Suffolk state of emergency is over, suspended IT director reinstated, Bellone says

Two weeks before he is scheduled to leave office, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in a letter that he has ended a formal state of emergency declaration tied to the crippling Sept. 8, 2022, ransomware attack and ordered the man he has publicly blamed for the event to return to work.

In the letter sent on Friday to Peter Schlussler, the director of the County Clerk’s Office's information technology department, Bellone said he had ended the state of emergency, as well as the paid administrative leave for Schlussler, as of the end of business Friday.

“As I have terminated the Proclamation of a State of Emergency relating to the Cyberattack, the Order temporarily reassigning all information technology employees in the Suffolk County Clerk’s office to the Department of Information Technology is no longer in effect,” Bellone wrote, according to a copy of the letter shown to Newsday. 

Bellone wrote that Schlussler, therefore, “should report to the County Clerk’s Office on Monday … at your usual start time.”

Suffolk County spokeswoman Marykate Guilfoyle, in a prepared statement, confirmed the “emergency is now ending, requiring Schlussler to return to work,” after the county was able to “implement significant upgrades” to the clerk’s computer systems in Schlussler’s absence.

A spokesman for the county clerk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Schlussler declined to comment Friday.

Bellone’s action puts an end to 16 straight months of emergency declarations since the cyberattack, in which vital county servers were infiltrated by ransomware actors who initially demanded $2.5 million. The ransom was never paid. The attack crippled some vital county services and took the main county website offline for six months. Personal data of nearly 500,000 people was potentially exposed.

The state of emergency had allowed the county to issue no-bid contracts and hire personnel without the endorsement of the Suffolk County Legislature.

Legis. Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville), who had objected to the emergency declarations for months, said, “I’m glad they realize the state of emergency is over and has been for months, and we can back to regular order.”

Schlussler, who Newsday reported was the first to warn the county of the attack on Sept. 8 and issued a report detailing red-flag warnings he raised in advance of the attack, has denied Bellone’s claim that he did not implement needed security upgrades and blocked the county’s efforts to investigate and recover from the cyberattack.

In October, Schlussler filed a notice of claim signaling his effort to sue Bellone, the county and Deputy County Executive Vanessa Baird-Streeter for defamation for statements made over the past year. 

Piccirillo said the Bellone administration had recently attempted to file misconduct charges against Schlussler via a letter to the legislature, but no charges were pending. 

“I don’t believe the legislature has any authority over this,” Piccirillo said. “The legislature can’t fire a county employee for not being guilty of any crimes.” 

A special legislative committee investigating the cyberattack, chaired by Piccirillo, is expected to release a report early next year.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.