Thomas R. Suozzi was sworn in as the 7th Nassau County Executive on Tuesday, January 1, 2002 before a capacity crowd of over 2,100 people at the Tilles Center at C.W. Post College in Westbury. Immediately after being sworn in by his father, former Supreme Court Justice Joseph A. Suozzi and his uncle Vincent "Jimmy" Suozzi former mayor of the City of Glen Cove, the new County Executive promised and end to politics as usual.

In his inaugural address, Suozzi emphasized the need 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," Suozzi said. "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."

Suozzi also issued five Executive Directives on Tuesday. They include:

• A hiring and purchasing freeze in the County. "Unless there is an emergency," Suozzi said, "There will be no hiring, overtime, or purchasing, unless authorized by me."
• The implementation of an employee evaluation process. Suozzi stressed that all employees will be rewarded on the basis of performance, not political connections.
• An audit of all County departments and contracts. Suozzi hopes to discover what has caused all the problems with the County's financial situation and to determine the best way to begin to solve the problem.
• The creation of a department for a special investigation to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.
• The immediate development of a four-year financial plan. Suozzi has set a meeting for Friday, January 4, 2002 the Democratic Majority Leader Judy Jacobs, Republican Minority Leader Peter Schmidt, Comptroller Howard Weitzman, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the Independent Office of Budget Review, and Suozzi's Budget and Finance team to begin the developing this plan.

Suozzi emphasized the importance of everyone in the county coming together to help solve the problems of Nassau County. "It will take a team," said Suozzi. "Team Nassau, which will be comprised of my colleagues in government, Republicans, and Democrats, and anyone genuinely interested in serving our residents."