Suffolk County Comptroller-Elect Kennedy Talks Past And Future

By Dana Klosner

Legislator John KennedySuffolk County Legislator and County Comptroller-Elect John M. Kennedy, Jr. has announced the formation of a transition team as he prepares to take office on January 1. The team includes former Suffolk County Executive Robert Gaffney, former County Treasurer John Cochrane and Brookhaven Town Supervisor Edward P. Romaine.

Kennedy says he plans to fill five auditor positions that were lost during the layoffs in July 2012.  There is $230,000 identified as salary available for funding these positions, he said. 

Other plans include implementing or continuing regularly scheduled major department audits and to delve into areas that he identified during the campaign most notably Suffolk County’s homeless housing operations. Another priority identified by the state for audit is preschool handicap programs. There are thirty licensed preschool handicap providers here in Suffolk County, he said. In 2015 because of concerns at the state level any recovery that’s realized with those operations the County of Suffolk gets the opportunity to retain 100% of whatever that recovery is. In the second year it drops to 41% or 45%. 

Additional plans include auditing the operation of the county bus system and providing oversight for the County’s Benefit Fund. “My objective here is not to try to go ahead and reduce or eliminate what that amount is,” he said. “I just want to make sure the providers are billing fairly and that they’re furnishing employees with the services they’ve been contracted to provide, like an eyeglass benefit, hearing aids benefit, dental coverage and things like that.”

There’s a whole schedule of licenses and fees that various businesses and other operations in the county are subject to, he said. “I’ve got to make sure that they’re being properly collected and being properly remitted.”

“We could put in staff three times the size of what I have to work in areas that need to be addressed,” he said. “There’s no shortage of areas to go forward in. I’m going to do it in an ordered, logical, straight forward method.”

A focus of Kennedy’s Comptroller campaign was investigating homeless shelters and he is not backing away from it, “I don’t know exactly what I’m going to find,” he said.

“It’s not because I bear any particular animus to any homeless individuals. I’ve said that throughout all my time that I was in office as a legislator. We’ve had a homeless shelter in my legislative district for the ten years that I was in office and I had a very good working arrangement with our commissioner of social services where we had issues raised about operations or the nature of some of the individuals, families or residents that were in there. I dealt directly with social services. I know that it’s inherent to the human condition. Any set of circumstances can befall a family. I don’t think anyone ever chooses homelessness. But whether it’s a loss of employment or if it’s a medical catastrophe or whatever befalls an individual or family by definition we must, as a county, go ahead and provide individuals with shelters. That’s in the New York State Constitution. So that’s not the issue as far as the validity of the functions. The issue becomes how we expend very limited dollars to go ahead and to achieve that responsibility we have by virtue of the law to make sure that homeless families are being provided for in the best and most economical methods, and that their issues are being addressed. Whether it’s helping them to regain employment or whether it’s getting them the medical care that they need, making sure the children are being properly educated and making sure the circumstances and situations associated with lodging are clean and habitable. I don’t want to see 15, 16, 17 people packed in a single family house. I’ve had conversations with some folks that say they know for a fact we have department of social services checks going to one address. That may be as many as 10, 12, 15 checks. That’s a real issue we, meaning the county, shouldn’t be facilitating or promoting that type of an operation because it’s no good for the homeless individual, the homeless families themselves and it’s an impact on the neighborhood. No residential property is set up, just with the infrastructure, the septic system, the cooking facilities or anything like that to properly accommodate that many people. There are some of those types of situation that I want to be able to get a look at. It’ one thing to hear it mentioned as hearsay it’ll be my job to validate that or dispel the myths and to recommend actions beyond that. Again all I can do as Comptroller is do the review, identify what the facts are and make recommendations from there.”

Kennedy leaves behind a record of accomplishments, he spoke of a few of his favorites.

The recent grant announcement regarding work on the Northeast branch in the Village of the Branch for streambed silt remediation and reconstruction of two culverts.  Demolishing the Bavarian Inn. Getting the 90 acre Lily Pond Park dedicated as a Nature Preserve. Sponsoring a resolution to acquire the five acres in the 200 year old Connerdinger property in Ronkonkoma. Sponsoring the Friends and Family CPR event and working with Parish outreaches and soup kitchens. Improving pedestrian safety along Smithtown Blvd and County Road 16. Co-sponsoring with Legislator Nowick the sewer studies for Kings Park and Smithtown. Smithtown Galleria sewer district, district 4. Sponsoring the cell phone funding for public safety answering points – 911 operations.  “And dealing with the basic day to day services for constituents in need for more than 2,000 constituents,” he said. “We have over 2, 000 successfully resolved cases. But most of all we have a great staff, with my wife (Leslie) in there, Ali Nazir in there and over 70 interns that I’ve had in the time I’ve been in the legislature. Giving young people, students at all levels, the opportunity to see government up close and personal and be able to work day in and day out. “

With all that he’s done there are things that he will leave unfinished when he leaves office.“We’re still getting repairs done and the Connerdinger house. We need to get it open,” he said. “Never having been able to get the wheel put back on for the Blydenburgh Mill,” he said. “I had always hoped we’d get that done. Funding has become so dear here in Suffolk County. We did get the mill itself. I was able to secure $500,00 in capital funding to keep it from falling into the stream. The whole foundation system was rebuilt, the interior was repaired. It is a stable structure now. We just need to get it open so we can get folks in there to get it toured.”

“I’m going to do my level best to try and button up as many things as I can going out the door,” he said. 

As far as a special election to fill his position he said he believes the charter says a special election date has to be set 90 days of him vacating his position. He is resigning on December 31 so the election would have to be by March 30.

He said he is not backing anyone in particular but he feels his wife Leslie, who is currently a legislative aid, knows the job better than anybody as far as the day to day operations.

Kennedy pointed to the drug epidemic and heroin epidemic in particular as an area that is on his list of accomplishments as well as an area that needs to continue to be addressed. “I was surprised the extent of involvement, use and proliferation throughout our area. That issue needs to continue to have a bright light shined on it. I was glad to be the sponsor along with Legislator Hahn of the Narcan program that has turned out and Leslie was very involved with working with the Police Department with Dr. Coin in assembling the protocol. That program has turned out to be the benchmark for other programs throughout the state of New York. We now have 500 or 600 saves at this point of opiate/heroin overdoses by the use of Narcan that would have been 500 or 600 funerals of users.

He is looking forward to his new position but he will miss his old position. 

“So, it has been a great, great, great opportunity to go ahead and use our skills to try to improve the lives of the 80,000 plus residents in the 12^th Legislative District and I will miss it dearly,” he said. “But there will be somebody new who comes along and they will put their thumbprint on the office and I’m sure that they’ll do a great job. “