Nassau County, NY County Executive Bruce Blakeman has spent his entire time in office honing to the MAGA Trump Republican line in an attempt to curry favor – perhaps a position in the administration. He never fails to attack Democrats – cashless bail, affordable housing, gun safety – instead of working together with state and local leaders to improve lives, public health and safety of constituents. He is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding from the Biden administration, and blaming Biden for opioid addiction he attributes to “open borders”, rather than spend the funds from the opioid settlement on treatment. He has proved complicit with the Trump administration’s cruel and unconstitutional crackdown on undocumented migrants rather than address the real public safety threats, including historic levels of traffic fatalities and injuries and outsized incidents of violent crime, including gun and domestic violence, when the state and New York City are seeing significant drops. Instead, he has diverted funds to create a private militia and banned wearing mask in public (but not for the migrant capturers).

He actually refused to show up when Governor Kathy Hochul came to the county to announce hundreds of millions of dollars invested in a new state-of-the-art world-class gene therapy research lab, and had told the governor months before to “never set foot” in his county. He also left a ceremony announcing the completion of a $10 million Downtown Revitalization grant program before the Governor began her remarks.

Instead of seeking out state funding for climate action, infrastructure and economic development, or working collaboratively  to increase the supply of affordable housing, he diverted $10 million in tourism promotion funding from Discover Long Island, a professional tourism marketing organization, to a home-based branding person with no experience or contacts in tourism marketing, and used $5 million in television commercials to market himself in places like Oklahoma.

This op-ed penned by Nassau County Legislator Olena Nicks provides an inside view of what happens when elected officials only practice politics for the sake of political power rather than governing for the benefit of constituents – that is, all constituents, not just to appease their own voters. –Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com  

By Olena Nicks

My first five months as a Nassau County Legislator have been an eye-opening lesson in the operations of government, and it has reinforced my belief in how necessary bipartisanship is for a strong government to function effectively and equitably. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Nassau County Executive Bruce A. Blakeman’s hyper-partisan approach to local government has erected unnecessary roadblocks, creating an indelible impression in my mind of the tremendous obstacles that are created by such an approach.

Since the start of this Legislative term, County Executive Blakeman has processed dozens of Community Revitalization Project (CRP) grants for districts served by Republicans, thereby allowing 50 of their requests to reach the Legislative calendar in regular order. Meanwhile, he has stonewalled every request for districts served by Democratic legislators, delaying funding for improvements to local parks, schools and libraries and impeding the delivery of resources for the firefighters, EMS, and local police that keep us all safe.

As a longtime Uniondale Fire Department member, it is mind-boggling that someone would prioritize funding for our first responders based upon political representation. Every first responder steps up to serve and protect the public without fear, favor, or consideration of the party registration of the person they’re helping.

Funding for these grants is allocated to each Legislative district through the County’s capital plan, so the money is already in place. While the County Executive’s role is strictly to process the applications onto the Legislative calendar, he has consistently refused.

This spring, I stood with my Democratic colleagues as we drew a line in the sand. We agreed that we would not release our votes for the Fiscal Year 2025 capital infrastructure plan, which requires a 13-vote supermajority to pass, until the County Executive funded first responders in all of our communities. By including guardrails such as this supermajority requirement for bonding, the drafters of the Nassau County Charter recognized the role of bipartisanship in healthy local government – and the importance of giving the Minority appropriate leverage with which to force an obstinate majority or executive branch to the negotiating table.

Limiting or politicking CRPs is just one example of how dysfunctional government becomes when even routine issues become a political showdown. Consider the following:

Nassau County is the only municipality in our region that does not recognize Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in America, as an official holiday. I recently filed legislation, which was introduced in 2021 by former Legislator and current Senator Siela Bynoe, to effectuate this change and require the County to begin good-faith negotiations with our unions. Democrats have filed this four times, and each time, the Republican-controlled Legislature has refused to advance it. A separate measure I co-sponsored to match Suffolk County in recognizing July 1 as Muslim American Appreciation Day has similarly not moved.

Democrats have introduced common-sense legislative proposals to put epi-pens in every police vehicle, equip every park and athletic facility with defibrillators and bundle fentanyl testing strips with every Narcan kit we distribute. The County Executive has blocked each of these with assistance from a Republican Majority that operates more as a rubber stamp than a coequal branch of government.

And, as we speak, the County is sitting on $98 million in proceeds from various settlements with opioid manufacturers, retailers and distributors. To date, County Executive Blakeman has gotten just 9 percent of those funds to agencies that provide prevention, treatment and recovery resources.

Which brings us back to where we are now – the County Executive is still refusing to process our CRPs in regular order. Now, we are fighting for the Blakeman administration to release long-stalled grant funds for local libraries, schools and parks – including $150,000 to modernize Hempstead Village’s Mirschel Park, and $162,150 for a Westbury Fire Department memorial to members who made the ultimate sacrifice while in the line of duty.

To be clear, bipartisanship does not entail sacrificing one’s core values. It calls upon us to seek areas in which we share common goals – supporting our first responders, making communities safer and stronger for our families, and ensuring effective, responsive government. Making one community more vibrant uplifts all of Nassau County, and it is essential for us to work together to achieve that outcome whenever we can.

Although these first several months have brought their share of frustrating moments, I remain optimistic and committed to doing my part to restore a spirit of collaboration to our county and our nation when it is needed the most.

Olena Nicks, of Uniondale, was elected to the Nassau County Legislature in a February 2025 special election. She represents Nassau’s Second Legislative District.