At its August 24th meeting in Hauppauge, the Suffolk County Legislature unanimously approved a resolution introduced by Legislator Jon Cooper (D-Huntington) that will prohibit any company or individual that has been found guilty of corruption from doing business with the county.

Cooper's bill will require any individual or company looking to enter into a contract with Suffolk County to first provide written representation that they have not been convicted of any corruption-related crime within the past ten years. The offenses covered include bribery, extortion, theft, fraud, sabotage and bid-rigging.

" There clearly should be the strongest possible prohibition on the county doing business with people convicted of bribery, extortion, bid-rigging and other forms of corruption," Cooper said. "This reform measure will go a long way towards restoring public confidence in the integrity of our governmental operations."

The legislation will require the county to immediately nullify a contract upon finding that the individual or company holding the contract had been convicted of corruption. In addition, the contracting company or individual will be subject to fines of up to $1,000 and/or a year of imprisonment if found to have knowingly violated the terms of the law .