The following appears in the May 29-June 4, 2015 issue of the Long Island Business News:

Since Sen. Dean Skelos and his son were arrested by the feds on May 4, the pols at Mineola’s county courthouse have been scurrying around, looking for cover.

Nassau’s political class is in a panic because members are concerned their phone conversations may have been tapped or that a colleague may have been wired when discussing pending county contracts.

What really jarred nerves was the paragraph in the complaint against Skelos describing his conversation with County Executive Ed Mangano after attending the wake of a murdered NYPD police officer.

It reads: “…while walking together outside the wake, Dean Skelos asked the Nassau County executive and the chief deputy Nassau County executive about the status of payments to the Environmental Technology Company. After consulting by telephone with another Nassau County official, the chief deputy Nassau County executive informed Dean Skelos that the payments would be made and took steps to expedite the payments due to Dean Skelos’ official position.”

People are asking, was Mangano wired? Did he give up this information in a deposition? Or, was there a surveillance truck focused on them?

Whatever the explanation, Nassau pols are worried additional damaging evidence could be in the hands of the U.S. attorney.

While investigations into Nassau’s procurement practices may be small potatoes for the U.S. attorney, they are not for the district attorney’s office. The top two contracts acting D.A. Madeline Singas should focus on are the turf field deal and the sewer lease proposal.

The heavy push to get the artificial turf deal done prior to the Skelos blowup should raise eyebrows because it’s expensive, it’s illogically timed during a fiscal crisis, it costs more than it brings in and it has previously been “gamed” around Nassau Interim Finance Authority’s contract rejection of an earlier attempt. Yet it is a single-minded focus of a county with other significant issues to address. So what exactly is in it, and for whom? And, was the “free” material provided on earlier fields paid for with federal funds or other contracts with these vendors?

The sewer lease deal will generate millions in fees for lawyers, lobbyists, investment bankers and financiers, but cost the county exorbitant “interest,” perhaps in the form of vastly increased water and sewer fees. At the same time that proposed rules would show who lobbied, who benefits and the like, the sewer lease deal hasn’t been heard of since current events broke. Perhaps because the answers to those questions would be either uncomfortable or, along with the transcripts of any related discussions heard or overheard, eerily reminiscent of what we’ve been reading lately in the text of criminal complaints.

Then there’s the NIFA board on which I served from 2010 to 2014. For the fourth meeting in a row, NIFA has turned down borrowing for judgments. Perhaps NIFA is finally out of the business of enabling that particular financial and fiscal mistake. Are board members annoyed with the county’s lack of progress, realizing the errors of their ways in 2014, or feeling the heat of public scrutiny that comes with doing a favor for a political patron?

NIFA comes under the state’s Public Authorities 2009 Reform Act, which requires board members, as fiduciaries, to act independently of elected officials and to give a “contemporaneous record” to NIFA officials of “any conversation in person or by telephonic or other remote means, or corresponding between any lobbyist engaged in the act of lobbying….”

Here are a few questions the D.A. should ask:

Did any NIFA members receive marching orders from a member of the governor’s staff?

Did NIFA members properly report meetings with lobbyists who attempt to influence any determination “by a public official…related to a government procurement”?

If NIFA members dined with lobbyists in a restaurant or a township-owned club (for example, Frank’s Steak House or Harbor Links), did they pay their fair share for the meal and adult refreshments and not a nominal amount?

If D.A. Singas, who boasts she is a “career prosecutor who brings a commitment to justice, compassion and integrity” to her job, wants to prove her mettle, she’ll not hesitate to investigate Nassau’s broken procurement process and expose any pay-to-play shenanigans.

The following appears in the May 15-21, 2015 issue of the Long Island Business News:

Last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo attempted to portray himself as the Henry Kissinger of Albany by leading a so-called trade mission to Cuba. Being the first U.S. governor to visit the communist nation, he argued, would help convince Congress to lift sanctions and secure agreements that benefit New York’s economy.

The trip, however, was nothing more than a boondoggle – political theater to enhance Cuomo’s international profile just in case lighting strikes and he jumps into the 2016 presidential race.

It’s ludicrous for the governor to think money can be made in Cuba. European and Asian countries have been trading with Cuba for decades and the result has been meager. Oppressed Cubans are desperately poor and can’t afford to purchase imported goods. Computers and the Internet, for instance, are not only unaffordable, but access is limited to high-level officials because the regime fears information freedom.

