By Dave Vieser
As Nassau County lurches towards two key budget submission deadlines, a series of maneuvers by the county administration has left lawmakers confused and angry, and some employees wondering whether they will still have a job next year.
Meanwhile, the state oversight panel, known as NIFA (Nassau Interim Finance Authority) is monitoring every step, poised to move in and establish a full control-board format if the county is unable or unwilling to clean up its own fiscal house of horrors.
Within the past several weeks:
- Sources within the county revealed that County Executive Thomas S. Gulotta had reached an understanding in principle with the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) over a new five-year labor contract which will provide a 20.5% wage increase over the life of the contract. The purported $60 million savings included in the tentative pact was immediately greeted with skepticism by legislators and fiscal analysts.
- On virtually the same day, Mr. Gulotta sent letters to some of the county's veteran appointees suggesting that they strongly consider early retirement options since their jobs may be consolidated or eliminated next year.
- The county legislature unanimously rejected Mr. Gulotta's proposed community college budget, opting instead to support a concept proposed by the college board of trustees which blends a modest tuition hike with a minimal property tax increase.
All of these actions occurred against the backdrop of two key deadlines: September 5, by which a proposed budget outline for next year and a multi-year spending plan were due to be submitted to NIFA; and September 15, when, by law, Mr. Gulotta must submit his proposed 2001 budget to the county legislature.
Police contract
Sources within the Gulotta administration and the PBA confirmed that an "understanding in principle" has been reached which would increase police salaries by over 20% while producing savings of as much as $60 million over a five year labor contract. Salaries of Nassau police officers are among the highest in the nation, with the average office earning about $90,000 annually.
The officers also enjoy lucrative overtime provisions and other specialty pay provisions. It is unclear if, and how, those payments would be impacted by the new deal.
Under the terms of the tentative pact, which would go into effect January 1 of 2001, the police salaries would be frozen for the first six months, then increase 4% for the last six months of the first year. They would then rise by 4% each year until the fifth, or final year of the contract (2005), when salaries would increase by 4.5%. In contrast, the CPI, or annual cost-of-living increase has averaged about 2.3% over the past five years.
The County Executive insists that savings included in the pact would bring the actual cost of the average annual salary increases down to a level below the 2.3% CPI figure. He also indicated that he would be invoking a similar bargaining position with other unions, whereby any increase in benefits must be coupled with givebacks and other measures designed to produce a like amount in taxpayer savings.
The savings in the police pact would be generated by staffing certain positions, currently filled by police officers, with lower-paid civilians, reductions in the police force and changes in the minimum staffing levels.
Reaction from county legislators, who must OK the deal, was fast, furious and overwhelmingly negative.
"Giving a 20 percent increase to the highest paid police force in the United States, when this county is hovering between fiscal collapse and a control board...that's the kind of nonsense that got us here," said Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa), the county legislature's minority leader.
Majority Leader Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) also has significant reservations. She said that, while neither she nor her fellow legislators had seen any tentative deal, there would have to be a very thorough analysis before it was even brought to a vote. "We would need very hard evidence that the givebacks are real before we could ever agree to this type of labor agreement, especially at this crucial time in the county's history."
The deal also did not impress County Comptroller Fred Parola. "This county has been out-foxed and out-negotiated for years, and if four percent a year becomes seven percent with fringes and overtime, that would put a tremendous strain on the budget", he said.
The Gulotta letter
While police officers may soon see their pay increase, other county employees may have no pay at all. In a letter sent to 87 senior county appointees, County Executive Gulotta is urging them to seriously consider taking retirement incentives or face the possibility of not having a job next year.
"We are trying to deliver quality county services at a reduced cost" said Mr. Gulotta in his letter. "That may include the merger and/or elimination of departments which could result in the loss of your position."
The letters, which arrived on virtually the same day that Mr. Gulotta's tentative 20% pay hike pact with police was leaked to the media, left some county officials scratching their heads at the mixed signals being sent out from Mineola.
"On the one hand, he (Gulotta) wants to give the richest police officers in the country more money, while he tells other veteran hard working people in other departments to be prepared to lose their jobs? It makes no sense at all, and just shows the desperate mode prevailing at 1 West Street" said one senior county worker who is taking the early retirement incentive and wished to remain anonymous.
While the retirement options being offered to county employees are generating a significant response, the timing and the tenor of the letter infuriated some lawmakers.
"I am deeply disturbed about this letter," said Majority leader Jacobs. "The county is losing so many key people in every department. We are hearing that public works will have only two engineers left; that planning is going to be decimated. These are serious times for this county. Its one thing to offer a retirement incentive but we should not be literally pushing experienced, loyal workers out the door while decimating county services."
College budget
The county legislature wore bi-partisan robes in August and shot down a Gulotta proposal which would have increased tuition for students but frozen taxes. Instead, the legislators approved a $133 million budget which retains the $50 tuition increase, but also hikes the average homeowner's property taxes by about $4 annually.
"It is the general belief of all legislators, on both sides of the aisle, that the county executive's proposal was fiscally irresponsible and shortsighted, and quite possibly illegal," said Majority Leader Jacobs. "His plan ignored the advice of countless fiscal experts, including his own, and we will have no part of it."
With a clear chasm between the county executive and the legislature, veteran observers seriously question how an agreement can be reached over the upcoming budget. "The county faces some of the toughest fiscal problems in its history, no one is getting along with Gulotta, and employee morale is at rock bottom" said one Republican legislative source. "It's not a pretty picture."
