Shelter deserves a deeper look
An American Staffordshire at the Town of Hempstead animal shelter in Wantagh Credit: J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The wildly well-compensated political players on the Town of Hempstead payroll are attracting a chorus of angry attention, again. This time it's because in 2010 the town's animal shelter had more employees making over $100,000 a year than ones in Boston, New York City and Chicago combined - and far more than other shelters on Long Island.
What do the employees do to earn so much? Apparently, for most of them, it's their willingness to be good soldiers for Republican causes. It doesn't seem to be their ability to care for animals or manage those who do, as evidenced by complaints about beaten and abused animals, a massive shake-up of the department and an investigation by the Nassau County district attorney's office.
Patronage, while not the best method to select employees, is a recognized way of doing business in Hempstead, accepted by town residents for decades. Charges of patronage don't tend to get taxpayers too riled up. But when they're coupled with incompetence, laziness or excessive pay and benefits, anger sometimes boils over.
Of the nine shelter employees earning more than $100,000 a year, six were elected to Nassau GOP committee seats in 2009, and eight have donated to the local party, the campaigns of Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray, or both.
Late last year, three volunteers alleged the shelter was abusing cats and dogs. The town said it found no such evidence, but barred the volunteers and asked the Nassau DA to investigate.
Murray has claimed that any problems at the shelter, which does not have a staff veterinarian in the ranks of those well-paid employees, are unrelated to the treatment and care of the animals - and she's launched an 11-point plan to improve the treatment and care of the animals.
Last month, the three barred volunteers filed a suit against the shelter alleging they were retaliated against for speaking out against "many instances of clear animal abuse and neglect" - including ignoring sick animals and leaving others on cold cement floors and in their own waste.
Incompetent patronage postings are old hat in Hempstead. Just over a year ago, a Republican committeeman hired to oversee the town-owned Uniondale cemetery was ordering bodies to be buried in the wrong places, then exhumed and reburied, without notifying anyone.
It's OK to get a meaningful job because of who you know, if you work hard at it. It's not OK not to do the job, or for that job to be a deception. And it's certainly not acceptable to mistreat animals or allow them to be mistreated.
Officials at the DA's office say they are mostly looking into administrative issues at the shelter, but a complete accounting of what these high-priced politicos do for a living and how the animals are being treated is what's called for. Hempstead spends five times what Chicago or New York City does per animal, and taxpayers deserve real answers as to why.
