Monday, May 3, 6-8 PM
Lincoln Center Campus | Pope Auditorium, 113 West 60th Street

Free and Open to the Public |
RSVP: CRCevent@fordham.edu, 212.636.7347

From America’s first days, our country and our church have benefited from the talent, hard work and faith of immigrants. Indeed, most of us descend from immigrants. Yet today, while benefiting from their sweat equity and economic sacrifices, too many Americans scapegoat immigrants and fail to provide them legal protections. Is it time to reform America’s chaotic immigration system?  Can we hold our legislators accountable for taking action?  Cardinal Mahony will speak on “Our Heritage & Our Future: Why Enacting Comprehensive Immigration Reform Is a Moral Imperative.” 

RESPONDENTS
Thomas R. Suozzi, Nassau County Executive, 2001-2009

Clara Rodriguez, Professor of Sociology, Fordham University

MODERATOR
David Ushery, anchor and reporter, WNBC-TV News

“Tom’s years as a government reformer, along with his budgeting experience and knowledge of infrastructure and transportation, will bring a deep understanding of how public-private partnerships can help bridge local and state budget gaps, while benefiting all stakeholders, whether they be investors, governments, local communities or citizens,” said George Bilicic, Global Head of Power, Energy and Infrastructure at Lazard. “He provides a unique perspective regarding the challenges facing institutions that are seeking to invest in public-private partnerships and, of course, has real-life insight into the workings of government.”

“Infrastructure must become a top priority both for the long-term health of our transportation and power systems but also for job creation,” said Felix Rohatyn, Special Advisor at Lazard. “The future of our nation’s infrastructure will be dependent on strategic vision as well as bold and creative investment solutions in the public and private sector.”

Before being elected Nassau County Executive in 2001, Mr. Suozzi, 47, an attorney and certified public accountant, was Mayor of the City of Glen Cove, New York for eight years. Prior to holding public office, Mr. Suozzi was an attorney at Shearman & Sterling, an auditor at Arthur Andersen & Company, and a clerk to Judge Thomas C. Platt, chief judge of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Mr. Suozzi received a Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law and a BS from Boston College, School of Management.

About Lazard

Lazard, one of the world’s preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, operates from 41 cities across 26 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America. With origins dating back to 1848, the firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategic matters, restructuring and capital structure, capital raising and corporate finance, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, governments, and individuals.

Thomas Suozzi more than once Tuesday patted himself on the back for his eight-year stewardship of Nassau County.  But in many ways Suozzi's reach extended beyond the county (and not just when he was running for governor or laying the groundwork for some other, higher office).  Even some of Suozzi's harshest critics agree that Suozzi was at his best when he focused his attention on Long Island and his job here. Here are six ways he made a difference as county executive:

Suozzi made the region safe for Big Ideas, from the proposed Lighthouse project to the revitalization of New Cassel.  "He used his office as a bully pulpit in raising awareness of issues like economic development and downtown revitalization," Eric Alexander, program director of Vision Long Island, said Tuesday.  "He became Long Island's educator-in-chief on critical issues," Alexander said. Unfortunately, after the first term, "what was missing was the implementation," Alexander said.

He updated Nassau County government, especially during his first term, focusing the public's attention on mundane, but essential matters, such as why municipal bond ratings matter. And on why the county should be more aggressive in curtailing expenses such as overly generous union contracts - even if he had mixed results.

In so doing, Suozzi helped clear the political way for another fresh face, Steve Levy, who later took the reins in Suffolk County, to focus attention on the some of the same issues.  Suozzi's administration also spawned some nationally recognized innovations like No Wrong Door, a program that pulled the county's fractured system of health and social services together under one roof.

He helped the region see itself - as a region. And helped break down barriers that traditionally have kept developers, residents and governments from talking to each other. Such collaboration is key if Long Island is to tackle issues from open space and economic development to the biggest issue of all, property taxes.  "Suozzi was at the core of revamping the Regional Planning Council, with Steve Levy as a willing partner," said Michael White, the council's executive director.  "We've been able to move well beyond the counties talking to each other to counties and towns and villages talking to each other," he said. "It's a change and it's an important one."

He openly and directly addressed issues of racism and immigration in a region where minorities and immigrants are the fastest growing populations.  "His willingness to talk about immigration and race and to deal with structural racism issues was significant," said Elaine Gross, executive director of ERASE Racism.  "He approached controversial issues in a direct, straightforward way that was productive," she said. "It helped create an atmosphere in Nassau that is much more open and positive."  Suozzi crossed into Suffolk County on more than one occasion to lead the way at public forums addressing racism and discrimination.

He helped make Nassau County, the nation's first post-World War II suburb, matter again.  "Suozzi understood Nassau County's place in a broader regional and national context," said Lawrence Levy, a former Newsday colleague who is now head of Hofstra University's Center for Suburban Studies.  "He tried to get ahead of the curve on some of the problems and issues that are facing suburban communities," he said. "He sounded the alarm, understanding that Nassau isn't the only suburb facing issues like taxes and changing demographics."

He helped shed light on Albany's dysfunction and its practice of forcing state costs down on local municipalities - and local taxpayers.  "He was the first guy to stand up and say Albany is broken and we need to fix it," said Judy White, a partner in CJ2 Communications Strategies, a public relations firm in Suffolk.  "He focused attention on what was bad," she said, "and now we can all look to Albany and see that it's just gotten more and more broken."

A Misguided Tax Revolt

Counting of paper ballots in the Nassau County executive race was scheduled to resume Monday in a truncated holiday week.

Democratic County Executive Thomas Suozzi was trailing Republican challenger Edward Mangano by 353 votes after the counting teams finished a short Saturday of work at Board of Elections offices in Mineola.

Attorneys for the board and the Democratic and Republican candidates were scheduled to go to state Supreme Court, just a block from the counting room, to inform Justice Edward McCarty of their progress. The judge has oversight of the election results, but has given no indication yet of taking any role in the counting.

The schedule calls for counting Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 6:45 p.m., and on Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. The teams are then to return to work at 9 a.m. Nov. 30.

Sometime this morning, teams of lawyers for Thomas Suozzi and Edward Mangano will begin opening and counting more than 7,000 absentee ballots in the race for Nassau County executive.

Both men have teams of lawyers working on their behalf - Republican Mangano's to protect his unofficial lead of several hundred votes, and Democrat Suozzi's, who are seeking to find enough votes to give Suozzi a third term in office.

Officials from both parties spent much of the last week scrutinizing the absentee ballot applications and envelopes, looking for reasons to invalidate the opposing party's ballots.

The officials have researched absentee voters to see if they live in the county - or if they're actually alive, for that matter - said Steve Schlesinger, a Democratic attorney working for Suozzi, and whether they had a valid reason to have voted absentee or if they have moved away and kept voting illegally.

"There were some people there who seem to have voted their whole lives by absentee ballot," Schlesinger said. "We're looking for them. I don't know if we'll find them all."

To vote absentee in New York State, residents must declare why they can't make it to their election districts - that they'll be away for work or on vacation, for instance, or in the hospital or confined to jail.

Attorneys are looking for complex patterns that may indicate fraud or improper attempts to skew the vote count. Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said the party found 64 GOP absentee ballots for this month's election that were delivered to voters by a single Republican committeeman.

"That doesn't mean that any one of those 64 shouldn't cast a ballot," Jacobs said. "It just means we want to take a look at that."

John DeGrace, the GOP election commissioner, said such an argument amounts to "grasping at straws."

Elections officials also will look for mismatches of signatures on absentee ballot applications, ballot mailing envelopes and the voter roll, which could indicate voter fraud. And they will scrutinize the ballot envelopes to make sure they were postmarked by the Nov. 2 deadline.

If absentee voters make an illegal identifying mark on the ballot - writing their name, drawing a picture, etc. - elections officials can move to have the ballot disqualified. Some ballots will inevitably have votes for both Suozzi and Mangano, in which case the ballot will either be thrown out or sent to a judge to decide its fate.

Attorneys and officials from both parties said they expect more challenges to absentee ballot applications than to the ballots themselves. In part, that is because there is more information to challenge on the application and return envelope.

Applicants must disclose whether they'll be away from the county for work, studies or vacation, and must say where they'll be. For instance, it's acceptable for a student to say he or she will be at Cornell University in Ithaca. But if the application says merely that the voter is away at college, the ballot won't count.

If the voter is ill or physically disabled, he or she must provide the name and phone number of a physician or a medical or Christian Science practitioner. If they expect to be a patient in a hospital, they must list its name and address.

"A lot of it is just run-of-the-mill stuff," said John Ciampoli, a Republican attorney working for Mangano.

But as Suozzi, Mangano and their lawyers scrap for votes in the county executive's race this week, such routine matters could quickly become fodder for challenges.

