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Residents Look to Dissolve Special Sanitation District

A weekly look-in at news from around the Town of Hempstead.

Local residents delivered petitions with more than 5,000 signatures to the Town of Hempstead Clerk Monday, calling for the dissolution of a local special tax sanitation district.

A dissolution is predicted to save residents of the sanitary district hundreds of dollars a year, according to a release from the Long Island Progressive Coalition (LIPC).

Residents for Efficient Special Districts (RESD) and the LIPC are assisting local residents to dissolve Sanitary District No. 2, which would turn over to the Town of Hempstead sanitation service for the hamlets of Baldwin, Roosevelt, South Hempstead and parts of Uniondale, Rockville Centre and Freeport.

If successful, this would not only be the first successful dissolution of a special district under New York’s new Government Reorganization and Citizen Empowerment Act, but also the largest effort ever undertaken under the new law, according to the LIPC.

"Residents of Sanitary District No. 2 have consistently paid nearly double the taxes of their neighbors who live in the Town of Hempstead collection areas, prompting the massive signature gathering effort," the LIPC said in a release.

A 2005 audit of Sanitary District No. 2 from former Nassau Comptroller Howard Weitzman found that residents were "grossly overpaying" for garbage collection compared to residents of other areas of Nassau.

The audit reads:

The comptroller, issuing an audit of the independent sanitary district, said that the district wastes millions of dollars every year on administrative expenses, including unnecessary and overpriced insurance sold to the district by a no-bid broker, cars and trucks for top staff, and gifts for employees, while allowing sanitation workers, in effect, to work part-time jobs for full-time pay.

"The only people benefitting from Sanitary District No. 2 are the handful of bureaucrats that run it" said Lisa Tyson, Director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition. "After dissolution, taxpayers stand to save hundreds of dollars a year, and workers stand to gain the higher quality of management that comes with increased public oversight. For the more than 30,000 residents of Sanitary District 2, this is a win-win."

After submitting the petitions, the town clerk has 10 days to certify. Once approved, the clerk will issue a notice of approval to hold a referendum which must be held 60 to 90 days after the notice. If the referendum passes, the next step is to have Sanitary District 2 create a plan to decide the logistics of dissolution and then residents will vote to approve that plan.