Thanks to Cuba’s state-controlled economy the average worker earns 400 pesos a month – about $17 U.S. dollars. A medical doctor makes about 700 pesos or $30. The average pension payment to retired workers is $9.50 per month.

Also, Cuba’s economy is rated the most repressed in the South and Central American region. The small private sector barely survives because it is hampered by burdensome regulations and oppressive state controls. To circumvent the state-controlled labor market there is an extensive underground economy in which more than 90 percent of the population participates. (The governor contributed to Cuba’s informal economy when he ate in a home restaurant. Eating in a state-managed restaurant is like dining in a New York Department of Motor Vehicles office.)

Before leaving the island, Cuomo announced an agreement between Buffalo’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology to develop a U.S. clinical trial of a lung cancer vaccine. (Frankly, I’d be leery of partnering with Cuban medical professionals who earn only 30 bucks a month.)

To avoid criticism back home, Cuomo threw a sop to human rights activists, saying basic freedoms “are an issue that is very important to the people of the U.S…and those issues have to be worked through.” But the governor went on to make this bizarre statement: “The people in New York and the United States are very excited about the courage that your president has shown.”

Raul Castro is courageous alright – a courageous thug and murderer. Doesn’t the governor know that Fidel and Raul Castro have abolished human rights, civil liberties, free elections, political parties, independent unions, religious and cultural organizations, and instituted political prisons and forced labor?

Since 1959, over 500 thousand people have spent time in a Cuban gulag. The authoritative “The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression” reports there have been 15,000 to 20,000 prisoners of conscience, 12,000 to 15,000 political prisoners and 15,000 to 17,000 prisoners shot. More than 2 million Cubans out of a population of 11 million “voted with oars” and settled in other countries.

In 2009, when President Barack Obama first called for the lifting of the embargo if some political prisoners were released and Cuban taxes on remittances from the United States were reduced, Fidel Castro poked Obama in the eye. He accused the president of showing signs of “superficiality” and made it clear that Obama had “no right to suggest that Cuba make even small concessions.”

This time around, Raul rolled Obama. He persuaded Obama to give away the diplomatic store and in return agreed to release only 53 political prisoners out of a total of 8,400. (And since they were let out of jail in January 2015, a number of them have already been re-arrested.)

Cuomo disgraced himself by gushing over Raul Castro. He proved to be nothing more than what Castro’s hero, Vladimir Lenin, called a “useful idiot.” That is a dupe who Lenin said “will sell us the rope with which to hang them.”

The following appears in the April 24-30, 2015 issue of the Long Island Business News:

If you’re interested in learning what makes Gov. Andrew Cuomo tick, I recommend you read Michael Shnayerson’s “The Contender: Andrew Cuomo, A Biography.”

This book is not hagiography; it portrays the man, warts and all. The only time Shnayerson goes overboard is when he argues that Cuomo is the “most tantalizing Democrat of his generation…, a prince in waiting,” and that “the only question is when” he runs for president.

What makes the book a worthy read is that it traces the development of Cuomo’s rude and ruthless behavior in dealing with people – even loyalists – from his youth in Queens County to the governor’s mansion. Here’s a sampling of what people who have known Cuomo throughout his life have thought of him:

As a young adult: “Andrew was a big, athletic kid, somewhat cocky, brandishing an outer-borough toughness and challenging those around him.…”

He was “…abrasive at 19.” Referred to as the “Prince of Darkness,” Cuomo “had no real friends, no colleagues, only people he controls. Everyone else he considers his enemies. To him there is only one agenda, and it’s his.”

As Gov. Mario Cuomo’s right-hand man: “…his father’s all-knowing, all-purpose henchman…his father’s heavy…he was a nasty piece of work who took delight in firing and cutting down to size people decades older…you do not want him mad at you. He takes no prisoners.”

At the Department of Housing and Urban Development: “…arrogant and obnoxious…. He yelled at me in a way that my own parents haven’t yelled at me…. He was sort of at your feet or at your throat…he could come on like a thug, in your face, talking down.”

During his failed 2002 run for New York governor: “…his way of dealing with staff or things…he doesn’t like is to play mind games with people and make them feel small, and let others do the dirty work of telling someone something they don’t want to hear…blaring his obnoxiousness for all to suffer…his arrogant, abrasive, controlling and…even mean-spirited qualities played a big role in his defeat by Mr. [Carl] McCall.” “…his grating personality has sullied what could have been a promising campaign….”