By Peter Applebome

A funny thing happened to the Nassau County executive, Thomas R. Suozzi, on his way to the stars.

“Mensch tracht, Gott lacht,” he said on Friday, citing one version of a Yiddish adage. “Man plans, God laughs.”

He wasn’t laughing. Chances are the Suozzi family wisdom leans more toward Italian aphorisms than Yiddish ones. But whatever the language, you could pick your punch line in the virtual dead heat that could put a torpedo into Mr. Suozzi’s political future.

One moment he was cruising to re-election for a third term and contemplating his next step — Senate? Attorney general? A second kamikaze run against a party favorite for the job he really wants, governor?

The next, he was leading his little-known Republican challenger, Edward P. Mangano, by 237 votes out of 245,000 cast, with perhaps 8,000 paper ballots — and an uncertain landscape of possible court challenges — still to come.

The sardonic story lines go beyond Mr. Suozzi.

Mr. Suozzi, who has always had his share of chutzpah (another Italian term), has made a career of taking on bigger fish. There was his upset victory in the Nassau County Democratic primary in 2001 that put him on the map, his disastrous race against Eliot Spitzer in the Democratic primary for governor in 2006, his “Fix Albany” campaign that alienated most of the party powers. And what tripped him up was a race against an underfinanced opponent most people on Long Island still cannot name.

Mr. Suozzi has made a major part of his political brand railing against high property taxes, heading the commission to address them and insisting that he has had success with his part. The county’s share of Nassau taxes has dropped to 16 percent from 23 percent on his watch, while that of the school districts, which he does not control, have risen to 65 percent from 58 percent. But if he loses, it will be in large part because of the anger over high property taxes that led to Republican victories in New Jersey and Westchester County.

“I’ve pretty much been a leader of the property tax revolt issue, and now I’m maybe a victim of it,” he said.

It’s not that simple. Some fans say Mr. Suozzi is also a victim of running a lousy, complacent campaign and perhaps looking too conspicuously at the next rung on the ladder. And Lawrence Levy, executive director of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, points out that the county gets sales tax revenue that the schools don’t — about $1 billion annually. Still, he said, Mr. Suozzi, who has cut 1,000 county jobs, has largely walked the walk as well as talked the talk, which has its own dangers. “You make enemies when you walk the walk,” Mr. Levy said.

Given the volatile vapors out there, Mr. Suozzi seems inclined to up the ante. In an interview on Friday and an op-ed piece in Newsday on Sunday, he said that if voters really wanted to take on property taxes, they should do something radical: Give control of the schools to the county executive instead of maintaining the current system of 56 separate school districts in the county, each with its own well-paid superintendent, administrative staff and the rest.

IS this a panacea? Hardly. Mr. Suozzi said his first three property tax proposals would be the county control of schools, legislation forbidding Albany from putting mandates on schools and local governments without identifying needed revenue, and consolidating the state’s 10,000 governments.

But the initial response from politicians and school officials to the school proposal was withering, reflecting both the post-election timing and the degree to which it has always been viewed as an interesting idea but political poison.

“This is the kind of thing that people have talked about for years, but it’s been a political nonstarter,” Mr. Levy said. “The question is whether people are feeling enough pain that they’re willing to think the unthinkable. I don’t know if we’re at that point, but we’re getting close.”

There’s more at play than Mr. Suozzi’s future. The Democrats built their majority in New York when suburbs like Nassau and Westchester went from Republican to Democrat. It’s not clear whether the Democrats have botched it so spectacularly that the suburbs are flipping back, but they’re certainly back in play.

As for Mr. Suozzi, he’s almost certainly a diminished character, win or lose.

There’s no guarantee he’ll be in office long enough to see if his Hail Mary on the county schools proposal has a chance, but if he has gone out on a limb, it won’t be the first time.

“You really need to catch lightning in a bottle right now,” he said, adding, “I’m either going to catch the lightning and get something dramatic done, or I’m going to get electrocuted.”

The count change - Suozzi led Mangano by 237 votes last week - corrects key-punching errors typical to frenzied election nights, Biamonte said.

The task now for Democratic and Republican Board of Elections officials is to reach a final count upon which both sides can agree. To that end they are rechecking the results from 1,300 voting machines, one by one.

"We all agree that we have to have an accurate number," Biamonte said. "If the Republicans have one number and we have one number, then we have to start all over."

The recanvassing started at 2 p.m. Monday and is expected to last through the week, Biamonte said. For each machine, one Democratic and one Republican election official stands by as the number of votes for each candidate in every race on the ballot - not just Suozzi and Mangano - is read and reread aloud.

For instance, at one point Monday afternoon at each machine, one person read - "Row 1A, 240 votes; row 1B, 220; row 1C, 30; row 1D, 0." - while the other compared the key-punched numbers from last week. If there was a difference, the machine's figures won. Discrepancies will be argued once the recanvassing is complete.

Even after the machine count finishes, there also are 7,159 unopened absentee ballots still to be counted and more than 1,000 affidavit and emergency ballots. Tuesday is the final day the Board of Elections can receive absentee ballots, which require a postmark on or before Nov. 2.

Under state law, the county must certify election results by Nov. 27, though a lawsuit challenging such results could drag on much longer. After the November 2008, election, it took until the following July for Democrat Al Franken to be determined the winner of Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat.

The countywide recanvassing is the first since 2006, when a judgeship changed hands after election night. It has led to unprecedented security procedures, including new surveillance cameras in the canvass room to watch for tampering and a 24-hour Nassau Police detail for the machines and absentee ballots.

Mangano appeared at the Board of Elections Monday afternoon but left without making any comment. Suozzi did not appear.

By Thomas Maier

Less than a week before Election Day, incumbent Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi stepped up his attack against GOP opponent Edward Mangano even as the challenger hammered away about high property taxes in a poor economy and accused Suozzi of being ineffective in stopping them.

"Tom Suozzi has led us in the wrong direction," said Mangano, a 14-year Republican legislator from Bethpage, during a live debate Wednesday night at the News 12 studios in Woodbury. "He had eight years to fix this system. It's unacceptable."

The one-hour exchange was considerably more pointed than Tuesday's debate at Hofstra University, which also included Conservative candidate Steve Hansen. Supporters of the three candidates agreed that Suozzi, a Democrat seeking a third term, was noticeably tougher in his attacks on Mangano.

"I'm running on my record," said Suozzi, warning voters that choosing Mangano would be a return to the longtime GOP control of the county government, which ended when Suozzi was elected county executive in 2001. Suozzi said that he had successfully "cleaned up the mess that we were left in the county and improved the services."

Twice during the debate Suozzi said Mangano never voted independently when the Republicans were in power.

But after the debate, Mangano said he believed Suozzi's stepped-up attacks were a sign that Mangano's campaign was narrowing the once double-digit gap between them among voters. "It reflects that we're getting close," he said as he left the studio.

During this campaign, Suozzi has emphasized his efforts to turn around Nassau's finances by controlling county spending and asking state lawmakers to cap Medicaid costs and property tax increases. He also pointed out that his job has no power over local school costs, which he said are "too high" and account for more than 65 percent of property taxes paid by Nassau County residents.

During his remarks, Suozzi said Mangano's plan to "freeze" the county's property tax assessments was "irresponsible." He said the county's property assessment system was "better than it was" when he took office and promised to solve the remaining problems within two years. He said that the county's crime rate was at a 30-year low and underlined that next year's budget would keep taxes the same.

In his remarks, Conservative Hansen, a $90,410-a-year deputy county attorney, said that both major parties "had gotten away from traditional values" and gone on "spending sprees," which he promised to end. Despite their differences, all three candidates support the proposed Lighthouse project in Uniondale.

By Ridgely Ochs

Citing shortages of flu vaccine, Gov. David A. Paterson has announced that the state Health Department was suspending a controversial mandate that all health care workers get vaccinated or lose their jobs.

"We need to be as resourceful as we can with the limited supplies of vaccine currently coming into the state," Paterson said in a statement released late Thursday. He said the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the state this week that only about 23 percent - or 27.7 million doses - of its anticipated H1N1 vaccine supply would be available nationwide by the end of the month.

In August, the state health commissioner, Dr. Richard Daines, imposed the employee mandate for seasonal and swine flu shots, the first in the country, with a deadline of Nov. 30. At least four lawsuits were filed by health care workers who said the requirement violated their civil rights. Last week an Albany judge issued a temporary restraining order, suspending the mandate until Oct. 30.

Colleen Heinze, a nurse at Stony Brook University Medical Center who opposed the mandate, called the news "fantastic."

"That means I get to keep my job," she said.

Patricia Finn, a Rockland County lawyer who had filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Dutchess County nurse seeking to void the mandate, said she was pleased with the decision. "I'd like to think the commissioner heard the cries of the health care workers," she said.

