Nassau CSEA health care contract comes back to take its political toll

Daily Point

Will next week's ratification vote impact union, county elections?

During the 2021 campaign against County Executive Laura Curran, Bruce Blakeman said in a video message on Facebook: "I stand with the workers of Nassau County. They’ve been oppressed. They don’t have a contract, and help is on the way. Don’t forget to vote."

That year Civil Service Employees Association Local 830, with about 8,000 members, including at the Nassau University Medical Center, endorsed Blakeman, a Republican. He won by 2,146 votes over Democrat Curran. The administration in 2023 settled a 13-year contract retroactive to 2017. But if union members were truly "oppressed" under Curran, the contract hasn’t exactly earned Blakeman the image of "liberator."

That’s because health benefits, for years an increasing fiscal burden for municipal governments nationwide, erupted into a dilemma for the county last year, in mid-contract.

The deal included a state plan called Excelsior that was cheaper than the so-called Empire Plan that CSEA had for years. But Excelsior was soon disbanded due to low enrollment and financial problems — and had to be replaced. The county savings projected from switching to Excelsior was supposed to pay for wage increases in the new contract. Workers were ordered back into the more popular Empire Plan, creating a big catch for the planned savings.

Under a memo of agreement now headed to the members for ratification on April 30, members next Jan. 1 would for the first time contribute 3% of their base salary toward health insurance. And future wage increases scheduled in the 2023 contract are to be delayed until Jan. 1, 2026, starting with the 3% pay bump that was due this July.

Whether Local 830 members will approve this change touches on a recent wave of turmoil within the union. In a highly unusual move, statewide CSEA president Mary Sullivan last year removed Local 830 president Ron Gurrieri and vice president Bob Arciello from their posts. An "administratorship" was created, codirected by Jarvis Brown, the CSEA Long Island region president, and Sue Castle, the regional political action coordinator.

Only two weeks after the ratification vote on the health care agreement, on May 15, Local 830 will hold its officer elections. Rejection of the memo of agreement could bode ill for the current leadership as well as for members’ perception of Blakeman who is running for reelection as county executive in the fall; a good showing could position him well to be the GOP’s candidate for governor in 2026.

Now it’s the turn of Blakeman’s Democratic challenger for county executive, Nassau Legis. Seth Koslow, to seek union support against the current county establishment. He told The Point through his campaign on Thursday: "If I were county executive, I wouldn’t treat working-class CSEA families like pawns in a political game. I’d treat them like partners. Bruce Blakeman plays politics with their health care."

Koslow also has looked to make an issue of Blakeman’s efforts to change CSEA retirees’ health care arrangements.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Star-crossed planet

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Final Point

Long Island business leaders push for an LI-only transportation planning group

To boost state and federal funding for roads and rail in Nassau and Suffolk counties, a group led by the Long Island Contractors’ Association and the Long Island Regional Planning Council is renewing its push to separate the region's transportation planning from New York City and the Hudson Valley.

Marc Herbst, LICA’s executive director, and John Cameron, LIRPC’s chairman, met with the Newsday editorial board Tuesday to discuss their effort to establish a Long Island Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPO, which, they said, would spotlight the Island’s transportation needs and give them more leverage in the competition for federal funding.

"It is giving us an opportunity to focus on and prioritize Long Island projects," Herbst said.

The proposal requires the support of Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. Assemb. Steve Stern and State Sen. Monica Martinez have introduced legislation that would establish the Island’s MPO and remove Nassau and Suffolk counties from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, or NYMTC, which currently handles the Island, New York City and the lower Hudson Valley. The legislature is expected to take up those bills after the state budget is finalized.

Right now, Herbst said, Long Island’s transportation priorities are regularly overshadowed by the city’s needs — or left off the list altogether. Often, key Nassau and Suffolk transit and road projects don’t end up making it onto the state’s Transportation Improvement Program. The federal government requires projects to make the state’s TIP list before money can be allocated but Herbst said no one is specifically advocating for them under the current setup.

As a result, Long Island’s share of state Department of Transportation capital funding has dropped from 23% in 2006 to less than 8% now. And some projects — including a study of Southern State Parkway capacity and safety improvements, fixes to the oft-maligned Oakdale Merge, reconstruction of the Meadowbrook Parkway and Southern State Parkway interchange, expansion of the Northern State Parkway, and electrification of the Long Island Rail Road’s Port Jefferson Branch — haven’t received the federal funds they need.

"This is just another way the Island is getting shortchanged by the state," Cameron said.

A Long Island MPO would have five members, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman, the state Department of Transportation commissioner, both county executives, and a representative from the Long Island Regional Planning Commission. Both county executives currently serve on NYMTC, where a unanimous vote is necessary for any project approval. The pending legislation for an Island-only MPO would require only a majority vote to get a project on the state's TIP list.

Herbst and Cameron said both county executives are supportive of the MPO proposal, which was included in the "People’s Budget" produced by the State Legislature’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian caucus, which is chaired by Assemb. Michaelle Solages.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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