Taxpayers raise voices at O’side sanitation meet

Tensions ran high at the Oceanside Sanitation District’s meeting on Feb. 4, when Donna Casazza questioned the district’s promises to post minutes of its meetings on its website.

Casazza, who belongs to Residents for Efficient Special Districts, a civic organization that monitors special-district spending, said that the district pledged to post the minutes on the website. “I was told that it would start as of the January 2016 meeting,” she said. “So if it’s now being reneged, then tell me why it’s being reneged.”

Board of Commissioners Chairman Joe Cibellis said there were issues with posting the minutes — including with the website itself — and that the district was working on them. “I’m not going to get into details,” he said.

Commissioners John Mannone and Ed Scharfberg said they were in favor of putting the minutes on the website, with the exception of litigation and personnel issues. “Why don’t you elaborate why they haven’t been?” Cibellis said to Scharfberg. “We’ve discussed it several times.”

Scharfberg said the problem should be discussed several times, and that there should be a way to post the minutes. Then Casazza started to say that meetings should be part of the public record, and asked when the board would discuss the issue.

“Are you a resident of Ocean-side?” Cibellis interrupted her. Casazza lives in South Hempstead, near the Rockville Centre border.

Cibellis and Casazza spoke over each other as she responded that the district took money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and should be held accountable by all taxpayers.

Residents also questioned why the board would not read written questions aloud for the record, even if it could not answer them. Its attorney, Jared Kasschau, said that people could send him letters if they had questions and could file Freedom of Information Act requests for the minutes, and that the district hoped to get the minutes on the website as soon as possible.

Casazza said that she wrote a question at the January meeting about putting district minutes on the website. “It seems like you’re still having transparency issues,” she said.

Sanitation district answers lawsuit