A health department spokeswoman, Claudia Hutton, said the lawsuits "had nothing to do with" the decision.

Daines said in the release vaccinating health care workers "continues to be an important patient safety measure" and urged hospitals to encourage employees to do so.

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi said he had spoken with the governor and sent a letter Thursday calling on him to suspend the mandate because of too little vaccine. He called the decision "a wise move."

Demand for H1N1 vaccine has exceeded supply in the state, including Nassau and Suffolk. The state Health Department opened a call-in center this week for doctors to place orders. So far this week, the CDC has allowed New York to order 146,300 doses of vaccine, while doctors have requested 1,482,822 doses, the state said.

Seasonal flu vaccine is also in short supply because many manufacturers switched over to make the H1N1 vaccine.

Suozzi called on the CDC to tell local officials how much H1N1 vaccine is available and who is getting it.

"I'm fed up with the CDC," Suozzi said, adding he telephoned and sent a letter Thursday to Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the agency.

Suozzi's letter said local officials were unable "to provide accurate information on when or how vaccine will be distributed because we do not know what the CDC's plan is.

"As a result, our residents are confused, our public health officials do not have accurate information," he wrote.

The CDC acknowledged the problem. "We are experiencing a very fluid situation that is changing minute by minute," said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner. "We understand that some officials are frustrated. "

Skinner said it would be the middle or end of November before there will be enough H1N1 vaccine. With Sid Cassese

By Sid Cassese

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and 99 other community and business leaders rappelled down a six-story building in Garden City Tuesday to raise money for autism and other illnesses.

"It was exhilarating, with the adrenaline pumping, but it was also nerve-racking," said Suozzi, who made his descent by rope with County Legis. Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale).

"Looking down, it was also terrifying, but you know it's for a really good cause."

Mejias said he agreed with Suozzi "on all counts."

Both twice rappelled the Garden City Citibank building at 600 Old Country Rd. near Clinton Avenue, the first time separately on a practice run.

Each of the 100 climbers, including Newsday columnist Ellis Henican, aimed to raise $1,500 for the cause.

"Long Islanders have huge hearts and are open to new things," said Jeff Cohen, of St. James, a co-founder of Tuesday's event and an employee of Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, a bi-county nonprofit based in Old Bethpage.

Mitch Shapiro of Smithtown, who has Usher syndrome and is legally blind, also rappelled.

"It was fun," he said. "It helped to raise money for charity and to show that people with disabilities can do just about anything."

The event started at 10:30 a.m. and is scheduled to run to at least 5 p.m.

By William Murphy

The Nassau County Legislature was expected to vote Monday to approve the $2.6-billion county budget for 2010 proposed by County Executive Thomas Suozzi.

The budget does not call for increases in taxes or fees, and the legislature has not proposed any significant changes to the spending plan since Suozzi announced it on Sept. 15.

"This is a no-tax-increase budget, so I'm happy about the fact it's a no-tax-increase budget," Legis. Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove), the presiding officer, said Friday.

The legislature will also take up a measure authorizing the sale of 101 acres of old Grumman property in Bethpage, owned by the county, to a local developer, Steel Equities, for $28.5 million. That measure was added to the calendar late Friday at the request of the Suozzi administration.

While there's no specific plan for the property, Steel Equities would be the developer for what Suozzi hopes to be a biotechnology park.

The company wants to close on the deal by Nov. 6, and the Suozzi administration wants the sale approved by both committees and the full legislature on Monday because the next scheduled meeting of the legislature is not until Nov. 16.

Suozzi's Democratic allies on the 19-member legislature hold a one-vote majority, and Suozzi's Republican opponent on Nov. 3 for county executive, Legis. Edward Mangano of Bethpage, said he has been asked by the administration to drum up Republican support that will be needed to get the supermajority vote necessary to pass it at the same session it is proposed.

Mangano said Friday he would study the lease over the weekend before deciding.

Also Friday, the legislature added another item to committee agendas at the request of the Suozzi administration that would allow it to enter into a long-term lease for property in Baldwin for a new home for the Police Department's First Precinct.

That project has been pushed by Suozzi and Democratic Legis. Joseph Scannell of Baldwin, who faces a tough re-election battle from Republican challenger Christian Browne.

By Sid Cassese

Both of Long Island's county executives said Tuesday that schools are a major cause of Long Island's high property taxes.

"School property taxes are crushing residents," Nassau's Thomas Suozzi said. "Since 2003, the schools' portion of the total tax bill in Nassau has risen from 58 percent to 65 percent, but the county's portion went from 22.7 to 16.4 percent."

The lawmakers were responding to a Newsday / News 12 Long Island / Siena Research Institute Poll that found property taxes were the single most important issue to Long Islanders.

Suozzi, who last year chaired the state's Commission on Property Tax Relief, said school districts' back-office functions and purchases should be done on a regional or countywide basis. And that teachers at the same level should have their salaries negotiated in a uniform way and all superintendents should be paid on a similar scale.

Suffolk's Steve Levy said that from 2000 to 2006, the cost of living rose 27 percent while the school tax rate went up 72 percent. "These kinds of increases are unsustainable," Levy said, while noting that the county's portion of taxes decreased from 13 percent to 11 percent of the total since 2004, when he took over.

He also called for changing "restrictive state" regulations that hamper a local manager's ability to control cost, such as mandatory arbitration; civil service rules that make it almost impossible to fire a bad employee and workers' compensation that allows someone to go out at age 30 on a pension because they broke a finger.

Suozzi's GOP opponent in next month's election, Legis. Edward Mangano of Bethpage, said the county should "cut wasteful spending in Nassau and correct the property tax assessment system. The present administration refuses to fix it." He added, "Freeze assessments; give people the benefit of correcting their taxes. Next year, they will make the same errors, rather than use the corrected tax rolls."

By Eden Laikin

A solid majority of Long Islanders say they support the Lighthouse, the controversial $3.7-billion project that would turn the acres of asphalt around the Nassau Coliseum into a complex of housing, stores and offices, according to the Newsday / News 12 Long Island / Siena Research Institute poll.

Fifty-one percent of 1,037 registered voters polled in Nassau and Suffolk want the project built; 25 percent don't, and 23 percent didn't know or had no opinion.

Support for the project appeared to be widespread - with majorities of blacks, whites, Republicans and Democrats backing it.

The findings jibe with the results of surveys that Lighthouse officials say they've been taking for the past year. They declined to comment for this story.

Johnnie Paylor, 71, a Uniondale homeowner who responded to the survey, said the plan "would be good for our county. In the long run, it's advantageous for everybody - the people that will be employed, the needed housing."

But Alvaro Souza, 75, a respondent from Baldwin, questioned the need for the project: "First of all, we've got a nice stadium. Spending so much money on it doesn't make sense right now."

The proposal calls for renovating Nassau Coliseum and placing a 42-building mixed-use community on the 77 acres around the arena.

Hempstead Town must approve an environmental impact study and rezone the site.

However, Hempstead has drawn criticism from Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and the developers, who charge the town is delaying approval. Some project supporters speculate that Hempstead Republicans don't want Suozzi, a Democrat, to get credit for the development; others predict the multifamily housing will attract more Democrats than Republicans, eroding GOP political power in their stronghold.

Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, a Republican, said Tuesday that "the town board is taking the time to do it right. I support reasonable development around the Coliseum."

In the poll, blacks and men came across as the staunchest Lighthouse backers, with 61 percent of each group in favor. Only 17 percent of blacks and 21 percent of men were opposed. Overall, 51 percent of whites favor the project.

Political affiliation made no significant difference, with 51 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of unaligned voters approving of the project.

Women were one of the few groups where supporters were less than 50 percent.

But Arlene Criveau, 60, of Levittown, said she is "100 percent for" the Lighthouse "if it helps bring the taxes down. . . . If it helps bring jobs in, that's a good thing, too."

By Denise Nash 

40-Acre Property Purchased Through Environmental Bond Act

The property, which was acquired by Nassau County in October 2008 for $12 million under the $150 million 2006 Environmental Bond Act, incorporates a comprehensive and affordable equestrian center designed for use by the general public.

Over the past year, the property, including eight structures, has been renovated by John Russo, president of the Nassau Equestrian Center at Old Mill, which is managing the facility under agreement with Nassau County. The county has no financial obligation to the property and private funding from the Nassau Equestrian Center at Old Mill, Inc was used for renovations, maintenance and upkeep.

The Equestrian Center offers a range of public programs, including pony rides for youngsters, riding lessons for all age groups and summer camps. The facility incorporates two miles of riding trails but also has access to the riding trails in the 550-acre county-owned Muttontown Preserve through a path that runs along the edge of Nassau County Board of Cooperative Educational Services property separating the two locations.

