From Newsday's Spin Cycle. . .

Levittown Rules!

So what’s in the water in Levittown?

The prototypical suburb, which served as the base of Joseph Mondello, the Nassau County — and now New York State — GOP chairman, is also Republican Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray’s hometown.

It’s also home to three of Hempstead Town’s newest commissioners: for parks, general services and buildings.

No wonder Republican Councilman Gary Hudes, whose district includes the community, said, “Levittown votes yes,” when he approved John Loeffel’s appointment as building commissioner on Tuesday. He was responding to a complaint from lone Democratic Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby about the preponderance of Levittown department heads.

Republican Councilman Anthony Santino, of East Rockaway, today insisted geography had nothing to do with the merit of the appointees.“We look at their qualifications,” said Santino, who is also a spokesman for Mondello. “Anything else is just happenstance.”

Emi Endo
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Emi Endo is a reporter for Newsday, covering the goings-on in the Town of Hempstead. You can reach Emi at emi.endo@newsday.com
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And speaking of Newsday, why such limited coverage of the Fire District election results? [We could only find reports of 2 district votes -- Hicksville and Syosset -- in the Our Towns section.]

We know that the fire districts, water districts (which also held elections on December 12th, in case anybody cares), and sanitary districts (which hold elections at various and sundry times during the summer months) are run like the personal fiefdoms of the commissioners, among whom "mum is the word," but you?

Whatever happened to the public's right to know? Who at Newsday decided that fire district election results are not newsworthy? Or maybe there's just too many of them, and no one at the oh so many fire districts reports in or can be reached for comment. [And if that's the case, say so!]

We believe Newsday does a great disservice to the people of Long Island, and perpetuates the secrecy that shrouds the special districts, by remaining silent on this score. Whoever decides what is or isn't news at Newsday should think twice before issuing an edict that election results -- any election results -- do not merit publication.