Tempers flare at Rockville Centre board meeting

As Monday’s Rockville Centre Board of Trustees meeting drew to an end, a closing comment sparked a heated exchange between board members.

Trustee Edward Oppenheimer, using the time slotted at the end of the meeting for trustees to offer final statements, once again called into question the hiring of Anthony Cancellieri as a consultant to the village and expressed his

concern about Cancellieri’s connections to South Nassau Communities Hospital. Mayor

Francis Murray recently announced that Cancellieri was instrumental in working out an agreement with the hospital to allow it to rent parking spaces from Municipal Parking Field 12 in the village.

“After the last board meeting, I was informed that Mr. Cancellieri is a member of the board of directors of South Nassau hospital,” Oppenheimer said. “That makes me wonder just who Mr. Cancellieri is negotiating with.”

Oppenheimer added that he had also discovered that the hospital has paid Park Strategies, a consulting company at which Cancellieri is vice president, $570,000 for lobbying. He said he had found the information at www.opensecrets.org.

When the mayor attempted to respond to the accusations, an interruption by Oppenheimer caused a brief argument as tempers flared.

“Excuse me, Trustee Oppenheimer, I’m trying to make a statement,” Murray said forcefully. “I didn’t interrupt you. Do not interrupt me.”

Murray went on to say that the current deal between the hospital and the village is worth more money per parking spot than either a previous deal that fell through in 2009 or a deal from the same year that had been made with Molloy College.

Oppenheimer countered by criticizing the deal, saying that he did not believe the village was receiving a fair price for the parking spots.

“If the complaint is that we should be receiving significantly more for this lot, I understand that perspective,” said Michael Schussheim, the village comptroller and the acting village administrator. “But that doesn’t seem to be the reality because no one seems to be willing, whether it be Molloy College or South Nassau a few years ago, to pay us a significantly higher rate.”

What has Cancellieri done?