Newsday (New York), January 5, 2007, Friday

Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday (New York)

January 5, 2007 Friday
NASSAU AND SUFFOLK EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A02

HEADLINE: TOWN'S 'CONFIDENTIAL' RAISES;
Islip's big stop payment;
Supervisor declares an end to practice of giving workers extra 'confidential' money, $100G last year alone

BYLINE: BY RICK BRAND. STAFF WRITER; Staff writers Erik German, Mitchell Freedman and Bill Bleyer contributed to this story.

BODY:
Islip's new Town Supervisor Philip Nolan has ordered a halt to a practice of "confidential pay," which he said secretly boosted some workers' pay by thousands of dollars - in one case doubling an aide's salary - and may have been used to circumvent civil service rules.
"The practice, as it previously existed, stops now," Nolan said. "During the campaign, I said 35 years of one-party rule was bad and this is a textbook example of it."
This year, Nolan said, 21 town employees were set to receive a total $120,000 in confidential pay. Last year, he said the cost was about $100,000 for 20 workers, and in 2005, the number was even higher - $190,000 for 23 workers. He estimated the taxpayer cost could exceed $1 million for the last decade.
The practice was the outgrowth of a small move 25 years ago, when five personnel department workers who were considered "confidential" employees were removed from the union because they had access to sensitive labor data, according to Suffolk County civil service department head Alan Schneider, who earlier worked in Islip. In return, each employee received a $500 stipend.
Nolan, a Democrat, said he learned of the practice only three weeks ago when the payroll office gave him a proposed list for approval for 2007.
Republican town board member Pamela Greene, who lost last fall's supervisor race to Nolan, called the move political. "He talked an awful lot about reform," she said. "The first step was to hire his campaign manager and his second was to look to hurt my administrative assistant."
The largest confidential payment, $31,827, went to Greene aide Donna Kane, who more than doubled her $30,771-a-year pay for her civil service job title of senior clerk-typist. Her most recent hike, $6,349, came a week after Election Day.
Greene said nothing was secret and the 2006 town budget reflected the full cost of employee salaries, though the budget did not detail how much came from confidential pay.
Greene also noted most on the list are women, and Kane, even with the confidential pay, earns only $62,598 annually, the lowest of any town board aide. Greene said the confidential pay helps make up the difference between what Kane makes in her civil service title, which provides job security, and what she could make in a patronage job with no protection. "Are we punishing people for coming to work for an elected official?" Greene asked.
Nolan said extra stipends for select employees are unfair to the town's other 980 workers. "This is not a women's issue. It's an issue of fairness," he said. "There's no rhyme or reason for any of this. They were operating the town like a candy store."
Nolan said no town board resolution specifically authorizes confidential pay nor is there any criteria for who should get payments or how much employees should receive. Most payments were authorized on handwritten index cards bearing the employee's name and the supervisor's initials, he said. Former Supervisor Pete McGowan declined to comment.
Town Attorney Pierce Cohalan, a Republican, said the practice is legal because the town board at past annual organization meetings has given the supervisor "broad discretion with respect to salaries."
The employee who last year was set to get the second-highest confidential pay - $21,166 - was $63,791-a-year former town senior bay constable Alan Loeffler. However, he retired midyear, collecting a little more than $10,000 in extra money. Loeffler could not be reached for comment. His replacement, William Sgroi, receives no confidential pay. The difference, Nolan said, "proves that is a patently unfair system."
Michael Markowich, of Cornell University's School of Industrial Labor Relations, said it is not unusual for municipalities to classify as confidential some employees in personnel and human resources departments because they have access to sensitive information about negotiations. But, he added, "I'm not aware of people getting additional compensation for being confidential employees."
Suffolk has five such employees but none get any extra compensation, and none of the 12 municipalities in Nassau and Suffolk surveyed by Newsday yesterday give confidential pay. "We have nothing like that in Babylon. We've never heard of such a thing," said Supervisor Steve Bellone, a Democrat.
Nolan said he also is worried Islip's confidential payments may have circumvented the civil service system. Barbara Maltese, listed as acting director of purchasing when Nolan took office, received confidential pay of $10,824 last year.
Maltese was named purchasing director on a provisional basis in 2003 until she could take a civil service test to win the job competitively. However, she returned to her old job title of principal clerk in 2004, four months before the civil service list for the job was published. Her name does not appear on the civil service list of candidates passing the purchasing director test.
Nolan fears confidential pay was used to increase Maltese's $49,385 annual salary as principal clerk to the level of purchasing director even though she did not qualify for the post. He said he will consult with county civil service officials for a ruling on whether Maltese should be replaced with someone on the civil service list. Maltese declined to comment.
"If the lady's acting as town purchasing director when there's a list for the job and she holds the title principal clerk, she should not be doing the job," Schneider said.
For employees who have received confidential pay, the impact of Nolan's move is severe. "Being the sole provider of my family, it has hurt me tremendously," said Kane, who has two college-aged children. "I was completely shocked by it. This was never an issue in the past."
Kane yesterday sent a memo supported by Greene asking to change her position to the exempt title of legislative assistant II. Nolan said he'll consider the request but could not say how much the job would pay until a duty statement is prepared for the post. "This is the way it should have been done in the first place," Nolan said.
Staff writers Erik German, Mitchell Freedman and Bill Bleyer contributed to this story.
Who got what
Twenty-one Islip town employees had their 2006 salaries supplemented by "confidential pay," a practice new Supervisor PhilipNolan has vowed to stop.
Name Title Base Added Total
pay pay
Donna Kane Senior clerk, typist $30,771 $31,827 $62,598
Alan Loeffler Senior bay constable $63,791 $21,166 $84,957
Kathleen Bowles Sec. assistant $50,756 $13,752 $64,508
Annette Abatemarco Senior admin. assistant $70,551 $11,737 $82,288
Denise Eldredge Principal clerk $47,715 $10,824 $58,539
Barbara Maltese Principal clerk $47,715 $10,824 $58,539
Filomena Demotta Senior admin. assistant $70,551 $7,588 $78,139
Kerry Liselli Admin. assistant $56,098 $6,500 $62,598
Stephen Siniski Neighborhood aide $35,167 $6,454 $41,621
Rosaria Scichilone Sec. assistant $54,347 $5,815 $60,162
Jennifer Pepe Community services $33,074 $5,789 $38,863
Mary Byrnes Senior admin. assistant $67,324 $5,051 $72,375
Geralyn Athenas Head clerk $70,551 $3,105 $73,656
Phyllis Ward Principal clerk $47,715 $2,845 $50,560
Ellan McMorrow Principal clerk $46,152 $2,386 $48,538
Peggy Craddock Senior clerk, typist $30,771 $2,000 $32,771
Joyce Baumgarten Payroll supervisor $61,064 $2,000 $63,064
Lorraine Costea Clerk, typist $23,025 $2,000 $25,025
Margaret Hill Clerk, typist $27,987 $2,000 $29,987
Diane Bonventre Senior clerk, typist $30,771 $2,000 $32,771
Louise Bogue Principal clerk $39,232 $1,999 $41,231

GRAPHIC: Newsday Photos / Kathy Kmonicek - Islip Town Board member Pamela Greene and Supervisor Philip Nolan at meeting yesterday 2) An old raise for a clerk is initialed on this note by ex-Supervisor Pete McGowan. CHART: Who got what (SEE END OF TEXT)