Laura Curran mailer: A 'critical' government function?

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, who campaigned against unnecessary county mailers in 2017, appears front and center in a four-page hurricane preparedness newsletter sent to homeowners recently.

The color, glossy mailer includes a photo of Curran on the front page and inside fold. It includes tips about subjects including dealing with "extreme heat" and "preparing for a hurricane." 

In April 2017, Curran was a Nassau County legislator running for her current job when she announced: “Let’s stop pretending that distributing useless information in self congratulatory mailers is a critical function of honest government. It’s not. And those that fill up our mailbox know exactly what they’re doing. They know they are campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime.”

Curran, a Democrat, also forbade her name from appearing on county signs — after county executives for years had plastered their names on signs.

Curran spokeswoman Christine Geed said the preparedness mailer, "is not a county executive mailer." The $37,460 cost of the mailer was covered entirely by a grant secured by the county Office of Emergency Management, Geed said.

Legis. Steve Rhoads (R-Bellmore) brought up the mailer during a recent hearing on GOP-backed bills to curtail Curran's powers to manage the county assessment department. 
County Assessor David Moog had objected to a law requiring that tax impact notices — already published online — be mailed to taxpayers.

Spending $240,000 for the mailings "wasn't spending the money wisely," Moog said. "We have people who can access them online."

Rhoads remarked, "By the way, the four-page color hurricane mailer that we all just saw …, how much money did the county executive spend on that?" Rhoads continued, "That clearly was important enough to send out to homeowners."

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.