By Jonathan Cronin
Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta, for a second time in the last four months, has vetoed a bill that may have given the Village of Atlantic Beach say over its own zoning.
The bill, sponsored by Legislator Mike Zapson (D-Long Beach), would have given the village the power to rule over its own zoning, a right that every other village in the state has under the laws of Home Rule. The bill would have placed the measure up for a public referendum on the November 2001 ballot. Currently, the charter states that villages incorporated after 1936 must have their zoning ruled by the nearest town, which for Atlantic Beach is the Town of Hempstead. Atlantic Beach was incorporated in June of 1962; the bill would have amended the county charter to state that villages incorporated after January of 1963 may rule their own zoning.
"At the 11th hour of the last day, Gulotta vetoed the bill," said Atlantic Beach Mayor Stephen Mahler, explaining that the county executive waited the full 30 days to veto the bill. "He left us twisting in the wind until the last hour."
The county executive, who vetoed the bill on Wednesday, September 27, said Nassau County Attorney Alfred Samenga argued that if the county were to give Atlantic Beach the power to control its own zoning it "would violate Article 9, Section 2 (d) of the New York State Constitution, which provides that a local government cannot adopt a Local Law which effectively impairs the powers of another local government."
In his veto message, Mr. Gulotta said, "They would simultaneously be divesting and impairing the powers presently held by the Town of Hempstead."
Legislator Zapson said of the veto message, "The reason he vetoed it is because he wants to keep all power in the Town of Hemsptead, the Republican stronghold...strictly politics."
County Executive Gulotta said the decision to veto the bill "has not been an easy one." He added that proponents of the bill "have been very eloquent in their support of this legislation."
Mayor Mahler believes the county executive has "lost credibility as a political figure. To wait to the last minute to let us twist in the wind on the 11th hour of the 30th day is insulting."
The effort to get the bill into Mr. Gulotta's hands has been long and arduous. The bill was passed by the county legislature twice. The first time that it was sent to the county executive, he asked for the opinion of State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who ruled that it was not unconstitutional. "We went through all that routine," the mayor said.
In mid-May the full Nassau County Legislature voted in favor of the bill, with Francis X. Becker (R-Lynbrook) breaking party lines to vote for it as well. Since then he has changed his mind and in subsequent votes on the bill, whether in the legislature's Towns, Villages, and Cities Committee or in the full legislature, the tally has been strictly along party lines.
In June when County Executive Gulotta vetoed the bill the first time he said that he did not veto it on the bill's merit, but was not sure that the county had the power to bestow zoning authority on a village. That's when he requested an opinion from Attorney General Spitzer and said he would make his own decision based on the attorney general's ruling.
After two months, the attorney general said it was legal for the county to grant zoning authority to the village. "The attorney general told us exactly what we already knew," Mayor Mahler said at the time.
Mr. Gulotta then had 60 days to sign it so it could be put on the November 2000 election ballot. He allowed the 60-day deadline to expire, and waited until his legal deadline of September 27--30 days after the legislature handed him the measure-- to veto the bill.
"I suspect he's trying to curry favor with the Republicans," Mayor Mahler said of Mr. Gulotta's motivation. He said Mr. Gulotta has lost favor with the Nassau County Village Officials Association, an organization that represents up to 450,000 people.
"We're incredibly disappointed," said Steve Corbett, president of the Nassau County Village Officials Association. "He has always been pro-village in the past," he added. "This was his first opportunity to vote pro-village and he blew it."
Mayor Mahler said the county executive's action is "an insult to village government."
"I thought he would just let it go. He's not signing it into law."
"A number of village officials are disappointed," said Mr. Corbett. "To me it's a minor issue that has become a monstrosity because of the way it was handled."
