Huntington town councilwoman Glenda Jackson was in the spotlight earlier today in Albany at the annual conference of black and Hispanic lawmakers. She was honored at a luncheon for being the first black to sit on the Huntington board in the town’s 350-year history.
Receiving a plaque from luncheon organizer Assemb. Earlene Hooper (D-Hempstead), Jackson said of her history-making role, “This isn’t an easy task but it’s something we have to do.”
Joining in the ceremony were Nassau Legis. Roger Corbin (D-Westbury) and the new state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a former Assemblyman from Great Neck.
More than 100 people attended the buffet lunch in the Legislative Office Building, across the street from the State Capitol. Hooper said she’s been hosting the event for years to bring together Long Islanders who attend the annual conference.
James T. Madore
Comments (1)
October 23, 2007
Dear District Attorney Spota, Attorney General Cuomo
and Editors of the local press:
I write as a resident and taxpayer of the Town of Huntington, asking you to investigate apparent flagrant mismanagement and corruption in the Town Attorney’s Office. I have spent a great deal of time and money pursing this spiraling abuse of tax dollars, and forward it to you in an effort to restore good government to my Town.
On March 12, 2006, the New York Times published an article by David Winzelberg, where he wrote about pay-to-play and the Huntington Town Attorney’s Office. In that article he stated, “It is a familiar, symbiotic circle: a town’s elected leaders, many of them lawyers, spend a lot of tax money on legal costs—and, as it happens, also receive a lot of campaign contributions from lawyers.” Furthermore, he exposed the incredible fact that “Ten of the 17 lawyers in Huntington town attorney’s office, including Mr. Leo [the Town Attorney], also practice privately.”
After reading this article I became very curious. What else is going on in the ever expanding Town Hall Legal Department run by John Leo, who also owns a building with Special Assistant Town Attorney and Northport Village Attorney James Matthews at 191 New York Avenue, Huntington, which happens to house a number of other lawyers who just happen to be on the payrolls of the Town of Huntington and the Village of Northport? One gets the feeling that their rent is ‘covered’ by the taxpayer dollars of their salaries, so I began to investigate, filing Freedom of Information requests with the Town. With each request, more questions arose, and the need for further clarification, so I continued to make requests for more information. This took me on an interesting tour from Town Hall to Northport Village to the South Huntington School District.
What I found was that One-Party Rule leads to little (or no) ethics, double billing, and the filing of illegal (and often illegible) time sheets. One of the first things that became abundantly obvious was that the Town Attorney (John Leo) and Deputy Town Attorney (Thelma Neira) heap huge claims for comp time (compensatory time). Not only does the Town not have a policy that allows comp time for appointed officials, the time sheets for all other assistant Town Attorneys shows that NONE of them are permitted to accumulate comp time (even though THEY work full-time). Examination of the Leo and Neira time sheets shows they constantly accrue and use comp time, instead of sick, personal or vacation time. Since there is no provision for appointed officials getting comp time, and since there is provisions for appointed officials to be reimbursed for their accumulated sick and vacation time, when they leave Town employment, these employees appear to be filing false instruments and stealing tax dollars, to the tune of over $65/hour. There are rumors that one of them went to Russia for 4 weeks and took it from comp time!
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Furthermore, there seems to be a very serious problem when Town Attorney Leo’s real estate partner, James Mathews, who is appointed by Leo as an Assistant Town Attorney at what is rumored to be about $100,000/year, is also an Ex Officio member of the Town’s Ethics Board, the employer/landlord of a South Huntington School Board member, privately represents a Town Board Member in a controversial student residency case involving that same school district, represents the Village of Northport and runs a full-time private practice (as well as housing all those attorneys who have made their way to the Town and Village payrolls). Where do taxpayers turn for a thorough and honest investigation? Certainly not to the Town Ethics committee!
Here is some of the information I found:
Thelma Neira, Deputy Town Attorney 2006 Salary $123,477
Accumulated as of 7/10/2006: 157.31 Vacations DAYS, 151.36 Sick DAYS, 5 Personal DAYS.
Time sheets submitted from 12/27/04 to 2/7/07 - Used 267 hours of comp time, carrying a balance of another 125.5 hours of comp time to be used.
267 hours of comp time times $65/hour equals over $17,000 apparently cheated from the taxpayers! Enough?
John Leo, Town Attorney 2006 Salary $125,000
Accumulated as of 7/10/2006: 33.77 Vacation DAYS, 57.9 Sick DAYS, 4.29 Personal DAYS.
