LTE: Why not Announce Your Salary Increase Before Election

To Tom McCarthy,

I want to voice my concern to the 22% Salary increase you are giving. Remember the people of Smithtown are the ones paying your salary, and if you really think it is necessary you should have let us know prior to electing you. You obviously wouldn’t propose this prior to your election, so you are trying to sneak it thru. Please be transparent, it is not your money its ours.

 Sincerely,

 Alan Robbins, Smithtown

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Hurricane Ian Underscores LI's Vulnerability

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“Ian shows the risks and costs of living on barrier islands,” was the headline of an Associated Press story this month in the wake of Hurricane Ian. The article was datelined Sanibel Island, Florida—decimated by Ian. But it applies to all construction built in the teeth of the sea, with buildings on barrier islands and beaches—such as we have here, too—especially vulnerable. 

“Hurricane Ian underscores the vulnerability of the nation’s barrier islands and the increasing costs of people living on the thin strips of land that parallel the coast. As hurricanes become more destructive, experts question whether such exposed communities can keep rebuilding in the face of climate change,” said the AP article. 

The lesson of Hurricane Ian to this area? “I really hope it’s a strong wake-up call,” says Kevin McAllister, founder and president of the Sag Harbor-based organization Defend H20. “I would urge for a pause to rethink areas occupied that are low-lying”—considering climate change causing great intensity of future storms and also sea level rise. “The prospect” for these stretches, he says, is “untenable.”

The AP piece continued: “Barrier islands were never an ideal place for development, experts say. They typically form as waves deposit sediment off the mainland. And they move based on weather patterns and other ocean forces. Some even disappear. Building on the islands and holding them in place with beach replenishment programs just makes them more vulnerable to destruction because they can no longer move, according to experts.” Indeed, having barrier beaches flexible enough to move when hit by storms is critical for them in protecting the mainland. 

This is where I came in as a journalist in Suffolk County back 60 years ago. Robert Moses had just announced a plan to build a four-lane highway on the length of Fire Island. He claimed it would “anchor” the beach.

In 1962, there weren’t the experts in coastal dynamics who would subsequently emerge, such as Orrin Pilkey, founder of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University. He has authored, coauthored and edited 45 books including The Rising Sea with Robert Young, who succeeded him as the program’s director. Pilkey’s most recent book: Retreat from a Rising Sea.

Still, it was clear Moses’ claim was baloney. We found at the Babylon Town Leader—one of the very few newspapers in the New York Area that challenged Moses (a Babylon resident)—that along the highway he built on the Jones Beach stretch, bulldozers worked at night so people wouldn’t see them, removing sand from the sides of the highway to try to keep the road in place.

Further, in Suffolk, folks before the 20^th Century wouldn’t do major building on barrier beaches. They’d put up, said old-timers, what were called “beach shacks.” 

Meanwhile, when I began as a journalist here, the Army Corps of Engineers began pushing for piles of rocks—called groins—being dumped out into the ocean along Dune Road in Westhampton. “Hand-wrestling with God,” the Suffolk County Executive John V. N. Klein, called it. The rock piles caught sand moving in the westward littoral drift but robbed it from reaching the coast further down the beach causing severe erosion. 

Global warming has resulted in the situation becoming dire. Hurricanes are now rapidly escalating, feeding off hotter seas, to Category 3 and Category 4. Ian with 155 mph winds was near a Category 5, the worst, when it hit Florida. It can happen here. Consider the hurricane before Ian, Fiona, that that struck northeastern Canada with 100 mph winds at Category 2. “I’m seeing homes in the ocean,” said René J. Roy of Newfoundland, chief editor of the newspaper there, Wreckhouse Press. “I’m seeing rubble floating all over the place. It’s complete and utter destruction.” 

On his website “Informed Comment,” University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole took issue with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis saying Ian was a “once-in-a-500-year flood event.” It is “the new normal,” said Cole. And the “ocean water up north is no longer…cold….so hurricanes can remain strong all the way up to New York, Boston and even Newfoundland.”

An op-ed essay by Robert Young in The New York Times this month was titled: “To Save America’s Coasts, Don’t Always Rebuild Them.” Young wrote: “Hurricane Ian is the latest devastating hurricane to confirm that coastal areas are failing to keep rebuilt or new development out of highly vulnerable areas.” He cited “multiple incentives to rebuild rather than to relocate. The assumption is that taxpayers will always be there to back up private investment…”

The Bible speaks of “a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell.”

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. 

Smithtown Dems Hit The Ground Running With New Town Leader Patty Stoddard

At a packed organizational meeting on October 6, 2022, Smithtown Democratic Committeeperson, former candidate for Town Council, and active union leader Patty Stoddard was voted the Chairperson of the Smithtown Democratic Committee. Stoddard ran unopposed and the vote was unanimous. 

