Forty-three years ago, candidate Joseph Anthony Suozzi fought the same battle I fought last year. Italian immigrant, WWII hero, Harvard Law School graduate, former Mayor and respected member of the Judiciary, he has always been my hero, and although he did not win in 1958, he should be credited with this victory today. He and my mother instilled our family with the belief that public service is a worthwhile and noble calling. His core values and integrity, his fighting spirit, and his commitment to honest hard work are the example that guided me to the point where I stand before you here today. While I did not run this race for him, I am my father's son and to share this moment with him fills me with enormous gratitude and humility.

Thank you to each and every one of you who made it possible - especially my mother, who as my brother Joe put it, "has a way of whispering quiet words of encouragement, at just the right time, to make you feel like you can conquer the world." I love you mom.

To my Uncle Jimmy, my brothers and sister who are all here today and to all of our family and friends who have supported and continue to support Helene and I in our public life - we thank you.

Most important to my partner and best friend, my wife and the mother of our two children, Caroline and Joseph - Helene you are the best thing that ever happened to me. Thank you.

This is a time for service - public service - service to our Country and to our County. At this unique time in our history when interest in matters public is high - I call upon our residents to answer a call to participate in the victory over the crises we face.

Our president has made his request to us clear. We support him. We hold our freedom so dear that we support the decision to send our young men and women to a far off land in search of those that attacked us and would have us live in fear, without our freedom. We pray for their success.

If we are to be worthy of their sacrifice and the sacrifice made by the hundreds of thousands who came before them, throughout our nations history, we must celebrate our democracy and participate in the building of our communities they defend.

The crises we face here in Nassau County are hardly as dramatic and certainly pale in importance, but your participation in solving them is the most direct way in which you can celebrate the freedom we cherish and the democratic system we defend.

I suggest that the president's call to "go about your business" includes the business of rebuilding your hometown, of solving the problems we face here, where our families are in Nassau, and fulfilling our potential to remake ourselves as the best County in the Country.

I as County Executive will fail if I set out to accomplish this task alone. It will take a team. Team Nassau. Comprised of the "best and the brightest" that we have begun to assemble as staff. Comprised of my colleagues in government, Republicans and Democrats and anyone genuinely interested in serving our residents, people who voted for me, and those that did not. Comprised of county employees, business, civic, labor and academic leaders, and most important, I need you - the residents of Nassau County. I ask you "Will you commit your talent, your time and your goodwill to break with the tired past of cynicism, lethargy and political expedience and rekindle the idealism, energy, and optimism that will be needed to rebuild?" Will you join us?

My parents' generation helped build this County to be one of the greatest in the Nation. We do live in one of the finest places on earth, but Nassau County's government is badly broken. Now it is the task of a new generation to build a government that is as great as its people.

In this first day of a New Year, we must each accept our call to service. But, we must do so with our eyes wide open. We must be as President Kennedy described himself "idealists without illusion."

To remake ourselves from a government that does not function - into the best county in the country, Team Nassau has two main objectives:

First, our greatest and most urgent goal is to solve the county's fiscal crisis. To do so will require that we will dismantle the culture of machine politics, which has dominated our county for decades. We must rethink, rework and rebuild. In addition to procedure, process and technology worthy of our 21st century $2 billion dollar enterprise, the key to our success will be to inspire County workers to understand that no job is unimportant or routine and that workers will be rewarded based upon their performance not their political connections.

With a solid fiscal foundation we can accomplish our second objective -to build. We must implement a plan to encourage economic growth in the face of our status as a mature suburban county - growth of high skilled, high technology industry, affordable housing for seniors and young families and growth of our traditional downtowns and commercial business districts. Currently, our residents believe we are overdeveloped, over-trafficked and under-planned - and rightly so. For too long developers have driven our development and our residents are afraid that each new development will rob us of our suburban dream. To be economically sustainable, our redevelopment must also be focused on sustaining our quality of life -preserving our open space, protecting our drinking water and recycling and reusing formerly productive properties instead of gobbling up our precious few virgin ones.

We cannot tackle the problems of 2002 if we are guided by visions of 1962. Our county has changed. Our vision will change with it. We must improve the quality of life for all our citizens, within a budget we can afford. Our job is to make our county safer, our air, land and water cleaner, and our towns and villages better.

