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CMM attorneys are diligent in obtaining a positive outcome for our clients, no matter how complicated the process. Though this case involved over 40 exhibits and numerous submissions from experts over the course of six years, our team successfully fended off a court challenge to the decision of an East End village’s Planning Board and helped the Village finally put this matter to rest.

CMM serves as the Village Attorney for the East End village involved in this matter, advising its Boards and representing it in Court. The Article 78 petition (essentially a legal challenge to the actions of an administrative agency or municipality) stemmed from a longstanding disagreement between the Village and a local homeowner. His home is built on a bluff overlooking a bay, and he was concerned about erosion destroying his home over time. The homeowner applied to construct a rock revetment at the toe of his bluff, arguing that this would stabilize the bluff and prevent erosion.

The homeowner hired experts who submitted evidence to support his argument. The Village Planning Board ultimately denied his application, noting that less destructive improvements could be implemented instead. These methods, known as “soft improvements,” included planting certain shrubs and grasses to prevent erosion. The implementation of soft improvements would have the identical effect of stabilizing the bluff and had been proven successful in adjacent properties. The Village also argued that these soft improvements would avoid the negative consequences of the rock revetment, which could accelerate erosion and in fact had done so on adjacent properties where revetments had been installed. The homeowner was not satisfied with the rejection of his application, and he filed the Article 78 challenge the Board’s decision.

CMM’s Scott Middleton and Richard DeMaio vigorously opposed the petition, arguing that the record contained substantial evidence to support the Planning Board’s denial of the homeowner’s application. The Court agreed with CMM’s cogent arguments and dismissed the petition. Due to CMM’s hard work and diligence, this protracted disagreement is finally resolved.

Learn more about our Municipal and Land Use practices.

By Adina Genn

The Long Island Regional Planning Council has approved a consulting service to help plan a workforce training center at the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge, which was formerly called the Hauppauge Industrial Park.

Members of the council authorized an agreement with New York-based James Lima Planning + Development, whose clients include Silicon Valley firms. JLP+D is to provide economic ad public policy advisory services for the would-be training center, whose purpose is to provide the skills that match the region’s fastest growing businesses.

The plan was announced Thursday by the HIA-LI, which spearheaded a strategic regional business initiative. Back in April, JLP+D and the Regional Plan Association, sponsored by the Suffolk IDA, produced a 160-page “opportunity analysis” that aimed to enhance the industrial park’s credentials as a “regional economic powerhouse.”

JLP+D’s research will provide a “skills gap” analysis to help shape both the future center’s curriculum, its organizational structure and its physical layout.

The group will also evaluate the best ways to unite the expertise and resources of government agencies, business organizations, and academic institutions for the training center.

“The Council has been a strong advocate in fostering an educated and trained workforce sufficient to meet the needs of a growing and evolving regional economy,” John Cameron, Jr., chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council and managing partner, Cameron Engineering & Associates, said in a statement.

“This facility can serve as a model for additional such centers throughout the region to facilitate economic growth island-wide,” he added. The council believes that this funding is a wise investment of taxpayer dollars to support the future growth of Long Island.”

Others gave the plan for a training center high marks.

“Supporting this center in cooperation with the HIA-LI is consistent with many of the council’s initiatives that involve collaborating with a variety of organizations,” Richard Guardino, executive director of the council, said in a statement.

“Attracting and retaining a skilled workforce is one of the primary challenges facing employers across the county,” Theresa Ward, chair of the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency, said in a statement.

“Creation of a workforce development center in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge will position Suffolk County at the cutting edge of addressing this challenge,” she added. “It will help incubate new manufacturing companies, allow existing companies to expand more efficiently, and help build the in-demand skills for our current and future workforce.”

And the center would boost the economy, stakeholders said.

“While Long Island reaps tremendous advantages from the high educational attainment level of our overall population, we’ll only maximize our economic potential by implementing training strategies that give our most-promising industries the skilled employees they need to succeed,” Terri Alessi-Miceli, president and CEO of HIA-LI said in a statement. “Well-devised training programs deliver complementary benefits to both individual companies and to individual employees.”

“When a region is preparing for long-term economic success, one of their prime imperatives is to attract and retain knowledge workers,” Joe Campolo, board chair of HIA-LI and managing partner at Campolo Middleton & McCormick, said in a statement, “Long Island is competing with regional economies nationwide to attract and fortify a number of key industry clusters. This workforce center will function as a strategic differentiator and will help make sure our most-vital sectors can tap the talent they need from within our regional labor pool.”

