Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory proposes selling county land, consolidating office space and hiring a consultant to identify fraud as part of a $127 million budget savings plan he plans to bring before the Suffolk Legislature.

Gregory (D-Copiague) said in an interview this week that the county could get $47 million alone by auctioning off a county-owned 163-acre Cold War-era missile site in Westhampton, part of which is now used as a county impound yard.

The county could also save $29 million in fraud and inefficiencies by using “predictive analytics” to find anomalies in data, he said. Reviewing leases and consolidating office space could save the county an additional $8 million a year.

Suffolk faces a $163 million structural budget deficit...| read more ››

Suffolk Democrats have named Brightwaters Mayor Joseph McDermott as their candidate to run for the seat being vacated by term-limited Suffolk Legis. Thomas Barraga (R-West Islip).

McDermott, 50, who is in his second term as mayor, was first elected to the post in 2014 after serving a year as a village trustee. McDermott made a losing bid for the Islip Town Board in 2015, garnering 13,138 votes in the townwide contest. He also is a member of Ironworkers Local 361.

McDermott does not yet know who his Republican opponent will be in November because Barraga’s son-in-law Michael McElwee, a Bay Shore restaurant owner, is challenging Islip Town Board member Steve Flotteron for the GOP nomination in a Sept. 12 primary....| read more ››

Suffolk County police will crack down on adults who serve alcohol to minors over the summer, when rates of underage drinking spike, officials said Wednesday.

Last year, Suffolk County strengthened its social host law — which holds adults liable for knowingly permitting underage drinking in their homes — to allow greater enforcement, police Commissioner Timothy Sini said at a news conference at police headquarters in Yaphank. The change made a first offense a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine, rather than a violation.

Bolstering the law was an effort to prevent the emergency room visits, car accidents, deaths and other issues that result from underage drinking, Sini said.

“This is a public health issue,” he said. “We will...| read more ››

Suffolk Democrats have picked Dominador Pascual, an attorney from Farmingville, to challenge four-term GOP Legis. Tom Muratore in the Fourth District this fall.

Pascual’s selection came after county Democrats at their party convention last month left nominations for six legislative seats vacant.

The party also named Kevin l. Hyms of Lake Ronkonkoma to run against Legis. Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset).

Pascual, 36, is making his first run for public office. He is a lifelong Long Island resident, and works as a financial crimes investigator. Earlier, he worked for the New York City Department of Housing, Preservation and Development and is a lieutenant in the U.S. Army reserves.

“I’m really excited and will bring energy to the race,” Pascual said. “We need...| read more ››

During a Three Village Civic Association meeting June 5, Brookhaven Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station) provided a look into the future of Port Jefferson Station.

In 2014 the Brookhaven town board approved a study for a potential hub project for Port Jefferson Station, specifically in the area of Route 112 north of Route 347 and south of the Long Island Rail Road train tracks near Hallock Avenue. The goal of the study and community-visioning document was to gauge public interest and provide in-depth plans for what a walkable, downtown Main Street residence and commercial retail space might look like in Port Jeff Station. In the time since the study was conducted, Cartright, who has played an instrumental role in...| read more ››

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday they would target Republican members of Congress from New York in an effort to help Democrats retake the U.S. House in 2018.

“New York will be on the front lines of our fight to restore sanity to Washington,” Pelosi said at a rally before hundreds of union members at the Javits Center in Manhattan, where she and Cuomo unveiled the New York Fights Back campaign.

The effort comes as Democrats look to next year’s midterm election as an opportunity to take control of the GOP-led House. Democrats need to flip 24 Republican held seats to gain a majority.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), who represents the 1st Congressional District...| read more ››

Suffolk Democrats Thursday named county police Commissioner Tim Sini to run for Suffolk District Attorney, as party chairman Richard Schaffer called him the candidate with “the best chance” to secure minor party cross-endorsements in the race.

Democrats also named retired New York City police officer Dan Caroleo, of North Babylon, as their candidate for county sheriff. However, Schaffer held open the possibility that the party down the road might consider backing State Sen. Philip Boyle (R-Bay Shore), the expected GOP nominee for sheriff.

Schaffer disclosed the decisions after a breakfast meeting with top Conservative Party officials and conference calls with the Democrats’ six-member screening committee and 40- member executive committee.

Schaffer said Sini has done “an awesome job” in his...| read more ››

Federal authorities should create a national database of MS-13 members and boost funding for more prosecutors, police enforcement, and community outreach to combat the rise on Long Island of the vicious street gang, Suffolk Police Commissioner Timothy Sini told a congressional panel Wednesday.

Sini, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said MS-13 was responsible for 27 killings in Suffolk since 2013 with 17 of those committed since January 2016. As proof that members of the gang are “savages,” Sini said they recently attempted to recruit a 10-year-old.

“This database is mission-critical to facilitating effective collaboration,” Sini told the committee.

The police commissioner later said he envisioned collaboration that would eventually include international law enforcement from...| read more ››

Brookhaven Democrats have nominated Jack Harrington, a Stony Brook lawyer and Navy reservist with no political experience, to run against Republican town Supervisor Edward P. Romaine this fall.

Harrington, 34, making his first run for public office, heads a slate of town candidates named Wednesday at a party nominating convention at the Selden firehouse.

In an interview, Harrington said he would focus on job creation, affordable housing and environmental conservation in his campaign to unseat Romaine, a two-term incumbent.

Harrington said Brookhaven Democrats, who hold only one seat on the town’s seven-member town board, have been energized by Democrat Christine Pellegrino’s upset victory Tuesday in a special election to fill a vacant State Assembly seat on the Nassau-Suffolk border that...| read more ››

Since being sworn in for a second term in January, Congressman Lee Zeldin has faced mounting pressure to hold a town hall meeting for constituents in New York’s First District. Winter temperatures did not stop protesters, sometimes a dozen or so and sometimes nearing 200, from calling on their congressman to hold a town hall.

These rallies, organized by the creators of the Let’s Visit Lee Zeldin Facebook page, were meant to bring attention to Zeldin’s refusal to hold a town hall. A canceled meeting scheduled for April at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton only fueled their fire. “Unfortunately, this meeting was co-opted, renamed and rebranded by a group of liberal obstructionists, who were already holding strategy meetings...| read more ››