SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Thank You Peter Maniscalco

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Down the beach from the remains of the Shoreham nuclear power plant, a commemoration was held last week for Peter Maniscalco, a major figure in the three decades-long battle against Shoreham and the scheme of the now defunct Long Island Lighting Company to build seven to eleven nuclear plants in Suffolk.

Mr. Maniscalco of Manorville, a highly spiritual person and brilliant activist, died in November of prostate cancer—fighting it for 17 years, never giving up, like he fought nuclear power.  He was 77.

“My lovely Pete’s birthday,” said his wife, Stephanie Joyce, to the circle of 70 people.  “He wanted to have a party.”

There was the beating of drums and the haunting sound of a didgeridoo, the Aboriginal instrument of Australia. And there was speaker after speaker—of all different backgrounds—standing and giving testimony about Peter.

There was Gordian Raacke, executive director of East Hampton-based Renewable Energy Long Island, who described Mr. Maniscalco as “bright and bold and visionary.” He spoke of working with him for 10 years on an entity established by federal court order because of the Shoreham debacle, the Citizens Advisory Panel. A goal was working for renewable energy and it was Mr. Maniscalco, said Mr. Raacke, who advocated “putting us on a 100% renewable energy path” seen then as a huge leap. Now 160 communities in the U.S. and four of its states have 100% renewable energy goals, he said. Mr. Maniscalco not only successfully was involved in “shutting down Shoreham” but was a leader in pushing for a safe, green energy alternative to nuclear power.  “Thank you Peter,” said Mr. Raacke. 

Father Bill Brisotti of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Catholic Church in Wyandanch, who worked closely with Peter in challenging Shoreham and LILCO’s nuclear scheme, said: “Peter was a person of the Earth. He taught all of us in different ways. What motivated his work against Shoreham and nuclear power was his love for the Earth.”

Dr. Scott Carlin of Hampton Bays who taught in the Environmental Studies Program at Southampton College with Peter spoke of the “wonderful things Pete did with the students,” how he was focused on “Earth-centered education….Pete was amazing, that’s why we are all here.” Among the courses Mr. Maniscalco taught was “Spirituality of the Environment.” He was also the college’s “green coordinator.” Professor Carlin, who since the closure of Southampton College has gone on to teach at the Post Campus of Long Island University, outlined plans to establish a scholarship in Mr. Maniscalco’s name at LIU. 

Lori Maher of Patchogue told of moving to Suffolk from Queens because of a shooting on the block on which she lived and fearing for her daughter’s life, and finding that cancer was widespread in Suffolk. Then she met Mr. Maniscalco who directed her toward Earth-based spirituality and action. “I feel we were comrades in a very important cause,” said Ms. Maher. “It was very powerful. He changed my whole life. “

Jonathan Hernandez of Bay Shore who treated Peter at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson said Peter taught him “not to follow some guru but to follow your own guru—that all the awareness is already inside you. He guided me to where I need to be.”

Dr. Charles Bevington, chair of the Sierra Club Long Island Group, a Rocky Point resident, said: “If not for Peter we may be in a nuclear wasteland.” His connection to Peter caused him to work on environmental issues, he said.

Mark Dougherty of East Islip, Peter’s student at Southampton College, said that Mr. Maniscalco “lived the truth” and for him is “still alive.”

The testimonies continued, punctuated by the circle of people chanting: “The Earth is Our Mother, We Must Take Care of Her.”

The commemoration over, Stephanie Joyce commented that “what really stood out were the many varieties of people here….and everybody loved Pete.”

Mr. Maniscalco, protesting a headline in Newsday a while back, “Shoreham’s Empty Legacy,” wrote in a letter published by the paper how it “misses the point. The legacy of the Shoreham nuclear plant battle is how it created a model for citizen-driven democracy. This inspiring, powerful model may be used by progressive activists during our present national political chaos. I began organizing against the nuclear plant in 1978 and was arrested with 571 others for taking part in peaceful civil disobedience on June 3, 1979. I was arrested four more times. In one instance, civil disobedience helped to keep Shoreham’s nuclear fuel rods from being reprocessed into nuclear weapons material….Anti-Shoreham activists became political activists, public speakers, plaintiffs in lawsuits and organizers of ad hoc groups to address pressing issues…The most powerful aspect of the anti-Shoreham movement was its diversity of people with wide-ranging skills working together.”

