Mangano boosts election board budget by $3M

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano is increasing the budget of the county elections board by $3.1 million next year as he moves to close museums, reduce legal services and consolidate police precincts.

Mangano is proposing the increase despite a pledge by top aide Rob Walker in April that the county executive would cut spending at the patronage-heavy board. Two weeks ago, outside financial consulting firm Grant Thornton recommended the board's expenses be pared by as much as $4 million, and that some highly paid positions be eliminated.

Instead, Mangano has proposed a 22.5 percent hike in the board's budget -- from $13.8 million to $16.91 million next year -- at a time when he is asking many county agencies to cut their budgets by 15 percent and has imposed a hiring freeze.

Election commissioners say they also may have to add staff next year, though they will try to keep within their budgets.

County officials defend the increase as necessary for next year's primaries and presidential election: additional dollars are required to print ballots for new electronic voting machines.

They also point out that there will be a $179,000 reduction in personnel expenses -- 1.3 percent of the budget -- with 46 fewer part-time employees.

Critics object to increase

But critics say Mangano should be slashing spending for politically hired election appointees when he is proposing large service cuts and hundreds of layoffs elsewhere.

Comptroller George Maragos, who has been asked to cut his spending by 15 percent, said, "The 23 percent increase being proposed for the Board of Elections is not in line with the objective to reduce expenses countywide and to have shared sacrifice by all departments."

"It's so overloaded there," said Gene Clark of the Rockville Centre Tea Party Patriots. "Get rid of . . . the cronyism, the nepotism."

Though funded with taxpayer dollars, the election board is run by the county's two major political parties, which split the money allocated by the county executive and county legislature. By state law, the board has a Republican and a Democratic commissioner chosen by their parties' leaders. Employees work at the pleasure of the commissioners.

"More than a dozen employees have base compensation in excess of $100,000; compensation generally runs higher for this department than others of a similar nature," wrote Grant Thornton, hired by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the state monitoring board that controls Nassau's finances.

Although Mangano, a Republican, imposed a hiring freeze last December and NIFA mandated a wage freeze in March, elections employees have been hired and received salary increases since then, county records show.

Newsday found that five elections employees received pay hikes after NIFA imposed the wage freeze.

In April, Newsday reported that the election board had hired 17 full-time employees after Mangano froze hiring.

Deputy County Executive Rob Walker said then that Mangano could not stop commissioners from hiring within their budget but predicted Mangano would cut election spending for 2012.

"There will be a decrease in their budget," Walker said.

Board hires 5 others

Since then, Grant Thornton reported, the election board has hired five more full-time employees.

"Our understanding of the law is that once the Board of Elections receives its budget, the two commissioners hire and fire at their pleasure," Republican elections commissioner Louis Savinetti said. "We've terminated people and hired different people. We are within the confines of the budget we were given in terms of personnel."

Next year, he said, "I expect to fire people and hire people to do the job I need them to do. . . . Whatever the county legislature ends up allocating to the Board of Elections, we will do our best to comply with their budget."

Three new Democratic appointees are pending. "They're all within budget," Democratic elections commissioner William Biamonte said. "We had higher-salaried people who left."

Next year, he said, "I will only hire people if people leave and they're within budget." He noted that the presidential primary in April, the general primaries in September and the November general election all must be staffed next year. "We're going to need the people," he said.

Said Biamonte: "This is necessary patronage to ensure fair elections. The only people who should be working here are strong advocates for their political party. They work side-by-side, making sure everything is done properly and voters get fair and honest elections."

NASSAU COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS

Total budget:

Adopted 2011: $13,801,646

Proposed 2012: $16,918,147

Personnel:

2011: $12,370,492

2012: $12,192,047

Contractual Services:

2011: $549,000

2012: $1,046,500

Copying, printing:

2011: $13,998

2012: $2,192,400

Employees*

Full-time 2011: 129

2012: 143

Part-time 2011: 50

2012: 4

Seasonal 2011: 22

2012: 0

* Subject to change to meet proposed 2012 personnel budget

Source: Nassau County