After the audience participation at the last Nassau Legislature meeting reached loud and disrupting heights, Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs has ordered extra security for tomorrow's meeting.
The culprits, members of the Sheriff Officers Association, who are pressuring legislators for binding arbitration on a new contract, plan an 8 a.m. demonstration at 1 West St. SHOA president John Duer said he plans to address legislators again on his union's plight. At the last meeting, April 11, SHOA members' chants from the street were so loud the chamber windows had to be closed.
Jacobs, who calls SHOA "my friends," nevertheless said she hopes to keep order tomorrow morning.
Reid J. Epstein
"I spoke to the commissioner and I told him I thought we needed some police there," she said. "There were no threats last time – the show of people are my friends."
Still, she said she will not place binding arbitration up for a vote.
"It's fiscally unsound and I'm not going to budge on it," she said. "It's a showdown. I didn’t ask for it and I don’t want it."