The John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility in Yaphank.

A tentative deal to stop Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone from shutting down the John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility has apparently collapsed when the workers’ union leadership did not allow its membership to vote on the proposal at a union meeting Monday.

The next day after the meeting, Suffolk County Legis. Kate Browning (WFP-Shirley) and John Kennedy (R-Nesconset)—two of the Legislature’s most vocal supporters of the union members’ efforts to keep the county in public hands and prevent Bellone from leasing it to private nursing home operators—issued a joint press release urging Suffolk County Association of Municipal Employees President Dan Farrell to let the employees vote on their future.

Farrell countered that the two legislators’ refusal to withdraw their names from a lawsuit blocking the sale, which he is also a party to, stopped him from bringing up the tentative deal for a vote.

“I wanted them to stop the lawsuit so we can make this deal and people can be employed,” Farrell told the Press.
In the legislators’ Tuesday news release, Kennedy said he’d never gotten the document he is accused of refusing to sign, and Browning received a copy of the document only hours before Monday’s union meeting.

“I was clear that I will make my decision based on the vote of the membership,” said Browning in her statement.  “That has not happened yet.  I have also relayed that I would like the county executive to speak with me and Legislator Kennedy directly, and to date he has not requested to meet with me.  I believe it is appropriate for that meeting to occur with the county executive and his attorney and with the attorney representing the union, the legislators and the residents.”

“I have been very clear that I would be guided in any decision regarding continuation of the lawsuit by a vote of the membership at the nursing home,” said Kennedy. “I will not restrict any review or speech about any matter going forward.”

Bellone said the nursing home costs the county about $1 million a year in subsidies to keep the facility open. For $23 million, he wants to turn over its operation to Israel and Samuel Sherman, who run a chain of nursing homes in New York. In the county executive’s proposal, the SCAME would drop its lawsuit against the county and the Shermans would keep Foley’s 180 workers at their present wages and provide their health care benefits for 18 months at least.

“Now we’re back to square one, and I’m afraid the county is going to close the facility,” said Farrell. “Unless I hear otherwise.” He says the county has “already started a closure procedure and I’m assuming they’re going to continue on that path.”

Sources told the Press that it’s unclear whether Farrell actually had the votes to prevail on the tentative deal, which he’d made with Bellone. Meanwhile, the county is still hopeful an agreement can be worked out, and that SCAME may reschedule a vote soon.

But as Kennedy and Browning made clear, neither legislator is happy with Bellone’s proposed settlement, and both want changes made.

“The agreement reaches much farther than dropping the existing lawsuit,” they said in their release. “It goes on to prohibit legislators from publicly opposing a lease proposal, even though the lease proposal never went through a public bidding process. A direct lease to the Shermans as proposed would be illegal and unethical, and certainly not in the best interest of Suffolk County taxpayers.”

The Bellone administration claims the county has only two options left for the nursing home.

“One is that we continue with the state-approved closure plan and the facility closes, the workers lose their jobs and all the residents are transferred to other facilities,” says Deputy County Executive Jon Schneider. “The second is that we approve the deal that was worked out between AME, the administration and the Shermans, which means we do a lease that will immediately end our operating loss of a million dollars a month, provide additional revenue to Suffolk County, provide jobs to all the workers and keep all the residents in their beds….There’s no plan C here. There’s this deal and then there’s closure.”

But Browning says the county does have another choice regarding the 264-bed facility, which now has roughly 180 patients left.

“Why wouldn’t you run it to fill the beds?” Browning said. The county has allowed the bed vacancy rate to increase. “How do you justify the need to sell it? You run it into the ground and show that it’s not making money.”

An NYPD spokesman said the victim was pronounced dead at the scene after being hit by an uptown express 2 train at the West 79th Street and Broadway station at 6:29 p.m.

The New York Post identified the victim as Liam Armstrong, a student at Smithtown High School East, citing anonymous police sources as saying he had a bottle of rum and two fake IDs on him at the time.

He was running across the tracks from the uptown platform to the downtown platform of the 1 train at the time, the NYPD spokesman said.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone gives his second State of the County address in Hauppauge on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone proposed streamlining government processes, warned of continued budget deficits and rallied for rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy during his second State of the County address Tuesday night.

Between reflecting on his first year in office and doling out accolades, the first-term Democrat spent a significant portion of his speech reinforcing to legislators his plan to sell the John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility in Yaphank—a local political hot potato. If its sale does not go through, explained Bellone, he’d be forced to close the facility.

“The state of our county is that we are rebuilding,” Bellone, the former Babylon Town Supervisor, said before a packed legislative chamber in Hauppauge. “This is a county that has faced challenges before and always emerged stronger.”

His address comes as Long Island waits for billions in federal Sandy aid dollars to begin flowing nearly four months after the historic storm that seriously strained government resources across the tri-state area.

Bellone also reiterated support for the police department’s shift toward focusing on recidivism reduction, intelligence-led policing and improving the monitoring of sex offenders after he appointed Commissioner Ed Webber.

Legis. John Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset), leader of the GOP minority, questioned Bellone’s management skills and whether the county exec’s quest to speed up government would mean bypassing the legal processes established in the county charter.

“It appears that were tripping over ourselves to save pennies, when dollars are flying out of the window,” said Kennedy, vowing to launch an inquiry into the recent record-setting blizzard in his 10-minute Republican response to Bellone’s hour-long speech.

“Despite all of the changes that we have made to make our government smaller and more efficient, we still have a significant structural deficit,” Bellone said, meaning Suffolk still has more annual bills than recurring revenues after cutting 700 county workers. “While we’ve made great progress, we still have a long way to go.”

Craig Williams was indicted last month on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, a felony. Judge Stephen Braslow set his bail at $25,000.

Newsday reported that prosecutors appointed Garden City-based attorney Stephen Scaring as a special prosecutor in the case because Williams’ father is an investigator with the Suffolk County district attorney’s office.

Both the suspect and the victim, 23-year-old Thomas Wik, are from Nesconset.

Police have said the deadly crash occurred on Route 347 in the early morning hours of Saturday, Sept. 29.

Williams is due back in court March 22. He faces up to four years in prison, if convicted.