2011-12-08

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BOAT PARADE: Above, one of the many Freeport boats that took part in the Nautical Mile
Boat Parade on December 3. Right, Freeporters (including Trustee Jorge Martinez, sec-ond
left, and Chamber President llona Jagnow, third left,) joined with children and
Christmas characters to make the season bright. See more on page 10.
Bids begin to privatize sewage treatment plants
by Laura Schofer
This week the Nassau County
Legislature's Rules Committee voted, 4-3,
to hire Morgan Stanley for $100,000 per
quarter-year to consult for the county on
bids to privatize the county sewage treat-ment
plants.
Morgan Stanley will receive $100,000 for
its contract with the county for the last quar-ter
of 2011, which began in October. The
bidders include Veolia, American Water,
United Water and Severn Trent.
Three of the four bidders are familiar to
residents. Severn Trent is a consultant at the
county sewage treatment plant in Glen
Cove. Veolia was awarded the contract to
run the Long Island bus system in Nassau
County, and American Water recently
bought Aqua Water, the private water com-pany
that services many of the communities
along the South Shore of Long Island,
including Wantagh and Seaford.
'The Republicans on the [rules] commit-tee,
including Dennis Dunne and Peter
Schmitt, voted for the contract," Legislator
David Denenberg told The Leader.
"At my direction, the Democrats asked
all the questions and voted no. But it passed
4-3. It couldn't have passed without
Dennis's vote," said Mr. Denenberg. Mr.
Dunne represents the 15th Legislative
District, which includes Wantagh. Mr.
Dunne said "I must do my due diligence
and look at all the options, and that includes
doing a study to see if we can save the tax-payers
money."
But Mr. Denenberg believes this is the
first step to privatization. "I have always
opposed privatization, even under [former
County Executive Thomas] Suozzi," con-tinued
Mr. Denenberg. "We do not lose any
money on the sewage treatment plants and
we provide a good service for a nominal
cost. This [transaction to privatize] is costly
to the taxpayer and the environment. These
plants will operate.on the fringe of environ-mental
compliance. And, there will be high
useage fees, just look at the companies com-peting
for this."
Rules-only runaround
"This was put on as an addendum and
when the item was raised we learned that
this deal with Morgan Stanley, began 18
months ago and was held back until after
election day," he said. "It was done as a
Rules Committee-only contract."
As a rules-only contract personal services
contracts such as the one with Morgan
Stanley do not have to be approved by the
entire legislature. Additionally, prior to
Monday's vote, Morgan Stanley was hired
for $24,500, a sum that does not need full
legislative approval.
No privatization
Meanwhile, Phil Franco and Mark
Salerno, co-chairs of the Cedar Creek
Oversight Committee, have been reaching
out'to other civic organizations to form a
coalition to address the issue of privatiza-tion
of the sewage treatment plants. Mr.
Franco stated, " If we privatize, we have no
public control. We don't want it."
Ralph Spagnolo, a former county
employee who spent his career working
in the sewage treatment plants, said he is
also not in favor of privatization. In a
recent letter to The Citizen, The
Leader's sister paper, Mr. Spagnolo
wrote, "Why should the county repair
the two plants, bringing them back to
full operations with staff trained to run
the plants under Civil Service, state and
federal laws, and then turn them over to
a private enterprise?"
County defends its actions
The county has defended its position on
the transaction in its multi-year plan, point-ing
to other "U.S. governments [that] have
successfully pursued similar P3 transac-tions.
For example, the city of Indianapolis
approved the $1.7 billion acquisition of the
city's waterworks and wastewater systems
by Citizen Energy Group," the county plan
states.
"It may never happen," said Legislator
Dunne. "But we must consider all options.
If the people don't want it, then I will vote
against it. That's the bottom line."
Meanwhile, Legislator Denenberg said,
Morgan Stanley is expected to make its rec-ommendaiton
for the contract by the third
quarter of 2012. "The sale of the plants must
go before the full Legislature," he said, but
"there may be no public hearing other than
the day of the contract vote."
i.
NAMES MAKE THE NEWS: Read about your neighbors! 43 local people's names were in your community newspaper this past week Maybe yours is in this week! See inside.
Pearse seated on
zoning board
page 3
Honors for
Freeport athletes
Sporting Devils - page 6
Pros and cons of
bus contract
page 8