Nassau Comptroller Jack Schnirman

1. OPEN AND MODERNIZE COUNTY FINANCES

We have to start with an honest conversation about the county’s finances and end the accounting gimmicks. It’s time to do better than a D+ grade in transparency—Nassau County residents deserve an honest government.

Phase 1: Open up the county’s finances and make them accessible to all residents by modernizing financial technology. Bring Nassau County up to speed with best practices from around the country.
Phase 2: Create a publicly accessible scorecard that reports on fiscal data and tracks our progress.
Phase 3: Generate recommendations to improve financial operations and efficiency.

2. SMART AUDITS TO ASK TOUGH QUESTIONS

One of the most important duties of the Comptroller is the power to audit – we will safeguard taxpayer dollars and demand accountability.

Bring a professional approach to targeting waste, potential fraud, and uncover cost savings.
Reestablish the Independent Audit Committee/Audit Advisory Committee.

3. CLEAN UP AND REFORM COUNTY CONTRACTING

Nassau County’s contracting system is crying out for reform – this has fallen on deaf ears for too long. Corruption and an inefficient contracting process costs Nassau taxpayers too much money – I will partner with District Attorney Madeline Singas to do better.

District Attorney Madeline Singas needs a partner who will enact the reforms recommended in her 2015 Special Report on the Nassau County Contracting Process.
Partner with NYS Comptroller to implement best practices for vetting, disclosure, and tracking county spending to ensure contractors are playing by the rules.
Contractors and nonprofits are not being paid in a timely manner which delays projects, slows services, and drives up costs for the taxpayers.
Modernize the vending system to increase oversight and more efficiently review and process contracts.

4. REPORT IT, REFORM IT

If you see waste, fraud, or inefficiency, we need you to report it and together we will do the audits and drive the reforms to fix the mess in Nassau County.

Build a list of suggested audits from the public. Tips and ideas should be sent to jack@jackfornassau.com.
The comptroller’s office needs to be accessible to Nassau County residents. The office works best when collaborating with residents to make sure every tax dollar is used appropriately and efficiently.

Schnirman Calls for Nepotism Audit to Reform Process, Save Taxpayer Dollars

Mineola—In the wake of a report that more than 100 Nassau County political figures had a total of at least 141 relatives working in taxpayer-funded jobs since 2014, Nassau County Comptroller candidate and Long Beach City Manager Jack Schnirman called for comprehensive anti-nepotism reform, including a first-ever nepotism audit.

“A nepotism audit will expose the true cost of nepotism to Nassau County taxpayers, and is a critical first step to reform the system and end this chronic abuse,” Schnirman said. “We deserve a Nassau County where people are hired based on the value they can provide to taxpayers, not who they are related to.”

The nepotism audit would review a number of items, including:

Provide a comprehensive overview of hiring family members of elected officials and political leaders to taxpayer-funded positions;
Detail cost to taxpayers of nepotism, including salary and benefits;
Review situations in which family members supervise or have the power to give raises to family members;
Review hiring procedures, including how positions were advertised, how many applicants were considered, and what criteria were used to make hiring decisions.

In addition to the audit, which will help establish best practices, Schnirman advocates for creating a database where new hires must be posted going forward, so that the public has quick, updated access to that information. For any and all nepotism hires, that database must detail the hiring process.

Schnirman does not have any family members on any public payroll in Nassau County. As reported in Newsday his opponent, Ed Mangano aide Steve Labriola, currently benefits from the system with multiple family members on the County payroll.

Top Four Priorities to Clean up Nassau’s Finances and Save Taxpayer Dollars