News Clippings, 2012 January-2012 April

FP Burrelles/ze

04.03.12

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Che New York Times ei ow

Tuesday, April 03, 2012
NY

NEW YORK

816,391 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: A19,A25
Keyword: CSEA

Public Workers Rushed to Join Pensions Before Albany’s Cutbacks Took Effect

Were the reductions
significant? Yes, if judged
by a flood of applicants.

By THOMAS KAPLAN
and KATE TAYLOR

ALBANY — Thousands of public em-
ployees across New York State rushed
to sign up for pensions over the last sev-
eral weeks, seeking to lock in generous
retirement benefits before cuts ap-
proved by the State Legislature took ef-
fect on Sunday.

‘At the New York City Employees’ Re-
tirement System, for example, more
than 12,000 workers applied last week to
enroll in the pension system — more
than 40 times the typical weekly num-
ber of applicants. And the New York
City Board of Education Retirement
System received nearly 9,000 applica-
tions over the last two weeks, after en-
rolling only 122 new members in all of
February.

“It’s just common-sense economics
here,” said Stephen Madarasz, a spokes-
man for the Civil Service Employees As-
sociation, the state’s largest union of
public workers. “You’re looking at an
enormous difference in benefits.”

Lawmakers approved the changes
last month, requiring most employees
who joined the pension system begin-
ning on April 1 to contribute more to
their pensions while reducing how
much money they are promised when
they retire.

Public-employee unions, which had
unsuccessfully fought to dissuade the
Legislature from reducing pension
benefits, campaigned using social me-
dia and traditional forms of outreach to
persuade workers to sign up before the
benefits dropped. The New York State
United Teachers asked local union lead-
ers to alert their members.

The Public Employees Federation
sent an e-mail alert to thousands of
workers and posted on its Facebook
page. And District Council 37, the city’s
largest municipal employees’ union,
used lunchtime meetings with its mem-
bers, as well as Facebook, Twitter, pub-
lic access television and a variety of me-
dia appearances to reach its members.

Many city and state workers are auto-
maticaily enrolled in a pension system,
but others, including some with part-
time jobs, choose whether to sign up.
Some have not done so because partici-

Dawa ns
© 2012 iia

All Rights Reserved,

pating in the system requires making a
regular employee contribution to the
pension fund. “We encouraged them to
get in now so that they wouldn’t have to
work longer, receive less,” said Lillian
Roberts, the executive director of Dis-
trict Council 37.

But Edmund J. McMahon, senior fel-
low at the Empire Center for New York
State Policy, a conservative research
group, suggested that the flood of appli-
cations was driven partly by hype and
fear, rather than by a rational assess-
ment of what he described as incre-
mental changes to public employee pen-
sion plans. The unions, he said, “are
talking about it as if it’s the difference
between having a pension or no pen-
sion, which is ridiculous.”

New York is among dozens of states
that have sought to reduce pension
benefits to workers as the economy has

Continued on Page A25
slowed the growth of tax reve-
nues and the size of pension-fund
assets, State and local govern-
ments nationwide say they are
struggling to pay retirement
benefits promised to employees.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a
Democrat, joined forces with
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
and local government officials
from around the state to urge the
Legislature to reduce pension
benefits, arguing that the exist-
ing system had become unafford-
able. The reductions do not affect
employees who enrolled in the
pension plan before Sunday.

The Teachers’ Retirement Sys-
tem of the City of New York, for
example, saw a spike in applica-
tions from workers like teachers’
aides, who, unlike teachers, are
not automatically enrolled in the
system. Matthew Laskowski, a
public information officer for the
system, said it had received close
to 5,000 applications since the
pension legislation was passed.

Pension system officials still
have to check applications to
make sure the employees are eli-
gible, but both sides of the pen-
sion issue said the surge in appli-

‘Account: 23070 (12139)
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cations demonstrated that the re-
cent changes to the pension sys-
tem were significant.

“The numbers speak for them-
selves in terms of the response,”
said Mario Cilento, the president
of the New York State A.F.L.-
C.LO., which opposed the pension
cuts. He said workers across the
state recognized, and wanted to
avoid, a “drastic reduction of
benefits.”

The largest surge in pension
enrollments came in New York
City, because the last time the
Legislature reduced pension
benefits, in 2009, it largely ex-
cluded city employees. That
meant that for city workers, the
gap between the pension for
those who enrolled by Saturday,
and those who enrolled Sunday
or after, was particularly large.

Final data on pension enroll-
ments were not available on
Monday, but officials in the city
and in Albany said all signs point-
ed to a sharp increase.

The city’s Board of Education
Retirement System kept its office
open longer on weekdays and
opened the past two Saturdays to
accommodate the influx of pen-
sion applicants. And the city’s
Employees’ Retirement System
also opened on Saturday, a first,
said Karen Mazza, the system’s
general counsel, and accepted
faxed applications until 11:59 p.m.

Outside of New York City, 4,075
public employees signed up to
join the state pension system
from March 1 to March 29, ac-
cording to the state comptroller’s
office. That was nearly triple the
1,399 people who registered in
March 2011.

The New York State Teachers’
Retirement System also saw an
uptick; a spokesman estimated
that the system recorded more
than 1,500 new enrollments last
month, compared with 1,035 in
March 2011.

A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo’s
budget office said the spike in
pension enrollments would not

For harcoopy reprints, © prini, posters or plaques of his arte contact: nytimes@parsint.cor, (212) 221-9595 x425 or vist win nytreprinis.com

Page 1 of 2
Che New Hork Cimes

Date: Tuesday, April 03, 2012
NY

Location: NEW YORK
Circulation (DMA): 816,391 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: A19,A25
Keyword: CSEA

Dawa ns
© 2012 iia

All Rights Reserved,

have a measurable impact on the
state’s pension system. The bulk
of the projected savings from the
pension changes are expected
over the long term — $82 billion
over 30 years for the state and lo-
cal governments, according to
the Cuomo administration. But
only $1.2 billion is expected to be
saved over the next five years.

Budget experts were divided
on whether the deluge of last-
minute applications would have
much of an impact on New York
City’s finances.

“No question it’s going to take
some bite out of projected sav-
ings,” said Doug Turetsky, the
chief of staff for the city’s Inde-
pendent Budget Office. But he
said it was too soon to tell what

For harcoopy reprints, © prini, posters or plaques of his arte contact: nytimes@parsint.cor, (212) 221-9595 x425 or vist win nytreprinis.com

the ultimate cost would be, be-
cause some of those who signed
up recently may not end up work-
ing for the city long enough to re-
ceive a pension.

Carol Kellerman, the presi-
dent of the Citizens Budget Com-
mission, said she did not expect
the rush of applications to have
significant budget implications
for the city, in part because the
affected employees are mostly
lower-paid.

“It’s school aides — it’s not po-
lice and firemen or teachers, who
have the higher salaries and the
bigger pensions,” she said.

Thomas Kaplan reported from Al-
bany, and Kate Taylor from New
York.

‘Account: 23070 (12139)
Nv7o

Page 2 of 2
Date: Sunday, April 01, 2012
Location: SYRACI M

USE, N
Circulation (OMA): 139,130 (79)
1 Type (Frequency): Newspaper (S)
Page: 2
Keyword: CSEA

OUR OPINION

Less than ‘Transformational’

Watered-down Tier 6 pension plan still burdens local governments

wo years ago, then-
| Gov. David Paterson

announced ‘‘land-
mark pension reform’’ that
was nothing of the sort.
Last June, Gov. Andrew
Cuomo said his new ‘‘Tier
6”’ pension plan for future
state employees ‘‘institutes
common-sense reforms”’
that would save taxpayers
$93 billion over the next
30 years and relieve local
governments saddled with
ballooning pension costs.

In January, Lt. Gov.
Robert Duffy appeared
with Onondaga County
Executive Joanie Mahoney
and Syracuse Mayor Step-
hanie Miner, claiming Tier
6 would save the county
“‘more than $24 million’?
over the next five years, with
proportionally similar savings
for the city.

Earlier this month, Cuomo
hailed an agreement with legis-
lative leaders as ‘‘bold and
transformational pension re-
form’’ — even though the
30-year savings had shrunk to
“‘more than $80 billion,’’ and
economists were questioning
that number.

In fact, the new pension re-
form measure is just a shadow
of Cuomo’s original plan.
Onondaga County now stands
to save about $1.4 million next
year. Syracuse’s savings would
be about $60,000.

Any savings are welcome.
But the city’s pension costs are

© 2012 POST-STANDARD
All Rights Reserved,

$30 million a year and growing.
The county expects to pay $43.3
million next year. What hap-
pened to ‘‘bold and transforma-
tional’’ pension reform?

In a word: politics.

In early March, up to 2,000
state union workers demonstrat-
ed against Tier 6 in Albany. The
unions are still mad: The Civil
Service Employees Association
announced last week it was sus-
pending political contributions
this year.

Union leaders should be con-
gratulating each other, consid-
ering how Tier 6 was watered
down:

@ Back in June, Cuomo pro-
posed raising the retirement age
from 62 to 65; the final measure
compromises — on 63.

Wi The original proposal re-
quired salary contributions of 6
percent; the final version asks
just 3 percent from workers
earning $45,000 or less, 6 per-
cent only for workers earning
$100,000 or more.

@ Originally, Tier 6 employ-
ees would have been guaranteed
pensions after 12 years; the final
version vests at the customary
10 years.

@ The first plan banned
“‘spiking’’ — loading on over-
time in the final years of em-

ployment used to calcu-
late retirement checks;

the end product still al-

lows spiking — capped
at 15 percent of salaries
for police and firefight-
ers, $15,000 for the rest.

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Page 1 of 2
i

STANDARD

Date: Sunday, April 01, 2012
Location: SYRACUSE, NY
Circulation (OMA): 139,130 (79)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (S)

Page: 2

Keyword: CSEA

@ The original plan
spread from three to five
years the time period
used for pension calcula-
tions, and capped overall
salary growth during that
period at 8 percent; the
final plan keeps the five-
year interval, but raises
the salary-increase cap to
10 percent.

Each one of these
changes diminishes the
savings and increases
pension costs to local
governments. Each

change reflects capitulation to
the status quo and political pres-
sure.

In another significant change,
Cuomo offered public employ-
ees the option of a defined-con-

tribution pension plan like a
401(k) — a model now preva-
lent in the private sector that re-
duces employers’ exposure to
risk. Those keeping a defined-
contribution plan would have to
contribute more when the pen-
sion fund needed it.

The adopted plan limits the
401(k) option to non-union
workers earning more than
$75,000, and jettisons the
added-contribution provision.

At Tuesday’s budget agree-
ment, Cuomo said ‘‘we have
put our state government back
on track.’’ How long, though,
before local governments
drowning in debt are back in Al-
bany asking for yet another
round of ‘‘transformational’’
pension reform?

The Associated Press

POLITICAL THEATER: Gov. Andrew Cuomo (rear
center) presides Tuesday at a Cabinet meeting in
the Red Room of the state Capitol in Albany to
present details of the new budget agreement.

© 2012 POST-STANDARD

All Rights Reserved,

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Page 2 of 2
Date:
‘ocation:

Democratanm Chronicle 222"

Keyword:

Saturday, March 31, 2012
ROCHESTER, NY
120,037 (78)

Newspaper (D)

1B4B

CSEA

Juvenile facilities could face closure

JON CAMPBELL
Albany bureau

ALBANY — An agreement in the new
state budget brings detained New York
City youths closer to home, putting sev-
eral upstate facilities — including the
one in Rush in Monroe County —at risk
of closing.

Backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the plan
would relocate low-risk New York City
children from upstate juvenile deten-
tion centers to new programs within
the city’s borders.

The state would transfer $76.6 mil-

lion over the next two fiscal years to help
pay for the program, which would be ad-
ministered by the city.

“For those that are dangerous, they
should be in locked facilities with appro-
priate care,” said Elizabeth Glazer, Cuo-
mo’s deputy secretary for public safety.
“But for those who are lower risk, all of
the science shows that if you want to re-
duce offending, they should be close to
home and treated with the appropriate
programs.”

The “Close To Home Initiative” would
only apply to New York City youths be-
ing held in the state’s seven “non-secure”
and five “limited secure” facilities, all

but three of which are out-
side the city. Detainees in
the state’s four “secure”
youth prisons would not
be eligible for relocation
under the new program
and would remain under
state custody.

Language in the 2012-
13 budget, which lawmak-
ers are passed Friday,
would give broad author-
ity to the Cuomo admini-
stration to close or con-
solidate facilities that are
no longer needed.

Of the 357 youths held
in the limited or non-
secure centers at the end
of 2010, 204 were from
New York City.

Among New York’s
low-risk youth prisons are
state-owned _ residential
centers in Rush; High-
land, Ulster County; Red
Hook, Dutchess County;

© 2012 Gannett Rochester Newspapers
Al Rights Reserves,

and two in Lansing, Tomp-
kins County.

The budget language
does not specify which fa-
cilities may close, but lays
out criteria for targeting
buildings for closure
based on capacity and
proximity to other cen-
ters.

The state’s largest pub-
lic employees union, the
Civil Service Employees
Association, has taken is-
sue with the Cuomo ad-
ministration’s character-
ization of the detained
youths that would be af-
fected by the new system.
Twenty percent of New
York City juveniles in
non-secure facilities and
33 percent in limited se-
cure buildings have com-
mitted violent felonies,
according to figures ob-
tained by the union
through a Freedom of In-
formation Law request.

The union also objects
to the language allowing
for the upstate facilities to
be closed, which would
likely result in layoffs.

“There are real public-
safety concerns that need
to be addressed here,”
CSEA President Danny
Donohue said in a state-
ment.

“It makes no sense
whatsoever to put felons
— violent, repeat offend-
ers — back into the very
neighborhoods where
they got in trouble in the
first place, without any
evidence that they will be
properly supervised.”

Senate Majority Lead-
er Dean Skelos, R-Nassau
County, acknowledged
that there may be some
jobs lost upstate as a re-
sult of the new system,
but said the focus should
be on the children. Many

of the 12 affected facili-
ties fall within districts
held by Senate Republi-
cans.

“The concern legiti-
mately is about these kids,
and we want to make sure
that part of their hopeful
rehabilitation will be
where there is family in-
volved,” Skelos told re-
porters Thursday. “I think
it’s a good move.”

Assembly — Children
and Families Committee
chairwoman Amy Paulin,
D-Scarsdale, Westchester
County, said there
“wouldn’t be any change
to the security” or super-
vision of the detainees.
It’s simply a mechanism
to get them closer to
home, she said.

“These are young peo-
ple, and the families
should be involved in the
rehabilitation,” | Paulin
said. “This will enable us
to strengthen the way we
treat young people who
have gone astray.”

Under the plan, the
state would be able to
transfer custody of the
New York City youths in
non-secure facilities after
Sept. 1. The limited-se-
cure residents could be
moved as soon as April 1,
2013.

Glazer said the focus of
the program was bringing
down the rate of crimes
committed by young New
Yorkers.

