Mangano takes office

“This is very cool ... and quite an honor,” new Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said as hundreds of spectators applauded and chanted his name on New Year’s Day. Mangano was sworn in as the eighth county executive in the auditorium of his alma mater, Bethpage High School.

There was a standing-room-only crowd for his inauguration, which began at noon last Friday. The crowd spilled over into other spaces in the school to watch a live feed of the ceremony.

Mangano, a Republican from Bethpage, defeated two-term incumbent Tom Suozzi by fewer than 500 votes. Suozzi held a small lead after the polls closed on Election Night, but following a weeks-long process to count all the paper ballots, Mangano squeaked out a win.

One of the afternoon’s speakers, the Rev. Phillip Edward Elliott of the Antioch Baptist Church in Hempstead, described Mangano’s victory over Suozzi as David beating Goliath. Mangano went into the election without a war chest or an entourage, Elliott explained, just with his sleeves rolled up.

Accompanied by his wife, Linda, and sons Salvatore and Alexander, Mangano took the oath of office from Judge Steven Bucaria. Joining them on the stage were dozens of town, county, state and federal officials, as well as Mangano’s extended family.

Following the swearing-in, Mangano spoke of the challenges ahead. During his campaign, he said, he met many ordinary people, but “not all of those faces were smiling.” In fact, he said, many were quite worried about their future.

He vowed to address the property tax assessment system, which pays out, on average, $100 million a year in refunds. That has saddled the county with about $1.2 billion in debt, Mangano said. He announced that he had signed an executive order creating an assessment reform team consisting of residential and commercial property owners. There will be a series of public hearings throughout the county and, Mangano said, a report is due to him in six months.

And, as he promised in his campaign, he also signed a repeal of the home energy tax, which was passed by the county Legislature on Dec. 21.

He vowed to reduce the size of the staff in the county executive’s office. “We simply no longer can afford the county government we inherited,” he said.