Bellone to inherit budget cuts, fewer staff

Suffolk County Executive-elect Steve Bellone made "doing more with less" a campaign catchphrase.

Come Jan. 1, he'll confront that reality in his own office.

Under the approved 2012 budget, the number of top aides funded in the executive's office will drop by about 29 percent, from 38 to 27. Total executive department staff positions -- including youth, women's and minority liaisons -- will decline 15 percent, from 180 to 153.

Stepping into a county in fiscal crisis, with hundreds of employees funded just for the first half of 2012, Bellone also will have a cabinet half the size of County Executive Steve Levy's when he took office in 2004.

"We said we were going to have to streamline government," said Bellone, a Democrat. "So whatever we end up with, we'll deal with."

Bellone will have to efficiently manage the staff he has, said Levy, a Republican. "I wasn't seeking to leave the next executive with less people," he said, arguing that the positions in his budget not restored by the legislature could have been saved if unions had agreed to health care concessions. "It'll be tight, but it shouldn't have been this way."

But others noted that technology lessens the impact of staff cuts, producing efficiencies in constituent services, grant applications and other areas.

"You say, 'You're in charge of three departments. Your predecessor had one,' " said Richard Guardino Jr., Hofstra University's vice president for business development and the Republican town supervisor in Hempstead from 1998 to 2003.

"Resources are disappearing, but you can find synergies," said Guardino, who served on a state commission for local government efficiency.

County legislators whittled 710 layoffs in Levy's 2012 budget to 88, many among commissioners and higher-paid staff aides.

Majority Leader Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor) said the legislature's bipartisan budget-working group looked at Levy's high-level staff and "felt there was some fat to be cut."

"We're certainly cognizant of the fact Bellone will have less staff, and at the same time will be dealing with some very large problems," said Cooper, who is leaving because of term limits. "But dare I say, half the effort from the county executive's office dealt with his battles with the legislature."

Legis. Edward Romaine (R-Center Moriches), who had proposed further slicing executive staff to reinstate program funding, said, "I think there's sufficient number of people" for what Bellone needs to do.

Former Suffolk Executive Patrick Halpin, a Democrat, said Bellone may not want many aides between himself and department heads.

"In the end, it's going to come down to the county executive and 18 county legislators," Halpin said. "At this point, it's about political will, not the size of the staff."