Nassau Parks Budget 2007

Nassau Parks 2007 Budget
By Bruce Piel
Chairman, PARCnassau

The 2007 Budget for the Department of Parks, Recreation and Museums has been bouncing around since October of last year. Politics has delayed any timely discussion or action on this deficient document. As you may know, State Senator Balboni, accepted Governor Spitzer’s offer to be in charge of the State Homeland Security Department and resigned his senate seat. A Special Election was set up to fill that seat.
Legislator Craig John (D) 11th District was nominated to run by the County Democratic Organization. The Parks budget and other controversial bills pending before the county legislature were tabled so as not to become a factor in that election. Mr. Johnson was elected leaving a vacancy in the legislature which became evenly divided between the majority and minority parties. Another Special Election is scheduled to fill that seat. Meanwhile the budget and other bills are still in hiatus until another majority is established and voting can continue along party lines rater than logic and personal convictions. So much for democracy in action.

Meanwhile, let us examine the proposed parks budget and if you find, as we do, major deficiencies, you’ll have time to express your concerns to your county legislator.

First, the administration plans to use the General Fund to financially administer the parks department. We believe this to be a bad idea. We will be taxed for park services and those tax monies will be buried with no accounting to insure they are spent on county parks. It also makes auditing by the Comptroller’s office much more difficult. Keep the Parks budget separate and accountable!

Secondly, fees are going up, ALL OF THEM, including Leisure Passes, Golf, tennis, picnic permits, pool fees, ball field and lighting permits, etc. etc. etc. There is no merit to this. If Parks was providing excellent services and needed increases to maintain them or if there was a plan to improve services by hiring more front line workers, buying equipment and supplies, 20% fee increases might be justified, but that is not the case. Instead this is a ruse to increase county revenues by means other than a property tax raise. So instead of everyone paying a little, park users will pay a lot. There is a hiring freeze on so there will be no new workers, However that does not apply to Deputy Commissioners, their equivalents or to political patronage appointments, who answer to no one and come and go as they please. (If they could only learn to mow the grass, we might get some real work out of them). No Fee Increases until justified by a management plan to increase employees and supply them with necessary equipment and supplies.

Thirdly, the county still intends to give 13 park facilities to the Town of North Hempstead. The largest of these are Hempstead Harbor, Whitney Pond and Manhasset Lake parks plus numerous smaller ones. We have already cited our objections to giving parks paid for and developed by all county residents away to just some county residents. This is wrong! Now to make this transaction more ridiculous, the budget states that “In Exchange” North Hempstead will invest $5 million in these parks in 5 years. What exchange? County residents in Hempstead and Oyster Bay receive no benefit; rather they will eventually lose access to these parks they have paid for. There is no reasonable time table for North Hempstead’s $5 million investment and no accounting to insure it takes place. The budget further sweetens the deal by the county playing North Hempstead $3.1 million to take the parks and some roads. Are they serious? Unfortunately, yes. Keep the 13 county parks as county parks and use the $3.1 million to upgrade them for the use of all county residents.

Those are the main items noted in the 2007 budget that should be trashed. Some other minor but serious deficiencies include:
A paper increase of 11 full time positions, no workers just administrators.
A decrease of 4 positions, 2 full time and 2 part time.
A decrease of 13 seasonal positions.
Net loss 6 workers.
To increase revenue they are selling naming rights to the Aquatic Center, Mitchel Field, Ice Rinks and the Lakeside Theatre (I guess Harry Chapin is being consigned to the trash heap).

Golfers on the Red Course in Eisenhower Park will be required to use and pay for golf carts so they play faster and more players can fit in the usable time on the course. (Maybe they can hire monitors with cattle prods to insure the golfers do not tarry.)


County pools will be rentable for birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, cousin parties, etc. (and presumably allowing other county residents to be excluded during the festivities).

It goes on and on, but the end result is apparent. It pretty much says to hell with the taxpaying county park user and squeeze out every dollar from the park system regardless of how negatively this will affect the very people the county park system was designed to serve. Now it is up to you, your organization and members to put a stop to this travesty. Write or call your county legislators and insist they scrap the proposed 2007 county park budget and that a logical, intelligent plan be developed to restore the parks to some semblance of their former glory and that they serve the public interest economically and efficiently.

Second Annual Parks Report Card 10-21-06

The Park Advocacy & Recreation Council of Nassau (PARCnassau) has completed its second annual report card for Nassau County Parks. Chairman Bruce Piel announced that the grade is a disappointing “D”. Despite the sincere efforts of the Chief Deputy Commissioner and the few remaining annual employees, our parks and facilities remain in unacceptable condition. It is readily apparent that the county has financially abandoned the park system.

