Suffolk Closeup: 67th Suffolk County Sheriff Making A Difference

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr., who was elected in 2017 and began serving in 2018, has brought a host of reforms and new programs to the Sheriff’s Office.

The position of Suffolk sheriff goes way back—to 1683. It’s one of the oldest law enforcement posts in the County. Sheriff Toulon is the 67^th person to hold it. 

Sheriff Toulon is first African-American to have been elected to a nonjudicial countywide officeSuffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr. in the history of Suffolk County. Earlier, he ran for the Suffolk Legislature (and there were some calls to police about a black man going door-to-door when he campaigned).

The Sheriff’s Office is a big operation—with 1,200 employees, 275 of them deputy sheriffs. It operates two correctional facilities, one in Riverhead and one in Yaphank.

Sheriff Toulon has long experience. He spent 22 years as a uniformed member of New York City’s Department of Corrections at Riker’s Island, rising to the rank of captain, and then was named deputy commissioner of operations for the department. His father had been a warden at Riker’s.

A Lake Grove resident, Sheriff Toulon in 2012 became assistant deputy Suffolk County executive for public safety. 

He is highly educated with degrees that include a master’s in business administration and a doctorate in educational administration. 

He was raised in The Bronx (for two years he was a batboy for the New York Yankees).

He has overcome serious health problems: beating Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1996 and pancreatic cancer in 2003.

From his swearing in as Suffolk County sheriff by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, he has been engaged in non-stop action. This has included initiatives outside and inside the Sheriff’s Office. 

Among them, he established a Sandy Hook Promise School Safety Initiative because of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary or high school in U.S. history. It has now reached 22,000 Suffolk school children with a focus, explains Sheriff Toulon, that includes youngsters become aware of “signs of a peer in distress.”

He launched the Human Trafficking Initiative, a first at any jail in the nation, in which identification is made of, and special help given, to inmates who have been victims of trafficking. 

Sheriff Toulon has been extremely concerned about gang activity in the county, notably because Suffolk, he notes, has the nation’s “third largest” M-13 gang. He journeyed to El Salvador to meet with officials there and develop a “partnership” with its government in combatting gangs. The Sheriff’s Office teaches Suffolk students about gangs through the national Gang Resistance Education and Training program. 

He has instituted a Senior Rehabilitation Pod Program, also believed to be the first program of its kind in the country, through which inmates over 50 are separated from younger inmates and provided programs specifically geared for them. 

He assembled a task force named Deconstructing the Prison Pipeline to study the causes of and seek to better deal with of juvenile delinquency.  

For young inmates there is a program titled Choose Your Path which offers vocational training, schooling, counseling, pre-release and post-release transitional services, and mental health support. They spend 40 hours a week in the program.

And there are more. 

Sheriff Toulon has coordinated closely with such entities in the county as BOCES, the Suffolk Department of Labor, the School of Social Welfare at Stony Brook University and the Suffolk Department of Health Services.

Among his key goals are seeking “to get to kids before they get to me” and “to work with persons incarcerated so they can change their lives….We don’t give up on anybody.”

Suffolk Legislator Bridget Fleming of Noyac, with background also in the criminal justice system in New York City—for years she was an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan DA’s office—describes Sheriff Toulon as a “reform superstar.” Vice chair of the Suffolk County Public Safety Task Force, she says that in “thoughtfulness and compassion, he is truly a visionary” and “very extraordinary in the history of corrections in Suffolk County.”

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. 

Suffolk County Legislator Rudy Sunderman To Step Down From Legislature

Suffolk County Legislator Rudy Sunderman (3rd LD) will resign from the Legislature to pursue his career at the Suffolk County Fire Academy.

Legislator Sunderman (R) won election in 2017 filling the seat of Kate Browning who was term-limited out of office.

Mr. Sunderman was indicted in 2019 and is facing charges for allegedly lying to theSuffolk County Legislator Rudy Sunderman Suffolk County Board of Ethics about working for the Centereach Fire Department.

ABC News in 2019 reported:

“On December 6, 2017, Sunderman received an opinion from the Suffolk County Board of Ethics that continuing to serve in these roles while serving as a legislator would constitute a violation of the Suffolk County Code’s prohibition on dual office-holding. Sunderman resigned from his position with the Center Moriches Fire District.