“What this approach
does is ensures that we
have the right program
for the right kid at the
right time, and all of those
things together will re-
duce crime,” she said.
JCAMPBELLI@Gannett.com

Account: 23070 (12104)
Nv-587

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 1 of 2
Date: Saturday, March 31, 2012
cation: ROCHESTER, NY

Li
Democratam Chronicle srs) Geen

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 Gannett Rochester Newspapers
Al Rights Reserved,

BUDGET BILLS OK’D

The state Legislature adopted a $132.6 billion
budget Friday that limits state spending to a2
percent increase and raises school aid by $805
million.

The usually contentious budget battle in
Albany was largely collegial this year and
ended on time for the second consecutive
year — both since Gov. Andrew Cuomo took
office in January 2011.

For a look at winners and losers in the state
budget, see Sunday's print editions and online
at DemocratandChronicle.com.

Account: 23070 (12104)
NY-587

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 2 of 2
DAILY NEWS

Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
Location: NEW YORK, NY
Circulation (DMA): 530,924 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)

Page: 32

Keyword: CSEA

Doubt of the benefit

emember that 401 (k)-style retirement op-
tion the public employee unions hated so
much? The one they portrayed as an as-
sault on the middle class? The one they
predicted would doom government

workers to poverty in old age? The one they suc-

ceeded in blocking for their entire membership?

Well — now that Gov. Cuomo’s pension over-
haul is law — that same benefit is all of a sudden a
“perk” anda “really big cash bonus.”

Those who qualify get “an extra 8% of salary
each year,” the Civil Service Employees Associa-
tion screams in a new TV ad. “And in just one
year, they can take the money and run.”

CSEA wants the audience to think this is some
kind of scandal, because the “perk” is available
only to nonunion employees who make $75,000
ormore.

© 2012 Dally News LP.
Al Rights Reserves,

What the ad doesn’t mention is that Cuomo
tried to give thatsame choice toall workers—ona
purely voluntary basis — and CSEA and the other
unionsturned him down flat.

CSEA President Danny Donohue and fellow
labor bosses decided future workers should have
defined-benefit pensions ornothing,

Kowtowing lawmakers gave them their wish.

And now they complain that political appoin-
teesare getting special treatment?

Thehypocrisyis breathtaking.

Union members should watch the ad and
know that 401(k)-style retirement accounts can
be a sweet deal — especially for employees who
spend lessthana full careeron the public payroll.

They should also know that the ones shafting
them outof thisnice benefit were none otherthan
their own union leadership.

Account: 23070 (12100)
Near

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Page 1 of 1
The am Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
Location: CANANDAIGUA, NY
Circulation (DMA): 12,125 (78)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: 3

Keyword: CSEA

ELDER CARE

Staff, residents rally to save health facility

Officials got a wave of opposition Thursday
to closing the Ontario County Health Facility

By JULIE SHERWOOD
jsherwood@messengerpostmedia.com

CANANDAIGUA — Arlene
Dillon has lived at the Ontario
County Health Facility in
Hopewell for three years, and
the 89-year-old says it’s home.
With a little help from a walk-
er and flanked by facility
employees, Dillon rose to the
microphone Thursday to plea
for the facility's survival.

“I want to stay in my home. I
just hope to stay where I am,”
Dillon urged in a strong voice
that rang in the chamber before
the Board of Supervisors.

No decisions were planned or
made Thursday on the fate of
the 98-bed nursing home. But
areport unveiled last month by
a county-led task force recom-
mended closing the facility and
providing community-based
services and/or collaborating
with other providers to offer
long-term care.

The county will lose about
$3.8 million running the Health
Facility this year; losses are pro-
jected to exceed $5 million in
2016. One option is partnering
with Thompson Health —
which, pending a state grant,
plans to renovate and expand its
long-term care facility, M.M.
Ewing Continuing Care Center
in Canandaigua. Though coun-
ty officials have promised a
phased-in approach to transfer-
ring residents out of the county
home, if it comes to that, many
who spoke out Thursday point-
ed to the damage that can occur
when elders are forced to move.

Transferred residents have

© 2012 DAILY MESSENGER
All Rights Reserves,

mortality rates two to four

times higher than residents
who are allowed to remain in
place, said several people who
spoke from the crowd that car-
ried signs with messages such
as: “Don't split up our family,”
and “Seniors count too.”

The facility employees 120
union workers who are under

the Civil Service Employees
Association 7850.

A union news release dis-
tributed at the meeting accused
the county of fast-tracking the
plan to shut down the facility,
“to blow this deal past the pub-
lic before members of the com-
munity have a chance to object.”

Employee Heather Russell, a
Finger Lakes Community Col-
lege student and team leader
for the facility's licensed practi-
cal nurses, said she wished the
county would show the same
support for preserving the facil-
ity as it does for expansions at
the college.

“These residents have paid
their dues,” she said, adding the
county owes it to them to keep
open their home. Addressing
the supervisors, Russell said:
“Ontario County, invest in our
history as well as our future.”

Account: 23070 (12121)
Nv142

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Page 1 of 2

The = Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
Location: CANANDAIGUA, NY
Circulation (DMA): 12,125 (78)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)

3

Page:
Keyword: CSEA

JULIE SHERWOOD/MESSENGER POST
Arlene Dillon, a resident of the Ontario County Health Facility,
was one of several residents who joined facility staff Thursday
in urging the county keep the facility as is.

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 DAILY MESSENGER
All Rights Reserved,

‘Account: 23070 (12121)
oar

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
Bouin

dournal

Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
Location: POUGHKEEPSIE, NY

Circulation (OMA): 27,656 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
7

Page:
Keyword: CSEA

Upstate youth prisons may close under budget plan

By Jon Campbell

Albany Bureau

ALBANY — An agree-
ment in the new state bud-
get would bring detained
New York City youths
closer to home, putting
several upstate facilities
at risk of closing.

Backed by Gov. An-
drew Cuomo and Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, the
plan would relocate low-
risk New York City chil-
dren from upstate juve-
nile detention centers to
new programs within the
city’s borders.

The state would trans-
fer $76.6 million over the
next two fiscal years to
help pay for the program,
which would be adminis-
tered by the city.

“For those that are dan-
gerous, they should be in
locked facilities with ap-
propriate care,” said Eliz-
abeth Glazer, Cuomo’s
deputy secretary for pub-
lic safety. “But for those
who are lower risk, all of
the science shows that if
you want to reduce of-
fending, they should be
close to home and treated
with the appropriate pro-
grams.”

The “Close To Home
Initiative” would only ap-
ply to New York City
youths being held in the
state’s seven “non-se-
cure” and five “limited-
secure” facilities, all but
three of which are outside
the city. Detainees in the
state’s four “secure”
youth prisons would not
be eligible for relocation
under the new program.

Language in the 2012-
13 budget, which lawmak-
ers are expected to pass
Friday, would give broad
authority to the Cuomo

© 2012 POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL
Al Rights Reserved,

administration to close or
consolidate facilities that
are no longer needed. Of
the 357 youths held in the
limited- or non-secure
centers at the end of 2010,
204 were from New York
City.

Among New York’s
low-risk youth prisons are
state-owned residential
centers in Rush, Monroe
County; Highland, Ulster
County; Red Hook, Dutch-
ess County; and two facil-
ities in Lansing, Tompkins
County.

The budget language
does not specify which fa-
cilities may close, but lays
out criteria for targeting
buildings for closure
based on capacity and
proximity to other cen-
ters.

The state’s largest pub-
lic employees union, the
Civil Service Employees
Association, has taken is-
sue with the Cuomo ad-
ministration’s character-
ization of the detained
youths that would be af-
fected by the new system.
Twenty percent of New
York City juveniles in
non-secure facilities and
33 percent in limited-se-
cure buildings have com-
mitted violent felonies,
according to figures ob-
tained by the union
through a Freedom of In-
formation Law request.

The union also objects
to the language allowing
for the upstate facilities to
be closed, which would
likely result in layoffs.

“There are real public-
safety concerns that need
to be addressed here,”
CSEA President Danny
Donohue said in a state-
ment. “It makes no sense
whatsoever to put felons
— violent, repeat offend-

ers — back into the very
neighborhoods where
they got in trouble in the
first place, without any
evidence that they will be
properly supervised.”

Senate Majority Lead-
er Dean Skelos, R-Nassau
County, acknowledged
that there may be some
jobs lost upstate as a re-
sult of the new system,
but said the focus should
be on the children. Many
of the 12 affected facili-
ties fall within districts
held by Senate Republi-
cans.

“The concern legiti-
mately is about these kids,
and we want to make sure
that part of their hopeful
rehabilitation will be
where there is family in-
volved,” Skelos told re-
porters Thursday. “I think
it’s a good move.”

Assembly — Children
and Families Committee
Chairwoman Amy Paulin,
D-Scarsdale, Westchester
County, said there
“wouldn’t be any change
to the security” or super-
vision of the detainees.
It’s simply a mechanism
to get them closer to
home, she said.

“These are young peo-
ple, and the families
should be involved in the
rehabilitation,” Paulin
said. “This will enable us
to strengthen the way we
treat young people who
have gone astray.”

Under the plan, the
state would be able to
transfer custody of the
youths in non-secure fa-
cilities after Sept. 1. The
limited-secure residents
could be moved as soon as
April 1, 2013.

Jcampbelll@gannett.com

Account: 23070 (12103)
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Page 1 of 1
TIMES UNION

Date: Friday, March 30, 2012

Location: ALBANY, NY
Circulation (DMA): 66,835 (56)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
38

Page:
Keyword: CSEA

Public workers race pension date

Rush to avoid Tier VI drives up
enrollment; “perk” debate

By Rick Karlin

ALBANY — The number of public em-
ployees joining New York’s major pension
system this month has just about doubled
over the same period in 2011.

‘That suggests a last-minute rush by em-
ployees to secure their spots in the current
pension plan before the new and less-gen-
erous plan, known as Tier VI, takes effect
on Sunday.

According to state Comptroller's records,
there were 1,399 pension system registra-
tions during March 2011 — compared to
3,287 as of March 28 this year.

‘The push comes as public sector unions
are reminding members to make sure they
are enrolled by Friday. While most public
employees are automatically enrolled in
their pension plans, it can be optional for
part-timers, so the rush may represent a lot
of part-time or seasonal workers.

‘That's not to say the controversy over
Tier VI has ended. The state workforce’s
largest union this week is lambasting Gov.
Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers over the
defined contribution option being offered

as part of the new package.

Ina series of ads, the Civil Service Em-
ployees Association is characterizing the
defined contribution or 401(k)-style plan as
a lavish plum for the elites of New York’s
public sector.

Under the final Tier VI agreement, non-
union public employees who earn $75,000
or more can, starting July 2013, choose a
defined-contribution-type plan rather than
the traditional defined-benefit pension.

Tronically, CSEA was among the unions
that fiercely opposed a defined-contribution
option during earlier negotiations.

“It provides no guarantees and puts all
the risk on the employee,” CSEA Presi-
dent Danny Donohue said of the concept
in February.

But this week, CSEA argues the defined-
contribution option is a “perk” that law-
makers passed in the dead of night.

Why the change in attitude? The answer

© 2012 TIMES UNION
All Rights Reserves,

has to do with politics and the nature of re-
tirement plans.

As for the politics: Donohue is running
for president of CSE’ parent union, the
American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees, so he may be strik-
inga relatively militant tone on the pension
. Please see TIER AS >
issue.

But just as important, one per-
son’ pension plum may be another’
pig-in-a-poke: Retirement planning
needs can vary widely, depending
on individual circumstances.

Most public sector workers have
been enrolled in defined-benefit
plans. The state pays into a fund
and the worker knows what he or
she will get as a monthly payment
upon retirement, regardless of
whether the stock market or other
investments have risen or fallen.

But the workers must have 10 years
before they can qualify.

In the defined-contribution
plan, the employee and employer
put money in an investment ac-
count that follows the owner even
if he or she changes jobs. The risk
is shifted from the state to the
owner of the account. But in ad-
dition to its portability, the plan
goes into operation faster: After
a year, those in the new defined-
contribution plan will start accu-
mulating contributions from the
state equal to 8 percent of their
salaries.

Which is best?

Acareer civil servant who works
for the state for, say, 30 years may
be more secure with a traditional
-defined benefit plan because he or
she knows what they'll be getting
upon retirement.

But someone who spends a brief
time in the public sector, such as a
lawyer or business leader who ac-
cepts an appointed position, might
prefer the more portable defined

Account: 23070 (12119)
NVI

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Page 1 of 2
TIMES UNION

Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
Location: ALBANY, NY
Circulation (DMA): 66,835 (56)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)

Page: 38

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 TIMES UNION
All Rights Reserves,

contribution.

For that person, getting an 8
percent contribution toward their
retirement from the state after just
one year may be better than wait-
ing for 10 years to be vested in the
pension system.

CSEA, though, says they are up-
set that the state will pitch in 8 per-
cent toward those who are not in
the union and may be in appointed
or senior management positions.

“Tt ends up being a boondoggle
giveaway for political appointees,”
CSEA spokesman Stephen Mad-
arasz said.

Not so, according to the Cuomo
administration, which points out
that even with an 8 percent contri-
bution, the state — and by exten-
sion taxpayers — doesn’t shoulder
the risk involved in funding a de-
fined-benefit plan.

“The employer no longer as-
sumes the risk,” Budget Division
spokesman Morris Peters said.

Adding to the anger were ear-
lier negotiations over Tier VI.
When Cuomo first proposed the
change, he wanted a 12-year vest-
ing period. That would have made
the defined-contribution plan
more attractive to many state em-
ployees. But in the end, the new
Tier VI has a 10-year period, just
like Tier V.

There are other angles to the
change. A newly elected legislator,
or a local mayor or county execu-
tive who earns $75,000 or more,
will have to choose between the
defined-benefit plan and the de-
fined contribution.

Senate and Assembly members
earn a base salary of $79,500, al-
though many get more for extra
duties such as chairing committees.

Newly elected members may be
under pressure to choose either the
pension or defined-contribution
system.

It will be a while before voters
know which of their elected offi-
cials opt for the new defined con-
tribution plan, since that doesn’t

begin until 2013, and presumably
would impact those running in the
2014 rather than the 2012 election
cycle.

> rkarlin@timesunion.com « 518-
454-5758 = @RickKarlinTU

‘Account: 23070 (12119)
NY-10

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Page 2 of 2
FINGER LAKES TIMES

Date:
Location:

Circulation (OMA):
‘Type (Frequency):

Page:
Keyword:

Friday, March 30, 2012
GENEVA, NY

12,891 (78)
Newspaper (0)

Health facility fight heats up

Employees urge
Ontario County
supervisors to
keep nursing

home open

By MIKE HIBBARD
mhibbard@fltimes.com

CANANDAIGUA — Clad in yel-
low T-shirts and holding up signs,
employees of the Ontario County
Health Facility last night urged
county lawmakers to keep the
nursing home open.

Dozens of "employees, as well as
some nursing home residents,
made the request at Thursday's
meeting of the county Board of
Supervisors. Before the meeting,
workers also picketed in front of
the county courthouse.

On the picket line and at the
meeting, workers held up signs
saying “Don’t let our residents face
relocation stress,” “Residents first”
and “Care before $.