We must save, and we must also serve.

We have work to do!

Our residents, our customers, who pay their taxes expecting quality services recognize that we are in trouble, but they still have every right to demand that we serve and protect them. They will not accept business as usual.

We must join together in our war against the forces of failure - we will not accept dishonesty, a poor work ethic or political game playing. We can no longer continue to blame rank and file County workers for the failures we now face. The lack of proper management and systems are the cause. But as management and systems improve, so will employee performance.

Our suburban community, the nation's first, may be showing its age. But with that age comes wisdom - the wisdom to recognize our strengths - the natural beauty that God has blessed us with on each shore. The open spaces and parks preserved by the public servants that came before us. Incredible wealth and diversity a short distance from the capital of the world.

Most important, we have the wisdom to recognize the talent and worth of our people. In 2002, County workers on the job will not consider any phase of their job routine. Whether it is working with figures, working with people or working on potholes. Everyday, as we address each task, we must ask ourselves, - "Is this the best way? - Or is there a better way?" Each county worker will consider themselves a specialist at their particular job. Every job function, every action, should be accompanied by focused thought and we will find a better way every day.

Today, we will abolish the notion that mediocrity is satisfactory. We seek a new standard of excellence. From the County Executive to the park maintainer. From the Police Commissioner to the receptionist, everyone is responsible for our success. Either get on board or get out of our way.

Now is our brief and unique time in history to promote the call of public service; to promote government as the solver of problems, not the creator of them. Now is a time for the triumph of imagination over routine, of courage over timidity, of idealism over cynicism. Energy, optimism and success - our task is to bring this spirit to all levels of county government, to each role, to each function, to each day of work. Because government is an idea business and ideas will be sought out wherever we can find them.

My genuine belief that all people are fundamentally good and want to participate in positive change was confirmed during this recent campaign cycle and will be further confirmed in the upcoming year. Already top professionals have taken pay cuts to serve us here in Nassau County. Former CEO's and corporate citizens have already agreed to work full time to help solve problems at no cost.

We need every manager, every employee, and every labor union to join us. If they do, we will certainly succeed.

We are ready to go to work!

Today, I hereby issue the following executive directives.

1) As of this moment there will be a countywide hiring freeze, overtime freeze, and purchasing freeze. Unless there is an emergency, there will be no hiring, overtime or purchases unless expressly authorized by me.

2) We will immediately implement, in conjunction with the labor unions, an employee evaluation processes to reward employees based upon performance and not political connections.

3) We will audit all County departments and County contracts to discover exactly what has cause the fiscal morass we now find ourselves in and to develop a roadmap to get us out of it.

4) We will form a department of special investigation to root out waste fraud and abuse.

And 5) We must immediately commence with development of our four year financial plan. I have called for a meeting this Friday with the Democratic Majority Leader Judy Jacobs, the Republican Minority Leader Peter Schmidt, the Controller, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the Independent Office of Budget Review and my Budget and Finance team to begin the development of our four-year plan.

We are determined. We are strengthened by an unwillingness to accept or even recognize defeat.

I am very fortunate to have seen first-hand the power of good government and the benefits of hard work for a greater purpose. I have seen the tangible effects of democratic principles in action. We will work harder and longer, we will restructure and rebuild and we will make our government a model for the nation. We shall succeed.

Yes, we will solve the counties fiscal woes, we will deliver a government that is worthy of our people and we will make Nassau County the best county in the country.

We all know these are dark times. There is no question that we are in a state of crisis. Let us look to the natural world for guidance. Ten days ago we literally experienced the darkest day of the year - the Winter Solstice - December 21st. Yet I am confident, that as surely as each day will grow longer and brighter. As surely as the spring will follow winter, so shall we succeed in our mission. For today, is a new day for Nassau County.

For we are a people who endure, revives and prospers. Our national spirit extends to each region, each state, and to our county.

On this day of reflection and resolution, let us pause to thank the generations that have come before us. Let us remember our fallen heroes - the soldiers of our city and of our hearts. Let us pray for the safe return of our armed forces overseas. Let us resolve to make ourselves worthy of their sacrifice.

Let us pause to give thanks to God and ask him for the strength to confront our enormous charge and let us pray for the power, the humility and the patience to put aside our personal interests and work together to restore our hometown - Nassau County.

Thank you.