Suffolk Closeup: The marriage of money and politics

“When you are dealing with a $3 billion budget, you need more eyes watching the money,” said Suffolk County Treasurer Angie Carpenter.

Ms. Carpenter was explaining why Suffolk voters should say no to a referendum question on November’s ballot to eliminate the office of treasurer and “consolidate all powers and duties” of it into the office of county comptroller.

Ms. Carpenter would not lose her job. If the referendum passes, it won’t take effect until the end of 2017. Treasurer since 2006, she is term-limited from running for re-election.

“It’s the principle of the thing,” says Ms. Carpenter. “I’m a resident of this county. I’m a taxpayer in this county. And I will fight to have the public informed and defeat this.”

With a Suffolk County annual operating budget now at $3 billion, it’s imperative, she says, that there be several checks on all that money — the treasurer “as chief investment officer,” the comptroller “as fiscal officer,” the county executive “as budget officer’ and the county legislature “as final arbiter.”

Pushing for the elimination of the treasurer’s office is Steve Bellone, in his third year as county executive. “This legislation will eliminate duplication of services, achieve millions of dollars of savings and will effectively continue our government reform agenda,” Mr. Bellone asserted in signing the bill, which passed 12 to 6 by the Suffolk Legislature and put the referendum question on this year’s ballot.

Ms. Carpenter rebuts Mr. Bellone’s claim of financial savings.

In Suffolk County government, the “last departments consolidated were the Departments of Labor and Consumer Affairs to create Labor, Consumer Affairs and Licensing,” Ms. Carpenter said. “This was packaged as a way to save money by lowering administrative positions purported to have duplicative functions.

Since consolidated though, it’s gone from 150 employees to 220, with a significant amount of upgrades. Analysts and labor crew leaders became commissioners. These promotions have cost our beleaguered taxpayers over $1 million.”

Mr. Bellone stressed that of the counties in New York State, only Suffolk has an elected treasurer and an elected comptroller. But, countered Ms. Carpenter, most counties in the state — 41 out of the 57 outside of New York City — have an elected county treasurer. Eight have an elected comptroller. “Does the fact that [in Suffolk] both are elected, answering directly to the people, make it wrong?” she asks. “With a population of 1,498,816, Suffolk is the largest county.”

There has been debate by state officials through the years supporting two separate positions. In 1984, the comptroller said “the same person cannot act as county treasurer and county auditor.” In 1989, the state attorney general said consolidation of the two positions “would erode fiscal checks and balances designed to maintain public confidence in government.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Bellone, after winning the job of county executive in the 2011 election against, yes, Treasurer Carpenter, has been on a crusade to eliminate her position. He tried it with an earlier proposed referendum question thrown off the ballot by a New York Supreme Court decision.

Ms. Carpenter, a Republican and, before being treasurer, a Suffolk legislator for 13 years, including deputy presiding officer of the legislature, speaks about the intensity with which Democrat Bellone promoted that 2013 referendum question. The Supreme Court decision was “tough and conclusive,” she said. Nevertheless, Mr. Bellone “went to the Appellate Division, whose four judges unanimously upheld the decision.”

Even with that, “he took it to the Court of Appeals,” the state’s highest court, and it upheld the Supreme Court ruling, too. “All along the way, the taxpayers had to pay for him to do this. I had to pay personally to challenge it,” she said.

Could politics be behind Mr. Bellone’s push? “There are those who think it does,” Ms. Carpenter said.

“That’s the natural conclusion a lot of people have drawn.”

Beyond politics, there would be a substantial change in Suffolk governance if the referendum passes. As Riverhead Town Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said in a statement to the Suffolk Legislature: “We need a treasurer that is elected and accountable to the public in watching over their hard-earned tax dollars. Merging the two departments with the comptroller overseeing both … eliminates the necessary checks and balances.”