Nassau GOP moves ahead with layoff plans

Nassau Republican lawmakers on Monday moved ahead with plans to lay off 128 county workers despite a union warning that the cuts will cost more than they save and a heartfelt plea by a longtime employee to save her job.

"Who in God's name treats people like this?" asked a trembling Dee Palser, a 19-year county employee who said she has an adult autistic son who depends upon her. "My life is in your hands."

Over Democratic objections, the Rules Committee voted 4-3 along party lines to put Republican County Executive Edward Mangano's layoff plan before the full county legislature on June 28. If approved by the Republican-controlled legislature, the cuts would take effect two days later.

"This is a financial emergency situation," said Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa). "We face difficult decisions and difficult choices."

Mangano proposed laying off 130 union employees -- later amended to 128 -- to save about $10 million annually as he attempts to close a $176-million budget gap for 2011. The legislature's budget review office on Monday calculated this year's savings at about $3.7 million after deducting unemployment costs.

But Jerry Laricchiuta, president of the Civil Service Employees Association, said layoffs could cost more in the long run.

"You will not save money, you will lose money," said Laricchiuta, who represents the workers targeted for layoffs. "We're going to be in court saying, 'Nassau, you laid them off illegally.' "

He said the CSEA contract bars the county from hiring outside vendors to do the work performed by laid-off employees. He estimated the county will have to continue providing services for 90 percent of the job titles being eliminated. The titles include 59 from property tax assessment, 10 from information technology, 25 in parks, mostly from Old Bethpage Village Restoration, 13 in the county attorney's office and 21 from social services.

Laricchiuta said that during the county's last big round of layoffs, in the early 1990s, most of the affected workers challenged their terminations and were brought back or received "significant" cash awards.

Next week, to show lawmakers the "human factor," he said he will ask employees on the layoff list to testify.

Palser, a claims examiner in the county attorney's office who waited four hours to speak, said, "I am the human factor." She said she hadn't slept since Friday when she learned her title was being eliminated. "Please think about this," she pleaded. "You have 130 lives in your hands."