The limited personnel, equipment and resources have been concentrated in Eisenhower Park and a few larger parks with active and vocal advocates. “Lesser” parks, preserves and historic sites have been largely ignored. A couple of hundred employees in a system that once boasted 1,200 obviously cannot do the job. While hundreds of essential entry level jobs go unfilled, the addition of new Deputy Commissioners continues. Added to the roster this year were Deputy Commissioners for Museums, Finance and Golf. In addition, a new Commissioner was appointed. None of these have any park experience continuing the inexplicable policy of the current administration.

The county again hosted the PGA Commerce Bank Golf Tour this year. This is the tournament no one wants, that loses money and denies residents access to the Red Course at Eisenhower for several weeks. The public response was so bad this year that the administration allowed county workers to be spectators for free upon presentation of their employee identification.

Vandalism and trespassing after hours in the parks have increased dramatically. This was highlighted when picnic tables were piled up in the children’s Playground gazebo in Bay Park and set afire.

Historic sites remain on the verge of collapse. Little or no maintenance is done to keep these important reminders of Long Island Heritage around for future generations. The highly touted Bethpage Restoration Village has become the Bethpage Desolation Village and is slowly crumbling to the point of no return. After freeing this facility from the administration of a notorious “friends” group, the county has yet to find a vendor for the gift shop or snack bar further dissuading visitors.

Preserves are also ignored. Volunteer groups seeking trash removal, cleanup supplies and equipment are offered nothing but lip service. Here again, vandals, dirt bike enthusiasts and other ne’er-do-wells have taken over and are systematically destroying these pristine areas. Pond clean ups, highly publicized, have ground to a halt, leaving ugly mud flats for months at a time.

Museum Row at Mitchel Field has been a continuing embarrassment all year. Mismanagement and poor fund raising have finally galvanized some members of the legislature to action. The privatization of the Cradle of Aviation and other facilities has not worked. The county has had to bail the museum out financially over and over. Enough is enough. It is time to return museums to the Museum Division of the Parks System. After all, there is a new Deputy Commissioner (albeit without any museum experience) who is charged with administering such sites (and paid accordingly). Those prominent citizens now sitting on the museum board should turn their efforts into developing private financial support and leave operations to park professionals (yes, there are still a few).

In summary, through patronage and benign neglect the taxpayers of Nassau County are losing a major ingredient in our suburban life style, our parks, preserves and historic sites. A first glance, most look good. It is only when you check the filthy lavatories, and examine the facilities closely that one sees the deterioration and negligence our parks have suffered. It is past time for our taxpayers to demand that budgeted moneys for parks be spent there and not sequestered for more politically advantageous projects.

Let your County Executive and Legislators know how you feel about the travesty occurring daily in what once was one of the finest park systems in the country.

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"Nassau County, You're Fired"

Nassau County which was established over 100 years ago included a government designed to provide and improve basic services for its residents. In the last decade that government has become a joke. The county for all intents and purposes is rudderless and spends more time avoiding its responsibilities than meeting them. Perhaps it is time to dissolve the current county government and develop an alternate plan to meet the needs of its citizenry.

After successfully promoting a $100 million dollar bond issue to acquire and improve parklands, Nassau is opting to give most of their parks away. Instead of maintaining and improving county roads, Nassau again proposes to give their roads to the towns. Instead of providing a first class county hospital for all its citizens especially the indigent, the county divested itself of the Nassau University Medical Center by abandoned it to a newly created public corporation and walking away. Two major sewage treatment plants have been allowed to deteriorate through neglect and deliberate under manning. Police protection has been compromised by alienating the professional police officers who provide out security. The list goes on and on.

Our county legislature through internal warfare has become an embarrassment. Fights over leadership positions and censuring members for voting on behalf of their constituents instead of along party lines have brought the business of that body to a dysfunctional crawl.

Instead of providing quality day to day services, Nassau government concerns itself with issues like raising cigarette taxes and outlawing trans-fats from hamburgers. This is intolerable. It is time for taxpayers to demand a radical change.

Imagine the tax moneys saved by dissolving the current county government and turning over its functions and responsibilities to the Towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay. Actually, based on populations and size these entities could become counties in their own right. All Nassau facilities and services could be divided based on the geographical boundaries to the 3 towns. Regional services such as sewer treatment could be turned over to NY State. Nassau Police could either be divided up and managed by each town or merged into the State Police. Reduction or elimination of duplicate services between the county and town would represent a substantial tax savings to all residents.

Our initial reaction to the transfer of county parks was to fight such foolish, politically self serving acts that would only deprive county residents of the parks they paid for and incur additional costs to the receiving town’s residents. But on reflection, this might herald the solution to this dysfunctional county government. It is time for all taxpayers in Nassau to say Nassau County, You’re Fired!