Hempstead Town Approves Raises, Transfers And Union Changes

Despite overwhelming public opposition, and nearly 90 minutes of public testimony against it, the Town of Hempstead Tuesday approved two measures that would give raises and departmental transfers to nearly 200 employees, as well as make those that are union members unable to be fired.

The measures were approved after a long and contentious meeting of the Town Board, which was also the last meeting for outgoing Supervisor Anthony Santino. The measures gave nearly $4 million in raises to town employees, as well as transfered many of those that were politically connected to other departments, preventing them from being let go once Laura Gillen takes over as supervisor in January.

Among those that were given transfers are Michael Deery, Santino's director of communications, who, according to the documents released by the town, will keep his $205,000 salary in his new position as a confidential assistant to the receiver of taxes. Nasrin Ahmad, the Republican town clerk who was defeated by Democratic challenger Sylvia Cabana, was also given a new position in the town. She will be the new deputy director of the Department of Occupational Resources, along wit her $129,500 salary.

"This is Christmas for the well-connected, and it's a lump of coal for the taxpayers," said Councilman Bruce Blakeman, who was vehemently opposed to the order. "It's a message to the taxpayers. It's a message to the people who labor every day as employees in the Town of Hempstead: 'We don't care about you. We're going to do this. We're arrogant, we're powerful, and we have the votes to do this.'"

Of the 192 employees that were on the town's list for raises and transfers, only two were removed: Matthew Coleman, Santino's chief policy adviser, and Theresa Gaffney, his executive assistant. Coleman was to keep his $125,000 salary as a community research assistant for the Department of Conservation and Waterways, while Gaffney was to be transferred to the Department of General Services to be a community research assistant, along with her $110,000 salary, town documents show.

Also among those given raises was Timothy D'Esposito, the brother of Councilman Anthony D'Esposito. D'Esposito disclosed his conflict of interested in a letter filed the same day as the vote was passed, and specifically recused himself from voting on his brother's raise, which increased his salary to more than $97,000.

About 30 of the raises went to part-time workers who were due for them. Town documents show that they all made less than $40,000 a year before the resolution was passed.

On Monday, Santino's office defended the actions, saying they were not based on politics. "Positions in the Supervisor's Office are being vacated so that the incoming supervisor can hire employees of her choosing, some long tenured staffers with decades of institutional knowledge are being retained to ensure the smooth operation of our government, and recent retirements have created a number of vacancies that need to be filled in order to sustain the proper functioning of our township," Deery said in a statement. "In addition, the settlement of a lawsuit that predates the current supervisor's tenure requires the promotion of certain part-time workers to full-time status."

The decision was made in front of a packed house at Town Hall, along with hundreds more residents watching a live stream of the meeting, which began at 10:30 a.m. Because of the number of people, the public was limited to three minutes per person when speaking about items on the legislative calendar. This led to many people being cut off.

Still, the measures passed despite the opposition from the public and from members of the board. Council members Blakeman and Erin King Sweeney, who have been opposed to many of Santino's policies, were joined by Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, the sole Democrat on the board, in voting against the changes to the union contract.

The motion to give raises to the part-time workers was unanimously approved, while Blakeman and Goosby voted against raises and transfers for the other employees. King Sweeney voted for that part of the measure, after the two names were struck from the list. Mike Deery was voted on separately, and Blakeman and King Sweeney opposed his transfer.

"This may be legal, but this is corruption," Blakeman said. "This is a corruption of priorities, it's a corruption of values, it's a corruption of what we stand for and it's a blatant corruption of power.

"Ronald Reagan would be rolling over in his grave knowing Republicans were doing this," the longtime GOP member added.

Photo: Town of Hempstead