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How Long Beach found itself in financial crisis

The damaged Long Beach Boardwalk two and a half months after Sandy. Newsday / Alejandra Villa

The $102 million in state and federal emergency disaster funds given to Long Beach after superstorm Sandy masked financial problems that, with the relief money now drying up, led the city into a fiscal crisis, officials and analysts say.

Long Beach faces a $2.1 million shortfall after making retirement and management separation payments, potential layoffs of city staff, police and firefighters, and a budget that proposes a 12.3 percent tax hike to bridge a $4.5 million revenue deficit next year.

Taxpayers — and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli — are asking: How did it come to this?

Long Beach officials in 2017 touted a financial swing from the brink of bankruptcy to being $9 million in the black — a $24.2 million turnaround — but current and former city leaders say the previous collapse was never addressed and stayed hidden because of the disaster relief funds after superstorm Sandy.

“We’re almost where we were before Sandy,” Long Beach City Council President Anthony Eramo said of the current crisis. He also said problems the city faced before Sandy have not gone away. “We knew this would be a tough year and hard decisions would have to be made. . . . I knew the lack of Sandy money would make this a tough year.”

Eramo, DiNapoli, and municipal finance analysts say city officials should have made more difficult decisions such as cutting services and making incremental tax increases in previous years to avoid the larger tax increase proposed this year. The City Council passed a 1 percent tax boost last year — an election year.

The proposed $95 million budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 will mean an average $400 increase for homeowners.

DiNapoli announced last week that his office would audit the city’s finances.

“It is imperative that officials address the city’s declining financial condition during the current budget cycle,” his office said in the annual budget review.

“It’s identical to putting your budget on a credit card. It’s not a sustainable practice.”-Matt Fabian, a partner with Municipal Market Analysts.

The Wall Street bond rating agency Moody’s Investors Service this month maintained the city’s Baa1 rating — considered a moderate credit risk, but issued a negative outlook, citing cash flow challenges “following years of operating deficits and the City Council’s failure to approve budgeted borrowing to pay for operating expenses.”

Lower ratings can mean higher interest rates and costs of borrowing.

“Any time a local government borrows for operating expenses, we view that as a negative,” Moody’s vice president and senior analyst Rob Weber said.

Long Beach has borrowed to cover retirements and other payments for years.

“It’s identical to putting your budget on a credit card,” said Matt Fabian, a partner with Municipal Market Analysts, a municipal research and consulting firm specializing in the bond market. “It’s not a sustainable practice.”

2011 fiscal crisisBack on the brink of bankruptcy

Elements of the current fiscal crisis mirror those in 2011: unbalanced budgets, borrowing to make payroll and separation payments, and reliance on storm relief funding.

Former City Manager Jack Schnirman and the Long Beach City Council declared a fiscal emergency in 2012 after inheriting a $14.7 million deficit and facing $48.3 million in debt from the previous administration.

Long Beach was on the brink of bankruptcy as ratings agencies downgraded it five levels and threatened to reduce its credit to junk bond status. Other city officials faulted the administration for not reining in overtime and relying too heavily on reserves while giving residents a 1.9 percent tax cut in 2009.

The administration responded with a nearly 8 percent tax hike in 2012 and entered a deal with the state to pay the debt over 10 years, which allowed the state comptroller to review the city’s budgets annually for the next decade. The city’s total long-term debt is now $92.2 million.

An audit in 2013 by DiNapoli blamed the city administration for exhausting $21 million in reserve funds with “unrealistic estimates” of revenue and expenses and relied on advances and long-term financing to fund operations.

The city now has about $8 million in reserves, but used $3 million of it this year to cover Sandy recovery expenses while awaiting reimbursements.

Analysts said the city’s declining available funds show a history of budget imbalances, but it still has a positive balance compared with the negative reserves the city had when it was facing near-junk-bond status.

“We’re not anywhere near where we were in 2011-12 and saw negative cash positions. We’re not there yet,” Weber said.

Superstorm Sandy'Easy money' from the government

Long Beach was inundated from the Atlantic Ocean to the back bay, flooding the entire city and destroying the iconic boardwalk.

The city was also flooded with cash from federal and state emergency disaster recovery funds.