“This workforce training center will unite a network of successful businesses, partnerships with the public sector, community, and academia to expand and improve training, expertise, and efficiencies of the workforce on a real-time basis as the economy evolves,” Ed Wehrheim, supervisor of the Town of Smithtown, said in a statement.

Read more here.

MOMENTUM BUILDS FOR CREATION OF REGIONAL WORKFORCE TRAINING CENTER AT
LONG ISLAND INNOVATION PARK AT HAUPPAUGE

Long Island Regional Planning Council Approves Consultant to Help Develop Facility Focused on Aligning Area’s Needed Workforce Skills with Business Expansion

As part of a strategic regional business initiative spearheaded by HIA-LI, the Long Island Regional Planning Council (LIRPC) has approved consulting services to advance development of a new workforce training center at the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge, formerly known as the Hauppauge Industrial Park.

HIA-LI, widely recognized as one of Long Island’s foremost advocates for regional business growth, serves as steward of the 1,400-acre business complex that straddles the towns of Smithtown and Islip. The park’s 55,000-person workforce collectively delivers $13 billion in annual output.

At a recent meeting, LIRPC members authorized an agreement for consulting services between the Council and New York City-based James Lima Planning + Development (JLP+D) to provide economic and public policy advisory services for the proposed training center. 

JLP+D, which has advised major Silicon Valley firms on building out their campuses and ecosystems, will undertake economic and demographic research setting the stage for the launch of a high-impact regional workforce center. The facility would be designed to ensure that the skills of the area’s workers match the talent needs of the region’s fastest-growing business sectors.

“The Council has been a strong advocate in fostering an educated and trained workforce sufficient to meet the needs of a growing and evolving regional economy. This facility can serve as a model for additional such centers throughout the region to facilitate economic growth Island wide. The Council believes that this funding is a wise investment of taxpayer dollars to support the future growth of Long Island,” said John D. Cameron, Jr., P.E., Chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council.

“Supporting this center in cooperation with the HIA-LI is consistent with many of the Council’s initiatives that involve collaborating with a variety of organizations.  We look forward to creating more partnerships that help strengthen the region’s employment pipeline and meet the workforce needs of key competitive industries,” said Richard V. Guardino, Executive Director of the Long Island Regional Planning Council.

“Attracting and retaining a skilled workforce is one of the primary challenges facing employers across the county,” said Theresa Ward, Chair of the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency (Suffolk IDA). “Creation of a workforce development center in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge will position Suffolk County at the cutting edge of addressing this challenge. It will help incubate new manufacturing companies, allow existing companies to expand more efficiently, and help build the in-demand skills for our current and future workforce.

“While Long Island reaps tremendous advantages from the high educational attainment level of our overall population, we’ll only maximize our economic potential by implementing training strategies that give our most-promising industries the skilled employees they need to succeed,” said Terri Alessi-Miceli, president and CEO of HIA-LI. “Well-devised training programs deliver complementary benefits to both individual companies and to individual employees.

“When a region is preparing for long-term economic success, one of their prime imperatives is to attract and retain knowledge workers,” said Joe Campolo, Board Chair of HIA-LI and Managing Partner at Campolo Middleton & McCormick, LLP. “Long Island is competing with regional economies nationwide to attract and fortify a number of key industry clusters. This workforce center will function as a strategic differentiator and will help make sure our most-vital sectors can tap the talent they need from within our regional labor pool.”

“This workforce training center will unite a network of successful businesses, partnerships with the public sector, community, and academia to expand and improve training, expertise, and efficiencies of the workforce on a real-time basis as the economy evolves,” commented Ed Wehrheim, Supervisor of the Town of Smithtown. “I applaud the HIA-LI and the LIRPC for going full-steam-ahead with an action plan that will build on the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge’s successes.”

By examining industry categories and ecosystems, and matching them against population and demographic trends, the Lima team will look at Long Island’s talent needs through a supply-and-demand lens. Their research will deliver a “skills gap” analysis that will, in turn, shape both the future center’s curriculum, its organizational structure, and its physical layout.

In addition to the skills analysis, the consulting team will undertake a partnership audit to evaluate the best ways to bring together the expertise and resources of government agencies, business organizations, and academic institutions – and leverage their combined assets to ensure the success of the training center.

