Nassau DA Rice raises pay for 155 prosecutors

Saying prosecutors in her office make rock-bottom starting salaries and higher wages are essential to keep legal talent, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice has awarded raises to 155 of her 186 prosecutors.

The raises, which took effect Jan. 1, averaged 5.8 percent and totaled $775,000 of the office's $13.78-million payroll, according to documents provided by Rice, a Democrat.

She noted that the salaries of nonunion employees in her office had been frozen since 2008 and said the raises were essential to stop more prosecutors from leaving.

Rice, who declined a cost-of-living raise this year, said her office needs to compete with neighboring counties, all of which, with the exception of Brooklyn, offer higher starting salaries than Nassau.

Even with the raises, she said she was able to give $650,000 that was saved from unfilled positions back to the county - without making cuts in her office - to assist with its "growing economic difficulties."

County spokeswoman Katie Grilli-Robles said the county in general is not awarding noncontractual raises. She added that Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano declined a cost-of-living raise this year.

Stanley Klein, a political science professor at Long Island University's C.W. Post Campus, said Rice's reasons for the raises are good enough, but her timing is terrible.

"She's giving raises while the rest of the people are suffering deficits," said Klein, who is a Republican committeeman in Huntington. "That's stupid.

"It's true that her staff makes less than that in neighboring counties, but now is no time to make that up," he said.

The raises comes as Nassau County's financial situation is grave enough that officials are selling off property and asking for concessions in union contracts.

Mangano is facing a Thursday deadline to provide more budget details to the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority because of growing concerns that the state watchdog agency might take over the county's finances.

"Each elected official approves raises within their own department," Mangano said in a statement. "The county executive does not approve ADA raises. The administration only ensures each department stays within budget."

A Freedom of Information Request by Newsday seeking Nassau County raises outside the district attorney's office had not been filled Friday.

A spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota did not provide information about raises in his office, and a Freedom of Information Request filed by Newsday seeking that information had not been filled Friday.

Spokeswomen for the Nassau County Legislature's Republican majority and Democratic minority both declined to comment on the raises.

Prosecutors at all salary levels got raises, but a Rice spokeswoman stressed in a memo that the people making the least were getting the biggest raises. For example, almost 30 prosecutors who had been making salaries in the $50,000 range received $7,000-a-year raises. Several members of Rice's top staff who earn more than $120,000 were given raises of $3,000.

In the memo, spokeswoman Carole Trottere said 24 prosecutors left the office in 2010 - exactly double the number that departed in 2009. "Wage stagnation and insufficiency is the primary and many times sole factor for prosecutors leaving the office," she said.

James Carver, president of the Nassau Police Benevolent Association, whose union, among others, is being asked for $6.1 million in givebacks this year, said he has no problem with the raises.

"Sounds like they're helping the county out and getting a halfway decent raise," he said. "I wouldn't want anyone to criticize me if I did that."

With Carl MacGowan