Mea Knapp graduated from St. John’s Law School in 1985. After several years as an associate at Ingerman Smith, LLC, where she practiced primarily in the areas of real estate and construction litigation for school districts, villages and fire departments as well as private clients, Ms. Knapp began a long career in government becoming General Counsel to the Islip Community Development Agency. Her arrival there marked the beginning of the Agency’s most ambitious undertaking, the development of a 375 unit affordable housing community, College Woods. This project won national awards for its innovative financing and the unprecedented cooperation of federal, state, county, town and Agency resources used to condemn a severely blighted community, relocate a limited number of residents, rehabilitate housing for existing residents and construct a new community for eligible new residents. During her tenure, the Agency also built a much-needed shopping center in another blighted area in a public-private partnership.
Going to the County of Suffolk and working in several different capacities, culminating as Deputy County Attorney, she was the County Executive’s point person or the County Attorney’s lead counsel on numerous County initiatives including the County’s efforts to bring a new Federal Courthouse to Central Islip; the agreements to secure minor league baseball, the Long Island Ducks, and to construct Citibank Park; the Suffolk County Electrical Agency’s efforts to test the limits of the deregulation of the electrical industry in the early
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1990s; and the drafting and passage of legislation to create County incentives for construction of affordable housing. As a member of the County Sewer Agency, she was instrumental in the creation of several new sewer districts and the extensions of the Southwest Sewer District.
As President/CEO of the Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation, a state-wide corporation created to oversee legalized gambling on horseracing, she assumed leadership at a trying time. After suffering well publicized losses, the former President was forced to resign, leaving a demoralized workforce and diminishing profits. Ms. Knapp oversaw a turnaround that featured the opening of two new facilities over a three year period and an upsurge in revenues that far outstripped the other five State wide corporations.
She served as the Public Administrator for Suffolk County for several months before becoming Counsel to the Suffolk Legislature, a challenging position as attorney for eighteen elected officials of different political parties and divergent views, again coming to a position at a time of change after the retirement of a three term County Executive. In this position, she drafted successful legislation that included instituting “green” standards for certain County construction projects and the creation of a new land acquisition program, “SOS” (Save Open Space).
After leaving the County Legislature, Ms. Knapp completed her government service at the Town Attorney’s Office in Islip. Her last assignment was to bring cable television competition to the Town by negotiating an initial franchise agreement with Verizon. This was noteworthy in that it was the first of fifty PSC-approved franchise agreements to guarantee the “build out” of the system.
She has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Long Island Housing Partnership Regional Lending Consortium, SUNY/Old Westbury College Foundation and the Second Department Judicial Screening Committee. She is the only woman to serve in the positions as President/CEO of Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation, as Public Administrator and as Counsel to the Legislature.
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