“Many Long Islanders thought it would be impossible to keep the nuclear plant from opening, because it was backed by powerful corporate and political interests. But with perseverance, anti-Shoreham activists stopped it,” declared Mr. Maniscalco.

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 - Farmworkers Bill Of Rights

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

 Passage of the Farmworkers Bill of Rights by the New York State Legislature at its recent session was among its most notable achievements this year. Governor Andrew Cuomo says he will sign the measure into law.

The treatment of farmworkers has been a huge scandal in the United States. Suffolk, which has been and continues as a leading agricultural county in New York, has been involved.

Farmworkers—many of them migrant farmworkers lured by phony promises—have been excluded from basic laws in the U.S. among them those on housing and work. The New York legislation would give them rights including overtime pay, voting to unionize, having at least one day off a week and receiving workers’ compensation benefits.

“Today is the culmination of a decades-long fight centered upon one simple premise: that farmworkers deserve fairness, equality and justice,” said New York AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento. 

Every semester in my four decades of teaching an Environmental Journalism class at SUNY/College at Old Westbury I show the students Edward R. Murrow’s TV documentary, “Harvest of Shame” about the plight of farmworkers broadcast on CBS in 1960.

“We present this report on Thanksgiving because were it not for the labor of the people you are going to meet, you might not starve, but your table would not be laden with the luxuries that we have all come to regard as essential,” declared Mr. Murrow, the preeminent U.S. broadcast journalist of his era, standing in a farm field. “They are the migrants, workers in the sweatshops of the soil—the harvest of shame,” says Murrow. They are “the forgotten people.”

The documentary—which you can view on YouTube—leaves students shocked. Their jaws drop as they hear farmworkers who believed the promises of crew leaders who recruited them to harvest crops, are charged for all sorts of things and become indebted, trapped in migrant farmwork. The housing and work conditions shown are outrageous. 

Shown, too, are the terrible journeys. “Produce en route to the tables of America by trailer is refrigerated to prevent bruising,” says Murrow. “Cattle carried to market, by federal regulation, must be watered, fed and rested for five hours every 24 hours. People—men, women and children—are carried to the fields…in journeys as long as four days and three nights. They often ride ten hours without stopping for food or facilities.”

A minister, Rev. Michael Cassidy, who travels with migrant farmworkers trying to help them, says: “Only in name they are not a slave. But in the way they are treated, they are worse than slaves.”

My students are appalled to hear a farmer declare: “I guess they got a little gypsy in their blood. They just like it. Lot of ‘em wouldn’t do anything else. Lot of ‘em don’t know anything different. They don’t have a worry in the world. They’re happier than we are. Today they eat. Tomorrow they don’t worry about. They’re the happiest race of people on Earth.”

Suffolk County figures in “Harvest of Shame.” As a journalist based here since 1962, I’ve gotten my lumps on the farmworker story. Then State Assemblyman Andrew Stein of Manhattan inspected migrant farmworker camps in Suffolk in 1971. He was pressing for protections for them under state law. “The conditions here are feudal,” said Mr. Stein as noted in an article in The New York Times. “People live like indentured servants. This is not the kind of thing we want to have in New York State.”

The article continued: “At the first camp Mr. Stein visited here, the assemblyman, his party and accompanying newsmen were driven from the camp by a man the police said was the owner, William Chudiak. Mr. Stein was speaking with a migrant worker when Mr. Chudiak drove up in a pick-up truck. He grabbed a camera belonging to Karl H. Grossman, a reporter for the Long Island Press, and pushed and struck him.” (The Cutchogue camp was featured in “Harvest of Shame.”)

My students find it hard to believe that the outrageous conditions in “Harvest of Shame” continue. I present more recent journalism. On the 50^th anniversary of “Harvest of Shame,” CBS correspondent Byron Pitts did a follow-up and, as The Atlantic noted, what he saw “was the same ugly dynamic that had existed during Murrow’s visits, the same cycle of brutal work, deplorable conditions…”

Murrow’s broadcast ended with his saying: “The migrants have no lobby. Only an enlightened, aroused and perhaps angered public opinion can do anything about the migrants. The people you have seen have the strength to harvest your fruits and vegetables. They do not have the strength to influence legislation. Maybe we do.”

