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Friday, June 10, 2016

Vol. 4, No. 24

CITY PROJECTS FOCUS OF PHOTO EXHIBIT

NORTHWELL MOVES HQ FROM MANHASSET

KAIMAN PICKS UP ENDORSEMENT

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Schools sued for denying record access

SENDING FORTH

Open-government group claims district violated state law B y N oah M ans k ar The Manhasset School District gave an illegitimate reason for denying access to public records it is legally required to provide, according to a lawsuit an open-government group filed Tuesday. The district is one of three government organizations that are “the three worst actors” of about 50 that did not complete or comply with Reclaim New York’s requests for spending and contract records under the state Freedom of Information Law, attorney Dennis Saffran said Tuesday at a press conference in Mineola. “Whether these denials are the product of ignorance, incompetence or a blatant disregard for law does not matter,” Brandon Muir, executive director of Reclaim New York, said. “All taxpayer-funded entities and public officials need to know that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated.” The lawsuit filed in Nassau County Supreme Court asks a judge

to order the Town of Oyster Bay and the Manhasset and Elmont school districts to produce records and asserts that they either ignored or wrongly denied the nonprofit group’s requests. Reclaim New York filed requests with 253 Long Island towns, villages and school districts earlier this year for its New York Transparency Project, which aims to create a searchable online database of all public spending in the state, Muir said. About 80 percent complied and provided the records, but 47 did not complete or comply with the requests as of Wednesday, Reclaim New York spokesman Doug Kellogg said. In a statement, Oyster Bay spokeswoman Marta Kane denied the town ignored Reclaim New York’s request, as the lawsuit alleges. The town is “working on compiling the roughly 1,400 pages of information and will notify the group Continued on Page 56

Photo by Neglah Sharma

St. Mary’s Preparatory High School in Manhasset graduated 136 seniors at LIU Post’s Tilles Center on June 4. See story on Page 3.

DeMartin slams town after leaving Assembly race B y J oe N i k ic Former Town of North Hempstead Public Safety Commissioner Andrew DeMartin bowed out of the race for outgoing Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel’s 16th Assembly

District seat on Monday, but he didn’t do so quietly. In a sit-down interview with Blank Slate Media, DeMartin questioned the motives of the Democratic Party in selecting Anthony D’Urso as its candidate for the seat and

slammed the town’s administration for how it operates. “It’s unfortunate that the misguided and self-serving priorities of party politics would be the catalyst for the Democratic Party’s endorsement of a Continued on Page 56

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