"You don't have to read Newsday, you don't have to watch Channel 12, and you don't have to read The Westbury Times to learn we goofed in the management of the county," Republican Chairman Joseph Mondello told over 100 attendees at the Jan. 12 meeting of the Charles J. Fuschillo Republican Club in Westbury. "The question is, what are we going to do about it in the year 2000?"

Ascribing the unseating of five Republican legislators in the November election to a projected budget shortfall of $180 million, Mondello offered the positive message, "As long as we stay together, our time will come again.

"We found ourselves in the position where we could not justify ourselves or our actions," Mondello explained. "You cannot tax the people and tell them we have a tremendous deficit and we are going to go into their wallets to pay it off. That was exactly what was attempted in 1999."

Later in the evening, Mondello went on to cite Town Supervisor Richard Guardino's $56 million surplus in Hempstead as an example of why Republicans are not "basically bad managers of government," and to predict the demise of the new majority of "tax and spend" Democrats in legislature.

"The Democrats want bigger government, they want more programs, and the people of Nassau County do not embrace that philosophy," Mondello said. "They want people who are going to watch their pocketbooks, to make sure they get the services they need, to leave them a few remaining dollars in their wallets. That is what Republicans have always been noted to do. When we started to get away from that, we started to get in trouble."

Calling the Republican's new minority status an anomaly, Mondello nonetheless urged his fellow party members to face the county's problems together with the Democrats, and to adopt a positive attitude. "Republicans are about good government and watching the purse strings," he said. "We got the message and we are going to act accordingly."

Mondello has served as county chairman for 17 years. He is also the Republican National Committeeman for the State of New York. He served as councilman in the Town of Hempstead from 1979-87, when he became the Hempstead Town Presiding Supervisor. In addition, Mondello was president of Nassau OTB from 1993-97. He is currently senior counsel at Long Island law firm Certilman, Balin, Adler and Hyman.

"I am very pleased that our great county chairman, Joseph Mondello, had the opportunity to speak to us at the meeting," stated Peter Cavallaro, co-director of Charles J. Fuschillo Republican Club. "I can think of no better way to start the new millennium than to have heard from our leader at this critical juncture in our party and county's history."