James Lima, president of the eponymous consulting firm, cited Buffalo’s Northland Workforce Training Center as a potential template for a Long Island facility. He said that the public-private initiative had created a range of training, internship, apprenticeship, and permanent job opportunities that helped local employee skill sets dovetail with local firms’ talent needs.

In April, James Lima Planning + Development and the Regional Plan Association, sponsored by the Suffolk IDA, completed a full-scale, 160-page “opportunity analysis” that set forth a strategy for enhancing the industrial park’s credentials as a regional economic powerhouse.

By Claude Solnik

Softheon launched in 2000 with a pretty good business model, helping process payments over the Web for giants such as Sony, Gillette, JC Penney, J.P. Morgan Chase, and AOL. But it soon saw a possible billion-dollar opportunity in health care.

Softheon and Perot Systems won a contract for “RomneyCare” in Massachusetts, helping design and operate the first health insurance exchange that became a model for the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). Stony Brook-based Softheon CEO Eugene Sayan says his company today is the largest ACA administration and payment processing source in the nation, serving nearly 40 percent of consumers who receive health insurance on federal and state-based exchanges. The company has processed more than $10 billion in payments since the ACA launched and currently serves more than 20 million people.

“It’s had incredible organic growth,” says Joseph Campolo, Managing Partner at Ronkonkoma-based law firm of Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP, and Softheon’s counsel. “It’s not far-fetched to believe they will be a unicorn in the future.”

If you think unicorns are mythic creatures, you probably haven’t been following finance. A unicorn company is a private startup with a valuation of more than $1 billion.

It’s not easy to identify companies with such a high valuation, because private companies rarely publicize financials.

Most officially become unicorns only after much smaller funding rounds at a ratio valuing them at $1 billion.

Lyft, Uber, WeWork Labs and Airbnb reached valuations of more than $1 billion long before they became a glimmer in Wall Street’s eye. Softheon hasn’t rushed to raise money lately, as it grows organically.

“There’s no inventory, no cost of goods,” Campolo says of firms like Softheon with the potential to break the billion-dollar barrier. “I think the way health care is going, it’s probably the number one field to produce new unicorns.”

Softheon’s rapid growth came as the company reinvented itself, tapping into health insurance marketplaces serving government employers, and payment processing.

“I have never seen so much money out there and such high valuations on companies,” Campolo says. “My expectation is we’re going to see more unicorns in the future, making them less rare.”

Meanwhile, Softheon recently signed a three-year agreement with AARP to design and manage an Internet-based health and wellness platform to serve 38 million AARP members.

As Campolo sees it, the value threshold for this mythic monetary beast may rise. Investors already can hunt “decacorns” valued at $10 billion and “hectocorns” valued at $100 billion.

“Five years from now, a billion-dollar evaluation won’t be a unicorn anymore,” Campolo says, “I think it’ll be five billion at that point. That’s how fast things are going right now.”

Smithtown, N.Y.  (July 8, 2019) – The Guide Dog Foundation and its sister organization, America’s VetDogs, are pleased to announce the election of Joe Campolo, of Stony Brook, NY, to serve on their national boards of directors. The boards provide counsel and oversight to advance the organizations’ mission to provide guide and service dogs and training – free of charge – to people who are blind or have low vision, and to those who have served our country honorably.

Campolo, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, is Managing Partner of Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP, a premier Long Island based law firm. Under Joe’s leadership, the firm has grown from two lawyers to a robust and highly respected team of over 30 lawyers servicing clients in a wide range of practice areas – and continues to grow – with a deep commitment to the Long Island community. “Caring for our veterans when they return home is paramount. The business community stands by its veterans, and I’m honored to help lead that charge as a member of the Board of Directors to make sure that all returning veterans receive the proper care that they need, and to make sure they understand how indebted we are to them.”

“I have known and worked with Joe Campolo for many years,” said John Miller, president and CEO of the Guide Dog Foundation and America’s VetDogs.  “He has a great business mind, an unmatched work ethic and a philanthropic heart. Every serious national charity in America would be honored to have him on their side. We are proud he has joined the Guide Dog Foundation & America’s VetDogs team.”

The Guide Dog Foundation and America’s VetDogs boards of directors comprise volunteer leaders from the medical, business, academic, and military and veteran communities. Members of the board of directors set strategic direction and policy, and help raise awareness of the organizations’ services.