not run for a third term later that year.

Decades ago, Angelo Martinelli was the mayor of Yonkers. He experienced control boards, too. Reached this week, he expressed the upbeat view that there is no certain fate for the executive involved.

"You can survive that," Martinelli said. "The people won't necessarily blame that on you."