As the city sought to rebuild “stronger, smarter, safer,” portions of some projects were not reimbursed with storm money, adding to the debt and budget shortfall.

The city also used the government reimbursements to pay salaries to office clerks and workers completing the rebuilding projects, Eramo said.

Using disaster funds to cover indirect costs such as permanent salaries of workers and office staff so cities don’t have to slash workforce while rebuilding is common, municipal finance experts said.

“Money from the federal government is easy money, but it’s hard to balance a budget with counting it as reoccurring revenues,” Fabian said.

The state comptroller upgraded the city’s fiscal stress rating to “moderate” in 2016, but Schnirman cautioned that a “short-term infusion” of Sandy dollars was not sustainable without a long-term recovery plan.

More than five years after the storm, the city is still waiting for about $7.5 million in state and federal reimbursements. Long Beach officials recently issued a $4 million tax anticipation bond while awaiting reimbursement for boardwalk rebuilding work.

Moody’s stated in its May 4 report that “any expenses that are not reimbursed will result in additional long-term debt.”

BudgetingCity faced hard choices

State officials and credit agencies monitoring Long Beach’s finances said the warning signs of a budget crisis were flagged for city officials but in some cases not addressed.

Schnirman issued a transition memo on Dec. 31 to city leaders that included money-saving recommendations on department changes and cuts, such as restructuring public works, reducing part-time workers, privatizing day care and summer camps, and adding parking meters to increase revenue.

Schnirman said at the time he told the council that hard choices would have to be made, including proposals such as cutting the city’s 17-member paid fire department. The City Council rejected layoffs, and settled on fee inceases and tax hikes averaging 2.3 percent since Sandy.

“These are not the same problems we faced in 2011. The city is in a different place now and has come a long way,” Schnirman said in an interview last week. “The city funded a recovery after Sandy, taking the burden off taxpayers.”

DiNapoli’s office in April listed the city as being in significant fiscal stress, signaling a “deteriorating financial condition” and warning of significant tax increases.

City officials responded to the rating by noting the fiscal stress was due to Sandy funds that had not yet been reimbursed.

DiNapoli’s office determined this year’s proposed budget had balanced revenue projections of $41.5 million, “but does not include measures to improve financial condition.”

The comptroller’s office has cautioned the city for years to reduce overtime, which has averaged around $3 million for the past five years — about $300,000 more than budgeted last year.

The past two budgets have counted on $900,000 in sewer runoff fees from a contested $336 million 522-unit oceanfront apartment development starting construction on the Superblock parcel, a prime piece of undeveloped land along the boardwalk. The project stalled and the fees were not paid. The revenue stream was scratched from this year’s proposed budget as the future of the project remains uncertain.

Acting City Manager Michael Tangney said the lost funds contributed to a $1 million shortfall in revenue in last year’s budget, combined with another $200,000 shortage in the city’s recreation fees.

The state comptroller’s April review found that personal service contracts and employee benefits make up 75 percent of the city’s annual $41.5 million revenue and almost 12 percent in debt interest from bonds.

“With these costs accounting for 87 percent of revenue, there is limited ability to finance operations and maintain infrastructure,” comptroller officials said.

Borrowing'The practice will saddle future taxpayers'

Long Beach issued deficit reduction bonds in 2014. The city has since reduced its operating funds by $3 million — to $8.4 million, according to Moody’s.

“The city had a financial position that was relatively healthy, but since that point, we’ve seen reserves decline and significantly,” Moody’s Weber said. “Basically, the liquidity over the last few months has dropped far more significantly than we anticipated.”

Moody’s said in its May 4 report that the city’s bond rating could be downgraded if its 2018 financial results are worse than anticipated, if available cash deteriorates, and if reserves are relied on to balance the budget.

Long Beach has counted on balancing its budget using borrowing and issuing bonds to pay for operating expenses such as separation payments, Moody’s and state officials said.

The state comptroller’s office said budgeting for “termination salaries is somewhat misleading as they also include cash payments for accrued leave to employees that remain employed by the city.”

Long Beach officials said union and nonunion employees for decades have been allowed to be paid for accrued time to reduce larger payouts to retirees later.

The payouts have averaged $2.6 million over the past three years, according to the comptroller’s review. A Moody’s report said the city will need to use an additional $1.75 million in previously approved bonds to cover separation payments and Sandy expenses this fiscal year through June.

