Nassau should pay its bills

The Society of St. Vincent DePaul, frustrated after five months without reimbursement for services to disabled adults, turned back its Nassau County contract. The Mental Health Society had to take out an interest-bearing loan to pay staff. At another agency, workers agreed to a four-day week to cut costs, while a fourth agency was forced to borrow from a board member to make payroll.

These crucial nonprofit organizations provide vital services to the neediest among us under contract to Nassau County, but they can't help people if the county won't pay them. That they now find themselves all but camped out on the steps of county government, begging for what they're rightly owed, is nothing short of disgraceful.

These are the groups critical to keeping society's safety net in place. They include Catholic Charities, Helen Keller Services for the Blind, Little Flower Children and Family Services, Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Maryhaven Center of Hope.

Is one of the most affluent counties in the nation so desperate for cash flow that it must deliberately delay reimbursement to agencies that feed hungry children, support the mentally ill and counsel rape victims? Such game-playing, especially when a good portion of the funding is simply a pass-through of state and federal grants, would be improper and unconscionable.

Another worrisome scenario, however, is laid out by those very familiar with the cumbersome contract and voucher process of the public sector. The problem could be that the administrations of County Executive Edward Mangano and Comptroller George Maragos still haven't fully mastered the day-to-day governing of the county, which requires a smooth working relationship between the two offices. Each says the other has held up the process and both blame the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, which is overseeing the finances of the county, for adding another level of delay. NIFA says that's false.

Historically, this has been a complicated and burdensome process because of the many rules for awarding contracts and verifying vouchers. It took the previous county executive, Thomas Suozzi, a few years to streamline the 21-step process left behind by his predecessor, Thomas Gulotta. The process was so unworkable that Suozzi held a news conference in 2005 to announce it had been fixed. He, too, was under heavy criticism by the social service agencies.

The Mangano administration says the backlog is almost cleared up and promises that lessons learned will ensure a smoother process next year. Maragos blames the county executive's office. Meanwhile the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, an umbrella group for the agencies, is so frustrated with "the check is in the mail response" that it's contemplating litigation and asking state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to investigate.

It shouldn't come to that. Nassau is already up its eyeballs in oversight and investigations. Mangano and Maragos just need to tame their bureaucracies, hold them accountable, and straighten out this mess.