As the County government continues to transition into the new administration, calls for investigations into former County Executive Steve Bellone (D-West Babylon) and some of his former staffers have emerged in light of alleged ethics violations and document mishandling.
The calls stem from questions on how money from the County’s $50 million Opioid Settlement fund flowed into organizations that now employ former County employees, including Bellone himself.
Questions were first raised when it was announced a few weeks ago that Bellone took a job as Assistant Vice President of Operations with Northwell Health in Staten Island. Northwell is the largest healthcare company in New York, employing over 80,000 people and treating some two million residents yearly.
Barbara Osborn, Vice President of public relations at Northwell said, “Steve’s knowledge and years of experience in public service will be valuable in supporting Northwell’s regional operational model to achieve greater efficiency in delivering clinical services.”
Northwell’s Project Connect Plus program received $3.5 million in January last year as part of the County grant, the single-largest reward in the round of funding while Bellone was County Executive.
Three former Bellone staffers have also been named in possible ethics violations. Vanessa Baird-Streeter was recently hired as the head of the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, a Huntington-based nonprofit that received $75,000 from Suffolk County when Bellone was Executive. The firm was most recently directed by now-Suffolk County Legislator Rebecca Sanin (D-Huntington Station), who won her first term this past November.
Bellone’s former Chief of Staff, Ryan Attard, was recently named Vice President and COO of the Family and Children’s Association, a Garden City-based firm that received $1.87 million in opioid funding from a committee chaired at the time by Attard.
Finally, and perhaps the most intriguing, is the whereabouts of Scott Mastellon, the former Chief of Information Technology (IT) who presided over the 2022 county-wide cyberattack that crippled County offices for months. Despite multiple audits of the IT Department showing mass vulnerabilities, Mastellon testified in front of the special committee of the Suffolk County Legislature investigating the hack that the breach came from the County Clerk’s office.
Mastellon now works for SVAM International, an IT provider based in Great Neck with whom the County contracted for IT-related services under Bellone’s tenure.
The Messenger discussed the matter with Suffolk County Comptroller John Kennedy (R-Nesconset), who has led the calls for a probe by the Suffolk County Board of Ethics.
“I have had to file financial disclosure forms every year for the last thirty-five years, in which I affirm that I have taken no action to secure post-public employment opportunities,” says Kennedy. Kennedy previously served as Suffolk County Legislator from the Twelfth District, first elected in 2005, before his election as Comptroller in 2014.
“I am seeking an ethics opinion about the legitimacy of the placement of four former high-level County employees, including former Executive Steve Bellone. This is exactly what New York State Public Officers Law prohibits, the concept of the ‘revolving door,’ in which public employees move to a private-sector entity that had previously been the beneficiary of public engagement. It undermines the public’s faith and confidence in the legitimacy and independence of their local government.”
County law prohibits public employees from soliciting, negotiating, or accepting employment from any firm involved in business with the County at the time of said employee’s tenure while participating in those business dealing on behalf of the County.
“The fat fingers are hard at work! This example of public officials going to work for organizations to whom they directed millions of dollars in public funding smacks of quid pro quo,” said Kennedy. “This is wrong and the public deserves better!”
In other news against the former administration, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tienery (R) has announced that former employees of the Bellone administration have thirty days to return County files and documents or face prosecution.
Tierney says missing documents might relate to the cyber attack in 2022 and could also assist in the ethics probe into tracking the money that flowed directly from the Bellone administration to the aforementioned firms that now employ former public officials.
Tierney and prosecutors are looking for destroyed or duplicated evidence, done either intentionally or inadvertently, as the former administration left no files for the incoming administration of Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches).
Anyone who is unintentionally in possession of County data has an amnesty period of thirty days or face charges.
This is a developing story.
