Editorial

The voters have given Singas a mandate

Posted

Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas won overwhelmingly on Election Day, when voters sent a clear message that she was the best person to serve as our top prosecutor.
“We run the office with one guiding principle: that we protect the people of Nassau County,” Singas told her supporters after she defeated her Republican opponent, Long Beach attorney Francis McQuade. “If you hurt the people of Nassau County, then we will hold you accountable.”
When Singas was first elected in 2015, she made fighting public corruption one of her top priorities, and she has lived up to that pledge. She has not hesitated to prosecute or investigate members of her own party, including Gerard Terry, the former North Hempstead Democratic Party leader who was sentenced to six months in jail for state tax fraud, as well as County Comptroller Jack Schnirman, who was embroiled in a payout scandal after he left his post as Long Beach’s city manager.
Singas has also dug into issues that have resonated on a national scale, from accusations of excessive police force to her work to stem gang violence and the opioid crisis.
With her election win, Nassau residents sent a strong mandate: Follow through on investigations that are now under way, including  allegations of unlawful separation payouts to politically connected employees in Long Beach — some of whom remained on the payroll.
In Long Beach, residents have demanded answers, and Singas has not buckled under pressure from both county and local Democratic Party stalwarts who would rather have her turn a blind eye to excessive payments doled out during Schnirman’s tenure and during prior administrations. Instead, Singas issued subpoenas, convened a grand jury investigation, brought in city and elected officials as witnesses, and called on the City Council to waive its attorney-client privilege to determine just how payments exceeded city code and contracts.
Singas has more than two decades of experience as a prosecutor, and she has been doing an admirable job in the position so far. We urge her to keep up the good work.