Bingo, jobs and pensions

In the battle over who should fill the seven bingo inspector positions in Brookhaven, the big questions are overlooked.

Why does it matter who appoints them, the town clerk or council? State law doesn't say how towns should choose bingo inspectors, or pay them.

Brookhaven pays each inspector $16,000 per year, for a total of $112,000, and will reap about $60,000 in bingo revenue this year. Huntington has one inspector, paid $15,000; Babylon has three, earning $6,000 each; Islip has four, earning $8,400 to $9,800; Riverhead has one, earning $10 per hour, and Smithtown has two, earning $11.75 an hour.

Each town oversees differing numbers of bingo games, and Brookhaven may regulate the most, with 30 organizations conducting regular games at four locations.

The town clerk had been making the appointments, a system Councilman Dan Panico called "the last piece of unchecked patronage in town." Panico offered a law moving the appointive power to the town board, and it passed.

Why does it matter? Because the part-time jobs bring with them inclusion in the state pension system, a plum of great value to those who receive it, and those who bestow it.

While we argue about who can bestow pension and part-time job plums, we ignore the fact that they must be curtailed to forestall our economic demise. hN