DeSena's backing of Santos draws Titanic attack ad

Daily Point

Dems hope to tar incumbent in North Hempstead race

The inmates running the asylum spectacle in Congress Tuesday may well play into voter considerations next year about which party is better suited to run the chamber. But the chaos could have a more immediate impact on local elections next month in Nassau County.

The removal of Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy by the party’s far-right caucus puts discredited and indicted Rep. George Santos into the spotlight once again, as the party tries to keep control of the Town of North Hempstead which is fully in Santos' CD3.

North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena was a surprise winner on the Republican line in 2021 as even the Democratic stronghold suffered from a GOP beating on the bail reform issue. She was already facing the brunt of the Santos connection for having generously endorsed a candidate later exposed as having lied about almost every aspect of his resume.

Democrat Jon Kaiman, who is seeking to return to the supervisor job, has dropped a mailer with a photo of the Titanic and a collage of Santos and DeSena in the iconic embrace of the star-crossed couple in the blockbuster movie. The caption: “Jen DeSena and George Santos will never let go of their far-right agenda.”

The propriety of the mailer prompted sharp exchanges between the two candidates when they met with the editorial board last week. “I was a victim of George Santos’ lies just like everyone else,” explained DeSena, who emphasized how she called for him to resign or be expelled. “The lies that came out after the election were shocking,” she said. DeSena said she endorsed Santos and appeared with him at events “because of the qualifications and the experience he professed to have.”

“I thought he was a representative who would do the tax relief that people wanted. I believed him,” she said.

But Kaiman said the Santos endorsement raised “a question of judgment” that voters should consider. “She vouched for him. She gave her word to the community that this is someone they should support,” said Kaiman.

He went on to charge that Santos should have raised a red flag for other reasons than his phony resume. “Santos was disputing the results of the 2020 presidential election. He was bragging that he raised bail for Jan. 6 insurrectionists and spreading conspiracy theories … She bears some responsibility here. It is a question of one’s judgment.”

DeSena shot back that as soon as she found out about Santos’ lies, she renounced him. “I would like to contrast that with how long you supported Gerard Terry,” she retorted. Terry was the town’s Democratic Party leader who eventually pleaded guilty to tax fraud in prosecutions brought by Nassau County and later the Justice Department. Clearly having done her opposition research, DeSena pointed out that in 2018 Kaiman had submitted a letter for leniency before Terry’s sentencing in federal court.

“There is a difference between political expediency and showing some humanity,” Kaiman shot back.

It was more interesting than talking about sewers.

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Broken

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Final Point

Wyandanch gets the state’s attention

Every year, the Suffolk Cooperative Library System has to attest that its libraries are meeting the state’s minimum standards. Sometimes, officials will talk with library staff about something that needs correcting — but eventually, SCLS director Kevin Verbesey ends up signing off on every library.

Not this year.

Verbesey has told the state Education Department that he does not plan to attest to Wyandanch Public Library’s meeting of minimum standards. It’s the first time in “many years,” Verbesey said, that the Suffolk system has refused to sign off on a library.

The move by the Suffolk system triggers a process requiring state Education Department officials to speak with library personnel and investigate the situation. If the state cannot resolve the library’s trouble spots, and finds that it is indeed not meeting the minimum standards, it must pull the library’s registration. That would halt the flow of all public money, including library tax dollars from district residents, as a library that is not registered cannot accept local or state funding.

Verbesey said it’s up to the library’s board of trustees to ensure it is meeting minimum standards. And before making the decision, he attempted to reach out to the library to rectify the missing pieces.

“They were unable to provide us with the type of documentation we required to reassure us that they were meeting all the minimum standards,” Verbesey told The Point. “We’re in no way, shape or form picking on Wyandanch.”

The Wyandanch library has experienced decades of turnover and instability, which has come to a head in recent months. Its director and board president both resigned in July and its head custodian, Kwaisi McCorvey, pleaded guilty to third-degree rape and child endangerment last month — but remains on the library’s payroll.

The state has 14 minimum standards every library must meet — a series of mostly bureaucratic requirements. Verbesey said the Suffolk Cooperative Library System has issues with Wyandanch’s handling of seven of those standards. The standards Wyandanch doesn’t meet, according to Verbesey, include requirements that the board of trustees provide a long-range plan of service, a written annual progress report and a board-approved written budget, along with “periodically” evaluating the effectiveness of the library’s programs, services and collections. Also not met: standards that require the library to provide access to certain current library information both in print and online, employ a paid director, and provide library staff with annual technology training.

“Our expectation is all Suffolk libraries will meet those standards,” Verbesey said. “We’re happy to work with a library that’s challenged in doing so, but we require reassurance that the residents of Wyandanch or any other community are getting the library that they deserve and that they’re paying for. We want the people of Wyandanch to have access to a good public library.”

The decision not to sign off on Wyandanch may be the only significant lever the Suffolk Cooperative Library System has at its disposal. The state, too, is limited in what it can do, officials said, noting that besides revoking a library’s registration, the Board of Regents can, at times, remove a library trustee, but only in specific, severe circumstances.

But pulling a library’s registration, state officials said, isn’t an option they use unless they have no other choice.

Without registration, one state Education Department official told The Point, a library “can’t collect public dollars and they can’t serve the community.”

“That’s why we always try to seek a supportive and developmental role,” the official said.

Officials told The Point there’s little they can do to force a board to remove an employee, even after that person pleaded guilty to a crime.

But while safety isn’t mentioned in the list of 14 minimum standards, Verbesey said it should be a key factor for any library’s board of trustees.

“Any library board’s absolute first responsibility over everything needs to be the safety and security of the people who visit the library and work in the library. End of story,” Verbesey said.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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