Counsel to the Comptroller

[counsellor]

Who did Weitzman wind up hiring to be his legal counsel in the Nassau County Comptroller's Office? He apparently dissed the West Street advisors and hired his own. Who got the job?
________
California dispensary (http://california.dispensaries.org/)

[Lorna Doone Patrol]

Looks like nobody is getting good advice from Lorna Doone and her gang that can't shhot straight!

[Another Fragrant Smell in]

Counsel to the comptroller could never be a civil service job. It's exempt almost by definition.

Who got the job?

[Dictionary]

Definition of EA job is "COUNSEL TO A DEPARTMENT HEAD" -- provides legal advise to the department. That's the same job and that's a civil service job.

[Give It A Rest]

Mr. Weitzman is seeking agency counsel. I completely understand this, and feel that the move is appropriate. Besides, anybody who acknowledges that the advice from the 2nd Floor of 1 West Street may be suspect is showing good judgment in my book.

[I respect labor]

It's another scheme to snubb labor and circumvent the civil service system and the unions in Nassau County. Yeah, so another lawyer who is a friend of someone over in Goodman's office gets another high paying job they probably aren't qualified for instead of some lawyer who sat for a civil service exam after paying money to take it, and is sitting on a list waiting to get appointed to a job they will never get because Suozzi and his administration don't think they have to follow any laws or respect labor, unions, civil service or anything else that makes government government. That's the point Dude. And nobody's giving that a rest. Not the 911 operators, the cops, the firemen, the hospital staff, the workers being led by leaders who don't know anything - not Elliot Spitzer, the Feds or Hud and by these posts, not the voters.

[Accountant]

So if the comptroller himself can pay alot of money to a guy he hired by circumventing the civil service laws, and he's the guy who audits everyone else -- shouldn't somebody be auditing him?




Yup, he's one of Suozzi's brood now too.

[So What]

Of the few audits I have seen no one pays any attention to the audit's reccommendations anyway. They certainly cant get the Jail or the Police Dept to follow their suggestions. I'm sure the Fire Marshalls Office is giving them the cold shoulder. Many of their reccommendations include getting rid of the "out of title" people who got their jobs through a hook. So, the fact is that they have no clout and just sit around investigating ways to save $$ but cant force any implementation. That means they are just another waste of money.

[Agreed but]

So, do you really think because they are totally ineffective with enforcement of their recommendations that gives them the right to hire their own out of title workers? 'Cos that's apparently what they are doing. Any agency that hires their own lawyer is doing the same thing. There's a civil service position for that - it's called Executive Assistant. You can change the title but not the duties. And $150K sure as hell is not the salary under the civil service title.

[Jeff]

Ahhh here we go again

[Goodman circumvents]

Goodman is the imbecile that forced Suozzi to let her put her deputies in the agencies to be in charge of their law department - memorandas of understanding for people who know nothing about the agency they are leading into the ground. Why? Goodman is that insecure. And Suozzi obviously being led by her by his tie, or her wallet, or her whip, let her do it in clear circumvention of civil service law. Again.

Not one union worker should or will vote for these clowns next year.

Not one.

[Agency Attorney]

There were plenty of tests throughout the years, and there's plenty of civil service titles for lawyers in the books in the civil service office. Agency Attorneys I, II and III plus other job titles all for attorneys, and some are specific to particular agency's. Goodman has no business putting her attorneys in these jobs in these agencies instead of following civil service rules. They got away with it and now look at what's happening all over the county in every possible agency at every possible job title. They are trying to collapse the municipality from the inside out and what do they care? Their careers, if not their homes, have been based out of the county all these years so they have nothing invested here. They are only here for the money and because they can push around this CE to follow their own agendas.

[Fear]

Why does he need his own counsel?

He has the County Attorney or outside counsel.

Or is this just another full employment bill for local lawyers!

[A Man with NO TRUST]

When they hire "appointees" they can pay them as much as they want. Civil service is controlled by salary ranges which are based on the number of years of service to NASSAU COUNTY and the step you start on is based on the number of years of overall experience. These "appointees" come in over $100,000 because they can, and we pay for that.
Obviously, he wants his own lawyer because he doesn't trust anybody in Goodman's office. Look at all the trouble they've already caused. In fact, Reinharz just stuck in family court - which has become his dumping ground - the girl whose family brought Sylver into Suozzi's administration in the first place.
Would YOU trust them?
No wonder Suozzi wants Cunningham to keep an eye on things.

