State put freeze on hiring, then added 51,464 people
By Delen Goldberg / The Post-Standard
www.syracuse.com
March 28, 2010, 5:00AM________________________
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The New York TimesGov. David A. Paterson arrives at the state Capitol in Albany for a meeting with his Cabinet in March.
Gov. David Paterson ordered a “hard” hiring freeze in state government nearly two years ago, declaring that only “absolutely essential” positions be filled.
But state officials hired 51,464 people at a cost to taxpayers of more than $1 billion in salaries, plus fringe benefits, since that decree on July 30, 2008.
The hires include sons of elected officials, a close friend of the governor’s and a slew of highly paid political appointees.
Former Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll, for example, makes $155,000 a year in an environmental job the governor created for him. Paterson hired an executive assistant at $178,000 a year, a special assistant at $135,000 a year and a scheduler at $105,000 a year. A man responsible for blogging and tweeting for the Senate was hired by the Democratic majority at $120,000 a year.
Other state agencies hired photography assistants, tree pruners and ski school instructors, often with approval from Paterson’s Division of Budget.
Two summers ago, Paterson announced a “hard” hiring freeze as the nation’s economy soured and the state’s budget gap grew.
“You must rethink your hiring practices,” Paterson told agency heads April 21, 2008, in a memo. “Only job openings absolutely essential to your agency’s operations and protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers are to be filled. Positions that do not fit this criterion must be left vacant.”
In fact, state government employs fewer workers than it did when Paterson became governor. From January 2008 to January 2010, the state work force shrank by 1,855 people, or 0.8 percent, according to the Comptroller’s Office. During roughly that same time, private-sector jobs declined 4 percent statewide.
But the state could’ve cut more. A close look at the new hires shows the state did not take full advantage of the natural exodus of employees.
In a typical year, about 6,000 people retire from the state work force, according to the Department of Civil Service. Several thousand more leave because of resignation, termination or death. In 2008 alone, 9,753 people left state government jobs.
So, it’s likely that the state has had more than 12,000 vacancies since the hiring freeze, yet reduced the payroll by fewer than 2,000 people.
“They haven’t really cut very many people off the payroll,” said Lise Bang-Jensen, senior policy analyst for the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a taxpayers’ watchdog group. “It seems they missed an opportunity to reduce the work force further by hiring so many people.”
In his State of the State address Jan. 7, 2009 — six months after the hiring freeze took effect — Paterson again warned that New York was in peril.
“We must sacrifice what we want today so that we can pay for what we need tomorrow,” Paterson said.
And, he said, “Now is our moment for leadership.”
That day, the state hired 51 people, including 20 secretaries and executive assistants. The next day: 1,266 people, mostly at public colleges. The day after: 40 people.
A review of hirings since the freeze shows the public colleges, tax and labor departments and the comptroller hired the most people, while the prison, mental health and developmental disabilities departments — all agencies on the front lines of keeping people safe and healthy — made the largest work force reductions.
To be fair, Paterson has no say in hirings made by the state colleges; the offices of the Legislature, comptroller and attorney general; and a few other state agencies. About 21,000 of the hires were made by the public colleges.
Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook pointed out that Paterson cut 26 workers from his executive office since the freeze took effect, for a savings of $130,000 a year.
Budget spokesman Matt Anderson said jobs at agencies such as the tax department pay for themselves because workers collect revenue. Labor Department salaries and benefits are paid mostly with federal revenue, he said.
“Some of these are seasonal. A lot of these are outside of executive branch control,” Anderson said. “Even during a hiring freeze, there are hires because you have to fill essential positions.”
Anderson categorized essential positions as those protecting public health or safety or those needed to keep agencies running smoothly.
Patronage
Matt Driscoll, Syracuse’s former mayor, landed a plum job last year as president and CEO of the state Environmental Facilities Corp., which helps businesses and municipalities finance “green” projects.
Driscoll, who like the governor is a Democrat, was chosen for the $155,000-a-year position over Matthew Millea, who had served as the agency’s acting president since January 2008. Millea remains at the authority under Driscoll as executive vice president, making $143,582 a year, the same amount he made in past years.
