Contractor's hiring of ex-Suffolk officials needs ethics review

By now, it is well known that several top officials in the former administration of County Executive Steve Bellone landed executive-level jobs at BusPatrol, the company that runs the county’s school bus camera program.

Justin Meyers, former county police spokesman and onetime chief of staff for the Suffolk district attorney’s office, holds the title of president. Steve Randazzo, a former assistant deputy county executive who briefed the legislature on BusPatrol, is its chief growth officer. Jason Elan, once a deputy county executive for Bellone, had been its head of external affairs until early this year. Former Suffolk DA Tim Sini is now the firm’s outside counsel.

This pattern is a bad look — not so much for the politically-connected company, which can hire anyone it wants, but for how the administration that ended Dec. 31 will be regarded. While Bellone and his appointees were preparing to depart county government in his third and final term, it would have been nice if they had guarded against the appearance and suspicion of conflicts.

One of the more conspicuous job migrations, as reported by Newsday last week, involves Christiana Stover McSloy. She had been chief deputy county attorney under Bellone — and now is in-house counsel for BusPatrol. That’s concerning. In her government post, on Nov. 21, McSloy signed an amendment to the BusPatrol contract that limits the county’s ability to end it.

We hope the job wasn’t a reward for McSloy’s earlier public role. But we can’t be assured without an inquiry by the county’s Board of Ethics, or by another body, to spell out the specifics to the public. In some cases, the board can legally impose penalties on ex-public employees if a violation is found, depending on the case.

The county code says: “No person who has served as a public servant shall appear before the County, or receive compensation for any services rendered, in relation to any particular matter in which such person had participated personally and substantially as a public servant.” In other words, McSloy had best avoid dealing with the contract between Suffolk County and her employer that once fell under their purview. Gary Lewi, as spokesman for BusPatrol, stresses that she is indeed not working on any matters pertaining to the Suffolk contract.

Even presuming that’s true and all county post-employment rules were followed, giving well-paid landing spots to officials who helped BusPatrol’s interests even obliquely encourages cynicism about the bus-camera program. It was created for children’s safety, but critics who have found ways to call it a “money grab” now have new ammunition.

The potential public-private coziness here threatens to feed extraneous doubts about the virtues of the program itself. That’s why the details and timing of these hires need to be further examined to determine exactly how they came to be. Current county officials need to know — if only to guard the safety program’s reputation and integrity.