Smithtown Democrats new town leader Patty StoddardStoddard thanked her colleagues and outgoing, current, and incoming board members, including former Chairperson Ed Maher, who will continue as Treasurer for the committee, for their contributions, and she highlighted the work of the committee. 

“So many of you participate in our county-wide Roe v. Wade phone bank, helping to make thousands upon thousands of phone calls mobilizing voters in the fight to protect women’s rights, by making sure that good democrats get elected here in Suffolk. You know what they say - Smithtown Shows Up!” Stoddard told the committee. 

Sign carried at the October Women’s Reproductive Rights Rally in Pt. Jeff Sta.The Supreme Court, in its Dobbs decision first leaked in May, ended a woman’s right to an abortion federally. “In the aftermath of the right-wing Supreme Court overturning half a century of precedent, stripping women across the country of their right to make their own medical decisions, Smithtown Democrats have been spearheading efforts to make sure that our neighbors understand how important this election is for women across the country,” Stoddard said. “The next stop for these anti-choice Republicans is a federal ban on abortion. Our committee will work like hell to make sure that doesn’t happen.” 

Stoddard is a retired teacher of the Smithtown School District, has been a member of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) since 1974, and has served many active years as a Union Representative and Executive Committee Treasurer for her local, Smithtown Teachers Association. She spent nearly 20 years on the Smithtown Teacher Center Policy Board, as a Parent Rep., Teacher, and eventually Chairperson, providing professional development for teachers. Upon her retirement in 2015, Stoddard joined the Smithtown Schools Retirees’ Association (SSRA) where she currently serves as President. Stoddard is on the Executive Board of the New York State Alliance of Retired Americans (NYSARA) Long Island Chapter which provides a way for retired union members and others to make their voices heard on issues important to them. Stoddard is also a former candidate for Town Council in 2017. 

“I am thrilled to see our organization growing by the day, attracting new members from our community and creating a Smithtown Young Democrats group,” Stoddard said. “I’m proud to say that we are hitting the ground running, with no time to lose.”

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Being Hacked Is Not Unique To Suffolk County

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County government is far from alone in having its computer network hacked last month—a massive data breach from which only in recent weeks has it begun to recover.

“Top 10 Biggest Government Data Breaches of All Time in the U.S.” is the title of a report on the website Digital Guardian. The list is topped by the hacking of the U.S. Voter Database in 2015. In this, “the largest government data breach to date, a database of 191 million voters was exposed,” it says. “Again, and almost unfathomably, the problem came down to human error and oversight: the database was incorrectly configured and exposed on the open Internet. It contained the personal information—names, dates of birth, party affiliations, emails, addresses, and more—of all registered voters in the 50 states…”

At Number 2, the National Archives and Records Administration got hacked. In 2009 after “a hard drive malfunctioned” and NARA sent it to “their private IT contractors for repairs.  The problem: the hard drive contained the highly sensitive information for a reported 76 million [military] veterans, and NARA forgot to wipe the drive before sending it off premises.”

Also included is Virginia, and how in 2009 “a hacker reportedly breached a Virginia government health website used by state pharmacists and stole the personal information of 8.3 million Virginians. The hacker later taunted the government and FBI, demanding $10 million for the safe return of the information.” Then there’s the hacking of the Office of Texas Attorney General in 2012 with 6.5 million people “compromised,” this office having “mistakenly included sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, in a voter database file released to plaintiff’s attorneys.” And the list goes on.

Says Digital Guardian: “From U.S. federal government agencies to state agencies, cyberattacks have dug up U.S. citizens’ private information through every level of government.”

Cyberspace is clearly a new Wild West. And Suffolk County government has become a victim. Those who hacked into the Suffolk computer system have demanded a ransom, as is the way the cybercriminals operate. Who are the sheriffs in this computer-based Wild West and are governments—including Suffolk County government—doing what they might to protect people’s sensitive information?

As to U.S. government cyberspace would-be sheriffs, the Government Accountability Office, a watchdog unit within the federal government, last week issued a 70-page report stating the  agencies that are supposed to protect us from hacking “can improve collaboration.” These include the FBI, Secret Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

However, the issue goes way beyond our nation’s borders with hackers functioning globally. As the international police organization, INTERPOL, with 194 member countries, declares under the title “Cybercrime” on its website: “Today, the world is more digitally connected than ever before. Criminals take advantage of this online transformation to target weaknesses in online systems, networks and infrastructure. There is a massive economic and social impact on governments, businesses and individuals worldwide.” So, INTERPOL “is increasing the capacity of our member countries to prevent, detect, investigate and disrupt cybercrimes.”

