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Many injured or disabled workers fear that a denial of insurance coverage or disability benefits marks the end of an already-frustrating road of red tape and dead ends. But that’s precisely when CMM was retained to turn a client’s difficult journey around.

A Fortune 500 insurance company had denied coverage for long-term disability benefits to our client, insisting that he “did not meet the policy definition of Disability” despite well-documented medical records to the contrary. CMM fought back. Christine Malafi appealed the finding, arguing that our client’s medical records and physician assessments provided well-documented and overwhelming evidence of significant impairment such that our client was wholly unable to work.

CMM further argued that the insurance company’s denial was egregious as it was based entirely on the opinion of their own medical assessor, which was not only a clear conflict of interest but also entirely unsupported by the record. The appeal affirmed that our client was legally entitled to coverage in light of his fully-disabled status as confirmed by the Social Security Administration.

In a major win, CMM’s appeal was so persuasive that the insurance company reversed its own decision within weeks. As anyone who has attempted to obtain disability or insurance benefits knows, such a turnaround time is extraordinary. Our client can now collect benefits, stay in his home, and have financial stability during a difficult medical crisis.

CMM not only represents businesses and individuals, but is also well known for providing superior legal services to towns, villages, school districts, cities, and counties. Our litigation team recently demonstrated their strength in advocating for municipal clients by securing a victory for a Suffolk County Village in a contested land use matter.

The owners of a parcel of land located in the Village had requested a variance to divide their property in two to build another single-family house on the newly created second lot. The Village denied the variance request, citing the minimum required lot area per home pursuant to the local zoning district. Unhappy with the decision, the property owners filed an Article 78 petition (essentially, a legal challenge to the activities of an administrative agency or municipality) with the court, accusing our client of denying zoning variances in an “arbitrary, capricious and prejudicial” manner “contrary to the evidence presented” by the property owner and without substantial evidence to back the decision.

CMM strongly opposed the petition, arguing that the Village was well within its right to deny a variance that adversely impacted the physical and/or environmental conditions of the neighborhood as well as to preserve and protect the neighborhood’s character and the health, safety, and welfare of its residents.

Due to the hard work, diligence, and knowledge of the zoning laws by Senior Partner Scott Middleton and Associate Richard DeMaio, CMM successfully obtained a court order denying the petition and upholding the Village’s decision. Learn more about how we help municipalities here.    

Positioning Hauppauge Industrial Park for the future

By Adina Genn

A new analysis shows that the Hauppauge Industrial Park could position the region for economic growth, officials said.

Released Wednesday at the IBEW offices in Hauppauge, the 160-plus page report was commissioned by the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency and written, produced and designed by James Lima Planning + Development and the Regional Plan Association.

The report identifies strategies to further advance revitalization opportunities by supporting and clustering together industries at the park. It also offers competitor analysis to define additional ways to collaborate, and lessons learned from economic hubs across the country.

In positioning for the future, the park will be renamed as The Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge. The new moniker reflects a finding in the report that the park can “further capture economic opportunities of the region and maximize its impact to become a key player in Long Island’s overall economic development.”

The park is home to 1,300 companies that employ more than 55,000 people and its $13 billion of annual output accounts for 8 percent of Long Island’s gross domestic product, according to a press release. And 58 percent of the companies are in “tradable sectors,” or exports of goods from the region.

One of the report’s recommendations includes fostering industry clusters, and the key ones in the region include aerospace vehicles and defense, biopharmaceuticals, business services, construction products and services, distribution and electronic commerce, education and research activities, financial services, food processing and manufacturing and information technology and analytical instruments.

Collectively, the park would benefit if companies within it saw each other as collaborators rather than competitors: “All parties on the Island should be uniting around common goals for workforce training, incubators, co-work space, high-tech shared equipment and housing policies,” according to the report.

“This comprehensive roadmap provides our region with the building blocks needed to strengthen, expand and attract key industry clusters that will push our innovative economy to the next level,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in a statement.

Five strategies within the report include facilitating business growth, attracting and retaining skilled workers, strengthening training and workforce development, promoting innovation and technology transfer, and connecting business, governments and institutions.

Noting that it’s the largest business park in the northeast, Hauppauge Industrial Association of Long Island President and CEO Terri Alessi-Miceli said that the park is “equipped to fulfill a growth scenario that will redouble its contributions to our regional economy.”

Both the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency and HIA plan to support partnerships with institutions, business and nonprofits to foster growth and learn from one another.

Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim saw many ways for organizations to partner together.

“Imagine neighboring businesses working together to capitalize on mutual growth, a think tank of business professionals working to help innovate local companies to the next level, the private sector working with public institutions to plan for alternative energy or create walkable communities for the next generation of great innovators to live and play,” he said. “The possibilities are truly endless.”

A rendering showed the potential for housing, which could help attract workforce.

“While the Hauppauge Industrial Park already plays an essential role in powering the Long Island economy, it still has tremendous untapped value,” Joe Campolo, the board chair of HIA-LI and managing partner at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick in Ronkonkoma said in a statement. “After analyzing a full spectrum of strategic options, we now have a viable, clear-eyed, long-term plan that will maximize the park’s value for decades to come.”

