Assistant district attorney pay sparks discussion

FRITZ MAYER
Posted 5/9/18

MONTICELLO, NY — One of the resolutions considered at the Public Safety Committee meeting on May 3, was to authorize District Attorney Jim Farrell to spend $64,838.71, to pay a new assistant …

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Assistant district attorney pay sparks discussion

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MONTICELLO, NY — One of the resolutions considered at the Public Safety Committee meeting on May 3, was to authorize District Attorney Jim Farrell to spend $64,838.71, to pay a new assistant district attorney. The $64,838.71 was the amount left over that had been budgeted for the position for 2018; but the position has been vacant since January. But spending that amount would mean paying the ADA more than is called for in the county’s salary schedule through the end of the fiscal year.

This led to a discussion of whether this was the right move for the county. Legislator Joe Perrello said, “If you do it for one, it’s going to cause a domino effect.”

Legislator Mark McCarthy echoed that sentiment. He said, “If we say ‘yes’ to this, what happens next year [is that] the salary is going to have to stay there.”

Regarding the specific employee the DA plans to hire, Farrell said, “This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along all the time this [person] can come in and try a case next Friday,” without additional training.

Perrello said, “If there’s a structure of salaries, then there’s a structure of salaries, and if a person wants to work for the county, that’s the salary….”

Legislator Terri Ward said, “We’re trying to hire the kind of people that will make the county a better place… I don’t think it’s black or white, I think it’s a grey area … we’re doing the right thing.”

McCarthy said, “You know what happened last time. Child protective services attorneys came to us screaming and yelling, we’ve got as many years and experience as the person who got the $20,000 raise, why not us… so unless you have the political will to say ‘yes’ to some and ‘no’ to others then you’ve got to say ‘yes’ to everybody…”

Legislator Nadia Rajsz said to McCarthy, “You said yourself there is a retention issue [in the county] and in order to retain these people we need to pay them commensurate with what they know.”

McCarthy said, “So we’re willing to maybe have to go over the tax cap, because once this starts, it’s not going to end. And I am not opposed to giving someone what they are worth, we just don’t have the money to make everything right.”

The committee voted four to one in favor of allowing Farrell to spend the entire amount. Perrello is not a member of the committee and did not vote. The full board is expected to vote on the question on May 10.

Sanctuary state an issue

Also at the meeting, Farrell told legislators that Sen. John Bonacic’s office contacted Farrell’s office over a federal grant for $25,000. Farrell said he had used half of the grant to pay for upgrading laptop computers. But Bonacic informed him that the grant money is not being released, “because of the fight between the State of New York and the federal government over sanctuary cities and sanctuary state[s]. Apparently the governor has said we’re a sanctuary state and that money is tied up. That’s not good news, because I spent half of it, and I was promised it almost a year ago.”

Monticello, budget

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