Political games don't help Nassau

Nassau County needs leadership, not gamesmanship.

County Executive Edward Mangano and the legislature's presiding officer, Peter Schmitt, are wasting time and taxpayer dollars in their relentless attempt to spin the fiscal takeover of the county by a state oversight board as a partisan power play.

This attempt by both Republican leaders to undercut the legitimacy of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, both in a court of law and the court of public opinion, is a mistake. The longer it takes Mangano and Schmitt to come up with a sound financial plan, the more painful the sacrifices will be for employees and residents. So don't believe their yelps that NIFA's takeover means a "tax hike." It's their continued refusal to respond to the crisis could eventually lead to that.

Yesterday's filing of a lawsuit against NIFA on questionable grounds will cost taxpayers, who must pay the legal bills of both sides, and strangles any effort to craft a solution. The bond market has already signaled a loss of confidence in Mangano's ability to pull the county out of this tailspin.

Mangano's disappointing presentation yesterday morning to the Long Island Association, where he tried to pin the blame on everyone but himself, undercut confidence in him among Long Island's business community. By the end of the day, his credibility was further rocked by the resignation of a top aide, Patrick Foye, considered by many to have been the only grown-up in Mangano's room. Foye, the former downstate head of the Empire State Development Corp., said the advice Mangano was heeding was "irresponsible and wrong." Foye's departure means that Mangano is now surrounded by advisers who know only politics, not governing. Nasty, unproductive politics.

Schmitt dug Mangano an even deeper hole yesterday by making scurrilous personal attacks on Ronald Stack, the chairman of NIFA, as well as its five other directors. His "wanted" poster labeling each volunteer director as "ethically challenged" was poisonous and uncalled for.

The charges involving Stack are without merit now, just as they were when Schmitt first floated them in June. The county's banking with Wells Fargo was the result of a formal bidding process that took place months before Stack was hired as a managing director by the same bank. He was not involved in the process. Since then, a state ethics board has advised that Stack's service as NIFA chairman was not a conflict of interest. Schmitt's call for the state Public Integrity Commission to investigate Stack fell flat.

To keep the political smoke machine running, however, Schmitt is calling for legislative hearings to investigate NIFA. It's typically ham-handed, but it could put Schmitt in the spotlight as well. Here are two obvious questions for him: "What contribution are you making to pull Nassau County from the fiscal brink?" The other was famously asked once before - "Have you no decency, sir?" hN