Comptroller officials warned that if the city could not fund operations, the city could face a $2.1 million shortfall heading into the next fiscal year.

“The city’s continued practice of borrowing to fund these operating costs is not fiscally prudent,” comptroller officials said. “The practice will saddle future taxpayers.”

What's next?A six-point plan

City Council members Anthony Eramo and Chumi Diamond have crafted a six-point plan to address the city’s finances.

1. Work with the comptroller’s audit team to improve budgeting practices.

2. Budget real dollars from city revenues for future separation payments and earned-leave obligations.

3. Require all separation or earned leave obligations more than $5,000 to have City Council approval.

4. Audit 2018 separation payments and pass legislation that limits the city manager’s authority for future payments.

5. Take remedial action if separation payments were miscalculated.

6. Ban anyone convicted of a crime against the city from receiving any separation pay or accrued time.

Laura Curran’s First 100 Days in Office: By the Numbers

Since taking office, Laura Curran, Long Island’s first female county executive, has had to focus on urgent county finances, the broken property assessment system and a barrage of late winter storms that required attention.

Read more about what Curran’s faced and her challenges to come here.

Here’s a snapshot of her term by the numbers:

100

days in office

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, 50, a Democrat from Baldwin, took office Jan. 1 after winning by a 3 percent margin in a hard fought race against former state Sen. Jack Martins, a Republican from Old Westbury. A mother of three who cast herself as a political outsider, she was a member of the Baldwin school board and was most recently a two-term county legislator. Of her first 100 days, she says: “You know what’s surprising? How much I actually love the job.”

4

Nor’easters

The storms bringing heavy, wet snow, wind and ice meant Curran and her administration were busy clearing thousands of miles of county roads, responding to emergencies, with hundreds of homes without power. Next she will focus on resurfacing the roads, now riddled with potholes, because “those are the kinds of things people expect from their county government,” she said.

$45 million

in a legal judgment

During Curran’s second week in office, the county finds out it must pay damages and legal fees when the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Nassau’s appeal of the 2014 award to John Restivo and Dennis Halstead, whose convictions in the rape and murder of Lynbrook teenager Theresa Fusco were overturned after they had spent nearly 18 years in prison. Curran and the legislators had to decide on whether to borrow the money or pay for it out of a reserve fund. The Republican-controlled legislature approved a request for $23 million in borrowing. Former County Executive Edward Mangano in 2016 set aside $45 million in a reserve account. A federal court ordered the county to show it was able to pay the judgment using reserve funds or bonds.

3

executive orders

Curran signed three executive orders in her first 100 days in office. Two of them were steps toward fulfilling her campaign promise of addressing what she called “the culture of corruption” in Nassau County government. The first one bars appointed members of her administration from holding a leadership position in a political party or donating to her campaign. The second one establishes a zero-tolerance policy for gift-giving between vendors and county employees and introduced a new administrative program to promote standards of ethical contracting with outside firms. The third of Curran’s executive orders limits assessment increases caused by reassessment to 6 percent a year or 20 percent over five years for residential properties, in alignment with state law. Three members of her own party voted against the plan on concerns it would negatively impact property-owners who do not regularly grieve their taxes.

$2.2 million

to be borrowed

The amount she requested to borrow to pay two firms to reassess all county properties. The request was approved by the County Legislature.

$3 billion

county budget

Nassau’s $3 billion budget could have a deficit as large as $104.7 million in fiscal year 2018, according to an analysis from the Nassau Interim Finance authority, the state-appointed board that controls the county’s finances. Curran appeared before the board in April saying she was “looking forward to a good relationship going forward” with NIFA. “You have seen the budget that we have given to you and [I’m] hoping that you find it acceptable,” she told authority members, “and of course we are open to conversation and flexibility.”

700

signs with her predecessor’s name

Shortly after the election, Curran asked the administration of outgoing County Executive Edward Mangano to keep her name off all official signs, fulfilling a campaign promise. Mangano’s name appeared on about 700 signs across the county, his chief of staff said at the time. The process of removing his name or replacing the signs is ongoing.

