By Brian Zanzonico
The audit, released last Wednesday at a press conference in Mineola, also revealed that residents paid more last year for garbage pickup ‹ an average tax levy of $798 ‹ than for local police patrols ‹ an average of $620. In addition, the audit uncovered that for the two years audited ‹ 2003 and 2004 ‹ more than $400,000 in goods and services were purchased, with no evidence of solicitation of competitive bids; that the district paid a lobbyist $12,000 a year without documentation of the need for one or evidence of work performed; and that health benefits were provided to certain part-time lawyers and commissioners but not to other part-time employees. Sanitary District No. 6 covers Elmont, Franklin Square, Garden City South, Lakeview, Malverne Park, South Floral Park and West Hempstead.
³This is an independent fiefdom run by managers and commissioners with nobody watching,² said Weitzman, a Democrat who is running for re-election against Town Receiver of Taxes Donald Clavin, a Republican.
Weitzman said the district routinely breached the employees¹ Collective Bargaining Agreement, which requires a five-day, eight-hour work week, by allowing workers, who make an average of $22 an hour, to leave hours before a scheduled shift¹s end. There is no clock to punch or sheet to sign to document hours of work, but the secretary to the district¹s Board of Commissioners, Martin Carroll, said employees start at 7 a.m. and are marked late if they are late and absent if they neglect to show. As for workers leaving before the mandatory eight hours are up, Carroll said it is commonplace.
³We work in a modified task system, the same as the Town of Oyster Bay, the Town of Hempstead, and all the villages,² Carroll said, noting that in 2004, Sanitary District No. 6 paid employees a total of only $248 in overtime. ³The men go out, and when the area they¹re assigned is cleared, they¹re allowed to go home. Everyone uses [the modified task system]. For [Weitzman] to criticize that is blatantly political. Guys don¹t make much money here and have to work second jobs to pay taxes, mortgage rates.²
Carroll also said that the lobbyist, who works in Albany, is a necessary expense because he has secured the district $50,000 in funding and grants over the last three years. ³He pays for himself,² he said.
Weitzman said the district also gave preferential treatment to its part-time lawyers, commissioners, an employee assistance representative and a community service representative in the form of employee benefits. The district has an unwritten policy to provide benefits to employees who work 20 or more hours a week, but not to those who work fewer than 20 hours.
The audit showed, however, that certain part-time employees received benefits, at a cost of about $63,700 in 2003 and $63,190 in 2004. Carroll said that full-time employees receive two weeks¹ vacation in the summer, and that ³seasonal workers,² mostly college students, fill in for $320 a week. ³They don¹t get benefits because they are seasonal,² he said.
Carroll said there are some items in the audit the district agrees with and will ³tighten up.² He said the state usually audits the district, and that this was the first audit conducted by Nassau County since 1929. When the state does an audit, Carroll said, one man is sent to the district office and spends about a week poring over records. He said the county sent a team from the comptroller¹s office, and the audit took 46 days to complete. ³This was a little bit over the top,² Carroll said. ³It was blatantly political. That¹s obvious.²
Weitzman, however, said residents deserve to know why they¹re paying more for trash pickup than public safety. ³This is a hidden tax for Nassau County taxpayers and a drain on their wallets,² he said.
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