Oyster Bay firm tied to indicted Carlo Lizza & Sons Paving Inc. seeks $1.2M Nassau County contract, IG says

Nassau County is mulling a $1.2 million contract for the owner of a  repaving company whose father confessed to a pay-to-play bribery scheme involving his Oyster Bay firm, according to a recent report by the county's Office of the Inspector General. 

The report recommends the administration of County Executive Bruce Blakeman "consider revisiting the responsibility determination of the proposed awardee" for road resurfacing work from Baymen Industries, Ltd. of Oyster Bay due to its ties to former government vendor, Carlo Lizza & Sons Paving, Inc.

The information gathered "raises the question" about whether Baymen "is in some fashion the de facto continuation of the former vendor Carlo Lizza & Sons Paving, Inc., a company with which the County will not do business," according to the report.

The 17-page report states the two companies overlapped through its shared leadership, senior personnel, and other government contracts, even as Carlo Lizza & Sons Inc. is defunct. The business was owned by Elia "Aly" Lizza and wife Marisa, who were indicted in 2017 on 40 charges including felony counts of bribery, rewarding official misconduct and defrauding the government.

The Lizzas were required to dissolve the company. Oyster Bay Town and Nassau County officials vowed not to hire the company for government work at the time.

According to the Nassau Inspector General's investigation, their son, Aly Nicholas Lizza, 38, of Oyster Bay, owns Baymen Industries, a company formed in 2013, while holding the second-highest ranking position in Carlo Lizza & Sons. The younger Lizza did not face any criminal charges as an individual. 

"Not only are there persons who moved from one company to the other, but more notably at least two of them appear to have been senior employees of both companies at the same time. This includes Baymen's president-and-owner, Aly Nicholas Lizza," according to the IG report released last month. 

Baymen Industries could not be immediately reached for comment.

Blakeman, a Republican, was planning to award a 48-month contract to Baymen Industries based on their bid of $1.2 million to resurface county roads. 

The county's Department of Public Works — led by Acting Commissioner Michael Kwaschyn after the retirement of longtime commissioner Kenneth Arnold — would manage the contract. Public Works had planned to spend $2 million for the contract with a four-year cap of $24 million, according to the IG's report.

In Nassau, contracts need the approval of a seven-member Rules Committee, currently controlled by the Republican majority caucus. The county's Inspector General reviews contracts before they gain legislative approval. 

Newsday obtained a copy of the IG's report from the legislative Democratic minority caucus. 

Elia "Aly" Lizza, 77, of Oyster Bay, the former owner of Carlo Lizza & Sons, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery in the second degree, a felony, and was sentenced in August 2020 to a non-jail, conditional discharge. He admitted to paying about $1.6 million in bribes to the late Oyster Bay Planning and Development Commissioner Frederick Ippolito in exchange for work involving the construction of the Cantiague Commons senior housing development.

Lizza, his wife, Marisa, 69, and the Carlo Lizza & Sons company were indicted on felony bribery charges in 2017 alongside other vendors with government connections as part of a corruption scandal in the Town of Oyster Bay.

Blakeman spokesman Chris Boyle declined to answer Newsday's questions about the contract including whether the administration would pull the contract from the legislative agenda, the procurement process and whether administration officials knew of Baymen's connections to Carlo Lizza & Sons. 

The contract was on the legislative calendar for May — before the Inspector General's Office had completed its review. The request was tabled and had not been discussed or put to a vote. 

Democratic Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) said she believed putting the contract on the agenda was Republicans' "blatant attempt to sidestep oversight." 

Nassau Legislature's Presiding Officer Howard Kopel (R-Lawrence) told Newsday on Monday: "We'll do our job and review it and make our determination." 

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.