paul August 2, 2012 at 02:17 am
And what makes some think that privatization is better????
Vincent August 3, 2012 at 08:44 pm
ANNMARIE: As none of the Patch staff responded to your inquiry this is the info you requested. http://paidcontent.org/2011/04/13/419-post-huff-post-deal-aols-patch-will-get-more-social/
Jaime Sumersille (Editor) August 3, 2012 at 08:55 pm
@Vinceny and @Annmarie - yes, Patch's parent company is AOL. We have separate editorial teams and operate in different parts of the country. Our content is also hyperlocal to each town or township. I assure you there is no 'conspiracy' here. Just local news that matters most to local residents. Thanks for commenting!
Jaime Sumersille Regional Editor, Nassau County
dan August 21, 2012 at 10:36 am
all i need to say is that for many years taxes have been high and more then three quarters of it goes to schools not the town thats a fact.the sanitation or park services are not over paid its the private sectors out there that are underpaying workers and getting away with it look at the city sanitation they make more then merrick and special districts and the taxes are lower then long islands. what people need to understand is that the town workers pay the same taxes to and they need salaries they make to provide for there family. anybody would agree you can't live on 30 thousand dollars a year even by yourself its worst if got to pay a mortgage taxes for schools even when your kids are grown and out of school anyway town of hempstead and oyster bay sanitation workers have to kill there selves to get done for that 4 hours of work cause people dont want trucks out all hours of day overcrowding streets burning access gas ect all plus your don't trouble people's jobs we all have to stuggle paying taxes utilities ect and it has to do with alot of factors other then just sanitation town workers
dan August 21, 2012 at 10:51 am
plus i have family that lives in the town of islip and town of babylon they both say the private sanitations don't give service like hempstead and oyster bay the because when workers are paid better they cherish there job more and put out better effort if they consolidate the special districts its gonna cause a lot of problems they can't fit all of district 2 in merrick yard there going to be layoffs and there gonna make the merrick guys do alot more which means a big lack in service you understand what happens when u make one guy in job do twice the work he usually does believe me there will be more sorry then happy
Felix Procacci August 21, 2012 at 11:25 am
You make many statements I disagree with, you should read the audits done by the comptroller, they contradict most of what you say. http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/Comptroller/Docs/PDF/Sanitary_District_No_2_Audit_Report_9-21-05.pdf
dan August 21, 2012 at 03:00 pm
explain and show proof
dan August 21, 2012 at 03:51 pm
your saying that school taxes are are not as high as the town. and taxes are high because of special districts. special district 2 cost 500 dollars a year extra on taxes whats you school taxes thousands right if thats the case u might as well go after the school districts. anyway i worked as a seasonal in merrick 9 years ago it would be hard to consolidate district 2 over there common sense thats why they made separate districts decades ago spread them out with more trucks to cover more area that means better service. how do know that the sevice will be as good i know u see those yellow and blue trucks by you in the morning running there backs off to get the job done. they could take there time and walk there routes but do u really want trucks out on hempstead tpk taking up more traffick as it is explain why they get done early
dan August 21, 2012 at 04:10 pm
and felix for the none burnable junk call district 6 and find out first and if your not at work when they come in the morning go out and tell the sandman quick about the problem there usually the same guys for your route
dan August 21, 2012 at 10:02 pm
i read the audit it explains about how the district overspends on there equiment and maintenance thats not reason to consolidate them in to merrick they should stop overspending
dan August 21, 2012 at 10:28 pm
the city sanitation salary is over 67000 a year plus with there overtime there clocking between 90 to 120000 a year. the city taxes are cheaper then long island by far. basically if u are toping out 40000 a year in long island working for some private sanitation how your going to pay 10000 year or more on taxes plus a mortgage 30000 is borderline wellfare so if the town is toping out between 50000 to 72000 a year thats too much you need at least that to live in long island with its high costs of living most people would agree with me. too much layoffs thats what the problem is nobody wants too spend money. u have too spend money too make it.
dan August 21, 2012 at 10:38 pm
im just defending working people like me trying too make it its horrible when your job is being threatened. nobody wants that happen to them
Felix Procacci August 22, 2012 at 12:17 am
Dan, I don't want anyone who does a full day's work, to lose their job.
I also don't want the taxpayers, who are also workers, to overpay for any service. I believe any consolidation plan of SD 2 would eliminate excess employees by natural attrition (retirement). I believe Comptroller Weitzman supported such a plan. The city is not a model for efficiency, they are able to overspend because they have Wall Street millionaires to sponge off. That isn't right either. I believe in fixing government slowly over time allowing excess workers in one department to move to another department where there is a need (hopefully the unions will be cooperative). We have a lot of work to do in this country and on Long Island, there isn't any reason why anyone should be unemployed if they are willing to work. We just need to do a better job at allocating resources to the necessities of society, and stop as much of Government's wasteful spending as we can.
dan August 22, 2012 at 02:20 am
i do believe there is alot of wasteful spending. nassau county is a example even the town of oyster bay now they keep borrowing until they cant pay back then they layoff there workforce. like i said when they overspend it hurts everybody in the long run the money has to come from someware
dan August 22, 2012 at 02:34 am
felix the thing i was trying too point out to u before was when they work they get a thing called task completion the quicker your done the job the quicker you go home basically it helps the the routes get done faster because if you had too work your 8 hours you would take twice as long right u won't kill yourself. look at as getting paid salary not hourly theres many jobs out there in the private sector trucking that pay salary nomatter if u do 25 hours a week or 50 u would still get the same check same goes for supervisors at companies
