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Partly Cloudy Poser won’t appear before Blakeman and county legislature until February
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman's efforts to bring in Hofstra University president Susan Poser before the county legislature will have to wait until February.
New York Supreme Court judge Sarika Kapoor — the same judge who previously ruled that Nassau County violated the state’s Open Meetings Laws back in November — has told the county they can’t compel Poser to appear until Feb. 26.
Poser was scheduled to appear before the county legislature Monday morning. But thanks to that order issued by Kapoor last week, she won’t appear before the legislature until at least February. “As a result of Hofstra’s court filing contesting the Nassau County Legislature’s subpoenas, President Poser is not required to testify on Monday,” a Hofstra spokeswoman told the Herald in a statement.
The county responded by pushing back its hearing with Poser from this past Monday until the earliest Kapoor will allow the school leader to appear.
Last week, Blakeman and presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, Howard Kopel, told reporters they issued a subpoena to Poser, alleging an on-going, convoluted plan by Poser and Sands competitor, Hard Rock International, to sabotage Sands and the county’s plans for the Nassau Hub. Blakeman claims an email they intercepted involving some of the leaders in Hard Rock International’s bid to build a casino near Citi Field in Queens, proves they were working with Poser to try and block the Las Vegas Sands from pursuing their own casino project in Uniondale — an effort Poser has publicly opposed — in favor of Hard Rock’s proposal across the border and demanded she sit before county lawmakers in Mineola this week to explain to herself.
In the email Blakeman shared last week, he says a lobbyist for Hard Rock reportedly sent a link to a news story about the Nassau casino efforts to an executive with the Florida-based entertainment company, as well as an executive with an asset management company tied to New York Mets majority shareholder and Hard Rock International partner, Steven Cohen. In this email, the lobbyist said that he will be “checking with Hofstra to see if they will oppose this move.”
It’s that last sentence that Blakeman has described as the smoking gun, saying this proves his claims that Hofstra is working with Hard Rock to derail casino plans in Nassau in favor of the project in Queens, since it’s unlikely both could be approved.
Attorneys representing Poser and Hofstra argued to the court that these subpoenas were a “transparent effort to harass and retaliate against Hofstra University for having prevailed” in its case late last year potentially forcing the county to start the process again in finalizing a lease for the Nassau Coliseum site in Uniondale — where the Sands wants to push a $4 billion redevelopment project that will include, among other amenities, a casino.
According to Hofstra’s motion to quash the subpoena, just five days before Blakeman’s office announced the subpoenas, the university wrote a letter to the court asking it to declare the county lacked proper authority when it allowed Las Vegas Sands to take over part of the Coliseum’s lease.
Hofstra turned to Kapoor because the school also claimed Blakeman’s subpoenas were an “effort to circumvent the judicial process,” claiming “the county legislature lacks authority to issue subpoenas to its litigation adversary in an effort to ‘investigate’ that very same (annulled) lease that has been fully litigated,” according to court filings.
Blakeman told the Herald he believes this motion is just an attempt by Hofstra to duck accountability.
“I think it's very suspicious,” he said. “It is disingenuous, and quite frankly, it's ironic. Hofstra — who has called for transparency in this process — is now trying to hide from the inquiry that the legislature is taking. How about a transparent process from them?”
In the 70-page Application for downstate casino gaming licenses, there is a sentence that Blakeman believes proves his claims about Hard Rock and Hofstra. "An Applicant, by submitting an application, warrants, under penalty of perjury, that its application was arrived at independently and without collusion aimed at restricting competition," also requiring that applicants sign a "non-collusive bidding certification."
Although this is not enforceable to Hofstra, as they are not in the bidding for a casino license, it could spell trouble for Mets majority stakeholder, Cohen, and Hard Rock Entertainment, who have partnered on a proposal to build a massive casino in the parking lot of the Mets’ Citi Field — a plan that's considered one of the prime competitors to Las Vegas Sands' proposal for the Nassau Hub.
Hard Rock International — owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida — denies any communication with Poser or Hofstra when it comes to the Nassau County project.
“Hard Rock has not had any communication whatsoever with Hofstra University or its president related to Nassau,” a Hard Rock spokesperson told the Herald in a statement on Wednesday. “We are committed to integrity, honesty and transparency in the (request for application) process for a downstate license in New York, and will not waver from that position.
But Blakeman doesn’t believe Hard Rock.
“I'm not going to go into what our lawyers have right now,” he told the Herald. “But I think once the hearings take place, it will be very insightful.”
“If Hofstra has nothing to hide, then come to the legislature and explain why this email was sent. But, obviously, they were coordinating.”
