Jon Schneider becomes communications strategist for AME

Jon Schneider, a former top political aide to Democratic Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, has become a communications strategist for the county’s largest union, the 6,000-member Association of Municipal Employees.

Schneider, who started Sept. 1, will work part time for AME, consulting as well as taking on other private clients and continuing part-time work for Long Island University’s Global Institute, headed by former Democratic Rep. Steve Israel.

Dan Levler, Suffolk AME president, said Schneider’s “extensive experience ... brings a unique skill set that will help drive our communication goals.” The union declined to say how much Schneider is being paid.

Schneider’s hiring comes as the union has been without a contract for nearly 20 months.

The AME has boosted its political coffers in recent months, and its political action committee has $577,000. Its People for Political Responsibility committee, which can make unlimited direct political expenditures as long as it does not coordinate with candidates, has $361,000.

Schneider, 40, worked for Bellone from 2012 to 2017 as a deputy county executive. Earlier, he worked as an aide to former Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), and in 2012 served as Brookhaven Democratic chairman.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Dan Levler, president of the Suffolk County Association of Municipal Employees.