Time Sheets submitted from 1/2/05 to 1/21/07 - Used 215 hours of Comp time.
Review of time sheets found missing weeks, bad math, sloppy forms, hard to read.
215 hours of comp time times $65/hour equals about $13,000 apparently cheated from the taxpayers! Enough?
James Matthews Town Attorney 2006 Salary $61,181+++
James Matthews Northport Village Attorney 2006 Salary/hourly fee $85,938
Accumulated as of 7/10/2006: 25.5 Vacation DAYS, 103 Sick DAYS, 4 Personal DAYS, No Comp Time.
Also Northport Village Attorney, Ethics Committee Ex Officio member, Private Practice at 191 New York Avenue, Represented his boss, Councilwoman Glenda Jackson, against the South Huntington School Board, for sending her child to school there when she lived in another school district, cheating the taxpayers of my school district.
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Matthews claimed to work 7 hours at Town Hall at the same time he was making calls and holding conferences with School District attorneys regarding his private client, Councilwoman Glenda Jackson, against South Huntington SD. Days to be investigated: 8/4 and 9/5 2006, 5/15/07.
Matthews filed conflicting time sheets, claiming to be working the same hours for both the Town of Huntington and the Village of Northport, cheating taxpayers of both municipalities, at the same time. Town/Village Conflicts: March 7, 8,10,14,15 2005, August 8, 2005, September 13, 14, 15 2005, September 5 2006. There are actually too many to list. Enough?
191 New York Avenue…..Jim Matthews, John Leo signed Town Financial Disclosure form saying they are owners.
Northport Village pays attorney Karen Kerr, who lists 191 as her place o business.
Huntington Town pays attorneys Gathman and Bennett, who list 191 as their place of business.
Huntington Town pays attorney (and South Huntington School Board member) Tom Teretsky, who lists 191 as his place of business. Enough?
Councilwoman Glenda Jackson voted for Tom Teretsky on March 6, 2007 to be retained as outside counsel for the Town, while she was negotiating a settlement with the school board he is a member of, for sending her child to school in a district where she didn’t live, at the expense of taxpayers in that District. How many masters can Tom Teretsky serve at once? The School district settled with Jackson for only one year of tuition in June 2007, with Jim Matthews negotiating and signing the settlement agreement. Was Matthews working for Councilwoman Jackson, his municipal boss, or Glenda Jackson, his private client? Did he charge her, or did he consider his taxpayer funded salary from the Town of Huntington his compensation?
I think I have found enough to warrant an inquiry from the District Attorney and the Attorney General. The taxpayers of Huntington deserve nothing less. And as our Congressman, Steve Israel, has said: “When you have one-party rule, when you have one party running everything, you have no oversight, no checks-and-balances, and no accountability – no subpoena power. And as a result you get this culture of corruption...”. He’s right, no matter which party it is.
Jim Matthews: Assistant Town Attorney, Northport Village Attorney, Ex Officio member of the Town Ethics Committee, Runs his private practice at 191 New York Avenue which he owns with John Leo, Town Attorney, employs his tenants with tax dollars, represented Councilwoman Glenda Jackson against the South Huntington School District, while School Board member Tom Teretsky works for him. Enough?
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Tom Teretsky: South Huntington School Board member, outside Counsel to the Town of Huntington, offices at 191 New York avenue (owned by Leo and Matthews). On March 6, 2007 (Resolution 2007-151) Glenda Jackson voted to “Authorize the retention of outside counsel Thomas G. Teretsky, Esq.. Enough?
Glenda Jackson: Member of the 5-0 Democrat Huntington Town Board, who sees nothing wrong with sending her daughter to the wrong school district at taxpayer’s expense and no conflict of interest in voting for a school board member as town outside counsel while the school district is suing her. She sees nothing wrong with using a Town Attorney to represent her in the case, who employs that school board member. Remember, she also used a Town Employee to produce her website on Town Time and saw nothing wrong with that either. Enough?
We look to our District Attorney and Attorney General as our law enforcement officials, to restore our faith in government, and misappropriation of tax dollars and filing false time sheets are clearly illegal activities. We look to our local press and the venerable fourth estate that exposes wrongdoing and protects our right to good, honest, accountable government. I am asking for your help, on behalf of the residents and taxpayers of the Town of Huntington.
Sincerely,
Dennis A. Garetano