Nassau County: Change Plus Change = ?

Tuesday, 29 December 2009 21:10

The last change of administration in Nassau, when Tom Suozzi became County Executive in 2002, unquestionably had a significant impact on the delivery of human services and the county’s relationship with the nonprofit provider community.

Tom Suozzi “For decades, the plexiglass barriers separating staff at the Department of Social Services from the people they were there to help had been symbolic of Nassau County’s approach to human services. They were there to protect workers – and county taxpayers – from assault by hordes of unwanted and presumably unworthy clients seeking public assistance. The barriers could also be seen as a metaphor for the County’s historic working relationship with the nonprofit, human service community. There was none! No communication with or input from nonprofit providers was sought or accepted.”

That was how we assessed the status of Nassau County human services prior to Suozzi’s election when NYNP reported on his highly publicized “No Wrong Door” initiative to reform the system in a September 2005.

There can be no question that Suozzi dramatically reversed that assessment during his eight years in office. The highly symbolic and much talked about Plexiglas barriers are gone. Seven separate county departments -- Social Services; Health; Senior Citizens Affairs; Youth Board; Mental Health, Chemical Dependency and Developmental Disabilities; Office of the Physically Challenged; and Veterans Services – were united under the management of Deputy County Executive for Health and Human Services Mary Curtis. Their operations were relocated from a scattered series of dilapidated and often handicapped-inaccessible offices to a new, centralized and highly user-friendly “No Wrong Door Health and Human Services” facility in Uniondale. Their system now features a PATHHS on-line eligibility screening tool, digital client records and satellite offices beginning to sprout in high-need areas of the county. Ed Mangano

The HHS team continually strove to identify further opportunities for cross-system service enhancements and efficiencies through innovative “Case of the Week” meetings which gathered input from staff at all HHS departments as well as nonprofit service agencies.

Suozzi also acted quickly to partner with the nonprofit community. “When I first came into office, my transition group for health and human services came straight from the nonprofit and academic communities,” Suozzi told NYNP in 2005. “They helped us to understand what the problems were and what some of the opportunities were. That is where the No Wrong Door concept came from.” He established a Health and Human Services Advisory Committee, co-chaired by Curtis and the Executive Director of the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island. And, he dramatically speeded up the timing of contracts and payments.

However, some nonprofit leaders feel that over time, the administration’s ambitious initiatives in these areas gradually began to lose steam. “For whatever reason, there was some loss of energy,” says one long-time observer. “Maybe it was budget problems. Maybe it was loss of focus, but, contracts started to slip; payments started to slip.”

Deputy County Executive Mary Curtis takes issue with this assessment. “I don’t think that is true,” she says, pointing to the recent “No Wrong Door II” roll-out of InterAgency Councils to coordinate planning and service delivery in ten high-need communities. “I think we have continued pressing right to the end.”

Clearly however, the Suozzi administration’s record on health and human services must be viewed as overwhelmingly positive.

“Tom Suozzi did a lot for Nassau County and we would be remiss if we didn’t take a look at how much things have changed,” says O’Shea.

Looking ahead, nonprofit leaders are hoping that incoming County Executive Ed Mangano will take a similar, collaborative approach towards the development of and administration of human service policies and programs.

“We look forward to working just as closely with his administration to make sure that the most vulnerable in the county are protected,” says O’Shea.

“FEGS, like many other nonprofit human service providers had established a very good relationship with County Executive Suozzi and his team,” says Kathy Rosenthal, Vice President, Long Island Operatons at FEGS Health & Human Services System. “We look forward to the same being true with County Executive Mangano’s team.”

First elected in 1995, Mangano is a seven-term County legislator from Bethpage. People in the nonprofit sector who know Mangano have good things to say about him.

“He is an incredibly bright and fair guy,” says Theresa Regnante, President and CEO of United Way of Long Island. “Throughout my career in fundraising and development, he has always been approachable. I am sure he is going to surround himself with sound advisors.”

“He is a very decent guy,” says Dr. Richard Dina, Special Assistant to the President of Adelphi University and former head of Family and Children’s Association. “He is very much concerned with services for people, for kids and for families.”

For those who don’t know him personally, the future form and substance of a Mangano administration remains something of a mystery. His campaign reportedly had relatively little to say about the subject of human services, focusing instead on the need to “stop wasteful spending”, “freeze and fix Nassau’s broken tax assessment system”, “create jobs and opportunities”, and “repeal Nassau’s home energy tax”.

This last campaign promise – to eliminate an estimated $50 million in desperately needed county funding -- is being seen as an important indicator of how the next four years may go.

“This is huge for the county,” says HWCLI’s O’Shea. “Where is that $50 million going to come from? We are seeing an escalation of need among our residents. We have more people than ever going to soup kitchens and food pantries. If we are going to cut that health and human services infrastructure, it is going to have implications for everybody. That is the first thing people will be looking at. Where is he going to save that money?”

Youth serving agencies -- a group which has often had contentious relationships with the Suozzi administration over budget cuts and moves to restructure services – believe they have a friend in the County Executive.

“He is a strong supporter of youth services,” says Peter Levy, President of the Coalition of Nassau County Youth Serving Agencies. “We have been told that because we have been cut so many times in the past, even in good years, we will be the last ones they look to. We are hopeful that nothing damaging will happen to us in the new administration.”

It still remains unclear, however, as to whom the new County Executive would look to for senior leadership in the health and human services departments and how much input he will be soliciting from the nonprofit sector.

Mangano is reportedly close to Patrick Foye, former President/CEO of United Way of Long Island and a partner and colleague at the law firm Rivkin Radler, LLP. Mangano is also reportedly interested in sitting down with small groups of nonprofit leaders to hear their thoughts and concerns. As we went to press, Newsday reported that Mangano had held just such a meeting that included Amy Hagedorn of the Hagedorn Foundation and Jennifer Rimmer of Sustainable Long Island.

“I take that as a hopeful sign,” says Richard Dina.

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