During his campaign for Nassau County Executive, Tom Suozzi promised that he could do it because he's done it. But even the former Glen Cove mayor would concede that he's never done anything like the task he currently faces - giving a financially strapped county back its fiscal stability. Still, after a year in the position, the county executive displays the same confidence he did during the election campaign.

But even with his belief that he and his staff will turn Nassau's fortunes around, he doesn't ignore the enormous size of the problems the county faces. "There are a lot more problems in Nassau County than I thought there were," Suozzi said. "I just can't believe how badly things have deteriorated with no attention paid to them. As far as the physical plant, that's been a shock to me about how gross the buildings are. There are so many little things."

There were 1,400 phone lines hooked up to a county building with no phones attached, causing the county to pay $300,000 to Verizon. Then there was the use of the Nassau County Police patrol of the Village of Woodsburgh, on the South Shore, for $400,000. The county never sent a bill. Then, this past summer, the freezers at the county morgue broke.

"Those are just the symbols for serious structural financial issues, and unfettered union contracts that were allowed to grow with no one looking at them carefully," said Suozzi. "When we came in, we didn't know how many employees worked for the county. We didn't know how many buildings we owned. We didn't know how many cars we had. We had to re-create all this stuff from scratch. I had no idea it was this bad, but I love the job."

While campaigning, Suozzi touted a $100 million savings plan. But, in his first few months as county executive, he realized Nassau's projected debt for 2005 was actually $428 million. Now, Suozzi believes the number has grown to $650 million.

Offsetting budget woes has required difficult decisions from the Nassau chief executive. In fact, in his first year as Nassau County Executive, Suozzi has made a whole term's worth of decisions. As part of his four-year financial plan, Suozzi called for a reduction of 1,200 county workers, labor concessions, reforming the tax certiorari process as well as a 19 percent tax increase on the county portion of tax bills. But, already a year into his first term, Suozzi sees a difference in the county. "I think the main thing is we've started to change the culture of the county. There was no accountability whatsoever. We've started to bring a sense of accountability through the employee evaluation process, through the meetings with the departments, through the organizational charts [which show who reports to whom], and by firing people who were gross abusers of time. We're also trying to pat the people on the back who are doing a good job," Suozzi said. "We're trying to look under every rock and behind every door to root out waste, fraud and patronage."

As he vowed to break the back of machine politics in the county, a campaign promise, Suozzi hired an administration, he said, based on abilities. His chief deputy of operations is a Republican, the county executive points out. "I've got Repulicans, Democrats and Independents. I've even got Conservatives," he said.

Perhaps Suozzi and his administration's most important accomplishment of 2002 was forming a four-year financial plan that received the backing of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA). "As long as we stick to our plan that we've laid out, we're going to be fine. Everything that is under our control we're doing," Suozzi said.

As far as the workforce reduction, it has been reduced by over 900 workers through December 31, without hiring any workers back and the county is shooting for 1,400 by September. "We're on target with our smart government initiatives. We're borrowing less money," Suozzi said.

However, there are some crucial elements that are needed to get Nassau back to fiscal stability that may not be in Suozzi's control. Nassau is counting on the state legislature to create a county sewer and storm water authority, which Suozzi estimates, would save $30 million a year for the next four years. Suozzi is also hoping for cooperation from the unions, including the Police Benevolent Association and CSEA. However, judging from the fight with the PBA, it doesn't appear Suozzi will get much cooperation as the two sides are headed for arbitration. Suozzi is also counting on Governor George Pataki to pass Medicaid reform since for 2003, Medicaid increases are expected to be upwards of $37 million. Suozzi is advocating a cap on the county's local share of Medicaid costs at the 2001 levels, a reduction in pharmaceutical costs and no county contribution to the cost for Family Health Plus.

"There are state and federal laws that we have to fulfill. We have to pick up the cost," Suozzi said.

While costs associated with Medicaid, pensions, health insurance and union contracts continue to go up, the county executive must continue to find ways to plug up any holes that would throw off his budget. "I'm reducing the size of government. I'm running things more efficiently. We're blocking and tackling department by department but our costs are still going up because of these things that go up every year and are beyond our control," Suozzi said.

Increasing costs have caused the county executive to make difficult decisions. Increasing taxes his first year in office was such a bold move that Suozzi vowed not to increase taxes again during the rest of his term, a promise he said he still intends to keep. He will also be thinking about having county workers contribute to health insurance premiums.

"I'm a problem solver. That's what I enjoy doing. I don't think I could have found a better place to fulfill what I like doing than here because I have plenty of problems I have to solve," Suozzi said.

But even through all the problems, Suozzi believes sticking to a plan he and his administration formulated will give the county back its stability. "We need to get that Sewer and Storm Water Authority. That's a really important plan. We need to get the union cooperation. I will not raise property taxes for the rest of my term," he said.

For this year, the county executive feels the county is in good shape. For the years after that, he concedes Nassau may face some tough times. But, said Suozzi, "I want the people of Nassau County to know we have a lot of good people that are working very hard and working long hours. We're going to succeed. Failure is not a word we even recognize in our vocabulary. We're going to succeed and we need everybody to do their fair share. We are going to make Nassau County the best county in the country and there's nothing that's going to stop us."