They were referring to a poten-
tial partnership between the coun-
ty and Thompson Health Systems
that could lead to the closure of the
county nursing home, with resi-
dents being moved into an expand-
ed facility on the Thompson cam-
pus.

Officials from the county Civil
Service Employees Association
believe residents of the county
health facility wouldn’t get the
‘same care in another nursing home.

= See FACILITY on Page 4A

“Our residents receive
quality care every minute
of every day from a well-
trained, professional, car-
ing, sonsistent stat Said

iteve Healy, president o!
the county SEA unit.
“High staff turnover rates
at private facilities jeop-

© 2012 FINGER LAKES TIMES
Al Rights Reserves,

ardize quality care for the
residents. Residents have
built strong relationships
with staff. They rely on
routine, They look forward
to seeing the same people
every day. They enjoy
familiar surroundings and
the familiarity of home.”

One of the nursing home
residents who attended the
meeting was 89-year-old
Arlene Dillon.

“I want to stay in my
home,” she said. “I love
every part of it and every
person there.”

With expenditures far
outweighing revenues, the
health facility on County
Road 46 in Hopewell has
been losing money for
years. The deficit was $1.8
million last year and about
$3 million in 2010.

County officials said if
the nursing home contin-
ues operating as is, it will
lose close to $4 million this
year and as much as $5

million by 2016. They
added that the facility,
built in the mid-1970s, is
outdated and needs major
capital repairs.

The potential deal with
Thompson Health hinges
on a state Health
Efficiency and Afford-
ability Law grant sought
by Thompson.

If the grant is received,
Thompson would use the
money to build a new

skilled-nursing: and
Medicaid-assisted living
facility, likely as a renova-
tion and expansion to the
188-bed M.M. Ewing
Continuing Care Center on
the Thompson campus in
Canandaigua.

The state is making $450
million in grant money
available this year, with
the money to be spent by
2014. The grants were
expected to be awarded by
the middle of this month,
but to date there have been
no announcements.

A task force set up to
look at the county nursing
home said other options
include renovating the cur-
rent home or building a
new one at the county's
expense. County officials
estimated the price tag for
a new facility would be
around $30 million.

The county also could
sell the facility to a private
provider or simply close it.

The nursing home
employs about 120 people,
many of whom either
marched on the picket line
or attended the meeting.

County officials have
said if the county decides
to partner with Thompson,
every effort will be made to
transition county nursing
home employees into the
Thompson site.

Employees, however,
said the residents would be

Account: 23070 (12128)
N¥-248;

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Page 1 of 3
FINGER LAKES TIMES

Date: Friday, March 30, 2012

Location: GENEVA, NY
Circulation (DMA): 12,891 (78)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: 1A4A
Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 FINGER LAKES TIMES
Al Rights Reserves,

hurt most by any move.
They said transferred resi-
dents have mortality rates
two to four times higher
than residents who are
allowed to stay in place.

They added that reloca-
tion stress syndrome caus-
es a resident's health to
deteriorate, increases
health risks and lowers
cognitive and physical
functioning.

“Moving the residents
from the county complex to
a new location puts each
and every one of them in
jeopardy,” Flo Tripi, CSEA
Western Region president,
said in a press release. “It’s
a proven fact that when
nursing home residents
are moved, some will die.
This is called relocation
stress syndrome and it isa
medical fact.”

Three workers spoke at
last night’s meeting. One
of them, 17-year employee
Heather Russell, said
county officials should look
out for the elderly popula-
tion as much as younger
people.

“This county supports
youth and_ education
through FLCC. Why is it
so hard to ask for support

for the health facility?” she
said. “I don’t care if a resi-
dent has lived there 10
days or 10 years. They
have paid their dues. How
about investing in their
future?”

Also at last night’s meet-
ing:

* UNITED WAY — The
board heard from county
Treasurer Gary Baxter,
chairperson of the United
Way campaign for county
employees. He was joined
by Rhoda Childs, executive
director of the United Way
of Ontario County, and for-
mer Hopewell Supervisor
Mary Green, a United Way
volunteer.

Baxter said for the first
time this year, county
employees can make an “e-
pledge” through the
Internet, This year’s cam-
paign kicks off Monday.

Baxter added that even
though donations in the
county were down last
year, county employees
gave 18 percent more than
the previous year.

Green also asked board
members to encourage
their town employees to
donate.

Account: 23070 (12128)
N¥-248;

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Page 2 of 3
Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
FINGER LAKES TIMES Location: GENEVA, NY

Circulation (DMA): 12,891 (78)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)

Page: 14a

Keyword: CSEA

Mike Hibbard photos / Finger Lakes Times

Numerous employees of the Ontario
County Health Facility picketed in front
of the county courthouse in
Canandaigua Thursday before the Board

of Supervisors meeting.

Signs carried by members of the Civil

my friends at the Ontario County Health
Facility” and “Seniors count too!”

Page 3 of 3

© 2012 FINGER LAKES TIMES
Al Rights Reserved,

‘Account: 23070 (12128)
v2

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RECORD

Date: Friday, March 30, 2012

Location: TROY, NY
Circulation (DMA): 9,521 (58)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
18

Page:
Keyword: CSEA

State to let NYC take its juvenile delinquents

ALBANY — New York
lawmakers are poised to
approve Cuomo adminis-
tration plans for transfer-
ring 240 juvenile delin-
quents in state detention
to programs or facilities
closer to their New York
City homes.

Amendments contained
in the budget agreement
reached by legislative
leaders and the governor
for the coming fiscal year
authorize state payments
to city social services for
those teens now in five
upstate detention centers
that are classified as “lim-
ited secure” and seven
state facilities classified
“non-secure,” including
three in New York City.

The measure, which
lawmakers will vote on
today, authorizes $35.2
million for reimburse-
ments in 2013 and $41.4
million the next year.

Another 130 juvenile
delinquents from outside
the city will stay in state
centers, some of which are
expected to close, The 253
juveniles who committed
more serious or violent
crimes and are now held
in the state’s four upstate
“secure” detention centers
will remain there.

New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg called
it a public policy victory.

“We have been pushing
to overhaul the state’s
juvenile justice system so
that our young people can
more easily transition
back into their communi-
ties and productive lives,”
he said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo
has echoed concerns
raised by Democratic state
legislators from the city
about sending teens far
from their families to
upstate youth prisons with
high recidivism rates. His

© 12 eee
All Rights Reserves,

“Close to Home Initiative”
is meant to address that.

“The governor’s follow-
ing 10 years of research
and practice that shows
what works to reduce re-
offending and promote
healthy kids and healthy
communities,” said
Elizabeth Glazer, his
deputy secretary for public
safety. “That’s to make
sure kids have the right
programs at the right time,
that those who pose a dan-
ger are in locked facilities
with appropriate services,
and those who are not are
close to families, schools
and communities that can
help them become law-
abiding citizens.”

Another important pro-
vision will require proba-
tion officials to use scien-
tifically validated “risk
assessment instruments”
and provide them to
judges who decide where

to send youths and will
have to explain why they
diverge from those find-
ings, Glazer said.

The Civil Se) vic e

staff members at the state
detention centers, said it
will cost the jobs of dedi-
cated and qualified work-
ers. The group also ques-
tioned whether it will save
money and noted 20 to 30
percent of the juveniles
subject to transfer commit-
ted violent felonies.

Union President Danny
Donohue questioned
whether sending them
back to the neighborhoods
where they got in trouble
in the first place without
any evidence that they will
be properly supervised.

The program applies to
youths under 16 designat-
ed delinquents by family
courts after committing a
misdemeanor or felony.

City social services offi-
cials will have to submit
plans to the state Office of
Children and _ Family
Services, which will evalu-
ate availability of educa-
tion, medical and mental
health services, drug treat-
ment and community
supervision.

OCFS Commissioner
Gladys Carrion has closed
22 state detention centers
and group homes since
2007, while pushing com-
munity-based alternatives.
The state institutions’ pop-
ulation has dropped over
the past 12 years from
2,313 to 636, according to
OCFS.

Revisions in the budget
agreement will hold off
changes for “limited
secure” facilities until after
April 1, 2013, and require
additional public hearings
on that. Authority for clos-
ing state detention centers,
subject to 60-day notice,
will expire a year later.

—The Associated Press

Account: 23070 (12117)
Ny-6809

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CSEA

Saturday, March 24, 2012
TROY, NY

Newspaper (D)
7

around flew york

New front in Cuomo’s

week in review

Kyle Hughes
NYSNYS News

ALBANY - Gov.
Andrew Cuomo's fight
with labor unions broke
new ground this week,
with the governor sug-
gesting unions could face
investigations for using
campaign money to
bribe legislators. He
made his comments after
CSEA, the biggest state
local government work-
ers union, reacted to last
week's passage of Tier
VI by suspending politi-
cal endorsements and
donations. Other unions
led by the NYSUT teach-
ers union suspended
their financial support
for Somos, the Latino
legislative weekend held
every year in Albany.

In an appearance on
the Fred Dicker radio
show Tuesday, Cuomo
said “any union is free to
support whoever they
want or choose not to
support. However, I
would - if you are link-
ing political contribution
to a specific vote, you
may get a call from the
attorney general or the
district attorney or
JCOPE, so — but in terms
of general ideological
support, that's fine. But
as you know there
should be no campaign
contributions for specific
votes."

Asked if he was taking
about "quid pro quo,
which could be seen as
buying a vote," Cuomo
replied: "That's exactly
right."

Cuomo's comments
raised eyebrows because
of the common practice

© 2012 RECORD
All Rights Reserved,

of special interests to
funnel cash to legislators
and statewide officials
they support. One of the
carrots held out to state
legislators in 2011 before
they voted to approve
Cuomo's gay marriage
legalization bill was the
promise of big campaign
donations from gay
rights supporters across
the U.S.

Monday, CSEA
President Danny
Donohue announced the
union "will immediately
suspend all state political
endorsements and contri-
butions. This unprece-
dented action is a direct
result of the political
deal between Gov.
Andrew Cuomo and the
state legislative leader-
ship, Senate Republicans
and Assembly
Democrats, trading the
future retirement security
of working New Yorkers
for legislative redistrict-
ing lines. This action is
necessary to give our
union the opportunity to
re-evaluate our political
relationships and make
judgments about the cri-
teria we use in determin-
ing who has earned and
deserves our support. It
is also important to con-
sider how our support is
valued.

"CSEA will also use
this time to consult with
our brother and sister
unions and other allied
community organiza-
tions about how we can
collectively address the
disrespect and disenfran-
chisement of working
people by our state’s
elected officials. New
Yorkers should under-
stand that lawmakers’
actions did not result

fight with labor unions

from meaningful debate
and good judgment - it
resulted from political
expediency — and it will
have harmful conse-
quences to people and
communities now and
for a long time to come.
CSEA will seek better
ways to hold elected offi-
cials accountable and
ensure that the voices of
working people will be
heard and addressed in
New York state.”

More fallout from the
Tier VI vote came when
unions informed the
Somos legislative week-
end organizers that they
were pulling their finan-
cial support for the
event, which runs
through Sunday in
Albany.

"Unfortunately, given
the disheartening votes
taken against the inter-
ests of educators and stu-
dents by the members of
the Task Force, I feel it
inappropriate for me to
participate in this event
this year," NYSUT
President Richard
Tanuzzi wrote
Assemblyman Felix
Ortiz, the chairman of
the Assembly Puerto
Rican/Hispanic Task
Force. "Last year, the
state Legislature slashed
$1.3 billion in aid for
schools and passed a
property tax cap that has
resulted in increased
staff reductions and pro-
gram cuts in school dis-
tricts across this state.
And, just last week, the
state Legislature passed a
Tier VI retirement plan
that requires greatly
increased contributions
for future workers while
significantly reducing
their benefits. In the end,

Account: 23070 (12036)
Ny-680

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this plan will result in
greatly reduced retire-
ment security for future
workers."

Cuomo and New York
City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg quickly
announced they would
provide $72,000 to help
cover the costs of the
Somos conference.

SPECIAL ELECTIONS:
Special elections were
held for a handful of
open Senate and
Assembly seats this

week.
One of the most close-

ly watched races was to
replace former Sen. Carl
Kruger (D-Brooklyn)
who faces prison in a
corruption scandal.
Republican David
Storobin is leading
Democrat Lew Fidler
with a recount expected.

In another big race,
Buffalo City Council
member Mickey Kearns,
a Democrat running on
the Republican line,
defeated Chris Fahey, a
top aide to Rep. Brian
Higgins. Kearns ran a
campaign tying Fahey to
Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver, an
unpopular figure in west-
ern New York.

In the 100th Assembly
District that includes
parts of Ulster, Dutchess
and Orange counties
Democrat Frank
Skartados defeated
Republican John
Forman. The seat was
held by the late
Newburgh Republican

Thomas Kirwan.
In the 103rd Assembly

District (Dutchess and
Columbia counties)
Democrat Didi Barrett
led Republican Richard
Wager, 5,804 to 5,650.
Some 1,657 absentee bal-

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Saturday, March 24, 2012
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CSEA

© 2012 RECORD
All Rights Reserved,

lots have yet to be count-
ed.

In the 93rd Assembly
District (Yonkers) former
Senate Democratic coun-
sel Shelley Mayer defeat-
ed Republican Donna
Nolan to succeed
Republican turned
Democrat Mike Spano,
now mayor of Yonkers.

REPUBLICANS LINE
UP: Republicans held
their state convention,
setting up a primary to
pick a candidate to run
against Sen. Kirsten
Gillibrand.

Their June 26 primary
will see a face-off
between Nassau County

Comptroller George
Maragos, Manhattan
lawyer Wendy Long, and
U.S. Rep. Bob Turner. All
got at least 25 percent of
the delegate vote at the
GOP gathering in
Rochester - Maragos, 27
percent; Long, 48; and
Turner, 25.

Gillibrand, who was
recently named one of
the most liberal members
of Congress, got her start
by running as a conser-
vative Democrat to defeat
U.S. Rep. John Sweeney,
and quickly switched
gears after she was
appointed to the Senate
to fill out the term of

Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton.

A February Quinnipiac
Poll found Gillibrand
with a 47 percent
approval rating.

Democrats met in New
York City Monday to
endorse Gillibrand for
her first full six year
term in the Senate.
"Senator Gillibrand has
proven herself to be a
force in the U.S. Senate
as an extraordinarily
effective fighter for all of
New York's families,"
Chairman Jay Jacobs
said.

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Page 2 of 2
Che New York Times ei ow

Date: Friday, March 23, 2012
NEW YORK, NY
816,391 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)

Page: A23

Keyword: CSEA

Angry at Pension Vote, Unions Plan to Skip Hispanic Event

By THOMAS KAPLAN

ALBANY — It is a tradition of
the annual spring conference for
Hispanic legislators in the cap-
ital: a union-sponsored breakfast
where lawmakers rub shoulders
with labor leaders, whose en-
dorsements are coveted come
election season.

But this Saturday, there will be
no breakfast. Irate at lawmakers
for voting last week to reduce
pension benefits for new public
workers, several of New York
State’s most prominent unions
are planning to boycott the event,
Somos el Futuro, and, in at least
one case, to pull donations that
help finance it.

