Suffolk County Comptroller Kennedy's Audit Recovers $2.6 Million

Comptroller’s Audit Nets Suffolk County $2.6 Million in Pharmacy Benefit Recoveries

Suffolk County Comptroller, John M. Kennedy, Jr., has recovered nearly $2.6 million in taxpayer funds after his office settled an audit of the County’s pharmacy benefit manager, WelldyneRX, Inc. The County entered into an administrative service agreement with Welldyne in May 2014 to administer the pharmacy benefit of the County’s self-insured medical plan. The plan covers over 45,000 active employees, spouses, dependent children, dependent survivors and retirees making it one of the largest medical plans in Suffolk County. The pharmacy benefit part of the plan has an average yearly spend of approximately $60 million.

The Comptroller’s Office, in conjunction with the Plan’s Labor Management Committee, engaged the Segal Group to perform the financial audit of Welldyne for the period of May 2014 through December 2016. The audit was issued in April and settled with the vendor in September resulting in payment to the County of $2.6 million.

The audit revealed that Welldyne incorrectly categorized drugs dispensed under the plan causing the under-performance of pricing guarantees defined in the administrative service agreement.

As a result of the high volume of Welldyne’s non-compliance with the administrative service agreement, Comptroller Kennedy has commenced a second audit of the subsequent period covering January 2017 through December 2019 which should be completed soon.

Comptroller Kennedy commented that “in these troublesome times it is more important than ever before to ensure that taxpayer funds are not squandered or misspent and that our employees receive the benefits they deserve.”

The recovered money goes back into the fund it was disbursed from, Fund 039 – which was set up for medical plan expenditures. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Ku Klux Klan On Long Island

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“Eye-opening” declared one person on the “Chat” box on Zoom about Christopher Verga’s presentation entitled “The Battle for Long Island Souls and Minds: Resistance Against the Long Island Klan.” Wrote another: “I knew about the presence of the KKK but not to this extent.” There were many similar exclamations. 

“I never saw a ‘Chat’ blow up with so many positive comments,” said Jill Santiago, executive director of the Suffolk-based Center for Social Justice and Human Understanding, which sponsored the presentation.

More than 150 people linked into the nearly two-hour talk which was infused with the showing of documents and archival photos. Many were students from classes at Suffolk County Community College.

The presentation was about racism and bigotry long being part of the culture of Suffolk County.

This “had its roots with colonial Long Island,” said Mr. Verga, who teaches Long Island history at Suffolk Community. In the 17^th to the late 18^th Century, Long Island’s “population was comprised of 18 percent slave-holding families,” he said. Long Island, he noted, had the largest slave population in the north of the United States.

After the Civil War, “one in seven Long Islanders were members of the Ku Klux Klan,” Mr. Verga continued. Besides the KKK’s virulent hatred of African-Americans and Jews, it was anti-Catholic believing Catholics “prayed to someone in Rome.”

The KKK on Long Island was heavily financed by real estate companies which were particularly upset by Irish Catholic immigrants moving onto the island and, they believed, lowering real estate values by their presence. Mr. Verga showed KKK literature with the names of real estate company donors prominently listed. 

In government in Suffolk, the KKK was a huge factor including on the federal level. “James Zegel, the U.S. Treasury Department agent in charge of its Prohibition Enforcement Office in Bay Shore,” was the “Grand Exalted Cyclops” of the Islip KKK “klaven” or chapter. Candidates for local public office would declare: “I’m a member of the Klan so vote for me.”  

“Good news—there is going to be resistance, pushback,” Professor Verga went on.

Catholic churches in Suffolk were active in the resistance. Mr. Verga told of an anti-KKK rally in 1923 that drew 40,000 people outside St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Bay Shore protesting KKK members running for public office including, that year, for Islip Town supervisor.

There were individuals who fought the bias such as Thomas Romano who built the Ronek Park housing development in North Amityville that drew African-Americans. Advertisements for it said: “Dedicated to the Proposition That All Men Are Created Equal.” 

In the 1930s, the Nazi organization in the U.S., the German American Bund, took over a large tract of land in Yaphank that featured Camp Siegfried and its parade and rallying grounds for Nazis. There was an enclave of bungalows—its main street named Adolph Hitler Strasse. 

