Suffolk Closeup - It's Time Suffolk County Creates An Office Of Inspector General

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta is back with his bill to establish an independent office of inspector general in Suffolk. Such an office needed, Mr. Trotta, a long-time Suffolk County Police Department detective told me last week, because of a “culture of corruption and mismanagement” in Suffolk County government. 

Mr. Trotta, a four-term Suffolk legislator from Fort Salonga, twice introduced measures previously to create an office of inspector general in Suffolk. The new bill was inspired, he said, by the death of Thomas Valva, an autistic eight-year-old Center Moriches boy who froze to death in January after being forced to sleep without blankets or a mattress on the cement floor of an unheated garage. The child’s father, a New York Police Department transit officer, and the father’s fiancée have been charged with murder and endangering the welfare of a child. 

The Child Protective Services division of the Suffolk Department of Health Services and police and courts in both Suffolk and Nassau Counties had been asked by Thomas’s mother to investigate mistreatment of the boy and his two siblings. At Thomas’s wake, his mother charged: “This could have been preventable. But the people who protect children were protecting the abuser instead.”

In Nassau, three years ago, its county legislature by a unanimous vote approved the establishment of an office of Nassau County inspector general. Its website says: “The mission of the OIG is to foster accountability, efficiency, integrity and restore trust in County government.” 

Mr. Trotta’s previous bills were not enacted. Neither was a similar one sponsored by Suffolk Legislators Kara Hahn and Rob Colarco, both Democrats. Mr. Trotta and the co-sponsor of the new bill, freshman Legislator Anthony Piccirillo, are both Republicans. Mr. Colarco at the start of this year became the legislature’s presiding officer. 

The Trotta-Piccirillo measure declares “that Suffolk County…with a population that exceeds that of eleven states…provides a tremendous range of services to its residents, from policing to public works to environmental protection and public health monitoring.” And “given the size, scope and breadth of services rendered, there are often opportunities for fraud, waste, misconduct and mismanagement to occur.” It says that “in recent years incidents of misconduct, waste and abuse involving various elements of Suffolk County government have been discovered, reported upon by the media and addressed through policy changes initiated by the legislature.” 

It goes on that “it has become clear that greater change and oversight is essential to identify and eradicate instances of fraud, waste, abuse and corruption at the county level to protect public integrity of government and safeguard the use of taxpayer dollars.” 

It then states that “the recent tragic death of Thomas Valva also brings forth questions of possible misconduct and mismanagement on the part of county departments involved with his case which are of tremendous consequence and the utmost importance.” 

It says that “establishment of an independent investigatory authority for Suffolk County is essential to ensuring that the county is subject to necessary oversight and held accountable for living up to its mandates to serve and protect its residents, especially those who are the most vulnerable in our society.” The office would “provide critical accountability and oversight to county government and would be able to identify, investigate and deter fraud, waste, mismanagement, misconduct and abuse.”

The inspector general would be required to have “at least ten years of experience in any one or a combination” of being a “federal, state or local law enforcement officer/official or prosecutor…a federal or state court judge…an inspector general, certified public accountant or internal auditor.” 

At a public hearing on the bill, former Suffolk County Social Services Commissioner Gregory Blass, who also was a Suffolk Family Court judge and presiding officer of the Suffolk Legislature, testified for it. He said an investigation by a Suffolk inspector general of the Valva death would “do more than an internal departmental investigation [by the Suffolk Department of Social Services] would do.” However, at a subsequent hearing, Thomas’s mother, Justyna Zubko-Valva, told legislators that the proposed office would be similar to those that ignored her “crying for help” and “completely failed in protecting my son.”

Meanwhile, Suffolk District Attorney Timothy Sini has just announced the empaneling of a special grand jury to investigate what occurred. Earlier, the legislature moved to form a “special committee” to do the same, and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced an “internal review” by county government.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.