GOVERNMENT

Mangano, Dems pitch lobbying disclosure bills

After Skelos revelations, different proposals

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Ed Mangano, the Republican Nassau County executive, and Democratic county legislators separately proposed legislation last week that would, if passed, require greater disclosure from lobbyists and their clients attempting to influence the county government.

Their bills came just days after it was revealed publicly that federal prosecutors are investigating Dean Skelos, Republican majority leader of the State Senate, and his son, Adam, in connection with AbTech Industries, an Arizona company that hired the latter and received a $12 million storm-water treatment contract from Nassau County, even though another company submitted a lower bid. The senator, 67, and Adam, 32, live in houses near each other in Rockville Centre. Neither has been accused of wrongdoing.

The New York Times first reported on April 15 that prosecutors in the office of Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, were introducing evidence to a grand jury weighing a criminal case against the Skeloses. The next day Dean Skelos said he was cooperating with investigators. Also on April 16, Madeline Singas, Nassau’s acting district attorney, announced that her office would investigate Nassau’s contract practices.

Mangano — who reportedly received a subpoena and testified to the grand jury earlier this month about the AbTech contract — sent his bill to the County Legislature on April 20, and the Legislature’s minority Democratic caucus answered with two bills on April 21. Through a spokeswoman, Mangano declined to answer questions about any connection between the federal probe and his bill or about the grand jury. In a news release, Kevan Abrahams, the Legislature’s Democratic leader, said that a goal of the Democrats’ bills would be to “avoid another AbTech.”

The county currently has no local laws about lobbying disclosure, according to the Mangano spokeswoman, Katie Grilli-Robles.

The proposals

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