Legislature Approves Collins-Created Director of Real Estate Position That Control Board Refuses to Fund, Was Deleted by Legislature Last Year
Amounts to a $50,000 Raise for Current Collins Appointee Michelle Mazzone
ERIE COUNTY, NY—Today, Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz blasted the Erie County Legislature’s vote to create a new Director of Real Estate and Asset Management (“REAM”) position in the County’s operating budget with an annual salary of $129,453 calling it patronage in its purest form, all at the taxpayer’s expense.
This approval amounts to a nearly $50,000 raise for Erie County Executive Chris Collins’ appointee, Michelle A. Mazzone, from her current salary of $76,964 as senior executive assistant to the county executive. Mazzone previously held a similar position funded by an Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority (“ECFSA”) efficiency grant prior to the grant expiring and not being renewed by the ECFSA.
“At a time when budgets are being slashed, employees are being laid-off and, generally, everyone in County government is being asked to do more with less, approving this new job, which amounts to a $50,000 pay raise for Mazzone, is patronage in its purest form,” blasted Poloncarz. “The ECFSA doesn’t believe this position is necessary, that’s why they would not continue to fund it through an efficiency grant. The Legislature didn’t believe it was necessary, that’s why they cut it out of the budget during their deliberations late last year.”
The REAM position is located within the Department of Public Works, Division of Building and Grounds and was previously funded by an efficiency grant from ECFSA that expired at the end of 2010. In 2009, the administration originally sought a $320,000 efficiency grant to fund the position through 2011 but was rejected by ECFSA and, instead, was approved for a $160,000 grant to fund the position through 2010.
After ECFSA did not extend the efficiency grant for 2011, the county executive attempted to create the job in his 2011 budget proposal, but that job was deleted by the Legislature during its budget hearings at the end of 2010. The job did not exist in any form, either in the operating budget or through a grant, prior to Collins being sworn in as county executive.
Poloncarz continued, “In creating this new position in the County’s operating budget, the Collins administration is forcing County taxpayers to pay the tab for a job the ECFSA doesn’t believe is necessary. This reminds me of the previous administration’s ‘friends and family plan.’ When you’re a friend of the county executive’s you get new jobs created for you or a hefty pay raise; when you’re not, expect your budget to be slashed or possibly get laid-off.”
This measure passed the Legislature by a vote of nine to six, with Legislators Bove, Whalen, Miller-Williams, Hardwick, Walter, Dixon, Fudoli, Mills, and Rath voting in favor and Kozub, Marinelli, Whyte, Loughran, Grant and Mazur voting in opposition.