-With Scott Eidler and Robert Brodsky

Timeline of Harendra Singh’s ties to Edward Mangano, John Venditto

January 2010 to February 2015

Prosecutors said Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto engage in a scheme to solicit bribes from a restaurateur, identified as Harendra Singh.

April 2010 to August 2014


Prosecutors said Linda Mangano, the county executive’s wife, gets paid more than $450,000 for a job with Singh, doing “little to no work,” while Singh gets contracts with Nassau County and Town of Oyster Bay, including concession agreements.

January 2010 to December 2013


Prosecutors said Singh is granted a loan for $20 million guaranteed by amendments to concession agreements with Town of Oyster Bay. Edward Mangano “pressures” Venditto to vote on town board resolutions to amend concession agreements on Singh’s behalf.

January 2010 to February 2015


The Manganos receive massage chair, Panerai Luminor watch and hardwood flooring from Singh, prosecutors said.

March 2014 to December 2015


FBI serves eight grand jury subpoenas on Town of Oyster Bay.

Jan. 13, 2015


FBI interviews Linda Mangano at Bethpage residence.

Jan. 15, 2015 to October 2016:


The Manganos meet with FBI and “fabricate stories” to explain Linda Mangano’s employment.

Feb. 3, 2015


FBI serves Linda Mangano with grand jury subpoena also requesting records related to employment for Singh.

May 20, 2015


Linda Mangano provides “fabricated examples of work” she performed for Singh, prosecutors said.

July 1, 2015


Newsday reports Singh, involved in lawsuits that could threaten beach concession service in the Town of Oyster Bay, has financial, political and personal ties to Edward Mangano. Newsday also reports the county paid almost $240,000 to Harendra Singh, who operates numerous businesses from his headquarters in Bethpage, Mangano’s hometown, for hot meals for top county, state and federal officials after superstorm Sandy. Mangano’s campaign also rented space for his campaign headquarters from Singh in two elections, the paper reports, and Singh employed Linda Mangano at one of his companies.

Aug. 10, 2015


Newsday reports Mangano and family’s trips to the Caribbean were paid for by Singh. Among the findings:

A July 2012 trip was scheduled for St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a second trip, scheduled for July 2013, was for the Turks and Caicos, where Singh arranged for the Manganos to stay in a two-bedroom oceanfront suite for $4,961. An email dated June 3, 2013, sent by a travel agent to Singh, said the total cost of a trip to the Turks and Caicos for Singh, Singh’s guests and the Manganos was $17,498. A source familiar with the situation said the 2012 trip might have been canceled but that Mangano and his family went on the second trip to the Turks and Caicos.

Edward Mangano’s attorney Kevin Keating of Garden City said of those reports: “There is absolutely no story here. The Manganos and the Singhs have been friends for many, many years, lifelong friends.”

Aug. 10, 2015


Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas says she will investigate trips by Mangano and Oyster Bay Deputy Town Attorney Frederick Mei.

Aug. 21, 2015


FBI raids Singh’s Bethpage offices.

Aug. 31, 2015


Mei resigns.

Sept. 9, 2015


Singh is arrested on a 13-count indictment. He’s freed on $5 million bond.

Six of the counts accused Singh of paying a bribe to a former Oyster Bay deputy town attorney to get an “indirect guarantee” of $32 million in loans for his businesses, including food concessions he ran at town beaches and a town golf course. Other charges included defrauding the IRS by not reporting millions of dollars in wages paid to employees of his restaurants and fraudulently collecting almost $1 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The latter accusation refers to Singh collecting the money for falsely claiming his Water’s Edge restaurant in Long Island City was damaged during superstorm Sandy.

Sept. 13, 2015


Singh employees tell Newsday that Edward Mangano ate for free at Singh’s restaurants.

Sept. 23, 2015


Whistleblower Christopher Briggs, a former Oyster Bay constable, tells Newsday he gave Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice documents in 2013 suggesting that Singh secured illegal loan guarantees from Oyster Bay officials and arranged and paid for vacations for Mangano, but district attorney investigators never followed up on the information.

October 2015


Town of Brookhaven severs financial ties with Singh’s company. One of his restaurants, Water’s Edge in Long Island City, closes after employees walked out complaining they hadn’t been paid.

Oct. 23, 2015


FBI interviews John Venditto.