I moderated a TV program with Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers union, in Suffolk in 1992. He emphasized the need for broad action to end the nightmare for farmworkers. 

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.   

Land Use And Politics Trotta Wins Conservative Line

Politics as Usual?

GOP County Legislators Win Write-In Race for Conservative Line

By Jerry Cimisi

It’s been common for the Conservative Party to cross endorse Republicans in general elections, as their political views are often similar. While being a minority party, the SuffolkLegislator Rob Trotta County Conservative Party (the largest conservative party in New York State) has a large enough base that its support could very well make the difference in a close election. But this year, when Suffolk Country Legislator Republican Rob Trotta also sought the endorsement of the Suffolk County Conservative Party in his bid for re-election, the Conservatives had their own candidate in mind, Richard Lanese, who works in the Suffolk County Comptroller’s Office.

Of course the Suffolk County Conservative Party has the right to field its own candidates, but, according to Trotta, the Conservatives are more interested in a certain benefactor’s donations than any conservative core values, and were even in fact endorsing Democrats in some races, certainly not a common occurrence on the political landscape.  

As Trotta sees it, the Conservative Party’s shift in this election revolves around the donations of developer Jerry Wolkoff and the sewer system he needs to connect to the county’s Southwest Sewer District for his 450-acre. 9,000-unit Heartland development in Brentwood, on the site of the old Pilgrim State Hospital. This would be the largest development on Long Island since Levittown made suburbia famous after World War II.

Wolkoff bought the site from New York State in 2002. It is estimated it will be a $4 billion project that will be completed over three decades. (Wolkoff may be planning a very long life; he is 82.) Heartland is also planned for a million square feet of retail space, three million square feet of office space—totaling, along with the residential units, 15.5 million square feet of development.

But Wolkoff is at odds with how much the county wants him to pay to join the sewer district. And it is what has resulted from this conflict that Trotta sees as a corruption of the political process, asserting that Wolkoff has made donations to parties and politicians who will back Wolkoff’s assertion of what he should be paying.

“He should be paying $50 million for this hookup. He wants to pays $20 million. So he’s been donating to Democrats and Conservatives in particular who see things his way. He made a donation to the Conservative Party three weeks before the primary [June 25].”

Without the Conservative endorsement, Republican Trotta ran a write-in campaign in the primary for the Conservative line, and went door to door in his district, talking to as many voters as he could. “They were shocked. They didn’t know this was going on.”

The result: The Conservative candidate Lanese had 77 votes in the primary, while there were 115 write-in votes to be counted July 8, well after election night. Trotta contended those write-in votes were all his. He wasn’t the only one who believed that. In a conversation with Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine a few days after the election, Romaine had no doubt that the write-in vote would easily make Trotta a candidate on the Conservative line. 

This indeed was the case. When the Suffolk County Board of Elections gave its official tally on July 8, Trotta has won the Conservative line, 262-88. Two other GOP county legislators had also entered the primary with a write-in campaign for the Conservative line: Kevin McCaffrey and Anthony Piccirillo; they too were successful. McCaffrey’s tally was 186-146; Piccirillo won 186-146. He also won the Independence line, 65-39.

Brookhaven Supervisor Romaine related that even prior to this election, the Suffolk County Conservative Party has been divided into “factions”—between present Chairman Frank Tinari and party member Kenneth Auerbach.

In fact, a party procedural situation had wound up in New York State Supreme Court.

Here’s what happened: During a September 2018 meeting of the Suffolk Conservative Party County Committee, Frank Tinari, party chair, motioned to dispense with a roll call to determine if a quorum was present (a quarter of the membership of the committee was need for a quorum); Tinari decided it was apparent from the sign in sheets that more than a quarter of the membership was present. Auerbach and others objected to dispensing with the roll call. Tinari took a vote on his motion and it was carried.

