ANEMONE TELLS LEGISLATURE HE NEVER PROPOSED SHERIFF CUTS

Louis Anemone, the consultant hired by the Rockland County Executive without Legislative input to study the Sheriff’s Department, answered questions during a recent meeting of the Public Safety Committee of the County Legislature. During the meeting, Mr. Anemone stated that he was “surprised” when he first learned that County Executive Ed Day proposed eliminating the Sheriff’s Patrol Unit in the 2015 budget.

“We all know I did not recommend that,” Anemone told legislators and the public last Tuesday night. Reaffirming the value of the different units of the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department, Anemone, in his first fully public appearance since issuing his report last year, stated, “I was not recommending anyone be fired in the report.”

Mr. Anemone also clarified several recommendations in his report which concluded that more patrol officers were needed, not fewer. In his report, Anemone proposed reassigning more than six full time officers to the Patrol Unit. County Executive Ed Day did not include these recommendations in his budget proposal, and instead recommended the opposite; namely, the firing of 37 patrol officers.

During the meeting, legislators also questioned the involvement of the County Executive in every step of the study. Mr. Anemone confirmed that the County Executive called him directly and asked him to perform an analysis. There is no evidence that the County Executive sought out any other qualified security consultants for the purposes of comparison before selecting Mr. Anemone to conduct the study. Additionally, as per the agreement between the County Executive and Mr. Anemone, the study was to be unveiled only “to an audience selected by the Rockland County Executive,” and not to the County Legislature or the public.

According to Mr. Anemone, County Executive Ed Day also provided him with the names and phone numbers of three civilians who were interviewed for the study, and whose input paved the way for County Executive Day’s later justification to eliminate the Patrol Unit. Months after the report’s completion, Mr. Anemone has refused to reveal the names of the individuals interviewed in the taxpayer-funded study - even privately, to the legislators alone. Tuesday night Legislators requested these names from the County Executive’s office also.

Vice Chairman Jay Hood stated, “This is an example of the branches of Government not working together. The County Executive went and hired a person he knew and worked with at the NYPD for $10,000 of taxpayer money. He did not include the Legislature in choosing the consultant nor did the Legislature have any input during the study. I believe this report was politically motivated to pave the way for a candidate to run for Sheriff this year using this very flawed report. When a $10,000 study is done, you would think some of the recommendations would be in the County Executive’s 2015 budget but none of them were. I see it as a complete waste of $10,000 of our residents’ money.”