When Millea was acting president, he had no executive vice president.
Driscoll’s campaign committee contributed $8,500 to Paterson’s campaign since June 2008 — $1,500 of which was donated the day Driscoll was confirmed to his new position and six days after Paterson announced the appointment. Driscoll’s committee also gave $13,654 to the Spitzer-Paterson campaign committee in recent years.
Although he spearheaded several green projects in Syracuse, Driscoll has no environmental science background and no college degree. By comparison, Millea was former Gov. George Pataki’s director of environmental programs and served as a legislative assistant at the state Department of Environmental Conservation. He graduated from Siena College and holds a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University.
The Environmental Facilities Corp. referred all questions about Driscoll’s hire to the governor’s office. Anderson said Driscoll qualified for the job because of his experience as Syracuse mayor and his strong environmental record.
“We feel he’s clearly an asset to the organization,” Anderson said.
When asked why the agency needs two administrators when it had functioned with one, Anderson said: “This is an appropriate structure.”
Jobs for pals
Paterson also hired Gabrielle Turner, an ex-girlfriend, to a top position in the state’s Washington office, at an annual salary of $88,000.
Turner hadn’t worked in politics or government for 15 years, except for a two-week period in which she volunteered for Barack Obama, according to The New York Times. Her hiring caused divisions in the Washington office. Within weeks of Turner arriving, several staffers quit, The Times reported.
Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada, one of the people behind the Senate coup that brought state government to a halt for five weeks in the summer, hired more than a dozen people immediately after the coup, including his son, employees of his nonprofit health care center and several political aides.
Steve Pigeon, for instance, was hired as Espada’s general counsel, at $140,000 a year. Pigeon worked with billionaire Tom Golisano to engineer Espada’s defection and to help him land the job of Senate majority leader.
Espada also hired his son, Pedro G. Espada, to a new Senate deputy director job, making $120,000 a year, only to see him resign days later as the state attorney general investigated the legality of the appointment.
A new Web guru
At a time when many of the state’s private businesses were laying off workers, slashing wages and cutting benefits, New York hired 699 people to jobs that pay $100,000 a year or more.
Christopher Sealey, a DJ and marketing maven who graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, was hired in February 2009 as director of special projects for the state Senate. Sealey is responsible for new-media operations, such as blogging and developing the Senate Web site, and for designing marketing materials for town hall meetings and presentations. Taxpayers pay him $120,000 a year.
Three months after he was hired, Sealey told New York Magazine: “I’m a little shocked that the government would want someone like me. ... I’d never been interested in politics.”
Sealey, who lives in Manhattan, said he spends half his time in Albany.
Sealey’s tweets have since been made private, after he irked people with several comments. Among the offending posts:
“Accidentally hung up on an entire conference call the moment he finished speaking. NYSenate, meet Chris Sealey, the newest ‘team playa,’ hah” and “Hey Senate bosses ... Two words: ‘Company Car’”
Senate officials would not allow Sealey to be interviewed. But Austin Shafran, spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said Sealey’s job is necessary.
“These types of positions — graphic design, creative services, conference service — have been part of the state work force for years,” Shafran said. “Anyone that goes after someone as dedicated and talented as Chris Sealey has no appreciation for the value that he brings to the state and the work that he does.”
Shafran said Sealey’s job was an existing position, but he couldn’t say whom Sealey replaced.
Even Senate Republicans, who regularly point out that Democratic leadership increased spending by $12 billion this year, hired at least 87 new people in 2009 — all while in the minority.
“Senate Republicans were provided with some additional resources as a result of the rules reforms passed last year,” spokesman Scott Reif said. “Those resources were approved by Senate Democrats and were an acknowledgment that more needed to be done within the Senate to achieve a more equitable division of staff resources.”
Contact Delen Goldberg at dgoldberg@syracuse.com or 470-2274.
© 2010 syracuse.com. All rights reserved.
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and you guys wonder why taxpayers are so pissed off? Paying a person 120,000 a year to send twitter comments?
GMAFB!