[Dissing Civil Service]

Look carefully at every "appointed" position and every "contracted" position and you will see the job descriptions or the actual duties take the place of what should have been a civil service job which requires an application, and a test before the job gets filled. They aren't even calling them provisional anymore - that's how blatant the violations are and how cocky this administration is. Even when the tests are given, based on qualifications, the list is made without rhyme or reason because the people making up the ranks are doing just that - making it up. Someone better qualified gets ranked last or tied with someone who has completely different experience levels, yet someone who never even did the job before , gets put at the head of the list. If a test is required, and the administration's guy can't cut it, they don't pick anybody and let the list expire and hire their guy anyway, by giving him a county contract or an appointed position. The Nassau County Civil Service Commission should be de-commissioned and taken over by the State.

[County Worker too]

Comptroller does audits and in many Depts he finds workers in any given job title working FAR below their hired duties. So Weitzman recommends to put them back into their correct job. He wants the Fire Marshall doing permits (clerical...about a 5) to actually earn his Grade 12 pay. Does it happen...not yet. He wants the ambulance driver sending out bills..(grade 4 or 5) to actually drive an ambulance. Does it happen..not yet.. The nurses doing time and leave should go back to being nurses. The correction officers doing office work should get back on the tiers! Did it happen...not yet. The 911 operators acting as clerks should have to answer emergency calls...did it happen..not yet. Civil Service was addressing these issues under Tom Williams and that is why Suozzi fired him. On any given Wednesday Karl Kampe can decertify all the people with sweetheart deals and they will no longer be able to steal their paychecks from Nassau County. When will it happen?? Watching and waiting. NYS civil service must come down and fix this mess.

[No CSEA FAN]

I don't know why Pataki doesn't have the state civil service commission take over Nassau County with all the blatant violations, circumventions and offenses being committed on the civil service workers and the nassau county residents who want jobs here. What does it take to have this done? Do you all have to write letters to the Governor?

[CSEA, payroll fraud]

I'd like to see the Long Island Press come next after the comptroller's office and foil the agency audit reports. It's hard to believe that with all the payroll fraud, civil service violations and lawsuits, jail overtime, parks being broke and needing a bond float, ARC judgments piling up, traffic court failing, - it's amazing that Suozzi is still running around giving Newsday press releases saying that Nassau has been financially restored. That's what he told us about Glen Cove - and aren't the feds still THERE?

[Auditor to the comptrolle]

How about an auditor to the comptroller - or rather - of the comptroller because if he's saying the books are balanced he's off his own books.

[Is Weitzman done?]

Maybe Weitzman will primary Suozzi after all. Suozzi will be the conservative candidate and Weitzman will be the Democrats candidate. Bogsted will be strung up and burnt at the stake. Conservatives will chose sides and the party will be eaten up from the inside out. Does Bogsted and the Suozzi woman really think they can take over Nassau Politics? They're idiots. Desperate, panicked idiots and after November - nobody will even remember their names.

[Agency audit reports]

Can the public get copies of the audit reports and comptroller recommendations for each agency?

Yes. I down loaded the NCPD audit of the Communications Bureau from news12.com when it 1st came out.

[A Great Example]

The comptroller's new lawyer is a great example of the county's management structure and bloated government. Apparently, the guy used to have the title of legislative liaison and he previously worked in the comptroller's office. His experience? Working as a SEC enforcement lawyer. Though I'm sure that experience will come in very handy for Suozzi and Weitzman's personal deals - it has no relevance to anything the county might have a use for. Now he got "promoted" from legislative liaison to counself to the comptroller - which as this thread already points out - should have been a civil service job. All the county attorney's people in all the various agencies throughout the county should be civil service attorney jobs. Not Goodman & Suozzi's political appointments. That's another reason we have to get rid of the democratic legislative majority. They permit this to go on and they permit non-nassau county residents to continue to be hired and remain.
=============
It's a perfect example of how Suozzi lied about decreasing government. The legislative liaison job was traditionally (for 40 years or so) a job given to an attorney who was on staff at the county attorney's office - an attorney who had a strong knowlege of nassau county, nassau county government and operations and nassau county politics. The job required this attorney to provide assistance, guidance and advice to the county legislators, act as a go between between the county attorney and the legislators and prepare the legislative agenda. It paid about $45K, if that much, under the Republican administration. Apparently this job was moved into the comptroller's office and the county attorney replaced the one liaison's job with an entire BUREAU of attorneys - known now as the Legal Counsel Bureau. So there are at least 5 lawyers now replacing this one job. The leader of this bureau lives in the Bronx and spent her career working for NYC Mental Health. You can see how helpful that is right? She earns 6 figures and her hand picked Deputy hovers around $80K. They have another 3 or so attorneys in the bureau who actually do the work.
=============
So now since the legislative liaison, now the counsel to the comptroller, (is there an open spot for yet another NYC appointee to fill?) comes from the county attorney's payroll - I guess it's true.
Not only has Tom Suozzi bloated his payroll 5 to 1 (this is only one example of MANY throughout the county) but he's allowed Lorna Goodman - one of the worse legal minds and inefficient administrators - to spy on or otherwise control every single agency within the county.
===============
It's not only bad advice he's gets - but it's a terrible, secretive way to run a government. Agencys are suppose to be independent so that when trouble is spotted, it can be addressed by their legal officers - who are suppose to be civil servants who sat for and were qualified by examination and rank. They are suppose to be able to keep an eye on the county attorney to do the right thing.
===============
Suozzi's management and budget system of verticle ladders is a disaster -it took away all the checks and balances and left only a secret society of apathetic fools too afraid to cry out for help lest they be permanently quelled.