The situation over the confer-
ence, a must-attend event for
many in New York politics, is
highlighting the tensions be-
tween organized labor and Al-
bany lawmakers that have arisen
since the vote. And it has brought
backers of the pension measure
to rally for the lawmakers who
supported it: Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo and Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg pledged on Thursday
to bail out the conference.

In a joint statement, they said
that together they would donate
$72,000 to the conference to make
up for the donations being with-
held by unions “angry about the
passage of pension reform.”

“We think the unions’ actions
are unfortunate,” Mr. Cuomo and
Mr. Bloomberg said, “and don’t
want the conference to suffer as a
result.”

The conference will cap a
somewhat awkward week in Al-
bany as the state’s public-em-
ployee unions came to grips with

Dawa ns
© 2012 iia

All Rights Reserved,

For harcoopy reprints, © prini, posters or plaques of his arte contact: nytimes@parsint.cor, (212) 221-9595 x425 or vist win nytreprinis.com

the pension deal, which was
passed at Mr. Cuomo’s urging on
March 15 after an all-night ses-
sion.

In the sharpest denunciation of
lawmakers who supported the
measure, New York’s largest un-
ion of state workers, the Civil
Service Employees Association,
announced on Monday that it
would immediately suspend all
state political endorsements, as
well as campaign contributions to
Albany lawmakers.

The union is also skipping the
conference. “There are conse-
quences to what took place here,”
said Stephen Madarasz, a
spokesman for the union.

Both the state and city teach-
ers’ unions are also boycotting.

The New York State United
Teachers contributed $24,700 to
help support the conference last
year, Carl Korn, a spokesman for
the union, said. This year, it de-
clined to donate. And on Tuesday,
the president of the union, Rich-
ard C. Iannuzzi, sent a letter to
the chairman of the Somos con-
ference, Assemblyman Félix W.
Ortiz, a Brooklyn Democrat. Mr.
Iannuzzi expressed frustration
with how many members of the
New York State Puerto Rican/
Hispanic Task Force had sup-
ported the pension measure.

“Unfortunately, given the dis-
heartening votes taken against
the interests of educators and
students by the members of the
task force,” he wrote, “I feel it in-
appropriate for me to participate
in this event this year.”

The United Federation of
Teachers is also skipping the con-
ference, where its president, Mi-
chael Mulgrew, was to be hon-

Account: 23070 (12031)
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ored. Mr. Mulgrew described the
pension vote as a “sleazy, middle-
of-the-night back-room deal”; he
added that his members “would-
n’t want to see me a week later
standing there with a person who
voted for that, accepting an
award from them.”

“There has to be a sensitivity
to that on both sides,” Mr. Mul-
grew added. “It would really be
inappropriate for me to go there
and say, ‘Oh, everything is fine’”

Mr. Ortiz, who voted for the
pension bill, issued a statement
on Thursday praising Mr. Cuomo
and Mr. Bloomberg for their sup-
port.

“Although we may not always
see eye to eye,” Mr. Ortiz said,
“the governor and the mayor
have shown that they are ing
to step up and give a helping
hand when politics gets in the
way of doing the right thing.”

While many labor leaders have
made no secret of their deep an-
ger at the vote last week, unions
took different approaches in ex-
pressing that frustration.

For example, the second-larg-
est major union of state workers,
the Public Employees Federa-
tion, is participating in the con-
ference this weekend as usual.
The union has also avoided tak-
ing a hard-line stance on cam-
paign contributions or endorse-
ments.

“There's no question that the
pension vote is going to be a sig-
nificant consideration when we
look at candidates,” a spokes-
woman for the federation, Sherry
Halbrook, said. “But it’s not go-
ing to be a make-it or break-it fac-
tor in most cases.”

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522,875 (1)
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29

CSEA

Unions v. NY Youth

Blocking vital juvie-justice fix

a SYKES

OON after he was elected

governor 16 months ago, An-

drew Cuomo made a point of

publicly touring a state juve-
nile-detention center in the Mo-
hawk Valley, west of Albany. The
‘Tryon boy’s detention center no
longer had any juvenile residents
but was staffed at a taxpayer cost
of $15 million a year.

Cuomo’s visit to the empty
center sent an important and
valuable message — New York
can’t afford to operate so waste-
fully. His latest state budget fol-

better for taxpayers, for low-risk
juvenile offenders and their fam-
ilies and for society as a whole. It
would reduce reliance on upstate
facilities and house more offend-
ers closer to home, mostly in fa-
cilities run by city government.

The governor wants to close or
reduce staffing at empty and low-
capacity facilities and use the
savings to restructure the juve-
nile-justice system to be more
cost-effective and successful.
What could make more sense?

Yet the Civil Service Employees
Association is out to derail the re-
form. The state government's
largest union is focused on pre-
serving the jobs of its dues-pay-
ing members, rather than on pro-
moting a better juvenile-justice
system.

That’s not a surprise — it’s
what unions do in their self-in-
terest. More appalling is that the
CSEA’s opposition may be gain-
ing some traction in the Legisla-
ture, with certain members re-
portedly looking to delay or wa-
ter down the reform.

Sorry: This short-sighted effort
to preserve some CSEA jobs
would be a disservice to taxpay-
ers and New York’s youth alike.
Housing juvenile delinquents

© 2012 NYP Holainge In.
Al Rights Reserved,

closer to home is a proven policy
that also means significant sav-
ings. Sensible reform should

New York spends
year per inmate at the existing fa-
cilities. Yet research clearly
shows that the most effective
placements are in community-
based facilities — whether non-
secure group homes or small,
limited-secure facilities — lo-
cated fairly close to the young de-
tainee’s community and family.

Simply put, youthful offenders
detained closer to home are mark-
edly less likely to become repeat
offenders after release. It’s better
for these citizens and better for
society, as well as for taxpayers.

Good ideas have a way of creat-
ing unlikely partnerships. Here,
the national Right on Crime ini-
tiative, coordinated by the con-
servative-led Texas Public Policy
Foundation, is allied with pro-
gressive and centrist juvenile-jus-
tice reformers such as Citizens’
Committee for Children, the Le-
gal Aid Society and the Correc-
tional Association of New York.

‘Texas, Missouri and other states
have moved in the direction sug-
gested by Gov. Cuomo. Will CSEA
pressure let Texas be more hu-
mane than New York?

Recidivism rates go down for
youth housed closer to home for
many reasons. Proximity allows
for more family visitation and
participation in treatment, and
for better attitudes on the part of
youth themselves. It makes it far
easier for local volunteers, em-
ployers and educational institu-
tions to develop working rela-
tionships with the detainees, and
provide mentoring and voca-
tional opportunities.

The approach does not coddle
these youths, nor does it jeopar-
dize safety, as some claim. It just
works better and costs less.

Unfortunately in the final ugly
hours of budget horse-trading, the
opposition of a single powerful or-
tion like CSEA can delay
good. ideas. Politicians are adept at
pointing to watered-down results
as landmark achievements.

We don’t need another round
of dysfunctional Albany politics,
with union special interests
overriding common sense, fiscal
prudence and the best interests
of at-risk youth.

Russell Sykes is a senior fellow at
the Manhattan Institute’s Empire
Center for New York State Policy.

an,

A $15 million-a-year waste: Gov.-elect Cuomo toured the empty Tyron

boys’ detention facility in 2010 to highlight the need for reform.

Account: 23070 (12026)
Nv-788,

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aijegaq uouueYs

Page 1 of 1
The Daily Gazette x...

Friday, March 23, 2012
SCHENECTADY, NY

McLOUGHLIN: TAKE 2

Still excited
by Albany’s
reforms?

Let me ask you something ...
@Whaddya think, are you
still gaga over Albany having
reformed itself after seeing that
all-night session where lawmakers
cast some of the most important
votes ever in their careers without
fully reading the bills, causing
even the Senate Democrats to
walk out in disgust, a group not
especially noted for being turned
off by disgusting situations?
Possible lookalikes? Steven
Tyler and actress Kyra Sedgwick
of “The Closer.”
What about that local TV
station (thankfully, not mine)
that completely blew the Troy
voter fraud mistrial proceedings
— missed the story altogether
— but then sent a “live truck” and a
reporter to the courthouse so they
could go live at five and six o’clock?
Were they scamming their own

© 2012 DAILY GAZETTE
Al Rights Reserved,

60,360 (56)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
Page: Bi
Keyword: CSEA
viewers into thinking they didcov- _ unions, not with the lawmakers, if

er the event or is this just another
example of how low TV “journal-
ism” has, in some cases, sunk?

Could it be that Quintin Cross,
the Hudson alderman who is sus-
pected in the break-in at City Hall
and the theft of petty cash, might
simply be trying to gather the
cash to get current on the $16,000
in restitution owed back in ’07 for
using city-issued credit cards to
scam thousands?

Please, please, please, can we
just go one game during March
Madness without hearing the
following: “They punched their
ticket,” “from way downtown,” or
“he buried the 3?”

Can you believe that 56-
year-old Thomas McMartin, the
Hoosick Falls guy charged with.
placing a camera in the women’s
locker room at RPI, when Jessica
Layton, anchor-reporter at my
place, goes to his door for a com-
ment, he tells her she is “invading
my privacy?” Did you hear me,
the alleged camera-concealer tells
Jessica that SHE is invading HIS
privacy ... HIS privacy?

Of all those thousands of
folks wearin’ the green and sin-
gin’ the rebel songs over the St.
Pat’s holiday weekend, how many
of them do you think ever have
read a book about Ireland, its his-
tory and its culture?

Now that New York lawmak-
ers have ceded their legislative
powers to the public employee
unions — Speaker Silver and oth-
ers announcing that Gov. Cuomo
would have to bargain with the

Account: 23070 (12101)
N82,

he hoped to make a deal on Tier
VI — will they at least allow us
citizen-types to vote to elect the
leaders of CSEA, PEF, et. al. and,
more importantly, to attend the
union picnics every summer?

Someone please tell me, did
Christine Quinn, president of the
New York City Council, lose more
weight in anticipation of running
for Bloomberg’s job, than did
Kirsten Gillibrand (an impressive
55 pounds, one staffer told me)
when she ran for Hillary’s Senate
seat, winding up on a list of Capitol
Hill “hotties” composed by a
Washington, D.C,, publication?

Look, it’s not at all surpris-
ing that the freakishly warm
weather has got a lot of privately
owned golf courses opening
prematurely, but can you imagine
the munis, the publicly owned
courses, actually opening this
early without Elin putting a nine
iron to someone’s head?

@And before you go castigating
that Hudson alderman, you tell
me which is worse, making off
with petty cash of less than 100
bucks, or the members of the Troy
City Council allegedly targeting
residents of public housing to steal
their absentee ballots because they
knew those folks would be too
afraid, too scared of losing their
apartments, if they made a stink?

John McLoughlin is a veteran
Capital Region journalist, now at
NewsChannel 13. Reach him by
email at JMcLoughlin@WNYT.
com.

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

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Friday, March 23, 2012
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AT

CSEA

Shedding light
on state pension
plan savings

a6 Dan

ply
mS Janison

dan.janison@newsday.com

ark it down as a
rule of political
spin that the
most opaque is-
sues can fuel
the most transparent hype.
The Cuomo administration
and public-employee unions
clashed over a cheaper pen-
sion plan for new hires. Then
lawmakers approved one in a
late-night session last week.
Now, as their war of words lin-
gers, management and labor
share a mutual interest — max-
imizing in the public mind the
impact of this new Tier VI
plan, to the point where both
sides sound overwrought.
From the way public-em-
ployee unions attack it, you’d
think the change would send
New York to the brink of a
Wisconsin-style scuttling of
collective bargaining rights.
And from the elected officials
who pushed and supported it,
this reduced plan for future
workers draws glowing acco-
lades like “transformational”
and “historic” and a blow to
“special interests.”
The truth, less dramatic, is
that new ‘employees, both

© 2012 Newsday in,
All Rights Reserved,

union and nonunion, will still re-
ceive pensions with defined
benefits, local governments will
still face massive pension liabili-
ties and the state Constitution
will still bar current employees
from having benefits cut.

Life will go on more or less
as we knew it. But yes, the pub-
lic does stand to save some
money in what budget wonks
like to call the out-years, which
means the civil-service job gets
slightly less remunerative.

In the patchwork of state
and municipal retirement
plans, we're talking about rais-
ing the retirement age from 62
to 63, increasing employee con-
tributions on a progressive
scale, and slicing from 200 to
100 the number of sick days
and leave days that can be used
for retirement service credit,
and other such measures.

Ken Adams, Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo’s top economic-devel-
opment official, yesterday visit-
ed the Long Island Association
office in Melville for a news
conference to proclaim that the
new pension plan will save
Long Islanders more than $12.8
billion over the next 30 years.

An estimate of how many
billions of dollars local govern-
ments will still owe, however,
was notably unavailable.

Adams stood beside Nassau
County Executive Edward

Mangano, Brookhaven Town
Supervisor Mark Lesko and
Long Island Association chief
Kevin Law. “Until last week,
the taxpayers were losing, the
state workers were winning,
in the tension between run-
away pension costs in the
state,” Adams said.

“Really the best thing
that’s occurring right now,”
Mangano said, “is you have
legislators and government
talking about these taboo is-
sues. A few years ago...
you couldn’t touch it, and
today, many elected officials
are beginning to stand up.”

Lesko added: “This is one
of those third-rail issues that
elected officials, particularly
elected executives, tend to
shy away from, and I think
the governor deserves a tre-
mendous amount of credit
for tackling this issue.”

But Danny Donohue, presi-
dent of the Civil Service Em-
ployees Association, has de-
nounced Tier VI as a political-
ly “expedient” deal — one
from which no good will
come. Warning of its “harmful
consequences,” he announced
that the CSEA will “immediate-
ly suspend all state political en-
dorsements and contribu-
tions.” One union wag asked if
dues would be reduced.

The pension-hype race has
even included teacher unions
withdrawing sponsorship of
the weekend’s Latino legisla-
tors’ conference in Albany —
and Cuomo and New York City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg pro-
viding $72,000 from campaign
funds to make up for it.

Sculpting gray compromises
like Tier VI into black-and-
white slogans is what modern
message-crafting is all about.

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DAILY NEWS

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012
Location: NEW YORK, NY
Circulation (DMA): 530,924 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)

Page: 28

Keyword: CSEA

Their money’s worth

Ihe head of the state’s largest public employ-
ee union has exposed his attitude toward
the Legislature: When he buys lawmakers,
heexpects them to stay bought.

Furious that Gov. Cuomo won passage
of pension reforms, Civil Service Employees As-
sociation President Danny Donohue announced
that his union “will immediately suspend all state
political endorsements and contributions” — as a
“direct result” of that single vote.

“There’s no way we're going to accept business
as usual with what they pulled,” Donohue told
the Daily News.

His union has been generous with Albany,
pouring almost a quarter-million dollars into
campaign accounts over the past two years. The
expectation, of course, was that the Legislature
would be commensurately generous in return by
favoring union members with pension protec-
tions, ifnotsweeteners, funded by taxpayers.