The property is open to the public. In addition to offering a number of equestrian services, parking is free on the property and residents are encouraged to park their cars and walk around the beautiful trails.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to work with the county to make this property a premier equestrian facility and bring the experience of horse riding to the public,” said Russo, whose family has run equestrian centers in Suffolk County since 1964.

Russo has spent the last year renovating the Old Mill property, which has been a horse farm since the 1940s but had fallen into disrepair in recent decades. After the county purchased the land, the remainder of the financial responsibility was turned over to Russo and the county has not paid anything further, according to Bradford Tito, director of Environmental Coordination for Nassau County.

After addressing the press, Suozzi mounted a friendly horse named Chester and explored the property. “I love riding and have not had the opportunity to do it recently,” said Suozzi, who showed that riding a horse is the same as a bike – you never forget. Suozzi rode the horse, trotting at times, and enjoyed the property. After his ride, Suozzi was given a pin and made an honorary member of the Horsemen’s Association.

The Environmental Bond Act, passed by voters in 2004 and 2006, is a $150 million program through which the county is purchasing and protecting open space, renovating parks, improving storm-water quality and cleaning up Brownfield properties. The county has preserved 240 acres of farms and ecology sensitive lands throughout Nassau County under the bond act.

Suozzi and Russo were joined at the opening by Nassau County Legislator and Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro, Kathleen Kleinman of the Muttontown Horsemen’s Association, Bill and Virginia Uhlinger of the Nassau-Suffolk Horsemen’s Association, Lisa Ott of the North Shore Land Alliance and Matt Meng of the Long Island Drinking Water Coalition.

For more information about the Nassau Equestrian Center at Old Mill, visit http://www.nassauequesteriancenter.com.

Legislator Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale) and Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi introduced a new recreational outlet at Old Bethpage Village Restoration for a very important constituent: man’s best friend.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony, which took place on Oct. 1, extends to six the number of dog runs offered in Nassau County parks and is the first in the area covered by the Town of Oyster Bay. The dog run, which is located near the entrance to the Village, provides separate areas for large and small dogs.  Benches at the new dog run where donated by the Boy Scouts of America.  The park will operate the same hours of Old Bethpage Village Restoration.

The dog run has another unique feature: a “green” rain-water collection system, including a filtration element that will provide dogs with drinking water in between play and socialization.  The drinking water system catches rain water on the roof and directs the flow down, into a barrel where it is then filtered and ready to be dispensed into dog bowls located on the ground. 

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which coincided with the opening of the four-day Long Island Fair at Old Bethpage Village, Mejias brought along his own pooch, a Wheaten Terrier, Marley.

Said Mejias, “This is a great addition to our community and will truly provide hours of enjoyment for the entire family. I invite everyone to come over to Old Bethpage Village with their dogs.”

County Executive Tom Suozzi, also a dog owner of a black lab and a yellow lab, spoke about Nassau County’s commitment to dog owners.

“The dog runs in our parks have developed a very strong following over the years and provide a great outlet for both the dogs and dog-owners, many of whom form friendships as a result of the interaction they have at these locations,” said Suozzi. “I am very pleased that together with Legislator Mejias, I have been able to provide this new addition to our parks system.”

Nassau County Parks Commissioner Jose Lopez, owner of a Yorkshire Terrier, also announced that the County was preparing a seventh dog park at Eisenhower Park and that is scheduled to be opened in the spring of 2010. 

The county’s other dog runs are located in Bay Park in East Rockaway; Cedar Creek Park in Seaford; Christopher Morley Park in Roslyn-North Hills; Nickerson Beach in Lido and Wantagh Park.

Old Bethpage Village provides visitors with the opportunity to step back in time and experience life in a recreated mid-19th-century American village set on more than 200 acres and housing some 50 historic buildings. Hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Wednesday - Sunday.

There are no fees for the dog run, but entrance fees to the village are $7 for children 5 - 12 (those under 5 are free), seniors and volunteer firefighters; and $10 for adults. OBVR is located on Round Swamp Road in Old Bethpage (exit 48 on the LIE); for more information, call 572-8400.

By Marcelle S. Fischler

NINETY percent of Nassau County “needs to remain untouched,” Thomas R. Suozzi, the county executive, kept reiterating as he espoused his vision for a “new suburbia.” He extolled the virtues of single-family homes, the North Shore waterfront and the South Shore ocean beaches, the parks and the open spaces — seeing them all as elements that need not change.

But then he got to the topic of the county’s other 10 percent — and it, he asserted, “needs to be completely reimagined, completely re-envisioned.”

To that end, at back-to-back conferences late in September, Mr. Suozzi unveiled a master plan, the “90/10 solution,” cajoling community leaders, developers, environmentalists and change-phobic residents to join a coalition to fix things that need fixing — while retaining the backyards and ball fields that made one of the nation’s first suburbs a desirable place to call home.

The forums took place on consecutive days — the first in Jericho on “Cutting Through the Red Tape: Building on Long Island Today,” the second at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, site of the Lighthouse, one of four major projects that Mr. Suozzi is promoting in his retrofitting agenda.

“The public is afraid of anything new, because they are afraid that next development is going to be the last vestige of suburbia that they love,” he declared, even as he detailed a vision of a more enticing — and urban — suburbia, in the form of 18 “cool” new downtowns in places like Island Park and Port Washington. There would be multistory housing near commuter rail stations, he said; there would be restaurants, shops and entertainment.

The goals achieved through these changes, according to Mr. Suozzi, are an expanded county tax base; a halt to the exodus of young people; a cap on crippling traffic congestion; and help for poorer areas.

He also urged his listeners to forge ahead on several projects now being weighed by various communities. Chief among them is the $3.74 billion Lighthouse suburban town center, which is under the scrutiny of Hempstead’s zoning board. (On Thursday, Mr. Suozzi announced a ground lease that would keep the Islanders hockey team at the coliseum through July 2030, subject to county and town approval.)

Others involve the redevelopment of Belmont Park and adjacent parts of Elmont; the transformation of the Glen Cove waterfront with housing, shops and a hotel; and reuse of 105 acres on the Grumman Aerospace plot in Bethpage as a high-tech business incubator.

Among the big concerns he cited was the flight of younger residents. “They want to be where it is fun, where it is exciting, where they can meet other young people,” Mr. Suozzi said. With couples marrying later, and relatively few starting families in their 20s, the suburbs have begun to seem both expensive and dull.

Affordability is also an issue, and the dearth of rentals on Long Island is a factor in that. “It’s not affordable in Brooklyn or Manhattan either,” he said; but, helped along by those areas’ vigorous rental markets, “kids are moving to Manhattan and Brooklyn all the time.”

In Nassau and Suffolk, rentals make up 17 percent of available housing; by contrast, in Westchester County they represent 37 percent.

Throughout the two days, Mr. Suozzi’s message remained consistent — even as the reactions it got were decidedly mixed.

Officials like John Cameron, the chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, lent him their support. Declaring that the Island was “at a crossroads,” Mr. Cameron asserted, “either we will deal with our issues and challenges or it’s game over,” adding, the “no-action alternative will prove that we are not sustainable.”

Residents and other individual participants, however, had concerns. One was voiced by Emarinsie Funderbird, a Roosevelt business owner, who said Mr. Suozzi’s plans would bypass destitute communities like hers, even though they are beset with “all the ills they need to change,” like an abundance of foreclosures, and single-family homes occupied by five to six families. “All efforts will be on the 10 percent” represented by the new projects that the county executive is promoting, she predicted.

James Ruzicka, the mayor of Island Park, who also attended, received applause for asking the county to add his village to the potential downtown list, and made the point that “we could be cooler” right now. Specifically, he was hoping for help in beefing up a two-block area near the train station. “We could use a fix-up and get more business into town,” he said.

Mark Lesko, the Brookhaven town supervisor, said that on the issue of “smart downtowns,” Nassau and Suffolk Counties were in sync. Feeling the lack of town centers, he cited the daunting aspects of creating those “nodes” in places like Ronkonkoma, Port Jefferson and Bellport.

Muzzio Tallini, a developer who had sought to build a 20,000-square-foot mixed-use project with 10 duplexes above retail shops in Elmont, but had his proposal rejected by Hempstead, bemoaned official resistance to change. “Getting anything done on Long Island is very difficult,” he said. “How can we get anything started if this government says no to us all the time?”

For his part Eric Alexander, the executive director of Vision Long Island, a “smart growth” group, took a practical, distanced stance to the entire issue. “Downtowns would regenerate themselves” and “the island will transform over the next 10 years whether we have big mega-projects or not,” he insisted. “The demographics will drive it.”

With residents struggling to maintain costly oversized homes and feeling isolated on cul-de-sacs, demand is already pushing developers to create smaller housing units near train stations, Mr. Alexander said. “That’s clear from applications we see from developers.”

By Eden Laikin

Residents in eastern Massapequa served by a private water company, and county officials, say they pay three times as much for water as their neighbors.