Theresa Ward, chair of the Suffolk County IDA board of directors, said officials are “extremely proud of this report, which takes a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities inherent in Long Island’s key economic generator.”

“The Hauppauge Industrial Park has been a significant hotbed for economic development and growth and this reimagining of the Park gets everyone involved in economic development in this region excited because the potential is so real and obtainable,” she added.

Read more here.

Joe Campolo, CMM Managing Partner and HIA-LI Board Chairman, moderated HIA-LI’s panel discussion, “Hauppauge Industrial Park: Current and Future Growth,” on April 24, 2019 at IBEW in Hauppauge. He delivered these remarks to the hundreds of guests in attendance.

I’d like to welcome everyone to our Hauppauge Industrial Park Update this morning. As Chairman of the HIA-LI Board of Directors and a Long Island business owner, I’m honored to join you as the moderator for this event as we embark on our region’s next chapter.

As steward of the Hauppauge Industrial Park, the second largest in the nation behind only Silicon Valley, HIA-LI has spent the last several years working tirelessly to spread the word about this incredible economic engine. And we have indeed made an enormous impact. One of my proudest accomplishments as Board Chairman is our success in making the numbers and facts that we learned through the Economic Impact Study so well known – so much so that the Park’s identity as an economic powerhouse is no longer a secret, but rather part of the fabric and story of Long Island.

Today you are going to hear new incredible numbers and facts that we’ve discovered about the economic power of the businesses in the Park, this time from the opportunity analysis that HIA-LI, Jim Lima, the RPA, and the Suffolk IDA have been working so hard on.

You’re going to learn how our beloved Long Island possesses economic assets that are greater than any other per-capita district in the country. You’ll hear new ways that Long Island can leverage these incredible assets to achieve greater economic growth, by capitalizing in the tradable industries that are already prospering and growing in the Park. During this presentation, you’re going to learn that not every dollar is created equal. In fact, a dollar generated in the Hauppauge Industrial Park is worth $2 generated elsewhere on Long Island and about $1.25 nationwide. That is truly incredible.

Our mission now is to accelerate this growth by relentlessly pushing and marketing and spreading the word about the Park as the region’s premier hub for growing businesses, and to continue building bridges between the public and private sectors to truly make a tremendous impact.

The fact is, the opportunity analysis concludes what we’ve always suspected: that there are amazing companies in the Park doing incredible things for the economy. Now that we are armed with this critical information, our task is to determine how the private and public sectors can work even better together to facilitate growth.

You see, this project is an example of a successful partnership between industry and government. It’s this collaboration that will ensure Long Island’s economic viability in the future. We need both business and government support: society doesn’t work well if it’s just one or the other.

We are fortunate to have elected officials who get it, and continue to express a renewed commitment to investing in the Park.  We thank them and assure them that, in return, we at the HIA-LI will always tirelessly fight for Long Island and its business community.

Thank you.

Download the Executive Summary of the Opportunity Analysis here.

Thank you for having us here today and for listening to this important study. Like everybody else here on the dais, I love Long Island. When I left Long Island to go into the Marine Corps there was never any doubt that I was going to come back here and spend my career here. I attended Stony Brook University, and I loved Stony Brook. And then I went to law school, and after law school I had many opportunities to work in the city, but I wanted to come back to Long Island, particularly Suffolk County. And people said, “Why do you want to go to Suffolk County? It’s farm country, there’s nothing going on out there!” And I said there’s an opportunity there, I just know it.

I love Long Island, and I love Suffolk County. I believe in its greatness. And as part of this I joined the HIA-LI, and people said, “Why are you joining the HIA-LI? There are bigger business organizations out there that can help you grow.” And I said I love the HIA-LI, and I know that there’s something special about that industrial park. The report that was released today has proven that every one of my inclinations about Long Island and Suffolk County is true.

The Hauppauge Industrial Park has the highest cluster of tradable industries in the nation. It’s the second largest industrial park in the nation. It means we bring in more new dollars per capita in our park than any other spot here in the United States. So to Mr. County Executive, I say if this is farm country, then you’re doing a pretty damn good job! The other beautiful thing that has happened during this process is not withstanding what’s going on there in the beltway, there’s been a total collaboration across all lines. On this stage you have Republicans, you have Democrats, you have real estate developers, you have business people, you have educational organizations, everyone came together to get this done. And so we’re not just the leading economic hub in the United States, we’re the leading collaborative group of talented individuals that exists in these United States, and should be a role model for every private and public partnership that’s out there today. So on behalf of everyone that was involved in creating this study, James Lima Planning, hats off to you, you confirmed what I had always believed, and it’s given us an opportunity so that our children when they turn 21 and they’re deciding where they want to go after they graduate from college, Long Island and Suffolk County is a very viable option. Thank you very much.

HIA-LI President & CEO Terri Alessi-Miceli announced that the new name of the park will be “The Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge.” Download the Executive Summary of the Opportunity Analysis here.