Sunderman is alleged to have attempted to circumvent that ruling by creating a shell company in his wife’s name, Now That’s Fire Management, Inc., and arranging for the Centereach Board of Fire Commissioners to hire him through that company for $10,000 per month.

Between January 2, 2018, and June 30, 2018, despite the Board of Ethics’ determination, Sunderman allegedly continued to perform the duties of a district manager for the Centereach Fire District, including personally signing over 600 vouchers and other official documents as district manager for the Centereach Fire District.

Vouchers and purchase orders that Sunderman signed as “DM” or “District Manager” included those that authorized $60,000 in payments to Now That’s Fire Management, which authorities say is a violation of state municipal law regarding conflicts of interest.

“Mr. Sunderman was personally put on notice: the Ethics Board told him specifically not to engage in this employment,” Sini said. “Not only did he continue his work with the Centereach Fire District, but, while doing so, he personally authorized $60,000 in payments to the shell corporation that he had created in his wife’s name.”

Following receipt of a complaint, the Suffolk County Board of Ethics began an investigation into Sunderman’s employment with the Centereach Fire District. On October 29, 2018, during a deposition in connection with the investigation, Sunderman allegedly perjured himself on numerous occasions, including denying that he received any income from his continued work for the Centereach Fire District.

Bank records obtained by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office showed that Sunderman was a signatory on Now That’s Fire Management’s corporate bank account, that the account was used for Sunderman’s personal expenses, and that Sunderman had personally engaged in over 100 transactions and spent thousands of dollars using a debit card issued to him on that bank account.

Sunderman also allegedly denied under oath managing fire district staff members after January 2018. Evidence developed over the course of the investigation showed that Sunderman continued to manage employees and represent himself as “District Manager” until he resigned from the position in June 2018, after the Board of Ethics began to investigate his conduct.

On April 23, 2019, Sunderman allegedly intentionally failed to disclose his outside employment and income as well as his wife’s income from the Centereach Fire Department on a financial disclosure form filed with the Suffolk County Board of Ethics for the 2018 reporting year.”

Rudy Sunderman won reelection in 2019.

Suffolk County Republican Chairperson Jesse Garcia issued a statement wishing Sunderman well in his new position and offered some assurance to the committee  “Rest assured, the Brookhaven and Suffolk County Republican Committees are well prepared to retain this important seat.”

There will be a special election to fill the vacancy.

Suffolk Closeup: 2020 A Difficult But Productive Year

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Summing up the 50^th year of the Suffolk County Legislature, its presiding officer, Rob Calarco said it was “a difficult year for everyone”—and 2020 sure was (as is 2021 so far, too)— but “despite the challenges it was a productive year.”

What were some of the accomplishments of the Suffolk Legislature in 2020?

In dealing with COVID-19 limitations, the legislature figured out how to go “virtual” using that most popular internet platform, Zoom. And the public was able to “share comments over Zoom,” noted Mr. Calarco, re-elected its presiding officer at the start of 2020. The legislature used Zoom for both its general and committee meetings.

Meetings of the Suffolk Legislature have, since it was established in 1970, always involved public participation—on a remarkable level. There’s a “public portion” at every general meeting at which people can speak on any topic, and at both the general and committee meetings the public can speak on bills being considered.

Early COVID-related legislation was to allow the hard-hit cultural and historic organizations in Suffolk as well as museums and film-related entities to receive funds from the county’s hotel/motel tax for operating expenses—to help keep them alive. This measure was put forward by Legislator Bridget Fleming of Noyac. The hotel/motel tax provides for 3% of the per-diem rate to go to the county.

Meanwhile, legislative staffers joined other county employees as “contact tracers” to investigate sources of the disease. 

Challenging discrimination and promoting diversity was a focus in 2020. 

Much had to do with the important Newsday investigation of the prior year, “Divided Long Island,” which exposed widespread racial “steering” by real estate people in both Suffolk and Nassau Counties. A Fair Housing Task Force was established and held hearings to review the county’s existing human rights law and come up with recommendations to strengthen it. “We are committed to fighting for fairness, and that includes dismantling systemic racism,” said Mr. Calarco.