Now the company wants to increase the rate by 12 percent.

And the residents have been denied the right to oppose the hike at a public hearing, according to Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and Legis. Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale).

Suozzi and Mejias stood outside a home on Clocks Boulevard on Friday, with a dozen residents they called "forgotten."

"These injustices have gone on long enough," Suozzi said. "It's hard to imagine that folks can be ignored like this."

Suozzi said he was sending a letter to the New York State Public Service Commission, which must approve any rate hikes, asking it to deny the application by Aqua New York.

Aqua says it is raising the rates to raise $3.5 million to help fund $15 million in capital improvements needed for water quality and reliability in Nassau County.

Aqua, which serves about 40,000 residents in Nassau, is also seeking to raise rates for fire hydrants by 27 percent.

PSC officials, in a written response to a letter from Mejias, said they'd received about 1,250 letters and e-mails of protest from Nassau residents served by Aqua. Citing those comments and ones made at a public hearing last month in Merrick, officials said they don't see the need for a hearing in Massapequa.

Pat Ficarrotto, who lives on Clocks Boulevard, said it's outrageous Aqua wants more money. She said her water bill for the past two months was $187. She said that when she lived in another part of Massapequa served by the Massapequa Water District, she paid that amount for a year.

Mejias held a community meeting Friday night and will convene another Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Massapequa Park library. Testimony by residents and public officials will be sent to the PSC. "Shame on you PSC for not having public meetings here," Mejias said.

Suozzi said he would explore the possibility of the county replacing the private water district with a public one.

By Randi F. Marshall and Eden Laikin

Lighthouse partners Charles Wang and Scott Rechler said Thursday they are no longer willing to change their plans to develop the land around Nassau Coliseum.

"This is not the point to start negotiating anything," Wang said Thursday, five years after unveiling the project. "It's yes or no."

Even amid the fanfare of Thursday's agreement on a proposed lease between the developers and Nassau County, anger and frustration took center stage. Wang, Rechler and County Executive Thomas Suozzi pointed fingers at Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray and the town board for delaying the project and not trying to meet Wang's Oct. 3 deadline for significant progress on the project.

"Shame on those folks who would stop this project from getting done," Suozzi said.

Wang said if Murray, a Republican, and the board did not give any answer, he "would construe that as a no."

Wang set Saturday as his deadline for getting a lease and zoning approval. The town board, which met yesterday and doesn't plan to meet again before tomorrow, has not voted on zoning.

"They created their own deadline dilemma at the zoning hearing when they couldn't give accurate answers on traffic, where they were going to site a well and even the number of buildings," Murray said Thursday.

The proposed 99-year lease - which would keep Wang's Islanders on Long Island until at least 2030 - covers 77 acres of county-owned land. While the Lighthouse project spans a total of 150 acres, the vast majority of new development, including the residential component and the renovated Coliseum, would occur on the smaller 77-acre parcel.

The lease now must be approved by the Nassau County Legislature, but that can't happen until the town approves the final environmental impact statement, which Lighthouse officials submitted last month.

Under the proposed lease, Wang and Rechler would spend $320 million on an extensive, three-year renovation of the Coliseum, without public funds. The lease encourages the developers to pay prevailing wages and use unionized workers, and Wang said he will make the effort to hire locally.

Wang and Rechler would pay the county $50 million for traffic mitigation and $5 million for other projects. On top of that, they'll pay the county $1.5 million a year, plus inflation, in rent. The developers would keep ticket sales, concessions and parking revenue and would pay for all maintenance.

They'd also have the right to buy much of the land they are leasing - except for the Coliseum itself - for $1. Wang and Rechler could also transfer or sell that non-Coliseum land, although they have to complete the renovation work.

Nassau County Minority Leader Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) said the land was worth more than $1.

"If the property is given away from the taxpayers of this county to the developer, it's a nonstarter," Schmitt said. "It's a bad deal for everybody."

But Suozzi, a Democrat, said the project would be a "net plus" for taxpayers.

"It's a $3-billion investment in the future of Long Island," he said. "It's the best opportunity we've had in a long time."

By Cara Buckley

THE kids weren’t all right. They lived in the same comfortable Long Island town and were barely in their teens when they took their first hit of marijuana or sip of alcohol, propelling them on dark journeys they couldn’t seem to escape. Within a couple of years, they were in heroin’s grip.

“My parents had no idea,” said one of them, a 17-year-old girl who, like other formerly addicted youths interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of her past drug use. “Mymom thought I was smoking a lot of weed and taking diet pills, because who would’ve thought that such a bad drug could be so easily accessible to me?”

The girl grew up in western Suffolk County, in a town where, she said, “everything is perfect,” with white picket fences and two cars in each driveway; for her birthday last October, she received a black Jeep, and she went to a wealthy, high-performing public school. “Growing up, everything is pushed on you,” she said. “You’re trying to be the smartest, trying to compete with everyone.”

Heroin, she said, was an escape. The girl said that she had not used drugs since entering rehabilitation in January, but that many of her former friends were still hooked on heroin, and at least two had fatally overdosed.

They are part of a new wave of heroin abuse that officials across the New York region are grappling to understand. During the first six months of 2009, 25 people in Nassau County died of heroin overdoses — more than from homicide and drunken driving combined; in 2008, 46 people fatally overdosed on heroin, up from 27 in 2007, according to Nassau officials.

In New York City, recent drug raids of so-called heroin mills have yielded hundreds of thousands of bags at a time, up from several hundred bags a year ago, according to Bridget G. Brennan, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor. What is especially worrisome to law enforcement officials and treatment experts is the fact that many of heroin’s newest addicts are in their teens or early 20s; many also come from middle- or upper-middle-class suburban families.

At Blue Hills Substance Abuse Services, a treatment center at Cedarcrest Regional Hospital in Hartford, about 10 percent of young adults had cited heroin addiction during admission in recent years; this year, it’s closer to 30 percent. At the Mendham site of Daytop New Jersey, an adolescent substance abuse center, the portion of teenagers entering treatment for heroin addiction has doubled to 40 percent in the past year.

“The problem is the kids are using younger and younger,” said Howard Riesel, coordinator of the adolescent-services unit at Glen Cove Hospital on Long Island. “It’s cheap. It’s accessible.”

Experts trace the spike in heroin use to its widespread availability and low cost. A bag of heroin can sell for $5 to $25 and induce a six- to eight-hour high, according to officials and former users. Cocaine, by comparison, can cost $40 to $60 for a 30-minute high, while prescription painkillers like Vicodin or OxyContin sell for upward of $40 a pill on the street.

“It’s becoming cooler,” said Dr. Carlos Hernandez-Avila, a medical director at Blue Hills.

Long Island residents were brutally awakened to the heroin problem in June 2008, when Natalie Ciappa, 18, an honors student from Massapequa, fatally overdosed. Suffolk and Nassau Counties passed laws in her name to build Web sites tracking heroin arrests. The Nassau County executive, Thomas R. Suozzi, put together heroin summits to raise awareness, and last week police in Suffolk county began making anti-heroin presentations to eighth graders, an initiative that will soon extend to other grades.

Still, in the past eight years, the number of young people entering the county’s detoxification centers and withdrawal programs has mushroomed. In 2000, 59 people ages 19 to 25 entered Nassau’s detoxification and rehabilitation centers for heroin abuse, according to Arlene Sanchez, the county’s commissioner of mental health, chemical dependency and developmental disabilities services. In 2008, 458 did.

Jonathan, 19, a former addict who attended Mr. Riesel’s program on Long Island, said he took his first puff of marijuana at 13, and it made him feel gloriously liberated from the awkward, chunky boy he had been. Within two months, he was popping Vicodin pills, dextromethorphan (a cough medicine that can have psychedelic effects) and, eventually, Xanax and OxyContin. He made much older friends, began selling drugs and prided himself on his high drug intake.

“People almost gave me praise for it,” Jonathan said. He said he tried heroin shortly after he turned 15, while high on Ecstasy and cocaine. It blew him away.

“It hits you so hard, but it’s so smooth and enticing at the same time,” he said. “It hits you like a train of false love.”

The heroin available in the Northeast these days is purer than the kind that ravaged New York City in the 1970s, experts say, and almost certainly as lethal, if not more. Dealers often mark the bags with words like “Red Bull,” “Lexus,” “Kiss of Death” and “R.I.P.,” or a skull and crossbones.

“It’s part of the attraction of the drug, to get so close to dying but come back,” Ms. Brennan said. “The results can be tragic.”

One of Jonathan’s friends, a 21-year-old former addict from Long Island named Brian, said heroin was cheaper, and often more available, than marijuana or ecstasy.

“Believe it or not, as a high school teenager, it was easier for us to get than alcohol,” he said. “It’s cheaper than anything out there.”