The party then proceeded to its official business, among which was the election of officers, with Tinari elected to continue as party chairman. Auerbach and others took the matter to court, contesting what had occurred at the meeting, resting their case on what they saw as procedural irregularities.

Earlier this year the court decided that Tinari’s election should be overturned. Yet this past April, the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division overturned that decision. Tinari was once again in charge.

Frank Tinari is an attorney, the founding partner of Tinari, O’Connell and Osborn, LLP, in Central Islip. He previously worked in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. Tinari succeeded former Suffolk Conservative Party Chair Ed Walsh, a correction’s lieutenant at the county jail, who in 2016 was found guilty of being paid ($80,000 worth) while not actually only the job; he was instead golfing, gambling at Foxwoods and tending to party politics while on the taxpayer’s dime.

As of press time, Tinari did not return messages left for him at his office asking about Legislator Trotta’s allegations.

When Jerry Wolkoff, the veteran developer who has been in real estate for more than sixty years, was asked if it were true he had been donating to officials favorable to his side of the matter in the price of a sewer hookup for Heartland, he said, with a laugh, “It wouldn’t make much sense to help people who are against me.”

Last year Wolkoff applied for a fifty percent reduction in the fees the county was asking him to pay, which would reportedly save him $12 million dollars. The country was not amenable.

According to Wolkoff, “About twelve or fourteen years ago I saw down with Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and reached an agreement that when Heartland was completed—remember, that’s thirty years down the line—it would be using 1.6 million gallons of water a day.” 

But the Suffolk County Sewer district contends that when completed Heartland would be using 2.5 million gallons a day.

Wolkoff debated the reality of that estimate. “The truth is, I could see, sixteen years ago, it wouldn’t even reach that level I’d first projected. Look how technology with toilets and washing machine has improved. It used to take five gallons to flush a toilet; now it’s one and a quarter.”

Wolkoff is seeking to pay half of the original $15 dollar a gallon hook up fee—with good reason, he asserts. “It’s been customary that if you bring in more than just residential, if you bring in office and retail, as I will be doing, the rate will be reduced. And now, over the years, the county has gone from $15 a gallon to $30.

“They say I’m asking the taxpayers to pick up the difference. With the taxes Heartland will pay to the county, the county will be making money on me. I want to create a community that provides housing, restaurants, stores and recreation that you don’t have to get into a car to reach. You hear these politicians, they say they’re leaving Long Island after they retire. So you expect them to have your back? I intend to be here.”

In February 2019 Wolkoff filed a $15 million lawsuit against Suffolk County over its refusal to let him hook up Heartland to the South West Sewer District at a rate less than the District demands.

In relation to the long time span the project will take to complete, Wolkoff said, “I probably won’t be here when it’s done, but I’m definitely going to be around to get it going. People say I’m just in it for the money. At this point in my life I don’t need the money. But I enjoy what I’m doing. Long Island needs something like this. You can have people living in a more convenient way, without have to get into a car for their daily needs.”

Incidentally, if you try to get more information about the Suffolk County Conservative Party, when you click on any of the topics on its home page, you are warned: “Firefox detected a potential security threat and did not continue to scconservatives.org. If you visit this site, attackers could try to steal information like your passwords, emails, or credit card details.”

Jerry Cimisi, winner of several awards from the Press Club of Long for investigative and science reporting, has covered Long Island news for the past thirty years. 

Pedestrian Killed In Hit-And-Run In St. James

Suffolk County Police today arrested a man for leaving the scene following a motor vehicle crash that killed a male pedestrian in St. James.

Michael McDermott was jogging on the shoulder of the southbound lane of Lake Avenue, north of Oak Street, when he was struck by a southbound 2014 Nissan sedan at 12:21 p.m. The driver, Keith Clancy, fled the scene in the Nissan. McDermott, 37, of Smithtown was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner.

Police located Clancy driving the Nissan eastbound on the Long Island Expressway. He was pulled over by a Seventh Precinct officer near exit 69 in Manorville at approximately 12:49 p.m.

Clancy, 32, of Mattituck, was arrested and charged with Leaving the Scene of an Accident Resulting in Death and Aggravated Unlicensed Operation of a Motor Vehicle. He is being held overnight at the Seventh Precinct and is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip in the morning.

