Government Affairs Committee Meets with Nassau County Consumer Affairs Officials

Nassau County Office of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Gregory A. May and Deputy Commissioner Kenneth M. Heino attended NYC/LI NARI’s Government Affairs Committee meeting on August 7th at the invitation of Ben Jackson, CR, Ben’s General Contracting Corp. Ben chairs the Government Affairs committee and the Nassau County Home Improvement Industry Board. NYC/LI NARI members Laurence Carolan, CR, GCP, UDCP of House of Laurence, Joe Brazil of Mainline Construction, Tony Tiso, MCR, CKBR of Jarro Building Industries Corp. and Adam Browser of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek P.C. also sit on the Nassau County Home Improvement Industry Board.

Commissioner May discussed his major initiatives since taking over the department, and reinforced that Nassau County Executive Laura Curran is striving to have a ‘business-friendly’ administration:

• Move from a paper based, to a computerized system. May’s ultimate goal is to have the licensing process online so applicants don’t have to come to the office.
• Inspectors can now submit complaints and violations from the field, speeding up the review process
• May has also introduced a new procedure: independent 3rd party county personnel are now hearing complaints, rather than someone who could be directly involved with case, to remove any possible bias. Nassau County Consumer Affairs is also introducing ‘pre-hearings’ to try and resolve a case before it goes to court
The Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner also answered specific questions asked by contractors at the meeting regarding licensing and homeowner complaint procedures.

“I think this demonstrates how NARI contractors work well with Nassau County Consumer Affairs. We are basically on the same page, we both want to improve our industry. I thought it was great that we both asked what we can do for the other,” said Ben Jackson.