The 17-year-old girl from western Suffolk said she moved to heroin after she could no longer support her two-pill-a-day OxyContin habit, which she had financed by stealing from her parents. Her first drive in her new black Jeep was to a heroin dealer. She grew thin and listless, stopped showering and began sleeping at all hours, but said that her parents did not suspect the worst.

“Parents are working hard out here and giving their kids all this stuff, and still kids are getting hooked,” she said. “I think parents put a blinder over their faces.”

Another friend of Jonathan’s, a high-achieving student named Alex, passed under the radar until he was arrested for possession at 16. “I had a 98 percent average,” he said. “I was in honor societies. I was a peer mediator.” Now 20 and in college, Alex said he had been drug- and alcohol-free for two and a half years.

For all four former addicts, it took being arrested, often several times and nearly always for drug-related offenses like stealing or possession, before their addictions came to light.

All four said they also witnessed friends overdosing, sometimes fatally, or had overdosed themselves. Brian knew young people who gave unconscious friends CPR until the ambulance arrived. Last October, Jonathan overdosed and was shocked back to life by defibrillator paddles in a hospital emergency room. The first thing he did after waking up, he said, was reach into his pants’ pocket to locate his drugs.

He eventually got clean, earlier this year, after spending time at St. Christopher’s Inn, a friary, rehabilitation center and homeless shelter in Garrison, N.Y. He is healthy now and stands tall in his 6-foot-1 frame.

When local officials began focusing on heroin last year, Jonathan said his friends all had the same thought.

By Randi Marshall

Billionaire businessman Charles Wang had never seen an ice hockey game and knew more about computer chips than hockey pucks when his friend, former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato called him in 1999 with an improbable request.

Buy the New York Islanders, D'Amato urged, saying Wang could help keep the team, the Island's only professional sports franchise, in their Nassau County home.

Wang said yes, making a multimillion-dollar deal for the financially troubled team that would set into motion grandiose plans for redeveloping Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the county-owned land around it. His vision would include a completely renovated sports arena, 42 new or renovated buildings, 2,300 housing units, 1 million square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of retail, a sports technology center and a luxury hotel - spread across 150 acres. Artist's renderings showed a "grand canal" next to a grassy "celebration plaza" and fountains throughout.

D'Amato and Wang would meet again. As Wang's vision for the land began to take shape, D'Amato, a powerful lobbyist and then board member of Computer Associates, the software company Wang founded, sat down to lunch with Wang at a favorite Westbury haunt, Giulio Cesare. Also at the lunch was D'Amato's brother, Armand, a lawyer and lobbyist.

D'Amato, a Republican, had another request of Wang: Bring Armand into the project, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

Hoped to keep politics out

Wang's answer was an emphatic "no," sources have told Newsday. Wang, they said, hoped to keep politics out of a venture that he envisioned would fundamentally change Long Island, bringing thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in economic growth and tax revenue along with it.

Asked about the lunch, Wang declined to comment. In an interview, D'Amato denied making the request on behalf of his brother. Armand D'Amato did not return phone calls asking for comment.

"That conversation never took place," Alfonse D'Amato told a reporter. He declined to answer questions about his relationship with Wang.

While it is not known if Armand D'Amato's participation in Wang's project would have helped him, as it turned out Wang's hope to keep politics out of his project has been in vain. A Newsday review of records, along with scores of interviews, shows that one of the largest projects ever proposed for Long Island - a landscape-changing vision on a par with Levittown, the region's first suburb - fell into a quagmire of government review, clashing personalities and competing egos, meetings requested and refused and attitudes on full display.

Hempstead Town officials say politics has played no part in their review of the project. But to many, the history of the Lighthouse project says more about Long Island politics than it does about planning.

Critical to LI's future

Critics argue that the project's success or failure could be critical to the Island's future economy, its ability to develop land, to grow and attract businesses and the potential to expand its tax base.

"You're looking at a sea of asphalt and a decaying stadium in a place you can't get to very easily or get out of very easily," said Michael White, who heads the Long Island Regional Planning Council. "If those trends continue, then literally the tumbleweeds will be here in 2035."

Since he first unveiled his plans five years ago, Wang and his partner, developer Scott Rechler, have not turned a shovel of earth at the site. They have no lease to build on county land and are just now awaiting zoning approval from Hempstead Town.

Wang and his team have long criticized the pace of the process and the uncertainty whether they'll be able to build anything at all. "There's a process to go through and there are ways to speed it up and ways to slow it down," said Lighthouse president Michael Picker. "The faster we get to the finish line - yes or no - the better."

Last Tuesday, Wang and Rechler appeared before the town board at a zoning hearing held at Hofstra University, in their broadest effort to convince the board to rezone the property. So far, the board has not set a date for a vote.

"We are at a defining moment that will determine Long Island's future," Wang told the board. Rechler noted that without projects such as theirs, major companies would not come to Long Island or, like OSI Pharmaceuticals, the Farmingdale-based biotechnology firm, would relocate to more business-friendly locations.

To an impatient Wang, the clock is ticking. He has said that if the project does not have an approved lease and zoning by next Saturday, Oct. 3 - the date of the Islanders' opening home game - he will entertain offers to move the team to another city.

Town officials counter that Wang's lease with the county and SMG, the manager of the Coliseum, runs until 2015 and prevents the Islanders from playing home games elsewhere. By their view, Wang and the team aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Town: What deadline?

Many local officials and community members say the town has moved the process along as quickly as possible. They note that town officials shouldn't abide by Wang's self-imposed deadline.

"You can't make a determination of the future of this county . . . based on a sports calendar," said Nassau County minority leader Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa). "Everything we do . . . is subject to legal challenge. It's got to be done right."

To date, Wang has paid out some $15 million for studies, reports and consultants. He's also had to field demands for hefty payouts by everyone from the fire department to the Uniondale school district, all of whom expect to be compensated for what they see as the project's hefty impact.

In Uniondale's case, the district and Wang have agreed to a $4 million payment. At the same time, Wang's Islanders have been losing about $20 million a year, adding more red ink to a project Wang has hoped would put his personal stamp on Long Island.

By all appearances, Wang has lost more than money as he has tried to push his project along. During these five years, his one-time ally, Alfonse D'Amato - still a powerful voice in Nassau GOP circles - turned against the project.

D'Amato made that clear at a Republican fundraiser in 2005 when he said the Lighthouse would turn Nassau into the sixth borough of New York City.

With the project now before the Hempstead Town Board - the last bastion of GOP politics in Nassau - Wang and his staff have said privately to friends that they wonder if he had hired Armand D'Amato whether it would have helped the project. Wang has expressed that concern to several key officials and business people on Long Island in recent months.

Hempstead Town officials say neither politics nor D'Amato have played any role in the process.

Impact on whole region

Many experts agree that the project could have a strong economic impact, not just on Nassau County but the whole region. "I think this idea of modernizing or refocusing what a suburban economy looks like means you have to diversify your economic base," said Gary Huth, the Hicksville-based labor market analyst for the New York State Department of Labor.

Huth said a mix of the traditional suburban look, with single family homes on large plots of land, and higher-density developments could give Long Island "a really healthy, dynamic economy."

And on the commercial side, Huth noted that a development that can attract younger workers, bring in new industries, such as digital media or film, and bring in better hospitality services and business venues, such as a convention center, could help the Island "keep up with the rest of the world."

Some observers note that if Wang does not win approval to build his vision, or pulls out in frustration, it could scare other developers and business executives with plans of their own.

"It's going to send out messages to everyone that you don't ever want to come here because you can't get anything done," said developer Vincent Polimeni, who has been involved in delayed or rejected projects in the region and was once a bidder for the county land around Nassau Coliseum. "You reach a point as a developer where you ask, 'Why am I doing this? When do I say enough is enough?' That's what's going to hurt Long Island."

Conversations about development around Nassau Coliseum first began in earnest in 2003. After Wang officially unveiled the project at a September 2004 news conference, his first stop in the approval process was Nassau County government, because the Coliseum and the land around it are owned by the county and he would need a lease to build on it.

After the unveiling, Wang set up meetings with local politicians, including Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, a Republican, and Schmitt. "It was very exciting," Schmitt recalled. "He had a great vision."

But Schmitt recalled feeling uneasy about the lack of specifics in the plan. And he said he left Wang with a warning about the review process: "I told him, 'You have no idea what you're getting into.' "

For the most part, the meeting at the Westbury restaurant was between friends. Wang and Alfonse D'Amato had by then known each other for several years. Within months of losing re-election to the U.S. Senate in 1998, D'Amato joined the board of Computer Associates. He also worked for Wang's charity, the Smile Train Foundation, earning $399,000 from 1999 through 2002, according to records.

In September 2005, Wang threw down his own marker at a breakfast of business leaders. "This is not a Suozzi project, it's not a D'Amato-Mondello project, it's a Wang project," he said, referring to Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat, and County GOP chairman Joseph Mondello.

