A reminder about the archives

We've got more stuff than what you see on this page. Check the column on the right for links to informative sites and the archives for this site going back to last April.

Who is Peter Schmitt?

We here are Pete Schmitt Watch have been dissecting our namesake for almost a year now. We have a new look and expanded our coverage. We know what kind of person Schmitt is. We have reported on his outragous lies and have chronicled his misdeeds. We have kept our coverage above-board and will continue to do so. We don't believe that it would be right to go into the gutter where Schmitt resides.
Today's Newsday had an article by Joseph Mallia profiling Schmitt as "Hard-ball Critic of Suozzi." Schmitt does play hard-ball and maybe it's time to play hard-ball back.

Let's look past his never having worked in the private sector in his life. Living off the public teat is just something republican hacks do. From over-paid appointed positions in the Town of Oyster Bay to an elected position in a district that is 3-1 republican, Schmitt is warm and safe in his cocoon of the republican machine.
Anthony Santino, another republican hack tells Newsday about Schmitt "He's Level-headed. He's rock solid." HA! Schmitt is the most volatile member of the legislature and is well known for his red-faced outbursts and bad manners. If he doesn't get his way, he reverts to a spoiled 5 year old. Schmitt has not taken well to being in the minority.

We have detailed his lies which is certainly a serious character issue. What we have not mentioned but feel free to do so now that Newsday is on record is that Schmitt is a criminal.
In 1983 while deputy commissioner for a department in charge of alcohol Control Schmitt got a DWI. Let's repeat that - He got a DWI while running a alcohol control department. According to his own bio in the Massapequan Observer, "Additionally, he (Schmitt) directed efforts to update the mission and operations of both the Town's Drug and Alcohol Abuse Program and the Town of Oyster Bay Youth Bureau.

So he got a DWI AND a DUI while supposedly concerned about the youth of the Town of Oyster Bay. How hypocritical and quite frankly disgusting. One DWI is bad enough but he has TWO. Did Schmitt learn his lesson? Not according to local Massapequa residents who witness Schmitt driving away from his watering hole after a few drinks. Not too long ago Schmitt was allegedly pulled over by a NCPD rookie officer and reportedly belligerently said "do you know who I am?."

Schmitt explained to Newsday about his drunk driving "That's a matter of record, and I don't deny it. I don't think there's anyone who hasn't made a mistake as some point in their lives."
Hey Peter, we don't have DWI on our record much less TWO. We haven't put people in danger. We haven't committed a crime that could have resulted in the death of innocent people. Once is a mistake but twice is complete disregard for the law and the residents of the Massapequas. Again, Schmitts comments are just plain disgusting and are an insight into his character. The question is also how old was Schmitt when he made "a mistake." He wasn't a teenager or college kid, he was in his thirties and a gov't official. When did Schmitt become an adult?
Here is an interesting new product.

Schmitt continues his high batting average of lies when he says "Our goal now is not to pull down ... " Well Peter, that's EXACTLY what you have been trying to do with your blatant lies and deceptions.
And the final kicker "We have never been knee-jerk obstructionists." Riiiiiggghhhht. If the Legislature Dems or Tom Suozzi says the sky is blue, Schmitt would turn beet-red and insist that the sky is "..In fact green."
The record is clear on Peter Schmitt and maybe more people will see who and what he really is now that he is willing to cross the line of decency for political gain.

Schmitt is willing to say anything, do anything and hurt anyone to help himself and his political fortunes.

We welcome anyone clicking through this website to read our archives and go over our bill of particulars and are sure that their conclusion will be the same as ours; Peter Schmitt is unworthy of the office he holds.

