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Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, August 2, 2019
Rice, Suozzi divided on impeachment BY J E S S I C A PA R K S The debate over whether President Donald Trump should be impeached is driving a wedge in the Democratic Party nationwide, including between the two members of Congress from Nassau County. The split was brought to light after Robert Mueller, former special counsel to the Justice Department investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election, testified before Congress last Wednesday. U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) said in a tweet last Wednesday that Congress “must begin impeachment proceedings.” “Once again, Mueller laid out extensive evidence of obstruction by the president and made it clear that the president hasn’t been exonerated,” she tweeted. Unlike Rice, who also voiced opposition to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s return to the speaker post, U.S. Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) said he
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE OFFICIALS
U.S. House Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) and Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) are split on impeachment. would continue to follow Pelosi’s leadership on the matter. The member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of Democratic and Republican House represen-
tatives, said he shares the speaker’s concern that Democrats must have an “airtight case” before possibly beginning impeachment proceedings. Suozzi said he is engaged in and
supports the continued investigation by his colleagues on the House Judiciary, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Oversight, Financial Services, and Ways and Means committees. He is a member of the later committee. “While Congress has a constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch,” Suozzi said, “we must not be distracted from doing our jobs as legislators and work to solve the problems we face in our country.” The latest numbers from The New York Times roundup of House Democrats show 104 Democrats in support of impeachment and another 56 who have indicated that they do not support impeachment at all at this time or are undecided. The publication was awaiting the response of 75 Democratic House representatives as of Monday. Mueller fielded questions from both sides of the aisle for a total of seven hours last week. The consensus on the part of Democrats and Republicans was the testimony was uneventful with no home runs for either camp.
Curran closes living Venditto, ex-Oyster Bay wage law loophole supervisor, pleads guilty BY J E S S I C A PA R K S Nassau County Executive Laura Curran strengthened the county’s living wage law last week, closing a loophole that allowed unqualified vendors to circumvent the law. “Nassau is taking action to help working-class families and hold accountable the companies we do business with,” Curran said at a news conference last Wednesday with Nassau County Comptroller Jack Schnirman and John Durso, president of RWSDU Local 338 and chairman of the Living Wage Advisory Board.
“The loophole we closed today allowed companies to appear smaller than they actually were to avoid paying their workers a living wage,” Curran said. The county implemented a living wage requirement in 2007 that requires businesses with county contracts to pay their employees more than the minimum wage. As of last August, the county’s living wage law requires county vendors to pay their employees $16.41 an hour without health benefits and $14.27 with health benefits. Continued on Page 92
PHOTO COURTESY OF NASSAU COUNTY EXECUTIVE LAURA CURRAN’S OFFICE
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and Nassau County Comptroller Jack Schnirman announced the closure of a loophole in the county’s living wage law.
BY T E R I W EST Former Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto pleaded guilty to corruption and official misconduct Friday in part for helping the former planning commissioner get $1.6 million in kickbacks from a developer, according to the Nassau County district attorney’s office. Venditto, 70, a Republican, made the plea as part of a deal that granted him a conditional discharge, exempting him from jail time. In the last two years he faced two separate cases at the federal and state levels.
COURTESY OF NASSAU COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
Former Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto
The federal prosecution was part of the case that convicted former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and his wife, Linda Mangano, of corruption. The state case focused on his complicity and involvement in a rezoning effort from which he knew former Planning Commissioner Frederick Ippolito would benefit and wielding nepotism in a town hiring. “Today is yet another reminder that for too long our residents have been forced to foot the bill for a culture of corruption that permeated all levels of government in Nassau,” Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Our residents have had it with politicians who preach about fiscal integrity while lining their pockets on the taxpayers’ dime.” Ippolito earned $1.6 million from a developer that Oyster Bay approved to rezone a property for a $150 million residential complex. Venditto knew about Ippolito’s stake in the application when he voted in favor of it and did not interfere with Ippolito’s access to the application as a supervisor, he said in his plea deal, according to officials. Ippolito died in 2017 while serving a 27-month prison sentence for tax evasion. Seperately, Venditto had the town hire the child of the woman he wanted to marry, according to the other indictment. The individual’s hiring was during a period of financial strife in which the town was not adding staff members and the new employee earned more than twice as much as peers, according to the district attorney’s office. Continued on Page 92