Mr. Verga, a Bay Shore resident, spoke of national civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. coming to demonstrations on Long Island. He showed photos of Dr. King here and also, in 1999, his son, Martin Luther King III, leading a march in Wyandanch raise awareness of racial and economic inequities in suburbs and also dedicating a health clinic there named for his father. He noted that marching along with Mr. King was Rich Schaffer, then and now Babylon Town supervisor and since 2000 also Suffolk County Democratic chairperson.

As to the “fastest growing” minority group in Suffolk, Latinos, Mr. Verga related hate directed at them including the murder in 2008 of Marcelo Lucero outside the Patchogue LIRR  station. Mr. Lucero, 37, was surrounded by seven teenagers who had vowed to go out and “find some Mexicans.” An immigrant from Ecuador, he was beaten, stabbed in the chest and left to die. Those who did it were convicted of hate crimes.

The Center for Social Justice and Human Understanding is located at Suffolk Community College’s main Ammerman Campus in Selden. Its executive director, Ms. Santiago noted that “we house the largest collection of Holocaust artifacts in the region, as well as a collection of artifacts that document the transatlantic slave trade… Our mission is to is to educate our community on historical events, and to promote issues of social justice and respect for human dignity through educational programming.” Guided tours are available by calling 631-451-4117. 

The highly knowledgeable Professor Verga is on the board of the center. 

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 CLOSEUP - Sunrise Wind Project Key To "Transition To Clean Energy"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

It would be the biggest offshore wind farm in New York State—more than 100 wind turbines starting 30 miles east of Montauk Point. It’s being called Sunrise Wind. 

A “cable bundle” containing two electric cables would be buried under the seabed and extend west from the turbines for 100 miles making landfall in the parking lot at Smith Point County Park in Shirley, and buried underground there. The cabling would then run for 17 miles, all underground, along William Floyd Parkway and, remaining underground, along other roads and then the Long Island Expressway, reaching the Long Island Power Authority substation just north of the LIE in Holtsville. 

Sunrise Wind would generate 880 megawatts of electricity and feed into the Long Island electric grid at Holtsville. The 880 megawatts would provide for 500,000 homes, nearly half of LIPA’s 1.1 million customer base. 

A “virtual open house” was held on the project last week.  Presentations were made and questions answered by representatives of the owners of the Sunrise Wind project, Denmark-based Orsted, the world’s largest developer of offshore wind farms, and Eversource, a product of a merger of New England utility companies that included Northeast Utilities.

Orsted, since acquiring Deepwater Wind, owns the Block Island Wind Farm, consisting of five turbines off Block Island—the first U.S. offshore wind farm, that went operational in 2016. Orsted and Eversource together own the proposed South Fork Wind Farm which is to have 15 wind turbines placed also in the Atlantic east of Montauk Point.

The number of wind turbines in the Sunrise Wind project would depend on the size of the turbines used. If eight megawatt turbines—common in new offshore wind farms—are used, the total would be 110. If the turbines would be smaller, then there would be more than 100 to produce 880 megawatts of electricity. The project is “permitted for up to” 122 turbines, a spokesperson told us. 

New York State last year awarded Orsted the contract to develop Sunrise Wind after a competitive bidding process. 

In the online “virtual open house,” representatives said the Sunrise Wind project would be a “catalyst” for clean energy.” Here are some of the other points made by the representatives:

It would be a key to the “transition to clean energy” in New York State and the goal of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state to have “100 percent clean energy by 2040.” 

The turbines would be “barely visible” from any shore. There would be “no harmful emissions” and Sunrise Wind would “displace 2.1 million metric tons of carbon pollution” every year. The “cost to the average ratepayer” on Long Island would be “less than $1 per month” extra on her or his electric bill. “Construction work could begin as early as 2023”—after all necessary permits are obtained—and completed in 2024. There’d be a “host community benefit agreement” through which Orsted and Eversource would provide funds. Suffolk County Community College would become the “training center in Suffolk County” for offshore wind technology. It would be the “academic arm of the initiative.” Port Jefferson would become a “hub” for activities. Workers on the Sunrise Wind project would live in two-week shifts on a “service operational vessel.”

