On January 3, 2011 Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone spoke at the organization meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature. Bellone took the opportunity to announce a bipartisan Government Operations task force.
During the election candidate Bellone spoke regularly about the need to increase the efficiency of government. “Doing more with less” was a theme of the campaign. The task force is charged with reviewing the county’s operations and reporting the results at the end of January. The results will serve as the foundation for the creation of action plans to help the County Executive reform government.
The chairperson on the Task Force is Eric Kopp. Mr. Kopp served twelve years as Chief Deputy Suffolk County Executive for County Executive Bob Gaffney. Mr. Kopp is currently working in the executive office.
The Task Force includes Legislators DuWayne Gregory, Kara Hahm, Lynne C. Nowick (Smithtown) and Ed Romaine. There are two advisors to the Task Force, Dr. Lee Koppelman and Dr. Peter Salins both come from the public policy program at Stony Brook University.