As attorney general: “Andrew said something negative about everyone…. No one was competent. Everyday it was a different person.” “Andrew could play one against the other, just as his father had done.”

As governor: “All power and all control – that was Andrew’s management style.” “Tough, nasty vindictive…He will do whatever he can do to punish you, only you won’t know it because he won’t do it to your face…he was also vengeful, bullying, mean-spirited, conniving, not always true to his word, and very secretive…a compulsive manipulator.”

Not a pretty picture.

Yet, while Shnayerson concedes that Cuomo is a man who has “seized power at every opportunity, alienated allies and rivals alike and micromanaged to a point of obsession, bringing to mind another less celebrated president – Richard Nixon,” he still insists the governor can be a contender for the office of president.

He even believes that if Hillary Clinton is elected and reelected president, Cuomo can still become the nominee in 2024 when he will be 67.

However, Shnayerson has failed to grasp that when a politician screws friends and foes alike, it eventually catches up. And it has with Cuomo. The base of his party and members of the Legislature don’t trust him, and he has a hard time finding talented people to fill senior positions in his administration.

It also foretells why Cuomo would fail as a presidential candidate. To make a serious run one must attract, trust and empower hundreds of people to organize campaigns in dozens of primary and caucus states. A mean-spirited control freak can not succeed at putting together such an organization.

Cuomo is a “contender” all right, but for the “Misanthrope Award,” not the nation’s highest office.

The following appears in the April 10-16, 2015 issue of the Long Island Business News:

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has resurrected another bad backdoor borrowing idea: monetizing the sewer system.

In March, Mangano issued a request for proposals from fiscal advisers “in connection with a potential public-private partnership transaction” for the county’s sewage treatment system.

A similar proposal was killed by NIFA in 2012. Why? Here’s the lowdown.

In September 2011, desperate county officials searching for new revenue streams were convinced by lobbyists/consultants they could receive a huge slug of one-shot dollars by leasing the sewer system to a consortium of investors.

The county was determined to move forward in executing the plan despite warnings from NIFA that it might not be legally feasible and could end future FEMA aid. The plan would convey to private-sector operators for 50 years the authority to impose, set and, if necessary, increase residential usage fees without government approval.

Ignoring the warnings, the county announced a so-called debt reduction and sewer stabilization plan on May 3, 2012. The county boasted that it expected to select a private investor who would finance $850 million to pay down existing low-interest, tax-exempt sewer debt and county debt and use any net dollars to balance its operating budget.

What county officials failed to grasp is that investors in this form of backdoor borrowing expect annual returns of 15 to 20 percent. And to achieve this return, sewer rates would have to be raised dramatically year in and year out since cost-cutting opportunities did not, and do not presently, exist in sufficient measure for them to reap their returns any other way. Because the increased payments would be fees, not property taxes, homeowners and businesses would no longer be able to deduct them on their income tax.

The biggest losers in such a deal would be Nassau’s nonprofits (e.g., North Shore-LIJ), commercial real estate owners (and their tenants, to whom they pass such costs along) and homeowners. Their toilet flush fees would be overflowing.

The biggest winners: investment bankers and lobbyists flushed with millions in commissions and fees.

NIFA rejected in May 2012 a $5 million Morgan Stanley sewer advisory contract because it made no sense to spend taxpayer dollars in pursuit of borrowing such costly funds to pay down low-interest tax-exempt county and sewer debt. It would be like paying someone to advise you to draw down the credit on your Visa card at 18 percent interest per year to pay down your home mortgage, which has a 4 percent annual interest rate. Sheer folly!

The flawed sewer deal has reared its ugly head again – but this time with a new twist. The chatter around One West Street is that if a sewer lease yields $1 billion or more, the proceeds could be used to eliminate NIFA by paying off its outstanding debt. If NIFA is disbanded, it would be party time in Mineola. The political hacks and lobbyists would have a field day lining their pockets with taxpayers’ money – even more than they do now.

However, in the unlikely event this scheme came to pass, the county’s structural budget deficit won’t go away but NIFA’s protections would.

Under the NIFA statute, Nassau cannot go bankrupt. But, if the control board is gone so is its statute. That would force the ratings agencies to take a fresh look at the county finances – and my guess is that before long Nassau’s rating would drop below investment grade and the county could become insolvent.

If the Nassau County Legislature and NIFA permit Mangano to lease the sewers, the irony would be that this man who ran as a “tax revolt” candidate would not only be raising costs on homes and business owners. He would singlehandedly manage to raise federal, state and local taxes for his electorate.