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Overcast Baldwin residents file lawsuit to void Nassau County 1st Precinct lease
Attorney says county circumvented state law, misused taxpayer dollars
Two Baldwin residents have filed the latest lawsuit intended to void the controversial 1st Precinct lease approved by Legislator Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin) and the Nassau County Legislature late last year.
Residents Jack McCloy and Leo McGinity, a former county judge, are two of the four people who are alleging that the county misused taxpayer dollars, circumvented Wicks Law and failed to conduct a traffic study in accordance with state law when it approved a 30-year lease with Grand Baldwin Associates L.P. for a new 1st Precinct facility, slated to be built in the Rosen Shopping Center on Grand Avenue.
“I, along with the others who signed the legal challenge, want the 1st Precinct to remain in Baldwin,” McCloy said, “but the deal that Joe Scannell championed and the Suozzi regime rushed to approve is not in the best interests of the taxpayers here in Baldwin.”
Another reason he pursued legal action, McCloy said, was because when he provided details of a property that could be purchased, rather than leased, for the new precinct, Democratic lawmakers approved the lease anyway. “Instead of exploring the opportunity to obtain purchased land, Joe Scannell and the Suozzi-era Legislature pushed the deal through during their final days in office,” McCloy said. “It makes one wonder: Why?”
On Dec. 16, the then Democratic-majority Legislature approved the lease against heavy opposition from Baldwin residents and Republican lawmakers, who alleged that Grand Baldwin Associates L.P. was getting a sweetheart deal from the county. The lease requires that county taxpayers pay millions of dollars in construction costs, rent, property taxes and fees over a 30-year period.
The residents are being represented by attorney Howard Avrutine, who said that the lease appears “not legal in many aspects.”
“The residents feel very strongly that the lease for the 1st Precinct amounts to really a gift of public funds to a private entity,” Avrutine said. “The way it was structured was designed to circumvent the public bidding requirements. Lastly, the way this was done was done not in compliance with the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act.”
