|
I
just returned from San Diego, California where the
weather is supposed to be ideal every day.
For six days the wind driven rain came down in
sheets, my wife and I were prisoners in our hotel.
I had to remind myself its January, and its
freezing in New York and the winter Gold Shield edition
is due.
Well 2010 has certainly blown in with some
dramatic changes on the political landscape.
These changes have occurred on multiple levels;
locally, (county level), state level, (new governors),
and federal level, (republican senator in one of the
most democratic states in the Union).
In our last edition of the Gold Shield our
political endorsements were highlighted, in my
accompanying article I spoke about the work that went
into those endorsements.
And now that we see the results of the election,
its clear to me that the SOA, through its Board of
Governors made some very good decisions.
We endorsed Ed Mangano, who won the County
Executive position.
We endorsed Joe Belesi, and Rose Walker, who both
won Nassau
Legislator positions.
We endorsed Kathleen Rice who won the District
Attorney position.
It is gratifying when the people you decide to
support because of some commonality of ideas with your
own are successful.
Although, the road ahead will be an arduous one
for our victorious candidates, due to the continuing
negative economic conditions.
Still we look forward to the future with optimism
and a sprit of renewal for our Department, as well as
the County.
As you know the Executive Board tries to stop at
all the commands holiday parties for their supervisors,
I wont lie to you it is a tedious undertaking, but it is
really nice to get to see so many of our members.
I hope you were able to attend our Christmas
party at the regal Garden City Hotel.
The turnout was once again enormous.
I would like to extend a thank you to Garden City
P.D. Commissioner Ernie Cipullo, for graciously
providing much needed traffic control at the location.
In that same vein, thanks
to our Treasurer, Paul Visconti and Office
Manager, Caryn Pfeifer for their much appreciated help
in making our event the best Holiday party of the
season.
Although our retired trustee Kevin Pleasants was
not able to attend our party, I am happy to tell you
that Kevin is doing much better.
Presently he is continuing to recover and
strengthen himself at a rehab center in Riverhead were
he and his wife have moved into a new condominium.
The final details of our Legal Plan obtained
through arbitration have been finalized.
The plan took effect 1/01/10.
A mailing with a detailed brochure describing the
benefits has gone out to all our members.
This is a very practical and cost saving benefit
for us and I urge you to utilize it.
If you have any questions you can call the law
office listed in the brochure directly or call the SOA
office.
Another major accomplishment achieved by the SOA
is the end of supervisory flying.
This distasteful practice has been ended with the
signed memorandum of agreement between the County and
the SOA. Several
people deserve kudos for their efforts in bringing this
to fruition; Commissioner
Mulvey, for his cooperation, Deputy County Executive Rob
Walker for listening and presenting our case to the new
County Executive Ed Mangano, and most of all President
Gary Learned for his persistence and tenacity in keeping
this issue out front among our agendas.
Its always nice to see promotions on our job, it
makes for good morale and usually happy campers, so
congratulations to; Lorraine Hannon, John (Rick) Capece,
Mike Cronin and Chris Healy, all promoted to the
“upper echelon”.
A hearty congratulations to our three new
Lieutenants, Vince Boden, Joe Kotak, and eight precinct
trustee Terry Loughlin, solute!
Finally, I would like to advise all that we have
changed our Open meeting day to the 1st Wednesday
of the month. Why?,
in our attempt to get more members to attend the
meetings, we have coordinated our meeting day with the
precinct’s supervisor’s turn out day.
We have been told by our members that they will
come to our open meeting immediately after their turn
out, lets see what happens.
A list of our meeting dates for the year appears
in this publication.
As the representative for the SOA on the Nassau
County Deferred Compensation Board, I have arranged for
Sigrid Goltz, financial services representative at
MetLife to write an article covering the most common
questions that our members have about our plan.
This very informative article appears directly
after mine, I urge you to take the time to read it and
be informed. I
leave you with this financial adage, when it comes to
saving, always “Pay yourself first”.
Tony
|
