BPA SCANDAL

Interesting news on the BPA scandal front. The US Attroney prosecuting the case calls the republican legislators who approved the benefit switch "very unsophisticated naive group of Nassau County Officials." Robert McDonald was the Chief Deputy Presiding Officer for republican Tom Gulotta and now he is on trial for bribery along with other local GOP party members. This scandal cost the county $70million. Then Deputy Presiding Officer Pete Schmitts excuse for signing off on the plan was as he put it in Newsday on 1/5/03 "But if a member of the administration or a commisioner or a deputy county executive or somebody of that stature gets up before the legislature and lies, well, then we're going to make a decision based on the information we have. In that respect, it can happen again." WHAT??? It is the job of the legislature to study and read any proposal they vote on. What was see here is a complete lack of responsibility for the loss of millions of dollars. If it weren't for Democratic Legislator Altman, this could have gone on longer. Let's look at the huge budget hole the county has and wonder that could have been if that $70million wasn't flushed away by corrupt officials. The republicans in the legislature have alot to answer for and we'd like to hear them answer the $70million question under oath.