Mineola, NY - In 1965, two visionary Democratic County Executives, believing that it was important for their respective counties to work together on a regional basis, introduced the legislation that gave birth to the Nassau-Suffolk Regional Planning Board. Nearly 40 years later, two visionary Democratic County Executives, who also believe that Island-wide cooperative ventures are critical to the long-term success of Long Island, are introducing legislation designed to strengthen the bi-county planning board and to make it more accountable to Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Over the past 40 years, rapid development and population growth have transformed Nassau and Suffolk counties dramatically, and the current problems confronting Steve Levy and Tom Suozzi's Long Island make bi-county cooperation critical for the region's future.

In an effort to pool their resources and to tap the collective wisdom and expertise of the area's best and brightest, the county executives will be introducing bills to their respective county legislatures designed to revitalize the board in several key areas, beginning with an official name change to the Long Island Regional Planning Council.

"A reinvigorated Regional Planning Council is necessary to provide a vision statement to help guide local government into the future of the region," said County Executive Levy. "The decisions made over the next two years will have a profound impact on the type of Long Island our grandchildren will see. We have to be proactive now in protecting our precious open spaces, pursuing joint economic development initiatives, addressing our transportation and traffic problems and tackling other regional problems with the combined clout of our respective administrations and populations."

"Once the fastest growing county in the nation, Nassau County reached an early maturity, premature middle-age and now is headlong into midlife crisis if we don't act immediately," said County Executive Suozzi. "Our challenge is to balance our need to maintain our quality of life while confronting the need for responsible growth that is critical to our future. We are committed to approaching these issues on a cooperative regional basis for the benefit of all of Long Island, and the Long Island Regional Planning Council will be a vital part of this process."

The first of the substantive changes being proposed is expansion of board membership from three to five appointees per county executive. Appointees must reside in their respective counties and would be subject to legislative approval. The County Executives, the County Comptrollers, Presiding Officers of the County Legislatures and the Commissioners of the County Departments of Public Works will serve as ex-officio members of the Council without voting privileges. Council members will continue to serve in a non-salaried capacity.

Secondly, the Council will be charged with focusing on regional priorities such as Transportation, Workforce Housing, Environmental Protection, Health Care Planning, Homeland Security, Economic Development and Energy Planning.

Lastly, the County Executives have crafted new criteria to raise the accountability of the Council, which include:

• regular bi-monthly meetings open to the public
• minutes of Council meetings required and, along with meeting agendas, will be made available to all Council and ex-officio members
• submission of an Annual Report summarizing Council activities, financial status, annual budget (including all federal, state and local funding as well as private sector financial assistance), and planned future activities
• Council to be subject to audit by both the Nassau and Suffolk County Comptrollers

The Council will also be required to submit terms and conditions of all consultant agreements to the County Executives and County Legislatures within 30 days.

While the County Executives are anxious to bolster the Regional Planning Council, both County Executives had nothing but praise for the Board's outgoing longtime executive director, Dr. Lee E. Koppelman.

"Given the nature of the problems and issues we face today, we want to provide the Council with a more distinct focus," said Levy. "We want to be able to tie our policy decisions to recommendations of the Council so that those recommendations do more than sit around collecting dust."

"Historically, Long Island has been fractured at the local and regional levels," said Suozzi. "Our hope is that these changes to the Planning Council will be another step in our efforts to reach greater consensus among our local municipalities to buy into a vision for the region as opposed to a vision for their individual locales.