Tim Sini aide continues to move up
Suffolk District Attorney Timothy Sini is asking the county legislature to create a new job title for his spokeswoman, Sheila Kelly, who has been on the job for only four months.
While the district attorney’s office described Kelly as “director of communications” when she was hired in January, her Civil Service job title is legislative liaison. The position pays $78,613 a year, a 17.4 percent increase from her former job as assistant to Sini when he served as county police commissioner.
Kelly would have a salary range of $71,000 to $106,384 annually if she were promoted to the new post of public information officer.
Kelly started with Suffolk in 2014 as a $31,850-a-year neighborhood aide in the labor department. Ten months later, she moved to the county executive’s office, where she worked primarily as a photographer at a salary of $39,754. In 2016, she became assistant to the police commissioner.
Justin Meyers, the district attorney’s chief of staff, defended the new job title, saying it is the same position used for press officers in district attorney’s offices in Nassau, Westchester and New York City. He said that while Kelly’s pay level hasn’t been determined, she will not be paid a “six-figure salary.”
However, Kelly is at top step in her current job title, and the move would put her on a path to reach the $106,000 salary over time with annual step increases for experience.