Financial challenges lay ahead of the fledgling Romaine administration as the new Suffolk executive confronts a number of issues left in the wake of his predecessor, Steve Bellone. With a Republican in control of the county’s top administrative post for the first time in 12 years and the GOP controlling the legislature, officials said they have their work cut out for them in putting Suffolk’s fiscal house back in order, rebuilding its aging infrastructure, and providing better services to the taxpayers.
Looming over the county’s bottom line are a number of lawsuits Bellone left unsettled that could eclipse $1 billion. The county is self-insured and officials report that the reserve fund to cover the litigation has not been adequately maintained. They warned of the consequences of borrowing money to pay legal claims and the risks involved with continued delays.
A suit by the ratepayers of the Southwest Sewer District dating back to 2015 is seeking the return of $260 million they say was charged for bonds that were paid off years before. A suit by the Long Island Pine Barrens Society is looking for the return of $198 million they contend was diverted from environmental purposes into the general fund. The mother of Thomas Valva sued Suffolk for $30 million, charging that Child Protective Services failed to protect her son from his abusive father.
“It probably would have been less expensive to settle some of the suits instead of just kicking the can down the road,” said Legislator Steven Flotteron, Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee. “Instead, Bellone passed the burden along to the new county executive to worry about.”
According to Flotteron, the new leadership will have to grapple with the drying up of hundreds of millions in federal funds for COVID relief, which he said were a “blessing that bailed out the Bellone administration.” The county is also bracing for a drop in sales tax revenue as consumers will no longer have the pandemic stimulus monies to spend, he noted, adding that Bellone’s one-shot revenue deals such as unloading the John J. Foley Nursing Home or selling the H. Lee Dennison Building are no longer on the table.
“For many years they were spending on average $150 million more per year than they were bringing in,” the budget committee chairman said of the Democrats. “We had eight bond rating downgrades; Suffolk was the worst off financially out of 62 counties in the state.” Flotteron stressed that a main priority of the legislature, which came under the control of the Republicans during the last of Bellone’s three terms, is lifting the county’s bond rating. “Just like a consumer, municipalities are forced to pay higher interest rates if their credit is bad. We shouldn’t have to spend any more than we have to. The difference means more services to the residents, maybe upgrades to efficient lighting, getting more of our facilities fixed up.”
Renovating county buildings that have fallen into disrepair over the last 12 years is a high priority of the legislature. “We are one of the richer counties in the nation and you take a look at some of our buildings, it’s deplorable. Some of the facilities date back to the sixties, they’re worn out, beyond repair,” he said, adding, “l used to be the canary in the coal mine talking about these problems. Now it’s up to us to fix them.”
Off the campaign trail, where he made county finances a key issue, and taking the reins of county government on January 1, Edward Romaine said he is conducting a “top-to-bottom review” of Bellone’s budgets to wring out saving and prioritize spending with an eye toward saving taxpayers dollars. “We inherited a ship with a lot of holes in it,” the new chief administrator said. “Every day, we are patching holes to keep the boat from sinking.”
Romaine upbraided his predecessor for the $27 million spent in the wake of the September 2022 cyberattack that crippled county government for months, an incident he said could have been avoided if Bellone had moved IT operations into the Cloud as he had done when he was Brookhaven supervisor. “Spending $27 million didn’t get us cybersecurity insurance; it didn’t move us into the Cloud; it didn’t do the things you would normally do if you wanted to protect the system,” Romaine said. “I want to find out where all of that money went.”
Romaine pointed to the failure of Child Protective Services in the Valva case and recent reports that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was 6-8 weeks behind in processing applications. “Do you think these people were concerned about how the county was operating?” Romaine said of Bellone’s staff. “It doesn’t look like it.”
Romaine echoed the legislature’s budget and finance chairman in saying an increase in Suffolk’s bond rating would be a boon to county finances. “I’m trying to get the rating up at least a notch. We need a better credit rating in order to save the taxpayers some money.” The county executive said he is also focused on fulfilling a campaign pledge to cut the county tax on home heating and other fuels as a way to provide relief to Suffolk’s overburdened taxpayers.
According to Suffolk Comptroller John Kennedy, the lack of resources has hampered his office’s ability to conduct audits and get back money owed to the taxpayers. He said there’s $12 million worth of unbilled mental health and methadone treatment hours pending at the health department dating back to 2022. “They say, ‘Oh well, it was a consequence of the hack.’ Actually, it was a consequence of the fact that they had inadequate operational staff in the health department that was compounded by the hack,” he explained.
“We have a salary and classification schedule that is woefully behind any other entity that you point to, including other municipalities,” Kennedy went on. “I can't get accountants or auditors because we pay less than towns, villages, school districts, etc. Bellone destroyed the elemental functions of government to benefit his well-heeled and well-paid cronies, who were put into make-believe titles with six-figure salaries. It was a complete waste of government resources that led to an absolute frustration for the average citizen trying to get the most basic services from their government. It was mind numbing,” concluded Kennedy, who was a candidate against Bellone in 2019. “Thank God for term limits,” Kennedy said of the restrictions that prohibited Bellone from running for a fourth term.
Suffolk is not completely done with the Bellone administration as his former deputy, Lisa M. Black, is yet to testify before the special legislative committee investigating the cyberattack. The committee’s report, which is expected to lay blame for the hack and include recommendations on bolstering the county’s cybersecurity, is nearly complete, pending the outcome of Black’s testimony, county officials said.
“It’s very challenging, but I’m confident we can make it better,” summed up Romaine. “I don't think people know how bad it was. We’re going to restructure this government and make it work for the residents.”
Bellone, who sources say is pursuing a college teaching position, could not be reached for this report.