As to the environment, with climate change and a consequent rise in sea levels, the legislature passed a bill creating a Coastal Resiliency and Sea Level Rise Task Force put forward by Legislator Al Krupski of Cutchogue and co-sponsored by Rudy Sunderman of Shirley, Sarah Anker of Mt. Sinai and Kara Hahn of Setauket.

The measure emphasized that “sea level rise has led to accelerated coastal erosion worldwide and is of particular concern to Long Island, with threats of destruction to Suffolk County’s 980 miles of coastline … One of the county’s main draws to tourism is its many beaches and waterfront properties, which would be ruined by coastal erosion if these environmental changes are not addressed.”

“Without any policies in place on the county level, many local municipalities are struggling to combat the accelerated erosion and sea level rise,” it said. The task force would “develop regional coastal resiliency policies to assist municipalities when making decisions that could affect Suffolk’s coastline in the future.” 

“A mix” of actions will likely be urged by the task force, said Mr. Krupski, with long experience on shoreline issues. For 20 years he served on the Southold Town Board of Trustees, which has jurisdiction over the town’s waterfront, the last 14 as its president. 

It’s expected its recommendations will include elevation of structures and roads in some areas and also moving back from the shoreline. Places in Suffolk “are so different,” Mr. Krupski said. Thus “we need local persons” to consider what can be done, why each Suffolk town has a representative on the task force. Still, it’s critical that “we all work together,” he said, 

That’s actually been a hallmark of the Suffolk Legislature—indeed, for years, it was led by a bipartisan leadership team of Republican Gregory Blass of Jamesport as presiding officer and, as deputy PO, Democrat Wayne Prospect of Dix Hills (who, so sadly, passed away last month).

Upon his re-election as PO last month, Mr. Calarco, a Patchogue Democrat, said: “We work across the aisle to get things done to protect the vulnerable, protect our environment and improve people’s lives…In a time of hyper-partisanship at other levels of government, most of the measures passed by the Suffolk County Legislature in 2020 did so on bipartisan and often unanimous votes.”

Send that message to Washington, D.C.

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. 

Fill Out The Survey And Play A Role In The Formation Of The Nissequogue River State Park

By Stacey Altherr

After decades of inertia, Nissequogue River State Park is finally on the state’s agenda for revitalization, with a goal of a master plan in place by the end of the year, according to the state’s published deadline. What that revitalization will look like is still under discussion, and residents are urged to join in the conversation.

A master plan, needed for any major renovations of a public place, gives concrete long-term goals for its use. 

The sprawling 522-acre property, once the site of the enormous complex of buildings of the defunct Kings Park Psychiatric Center, is mostly used as passive parkland, with walking/biking trails. Many residents who have spoken at other public meetings fear over use bringing too much traffic, and others want more recreational uses, such as theaters. What to do with the buildings, many in state of such disrepair as to be unusable without much renovation, is a looming question.

A zoom meeting with residents and interested groups was held Feb. 3. An online survey for information gathering, https://bit.ly/2YABFpq, is open until Feb. 17. The survey asks questions about the use and concerns about the use of the property. For instance, it asks 18 questions on what should be included on the site, ranging from playgrounds and skateboarding to community gardens and birdwatching.

 As part of the master plan process, the state’s Office of Parks and Recreation is also opening up the public comment period, now in effect until March 5, https://parks.ny.gov/inside-our-agency/master-plans.aspx The Feb. 3^rd Zoom meeting can be found there as well.

The path to finally getting movement on the state park renovation was an unusual one. 

Kings Park Hospital was closed in 1996, with no real use in sight. Mostly a nuisance to local police authorities because of safety concerns of trespassers, a group of citizens and advocacy groups, as well as legislators, petitioned the state to designate it official as parkland, which passed in 2001. 

Last year, the State Department of Environmental Conservation began construction of a marine resources headquarters in the parkland area. John McQuaid, president to the not-for-profit Nissequogue River State Park Foundation, said the organization filed a lawsuit to fight the construction, saying that it was an illegal use of parkland. The dispute was taken to court last March, where a Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Sanford Berland ordered the two sides to reach a compromise. 

“We agreed to let them put it there, and for their part we asked them to create a master plan,” McQuaid said. And so far, he is impressed with what has happened.

