Comptroller vacancy isn’t exactly inviting
By Robert J. McCarthy
Imagine this pitch from political leaders seeking candidates for the vacant post of Erie County comptroller:
Must supervise a $1 billion budget; a certified public accountant is preferred, as is extensive private-sector experience and maybe enough personal wealth to self-fund potentially vicious campaigns in 2012 — and 2013.
And, oh, yes:
All this brings the princely annual salary of $80,615.
It all explains why seven weeks after Mark C. Poloncarz began exiting the Comptroller’s Office following his election as county executive, prospective candidates of the caliber sought by Democrats and Republicans alike are not exactly clamoring to succeed him.
The situation is muddled even further because the candidate must run this November to fill the unexpired portion of Poloncarz’s term, and then again next year in a regular election.
“It’s a tall order for a financial professional to run for a job that pays $80,000 a year, and then to have to run in 2012 and 2013, too,” said Erie County Republican Chairman Nicholas A. Langworthy.
He finds no argument on that score from his Democratic counterpart, Leonard R. Lenihan.
“It’s not a competitive salary to attract qualified candidates,” Lenihan said. “Do I think if the salary were higher, we would have a bigger field? I would say yes.”
Local political observers agree that the vast majority of workers in Erie County would jump at the chance for any job that paid $80,615 a year. But they also say financial professionals of the caliber sought for the county position make far more in the private sector, and only potential candidates in special circumstances are expressing interest.
That, they say, produces an extremely limited field. Langworthy cited Philip C. Kadet, the Republican candidate who unsuccessfully challenged Poloncarz in 2009. He was 67 at the time of the 2009 campaign and had already retired as an accounting executive. Langworthy said Kadet was willing at that point in his life to “give back to the community.”
“But for anyone in his prime earning years,” Langworthy said, “it’s a problem.”
Indeed, salaries for the countywide posts of executive, clerk, sheriff and comptroller have not risen since 1996 (state law pegs the district attorney’s salary at the level of a State Supreme Court justice), when they were set following the report of a commission headed by Lenihan, who was chairman of the County Legislature at the time.
Since then, the issue has proven such a hot potato that the idea of pay raises for countywide elected officials is rarely even broached.
Pay hikes have not been debated since 2004, when the County Salary Review Commission was activated by then-County Executive Joel A. Giambra. It recommended increases for the four posts ranging from $33,23 to $35,244. But the recommendation went nowhere after Legislator Lynn M. Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, then majority leader, declared the idea “dead on arrival.”
Monday, she indicated that her thinking has not changed, especially since at least some Democrats are seeking the post.
“I would buy that argument if nobody was asking,” Marinelli said. “But the fact is, people are asking, and they are willing to accept that salary.
“I’ve heard that over the years, as different officeholders make the same observation. I would say that if they truly believe that, they should say so publicly.”
The County Charter requires the commission to meet every two years, but that stipulation has rarely been followed. Before 2004, it last met in 1996 to recommend a 17 percent raise. Prior to that, the committee met in 1992.
In 2004, the committee justified the pay hikes by pointing to only one raise for the county officials since 1996. They also argued that many high-ranking administrators in county government earn more than their elected bosses because they are usually granted the same percentage salary increases as members of the Civil Service Employees Association.
One member of the 2004 panel, former Sheriff Thomas F. Higgins, has been outspoken on the need to address the salary issue since he retired in 1997. He said Monday he is not surprised that Democrats and Republicans alike are encountering difficulties in recruiting new candidates for comptroller.
He pointed to the comptroller’s challenging job of overseeing a $1 billion budget. And while acknowledging that the post remains in the public sector, he said similar responsibilities in industry would command far greater compensation.
“You would be laughed at,” he said. “It’s absolutely ludicrous.”
Higgins emphasized that the argument does not surround any individual, but rather the offices of sheriff, clerk and comptroller. The undersheriff of Erie County, and even some deputies with major overtime checks, he added, make significantly more than the sheriff.
“Erie County is the only county in the State of New York with a law like this,” he said. “It must be adjusted.”
Now, in 2012, Lenihan says eight or nine people have submitted resumes for the post, with his Executive Committee expected to recommend a candidate to the Legislature for appointment in the next few weeks. He would not identify them, or whether they hail from politics or the private sector. One potential candidate, George F. Hasiotis, 58, said this week he was willing to run as he looks to exit from his business enterprises.
Few Republicans are interested, Langworthy said, but he expects to appoint a search committee soon to identify a candidate. The chairman has also acknowledged the difficulty in recruiting a Republican to run in a presidential election year, when turnout in heavily Democratic Erie County is traditionally high.
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/erie-county/article694093.ece