Long Island residents present Blakeman feedback

Dan Janison gets it mostly right in criticizing the proliferation of temporary political signs identifying current officeholders “Flap over Chapin is oh-so-Blakeman,” Opinion, Aug. 29].

The practice has been taken to an extreme with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s sign dwarfing the one commemorating the late singer at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow.

What Janison neglected to mention was former County Executive Laura Curran reversing the practice of posting revised signs at county parks and facilities to include newly elected officials after each voting cycle.

If Blakeman achieves success that warrants such haughty recognition, and I hope he does, then future elected officials can honor him accordingly.

— Philip Weis, Woodbury

When you are a public official, your job is to serve and help the people in your community who put their faith in you to represent them in government. Your job is not to inflate your own ego and waste taxpayer money in the process — and that includes affixing your name to county signs and making your name even larger than the name of the community that you serve [“Discord over Chapin event,” News, Aug. 28].

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman ran with a vow to reduce wasteful spending — yet these signs are the epitome of recklessly wasted taxpayer money.

It is disheartening when officials fail to fulfill their promises in lieu of self-promotion.

Think of all the programs and services for our elderly and veteran neighbors that those wasted funds could have gone to instead — expenditures worth every penny.

Leaders are supposed to put the people first — not themselves. They are supposed to be humble and selfless — not arrogant in wanting to see their names everywhere.

Blakeman needs to act like a leader and set a positive example.

— Mitchell Schwartz, Flower Hill

I like most of the work that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has done since taking office. Let’s say he’s been a good county executive. But that’s exactly the job he was elected to do.

Why should he, or any county official, put his name on any county property? Just because some project is completed during his administration (using taxpayers’ money, not his)?

Why should we have to look at his political advertising for the remainder of his administration? And then we have to pay for the removal of the sign so the next pompous county executive can have a moment in the sunshine?

Just do your job and let the people properly honor Harry Chapin’s altruism.

— Stephen F. Medici, Huntington

One look at the sign showing Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s name in huge letters so much bigger than Harry Chapin’s, for whom the theater is named, tells you all you need to know about Blakeman. As does the appearance of Blakeman’s name on the pencils at county golf courses. As does Blakeman’s name in huge letters above all county event signs and advertising. As does his name on every piece of county mail we get about issues related to Blakeman or not.

His predecessor, former County Executive Laura Curran, did not indulge to anywhere near the degree that Blakeman does.

Give Blakeman this: Though his wheeling and dealing with casino moguls is behind closed doors, at least he’s transparent about his enthusiasm for using taxpayer money to promote Bruce A. Blakeman.

— George Krug, Garden City

He would do taxpayers a big favor if he would abandon the age-old policy of plastering hundreds of signs and other notices informing the public about who their political leader is. We know.

This applies to all levels of government. Stop the waste and bluster. The costs are big.

Just be secure in knowing that yes, we know who you are.

— Michael A. Santo, Bellmore

More proof of the Nassau County executive’s outsized ego was demonstrated by the ad in the Aug. 27 Newsday headlined with his name and title in all capital letters: “Bruce A. Blakeman, Nassau County Executive, presents Lakeside Theatre Concerts: Sugar Ray” — omitting Harry Chapin’s name and thus the full theater name — as if Blakeman personally paid for the concert. These concerts are not Blakeman’s. They are an old county tradition — paid for by county taxpayers.

— Richard Siegelman, Plainview

Events at Eisenhower Park and Jones Beach were ongoing for decades before he was elected. Musicians invited to play at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre were rightfully aggrieved because the huge sign calls more attention to the Nassau County executive than to honoring the memory of Harry Chapin.

The county executive’s unbridled, unquenchable pursuit of self-aggrandizement and self-promotion at the public’s expense is outrageous.

— Bernard Sosnick, Plainview

He has overstepped his “ownership” of every public property in Nassau County, not unlike one of his predecessors, former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano. Drive through any park and you’ll see the current county executive’s moniker posted throughout.

— Michael Lefkowitz, East Meadow

I recently returned from the Suffolk County Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Farmingville. I received two Purple Hearts while serving in Vietnam, and this was my first seeing the memorial since its completion in 1991 (it takes a while to heal).

The monument at Bald Hill has two large brass plaques with only 10 words honoring vets — one sentence! The rest is free perpetual advertising for politicians. Nothing has changed since its dedication.

Replace that brass thing with an aluminum memento, stating: “To all the people who suffered or are suffering because of the Vietnam War.”

— Gary J. Kubala, Shirley

I attended the Irish and Italian music nights at Eisenhower Park. The first thing that hit me as I approached the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre bandshell was the enormous disparity of the two signs.

I am a registered Republican and Nassau County taxpayer who believes that these are the people’s parks. If people need to know who their local legislator is, they can Google it.

— Mary Anne Alloggio, Plainview