For Bellone, no time to waste
For Steve Bellone, the tough grind of campaigning -- the debates, the worn shoe leather, the endless series of events -- is over. But the even tougher task of mastering Suffolk County government and solving its pressing problems now begins. As county executive-elect, he can't afford to waste a minute in setting up a smart, smooth transition and getting right to work.
He'll be dealing with a legislature still controlled by his own party, the Democrats. After years of battles with County Executive Steve Levy, the legislators will welcome an executive with a smoother, less confrontational style. But Bellone shouldn't take a honeymoon for granted. Forging a productive relationship with the legislature will require a lot of his attention at the start, even as he faces a daunting list of challenges.
That begins with figuring out how to live with the 2012 budget that the legislature passed yesterday. It revises the one Levy submitted and leaves up to Bellone the arduous task of persuading the county's unions to make concessions to avoid further layoffs. He'll also have to put in place a top-notch budget team to help him manage what are likely to be fiscally challenging times, especially in 2012 and 2013.
Bellone must look closely at county government, department by department, to do a hardheaded, performance-based analysis. He'll need to make painful decisions about where further downsizing is needed and where he'll have to beef up depleted agencies. He could start with a close reading of the recent dire testimony of commissioners about the impact of Levy's proposed budget on the delivery of services. In Babylon, Bellone has used a hands-on management style to tweak departments to make them work better. He'll need to do the same for the county. In this era of reduced revenues, greater efficiency in government is a must.
A political earthquake in Islip
In the Town of Islip, the Republican Party has won control of the town board and the supervisor's office -- unless absentee ballots reverse the 419-vote victory margin for Republican Thomas Croci over Democratic Supervisor Phil Nolan. That sharp change of political direction must not be allowed to derail key economic-development initiatives in the town.
One is the search for new airlines for Long Island MacArthur Airport, led by the highly professional airport commissioner, Teresa Rizzuto. In the campaign, Croci made an injudicious comment about her, but he'd be well advised to keep her on the job and help her make MacArthur an even more important asset.
He should continue Nolan's cooperation with Brookhaven to make the area near the Ronkonkoma railroad station into a real downtown and transportation hub adjoining MacArthur. And he'll have to deal with compromise-averse Gerald Wolkoff on the developer's huge Heartland Town Square project in Brentwood. In the campaign, Croci blamed Nolan for slowing it down. Now he'll learn what the real roadblocks are.
In other words, even though the voters voted Croci in, he shouldn't read that wrongly as voting Nolan's work completely out.