Spin Cycle

Ex-jail official: Nassau search for sheriff flawed
BY WILLIAM MURPHY | william.murphy@newsday.com
May 1, 2008

The retired jail official who helped conduct Nassau County's search for a sheriff in 1999 said the current job search is badly flawed.

"This is the largest sheriff's department in New York State and among the largest in the nation," retired Undersheriff Ernie Weber of Massapequa said in a recent interview. "It is sad that in 2008 they can't find a person with the right experience and a college degree after a nationwide search."

The county botched the wording of the background requirements in its posting for the job in February, forcing it to reopen the search last week after picking a new sheriff, Mark Farsi of Norfolk, Va. Farsi did not have a college degree - much less the master's degree called for in the job description.

The county began to re-advertise the job this week, but with wording to make it clear that work experience can substitute for educational experience. The re-posting will allow Farsi, 45, to seek a state waiver to "double-dip" - collect a $132,000 salary as sheriff and collect an unspecified pension as a former New York City Department of Correction officer.

Weber said that while there is no educational requirement under the law for the sheriff's job, the past two sheriffs (Edward Reilly and Joseph Jablonski) had master's degrees and the sheriff has to supervise several undersheriffs who are required to have bachelor's degrees under county and state civil service rules.

The county also failed to advertise in law enforcement magazines and on Web sites, which would have produced more qualified candidates, according to Weber, who retired in 1999, but came back as a consultant later that year to help conduct the search for a new sheriff.

Deputy County Executive Francis X. Ryan said yesterday that he was unsure if the job was being posted on those Web sites, but it had been printed in Newsday last Sunday and posted on careerbuilder.com.

The Nassau County Guardians Association, representing African-Americans in law enforcement, said it submitted the name of a candidate it regarded as highly qualified.

"Unfortunately, the candidate is an African-American and not a player or a contributor to the politics of Nassau County and once again we are stepped upon for who we are, and not for what we can bring to the table," John Nedd, president of the group, said.

Former correction officer Frances Rosato of Baldwin, who is now an attorney in private practice, said she found it "galling" that Farsi was chosen over her, despite her law degree, her master's degree in public administration and her 20 years in New York City as a correction officer and a deputy warden.

Ryan said several qualified women and African-American candidates had been interviewed, and that Farsi was considered the best of some 60 candidates.