The Nassau County Assessor is responsible for determining the fair market value for all real property -- residential, commercial and industrial -- within Nassau County annually. The assessment department collects and records information on more than 418,000 properties in the county for its assessment roll, with a collective value of more than $309 billion as of 2010.
The second-largest assessing entity in New York State after New York City, the Nassau County Assessor's Office validates building permits, maintains property records and tax maps, answers inquiries as they relate to real property and examines applications for property tax exemptions.
Property owners may also challenge their assessments at the office.
Home to the 19-member Nassau County Legislature, the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building is located on the corner of Old Country Road and Franklin Avenue. While the Legislative building has a Mineola address, the building is actually located within the boundaries of the Village of Garden City, which donated the four acres of land the building sits on.
Originally built as the Nassau County Court House, then-Governor of New York Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the building on July 13, 1900. A mural portraying the event is located near the building's main rotunda and a statue of the 26th U.S. President and 33rd Governor of New York is located in front of the building.
During the 1930s, a new courthouse was commissioned to be built on Old Country Road. The Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, but no efforts at restoration or renovation had been made until an extensive $63.5 million project was undertaken in 2002 and completed in 2008.
Located on the second floor of the State Supreme Court House, the Nassau Law Library first opened in 1962 along with the Court House and now has over 300,000 volumes at its disposal for law professionals to utilize. In addition to a "comprehensive" selection of law books from all types of practices, the library features a collection of microfiche rolls, periodicals and archives of law journals dating back to the 1970s. The library also has a limited subscription to the online law research database West Law and a complete subscription to the Lexis Nexis research database.
Six people work at this office, which is responsible for managing all of the property owned by Nassau County. The office is a "shared services" operation, coordinating the logistics and assisting in any movement of county employees and offices within Nassau from one place to another.
The Office of the County Clerk serves as clerk of both the Supreme Court of New York and the County Court of Nassau. The primary function of the Clerk is to provide access to official public records and documents for Nassau County residents, courts and legal professionals. Types of documents include land records, such as deeds, mortgages, judgments and liens, court files for criminal and civil matters, and licensing of notaries public and businesses.