AROUND THE ISLAND POLITICS & POWER / GOP SAID TO DODGE DRUGS
COMMITMENT By Irving Long. STAFF WRITER
Copyright (c) 1997, Newsday, Inc.

NASSAU COUNTY may have its own, albeit smaller, version of
the Bill ClintonBob Dole debates of 1996, in which the
Republican presidential candidate repeatedly lambasted the
Democratic president for leaving vacant the position of
drug czar, contending that Clinton was AWOL in the war on
drugs.

This time around in Nassau County, it is the Democrats
accusing a Republican chief executive of not doing enough
to combat the county's burgeoning drug problem. The critics
suggest that much of the problem in Nassau concerns a
vacancy in the top spot at Department of Drug and Alcohol
Addiction.

Even though drug use among teenagers increased in the
early 1990s, County Executive Thomas Gulotta opted not to
replace the drug and alcohol commissioner, Jacqueline
Morgan, when she retired in December, 1995.

The Democrats suggest that the county's sporadic
problems with late payments to the agencies that provide
drug and alcohol abuse services also may be at least partly
attributable to this rather prolonged vacancy.

But if the county contract agencies are terrorized by a
headless bureaucracy, it may be necessary for the contract
agencies to hold out a little while longer, according to
the office of the county executive.

Gulotta did not respond directly to an inquiry, instead
releasing a letter from Deputy County Executive Robert
Olden, which said the department may be folded into the new
Public Benefit Corp.which has been created to operate the
countyowned Nassau County Medical Center and A. Holly
Patterson Geriatric Center. Olden's letter said it doesn't
make sense to hire a highpaid commissioner into a job that
will change within a matter of weeks or months. "An
assessment will be made of that department and others to
determine the feasibility and the benefit to the taxpayers
of possible inclusion in the Public Benefit Corp.the letter
said.

"While resumes are being considered, it would be a
needless waste of taxpayer money to designate a
commissioner and deputies at commensurate salaries at this
time . . . In the interim, the Department of Drug and
Alcohol is being administered by able administrators and
the services offered by the department continue to be
provided uninterrupted."

Not good enough, say the Democrats.

Legis. Roger Corbin (DWestbury) calls it "a disgrace"
that Nassau does not have a drug commissioner, given "the
proliferation of drug use among our young people."

Legis. Judy Jacobs (DWoodbury) noted that the county is
"woefully behind" in its contract payments to drug and
alcohol abuse agencies. That creates serious problems,
according to Maria A. Cuadra, executive director of COPAY
(Community Organization for Parents and Youth, Inc.), one
of the county's contract agencies. She said COPAY would not
meet its payroll unless it received the county funds by
Tuesday.

Earlier this year, many contract agencies had to borrow
money to pay their bills because the county was slow to
deliver $5 million in state grants. The county administers
the grants and processes applications for the funding.

For example, the Bethpagebased group, People, had to
take out $20,000 in shortterm loans at that time to cover
its bills. The county blamed the delay at the time on the
lateness of the state budget.

A Drug and Alcohol spokesman acknowledged there had been
delays, but said the lag has been cut down. The spokesman
said COPAY and other contract agencies would, in fact,
receive their county payments in time to meet their
obligations.

Legis. Bruce Blakeman (RWoodmere), the presiding
officer of the legislature, said he has no problem with
Gulotta's stance on this issue. "There is some validity in
what the county executive says," Blakeman said, noting
there have been discussions about consolidating the medical
center with the geriatric center. "And those discussions
were taking place prior to the Public Benefit Corp.
negotiations ."

Some of these discussions included possibly folding in
the health clinics and the drug and alcohol department, he
said. Nobody is saying the lack of a county commissioner
has caused the increase in drug use among teenagers. But
the six Democratic legislators say in a letter that with
drug use increasing in recent years, this is perhaps the
worst possible time to have a rudderless ship in this
critical department.

"If it is imprudent to wait for it to rain before fixing
the roof," their letter says, "it certainly makes no sense
to give away your umbrella in the middle of a downpour."

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