White Plains, NY – Several Democratic caucus members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL) questioned today County Executive Rob Astorino’s request for adding three new, unjustified positions to the County payroll that were readily identified as political hires.
Westchester’s Human Resources Commissioner Kerry Oristano noted today at a joint meeting of the BOL Law and Labor, Parks, Planning & Housing (LPPH) Committees charged with examining the Astorino Administration’s request to amend the County pay plan for 2014 that the three positions—a junior administrative aide and assistant administrative aide for the County Executive’s office and an administrative aide for the First Deputy Commissioner of the County’s Department of Social Services (DSS)—would be non-competitive, so that individuals could be hired without taking requisite civil service tests that would be required for applicants of similar positions in their respective job groups.
Because of the sensitive nature of the positions, Oristano stated that the County Executive would prefer if the jobs were in non-competitive categories and could be given to “people they know.”
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Approval of the three positions could be difficult. Two Democratic legislators, Chairman Michael Kaplowitz (D-Somers) and Pete Harckham (D-North Salem), chair of the BOL LPPH Committee, voted to move the pay plan amendment out of committee “without prejudice,” thus signaling their reservations about whether they’d vote to approve the positions in the future. Two Democratic legislators, BOL Majority Leader Catherine Borgia (D-Ossining) and MaryJane Shimsky (D-Hastings-on-Hudson), voted against the amendment in the LPPH Committee.
“County personnel decisions should be made in terms of necessity and economic viability,” said Borgia. “The Administration’s attempt to bring on staff members in areas where there is no demonstrable need seems to be an abuse of taxpayer dollars.”
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The assistant administrative aide position for the County Executive would receive a salary between $48,000 and $60,500, while the junior administrative aide position would receive between $41,000 and $50,000. The DSS position would receive between $58,900 and $73,200.
One of the reasons why the Democratic BOL caucus opposed Astorino’s 2013 Proposed Budget was because it contained 57 political jobs at a cost to taxpayers of more than $5.4 million—an average salary per annum of nearly $97,000. Meanwhile over 120 positions in the County were set to be cut.
“It’s wrong for the County Executive to lay off experts on flooding and infrastructure repairs in the County workforce and then bring on more political hires,” said Shimsky. “This is unacceptable, and I will not vote for it.”
