80 vacancies in Nassau assessment office, despite Curran vow to beef up staff

Despite promises by County Executive Laura Curran to hire more staff to handle the recent countywide reassessment, Nassau has 80 funded vacancies in the assessment department, according to a new report from the county legislature’s budget review office.

Since last June, the county has added 12 positions to the department, including the hiring of Assessor David Moog, bringing the total to 123 employees instead of the budgeted 203, financial reports show.

Altogether, Nassau has a total of 370 vacant budgeted positions throughout county government, budget review reported Wednesday. The office projected a $35 million salary surplus this year.

“The open but vacant positions provide some financial flexibility to the administration; however, it is hoped that the lower head count will not impact department operations,” budget review Director Maurice Chalmers wrote.

As of March 1, the county had 7,188 full-time employees, compared with the 7,558 positions budgeted, Chalmers said.

Curran spokeswoman Christine Geed confirmed in an email that the surplus is intended to cover new union contracts. But she would not confirm the amount, saying, “We still have not reviewed the report.”

All five major county union contracts expired at the end of 2017. Negotiations were delayed by legislative objections to Curran’s choice for lead negotiator and a court fight over union members’ longevity payments.

Chalmers said several departments have many vacant positions, including:

• 192 open funded positions in the police department
• 64 vacancies in probation
• 69 unfilled positions at the corrections center
• 42 open jobs in public works

Jerry Laricchiuta, president of Nassau’s Civil Service Employees Association, said Wednesday, “We are in a crisis in staffing in many departments.” He said he made an agreement with Curran last March to add a total of $1.2 million in base salaries to the assessment review commission and assessment department in 2018, not including Moog’s $165,000 salary, and another $1 million in 2019. He said those numbers have not been met.

Throughout last year, Curran said she planned to beef up assessment staffing in order to deal with constituent concerns and questions about reassessment. Tentative new assessments were issued Jan. 2 and they become final next year.

Frank Moroney, spokesman for the Republican majority on the county legislature, said Curran’s “failure to hire appropriate staff sheds light on why there were so many errors and missteps in this assessment process. It also explains why the Department of Assessment has been unable to address the substantive errors identified by so many homeowners.”

Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) said in a statement, “The report states there is sufficient money to fill these vacant salary lines. The administration should move forward expeditiously in the hiring process and address any obstacles that may have hindered efforts to properly staff the Assessment Department.”

James McDermott, Police Benevolent Association president, and Brian Sullivan, Nassau’s Corrections Officers Benevolent Association president, said separately they needed to analyze the report before commenting.

But Sullivan said, “We could probably use another 100 correction officers on the job.”

He said short staffing was forcing some officers to work double shifts on a regular basis. “Last summer was horrendous for our guys,” Sullivan said.