A ceremony was held at the county comptroller’s office in Mineola last Friday to unveil the Howard S. Weitzman Memorial Conference Room, named after the former Nassau County comptroller who died in September.
Howard Weitzman, who held the role from 2002 to 2009 and was a member of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority board, was 75 when he died.
Jack Schnirman, the current county comptroller, held the ceremony. Also attending were Comptroller-elect Elaine Phillips, and former Comptrollers George Maragos and Peter King, who is also a former congressman. Nassau County Legislators Ellen Birnbaum (D-Great Neck) and Carrié Solages (D-Lawrence) also joined the ceremony alongside Wayne Wink, the Town of North Hempstead clerk. Members of Weitzman’s family were present for the unveiling.
Weitzman, a Roslyn resident and Democrat, was first elected as comptroller in 2001 and served two four-year terms before losing a 2009 re-election bid. In 2016, Weitzman was appointed to the finance authority, which oversees the county’s finances, by then Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
Part of the plaque dedicated to Weitzman describes his public service, reading, “The first certified public accountant to serve as Comptroller, Weitzman was a key player in the financial turnaround of Nassau County and broke new ground with countless innovations.”
Upon graduating from Queens College as an accounting major, Weitzman worked in the financial industry for nearly 50 years, including serving as a partner for KPMG, a global accounting firm.
In 1989, Weitzman was elected mayor of the Village of Great Neck Estates after spending the previous six years as a village trustee. After six years as mayor, Weitzman was appointed by County Executive Thomas Gulotta to the county’s Board of Assessors in 1995.
Weitzman was also appointed to the state’s Commission on Government Efficiency by Gov. Elliot Spitzer in 2007 along with serving as chairman of the state’s Association of Counties Committee on Taxation in Finance. Weitzman also served on the boards of a variety of charitable, educational and civic organizations throughout his governmental career.
