Oceanside sanitation suit dismissed

Judge calls legal effort ‘laudable,’ but throws it out

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A Westchester County judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit on March 13 that sought to recoup more than $800,000 in retirement payments made by the Town of Hempstead’s Sanitation District No. 7 in Oceanside to a former district commissioner and his son.

Plaintiffs Joseph Samoles and Dennis Rockefeller, both former Oceanside sanitation workers, filed the suit in November 2015. They claimed that two former members of the sanitation district’s board of commissioners, Joseph Cibellis and Florence Mensch, and current member Thomas Lanning prevented retrieval of the funds from Michael Scarlata and his son Charles, who were each paid roughly $400,000 in deferred payments from 1998 to 2013.

The lawsuit was dismissed on a technicality.

In the decision, Judge Lewis Lubell described the plaintiffs’ efforts as “laudable,” but dismissed the case on grounds that Sanitation District No. 7 — an independent district under the Town of Hempstead’s umbrella — is not categorized as a county, town, village or municipal corporation. Austin Graff, an attorney representing Samoles and Rockefeller, had sought to designate it as such.

The suit arose after a December 2014 audit by the state comptroller’s office revealed that the district had made more than $800,000 in what the comptroller deemed to be illegal deferred retirement payments to Scarlata and his son. The report recommended that the district stop making payments to the Scarlatas, and attempt to recoup part, if not all, of the funds.

In November 2015, the board voted to have its current attorney, Jared Kasschau, of the Uniondale-based Harris Beech law firm, review the report. Scarlata’s contract with the district was terminated the following month.

The suit alleges that Cibellis, Mensch and Lanning voted against measures to retrieve the funds because of political and business relationships they have with the Scarlatas. Michael Scarlata was president of the Oceanside Republican Club until April 2016.

Ed Scharfberg, current chairman of District No. 7’s board of commissioners, said he was pleased with the judge’s decision. “We’re happy that it was settled,” he said. “Now we can move on with the day-to-day operations of the district and continue to bring excellent service to Oceanside.”

Lanning said he was happy with the result, and maintained that there had never been any wrongdoing. “There were no merits to the accusations,” he asserted. “There was nothing wrong.”

Graff said he had filed a notice of appeal and would consult with Samoles and Rockefeller to discuss options going forward. He noted that the judge’s ruling voiced sympathy for his clients. “The judge sees there’s something there,” he said, but due to his reading of the law, the case could not move forward.

Neither Scarlata nor Cibellis could be reached for comment.