The Nassau County Legislature has only been in existence for 29 years. That’s pretty young as governments go, especially for a county about 100 years older.

In its short history, the legislature had functioned as a separate branch of government, providing oversight over how taxpayer dollars are collected and spent in a shared spirit of governance for all of the county’s residents. Former presiding officers such as the late Judy Jacobs, a Democrat, or Peter Schmitt, a Republican, were widely respected leaders, forceful in protecting and exercising their oversight powers regardless of who was county executive.

Now governing in Mineola is more of an exercise of executive control than a shared effort to meet the considerable challenges of affordability, economic growth, safe roads and infras

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