A successful initiative at the grassroots to combat cyberattacks has been happening. In the current issue of New York magazine is an article about how Lawrence Abrams, “founder and owner” of the website Bleeping Computer in 2016 “helped organize…what became known as the Ransomware Hunting Team.” This “band of about a dozen tech wizards in seven countries soon proved indispensable to victims who couldn’t afford, or refused out of principle, to pay ransoms to cybercriminals. Without charging for its services, the team has cracked more than 300 major ransomware strains and variants, saving an estimated 4 million victims from paying billions of dollars in ransoms.” 

This extensive, must-read piece says of the cybercriminals: “Concentrated in countries such as Russia and North Korea, where they appear to enjoy a measure of government protection, the attackers are often self-taught, under-employed tech geeks.”

Did Suffolk County government do all of what it should have to try to prevent the hacking attack on it? No, says Suffolk Comptroller John M. Kennedy, Jr. of Nesconset. He says county government through a private contractor acquired a “million-dollar firewall” but, says Kennedy, “some of its features our people weren’t able to successfully activate.”

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. 

LTE: Why Does Smithtown Reject Help From The Disabled?

To the Editor
Smithtown Matters

My son Riko is a 52 year old man with severe autism who was born, raised and for the past 30 years lives in a group home in Smithtown. In October of last year Riko and his Direct Support Professional (DSP) saw a flyer from the Town of Smithtown Senior Citizen Department urgently looking for volunteers for their Meals on Wheels Program. Homebound seniors were at risk of missing meal delivery and suffering increased isolation due to an inadequate number of volunteer to make the deliveries.

Riko has been delivering Meals on Wheels for ten years and loves his volunteer work delivering Meals on Wheels in Center Moriches. Riko’s DSP called to volunteer to help with the MOW program’s crisis in Smithtown. To her utter dismay they were rejected on the grounds of contract and liability issues, issues that other municipalities were able to overcome. 

The then Exectuive Director of Developmental Disabilities Institute (DDI) wrote to Supervisor Wehrheim regarding the problem and seeking a resolution. He received an email from Supervisor Wehrheim’s assistant stating that the matter was being turned over to Council member Lynne C. Nowick who was the liaison to the Senior Citizens Center. Council member Nowick responded on December 2, that she had an upcoming meet with the newly appointed director of the Senior Citzens Department where she would raise the issue of Riko volunteering for the MOW program. On April 22, almost 5 months later, DDI finally received a 3 page officious response from Doreen Perrino, Program Director, Smithtown Senior Center. In her response Ms. Perrini cited a laundry list of “requirements” set forth by the Suffolk County Office of the Aging and the New York State Office for the Aging that Riko would be unable to meet starting with the fact that the meals must be delivered by a person with a valid New York State drivers license. Clearly, Riko a man with severe autism, would not possess a valid drivers license.

Ms. Perrini goes on to “address” DDI’s statement that the agency works with other meals programs in Suffolk County. Apparently, in her mind, the fact that only two programs permit disabled people to volunteer to deliver meals and that they created specific routes to accommodate them was reason enough to reject Riko’s offer to help address Smithtown’s crisis by volunteering! Clearly, Ms. Perrini is not familiar with The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in several areas and requires that accommodations be made to include them. She also added that “it was reported” that the disabled volunteers were either unreliable or exhibited behavior problems and that the person “overseeing” the disabled volunteer was disinterested and not alert.

I reached out to the Moriches Nutrition Program regarding their evaluation of Riko and his DSP’s work as volunteers for its Meals on Wheels Program. The Assistant Director said that she has known Riko for years. She went on to say that everyone loves Riko, he greets everyone by name with a smile and that the various people with him over the years have been, without exception, excellent with Riko.

After all that transpired last year, I was saddened to read the article in the recent issue of Smithtown Matters that, one year later, the Smithtown Senior Center was still desperately looking for volunteers to deliver Meals on Wheels to seniors who were home bound. Seniors are missing out on nutritious meals that could have been delivered by my son Riko—a smiling, friendly man with a severe disability who wants nothing more but to give back to his community but was, despite years of experience delivering meals for other towns, rejected as an unsuitable volunteer by the town he has lived in all his life—Smithtown.

I can NOT escape the very strong whiff of discrimination. 

Disappointed,
Margaret Raustiala
Member Save our Services
CC Senator Mario Mattera
Assemblymember Michael Fitzpatrick
Jihoon Kim, Deputy Secretary for Human Services and Mental Hygiene
Kim Hill, Chief Disability Officer
Kerri Neifeld, Commissioner OPWDD