Schmitt Crosses the Line

Pete Schmitt (R-Himself) took a running leap over the line of decorum on Monday when he accused the Suozzi adminstration of covering up a sexual assault. Schmitt even went so far as to accuse (off the offical record) Judy Jacobs of "protecting a rapist."
It seems that in the name of politics, Peter Schmitt is willing to make public a very private matter. A young woman who was the victim of sexual advances/assault by Peter Sylver is being used by Schmitt to attack Tom Suozzi. In an open legislature meeting on monday while going over allegations that Sylver used county funds to pay private purchases on a credit card, Schmitt made the announcement that Sylver also assaulted a woman who worked for him.
Schmitt never went to DA Dillon or asked Suozzi officials about this, he just made a public statement. An open meeting is the wrong place to do that and he had the woman in question in the room.
Schmitt has been watching too many old Perry Mason shows where Perry has a suprise witness up his sleeve that exposes a whole new crime. This isn't tv and what Schmitt did was just plain wrong. If the woman wants to press charges against Sylver, she should and he should be locked up. Schmitt just wanted headlines with his accusation and he got what he wanted. This charge has nothing to do with the hearing but since he wasn't getting the political traction against Suozzi from the money issue, he tried something else.
If Schmitt had bothered to ask Suozzi officials about the situation, he would have found out that they knew, they investigated, she was given a different job and she apparantly did not want to file charges. The victims mother even sent a note of thanks for the handling of the situation.
How has Schmitt treated this woman? He (Legislator and Minority Leader) called the woman to his office (did she believe she had to?) in Mineola and she came alone and was questioned by two of his aides (possibly Ed Ward and Scott McMahon.) When the young woman was at the hearing in the audience, Presiding Officer Jacobs tells Newsday that the woman had tears in her eyes "... almost pleading with me to stop this." Was this victim coersed in any way by Schmitt and his minions? Did she want to go public? What did Schmitt and his cohorts say to her?
What we have so far has been Schmitt's account of his conversation with her and not what she has to say. His account tries to implicate Tom Suozzi in some way in a "cover-up. " If the woman wanted to press charges, Schmitt could have brought her to the DA's office but instead he brought her to a public hearing to use her politically.
According to CE Suozzi, the rules governing this situation were followed and it is/was up to the young woman to file charges. On tuesday Schmitt went to DA Dillons office with the allegations w/o the victim.
The young woman was abused by Sylver and now she is being abused by Schmitt for political gain. Shameless is the best description of Schmitt's actions.

We hope the young woman is not further injured by Schmitts actions the past few days and finds justice.

"Peter Schmitt Simply Cannot Be Trusted" - Tom Suozzi

Oh how true that is. County Executive Suozzi was refering to Schmitt and his Dishonest 8 backing out of the vehicle use fee increase.
Ronald Stack, NIFA Chariman in a letter to Judy Jacobs and Schmitt said that the fee increase was part of the Skelos/Schmitt forced compromise and that the compromise was "agreed to by all parties and was not conditional or subject to change or further review."
In other words, Schmitt broke his word. But that is what he does.

We were sent a virus!

Thanks Pete! There is a .pif file which is a virus enclosed in the zip file.

Check http://www.f-secure.com for detailed information on this virus.

From: pschmitt@attglobal.net
To: schmittwatch@yahoo.com
Subject: Test
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 17:52:17 -0500


The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary
attachment.


Attachment

body.zip
.zip file

Headache inducing

Oh jeez.

Let's try this one more time. The Skelos/Schmitt forced Storm Water and Sewer Autority (SWSA) compromise included vehicle registartion fee increase. It's what the republicans WANTED. Now they don't want it.

From News12:
"Republicans say they will try to put the brakes on the registration hike because they say drivers in Nassau should not have to pay more when Nassau doesn't need the money. The GOP blames the Souzzi administration for not being honest about money matters."

Who is being dishonest? The republicans who wanted the compromise that included the fee increase.

Schmitt says "They (the democrats) have not made thier case." HELLO! YOU wanted this!

Schmitt keeps up the BS "They told us the county would have a budget hole if we do not pass these fees."
Yes Peter, yes the county would have a hole in the budget because the budget that passed was based on the SWSA compromise which counted on the fee increase. The fee increase YOU WANTED.
How can this man lie to us with a straight face?

Schmitt continues "And as soon as the deal was brokered, they startred spending money like drunken sailors."
There seems to be only one person who is drunk here and it ain't a sailor.
It is getting really disgusting when a supposed "leader" and elected government official is willing to lie to the people.

Schmitt did not mind the fee increase when it was part of his compromise. It's all politics to Schmitt and to hell with the people.

Our Archives

Once again, we welcome all the new readers to peruse our archives. Let us know what you think by e-mailing us at schmittwatch@yahoo.com

www.kingwatch.blogspot.com has it's first post. Mark Schmitt Watch and King Watch in your browser favorites and get the low-down on the two Petes.

Pete and re-Pete: I Swear!

Congressman Pete "I Hate France" King came up from DC to install Schmitt as Minority Leader of the Nassau County Legislature. National Pete, the barely functional congressman who rivals the local Pete for photo-ops had some nice words for Schmitt; "They broke the mold when Schmitt came along," Yes. They normally destroy flawed molds so that there are no repeat errors.
I digress.
King continues "In this day of Consultants, and image makers, Pete Schmitt says it like he sees it. He is willing to risk all for principal and that is a rare quality today."

What King seems to be saying is that the unkempt, boorish Schmitt doesn't mind lying to get what he wants. The only "principal" Schmitt is interested in is power.

Look for Pete King Watch in the next couple of months. Here is a preview:
"No doubt this comes as a shock to Mr. King, but should he ever consider adopting a principle or two himself, he might find, for the first time, that people consider his views worthy of respect." Sen. John McCain, The Hill 1997

Legislative Hearings

Are we going to cover the hearings? Yup.
We'll be posting stuff in the next few days.

Nassau County Critic?

