CSEA: Nassau plan would breach labor pact

As Nassau lawmakers on Monday consider hundreds of layoffs, including 105 public works employees, the county is planning to hire outside contractors with borrowed money to do some of their jobs, union leaders contend.

Civil Service Employees Association officers told legislators last week that County Executive Edward Mangano's administration has notified them that Nassau will use consultants to perform work now done by union members, which they say violates their labor contract.

They also said the consultant costs are being charged to capital funds -- borrowed money meant to pay for long-term projects and repaid over many years.

Robert Campo, CSEA's public works unit president, said in an interview that the county is paying consultants two to three times what county employees earn to perform the same work, but the costs are hidden in the county's debt service.

"This is smoke and mirrors," Campo said. "He's [Mangano] going to reduce the budget because it will not show up in the budget. It's going to be spread out 20 or 30 years to pay this. It's like using a credit card to pay the contractors."

Mangano aide Brian Nevin denied the complaint. "These allegations are completely without merit," he said. "Rather than make false accusations, CSEA should stay focused on negotiating labor savings for taxpayers."

County Comptroller George Maragos said his office "will ensure that contracts do not violate any labor agreements with respect to outsourcing. Also, as a policy we do not allow operating contractual services to be paid from borrowed funds."

The CSEA provided records to Newsday that show the county plans to award at least five capital contracts, worth more than $13 million, for engineering, inspection and construction scheduling work even as Nassau prepares to lay off 22 county engineers and inspectors.

Another capital contract would hire a horticulturist for an "on-call" park design project. The consultant would be paid about $95 an hour. Campo says the work now is done by a $37-an-hour union landscape architect, who is on the layoffs list.

Governments usually sell long-term bonds to pay for long-lived projects, such as bridges or buildings, that can be used for the 20 to 30 years it takes to pay back the borrowed money with interest. Borrowed money can be used to pay salaries of workers on such projects. However, financial experts frown on spending borrowed money for routine repairs or maintenance because future taxpayers pay for benefits they don't receive.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has complained that one reason for New York's current financial troubles is that capital money was spent on operating expenses, spokesman Mark Johnson said. Without addressing the CSEA complaint, he said that, in general, using borrowed money "to plug budget gaps is not a fiscally sound practice."

Allegations of improper use of capital money were made earlier this year in Nassau when an information technology manager alleged before he was laid off in July that the county had paid for routine computer network maintenance with borrowed funds. The county has denied the allegation, which is being investigated by the legislature's Budget Review Office.

Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick) said, "We're laying off workers because we don't have enough operating revenue and instead we're borrowing to pay outside contractors to do our routine work. The result is our children and grandchildren are paying for this year's daily work."