And this we all pay for.

Where's this editorial Newsday?

[A Great Example my Butt]

It is obvious "A Great Example" has no idea what he/she is talking about. It is people like that who screw up this county up with their lies and misconceptions. Maybe "A Great Example" should do their homework first before posting these assinine dissertations and wasting everyone else's time. You sound more disgruntled than educated...what's the matter? You sound like u need a job...Instead of looking for an editorial in Newsday, how about looking for a job?

[Mind Your Language Son]

A great example hit the nail on the head. Be careful with your jibes, you'll be looking for a job in 2006. You angered too many people in the City to go back, you're a pariah in Nassau, and you probably haven't been in a court room in over a decade.

[Howard the Duck]

Howard will be auditing everone soon. He just has to check in with Old Suozzola before he releases anything. Dont most of his appointed stiffs come from NYC?

[Dark Overlords of Evil]

Howard "The Duck" Weitzman is No Dennis Holland. The Democrats missed a real oppotunity in 2001. Holland would not take this crap from Suozzi. He would put a stop to this nonsense.

[Inside Job]

"A Great Example" posted the facts exactly the way things are. Those of us on the inside know it's true and it's very easy to check out. The County Attorney's office all pulled many fast ones. They took separate Bureau's and split them up which means they hired more "managers" at top level pay to head each split and they each got their own Deputy Bureau Chiefs. Some departments that only had one Deputy Bureau Chief now have two or three of them. In some cases they then re-consolidated the units back again, but nobody lost their top pay scales they were getting and they probably even retained their job titles. They hired twice the staff. For example litigation used to be one department - one Bureau Chief - No Deputy Bureau Chief and about 10 workers. They split it into State and Federal - Two more Bureau Chiefs, maybe 4 Deputy Bureau Chief's now and each Bureau has about 10 workers - give or take the hirings and firings and quittings of the fast paced turnover the office now has. Those are huge salary's for the management team - and then they created something called Senior Counsel. Patronage jobs for well-liked politicals which basically means another $10K gets thrown at them. The Republican administrative staff had the County Attorney and one or two Executive County Attorneys - they all carried caseloads. None of these management type people carry caseloads now. Plus the County Attorney's "administrative" staff is about 2 dozen long - attorneys hired and sent to be "in charge of" all these other agencies throughout the county at very high pay - which should be civil service jobs at much lower pay rates. They have a bronx resident - a lawyer with a Chief Executive job doing nothing but handling personnel issues - and she doesn't know how - but that should be a clerical function at about $45K salary - not the 6 figures she gets. And it should be a Nassau County resident. They have a Managing Attorney from Queens making $130K and he knows nothing about civil practice and law - that should be an office manager job in the 40's too. In fact, the Republicans used secretary's to do his job in the past - ordering supplies and that sort of thing. The layers of supervisors and management are so deep now that one attorney might have 6 people to report too - and they way they hire people - none of those 6 people could have had experience enough to contribute anything. That's EXACTLY what's happening there. Staff levels have increased so high that some people have absolutely nothing to do - especially supervisors. They should all have to fill out timesheets at the end of every day and account for their time. That's ONE agency. There are plenty of other agencie's where this kind of bloating and waste exists and it's getting worse and worse every day.

[Hammer Head]

On the head. AND they still use tons of outside counsel. And they all just got 5% raises. Used to be the attorneys there made regular public service salarys in the 30's and 40's - a top salary was in the 60's or for bureau chiefs that put their 20 plus years in - maybe in the 70's and 80's. Now the 60's and 70's is probably the average with dozens earning in excess of 80's, 90's and 100's. Half of them have no real experience doing what they are doing and never managed a team of lawyers before either. It's all a big game to them. See how much they can make and how many friends they can hire before Suozzi skips town and the new guy sends them packing. The caseloads used to be really large too, now they can recite what they hold on their fingers - a few get buried under but they are the politically disfavored who would be fired in a heartbeat if they dare complained. Good thing for freedom of blogging huh?

[outofmoney]

HW did not hire one legal counsel, he hired two! He already has two out of three deputies who are lawyers so why did he need two more? Is the County Attorney hiring accountants?