dan August 22, 2012 at 02:48 am
another example your getting a roof replaced or putting up a deck your going too pay those workers for the job nomatter how fast or slow they complete the task. look at construction workers they get paid hourly why think they take so long too complete projects they milk the overtime but u can't blame them they need too make up for the winter layoffs
dan August 22, 2012 at 06:47 pm
i work for parks department theres no task completion because there's more then one task to complete theres no routes u work at your own pace so task completion wouldn't make sense the sanman have routes
dan August 22, 2012 at 06:54 pm
but even over here theres alot of wasteful spending just the other day they pay a private company to fix up the garden out front and us the town workers where told doit all over the next day all over a different way wastefull spending right
dan August 23, 2012 at 08:38 am
and one more thing my foreman freand at merrick told me that any consolidation would lead to a change of pick up days for district 2 plus alot of houses would be picked up later then they usually do.its only going to open up a can of worms for alot of people.
Angelo Aloise September 6, 2012 at 11:11 pm
First off the taxes the people of dist 1 are the lowest in the county for sanitation service. Second you enjoy backyard service and are one of the only districts to still have it. So if you want what's happening in dist 2 to happen here you're crazy. If it does happen say goodbye to backyard service. Oh and good luck scheduling a special pickup. Instead of next day service try weekly or in some cases monthly pickups. Not saying the district is perfect but you do get your money's worth. I live in merrick now where if you put your recycling on the curb and not on the side of the street they leave it. The service is curbside and I pay MORE taxes for the service than dist 1.
Angelo Aloise September 6, 2012 at 11:20 pm
How big are your garbage pails? If its bigger than 40 gallons it is TOO BIG! The men are only supposed to lift up to 32 gallon pails. Also you are only supposed to have no mor than 2 pails. I you are a dist one resident you probably have minimum of 4. Most likely morehan that and hey are probably the 60 gallon pails that have the diagram of the special sanitation trucks with a lift that those pails are made for
comptroller September 8, 2012 at 05:54 pm
I think the same as David. Do you all honestly think that when the TOH gets that 11mm dollar budget that the taxpayers are gonna see it! The budget according to the Sani2 website breaks down to $12 a week for homeowners; respectively. Private carting companies cannot bid that low and will charge for every extra. Let’s not be vague! The trucks, the fuel and the manpower are needed no matter who does the job. Even if this middle tier of mismanagement is eliminated the best the TOH is gonna do if anything is two bucks a week. All the financials are public domain. The Town of Hempstead will swallow up the 11mm dollar budget in Sani2 and will never be able to perform the local service that the residents are already getting. It will cost more in fuel to get the trucks over to district two from Merrick.
comptroller September 8, 2012 at 05:56 pm
No one has guaranteed these men continued employment. To the contrary they are assured termination. The TOH has not guaranteed a reduction and I bet never will. Keep what exists and eliminate the identified waste. The system is in place why break it up and put it backing together? That’s a waste of every ones time and an insult to common sense. Unfortunately the identified waste will be these poor Sanitation workers. So sad, this is how the late Very Rev. Dr. MLK started the Civil Rights movement, by this very platform; a decent wage and good working conditions for Sanitation workers. Two good points Dan has made.
comptroller September 8, 2012 at 05:57 pm
Felix those big bad union folks are out to get us aren’t they. Felix do you know what these guys take home after the very same tax burden you suffer? Should they not have health insurance for their families? Those men have to fight year over year for a living wage. That’s exactly what Dr. MLK did in principle. From what I understand the person who heads one of these parties lost the run for commisioner in that district and is destined to put fifty to one hundred Baldwin residents out of a job. What a legacy!
comptroller September 8, 2012 at 05:58 pm
If these parties have their way five hundred to a thousand working families will lose their jobs; in Sanitation, Water, Fire Districts and oh yes even the libraries are subject too. This is Pandora’s Box. No worker is guaranteed employment according to Cuomo’s 2009 consolidation folks read it its available courtesy of your tax dollar. The only thing that is going to happen is thousands of families will be in financial ruin and monies will shift to different corporeal and political entities and all these services will be the same or even worse.
comptroller September 8, 2012 at 06:00 pm
These men and woman will be collecting your tax dollar on the unemployment line and of course not spending it in the community and Kate Murray will paint her name on more trucks and garbage cans. Felix I disagree with you when you said “ very few will know the districts are missing “ I think the fallout in each community both civilly and financially will be of great detriment to working families and community spirit. Based on what’s transpired in the economy I would rather pay the extra six bucks a week knowing fifty to one hundred people won’t lose their jobs that’s who I am!
Robert Perras November 13, 2012 at 09:33 pm
VOTE NO on Dec. 12th, 2012
justasking December 7, 2012 at 09:10 pm
We've been in district 2 over 10 years and have never had pick up 3x a week and we pay about twice as much. That said, our service is good but why can't we petition just for some cost cutting as we do with other county services? Why do we have to dissolve the district to experience any kind of tax relief?
Felix Procacci December 8, 2012 at 12:57 am
VOTE YES for LESS Government, MORE Accountability, and LOWER Taxes
See : http://malverne-lynbrook.patch.com/blog_posts/sanitary-district-2-should-be-consolidated
Felix Procacci December 8, 2012 at 01:27 am
To justasking, that is what the board meetings (or whatever they call them) are for at the Special District. I guess you could check the website for SD 2 meeting dates. You could suggest this at the next meeting and see if they go for it.

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