Spota, Sawicki slam Levy on hiring policy

In his harshest terms to date, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota Wednesday ripped County Executive Steve Levy for delaying the hiring of prosecutors to fill vacated positions.

Spota, testifying to the legislature's Ways and Means Committee on proposed legislation that would give the five countywide elected officials authority to fill funded positions in their departments, said Levy likes officials "to beg" for much-needed manpower.

"He wanted me to come over and beg" to replace the office's Gang Unit chief and delayed hiring a replacement for 10 weeks, Spota said. "I have to beg. That's what happens . . . That's the way the man is. I can't say anything else, I don't understand it."

Spota, Comptroller Joseph Sawicki, County Treasurer Angie Carpenter, Clerk Judith Pascale and an aide to Sheriff Vincent DeMarco spoke to the committee Wednesday in favor of legislation to give countywide elected officials authority to fill positions funded in the county's annual budget, a responsibility Levy now holds. The committee unanimously approved the bill. The full legislature could vote on the measure at its next meeting Tuesday.

Spota said he wasn't interested in a proposed compromise by Levy's budget director, Connie Corso, that she said would allow the five officials hiring authority if Suffolk has a "rosy" economic outlook.

Legis. Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Setauket), who sponsored the bill backed by Spota and the others, said the odds of Levy abiding by such a deal are slim.

"Is there anyone here," she asked, "who ever thinks the county executive will ever think there is a rosy picture in the local economy?"

Levy spokesman Dan Aug said the number of positions has increased in the district attorney's, sheriff's and comptroller's offices since 2003, while Levy had reduced the number of positions in the county executive's office. About 1,800 of the county's 10,500 positions are under control of the countywide officials, Aug said.

Aug declined to comment on Spota's specific comments about Levy, and the county executive did not make himself available for an interview. Instead, Levy, who is paying $75,000 from his campaign fund to air a TV ad this week fighting the proposal, said in a statement, "It is neither fair nor fiscally responsible for these five departments to fill all their positions while all the other departments, including my own, have to cut back in tough times."

Sawicki said Levy is "insulting" the five officials by forbidding them from making their own hiring decisions.

Sawicki said Levy retaliated against him for revealing Levy's attempt to hire a $61,000 personal photographer by eliminating eight positions from the comptroller's office in his proposed 2011 budget. The legislature reinstated the positions during the budget process.

Also Wednesday, Levy held a news conference to call for federal and state agencies to pay Suffolk $130 million he said it is owed in payments for contract agencies. He said the delayed payments are harming the county's cash flow.