Letter: Running a lean Suffolk County

Newsday's article "No raises for three Levy aides" [News, July 27] gives the wrong impression that I was giving raises to three aides. Here are the facts.

One position filled was the replacement of the county's only labor relations director, without whom there can be no negotiations on contracts or concessions. The deputy taking over will indeed make more money than he did before, but still $30,000 less than his predecessor in that title. And yet this was reported as me giving an aide a raise.

Two other positions, one replacing a departing budget analyst in the middle of the budget season, and another assigned to processing red-light camera violations (and the $10 million in revenue they bring in) were given salaries approximating those they were replacing.

What was also omitted from the article is that the individual brought back as a county executive assistant is going to do the work of two aides who left the executive office within the last week and who will not be replaced. This administration has been run so lean that we have 33 percent fewer employees than my predecessors in a typical year.

Steve Levy, Hauppauge

Editor's note: The writer is the Suffolk County Executive.