Make Suffolk County’s Civil Service system free of politics

The drama over whether Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone would be forced to keep a personnel director whose term had expired ended last week when Alan Schneider resigned the position after 36 years. However, whether Suffolk County will get a Civil Service system free of favoritism and patronage is still an open question.

The chief personnel officer wields tremendous power, overseeing 47,500 Civil Service appointments in 278 towns, villages, fire districts and library districts. The officer is appointed to six-year terms, a structure intended to give him or her freedom from political pressure. And Schneider was an absolute master of every nook and cranny of the complicated and hidebound system.

His supporters, including all of Suffolk’s 10 town supervisors, painted his expertise as a benefit, and some say he worked to make a cumbersome system fairer. Still, there is no shortage of critics who contend the system is manipulated to give jobs and promotions to the politically connected rather than the most qualified. With county departments and other municipal entities doing some of the work of seeking, testing and hiring employees, such shortcomings aren’t entirely the last personnel director’s fault. But fixing them has to be the next one’s responsibility.

Last year, Bellone told Schneider that he would not be reappointed. But Schneider — 78, and collecting a $109,000-a-year pension in addition to his salary — insisted on staying, and that’s when the drama began.

Rich Schaffer, the Suffolk County Democratic Party chairman and Babylon Town supervisor, organized a letter of support for Schneider signed by all 10 town supervisors. Bellone then escalated the fight by naming Jo-Anne Taormina, a former North Hempstead Town chief of staff, to the $163,699-a-year job on the day Schneider’s term expired. The county legislature cried foul, arguing that state law allowed Schneider, who first retired 12 years ago, to stay as a holdover until it approved Bellone’s nominee. Bellone then put out a statement saying he hired outside counsel to investigate undisclosed “accusations” against Schneider. Schaffer and Schneider sued, winning a temporary reprieve, but word circulated that the investigation involved issues the personnel director had with his staff. By evening, Schneider had resigned.

Bellone, as is too often the case, did not follow proper procedure. He should have first nominated Taormina while letting Schneider stay in place through the process. If the legislature had denied Bellone his choice, he then could have better defended having Taormina show up in Schneider’s office. But the spectacle of Schaffer and his pals fighting furiously to perpetuate a Civil Service system that benefited the connected and disenfranchised minorities was ugly indeed.

The legislature must make sure that Taormina has the skills to modernize the office and make it flexible enough to fairly evaluate applicants for jobs and promotions. And Taormina must put in place safeguards that will eliminate politicization and discrimination. And then let’s all move on.— The editorial board