November 2015


Newsday reports Mangano’s redacted calendar shows gaps in public appearances on dates when he may have been in Caribbean on Singh-financed trips.

Dec. 16, 2015


Singh is rearrested and held without bail. Federal prosecutors said he had violated the conditions of his release by fraudulently attempting to obtain a $146,000 loan.

Dec. 18, 2015


Venditto interviewed by FBI again and claims to have never received anything of value from Singh. Prosecutors said he received limousine services, free use of private office space, discounted rates for events and fundraisers at Singh’s venues.

February 2016


Prosecutors and defense meet to discuss a plea deal for Singh.

June 2016


Singh’s trial date set for Jan. 9, 2017.

August 2016


Singh released from jail after eight months of detention.

October 2016


Singh secretly pleads guilty to bribing Mangano, Venditto and an unnamed New York City official.

October 2016


Mangano and Venditto, along with Linda Mangano, were arrested and named in the 13-count indictment alleging extortion, bribery, fraud and obstruction charges.

Jan. 4, 2017


Singh’s federal trial is delayed indefinitely.

July 13, 2017


Mangano lets deadline pass to submit ballot petitions to run for another term as county executive as a Republican.

Nov. 21, 2017


Venditto is indicted on 21 new federal criminal charges involving securities fraud in the town’s public offering of more than $1 billion in securities between 2010 and 2016. The superseding indictment adds 21 more counts to the alleged corruption and kickback case that Eastern District federal prosecutors had already brought against Venditto, Edward Mangano and Linda Mangano. The Manganos are not accused in the securities fraud.

Dec. 5, 2017


Federal judge delays for two months the corruption trial of the Manganos and Venditto because Venditto’s attorneys said they needed more time to prepare to fight the additional securities fraud charges.

Jan. 17, 2018


Federal prosecutors reveal they have given the Manganos and Venditto more than a million pages of documents and other materials that include emails from a co-conspirator and surveillance videos from Mangano’s home. The revelations were contained in the government’s response to a pretrial motion by Venditto’s attorney involving the securities fraud charges.

Jan. 24, 2018


The government unseals Singh’s plea and related documents as part of discovery disclosed to Mangano and Venditto as part of their own federal corruption charges.

Nassau tax assessments: How even some winners lost out

Since Nassau County’s assessment system overhaul began, thousands of homes each year have been granted what are essentially automatic assessment reductions by the county’s Assessment Review Commission. Thousands of other homes, though, are excluded from the overhaul component that leads to the automatic reductions, called Carry Forward.

A Newsday investigation published earlier this year exposed a shift of $1.7 billion in taxes from property owners who won assessment challenges filed since the overhaul began in 2010 to those who did not, revealing what effectively have become two systems of taxation that are separate and unequal.

But Newsday’s ongoing probe of the overhaul has also uncovered disparate treatment even among those who did challenge regularly.

Thousands of homes have been deemed ineligible for essentially automatic assessment reductions of 5 to 9 percent each year granted under the largely unknown overhaul component called Carry Forward because they failed to meet changing criteria that have not been made public.

The excluded properties most frequently end up with smaller reductions or none at all, which often results in them having years of higher assessments and smaller tax savings than they otherwise would have had.

The chart below shows how much typical homeowners saved from 2010 to 2015, depending on when they first appealed their assessment during the overhaul.

Note: Savings amounts listed in the chart exclude tax firm fees Newsday calculated at 45 percent of first-year tax savings even though most large firms charge 50 percent. Newsday defined the “typical” homeowner as one whose savings and fees were in the middle or median of each group.

360 View: A summer day at Jones Beach

360 view: A summer day at Jones Beach

Watch as a Jones Beach lifeguard walks us through a day at the beach.

Alt Video TextPlay 360° Video

On Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017, Jones Beach Field 6 lifeguard captain Donald Kramer walked us through what a day is like at the beach, what he has to watch for in order to keep swimmers safe and how much fun it is to work at the beach. Many lifeguards, he said, consider it the best job they’ve ever had. (Credit: Newsday / Chris Ware)

Note: On mobile devices, the 360-degree video experience can be viewed only in the YouTube app.

