NCC president hangs on during legal fight with SUNY

Daily Point

NCC interim leader isn’t going anywhere – yet

Nassau Community College this week filed a second lawsuit against the State University of New York and Chancellor John B. King, seeking to challenge SUNY’s “adoption and threatened enforcement” of new rules that would impact community colleges across the state whenever they have temporary leadership in place – including NCC.

There’s just one problem. Despite NCC’s claims to the contrary, SUNY says it has yet to officially adopt the new rules.

The ongoing battle comes as NCC continues to try to protect its administrator-in-charge, Maria Conzatti, even after the SUNY board of trustees officially “disapproved” of her appointment as president last November.

And what’s clear from all of the back-and-forth is that any change in leadership is unlikely in the short term, at least until the legal maneuvering is in the rearview mirror.

In March, SUNY’s board of trustees approved new rules that would specifically impact NCC. The changes indicate that when the SUNY board votes to “disapprove” a temporary administrator-in-charge, that person’s tenure would be “revoked” 60 days following disapproval.

The board’s resolution said King could file a so-called “notice of adoption” anytime after June 1 – and that the new rules would take effect at that point. Once King files such a notice, that would start the 60-day clock for Conzatti.

NCC’s new lawsuit claims that the notice of adoption was filed in the New York state register on May 27 – prior to the June 1 window.

But SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis told The Point that the lawsuit is wrong. Even now, King still hasn’t officially filed the notice of adoption, she said, so the rules haven’t gone into effect.

“From our perspective, we have the option. June 1 has come and gone,” Liapis said. “We are looking at our legal options with this in mind.”

An analysis of the May 27 state register by The Point finds SUNY’s proposed community college rules listed in an “Action Pending Index,” which is a lengthy list of “all proposed rules which are currently being considered for adoption.” No notice of adoption is listed in the May 27 register.

It is unclear when King might file the adoption notice or why it is taking so long, leaving Conzatti, for now, with an open-ended stretch in office, especially since NCC’s board of trustees has consistently backed her.

Despite the legal wrangling and the delay in adopting the new rules, Liapis said SUNY was committed to addressing NCC’s leadership needs.

“We are still moving forward,” Liapis said.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

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Final Point

Gov plays the ‘mom’ card

Gov. Kathy Hochul has used the rhetorical theme of being New York’s “First Mom Governor” for some time. Last year, for example, in her State of the State address in Albany, Hochul said: “Families with children need additional relief, and as New York’s first Mom Governor, I know personally that the earliest years are the most expensive: diapers, formula, clothes that are outgrown every three months.”

For better or worse, she’s sticking to the imagery this year as she runs for a second full term, this time against Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. This time the “mom” thing arises in a new context.

In a visit to the Newsday editorial board on Monday, Hochul glanced at this overall sense of her political approach when talking about the distribution of state resources, the ideological division within the Democratic Party, and trying to resolve other frictions.

She evoked the idea of speaking to an organized, more youthful group that runs to her political left, such as those aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America who beat mainstream party-backed candidates in New York City primaries last month.

For the immediate needs of the party this year, she speaks of an appeal to youthful activists: “I need your energy to help me” in different districts. “Can you do canvassing here? Can you show up here? Can you mobilize the way you know how so well? That's what I've had conversations about is bringing it together to help me and help our nation win these seats in purple areas.”

She acknowledges that “a candidate who can run in [a Nassau County district] would never make it in Queens or Brooklyn, and vice versa. So I have to accept that dynamic.”

Hochul also reaches for the maternal card when she tries to defend the way funds and programs are distributed in the state. She was asked on Long Island: “What do you say to Long Islanders who think you spend so much money elsewhere in the State? I have to explain $10 billion in Long Island Rail Road to people outside this area.”

She said the same went for committing major funds to public education and the SUNY system. “I’m able to point to a lot of areas where like a mom, ‘It’s all okay kids.’ We have different kids, different interests, different personalities -- but everybody is getting their share.”

One skeptical Democrat retorted to the Point privately that when it comes to the city, her parenting is too permissive. For the recent New York City budget the state provided young leftist Mayor Zohran Mamdani more than $7.6 billion in relief, allowing him to close a massive budget gap without raising property taxes.

For the record, both Hochul and Blakeman are grandparents.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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