There is a 2 p.m. hearing scheduled for Thursday in which Suffolk County will challenge the injunction Legis. Ricardo Montano won last week to block a vote on Legis. Brian Beedenbender's worker status bill.
At the hearing, scheduled for state Appellate court in Brooklyn, the county will argue that Suffolk District Court Judge Carol MacKenzie erred last week when she issued a temporary restraining order to block the Legislature from considering IR 1105, the bill that would require the county's 16,077 licensed contractors to verify their employees' legal working status.
The county's appeal comes one week before the case is scheduled to be heard in a Riverhead court. But that date comes after next Tuesday's Legislature meeting and would delay any vote on the bill until June 10 at the earliest.
If the restraining order is thrown out, the bill could be brought for a vote at the Legislature's scheduled meeting Tuesday.
The county has hired Garden City law firm Berkman, Henoch, Peterson & Peddy to argue its case. Attorneys from the firm did not return phone calls Wednesday.
George Nolan, the counsel to the Suffolk Legislature, said he did not know what the county would be paying the outside counsel for the case. He said the funds would come from the county attorney's budget.
Montano (D-Central Islip), who is in the odd position of being both plaintiff and defendant in the case, blasted county officials for seeking to overturn the temporary restraining order he won.
"This is a total waste of taxpayer money," he said. "People have economic needs and here we are hiring high-priced lawyers."
Legis. Brian Beedenbender (D-Centereach) retorted, " Its the height of hypocrisy to condemn the defense of an action Legis. Montano initiated."
-- Reid J. Epstein
Comments (2)
That might sound harsh but we already have ten towns with councils and supervisors. We do not need this extra legislative level, nor do we need the county executive position.
We need to go back to the board of supervisors and county manager to save money.
Back to the Board of Supervisors? No thank you - I'm old enough to remember what that was like.
What we DO need is for our legislators to spine up, show a little integrity and pay attention to their own rules. This could have all been avoided if Kate Browning had either voted "NO" instead of "ABSTAIN", or forced an opinion from legislative counsel George Nolan. Had Mr. Nolan not been either asleep or corrupt, that vote would have never been allowed to take place without counting Bill Lindsays presence (thereby upping membership, quorum and majority requirements).
Such sloppy and illegal flouting of legislative rules would never have occured on Paul Sabatinos watch! Observing the legislature's decline since Sabatinos departure has been sad and horrifying, especially considering there are still a handful of legislators around the horseshoe who had benefit of his mentoring and institutional knowlege. Do we live in Suffolk County or some Third World junta? Why is this flagrant disregard for rules and procedure tolerated and ignored?
Many thanks to Legislator Ricardo Montano, who possesses sufficient brains and balls to stop illegal actions by the county legislature. If not for his quick action in seeking and coordinating QUALIFIED no-cost outside counsel, this illegal discharge of a bill from committee would have gone unnoticed.
I think we should require the NYS Attorney Generals Office to monitor the legislature until each legislator passes a mandatory class on legislative rules and procedure and publicy swears to uphold them.