For as long as anyone can remember, the I-

© 2012 Dally News LP.
Al Rights Reserves,

pay-you, you-pay-me bargain held — until Cuomo
called for scaling back benefits for future workers
and offering them the option of 401(k)-style re-
tirement savings plan.

At that, the unions pulled out all the stops, de-
manded obedience from their financial help-
mates and forced Cuomo to retreat to the tune of
30 billion taxpayer dollars.

Even at that, the labor leaders were furious
and, in their rage, they laid the game bare. Insome
contexts, connecting money and particular gov-
ernmental actions is, well, criminal. As Cuomo
pointed out:

“If you are linking political contributions to a
specific vote, you may get a call from the attorney
general, a district attorney or JCOPE” — the state’s
Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

Rest assured that, sooner or later, the unions
will open their wallets again. When they do, the
task will be to see which good little boys and girls
getallowances.

Account: 23070 (12012)
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Thursday, March 22, 2012
NEW YORK, NY

816,391 (1)

Newspaper (D)

ALAS

CSEA

STATE FAULTS CARE
FOR THE DISABLED

‘Needless Risk’ Is Cited
in New York Report

By DANNY HAKIM

ALBANY — Nearly 300,000
disabled and mentally ill New
Yorkers face a “needless risk of
harm” because of conflicting reg-
ulations, a lack of oversight and
even disagreements over what
constitutes abuse, according to a
draft state report obtained by
The New York Times.

In 2010, the number of abuse
accusations at large institutions
overseen by the State Office for
People With Developmental Dis-
abilities outnumbered the beds in
those facilities — a sign of trouble
in buildings where many of the
state’s most vulnerable residents
are housed, and where the state
has repeatedly had trouble with
abusive employees and unex-
plained injuries and deaths
among residents, according to
the report.

The report was commissioned
by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in re-
sponse to a Times investigation
last year into problems of abuse,
neglect and fraud in state homes
and institutions for the develop-
mentally disabled. A draft of the
report began circulating in Octo-
ber, but has not yet been released
to the public; people frustrated
by the delay separately provided
to The Times an executive sum-
mary and a bound copy drafted in
December.

Problems were found at all six
state agencies that provide resi-
dential service to children and
adults with an array of disal
ties, mental illnesses or other is-
sues that qualify them to receive
specialized care by the state.

According to the report, a regu-
latory maze has complicated and
in some cases constrained the

Continued on Page A3
state’s response to claims of
abuse. At one agency, the police
are summoned if “there is reason
to believe that a crime has been

Dawa ns
© 2012 iia

All Rights Reserved,

committed,” while another agen-
cy does so only if a potential felo-
ny has been committed. A third
agency turns to law enforcement
only if a local district attorney
has “indicated a prior interest,”
the report said.

The Cuomo administration has
expressed concern about issues
identified in The Times and ad-
dressed by the report. Over the
past year, the governor has
forced the resignations of the
commissioner of the Office for
People With Developmental Dis-
abilities and the top official at the
State Commission on Quality of
Care and Advocacy for Persons
With Disabilities, and he has
moved to fire 130 employees in-
volved in accusations of serious
episodes of abuse or neglect.

The administration has also
taken a number of steps to shore
up oversight and care of the de-
velopmentally disabled, putting
in place new rules for drug test-
ing and criminal background
checks of staff members who
work with the vulnerable.

“The draft report was the sub-
ject of a cabinet and press brief-
ing in October, and we are cur-
rently working on a transforma-
tional reform plan based on the
report that will be announced
soon,” said Richard Bamberger,
the governor’s communications
director.

But some advocates and law-
makers have been frustrated
with what they see as the slow
pace of progress. Michael Carey,
an advocate for the developmen-
tally disabled whose son with au-
tism died in state care in 2007,
said he was concerned that the
governor was waiting to address
the issue until after legislative
budget negotiations, which could
make it more difficult to find
money for new programs.

“It’s gross negligence that that
report has not come out, and it’s
beyond frustrating,” Mr. Carey
said, adding, “The reforms to
date are baby steps towards
monster problems.” And Senator
Roy J. McDonald, the chairman
of the State Senate’s mental
health committee, sent a letter
this month to the governor urg-
ing him to turn over the report
“so that we can begin working to-
wards enacting long overdue pro-

tections and safeguards.”

The Times last year identified
numerous problems with the
state’s care for the developmen-
tally disabled: only 5 percent of
abuse accusations were forward-
ed to law enforcement, and em-
ployees who physically or sexu-
ally abused the disabled were
often transferred among group
homes instead of being fired.

Ten percent of deaths of the de-
velopmentally disabled in state
care were listed in a state data-
base as having occurring from
unknown causes, suggesting
widespread failures in efforts to
determine why people die in
state care.

At the same time, executives at
some nonprofit organizations
hired by the state to care for the
disabled have been earning sev-
en-figure annual compensation
packages and taking a wide
range of Medicaid-financed perks
for themselves and their friends
and families.

The state report, a 105-page
document called “The Measure
of a Society: Protection of Vul-
nerable Persons in Residential
Facilities Against Abuse and Ne-
glect,” critiques the practices at
six state agencies that oversee
residential programs for vulner-
able populations, at an annual
cost of $17.9 billion. The report's
principal author was Clarence
Sundram, who was hired by Mr.
Cuomo a year ago as a special ad-
viser on vulnerable people. Mr.
Sundram had been named by
Gov. Hugh L. Carey to lead the
Commission on Quality of Care,
and he ran the commission for
two decades until he left amid a
disagreement with the adminis-
tration of Gov. George E. Pataki.

In his report, Mr. Sundram
found inconsistent data about ac-
cusations of abuse and neglect at
state-run facilities. Some agen-
cies train their investigators; oth-
ers do not. Evidentiary standards
vary. And definitions of abuse or
neglect vary depending upon
which agency has oversight.

The report found that residen-
tial schools run by the Education
Department did not track abuse
claims, while the State Health
Department had “no reliable
data” for accusations at its

Account: 23070 (12015)
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Thursday, March 22, 2012
NEW YORK, NY

816,391 (1)

Newspaper (D)

ALAS

CSEA

homes for mentally ill adults. At
the large institutions overseen by
the Office for People With Devel-
opmental Disabilities, the report
found 119.68 abuse claims for ev-
ery 100 beds.

The homes monitored by the
Health Department have been a
particular concern for a decade,
since a series of articles in The
Times in 2002 called attention to
abuse there. Nonetheless, the re-
port found, the department has
few standards for investigating
its homes: the agency’s regula-
tions “do not directly address an
operator’s responsibility to inves-
tigate incidents or allegations of
abuse,” the report concluded.

The Office of Children and
Family Services also has few
standards to determine when and
how to investigate abuse accusa-
tions at some facilities. And the
Education Department does little
to oversee its programs for the
disabled, which include two resi-
dential schools — one for the deaf
and one for the blind — with a to-
tal of 200 beds, as well as educa-
tional programs at nonprofit resi-
dential schools serving 2,500 stu-
dents.

The department does not re-
quire schools to have incident-
reporting or investigation poli-
cies, and does not require abuse
and neglect investigations, rely-

Dawa ns
© 2012 iia

All Rights Reserved,

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ing on the Office of Children and
Family Services to conduct child-
abuse inquiries.

The Education Department,
which reports to the State Board
of Regents and not to the gover-
nor, said the Sundram report
highlighted “the need for system-
wide reform”

The department “supports
change that would enhance pro-
tections for vulnerable children
and adults in residential settings
across New York State and in
out-of-state facilities,” said its
spokesman, Tom Dunn.

The report recommended sev-
eral changes to state laws and
regulations in an effort to prevent
and better respond to abuse of
the vulnerable. But it continues
to rely to a large extent on self-
policing, which could be a point of
criticism among advocates.

“These human services sys-
tems did not arrive overnight to
the point at which they find them-
selves, nor will they get to a dra-
matically better level of perform-
ance immediately,” the report
said. “But there is a need to begin
the process of reform with a
sense of urgency.”

One proposed law would re-
quire the establishment of a 24-
hour hot line to report abuse of
adults in state care — the state al-
ready has a child-abuse hot line

Account: 23070 (12015)
Nv-470

— as well as the creation of a sin-
gle entity to review abuse accu-
sations regardless of the agency
involved. Another proposed law
would bar people with convic-
tions for violent felonies and sex
crimes from jobs with state agen-
cies, or with state-contracted
nonprofits groups, that provide
care for the vulnerable.

Because the current charge
often filed against those accused
of abuse — endangering the wel-
fare of an incompetent or phys-
ically disabled person — is a mis-
demeanor, the report also pro-
poses creating new offenses with
tougher penalties to prosecute
such crimes.

During arbitration proceedings
against employees accused of
abuse, a representative of the
abused vulnerable person should
also be present, the report sug-
gests. And, the report says, the
state should follow through with
a promise to establish specific
penalties for offenses by abusive
employees, a concept that the
Civil Service Employees Associa-

agreed to during labor nego-
tiations months ago.
A report criticizes
the practices of six
New York agencies.

Page 2 of 3
we tee eres Mater 22, 2012
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he New Uork Eimes “eio.0. EF
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
ALA3

Page:
Keyword: CSEA

PHOTOGRAPHS BY NATHANIEL BROOKS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Large institutions, like the Sunmount Developmental Center in the Adirondacks, above, that
cate for developmentally disabled people have the highest number of abuse reports,

The report's principal author was Clarence Sundram. Gov. An-
drew M. Cuomo hired him as an adviser on vulnerable people.

BieNeoEnes
© 212
All Rights Reserved,

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9

CSEA

i@| Michael Goodwin

The ‘trough’
get going

ILTED! Betrayed! Sold out!
Albany hath no fury like
union bosses scorned.
There are some very
good things to be said anda
few qualms to express about the
pension reforms Gov. Cuomo
muscled through the Legislature,
but the most revealing prism is
union reaction. Their spitting-mad
vitriol means sacred cows have
been gored if not slain.

Under the threat of “serious
consequences,” the president of
the Civil Service Employees Asso-
ciation thundered that the union

ill immediately suspend all state
| endorsements and contri-
butions.” Boss Hog Danny
Donohue also railed against “the
disrespect and disenfranchise-
ment of working people.”

Good grief.

Not to be outdone in the outrage
department, city and state teach-
ers unions showed their solidarity
with greed by pulling out of an an-
nual conference organized by La-
tino legislators, saying they are
“re-evaluating our relationships”
with lawmakers.

In the real world, this is the ri-
diculous hyperbole of spoiled chil-
dren. In Albany, where unions call
the shots, this is genuine shock at a
rare defeat.

And all this over changes that
will not affect a single existing
worker. Only future hires will be
covered by the new pension tier of
benefits.

With so much ado over so rela-

© 2012 NYP Holainge In.
Al Rights Reserved,

tively little, the union rants reveal
the routine corruption in a politi-
cal system where every piece of
legislation is part of a larger trans-
action. The outrage that legislators
went against union wishes shows
it doesn’t happen often enough.

That fact also explains why the
pension changes, while significant,
won't rescue state and local fi-
nances. The rot runs deep and
more challenges lie ahead.

When the bill passed last week,
the first inclination was to wonder
whether Democrat Cuomo had
settled for less than he might have
won if he had fought longer. The
law will save taxpayers $81 billion
over 30 years, including $21 billion
in the city.

The governor's initial proposal
would have saved $113 billion, and
even that would have left new
workers with some of the most
generous pension plans in the
country. Compromises on retire-
ment age — it increases only a
year, to 63 — and on overtime lim-
its shaved off potential savings. So
did limiting the 401(k)-style plan
to new nonunion employees earn-
ing over $75,000.

The what-if scenario included
the fact that Mayor Bloomberg, on
behalf of mayors and county exec-
utives, was just starting TV ads
that might have pressured legisla-
tors to buck the unions. If the
game had gone a few more in-
nings, Cuomo might have gained
more votes and a better package.

The governor doesn’t think so.

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Both parties are in the pockets of
unions, and Cuomo believes he
pushed so far that he came close to
losing the Democratic-controlled
Assembly. He shut down the de-
bate rather than risk defeat.

“The unions were slow to orga-
nize, but once they get rolling,
they’re almost unstoppable,” he
told me yesterday. “We were on
the other side of the curve.”

Speaker Sheldon Silver’s goal is
always to get enough votes to pass
legislation among Democrats,
then add GOP votes. In this case,
he got only 56 Dems and needed
20 Republicans for a bare majority.
He got a total of 93, according to a
tally.

Cuomo said 12 Assembly Dem-

ocrats defected just before the
vote.

Keeping with the tradition of
horse-trading unrelated items,
other factors played a role, espe-
cially Cuomo’s agreement to ac-
cept gerrymandered redistricting
lines he had vowed to veto.

Yet the union reaction to the
pension changes demonstrates the
extent to which they are the most
pernicious drivers in the decline of
the Empire State. They have got-
ten away with unchecked power
for so long that they feel entitled to
control all major legislation.

They didn’t get their way this
time, but it’s not safe to say they
are beaten. This was a battle. The

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bind / No.

STOP THEM.

1))-823-4343 2h
“,, aia,

‘aySOY WL

3a AS iin

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4

CSEA

Gov warns against pension revenge

Union ‘buy’
laws attack

PENSIO
EXPLOSION

By ERIK KRISS
Bureau Chief

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo yes-
terday suggested New York’s
biggest state employee union
could be buying votes by freez-
ing campaign contributions to
lawmakers who supported a bill
cutting pension benefits for fu-
ture government workers.

“If you are linking political
contributions to a specific vote,
you may get a call from the attor-
ney general or the district attor-
ney or JCOPE” — the state’s new
ethics enforcement agency, said
Cuomo.

“There should be no campaign
contributions for specific votes,”
Cuomo — a former attorney gen-
eral who warred with labor
unions over his Tier VI pension
proposal — added during an ap-
pearance on Albany’s Talk 1300
AM radio.

Civil Service Employees Asso-
ciation president’ Danny
Donohue said he suspended all
political contributions and en-

© 2012 NYP Holainge In.
Al Rights Reserved,

dorsements on Monday as “a di-
rect result of the political deal
between Gov. Andrew Cuomo
and the state legislative leader-
ship, Senate Republicans and As-
sembly Democrats, trading the
future retirement security of
working New Yorkers for legisla-
tive redistricting lines.”

Asked if Donohue's move
amounted to buying votes — a
practice prohibited by state law —
Cuomo said, “That's exactly right.”

CSEA didn’t sound worried.

“Consistency doesn’t seem to
be Governor Cuomo’s strong
suit,” said union spokesman Ste-
phen Madarasz.

He noted Cuomo’s praise for
Mayor Bloomberg, who essen-
tially promised last month to
support candidates that backed
the governor’s pension plan.

Meanwhile, two Republican
state senators told union lobby-
ists this week that they had no
choice but to vote for the pen-

sion deal, which the Legislature
approved last week.

An attendee at the AFL-CIO’s
weekly meeting of labor lobby-
ists said Sens. Martin Golden of
Brooklyn and Joseph Robach of
Rochester explained their votes
by saying “the train was already
headed down the tracks and

couldn’t be stopped.”

