WHEN GOVERNMENT LIES, DEMOCRACY DIES

Weitzman blasted by Guidance Center

By Andy Malekoff and Jo-Ellen Hazan

First published in the Long Island Business News: Friday, December 28, 2007

For more than 50 years, the North Shore Family and Child Guidance Center has served children with serious emotional and social problems and their families.

Putting modesty aside just briefly, we do a spectacular job, often on a shoestring budget, and almost always under difficult circumstances. That is what we do.

Now, we find ourselves the victim of Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman’s thinly veiled campaign to inflate his reputation, with no regard for the truth or for the people he might harm.

Here are the facts:

Four years ago, two employees in our accounting department conspired to steal $70,000 from us. Within weeks, we discovered the theft and called in the police. The employees were led out in handcuffs. They were convicted and punished. And every penny was returned. This is an unfortunate reality of doing business today, and it happens in the best of organizations – like ours.

More than two years later, in an audit by Nassau County, this incident was noted. By then, this was a non-issue, because we had resolved it ourselves, along with other concerns issued in the report. Yet Comptroller Howard Weitzman seized upon it and issued a press release, claiming credit for uncovering fraud, theft and lack of oversight at our agency. In fact, he did not uncover a thing.

The release was painstakingly worded to extract every bit of drama and to earn every nugget of credit for Mr. Weitzman, where he was entitled to none. He held a press conference to trumpet his accomplishments. He compared us to the Roslyn School District. And he issued a “blast” e-mail of the press release to his friends, donors and supporters, obviously to demonstrate that he was right on the case.

We had provided Mr. Weitzman with all of the ingredients for a juicy story – money, kids and theft. And he told the story – and a story is all it was – very well. To compare us to Roslyn is just pandering.

Mr. Weitzman may have done great damage to our organization and, ultimately, to the children and families we have been serving and advocating for every day for more than 50 years.

Unlike Mr. Weitzman, we don’t have a good publicity machine. For the most part, the people who know us are our donors and the people we help. Unlike Mr. Weitzman, we do not blare our accomplishments and we do not exaggerate them. And, also unlike Mr. Weitzman, we would not try to inflate our own image by harming others. Especially kids.

Shame on you, Howard Weitzman.

Andrew Malekoff, executive director; Jo-Ellen Hazan, president, North Shore Family & Guidance Center