“We are really impressed with the team. They hired outside consultants and are making sure all the constituents are heard.”

McQuaid said the foundation’s mission is not to create a plan, but to make sure the guidelines of parkland legislation is kept, and to be a part of the process. 

“Our agenda is not to dictate what the park should be, but it should be a park,” he said.

NRSP Survey

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Suffolk County Legislature 50 Years Of History

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Before we forget—as most of us sure would like to—about what happened in 2020, notably the start and then spread of the COVID-19 plague—some attention is due in Suffolk County to 2020 having been the 50^th anniversary year of the Suffolk Legislature. 

It was established in 1970 as a result of the judicial affirmation that there should be one-person-one-vote. The prior county governing body was the Suffolk Board of Supervisors made up of the supervisors of each of the 10 towns in the county. Each supervisor had the same vote on the county board whether representing a lightly populated town or one with significant population. 

The Suffolk Legislature is made up of 18 legislators from districts of about equal population, so the vote of each legislator reflects the one-person-one-vote principle.

I’m the only journalist around who covered both the Suffolk Board of Supervisors and the Suffolk Legislature. They were quite different governmental bodies. 

A strength of the board was that each of the supervisors was the executive of his town and thus came to dealing with county business with experience in how governments run. I say “his” town because there was never a woman on the Suffolk Board of Supervisors. 

Until Judith Hope was elected the supervisor of the Town of East Hampton in 1973—after the board dissolved—only men had served as town supervisors in Suffolk. Thus, the Suffolk Board of Supervisors for all its 287 years consisted of only men, only white men at that. 

The Suffolk Legislature, on the other hand, has been diverse. There have been plenty of women legislators. And there have been Blacks and Latinos. 

The thinking in Suffolk politics when the legislature came into being was that the job of legislator would be part-time. This didn’t last very long and it soon became a full-time position.

The chairmen of the Suffolk County Board of Supervisors whom I covered and got to know included some who were, in my judgement, excellent, and I’m speaking especially of Evans K. Griffing of Shelter Island and John V.N. Klein of Smithtown. 

Mr. Klein, who was chairman in the board’s last four years, stepped down from being Smithtown supervisor as the board was getting set to be disbanded and ran for the new legislature. He was then elected the legislature’s first presiding officer. In the intelligent way he conducted himself and in the policies he initiated—for example, the Suffolk County Farmland Preservation Program, the first sale-of-development-rights program in the nation—he was as fine a public official as I’ve ever known.

Most, but not all, of those who followed him as presiding officer were excellent. A few were poor. Outstandingly good have been Gregory Blass, William Lindsay, Sondra Bachety (the first female PO), Maxine Postal and DuWayne Gregory (the first African-American). 

The current presiding officer of the legislature is Rob Colarco, elected to the position by fellow legislators in 2020. For Suffolk County government, this was a good thing about 2020.

Mr. Colarco was first elected as a legislator in 2011, voted in as deputy presiding officer in 2016, and last year arrived at the top post, considered the Number 2 position in Suffolk government after county executive. He is self-effacing, dedicated to government service and works well with others. He’s very smart, energetic and focused on solutions. 

A native of upstate Auburn, he came to Suffolk to attend Dowling College in Oakdale, which is now defunct. And that’s a shame. It’s sad that Southampton College and Dowling College, both of which drew lots of talented, bright people to Suffolk, many of whom stayed and enriched this county, closed. 

Mr. Colarco’s official biography provides this picture: “Rob watched his family struggle to make ends meet and contributed to the household with whatever small jobs he could obtain. He learned early the values of hard work and respect for all people. Inspired by his father, who served 34 years in the Auburn Fire Department and led the effort to unionize the department… Rob comes to public service naturally.”

He received a Bachelor’s in political science at Dowling and went on to get a Master’s in public administration at Stony Brook University “at night while working full time,” says the biography. It notes: “Rob lives in Patchogue Village with his wife, Laura and his daughter, Alma Rosa and his two sons, Patrick and Bodhi. They share their home with their dog, Buck. They enjoy walking to the parks and caring for their vegetable garden.”

Next week: accomplishments of the Suffolk Legislature in 2020.

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.