Editorial

Mangano wins kudos for ‘oops’

Posted

If only every problem was so easy to fix.

Nassau County Executive Mangano last week conceded a significant goof by his transportation officials in their implementation of new speed cams near schools.

When motorists began piling up tickets for breaking school speed limits even though the schools were — or might have been expected to be — closed for the summer, Mangano did something unexpected: He voided all the tickets.

Plenty of unnecessary heartache is caused by bureaucrats who stubbornly refuse to admit a mistake, no matter how obvious the original sin, or how hurtful the consequences of the mistake’s being compounded by their intransigence. Mangano’s approach is refreshing, removing from thousands of ticketed motorists the need to either prove their innocence or pay unjust fines.

An added bonus of the speed cam error and Mangano’s fix is that with all the attention, no one will have an excuse if they’re caught speeding when the schools are actually in session.