Monkey wrench in plans

In 2005, county officials threw a monkey wrench into Wang's plans by putting out a request for proposals, or RFP, to let other developers bid on the land, even though Wang was the owner of the Islanders.

"Looking back, I wish we had done an RFP right away," Suozzi said. "My feeling always was the most logical developer for the property was the owner of the Islanders . . . but I wish we had gone from the RFP process from the get-go."

Sources said that politics played a role then, too. It was, after all, an election year - and Democrats and Republicans alike lined up behind the need for a transparent process. Indeed, the GOP's county executive candidate, Gregory Peterson, ran a campaign opposed to the project.

The RFP started in summer 2005, forcing Wang to start from square one two years after he had first discussed the project with key government officials.

In late 2007, armed with his successful RFP and a designated developer agreement, Wang took his Lighthouse to Hempstead Town, which would have to create a new zone to accommodate the mixed uses of the project. The hearing on that zone took place last week. In the interim, Wang's backers say, there were calls and e-mails not returned, meetings that went nowhere and months of delays.

"Despite all the supportive words I have heard from you regarding the significance of the Lighthouse project, it is unfortunately very clear that your intention (or direction) has been to slow down the process," wrote Picker in a letter to Hempstead Town attorney Joseph Ra on Aug. 31. "I can see no reason, other than political, that we continue to struggle to achieve certainty by October 3, 2009."

More recently, after a letter from Murray to Suozzi spelled out new provisions the town is hoping to include in the county lease, Wang said, "This project, with all its benefits in this tough economic climate, constantly falls into political roadblocks."

What the critics say

The project's promotional materials say it will bring much-needed jobs, millions in tax revenues and will keep young people on Long Island. Critics counter that its scale is too vast, its high-rises are all wrong for the suburbs, and the traffic, waste and water use will far exceed what Long Island - or Nassau County - can handle.

And to town officials, the nearly two-year time span is to be expected for so vast a proposal. Wang and his staff, they say, complain too much about a project that is moving through the process quicker than most.

"I think we have been very cognizant that not only is this an important project, but a project in recessionary times . . . " said Murray in an interview. "We have worked at a tremendous pace and rate."

Jim Baeck, the Lighthouse project architect who has overseen many other large-scale developments, said that when the process works, it's because the town and city and their related agencies are "part of our development team."

He said the Lighthouse is the longest-running project he has ever seen without either a shovel in the ground or a developer choosing to pull up stakes. "It's been much longer than any other process than I personally have gone through," Baeck said. "I don't know how developers . . . can have the financial and mental wherewithal to outlast the process."

To town officials, the notion that they are on a "team" with Wang is nonsensical. Murray calls herself a "judge" of the project, saying that she cannot meet with any developer to talk about proposed projects. "The problem comes if I would have a private meeting with every developer, where is the public in that meeting?" she said.

Some other Long Island town supervisors say they routinely meet with developers to discuss their ideas. For example, in Islip, Town Supervisor Phil Nolan, a Democrat, said he has met with the developers behind Heartland Town Square, a $4-billion mixed-use development covering far more ground - 450 acres - than Lighthouse.

"I've met with . . . developers on numerous developments here, on large projects as well as small projects," he said in June. "I like to be on top of things. The door's always open."

Success in Suffolk

Wang has seen success before when he has worked side-by-side with political officials. His first attempt on a real estate project came when he decided to move Computer Associates, which he founded in 1976, from Garden City to Suffolk County, after complaining that he had found it too difficult to relocate to Plainview.

Then-Suffolk County Executive Pat Halpin met with those handling CA's search to encourage the move. Later, when there was a disagreement over the height of the new building, Halpin, a Democrat, assembled all the parties in a room. Within a few hours, the issue was resolved, Halpin recalled recently. A deal was made in 1989 and three years later, CA's employees moved into a lavish headquarters in Islandia.

"I think you have to be engaged as a public official," Halpin said in a recent interview, noting that he has encouraged Murray to talk with Wang about the Lighthouse. "The most important thing local governments do is zoning and development, and the tone is set at the top."

Wang has tried, and failed, in Nassau County before. Wang and Rechler proposed a project they called "Old Plainview," of up to 1,000 housing units, office space and stores, along with a hotel and village center in Plainview. But public outcry, combined with what Wang saw as a lack of enthusiasm from Oyster Bay Town officials, led him to withdraw his application, abruptly, as an evening public hearing with the Town of Oyster Bay was about to begin.

Sources say that quick Wang decision shows that he's serious about the need for answers. And Suozzi and other county officials say they hope the Lighthouse doesn't meet the same end.

"If we come to October and the deal is off and Wang says, 'I'm walking,' that would become one of the biggest shames in the county's history," Suozzi said. "It would be a terrible symbol of dysfunction. And if it succeeded, it would be a tremendous symbol of hope for the future that we can be someplace special."

But town officials aren't buying it. "We don't tell them when they have to bring in a Stanley Cup," Murray said during an interview at the zoning hearing. "And developers generally don't impose deadlines on zoning authorities."

But beyond the politics, the deadlines and the back-and-forth debate, there is a bigger concern for the region, economists and other experts said.

"You run the risk of marginalizing yourself," said Huth, the state labor market analyst. "You run the risk of being one of those areas that we all recognize around the country where populations kind of drift away."

To even the most seasoned observers of Long Island politics, the five years Wang has spent trying to gain traction on his project is surprising.

"It's remarkable to me," Halpin said. "I mean, we're talking about an asphalt wasteland."

By William Murphy

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi sketched out his vision for economic growth Wednesday, and made yet another pitch for the Lighthouse project, one of the key components of that vision.

Suozzi made his presentation on what he calls "new suburbia," on the lower level of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which would be renovated as part of the megaproject.

The event was meant to promote Suozzi's broad plan, but the setting, the participants and the comments were all Lighthouse related. And the session came on the heels of a daylong hearing on Islanders owner Charles Wang's project before the Hempstead town board.

After the scripted panel discussion on the overall plan, Suozzi said the Lighthouse was "the symbol of the whole thing," then corrected himself to call it, "one of the symbols."

He was once again critical of the Town of Hempstead for not moving faster to approve the project, which was one of the four large projects he hopes to pull off in the next few years.

But Suozzi's Republican opponent for county executive, Legis. Edward Mangano of Bethpage, said Suozzi's comments about the town were "yet another installment of the Suozzi blame game, where he blames every other level of government for his own shortcomings."

"A real leader, after eight long years in office, would be talking about his accomplishments rather than recycled Election Day sound bites," Mangano said.

Suozzi's other projects -- much less advanced -- are the redevelopment of Belmont Park and the adjacent area of Elmont, the 105-acre Grumman plot in Bethpage where he envisions an incubator for high-tech business, and the redevelopment of the Glen Cove waterfront.

The presentation formalized comments Suozzi has been making for several months about 90 percent of the county being "what people love about the suburbs" and should remain unchanged, while 10 percent should be redeveloped.

That would include the four megaprojects, proposed or existing "cool downtowns" near transportation hubs, and upgrades to existing commercial strips around the county.

Suozzi announced the formation of a "90/10 Coalition" that includes planners, educators, community groups, labor and others.

However, Lisa Tyson of the Long Island Progressive Coalition said at the presentation that she had not seen plans to make a grass-roots connection. "How do we get to my cousin, who doesn't go to these things?" Tyson said.

By Matthew Chayes

A pill bottle of narcotics in one fist and a semiautomatic pistol in the other, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi Tuesday tallied up the proceeds of a government program to encourage people to rid themselves of old drugs and to sell their illegal guns:

Tens of thousands of pills came out of medicine cabinets, he said. Exactly 1,101 guns came off the streets and out of people's homes since the county began its gun buyback efforts last year. No questions asked or IDs checked.

Many of the guns were turned in for $200 each at churches, cash that came from the district attorney's office, asset forfeiture funds and donations from police unions representing officers and their supervisors.

"It takes teamwork to make the dream work," Suozzi said.

There was no payout for the drugs, but Suozzi said the program can prevent kids from getting hold of their elders' prescriptions.

The drug-disposal program began in North Hempstead, where Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman said the effort's original aim was to prevent the groundwater supply from being contaminated with sundry drugs flushed down the toilet.

In all, there were hundreds and hundreds of pounds in "unwanted pharmaceuticals" given to the authorities, said Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. The proceeds will be incinerated, county officials said.

The county expanded the program on the theory that people who take heroin often start their drug habits with everyday household prescriptions and move on to hard-core drugs.

Kaiman said he was surprised at how many people at a recent event in New Hyde Park came to drop off drugs - painkillers, opiates and more.

"For seven hours," Kaiman said, "it was just cars streaming in."