Golden and Robach told the
umbrella labor group’s lobby-
ists that it was “something they
had to do,” said the attendee,
who spoke on condition of ano-
nymity.

The source said the senators’
unspoken implication was they
had to provide Senate Majority
Dean Skelos (R-LI) with their
votes for pension Tier VI in ex-
change for Cuomo’s approval of
the Senate’s and Assembly’s re-
districting plan.

Republicans hold a bare major-
ity of 32 seats in the 62-seat Sen-
ate and needed every GOP vote
to pass Tier VI.

The two senators claimed
“they tried their best and got
what they could” to soften the fi-
nal Tier VI deal, the source said.

Cuomo estimates the deal
will save $80 billion over 30
years, but he had proposed a
tougher, $113 billion savings
plan.

Neither senator returned
calls for comment yesterday.
AFL-CIO spokesman Ryan Del-
gado would not comment, call-
ing the meeting internal.

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——SSS SST Keyword: CSEA

If you are
linking
political
contributions
to a specific
vote, you may
geta call trom?

. the attorney
A general{Or]
the distric

~~
= Gov. Cuomo

- o*.

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Page 2 of 2
B

THE

“ALO

Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Location: BUFFALO, NY
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Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 The Butlao News
Al Rights Reserves,

CSEA halts donations,
cites state pension flap

By Tom Precious

NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

ALBANY — One of the state
Capitol’s biggest political dona-
tion machines said it will stop
giving to Republicans and
Democrats alike after Gov. An-
drew M. Cuomo and lawmakers
last week pushed through hikes
in pension costs for future gov-
ernment employees.

The Civil Service Employees
Association, a 265,000-member
union that has been instrumen-
tal in electing some lawmakers
over the years, said Monday it
will “suspend” political en-
dorsement and contributions.

“This unprecedented action
is a direct result of the political
deal between Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo and the state legislative
leadership, Senate Republicans
and Assembly Democrats, trad-
ing the future retirement secu-
rity of working New Yorkers for
legislative redistricting lines,”
said CSEA President Danny Do-
nohue.

How long the boycott lasts
— in an election year for all
state lawmakers — is uncertain.
Unions have made political
threats before and later caved,
and there are still a few months
left in the 2012 legislative ses-
sion for lawmakers to try to get
back into the CSEA’s money col-
umn.

Besides money — lots of it —
that the CSEA gives state law-
makers, it also has one of the
best political field operations to

For roprints or usage permission, please contact David Valenzuela a (716) 849-4402 or dvalenzusla@butinews.com.

provide foot soldiers to help
candidates pass out literature
and get people to the polls, as
well as a large, computerized
phone bank operation for poll-
ing and get-out-the-vote efforts.

“This action is necessary to
give our union the opportunity
to re-evaluate our political rela-
tionships and make judgments
about the criteria we use in de-
termining who has earned and
deserves our support. It is also
important to consider how our
support is valued,” Donohue
said.

A limited review of state
Board of Elections records de-
picts the size of the CSEA’s dol-
lar flow. When factoring in just
single contributions above
$20,000, the union has given at
least $407,000 to the Democrat-
ic Assembly Campaign Com-
mittee the past four years and
another $256,000 to the Senate
GOP main campaign account,
along with $209,000 to the
state Democratic Party. That
money does not include hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars in
donations to individual law-
makers.

“T have no reaction to that,”
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Sil-
ver, D-Manhattan, of the CSEA
cutting off the donation flow.
He added, “Support should not
come as a result of a vote yes or
avote no on any particular bill.”

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Page:
Keyword: CSEA

Union stops

political cash

ALBANY (AP) — A tra-
ditionally powerful public
employees union is cutting
off its political support fol-
lowing last weeks’ agree-
ment to create a new, less
lucrative pension for future
state and local government
workers.

The Civil Service
Employees Association said
Monday it will suspend its
campaign contributions and
political endorsements as it
seeks to re-evaluate its
political relationships and
consult with other unions.

The deal is expected to
save state and local taxpay-
ers $80 billion over 30
years and avoid possible
insolvency for some local
governments,

The CSEA has long been
a major force in state poli-
tics and has been close to
the Assembly Democratic
and Senate Republican
majorities.

CSEA President Danny
Donohue says the Legisla-
ture struck the deal with
Gov. Andrew Cuomo out of
political expediency rather
than sound policy.

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em ~*
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
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AS

CSEA

Union suspends campaign contributions

BY TED PHILLIPS
ted phillips@newsday.com

ALBANY — Angered by last
week’s vote to reduce pensions
for future workers, the largest
state employees union said yes-
terday that it was suspending
campaign contributions and can-
didate endorsements.

“This action is necessary to
give our union the opportunity
to re-evaluate our political rela-
tionships and make judgments
about the criteria we use in deter-
mining who has earned and de-
serves our support,” Civil Ser-

vice Employees Association
president Danny Donohue said
in a statement. “It is also impor-
tant to consider how our sup-
port is valued.”

The move by the union, which
represents about 66,000 mem-
bers, was a direct result of the
deal between Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo and legislators to create
a less generous pension plan
called Tier VI for future employ-

© 2012 Newsday ine,
All Rights Reserves,

ees, Donohue said.

What impact the suspension
will have — and how long it
will last — remains to be seen.
CSEA spokesman Stephen Ma-
darasz said the suspension was
“indefinite” but that the union
would still be part of the politi-
cal process.

CSEA gave about $130,000 to
candidates in 201], according to
Bill Mahoney, legislative opera-
tions and research coordinator
of the watchdog organization
New York Public Interest Re-
search Group. That made it the
39th largest donor in the state.
However, the different public
employee unions together
played a larger role, contributing
$21 million in the 2010 election
cycle — or 8.5 percent of giving.

“By themselves I wouldn’t say
the CSEA completely changes
the way things work, but if it
serves as.an omen, it might signif-
icantly change how 2012 elec-
tions look,” Mahoney said.

Representatives from two

other large unions said that legis-
lators’ vote on Tier VI would be
considered when they make en-
dorsements but that they
weren't joining in a suspension.

“If . . . [political candidates]

have received our support in the
past, this is going to make it hard-
er for them to get that support in

the future, but it won’t necessari-
ly make it impossible,” said Sher-
ry Halbrook, spokeswoman for
the 56,000-member Public Em-
ployees Federation.

Carl Korn, a spokesman for
600,000-member New York
State United Teachers, similarly
said the union would look at a
range of issues, including Tier
VI, when deciding whom to sup-
port in the fall.

Other observers said that if
unions withdraw from the elec-
tion cycle, they risk losing their
influence. “It’s a double-edged
sword,” said Democratic politi-
cal consultant George Arzt.

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Date:
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Monday, March 19, 2012
LONG ISLAND, NY

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A2,A3

CSEA

Complex deal

eyed for sewers

@ Nassau to select private vendor to run system
Officials: $865M possible for debt-ridden county

BY ROBERT BRODSKY
robert.brodsky@newsday.com

Nassau County is poised to
pick a private operator for its
sprawling sewer system in a
nearly $1 billion deal that
would represent the largest
and most complex financial
transaction in county history.

The public-private partner-
ship calls for Nassau, which
began the year with a $310
million deficit, to hire a ven-
dor to manage and maintain
its three major wastewater
treatment plants, 53 sewage
pumping stations and rough-
ly 3,000 miles of sewers. The
system serves about 1 million
customers.

The deal could generate
$400 million in revenue for
Nassau, budget documents
show. The county also would
receive $465 million to retire
system debt.

‘Nassau will maintain owner-
ship of the system and the con-
tract will stipulate that the
county will continue to set
usage rates, Deputy County Ex-
ecutive Rob Walker said.

He said Nassau will not
raise rates, though he did not
indicate how long the guaran-
tee will hold. “If the switch
happened overnight, you
wouldn't know anything had
changed,” he said.

But the county has dis-
closed only basic details
about how it expects to get its
revenues from the deal.

© 2012 Newsday ine,
All Rights Reserves,

Bidding for investor

The Mangano administra-
tion says that after a separate
bidding process, the county
will select a private investor
who will provide the county
with the funds. The investor
will then be repaid by the pri-
vate operator. The operator,
meanwhile, makes its profit
through operating efficien-
cies that it institutes.

Walker said it was too
early to discuss the financing
in any more detail, but that of-
ficials are confident an inves-

tor will be found. Otherwise,
there will be no deal.

Some lawmakers and civic
activists also have expressed
concern that the deal will
lead to less government over-
sight of the treatment system
and possible environmental
problems. They question the
wisdom of relinquishing con-
trol of one of the county’s
most vital assets for a one-
shot budget fix. They also
complain that they have not
received enough details
about the changeover.

“We should not be the incu-
bator for privatizing a public
necessity,” said Nassau Legis.
David Denenberg (D-Mer-
rick), who also is skeptical of
the county’s promises not to
raise sewer rates.

Hearings planned

Legis. Denise Ford (R-Long
Beach) plans to hold hearings
on the deal in May, but is not

convinced change is needed.

“I am not a fan of the idea,”
said Ford, chairwoman of the
Economic & Community De-
velopment and Labor Com-
mittee. “Once we hand the
keys away, we may not be
able to go back.”

“We feel left in the dark,”
said Claudia Borecky, presi-
dent of the North and Central
Merrick Civic Association.
The group belongs to the Nas-
sau County Coalition of Civic
Associations, which was
formed to fight the sewer sys-
tem changeover. “We are
looking to find out answers.”

County officials said last
year that they planned to sell
or lease the sewage system to
a private operator that would
charge customers a fee for
service. But Walker said that
idea is no longer under con-
sideration. Currently, the av-
erage county homeowner
pays $225 a year in sewer
taxes, officials said.

Within 30 to 60 days, Nas-
sau will choose from among
three bidders: United Water
of Harrington Park, NJ.,
which operates two of India-
napolis’ wastewater treat-
ment plants; Veolia Environ-
ment of Paris, a subsidiary of
the firm running Nassau’s bus
system; and Severn Trent Ser-
vices of Fort Washington, Pa.,
which has managed the Glen
Cove Water Pollution Con-
trol Plant since 1992.

Transfer likely in 2013

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Monday, March 19, 2012
LONG ISLAND, NY

treatment system, including
at Glen Cove, Bay Park Sew-
age Treatment Plant and
Cedar Creek Water Pollution
Control Plant in Wantagh, is
not expected until at least Jan-
uary 2013, Walker said.
Severn Trent spokesman
Eric Risch said public-private
partnerships are “fairly seam-
less” and residents rarely no-
tice a difference. The operator,
he said, gains a profit through
bulk purchasing, cutting ener-
gy costs, shutting down obso-
lete equipment and other oper-

ating improvements.
Veolia spokesman Matt
Demo said the company’s pro-

posal “aims to improve the en-
vironmental performance of
the utility, and provides op-
tions for better performance,
improved maintenance of the
county’s infrastructure assets.”

United Water didn’t respond
torequests for comment.

© 2012 Newsday ine,
All Rights Reserves,

legislature and the Nassau In-
terim Finance Authority, a
state monitoring agency that
controls the county’s finances.

Nearing bankruptcy

Walker calls the
changeover necessary be-
cause the county’s Sewer and
Storm Water Finance Author-
ity will go broke in 2014.

“I inherited a bankrupt
sewer district with facilities
that were severely neglected
for a decade,” County Execu-
tive Edward Mangano said
during last week’s State of the
County address. Former Dem-
ocratic County Executive
Thomas Suozzi, who was in
office from 2002 through
2009, declined to comment.

Denenberg said Mangano
has been slow to make need-
ed plant improvements, in-
cluding those for odor abate-
ment and ammonia removal.

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Keyword: CSEA
A transfer of control of the The deal still must clear the In 2007, the legislature au-

thorized $700 million in capi-
tal improvements for the
plants but only about half the
money has been borrowed
and spent, budget documents
show. The county will finish
repairs already under way
but the new operator would
need to complete the work,
Walker said.

The roughly 260 county
employees working at the
plants will be offered jobs by
a private operator, Walker
said. But Jerry Laricchiuta,
president of the Civil Service
Employees Association,
which represents plant work-
ers, wants county workers to
have the option of also transi-
tioning to other public sector
positions.

“This is not a simple agree-
ment,” Laricchiuta said. “It’s
one of the most important
parts of our infrastructure.

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Keyword: CSEA

NOW ONLINE
Should Nassau
privatize its
sewer system?
Talk about it and
check for updates.
newsday.com/nassau

Page 3 of 4

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=
a
ey
{cd

PHOTO BY DANI

one of three that would be taken over by a private operator under a new county plan.

Page 4 of 4

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Page: ANZ

Keyword: CSEA

Naked
ambition

Which was the most
fevered lunge for self-
promotion by a power
player? Vote at news-
day.com/spincycle.
LRep. Robert Tumer
(R-Rockaway Point)
running for U.S. Senate
after six months in office.
2. CSEA president
Danny Donohue
saying lawmakers had
anew pension tier
“shoved down their
throats.”

3. Pennsylvania Gov.
Tom Corbett calling
for a requirement that
women seeking an
abortion first hear the
fetal heartbeat.

Last week's “winner”
GOP House candidate
Sam Wurzelbacher
criticizing both major
parties.

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dOURNAL NEWS SUNDAY Deion aie
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Keyword: CSEA

Bedford school plan cuts 57 jobs

8.5% tax rate
hike is proposed

By Rob Ryser
rryser@lohud.com

BEDFORD — It will
take 57 layoffs to bal-
ance next year’s public
school budget as well as
an 8.5 percent tax rate
increase for town resi-
dents, according to a
proposed spending plan
for 2012-2013.

The Bedford school
district’s proposed $122
million budget for next
year calls for selling its
bus fleet and firing 37
full-time transportation
workers — most of them
bus drivers — as well as
laying off another 20
classroom employees,
most of them teachers
and aides.

The plan to disband the
district’s in-house busing
operation and outsource
all the routes to a new
company would save
more than $600,000 next
year, said Mark Betz, the
school district’s assistant
superintendent for busi-
ness. Over five years, the
total savings would be
about $4.7 million.

Although _ transporta-
tion outsourcing is not
new, it is something other
districts are considering.
Mamaroneck has _pro-
posed to save $700,000
next year by fully out-
sourcing bus routes and
scaling back service to

private-school students,
for example.

Currently, Bedford
covers 33 percent of
school bus routes itself
with a fleet of mini buses.
Under the outsourcing
plan, all employees ex-
cept a supervisor and two
dispatchers would lose
their jobs.

“Any layoff is cata-
strophic,” said Mary Lou
Cavaliere, president of
the CSEA union that rep-
resents the transportation
workers. “We are hoping
that the new bus company
will offer employment to
our drivers.”

School district officials
say they are caught be-
tween cuts they don’t
want to make and costs
they don’t want to pass
along. They have pro-
posed a budget that repre-
sents a 2.7 percent in-
crease over the current
spending plan to cover in-
creases in salaries and in
the state-run pension sys-
tems.

The $2.5 million in total
cuts would mean reduc-
tions in the tax rate for
property owners in Mount
Kisco, Pound Ridge, New
Castle and North Castle,
but the tax rate for people
who pay school taxes in
Bedford would jump 8.5
percent because of higher
property values.

