'We just blew it': End of Tesla-Suffolk CC program draws lawmakers' ire

The leader of Suffolk County Community College acknowledged Wednesday that more could have been done to preserve its partnership with Tesla to train automotive workers, but said the school remains committed to developing technical and certificate opportunities for students.

College president Edward Bonahue and its automotive programs director David Macholz attended the Suffolk County Legislature’s Education and Labor Committee's monthly meeting to discuss why Tesla ended its four-year relationship with the college and what could have been done to prevent it.

The START program trained students in 12 weeks to become automotive technicians certified to work at Tesla service centers. SCCC was one of a handful of schools in the nation to offer it.

The electric automaker told the college in Februrary that it would be terminating its agreement on April 7.

Tesla first communicated in May 2021 that the company needed to expand from a 2,000-square-foot space at the college to a 5,000 to 6,000-square-foot facility, according to emails obtained by the committee and read aloud by Chairman Jim Mazzarella (R-Moriches).

Macholz and other college officials over the next 21 months explored options to accommodate that need, including renting space at the Eastern Suffolk BOCES Milliken Tech Center in Oakdale, which would have required $70,000 to build the facility on top of a $100,000 annual lease, according to the emails and Bonahue.

Bonahue said he ultimately chose not to pursue those options because of the cost. Members of the legislature’s Republican caucus questioned why he did not approach them to seek county funding, although Legis. Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville) conceded that he and others would have been critical of that request.

“I’ve owned that I did not understand the importance of this relationship,” Bonahue, who was hired in April 2021, told the committee. “Nor did I understand that I could come back to this committee or to the county executive and seek additional funds. I thought it would be a management responsibility of the college.”

Tesla, which disbanded its public relations department in 2020, could not be reached for comment.

SCCC's automotive program remains popular, with 350 applications for 124 seats in the upcoming fall semester, according to the college. Macholz said the school has partnerships with Toyota, Honda, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Subaru, Mercedes and Stellantis.

SCCC is planning a new 55,000-square-foot automotive facility for its Michael J. Grant Campus in Brentwood, with construction expected to begin in 2024 or 2025, college officials have said.

The Tesla program brought in $17,000 in revenue per semester for the college and had graduated 66 students since 2019, according to the college.

But legislators said the program had other value, including providing economic opportunity for students and raising the college’s reputation.

“This is extremely disappointing,” said Legis. Leslie Kennedy (R-Smithtown). “I look upon this as a major economic failure. I try not to be critical, but we just blew it.”

Legis. Sam Gonzalez (D-Brentwood) questioned whether Tesla — whose shares have lost more than half of their value in the past year — had any intention of staying at Suffolk. Tesla has not announced a new partnership with another school in the Northeast.

“We tried to work with them on a variety of solutions that we thought were feasible,” Bonahue said. “But in the end, again, they made the decision they had to make from the standpoint of their business."

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.