Orsted “brings unparalleled expertise” to the project with its 26 “successful offshore wind farms” and “1,500 turbines worldwide.”

Cables would be buried “the entire length of the route.” All the “construction areas” would be “fully restored.” There would be “minimal environmental impact.”

Orsted and Eversource welcome “stakeholder suggestions.” A slogan of “we listen, we learn, we adjust” was displayed. “We are totally committed to protect the environment…and work with commercial and recreational fishing interests.” 

As to why the South Fork Wind Farm and the Sunrise Wind project would have different landing points, the explanation was that the South Fork project would be sending DC electricity to Long Island and Sunrise sending AC. Also, there would be a difference in the voltage sent.

Offshore wind farms are able to harvest more wind power than onshore wind projects, said the representatives. Wind isn’t blocked and turbines can be larger, it was explained. 

They said Sunrise Wind would be a “game-changer,” the “first of many” similar “large-scale” U.S. offshore wind projects. Also, offshore wind is an excellent “complement” to the other major source of clean electricity—solar power. 

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 CLOSEUP - Brookhaven National Lab Lawsuit 25 Years Still Unresolved

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

After nearly 25 years, a lawsuit charging that radioactive discharges from Brookhaven National Laboratory have caused cancers and other illnesses in people in nearby communities is moving forward—still slowly.

BNL after negotiations agreed to settlements of approximately $600,000 for the first two groups of plaintiffs, each with about 18 persons. However, last month a settlement was not agreed to involving the final group of 18 plaintiffs, and State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti ordered that a trial be scheduled.

The class action lawsuit, begun in January 1996, charges that the “actions of the defendant were grossly, recklessly and wantonly negligent and were done with an utter disregard for the health, safety, well-being and rights of the plaintiffs.” 

It accuses BNL of “failure to observe accepted relevant industry standards in the use, storage and disposal of hazardous and toxic substances” and says BNL itself had been “improperly located” by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission “on top of an underground aquifer which supplies drinking water to a large number of persons.”

Lead attorneys are A. Craig Purcell of Smithtown, a former president of the Suffolk County Bar Association, and Richard J. Lippes, whose Buffalo, New York law firm successfully represented residents of the Love Canal neighborhood near Niagara Falls, severely polluted by the Hooker Chemical Co.

The lawsuit’s title is Osarczuk, et. al, vs. Associated Universities. Barbara Osarczuk had lived in North Shirley, just outside the BNL boundaries, for 28 years and attributed her thyroid and breast cancer to BNL. 

Mr. Purcell complains that that BNL “delayed” movement of the lawsuit through the decades. “They appealed everything.”      

The lawsuit was originally brought for $1 billion in damages. A critical turning point came in an appeal by BNL lawyers to the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court and it accepting BNL’s argument and ruling that “the nuclear radiation emitted by BNL did not exceed guidelines promulgated by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.” 

That left the plaintiffs limited, said Mr. Purcell, to suing for “loss of enjoyment of life, diminution of property values and the cost of hooking up to public water.”

BNL was established in 1947 by the Atomic Energy Commission on an eight-square mile former Army base in Upton to do atomic research and develop civilian uses of nuclear technology. The AEC, however, was abolished by Congress in 1974 after criticism of it being in conflict-of-interest as being both a promoter and regulator of nuclear power, and BNL is now under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Energy.

That it’s a source of contamination was confirmed in 1989 when it was designated by the federal government as a high-pollution Superfund site.    

The federal government in recent years began paying out millions of dollars to BNL employees in compensation for their getting cancer from BNL contamination, and also provided compensation to families of BNL workers who died from BNL-linked cancer. The payouts to the BNL workers and families has come under the federal Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program.

A book on radioactive pollution from BNL causing health impacts to residents of Shirley was published in 2008. Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town was authored by Kelly McMasters of Hofstra University, who grew up in Shirley. The book was the basis of the 2012 TV documentary Atomic States of America.

As Professor McMasters has related in an interview: “I do believe there was a watershed moment in 1960, after the first radioactive leaks occurred, that the federal government or the scientists themselves should have realized that Shirley was the fastest growing town in the county, with a population that doubled within ten years, and that the middle of one of the largest sole-source drinking water aquifers in the country was not the best place for a nuclear laboratory.”                  