© 2012 JOURNAL NEWS SUNDAY (WESTCHESTERPUTNAM)

Al Rights Reserved,

“As a homeowner in
Bedford I am outraged,”
says Wolfgang Armbrus-
ter, a retired Wall Street
exec. “Bedford is by and
large an affluent place,
but there is a big subset of
people who cannot absorb
that kind of an increase.”

Two public work ses-
sions are planned be-
tween now and April 18,
when the Board of Educa-
tion plans to adopt the
budget.

Under the proposed
plan, Bedford’s tax rate
per $1,000 of assessed

roperty value would be

132.03, or 8.5 percent
more. A home in Bedford
assessed at the town aver-
age of $65,000 would pay
$8,582 next year, or $671
more.

In Mount Kisco, the tax
rate per $1,000 of assessed
property value would de-
crease by less than one
percent to 68.82. In Pound
Ridge, the tax rate would
also decrease slightly to
$77.81 per $1,000 of as-
sessed property value.

In New Castle, the tax
rate would fall by more
than 3 percent to $65.39,
and in North Castle, the
rate would also decrease 3

ercent to $570.02 per
1,000 of assessed proper-
ty value.

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Donohue Begins Run

To Head AFSCME By

Urging Big Pay Cuts
By DAVID SIMS

Civil Service Employees Associa-
tion President Danny Donohue arc
9 formally announced his campaign
for the presidency of the American
Federation of State, County and Mu-
nicipal Employees, setting up a bruis-
ing rematch with AFSCME Secre-
tary-Treasurer Lee Saunders, who
narrowly won that office against him
in 2010.

Mr. Donohue named District Coun-
cil 36 President Alice Goff as his run-
ning-mate; she is also the head of All
City Employees Association Local
3090, which represents 5,000 clerical
employees in Los Angeles.

Proposes Big Officer Pay Cuts

Concurrently, Mr. Donohue submit-
ted four amendments to the AFSCME
international constitution, seeking to
change election rules in advance of
the June ballot to ensure that only
people attending the AFSCME con-
vention can vote.

He's also seeking to reduce the
salary for International President
from $390,000 a year to $295,000, ar-
guing that with the retirement of cur-
rent president Gerald McEntee, “who-
ever succeeds him will have 30 years’
less seniority in that position.” The
secretary-treasurer salary would also
be cut, from $310,000 to $250,750.

“I asked Alice to be my partner be-
cause I believe she brings a lot to the
table. She’s a rank-and-filer like my-
self,” Mr. Donohue said in a phone in-
terview. “She has been a member of the
board of directors of AFSCME. She's a
clear voice and she cares about the
members. She understands that the
union has got to change, and it’s real-
ly necessary to listen to the members.”

He said that his proposed amend-
ments had been prompted by the con-
troversial method of voting witnessed
at the 2010 AFSCME convention in
Boston, where Mr. Saunders beat him
by just of 4,300 votes out of 1.3 mil-
lion cast.

‘Didn't Realize They Were Voting’

“Some of the delegates that voted in
Boston signed petitions, or letters, two
months carly, and that was allowed in
as_a bloc vote,” Mr. Donohue said.
“Most of those delegates didn’t even
know there was an election going on

at the convention.”

Under his proposal, such bloc ballot-
ing would still be permitted, but dele-
gates would actually have to appear at
the convention to cast their votes.

“We want to make it as open an

(Continued on Page 8)

election as possible, as transparent as
possible, as clean as possible,” Mr.
Donohue said. “The people that
should be there voting are there vot-
ing, and if people change their mind
when they do a bullet ballot, they
should be allowed to.”

Another amendment would allow
more observers into the voting areas;
currently, only three observers are al-
lowed there at any given time. “Un-
less you have an awful lot of ob-
servers, you can’t see anything,” Mr.
Donohue said.

Amendments Up This Month

The proposed amendments would
have to be approved by the AFSCME
board of directors at its meeting this
month for the changes to go into effect.
for the coming election, AFSCME’s
most-contested vote in decades.

The convention, which is being held
in Los Angeles, will begin June 18,
with the vote taking place on June 21.

“We want to get delegates to under-
stand that we'd like them to give us a
chance, speak to us before they make
up their mind,” Mr. Donohue said. “We
want to give members a greater voice,
but we think they have a right and a
responsibility to find out where we
come from.”

Mr. Saunders, who served as special
assistant to Mr. McEntee for many
years, enjoys the support. of the retir-
ing president. Mr. Donohue is backed
by former Secretary-Treasurer William
Lucy, who praised his conciliatory ap-
proach in his endorsement message on
Mr. Donohue’s website, oneafseme.com.

‘He Took the High Road’

“At the end of a seriously flawed
democratic process at the Boston Con-
vention, on the convention floor, Dan-
ny called for healing the wounds and
unity, and, referring to the two cam-
paign colors, | said ‘blue and yellow
make green,” Mr. Lucy wrote. “Dan-
ny took the high road toward healing
and building our union as opposed to
the oj hee ion’s low road toward fear
and division.”

In a video message announcing her
candidacy, Ms. Goff pointed out the his-
toric nature of her campaign (she

would be the first woman elected to one
of AFSCME’s two leadership positions).

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“Before I was even asked to run for
Secretary-Treasurer, I held the belief
that our union needed to really reflect
the makeup of our union,” she said.
“Here we are, predominantly women,
and you do not see that diversity. It is
not reflected in our top offices, in
elected positions and leadership roles.
Not only in the International, but
across the country.”

a

DANNY DONOHUE: Wants
president’s pay trimmed.

WILLIAM LUCY: ‘Donohue a
healer.’

LEE SAUNDERS: Prevailed
in earlier face-off.

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

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16

CSEA

Steuben eyes nursing home changes

Facility in Bath
will operate at
$1M loss this year

By G. Jeffrey Aaron

jgaaron@gannett.com

Steuben County — with an eye
on stemming operating losses at
its long-term care facility in
Bath — plans to outsource the
tasks of three departments with-
in the 105-bed nursing home.

A decision to eliminate a
fourth department could be
made in the weeks to come as
county officials explore the pos-
sible sale of the facility as a
long-term solution.

The county’s Health Services
Committee plans to solicit bids
from private companies to take
over the duties handled by the
dietary, maintenance and house-
keeping departments at the
Steuben County Health Care Fa-
cility. Thirty-three people work
in those departments, with about
one-third of them being part-
time employees, said David Mc-
Carroll, facility administrator.

The amount of money the
county could save by cutting
the three departments won’t be
known until bids are returned,
although McCarroll said the
amount would be “meaningful.”

“The clock starts when the re-
quest for proposal is issued.
(County officials) are going
over it now and could release it
within two weeks. There are
dozens of companies that take
care of these things, so we don’t
anticipate any problem with get-
ting bidders,” McCarroll said.

See NURSING Page 6A

© 2012 STARGAZETTE
All Rights Reserved,

“We're blessed with the
high quality of the work
force here. This is just
about costs and we're
waiting to see how much
we can save by doing the
(outsourcing) steps.”

Similar bidding docu-
ments are being prepared
for the facility’s billing
and accounting depart-
ment, where four full-
time employees work. The
documents will be pre-
sented to county lawmak-
ers upon their completion.

The workers who will
lose their jobs are “very
saddened” by the out-
sourcing strategy, said 27-
year-employee Rebecca
Kilsdonk, a maintenance
department worker at the
nursing home.

“We were very shocked
and upset that they hadn’t
considered any conces-
sions. The workers are
more than willing to work
with them to save our
jobs,” she said.

“The (CSEA labor
union) is trying to speak
out and we’re going to
march in Hornell at the St.
Patrick’s Day parade. We
have flyers to hand out
and buttons, but we’re not
sure if it’s too late for the
departments. The work-
ers and the residents are
like family and our lives
are being uprooted.”

While the Health Ser-
vices Committee moves
forward with the depart-
ment cuts, it has also
heard from a consultant
about three options for
selling the facility, which
was built in 2008 for about

$19.7 million.

The nursing home could
continue operating as is —
losses this year are project-
ed to reach $1 million — or
it could be sold, with the
proceeds going to pay off
the bond used to finance
the facility’s construction.
County officials could also
decide to sell the operating
license and lease the build-
ing to a new operator.

Steuben County Admin-
istrator Mark Alger said
no one option is preferred.

“Other than trying to
cut the losses, we have not
picked a long-range goal.
The problem is we are ex-
periencing fairly sizable
losses and, looking for-
ward, the state is talking
about changing the reim-
bursement system for
nursing homes to a region-
al approach,” Alger said.

“If they do, we would
lose further reimburse-
ments. So, the long-term
prospects are not good and
we need to look at that.”

In prior years the nurs-
ing home’s losses were
covered by the county’s
health care fund balance.
But that’s no longer the
case, Alger said, and the
losses are now covered by
money coming out of the
general fund.

“We can’t continue to
sustain that kind of a loss,”
he said. “With the tax cap
imposed on municipalities,
we are finding ourselves
trying to figure how we
can reduce costs and make
this thing work.”

‘Account: 23070 (11950)
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Al Rights Reserved,

CSEA, PEF Remain

Wary

Revive State Discussions
On Tier 6 Compromise

By MARK TOOR
and RICHARD STEIER

Intensive negotiations on a compro-
mise to Governor Cuomo’s Tier 6 pen-
sion proposal briefly led to a delay in
a State AFL-CIO ad campaign prod-
ding him and state legislators to
“stand up to Wall Street and stop the
attack on pensions” that was original-
ly set to begin March 9.

Union sources said that the delay
was prompted by an appeal by Senate
Majority Leader Dean Bicelos and As-
sembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who
indicated they believed Mr. Cuomo
was ready to relax his hard-line posi-
tion on major pension changes after a
tense meeting he had three days ear-
lier with key union leaders.

‘Think We Can Make Progress’

One official, who spoke conditioned
on anonymity, said the essence of the
message from legislative leaders had
been, “We think we can make some
progress.”

But the State AFL-CIO said March
1] the ad campaign would begin the
following day.

The two largest state-employee
unions, the Civil Service Employees
Association and the Public Employees
Federation, had not honored a previ-
ous State AFL-C1O commitment. to
hold off on running ads against Tier
6 prior to the March 6 meeting with
the Governor, and they ignored the
latest cease-fire as well.

“As far as we're concerned, we're cer-
tainly not wavering,” CSEA spokesman
Steve Madarasz said.

One city union official said the state
unions—which were forced to accept
severe givebacks under new contracts
last year to avert thousands of layoffs
threatened by the Governor—ap-
peared concerned that whatever com-
promise might be reached sparing the
municipal unions, “they’re gonna get
a full, unvarnished Tier 6.”

A carefully-orchestrated campaign
for the changes—including a 401(k)
option vehemently opposed by union
leaders and other provisions that
would require future employees to

(Continued on Page 7)

work longer and collect a less-gener-
ous pension benefit than those already
on the job—has been waged by Mr.
Cuomo with the support of Mayor
Bloomberg, a sizable number of coun-
ty executives, business groups, and all
of the city’s daily-newspaper editorial
boards. But union opposition had been
equally staunch, and legislators were
swayed by their objections.

Offers Little Short-Term Relief

Two in particular appear to have
resonated: that by the Governor's own
admission, the plan would provide
negligible short-term savings, and
that it was just two years ago that a
less-generous Tier 5 pension plan
took effect for all new state workers.

From a political standpoint, legisla-
tors facing close re-election races are
worried about bucking a popular Gov-
ernor but equally uneasy about the
prospect of unions mobilizing against
them if they supported his proposal.

Mr. Cuomo has vacillated sharply
over the past couple of weeks in his
public pronouncements on the legisla-
tion. Twice he said he was willing to
be flexible on what a final measure
might look like, on one occasion liken-
ing himself to “a veritable Gumby.” On
each occasion, however, after stinging
editorial criticism in the tabloids, he
retreated to a harder stance. Union of-
ficials who were briefed on last week’s
meeting with labor officials said that
mood prevailed there, even as he
urged them to cooperate at a point
when he believed he had maximum
leverage over legislators.

Thousands of public employees
streamed into Albany last week to lob-
by against the drastic pension changes,
even though they directly apply only to
future state and municipal workers.
Further rallies have been scheduled for
this week, one organized by police- and
fire-union leaders, another by PEF.

Take It Out of State Budget?

One uniformed-union official said
he believed that the new negotia-
tions would lead to the Tier 6 pen-
sion proposal being removed from
the Governor’s budget and consid-
ered as part of the normal legislative

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© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

process. Mr. Cuomo had included the
plan in his budget to increase the
pressure on legislators to approve it
or risk him shutting down state gov-
ernment if the budget was not ap-
proved by April 1, the start of the
state’s fiscal year.

Legislators were clearly unhappy
about the prospect of being blamed for
a potential crisis and facing condem-
nation by both the Governor and edi-
torial writers for letting their sympa-
thy for public workers and their unions
interfere with reform. In the days be-
fore legislative leaders asked the State
AFL-CIO for a grace period while ne-
gotiations proceeded, they or their sur-
rogates made clear their reservations
about the Governor's plan,

After weeks of sending signals
questioning Ticr 6, Mr. Silver told a
March 6 luncheon held by the Amer-
ican Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees, “I think the
Governor has to work out with the
unions a reasonable approach to sav-
ing money. There is a deal to be made
that will safeguard secure retirement
and save money for the State of New
York, and that’s the interest.

“As we evaluate proposals to reduce
the cost of government, you can be as-
sured that every worker's right to a
well-earned, secure, retirement is of
the highest priority in the Assembly,”
he continued. “We won’t allow that
right to be jeopardized.”

AFSCMK is the parent union of both
the CSEA and District Council 37.

GOP Leader: Plan Needs Work

Thomas W. Libous, deputy leader of
the State Senate’s Republican majority
and usually an ally of Mr. Cuomo, told
the same gathering that Mr. Cuomo’s
plan “needs some work... The Gover-
nor’s plan is going to be negotiated.”

Jack McEneny, an influential As-
semblyman from Albany, predicted
that the Assembly would pass its ver-
sion of the budget March 12 “and it is-
n’t going to have Tier 6 in it.”

“Do we need it? Maybe,” he told the
Albany Times Union. “But should there
be public hearings? Should labor and
management be at the table together?
Does it have to be in the budget, since
it has almost no effect on the budget,
since we haven't hired anybody?”

The bill may have a flaw. Daily
News columnist Juan Gonzalez
reported March 7 that it did not in-
clude an analysis from the city’s Chief
Actuary, Robert C. North Jr., on how
it would affect city finances. The law
requires that such an analysis accom-
pany any pension-related legislation,
but now there is not enough time to

prepare one by the April 1 budget
deadline, Mr. Gonzalez wrote. A
spokesman for Mr. Cuomo claimed the
analysis could indeed be produced

very quickly.
Mr. North was less definitive, telling
this newspaper, “We're working on it.”