What new job title is there in Nassau County? It's "Nassau County Critic." That's right according to an article in the June 13, 2003 Massapequan Observer "When asked to define his role as minority leader of the legislature, Schmitt said it was mostly "to criticize." Okay, there is no position called Nassau County Critic.. the job title is LEGISLATOR. The etymology or LEGISLATOR is: Latin legis lator, literally, proposer of a law, from legis (genitive of lex law) + lator proposer, from ferre (past participle latus) to carry, propose — Date: 1603.
The definition of LEGISLATOR is: one that makes laws especially for a political unit; especially : a member of a legislative body.
Nowhere is the job defined as being a critic. Now the article goes on to say "But he also acknowledged , without being specific (emphasis added), that the GOP should also offer alternatives to policies they oppose."
Well isn't that special. No specifics. Of course not. That would actually require work and not just posing for pictures.
Now to be fair an alternative was offered for the Storm Water and Sewer Authority by Skelos. An alternative Schmitt supported. Until of course he had to vote for components of the compromise package that would increase taxes.
So here is Schmitt's game-plan as we see it - 1)Criticize 2) Take pictures/have pubished in local papers 3) Demand Compromise 4) Back out of compromise 5) Lie about it to his constituents. 6) Take picutres/have published in local papers.

And remember kids, he's getting 60 G's for this.

Car 54 where are you?

Trivia:
Who has a county car parked in space #18 behind NCPD HQ?

Bonus: Who really drives it?

How about you, Denise Ford?

Long Beach's newest legislator is "republican" Denise Ford who narrowly defeated Mike Zapson. Will Denise Ford be an independent legisaltor or was Joe Mondello's backing payment for towing Schmitt's line? Denise Ford is a registered Democrat who ran as a republican. She is a nice woman. She seems to be an honorable person. Will she be the one republican legislator to break with the rest of Schmitt's Dishonest 8 and vote for the vehicle fee increase that the Skelos/Schmitt forced onto Nassau County?

Call Legislator Ford (516-571-6636) and ask her if she will be the one decent, honorable legislator or just another Gulotta Republican who does Schmitts bidding.

New to Schmitt Watch??

Welcome! There is more to Schmitt Watch than just this one page. Check out our archive slisted on the right-hand side and also our new messages boards and other resources. Enjoy the site!
Like what you see? Let us know.
Got a problem with the blog? We know it's you Peter.

Promises and Compromises pt. 2

On Dec. 28th we addressed the FACT that the Skelos/Schmitt Storm Water and Sewer Authority contained fee increases to off-set the savings the compromise lost from the original plan. When it was time to vote on the car fee increase that was intregal to the Skelos/Schmitt plan, Schmitt and his cohorts voted AGAINST the increase.
The Back Room column reports in today's Newsday that Presiding Officer Jacobs had some words ("her strongest language") about Schmitt ("obstructionists and irrational,") that were actually too kind by far. Apparantly the county is losing $26,000 a day because the republicans would not vote for the fee increase THEY wanted.
It's pretty simple - Schmitt wants the Democrats to vote for the increase alone so that in 2005 he and his Dishonest 8 can use a "DEMOCRAT TAX INCREASE" in their mailings and campaign speeches. Schmitt once again puts his own twisted ambitions ahead of the county and intellectual honesty.
From Newsday "Edward Ward, a spokesman for Schmitt, said Democrats were making a "feeble attempt to deflect attention away" from hearings next Wednesday on questionable spending practices in the county's economic development agencies."
Ed Ward at a salary of $80,000 a year was paid about $12 to pass off that BS.
The FACT is that there are no brave or honest republicans in the legislature to stand up and say "We committed to the compromise plan that we insisted on and we must now act accordingly." Where is Leg. Ed Mangano who seems to be an honorable guy? Why do the bidding of Schmitt? Why look like a dishonest obstructionist?

Call or e-mail Ed Mangano at EMangano@mail.co.nassau.ny.us or 516- 571- 6217 and ask him to have principles and vote for the fees his party wanted so that the county doesn't lose money

Call Schmitt at 516- 571- 6212 or e-mail PSchmitt@attglobal.net and ask him why he can't stand by his own compromise plan.

We want that tainted money back!

In the Newsday article, Schmitt says Crowe Deegan should pay back the money it wa s paid by the county because it is from a "tainted work product."
Well heck, as nassau taxpayers we demand Schmitt repay his salary since 1996 because his malfeasense as Deputy Presiding Officer from 1996-2000 led Nassau to near bankruptcy. As Deputy Presiding Officer he was responsible for the county losing $70million in one year because of the BPA scam. Schmitt was non-chalant about the loss and has not been held accountable. As Minority Leader,(a situation that shall never change) Schmitt has done nothing but fight progress in the county. Despite Schmitt and the Gulotta republicans nay-saying the county financial situation is getting better.
As Deputy Presiding Officer, Schmitt made $62,000 a year for 4 years. That's $248,000 for a PART-TIME job where he LOST $70million plus almost bankrupted the county.
As Minority Leader, Schmitt made $60,000 a year for the past 4 years. That's $240,000 for a PART-TIME job where he has done NOTHING to fix the mess he helped create.
Schmitt OWES the taxpayers of Nassau County $488,000. That almost HALF A MILLION DOLLARS.
Schmitt has been paid nearly a HALF MILLION DOLLARS for what? To help bankrupt the county and then do nothing about it.