[That is strange]

They probably have different titles. They change titles so they don't get caught in their own audits! What are these attorneys doing and where did they come from?

[Just a wild guest]

One was working as a chambermaid at the Garden City Hotel and the other was waiting tables at the Tony Bennett concert ?

[Other Failures]

The Department of Social Services had the largest potential to bring in revenue from processing thousands of child support enforcement applications, negotiating medicaid liens against estates in probate, going after welfare fraud in all forms and reducing expenditures on referrals and placements for foster care and pins kids, adoptions, rehabilitation and housing services and putting them to good use in workfare programs. The attorneys did nothing. Payrolls increased. Service costs skyrocketed. Caseloads crept up. complaints started rolling in. And yet the agency with the absolute biggest budget in the entire county was led by the most ineffectual and inexperienced legal counsel in the areas that would have otherwise been the most profitable, visible and most oriented to serving the public interest. Allegations of fraud arose with caseload numbers being manufactured for the years 2000-2004 for reimbursements of child support enforcement from the federal government and from state departments, currently believed still under investigation. Worker's compensation issues remain untouched and unresolved under the Goodman office's ineffectiveness. No movement has been made to clear the tax cert backload, and vehicles forfeited in alleged drunk driving incidents remain stock piles, gathering storage costs and interest accruals without a penny being taken in. The Traffic and Parking Violations Bureau has remained completely ignored, except that it has become a more confusing labrinth of confusion and chaos with more and more unpaid traffic tickets piling up and hearings getting postponed drastically and forever into the future. These are all areas that Tom Suozzi specifically promised he would take charge of and fix. He hasn't. All he's doing is still promising and handing out press releases.

[interesting tidbit]

Weitzman is recruiting now for a legal intern. That's even weirder. Usually a controller gets an accounting student to intern. You figure free labor while the kid learns about his professions. What's Weitzman gonna do with a law student intern? The Suozzi administration is all backwards. Nobody knows what the hell is going on.

[Being John Malkovich]

Howard Weitmann? He audits what he is told to. HE IS NOT INDEPEDNENT. He's a rich fool-thats all and a professional order take. whos having the egg slad Howard W?

[sounds to me like]

he's got more lawyers over there then bill cunningham has

Of the few audits I have seen no one pays any attention to the audit's reccommendations anyway. They certainly cant get the Jail or the Police Dept to follow their suggestions. I'm sure the Fire Marshalls Office is giving them the cold shoulder. Many of their reccommendations include getting rid of the "out of title" people who got their jobs through a hook. So, the fact is that they have no clout and just sit around investigating ways to save $$ but cant force any implementation. That means they are just another waste of money.

Well, nothing can happen unless the public gets outraged that these slobs don't clean up their act. It's only the comptroller's job to lift up the rock and shed a light on the scum underneath.

Can the public get copies of the audit reports and comptroller recommendations for each agency?

All the audit reports, recomendations and corrective action plans from the audited agencies are available on Weitzman's website. It's all open books.

You all are such iditos. st off-- none of you have the right info on who serves as what in the comptroller's office and why some postions aren't civil. also, for the ignoramous who said the TPVA is stilla mess--ummm...have you come out of your 1998 cave to see that thing have definitely been reformed? you can even pay over the internet now. by the way, how much is Peter Schmitt's boss paying you to type such crap?

Weitzman is recruiting now for a legal intern. That's even weirder. Usually a controller gets an accounting student to intern. You figure free labor while the kid learns about his professions. What's Weitzman gonna do with a law student intern? The Suozzi administration is all backwards. Nobody knows what the hell is going on.

he recruits a bunch of kids to intern in his department--one of them helps with minor legal stuff, has to be in law school. cheap labor

[cheaper labor]

Why doesn't he just hire illegal aliens? He could pay them a couple bucks an hour and then send them over to Levinson to take a few quarters in income tax from them.

Weitzman, Levinson, Suozzi, Borin, Reilly I and Reilly II, Klein, Karpe

Is the team you really want for another 4 years?

[Civil Servant Guardian]

Who oversees the civil service system here in Nassau County? Where do you report these violations?

[Dennis Dillon Plays Fair]

At least Dennis Dillon hires off the civil service list when he can. Counsel to the District Attorney is filled off the civil service list with the Executive Assistant job title in the DA's office. Too bad the rest of the agency's just run wild and get their feedings through other types of patronage mills. Let Suozzi start looking into that if he wants to make a real difference instead of just giving PR statements during an election year.

[It's coming together now]

Just a few more puzzle pieces to put together.

:lol:

[Re-elected]

and all voters should now be lobotomized!

[Here weee go again]

He's at it again - adding another attorney appointee to the payroll. Whats a matter - not enough staffers over in Goodman's office?