By Sid Cassese

While putting the finishing touches of next year's operating budget, County Executive Thomas Suozzi said one thing is for sure, his proposed spending plan of $2.617 billion - about $13 million more than this year - will not have a county property tax hike.

"This percentage of increase is the smallest I can ever remember," Suozzi said Monday of the budget he must present to the county legislature Tuesday.

His plan includes a proposal, though still not approved by the state, for a $1.50 per pack tax on cigarettes sold in Nassau. It's expected to bring the county $16 million annually. "The supporting legislation has been drafted in the State Assembly, with a 'same-as' being drafted in the Senate," he added.

Suozzi's proposed budget, though, still relies on a modestly optimistic 1.75 percent increase in sales tax revenue, which is the county's largest income stream, accounting for nearly 40 percent of its budget. This year, it appears such revenue will have dropped between 6 and 8 percent from last year, county officials said.

Suozzi, who is running for re-election in November, said he has enough federal and state aid, along with labor givebacks negotiated this year, to maintain this year's $130 million in cuts through 2010.

Still, there is $75 million in labor obligations and state mandates that must be met.

Suozzi's GOP opponent, Legis. Edward Mangano of Bethpage, said: "Don't be fooled by this so-called no tax hike budget, Suozzi already has increased taxes the equivalent of 4.5 percent with the home energy tax he put into effect in June. And we don't know what other surprises he has up his sleeve."

Suozzi said he is cutting wherever possible, and with his employee count down to under 8,800, primarily because of this year's cash incentives for Civil Service Employees Association members and police retirees, he has significant savings.

Tom Stokes, Suozzi's top financial aide, said 350 vacant jobs are in the budget, and "right now, we're thinking about filling maybe 200."

Stokes also said $10 million in savings is expected from purchasing and there will be consolidation and realignment of some departments.

By Eden Laikin

Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray sent a letter to Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi Thursday saying she and the other town board members "will be looking for" specific provisions in the county's lease with the developers of the Lighthouse project before the board approves zoning for the site.

The letter was met with surprise and anger by Suozzi and Lighthouse principal investor Charles Wang.

But Murray, in an interview Thursday night, said the provisions should come as no surprise. "There are no new issues," she said. "Both Suozzi and Wang have talked about them for years."

She said the board is "just trying to crystallize the points that have been talked about ad nauseam." And she said as the final hearing, on Sept. 22, approaches, "this is exactly the time to make sure all the t's are crossed and the i's dotted.

The Lighthouse project calls for a mixed-use development on 150 county-owned acres surrounding Nassau Coliseum.

Murray's letter calls for measures such as requiring renovation of Nassau Coliseum first to prevent the developer from selling his development rights or seeking tax breaks once the project is approved.

Wang said Thursday he was "disappointed and frustrated" by the town's latest move. In recent months he has accused the town of slowing the approval process.

Wang, the owner of the New York Islanders, has said if he doesn't have the go-ahead by Oct. 3 - the start of the hockey season - he will "explore all other options."

"After nearly eight years, Kate Murray has decided to unleash multiple demands to once again delay and jeopardize the Lighthouse project with only a few weeks before the October 3rd certainty date," he said. "This project, with all its benefits in this tough economic climate, constantly falls into political roadblocks."

Suozzi, who has said the lease is "99 percent complete" and ready to be presented to the Nassau County Legislature, said Thursday he hopes Murray's letter "doesn't chase the Islanders out of town."

"It's hard to imagine that with only 23 days until the hockey season begins, Supervisor Murray would bring up 10 new issues that could have been discussed at any time during the past three years," he said.

Lighthouse principals have said the development would create thousands of construction jobs and generate millions of dollars in tax revenue. Murray said Thursday she wants those measures in writing.

Her letter said the provisions are necessary to protect town residents "against the possibility of an Islanders departure after the real estate is rezoned," a move that would permit "a significant intensification of use."

It also said the town expects the county not to complete a lease until the town board reaches a consensus about the Lighthouse proposal after the Sept. 22 zoning hearing.

By Ann Givens

For the third time in a year, Nassau County is holding anonymous gun buybacks, which are scheduled over the next two weekends at churches in Hempstead, Westbury and Long Beach, officials said.

Residents can drop off any working handgun at the three churches with no questions asked, officials said. In exchange, they will be given $200 cash, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said at a news conference Wednesday. "It's incredibly important to make sure guns get into the hands of our police officers before they get into the hands of our children," Rice said.

Guns brought by car must be transported in the trunk, and all guns must be unloaded and put in a paper or plastic bag or in a shoebox, officials said. Licensed guns, BB guns, air pistols, long guns and replicas will not be accepted, Rice said.

After the buyback, all guns turned in will be checked to see if they have been used in the commission of a crime, but no effort will be made to determine who dropped them off, Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said.

Nassau's last two gun buybacks, which took place in December and in May, resulted in the recovery of more than 700 guns, officials said.

Saturday's buyback will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Iglesia Pentecostal De Hempstead, 600-603 Greenwich St., Hempstead, and at First Baptist Cathedral of Westbury, 212 Garden St., Westbury. The Sept. 19 buyback will be at Christian Light Missionary Baptist Church, 620 Rev. J.J. Evans Blvd., Long Beach.

By Ann Givens

Nassau County will try something new in its efforts to fight drug addiction among residents: Ask them to turn in their unused, expired and even illegal drugs.

Nassau officials say many teenagers who become addicted to heroin - a drug that has been wreaking havoc in Nassau County in recent years - started by getting addicted to prescription pills that they found in their parents' medicine chests, particularly opiates like OxyContin and Percocet.

Once the prescription drugs run dry, the teens find heroin, which is cheap and readily available in many forms, to be the easy substitute, officials said.

"Once teenagers are addicted to prescription drugs, they look for where else they can get the same high, and too often the answer is heroin," Suozzi said.

The anonymous program, which will take place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at every Nassau police precinct and at Sen. Michael J. Tully Jr. Park, 1801 Evergreen Ave. in New Hyde Park, was inspired by a similar program implemented by North Hempstead in June.

That program was started more as a way to keep dangerous pharmaceuticals out of local water systems, said North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman. The North Hempstead drug take-back resulted in 400 pounds of drugs being turned in, including Tamiflu, Xanax, Vicodin, OxyContin, Ambien, methadone and veterinary drugs. The oldest medication was a vial of sleeping pills that had been prescribed in the pharmacy at Macy's Herald Square in 1966, officials said.

For Saturday's drug take-back, accepted medications include painkillers, tranquilizers, antidepressants, antibiotics, over-the-counter drugs, pet medications, vitamins, supplements, and inhalants, officials said.

Illegal drugs may also be dropped off anonymously, officials said. Drugs should be in their original containers if possible, and if not, placed in plastic bags that are labeled. They will be safely disposed of, officials said. Needles, syringes, IV bags, infectious waste, pharmaceutical waste not generally used by households, radioactive pharmaceuticals and vaccines will not be accepted, officials said.

By Sid Cassese

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi vowed Tuesday not to raise property taxes next year despite a projected $75-million expenditure hike in the budget he must submit to the county legislature on Tuesday.

"Must be an election in 60 days," responded Nassau County Legis. Peter Schmitt, (R-Massapequa), the legislature's minority leader.

Suozzi said the additional spending results either from state mandates or contractual labor obligations.

Speaking to department heads and other top Nassau officials, the county executive told them that the county's historically low employee head count - 8,800 - must be maintained and that very few people would be hired to replace the more than 600 people who retired this year.

"In addition," he said, "we still must maintain the $130 million budget cut made for this year. To do that, I need to find another $15 million [in savings] in the next week, and I need everyone to look at how we can go that last mile."

Suozzi and his financial aides did not fully spell out how they expected to add spending without raising taxes, but talked more about maintaining the current cuts, through:

not filling vacant jobs;

maintaining low overtime figures for police and correction officers;

consolidating a variety of support services in the finance and purchasing areas;

getting the county's red-light camera program fully operational.

Anticipated new money would come from the second year of federal stimulus, about $43 million, and a variety of much smaller revenue streams, according to Tom Stokes, Suozzi's top financial aide.

Then there's a county cigarette tax, which still must be approved by the State Legislature. Suozzi said it now has the support of the governor and the State Assembly. But that $2 tax has now been dropped to $1.50, and the $20 million anticipated annually will be reduced.

County Legis. Edward Mangano (R-Bethpage), Suozzi's opponent for county executive in November, blamed Suozzi for Nassau's financial woes.

He said Suozzi should have fixed the county's broken tax assessment system, "which cost taxpayers more than $600 million and should not have doubled his staff, which cost the county another $160 million. Right there is a three-quarter-billion fix that he lacks the will to enact."

Stokes, a deputy county executive, responded that Suozzi is "leading the charge on fixing the assessment system, and there are 1,000 fewer employees than when Suozzi took over in 2002."