‘Campaign Cash for Contracts’ Shows Why we Need Fair Elections
(Mineola, NY) – Today, the Long Island Progressive Coalition (LIPC), Nassau County Legislators and residents demonstrated outside of the Nassau County Executive and Legislative Building to protest big campaign contributions from contractors awarded Sandy clean-up contracts to Nassau County Executive Mangano.
According to a report published by the Associated Press, in the 11 weeks following Superstorm Sandy, Mangano received over $144,000 in campaign contributions from 23 companies that were awarded contracts in relation to the storm cleanup.
These ‘campaign cash for contracts’ quid pro quos shows that Long Island and New York State politics are dominated by big money interests seeking private gain at the public’s expense. Protesters called on Long Island State Senators to pass Fair Elections reforms in Albany to fix New York State’s broken campaign finance system and transform our state’s culture of legal bribery. By refusing to support these reforms, Long Island senators are missing an opportunity to tell local officials that ‘pay-to-play’ schemes are harmful to our democracy.
“While many residents were figuring out where they’d live or when they could return to a normal life, County Executive Mangano was leveraging his power to award emergency contracts to fill his campaign bank account,” said Lisa Tyson, Director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition. “It’s offensive and a perfect example of the need for fair elections and campaign finance reform in New York.”
Richard Landau a Superstorm Sandy victim stated “It’s outrageous! Instead of doling out no-bid contracts to friends and family, the county should have been helping me recover and get back into my home.”
Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg stated “Sandy response and recovery is Nassau’s highest priority. The work that needed and still needs to be done is, and can only be, about helping our residents. Taking political donations from contractors doing sandy work at least gives the appearance of using a disaster for personal political gain.”
A review of campaign finance disclosure forms shows that on January 9 and 10, 2013, that 5 individual CEO’s, Peter Dejana (Dejana Industries), John & Anthony Gulino (Laser Industries), William Haugland (Grace Industries) and Kristian Agoglia (Looks Great Services made over $43,000 in undisclosed in-kind contributions to Mangano. Together these companies have received nearly $84 million in Sandy contracts from the county.
Many of the contractors awarded Sandy contracts are now the subject of multiple investigations by the Nassau County District Attorney, the New York State Attorney General and the United States Department of Labor on how these contracts were awarded, quality of the work done and whether or not they paid the state prevailing wage.
Looks Great Services of Huntington, has already been paid $35 million of $70 million contract with Nassau County. The company has come under fire for cutting down trees in county preserves following the storm.
Nelson & Pope received a $500,000 contract on 11/20/12. Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker signed the contract on 12/3/12. Walker was formerly employed by Nelson & Pope and his wife Elizabeth, currently works for Nelson & Pope. They gave County Executive Mangano Post-Sandy contributions of 12/5/12: $900 12/19/12: $2500.
Shila Shah, DPW Commissioner gave her sister who owns CSM Engineering a $250,000 contract on 11/20/12. She never disclosed the relationship.CSM contributed $4,125 to County Executive Mangano in 2012.
Jeffrey Friedman Long Island Progressive Coalition and Rockville Centre resident stated “Campaign finance Reform is about good government. It’s about a government by and for the people. Too often we find our elected officials entrenched in scandal. How many times must we see our tax dollars spent foolishly in order to appease a political contributor- and how often does it go undetected. It’s time to limit the power of these special interest groups while advancing the power of the everyday citizen.
It’s time for campaign finance reform with public matching funds. It’s time our legislators remember that they work for us!”