360 View: Karaoke tailgating at the Jimmy Buffet concert at Jones Beach

360 View: Karaoke tailgating at the Jimmy Buffet concert at Jones Beach

The rain didn’t stop Jimmy Buffett fans from singing “Cheeseburger in Paradise” while tailgating in the parking lot at Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater before his concert on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017.

Alt Video TextPlay 360° Video

The rain didn’t stop Jimmy Buffett fans from singing “Cheeseburger in Paradise” while tailgating in the parking lot at Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater before his concert on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017. (Credit: Newsday / Raychel Brightman)

Note: On mobile devices, the 360-degree video experience can be viewed only in the YouTube app.

360 View: Walk the historic staircases of Sea Cliff

360 View: Walk the historic staircases of Sea Cliff

Watch as Sea Cliff administrator Bruce Kennedy tours the village’s historic staircases that lead to the beach.

Alt Video TextPlay 360° Video

Sea Cliff administrator Bruce Kennedy tours the village’s historic staircases that lead to the beach on Friday, July 21, 2017. Some staircases are under construction, part of a multiyear project to restore and rebuild the structures. (Credit: Newsday / Raychel Brightman, Danielle Siegel)

Note: On mobile devices, the 360-degree video experience can be viewed only in the YouTube app.

360 View: 2017 Long Island Marathon starting line

360 View: Start of the 2017 Long Island Marathon

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano sounded the horn to send the runners on their way.

Alt Video TextPlay 360° Video

Watch as thousands of runners took off at the start of the Long Island Marathon on Charles Lindbergh Boulevard in Uniondale on May 7, 2017. (Credit: Newsday / Jeffrey Basinger)

Note: On mobile devices, the 360-degree video experience can be viewed only in the YouTube app.

360 View: Glen Cove graffiti mansion tour

NASSAU

360 View: Glen Cove graffiti mansion tour

Nearly 150 artists from around the world painted the 9,000-square-foot house.

Alt Video TextPlay 360° Video

Take a 360 tour of a graffiti mansion, curated by The First City Project, a community group that invited artists from the area and around the world to turn a historic Glen Cove home into a canvas. (Credit: Newsday / Jeffrey Basinger)

Note: On mobile devices, the 360-degree video experience can be viewed only in the YouTube app.

Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale: From the Islanders to more than 31 Billy Joel concerts

It was the Islanders’ home. Billy Joel played there 31 times. Take a look at the memorable events at Uniondale’s Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum over its 43 years.

Test your Coliseum knowledge

Quiz

Test your Coliseum knowledge

See what you really know about the Coliseum, from the political rallies to the Islanders.

Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke

The final thaw

Video

The final thaw

Ice painter John Cirola and Zamboni drivers Thomas Walters and Kevin Capobianco participate in one final 'ice out' at Nassau Coliseum, where employees of the arena break apart and melt the rink's ice.

Islanders clean out their lockers

Gallery

Islanders clean out their lockers

The Islanders began cleaning out their Nassau Coliseum lockers for the final time April 29, 2015, after falling to the Washington Capitals in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

Islanders history quiz

Quiz

Islanders history quiz

Have you been following the Islanders since their inaugural season in 1972? Did you witness their four straight Stanley Cup championships in the 1980s? Take our Islanders history quiz.

AP / Bill Kostroun

Down come the banners

Video

Down come the banners

Workers at the Nassau Coliseum took down the banners, including the ones from the Islanders’ Stanley Cup seasons, from the rafters on May 8, 2015, as part of the process of renovating the arena.

What will you miss?

Vote

What will you miss?

With the Islanders moving from Nassau Coliseum to Barclays Center next season, what will you miss about the Old Barn?

Jim McIsaac

Memorable concerts

Gallery

Memorable concerts

A look at some of the top performances – Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Pink Floyd and more – over the past 43 years.

AP

'X Factor auditions'

Gallery

'X Factor auditions'

Thousands of ''X Factor'' hopefuls descended on Nassau Coliseum when season 3 auditions were held there in 2013.

Howard Schnapp

Final WWE show

Gallery

Final WWE show

WWE ''Monday Night Raw'' came to the current Nassau Coliseum for the final time on May 25, 2015.

Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara

'Monday Night Raw'

Video

'Monday Night Raw'

Fans attending the final WWE event at the Coliseum recall favorite wrestling moments that went down at the Old Barn.

Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara