Smart moves by water authority

More than four decades ago, when the Suffolk County Water Authority was a Republican fiefdom, its chairman lost his job amid allegations that he used insider knowledge to help a real-estate deal. Now the authority is firmly in the hands of Democrats. Though there are encouraging signs of professionalism trumping politics, the political temptations will always be there - to be resisted.

The former chairman was Richard D. Zeidler, who was also the Brookhaven GOP chairman. In his authority role, a series in Newsday showed, he helped place a test well in Center Moriches, while a business associate was arranging to buy nearby land. Then Zeidler and friends tried to take advantage of the new water source and sell it for twice the purchase price. The results: a probe by the county Board of Supervisors, Zeidler's refusal to testify, and the board's 1969 decision to fire him.

That left an enduring impression that not even water could escape the pervasive grubbiness of Suffolk politics. Under the most recent Republican chairman, Michael LoGrande, the authority made major professionalizing strides, in the laboratory and elsewhere. The one major blot: a mistake by Patrick Vecchio Jr., son of the Smithtown supervisor, that led to a false reading of E. coli contamination of Fire Island water.

Now Democrats control the five-person board. The chairman is James Gaughran, a former county legislator. The chief executive, Jeff Szabo, a former deputy county executive, is also a Democrat. He wasn't even born when Zeidler was ousted. They're saying and doing the right things, questioning the status quo and looking for cheaper, more efficient ways.

They've confronted these tight budget times by cutting overtime sharply, reducing authority cars and paring the staff from 605 to 560. They've also found 400 acres and almost 40,000 square feet of building space they don't need. One building in Southold, a former LoGrande office, has a reminder of the past: Zeidler's desk. The authority is creating a plan to sell surplus land and buildings and use the proceeds to fend off future rate increases. That makes good sense.

So does a Szabo initiative to appoint the authority's first-ever chief sustainability officer: Carrie Meek Gallagher, now commissioner of the county's Department of Environment and Energy. She has a strong resume - an MBA in management and a master's in conservation biology - and a big to-do list. It includes reducing the authority's huge electricity consumption and making sure the agency has a real say when development projects threaten the purity of its wells.

All that progress could be damaged if today's authority ever forgets the lessons of the past. Like this one: Putting patronage employees in the wrong spots can blemish the image of an agency with a serious mission, custody of our drinking water. If its leaders can't sell Zeidler's desk for a big enough number, maybe they should put it in the Oakdale headquarters, behind velvet rope, as a perpetual reminder. hN