Mr. Purcell declares that the lawsuit, “now, nearly 25 years later…has still not been resolved despite Judge Farneti’s urging that the interests of justice would be better served by a fair and final resolution.” BNL and its lawyers “continue to nickel and dime their neighbors to this very day.” He charges that BNL “continues to show almost no regard for its neighbors…Is this any way for a government-funded agency to treat its neighbors?”

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 CLOSEUP - Election Day Results Show Clear-Cut Victories

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Despite Democratic Party enrollment gains in Suffolk County—and Democrats now having an edge in enrollment here—many Republican candidates did well in last week’s election in Suffolk. 

According to the figures of the New York State Board of Elections, out of 1,124,295 registered voters in Suffolk, party enrollment as of November 1, 2020 was Democratic 390,128 and Republican 347,250. 

Compare that to 20 years ago. The board listed, as of November 1, 2000, 332,433 Democratic and 341,426 Republicans. Registered voters then totaled 873,074

Incidentally, regarding wording, my first newspaper editor in Suffolk, John A. Maher, when I started writing about politics here as a reporter back in 1962, emphasized that people enroll in a political party and register to vote. The words enroll or enrollment and register or registration are not interchangeable, he stressed. But this distinction has eroded and these days the words are often used interchangeably.

Well beyond nomenclature has come the flip between the Democratic and Republican Parties as to which has the most enrolled voters. The Democratic increase in Suffolk over the past 20 years: 57,695.

Meanwhile, the Working Families Party, only established in 1998, now has 4,176 Suffolk voters enrolled in it, and often endorses Democratic candidates. Other election factors: the Conservative Party has 22,729 members (about the same as the 22,420 it had in 2000) and GOP candidates often also run on the Conservative line. The Independence Party has 46,437 members in Suffolk now, up from 16,699 20 years ago. And there is a whopping number of what the state board lists as “Blank” or unaffiliated voters in Suffolk now: 308.974, a rise from 251,543 in 2000. These can easily be a “swing” factor in Suffolk County elections.

With most enrollees Democrats, does this give Democratic candidates in Suffolk an advantage? Don’t tell that to the Democratic candidates here who lost last week.

Clear-cut Republican victories include, in the lst Congressional District, three-term GOP incumbent Lee Zeldin defeating Democrat Nancy Goroff of Stony Brook. Also, Republican Anthony Palumbo of New Suffolk beat Democrat Laura Ahearn of Port Jefferson to fill the 6^th District State Senate seat of retiring Republican Kenneth LaValle of Port Jefferson. And, in the 2^nd State Assembly race for the seat now held by Mr. Palumbo, former Riverhead Town Board member Jodi Giglio of Baiting Hollow won over Democrat Laura M. Jens-Smith of Laurel. (Ms. Jens-Smith in 2017 became the first woman to be elected supervisor of Riverhead in its 226-year history.)

And there could be more GOP wins. As of this writing, among Democrats listed by the Suffolk County Board of Elections as also losing are former Babylon Town board member Jackie Gordon of Copiague in the 2^nd Congressional District; 14-termer Steven Englebright of Setauket, chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Conservation, in the 4^th Assembly District; and James Gaughran of Northport, former chairman of the Suffolk County Water Authority, in the 5^th Senatorial District.

But this is before the county board counts all absentee ballots. This wasn’t done the evening of Election Day along with the votes cast that day. The tabulation of absentee ballots, board officials have said, would only begin this week. There have been more than 140,000 absentee ballots cast in Suffolk this year, most due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing people to not want to go to polling places to vote. 

Most, according to the board, have come from voters enrolled as Democrats. The Suffolk Democratic leadership is confident that when these absentee ballots are counted, it will reverse the losing Democratic margins in many races. The Suffolk GOP leadership believes otherwise.

Also, in a clear-cut outcome, a majority of Suffolk voters said no to a ballot proposition that would have extended the terms of the 18 Suffolk County legislators from two to four years. A resolution passed by the legislature that facilitated the ballot proposition declared that the two-year term “impedes a legislator’s ability to adequately represent his or her constituents, especially when campaigning for re-election requires several months out of his or her second year in office.” And in Riverhead Town, a proposal to extend the town supervisor’s term from two to four years also was voted down. 

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.