Nassau trims some retired cops' salaries

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano. (Dec. 19, 2011) Credit: Howard Schnapp

By ROBERT BRODSKY AND MATTHEW CHAYESrobert.brodsky@newsday.com,matthew.chayes@newsday.comJanuary 12, 2012

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has cut the salaries of 17 retired cops -- all men -- who work as part-time clerk-typists in the police department following concerns that they were paid significantly more than women doing the same jobs.

Nearly all the police officer retirees had been making more than $33 an hour working two days a week, just under the amount that would have prevented them from working and taking a pension without a waiver.

The 13 other part-time clerk-typists in the department were making from $14.50 to $22 an hour, according to data provided by County Comptroller George Maragos. Only one of those was a retired officer.

Setting equal pay

After a monthlong examination by Newsday and concerns raised by the public employee union, Mangano set the pay of all the clerks at $21.24 an hour. That is the highest salary a clerk who had never been a police officer had been earning.

The ex-cops were hired during the administration of former County Executive Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat, who declined to comment.

"The facts are clear: The former administration gave a sweetheart deal to a selected few cops," said Mangano, a Republican. "This disparity in pay gives government a black eye. This is simply another example as to why a law enforcement professional from outside the Nassau County Police Department was appointed to serve as its commissioner."

Mangano hired Thomas Dale, a former NYPD chief of personnel, as Nassau's new police commissioner last month.

But Nassau's top Democratic lawmaker said the change is too little, too late.

"The county executive should be ashamed of himself for not doing his due diligence," said Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport). "Where has he been for the past two years?"

Dale will decide if the former officers should be kept on the payroll, said Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin.

Thomas Krumpter, first deputy police commissioner, said "the department will take the appropriate steps to assure there is no disparity in pay between part-time employees that hold the same part-time civil service titles."

Nearly all the retired cops were hired in 2009 after an agreement with the rank-and-file officers' union, the Police Benevolent Association, to civilianize the clerk jobs, which had been filled by full-time police officers.

A senior law enforcement source defended the practice of filling the clerk jobs with former officers, saying they have unique technical expertise in areas such as arrest processing and computers.

The source, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the topic, said the hires made it possible for Nassau to reduce expenses by cutting full-time jobs and saving on benefits, including health care. "This saved the county $7 million since the inception of the program -- $3 million a year," the source said.

Economic crunch

But with Nassau facing a $310 million deficit, and Mangano considering whether to shut two police precincts and impose steep budget cuts on law enforcement, critics called the hires counterproductive.

"This is the kind of behavior that harms the credibility of the department and of the whole county administration," said Maragos, who pledged to investigate the issue. "It destroys the public's trust in government."

Maragos said such employees should work only for brief transitional periods and when they have unique experience. "But there is no excuse for this," he said.

Last month, the county laid off a total of 264 civil service workers, including more than 60 full- and part-time clerks, according to data submitted to the county legislature. The average starting salary for a full-time clerk/typist 1 is $23,540 per year, union officials said.

Of the 30 police employees with the part-time clerk title, 26 are also collecting pensions, according to the State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office. They include 18 retired police officers and eight retired Nassau civilian employees. Because those clerks earn less than $30,000 a year, under state law they can continue collecting their state pension without first obtaining a waiver to rejoin the department.

The average annual pension for the retired cops is nearly $108,000, while the pensions of the other retirees is $36,000 per year, records show.

The clerk position involves typing, correspondence and filing, according to the job description. The minimum educational job qualification is a high school diploma.

The clerks included former captains, sergeants, detectives and lieutenants. "You don't need to carry a can of mace and a pair of handcuffs for your job as a clerk-typist," said Civil Service Employee Association president Jerry Laricchiuta, who represents all the clerks.