Detectives are asking anyone with information on this crash to call the Major Case Unit at 631-852-6555. All calls will be kept confidential. 

A criminal charge is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.     

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Releasing Balloons Is Devastating To Environment

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“One balloon released is one too many,” says Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker.

Thus she is sponsoring a bill to amend current county law which allows the release of up to 25 helium filled balloons—and change that number to zero. There would be no release in Suffolk of helium-filled balloons or balloons otherwise filled with “lighter-than-air-gas.” 

“The beaches in my legislative district, that includes the coastline from Mount Sinai to Wading River, are greatly impacted by environmental pollution, in particular plastics and balloons. It’s time we take responsibility for keeping our oceans clean and become better stewards of our environment,” says Ms. Anker, among the strong environmentalists on the 18-member Suffolk Legislature.

A Mount Sinai resident, she cites findings documenting released balloons having “devastating effects on sea life.” Her resolution notes that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has determined that “balloon debris can be easily mistaken for food and ingested by animals, and balloons with ribbons can entangle wildlife. Balloon debris can also have an economic impact on communities by contributing to dirty beaches, and can cause power outages when entangled with power lines.”

The bill will come before the legislature next week. If it passes and is then signed by County Executive Steve Bellone, fines for releasing a balloon in Suffolk would start at $500 for the first violation, $750 for the second and $1,000 for the third and any additional violations.

The move to flatly prohibit the release of balloons began in Suffolk in February with the East Hampton Town Board voting 5-to-0 to bar any balloon releases. “Balloons waste natural resources, litter our communities, pollute our waterways and kill wildlife,” says the East Hampton ban. 

The Southampton Town Board followed last month with all members present passing a complete ban “intended to reduce the negative impact that balloons have on the environment by discouraging the intentional release of balloons in the Town of Southampton.”

A spark plug behind the East Hampton, Southampton and Suffolk County actions is Susan Faith McGraw Keber, a dedicated environmentalist and member of the East Hampton Town Trustees. The Trustees have been, as their website notes, “stewards of public lands and waterways since 1661. We are one of the oldest bodies of government in our country.” The elected panel created in colonial times predates balloons—but not concern for the environment.

Ms. Keber of Northwest Woods spoke to other East Hampton officials about the need for a town measure—Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc sponsored East Hampton’s resolution—and then went to Southampton and conferred with officials there and also met with county officials.

The Suffolk County law on balloons which would be amended took form in 2005 when

Legislator Lynne Nowick of St. James received a letter from some elementary school students about helium-filled balloons falling into waterways and being mistaken for jellyfish by sea animals which ingested the balloons and died. They noted that Connecticut, because of this issue, banned mass balloon releases and they suggested the same sort of thing be done in Suffolk. 

Ms. Nowick studied the issue, found that balloons represented the most common form of floating garbage within 200 miles from shore and, indeed, regularly kill marine life, especially turtles. She introduced the bill that became current county law which would continue as law although zeroing out any balloon releases if the Anker bill is enacted. Ms. Nowick was term-limited as a Suffolk legislator and is now a Smithtown Town councilwoman.

An entity called The Balloon Council, a balloon industry group based in New Jersey, tried to stop the Suffolk measure but the legislature stood up to it. The Balloon Council has described itself as “Affirming America’s Ongoing Love Affair with Balloons.” It is now in retreat stating conspicuously on its website (www.theballoon council.org) that “balloons should not be released.” This is keeping, it says, with what it labels “Smart Balloon Practices.” Between 2012 and 2017, the Associated Press has reported, The Balloon Council spent more than $1 million “lobbying against balloon regulations nationwide.”

             The website (www.balloonsblow.org) of the organization Balloons Blow, based in Florida, is loaded with suggestions as substitutes for releasing balloons. “There are many safe, fun, and eye-catching alternatives to balloons for parties, memorials, fundraisers, and more!” it says. “As we become more aware of our personal impacts on the environment, people are ditching single-use, wasteful products for earth-friendly, reusable and exciting alternatives.”

Considering how deadly a balloon released into the environment can be, “one released balloon” is indeed “one too many.”

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.