We want our "tainted money" back!!!!!

Note to Peter: Please make your check out to Nassau County, New York. You have 60 days to remit payment.

First allegation shattered already

Schmitt is up in arms that Crowe Deegan was paid $4000 by the Nassau Industrial Development Agency for work for the Suozzi administration two months before Suozzi took office. Turns out according to Jon Santemma of Santemma and Deutsch (Gulotta adminsitration's firm) in Newsday, Crowe Deegan were brought in because a) Souzzi was going to take office and b) Santemma and Deutsch were in the middle of an important land deal when Nassau was buying the Grumman site from the Navy.
It would be smart to bring in the future county executive's choice for counsel when the negotiations for the sale would span two administrations.

Big Mouth Strikes Again

Holy mackerel! Schmitt pushes and gets pushed back in a big way. The law firm of Crowe Deegan is suing Schmitt for defamation for suggesting that the firm is cheating the county. Schmitt wants Suozzi to "sever ties" with the law firm and wants an investigation. Fine. Bring it on. Firm partner Daniel Deegan told Newsday that "Schmitt had better check his facts and maybe get better legal advice before he makes statements that are patently false and wrong."
We know from past experience when Schmitt opens his mouth it's all lies and lies and lies. Now we have someone taking the brunt of those lies and fighting back. Kudos to Crowe Deegan.
Schmitt is telling News12 and Newsday that he will not be "intimidated." That's fine. Daniel Deegan says Schmitt never spoke to him. Par for course for Schmitt.
Is Schmitt defaming Crowe Deegan? Well, with Schmitt's history that is well-documented here we can put our money on Crowe-Deegan.

Schmitt is also trying to make a Crowe-Deegan campaign contribution to Suozzi an issue. And he's trying to connect Legislator Dave Mejias to this somehow. All we have to say is glass houses, Peter. Glass houses.

How much is that doggie in the window?

"These people are getting raises in excess of what anyone gets in the private industry. It's a disgrace." That's what Schmit says about the raises Suozzi gave to top Nassau Officials in the December 30, 2003 Newsday. When looked at in a vacuum the numbers are high but when compared to Suffolk and Westchester, most Nassau officials including Suozzi makes LESS than their counterparts. Suozzi makes $109,394 (remember that number for later) while Gaffney (and now Levy) makes $162,082 and Spano in Westchester makes $145,535.
The raises tried to bring salaries in-line with comparable jobs in other counties. In years past those jobs didn't pay much in Nassau because when you are a republican no-show job appointee a buck is a buck no matter how much it is.
Now how much does a part-time republican spokesperson get as a raise? Well Ed Ward a former (read: defeated) republican legislator got a 14.3% raise last year. Isn't that a "disgrace?"
WAIT! It gets better. Remember early in this post we said to remember the amount Suozzi makes? Well now it's time to recall that number - $109,394. Ed Ward the PART-TIME spokesperson for the republicans makes $80,000 a year. Let's repeat that: $80,000 a year. That is just yunder $30,000 less than the County Executive.
One more time - a PART-TIME republican spokesperson makes only $30,000 less than the County Executive. Ed Ward also makes $17,000 MORE than the Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs.
How difficult is Ed Wards job? Let's take a look at a few press releases:
From Peter Schmitt here and Norma Gonslaves here.
Notice that Peter and Norma both say the same EXACT things "By following a few simple rules you can protect your family from harmful Carbon Monoxide. Regularly test your Carbon Monoxide detectors along with your smoke detectors to ensure your safety," added Legislator Gonsalves." and "By following a few simple rules you can protect your family from harmful Carbon Monoxide. Regularly test your Carbon Monoxide detectors along with your smoke detectors to ensure your safety," added Legislator Schmitt."
Isn't it amazing?
How about this from Francis Becker here and Peter Schmitt here.
Both legislators again say the SAME EXACT THING! "This legislation is the brainchild of Leg. Gonsalves and is only possible through her hard work and dedication to preserving our environment. This bill will make Nassau County a more appealing place for years to come,"
And Ed Ward is getting $80,000 a year for this?? As a legislator Ward made $39,000 a year. He doubled his salary by LOSING his re-election. Someone get us and ibuprofin, we've got a headache.

Being a republican politician in nassau county means never having to say you're unemployed.