NIFA notches wins ... for now

Daily Point

Nassau County plays ball with NIFA

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has amended the county budget to bring it into compliance with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, as required by the county’s state-appointed fiscal watchdog, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, The Point has learned.

As part of the amended budget, the county stopped counting $30 million in annual surpluses as revenue — a practice that’s not allowed by GAAP.

The fixes, however, don’t mean the county is in agreement with its control board, Blakeman spokesman Chris Boyle said.

"We disagree with NIFA’s evaluation of the necessity to amend the budget but rather than waste time and effort debating the point, the Blakeman administration will comply with their request as it has virtually no bearing whatsoever on the fiscal integrity of the county’s finances," Boyle told The Point.

The full county legislature is scheduled to vote on the amendments at its meeting on Monday and NIFA is expected to vote on whether to approve the budget next Thursday.

"We’re glad that the county has filed budget amendments that bring the budget in compliance with GAAP and we’re reviewing all of the budget amendments so we can decide whether we’re going to support the budget or not," NIFA Chairman Richard Kessel told The Point. "Had NIFA not asserted itself, that probably would not have happened, and we would have been stuck with an illegal budget."

NUMC ALSO IN PUSHBACK MODE

The county isn’t the only governmental entity pushing back against NIFA’s oversight efforts.

Nassau University Medical Center and its public benefit corporation, Nassau Health Care Corp., had sought a temporary restraining order against NIFA as part of NUMC's recently filed lawsuit in state Supreme Court.

The order sought to stop NIFA from "exercising financial oversight over NUMC and NHCC" or, alternatively, stopping such oversight until the court appointed an independent monitor. It also sought to direct NIFA to "immediately approve" two contracts for outside attorneys NUMC had hired to handle the NIFA lawsuit and a separate lawsuit against New York State, which NUMC has yet to file.

On Tuesday, the court rejected the hospital’s effort to obtain a temporary restraining order to stop NIFA from exercising oversight and, alternatively, to require the appointment of a monitor to oversee NIFA. Instead, the court scheduled a Jan. 10 court date for arguments to be heard. But the court upheld the third request to require NIFA to sign off on the attorney contracts.

The NUMC board previously had approved the negotiation of contracts with two outside law firms — Susman Godfrey and Pollock Cohen — to provide them with up to $325,000 each.

NUMC released a statement Tuesday celebrating its win, without specifically mentioning the other two prongs.

"NIFA has been carrying Albany’s water for years as part of an effort to starve the hospital of resources and sully its reputation," NUMC Chairman Matthew Bruderman said in a statement. "This ruling is the first of what will be many more victories against the culture of corruption we’ve seen for years from the Albany and NIFA cabal. The big winners today are the patients and the dedicated staff that will definitely have outstanding legal representation as we fight for the money our community needs and deserves. We’re going to get it back."

But the celebration may have been premature. Sources told The Point Wednesday that NIFA had appealed the decision on the attorney contracts — and it was stayed until the appeal is heard.

Kessel noted that the hospital has other battles on which to focus, including its debt to the New York Health Insurance Plan, which now totals more than $380 million.

"We’ll let the courts decide what NIFA’s role is," Kessel said. "But again, I think the hospital is wasting valuable resources, when you owe New York State close to $400 million in insurance payments. I’d worry more about making those payments than filing frivolous lawsuits."

In its two-front battle with Nassau and NUMC, NIFA seems to have lodged two wins — at least for now.

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

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