Legis. Cooper Calls on County Executive to Ask Chief Budget Officer to Resign

Suffolk County Legislative Majority Leader Jon Cooper, D-Lloyd Harbor, called on County Executive Steve Levy to remove his chief budget director, Deputy County Executive for Finance Connie Corso from her position as treasurer for Friends of Steve Levy on Thursday. 

"A treasurer scrutinizes every campaign contribution that comes through the door. In her job as the head of the County Executive's budget team, Connie has a huge say in which contract agencies get funding," Cooper said. "Now that they know the same person will be doing both jobs, does anybody not think that any company looking to get a county contract won't feel absolutely under the gun to make a contribution to Levy? It looks awful, and I think Steve should do the right thing and request Connie's resignation."  

Cooper said that along with the tremendous responsibilities of her full-time day job – trying to navigate the Suffolk County out of a $150 million deficit – now Levy also wants Corso to do his bidding as his campaign treasurer in what is expected to be his toughest re-election campaign since he took office. Cooper explained that his  request is based upon the overwhelming potential conflict of interest in having the highest-ranking member of the chief executive's budget appropriation team also lead his campaign financing efforts.

Levy declared Cooper's call for him to oust his campaign treasurer "the height of ethical hypocrisy" noting that Cooper's own Democratic majority committee has the Legislature's Chief of Staff as its treasurer.

"If Jon believes that it 'looks awful' in his words that a staff member of my administration is my campaign treasurer, then I wonder if he believes it looks equally awful to have the Presiding Officer's Chief of Staff serve as treasurer of Cooper's Campaign for a Democratic Legislature," Levy said. "Or that a Presiding Officer staff member who processes legislative member item funding is campaign treasurer for Legis. [William] Lindsay's legislative campaign."

According to state elections records, the treasurer of the Campaign for a Democratic Legislature is Terrence Pearsall, who is Presiding Officer Lindsay's Chief of Staff. The treasurer for Lindsay for Legislature is legislative employee Michael Cavanaugh.

"This is supposed to be Suffolk County, not Tammany Hall," Cooper said. "After all the embarrassment he dragged the county through already, you'd think Steve would have finally learned. He's got $4 million in the bank. Why doesn't he just hire an accountant?"