Tensions boiled over on Monday as the Nassau County Legislature failed to pass County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s $426 million capital improvement plan, leaving critical infrastructure funding in limbo amid a bitter partisan standoff over fire department funding.
All 12 Republican legislators voted to approve the plan, which includes money for roadwork, park upgrades, police equipment and emergency vehicles. But all seven Democrats abstained, arguing that Blakeman failed to provide a written commitment to fund safety upgrades for fire departments and EMS services in their districts. After a hour of debate in the legislative chamber, the plan was tabled. The reason for the stalemate, according to Democrats, is a lack of trust.
John Jarvis, a Glen Cove resident who volunteers for the Oyster Bay Fire Department, was one of a dozen people who spoke to legislators before their vote.
“A lot of these grants going back to 2023 and 2022 are from those years’ capital plans, and they just want assurance that those that they’re going to going to be able to get their grants,” Jarvis said of the legislators. “I find it extremely offensive that my fire department is able to secure a $386,000 grant to buy a new ambulance, but meanwhile, 20 minutes away in Glen Cove and Sea Cliff, they can’t even secure grants for their fire departments. It’s very offensive. I want to be safe when I go into a fire. I want to be able to use modern, modernized equipment. Be the people that you were on Sept. 12, 2001. On that day, we weren’t Republicans, we weren’t Democrats. It didn’t matter who we were, we all worked together on the side of the World Trade Center to rescue victims.”
Legislator Seth Koslow, a Democrat and a candidate for county executive, said, “Over a million dollars in funding for CPR equipment, turnout gear for firefighters when they run into a burning building, (and) communication upgrades for our local police departments has been ignored.”
Koslow accused Blakeman of “blatant political bias,” noting that since 2023, “$2.5 million in funding (has been) sent to Republican districts,” while “there has been zero approved for Democratic-led districts.”
Democrats say the money they’re requesting was approved under previous capital plans and is not new spending.
“What other reason besides petty politics could there be for not approving these requests for money?” Koslow said.
The capital plan requires a 13-vote supermajority to pass, meaning Democratic support is essential. In a rare move hours before the vote, the minority caucus presented Blakeman with a written contract guaranteeing funding for specific projects in their districts — including basic equipment for volunteer fire departments — and threatened to withhold their votes if he did not sign it.
“At the end of the day, he has our agreement. All he has to do is sign it,” Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton said. “I cannot, and I will not, support this capital plan unless I know that all of us in Nassau County will get the funding we deserve, especially for our first responders.”
Blakeman, however, forcefully rejected the Democrats’ demand, accusing them of political gamesmanship.
“You want to play political games with people’s lives? So you’re going to have to answer to your constituents,” Blakeman said at a heated news conference before the vote. “We have a capital plan that’s got $400 million of basic improvements to the quality of life and the public safety of Nassau County, and they’ve got about $2 million in pet projects that they want to hold hostage.”
Blakeman listed the safety projects that would be jeopardized if the plan isn’t passed including $1.14 million for bulletproof vests for police, $3 million for new ambulances, $1.5 million for body cameras and $50,000 for personal protection gear for firefighters. He also cited a $550,000 high-axle vehicle that would assist in flood evacuations.
“I think (this is) is irresponsible — a violation of their oath as a legislator,” Blakeman said.
The day culminated with dueling news conferences and a public exchange between Blakeman and DeRiggi-Whitton, who confronted him with the unsigned agreement.
“If you don’t sit down, you’ll be asked to leave,” Blakeman said.
Democrats maintain that their concerns are about fairness, not obstruction. “County Executive Blakeman has politicized every issue, from the most basic, of water, to first responders, to getting funding for really basic needs that were never honestly a problem in the past,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “Every single thing has become a fight.”
Koslow added, “There’s no such thing as Democratic or Republican fires … When our first responders run into buildings, we want them prepared to help us.”
