Oyster Bay Town Councilwoman Bonnie Eisler held a press conference Tuesday to demand the resignation of Maureen Fitzgerald, commissioner of Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA) for the town, and an investigation into what she refers to as the "rampant abuse, fraud and mismanagement" of the town's golden age senior housing program.

Eisler's request follows in the wake of last week's controversial board hearing in which an application to construct Cantiague Commons, a 276-unit senior housing complex at the Twin County Asphalt Plant, was presented. According to the councilwoman, Fitzgerald compiled the names, addresses and phone numbers of Hicksville School District seniors waiting for housing and provided them to the applicant prior to the hearing. "Despite her longstanding refusal to provide the same information to Democratic elected officials on the pretense that the list contains confidential information," said Eisler.

In a letter sent to New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer on Dec. 1, Eisler requests that there be an immediate investigation into what she refers to as the "scandal-plagued" IGA department. According to Eisler, Democratic elected officials have made, to no avail, numerous attempts over the past year to obtain information for local seniors regarding the senior housing waiting list.

"I receive numerous calls each week from seniors seeking my assistance in determining their place on the waiting list. For months ... Commissioner Fitzgerald and her staff have been illegally interfering with our efforts by placing roadblock after roadblock in our path," said Eisler. "Their resistance was so unrelenting that at one point we were forced to formally request the information pursuant to a [May 2003] Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, notwithstanding the fact that, as elected officials, we are responsible for and by law have, unconditional access to, that information."

According to Supervisor John Venditto, Eisler failed to mention that after sending a memo to the commissioner, she was invited to the IGA department to review the senior housing records. "Both the councilwoman and her secretary were given unfettered access to the records and visited the department several times to review them, but you don't hear that part in her story," he said.

Venditto added that, "The IGA department sent out 406 letters to local seniors to exhort them to come to the hearing for the benefit of hearing their thoughts and concerns regarding the application. Following the mailing, a representative for the developer went to Commissioner Fitzgerald and wanted to follow up the mailing with phone calls."

While Eisler refers to the applicant's actions of taking seniors out to dinner and busing them to the hearing as "unethical and illegal," the supervisor stated that such practices are not uncommon and have been done, although mostly without success, in the past. In fact, providing seniors with the chance to hear the application and speak out against it to the town board, said Venditto, proved to be most interesting.

"Bringing seniors to that meeting was very compelling. It made it possible for the town board to get the direct testimonies of seniors who are interested in housing," he said. "I would have thought that seniors who are waiting for housing in Hicksville would have welcomed the plan. Instead, they provided very valuable testimonies that may very well determine the outlook of this project."

In response to the councilwoman's accusations, Venditto said a resignation from Commissioner Fitzgerald is unwarranted. "She is critical of Commissioner Fitzgerald for giving out information, which, number one, she wants made public through FOIL, and number two, which is directly responsible for having brought the seniors out to the hearing," said Venditto, adding that Eisler's behavior is serving as a poor example for elected officials. "Losing an election is very difficult and it's not something that anyone should want to experience [but] this kind of behavior is everything that is wrong with government and politics. It's politics at its ugliest. This kind of behavior sends the wrong message out to residents regarding elected officials."

Venditto went on to say that Eisler is doing much more damage than she is good. "I don't see a good side to this. It is nothing more than the ramblings of an angry, bitter and defeated candidate," he said. "In my limited perspective, I have never seen an angrier, more bitter and more defeated candidate than Councilwoman Eisler. There's no question in my mind, and this is exactly how I am feeling at the moment, that I have never seen a candidate handle a loss more poorly."

Additionally, the supervisor said that despite so much talk about names on a "list," there currently is no exact "list." "There is no list maintained. All we have is applications on file and anybody can come in and look at those records," he said. "Over the next couple of weeks the town plans to create a physical list which will show the names for each housing project." He added that a list will be completed by early January and will be available through the IGA Office to anyone who wants a copy of it."

If approved, eligibility for the proposed Cantiague Commons, like other Town of Oyster Bay senior housing facilities, would be divided into the following five priority categories: 1 - residents of the Hicksville School District; 2 - Town of Oyster Bay residents; 3 - parents of Hicksville residents; 4 - parents of Town of Oyster Bay residents; and 5 - Nassau County and all other residents.

As a result, Venditto stated that he is skeptical about posting a list because although one's name may appear, there may be multiple senior housing lists - created according to town project or by community - and one's placement would most likely change as new applications come in. For example, a Hicksville resident who applies for senior housing in Hicksville would be given priority over a Town of Oyster Bay or Nassau County resident already on the list.

"That's the problem, the lists do change," said the supervisor. "We don't want people to be under any misapprehensions when it comes to their place on the list."

A decision regarding the proposed Hicksville senior housing complex is expected in the first quarter of 2004.