Labor Lobbies Legislature

Two thousand AFSCME members
visited Albany to protest the Tier 6 pro-
posal, which would require larger de-
ductions from future workers’ pay-
checks in return for smaller benefits,
eliminate overtime from final-average-
salary calculations, and raise employ-
ees’ contributions even further when a
declining stock market reduces returns
om investments by the pension fund.

For the first time, it would allow
employees to choose a 401(k)-style op-
tiion in which their retirement benefit
would be determined primarily by
how well their investments per-
formed. Unions and other opponents
of Tier 6 are particularly unhappy
about this option, which is becoming
the only retirement plan available to
many private-sector workers, saying
it is too chancy to depend on for a se-
cure post-career life. They also fear
that diverting money from the tradi-
tional state and local defined-benefit
programs to 401(k) plans would seri-
ously weaken those funds.

Unions: Penalize Wall Street

CSEA and PEF both unveiled ad
campelgne last week opposing Tier 6.

“Wall Street nearly wrecked the
economy and got bailed out,” says a
worker in a CSEA spot. “But I’m told
to give back because times are hard.
It’s just not right to take away the fu-
ture security of young people.”

“The Governor wants to wash his
hands of government responsibility.”
says a PEF ad showing a pair of hands
at the end of a suit coat washing them-
selves at a sink. The ad criticized not
only the Tier 6 plan but also other pro-
posals including reductions in the
budget for cancer research and men-
tal-health services and to a weakening
of the civil-service system.

The unions and their legislative
backers last week seemed to cancel
out the voices of support for Tier 6
from business groups and municipal
officials, led by Mayor Bloomberg. The
proposal’s backers say the state can no
longer afford the current pension sys-
tem. Mr. Cuomo has estimated his pro-
posal will save the state $113 billion
over 30 years, but most of that savings
is at least 20 years into the future.

Mr. Cuomo said he had previously re-

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Keyword: CSEA

fused to bring unions into the deliber-
ations on Tier 6 because by law pen-
sions are not a negotiable item. Gener-
ally, however, changes in pension rights
are discussed informally by the state or
municipal employer with the affected
unions, and afterwards the two groups
present a united front to the Legisla-
ture. Where this step is skipped
—as it was in Mayor Bloomberg's at-
tempt last year to cut off Variable Sup-
plements Fund payments to police and
fire retirees—failure is likely.

GOVERNOR CUOMO:
Unions won't see it his way.

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

SHELDON SILVER: Tells
Governor to compromise.

MARIO CILENTO: Sitdown
didn’t move needle.

Account: 23070 (11965)
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TOM LIBOUS: Plan not
ready for prime time.

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=

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AIS A16

CSEA

‘Ugly’ Process
Gets Results,
And Rebukes

“We still have three

men in the room...
there's no
transparency.’

By Jacos GERSHMAN

It was a “big ugly” that didn’t

look so pretty.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
is taking unusually heated criti-
cism from a variety of quarters
for his latest mega-deal with
state lawmakers—from good-
government leaders, editorial
boards and even some fellow

Democrats.

The passel of legislation that
swept through the Capitol in the
wee hours Thursday morning
overhauled pension benefits, le-
galized casinos, re-drew political
maps and expanded the state’s
DNA criminal database. But it re-
called for many one of Albany’s
less noble traditions: “the big
ugly,” a moniker for a Franken-
stein-like patchwork of legisla-
tion passed in a hurry during

budget season.

“T’m extremely disappointed,”
said Sen. Michael Gianaris, a
Democrat from Queens, who had
called on the governor to veto
new political boundaries he said
hurt minorities. “It’s obviously
part of a political deal he

thought he had to make.”

But Mr. Cuomo had a direct
response Thursday: He said he
was showing that New York gov-
ernment was working again after
years of dysfunction, a recurring
theme of his first term in office,

“Government is supposed to
function,” Mr. Cuomo said. “It’s

not a debating society.”

As Mr. Cuomo took to the air-

eo 7
Al Rights Reserved,

waves Thursday, he appeared
content to deal with criticism
about legislative sausage-mak-
ing, believing the public would
appreciate the ends more than
the means.

“All in all, we did the peo-
ple’s business,” Mr. Cuomo said.
“We did it well.”

Mr. Cuomo has slipped

slightly in the recent polls, but
the issues on which the governor
conceded ground are more com-
plicated policy debates—redis-
tricting, for instance—that don’t
tend to inflame the electorate.

Parts of the package have
been praised. Mayor Michael
Bloomberg is expected to be in
Albany Friday to watch Mr.
Cuomo sign changes to the pen-
sion system that the city be-
lieves will save about $20 billion
over 30 years.

Meanwhile, with most poten-
tial snags taken care of, Mr.
Cuomo is now looking ahead to
passing one of the earliest bud-
gets in state history in a Capitol
where financial plans commonly
weren't settled until the early
summer.

“My guess is what happened
this week in Albany will only
help the governor in terms of
the public’s perception of him,”
said Steven Greenberg, a pollster
for Siena College.

At the same time, Mr. Cuomo
now has to face something he
has avoided: consistent, public

grumbling from a host of critics
who until now had refrained
from rebuking the powerful gov-
ernor.

“The governor said he is go-
ing to veto hyper-partisan lines.
The lines remain hyper-parti-
san,” said Susan Lerner of Com-
mon Cause New York, referring
to the governor’s agreement
with lawmakers on new political

Please turn to thenext page
Continued from the prior page
boundaries that are seen as pro-
tecting incumbents for 10 years.

Mr. Cuomo found himself
Thursday sparring with report-
ers who grilled him about the
secrecy around the legislation.
New Yorkers had about four
hours between 3 a.m and 7 a.m.
to see the text of the 45-page
pension bill before the vote.

Mr. Cuomo also drew fire
from both fiscal conservatives
and labor leaders—both of
whom have been his allies at one
time or another.

Danny Donohue, the head of
the Civil Service, Linpnts As-
sociation, charged that Mr.
Cuomo shoved a “devastating”
pension bill “down the throat of
legislators.”

But E.J. McMahon, senior fel-
Jow at the Manhattan Institute, a
think tank, said Mr. Cuomo
squandered a chance to more
fundamentally shake-up a costly
pension system.

“1 think the criticism of the
governor has been sharper this
time,” said Doug Muzzio, a pro-
fessor of public affairs at Baruch
College. “We still have three men.
in the room, The massive logroll.
And there’s no transparency.
Legislators still don’t know what
they’re voting on until the lead-
ers tell them how to vote.”

“There was a honeymoon pe-
riod,” Mr. Muzzio said, during
which “the ugliness of the pro-
cess was overlooked.” That pe-
riod may be over, he said.

Mr. Cuomo responded to crit-
ics in part through a video of
himself touting the legislation.
Albany put “voices of the people
ahead of the demands of special
interests,” the governor said.

Mr. Cuomo said it would have
been pointless to fulfill his
promise to veto the legislative

Account: 23070 (11943)
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Page 1 of 2
THE WALL STR

=

iT JOURNAL.

Date: Friday, March 16, 2012

Location: NEW YORK, NY
Circulation (OMA): 216,421 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: AIS A16
Keyword: CSEA

eo 7
Al Rights Reserved,

lines proposed by lawmakers. He
pointed to the congressional
lines drawn by a federal magis-
trate, saying there was very lit-
tle difference between the maps
drawn by the court and those by
lawmakers.

But Steven Romalewski, direc-
tor of CUNY Mapping Service at
the Graduate Center for Urban
Research, said: “There are many
districts where at face value the
visual differences between the

For reprints of tems irom this anc! other Dow Jones pubsicaions, please cal 1-800-843-0008 or vist wwnv.creprints.com,

judge’s plan and the Legisla-
ture’s proposals are striking.”

Mr, Cuomo said it was impor-
tant to get lawmakers to change
the process the next time with a
constitutional amendment creat-
ing a panel—appointed mostly
by legislative leaders—to re-
draw maps with fairer criteria.

“It’s much more beneficial for
the people of this state to have
long-term reform,” the governor
said.

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Page 2 of 2
RIVERHEAD NEWS-REVIEW pas

Location:

Thursday, March 15, 2012
MATTITUCK, NY

Circulation (DMA): 5,000 (1)

Type (Frequency):

Page:
Keyword:

Newspaper (W)
4,33
CSEA

Town highway
workers defend

their honor
Say they didn’t out
driver in tire incident

BY TIM GANNON | STAFF WRITER

Three of four Riverhead Town highway work-
ers cleared of wrongdoing in an on-the-job in-
cident in which a town truck was damaged last
year say they didn’t “roll over" on a co-worker
against whom the town is now seeking pursuing
disciplinary action.

The Riverhead Town Board authorized disci-
plinary action last June against five highway crew
members — pending a hearing — after a town
highway truck's tires were damaged by someone
gassing the truck hard and spinning them on the
pavement. One tire had to be replaced, one of
the workers said. The board was seeking 30-day
suspensions without pay for all workers.

But on Feb. 22, the board rescinded that resolu-
tion and approved another one, this time seeking
a 30-day suspension against just one employee.

The resolutions didn't mention names.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the crew-
men said they took exception to Councilman Jim
Wooten's comments in the News-Review that the
four employees “finally rolled over” by outing the
driver allegedly responsible for spinning the tires.
TOWN | PAGE 33
The employees said they did not out the
truck's driver, nor did they see what hap-
pened with the trucks. They were all sus-
pended only because they were all in the
same crew that day, they said.

Matt Hattorff, head of the local Civil
Service Employees Association, the
union to which most town employ-
ees belong, told the News-Review
last month that the town didn’t have
enough evidence to make the charges
stick against the other employees, and
that he’s glad they were cleared.

But the three cleared employees
interviewed this week said they were

© 2012 RIVERHEAD NEWS-REVIEW
Al Rights Reserves,

suspended 30 days without pay and
that there wasn’t even a hearing. The
cleared employees — four in all —will
be reimbursed for the month's pay
they lost and the charges will be taken
off their records, both the men anda
town official said. The workers said
they aren't sure why they were cleared,
but they suspect their colleague may
have admitted to being the driver.

The town will also seek another 30-
day suspension against the other em-
ployee, officials confirmed.

It could not be confirmed whether
that employee also has been suspend-
ed with pay for eight months since
the incident, as the News-Review had
been told. Supervisor Sean Walter re-
ferred that question to highway su-
perintendent George Woodson, who
in turn said only that the Town Board
determined the punishments.

Mr. Hattorff confirmed this week
that the four employees will be reim-
bursed, but said he couldn't comment
on the other employee because that
issue is pending. That employee could
not be reached for comment.

“All this was because of a $75 tire,”
one of the workers said.
tgannon@timesreview.com

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Page 1 of 1
Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Location: LONG ISLAND, NY
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Page: ALAS

Keyword: CSEA

CUOMO TO LEGISLATORS

REFORM PENSIONS

Governor
ups ante
in budget

‘COPYRIGHT 2012, NEWSDAY LLC, NEW YORK, VOL. 72, NO.192
Page 1 of 4

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012
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ALA3
CSEA

Cuomo adds
pressure while
unions, business
groups clash

BY YANCEY ROY AND TED PHILLIPS
yancey.roy@newsday.com
ted phillips@newsday.com

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew
M. Cuomo escalated his fight
to overhaul New York’s pen-
sion system yesterday, trying
to force the Legislature to
adopt his proposals and spark-
ing a clash between business
groups that support him and
public employee unions that op-
pose him.

The biggest municipal employ-
ee union hoisted a giant inflat-
able pig on the Capitol steps —
saying it portrayed “greedy Wall
Street” types who would benefit
most from Cuomo’s proposal to
reduce pension benefits for fu-
ture government hires.

But Senate Majority Leader
Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Cen-
tre) suggested that a compro-
mise could be emerging. It
would involve the governor
abandoning his idea that new
workers be offered a
401(k)-style savings plan in-
stead of a traditional pension.

“Right now, the governor is
having ongoing discussions
with different labor unions,”
Skelos said. “We don’t exactly
know what it’s going to be at
this point, but I believe we will
have pension reform.”

Cuomo has demanded that
lawmakers adopt a less lucrative
pension plan for future public
workers as part of the 2012-13
state budget. But the Democratic-
led Assembly and the Republi-
can-led Senate omitted the pen-
sion plan from budget proposals

© 2012 Newsday ine,
All Rights Reserves,

unveiled yesterday.

In response, Cuomo ratch-
eted up the rhetoric. He again
warned that they must include
some form of his pension plan
in the state budget that must
pass by April 1, the start of the
fiscal year. If they don’t, he will
submit emergency spending
bills containing the pension
plan. That would give lawmak-

ers the choice of accepting Cuo-
mo’s plan or shutting down
state government.

“If we don't have pension re-
form, I’m not going to pass the
budget. Period,” Cuomo said in
a radio interview.

Cuomo’s threat coincided
with the launch of a new ad
campaign by the Committee to
Save New York, a business-
funded group that has spent
more than $10 million support-
ing Cuomo’s agenda since he
took office last year. The ad
urges viewers to “tell your legis-
lator to support Governor Cuo-
mo’s plan” to “rein in soaring
pension costs.”

The AFL-CIO, which strong-
ly opposes any pension reduc-
tions, reacted with its own ads.
The umbrella labor group had
shut down its campaign last
week,

“The ads ask New Yorkers to
stand-up to Wall Street and to
stop the attack on pensions,”
the AFL-CIO’s Ryan Delgado
said in a statement. “Wall
Street greed, not the pensions
of hardworking New Yorkers,
collapsed our economy, yet
through [pension reductions],

the middle class is asked to pay
the price once again.”

The American Federation of
State, County and Municipal
Employees inflated a giant,
cigar-chomping pig in the shad-
ow of the Capitol — dubbing
the likeness “1%” in a reference
to Occupy Wall Street protest-
ers who say they represent 99
percent of the population.

Unions also accused
Cuomo of holding the legisla-
tive redistricting process hos-
tage in the pension talks. The
legislature redraws Assembly,
Senate and congressional dis-
tricts after each decennial cen-
sus.

“He says [the pension de-
bate] is about politics and not
the merits. We agree,” Steve
Madarasz of the Civil i
Employees Association said of

‘uomo. “It’s about his poli-
tics.” Because Cuomo is “not
getting any traction in the Leg-
islature,” on pensions, he is
using redistricting as lever-

age, Madarasz said.

Skelos and Assembly Speak-
er Sheldon Silver (D-Manhat-
tan) disagreed that the issues
are intertwined.

“T don’t think so,” Silver said
yesterday. “It hasn't been com-
municated to me.”

In suggesting that a pension
compromise could be at hand,
Skelos said “movement is away
from” Cuomo's idea to offer
new workers a 401(k)-style sav-
ings plan. Cuomo has said re-
cently that he’s “flexible” about
the proposal. Skelos thinks
there is support for limiting

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Page 2 of 4
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Newsday Ee.

Keyword: CSEA

overtime pay for pension calcu- ment age and the years of ser-
lations, increasing the retire- vice required for vesting.

Page 3 of 4

© 2012 Newsday in,
All Rights Reserved,

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Nv-563

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Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Location: LONG ISLAND, NY

age:

Circulation (OMA): 297,601 (1)
eaws PB ay Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
Pe ALA3

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 Newsday in,
All Rights Reserved,

Cuomo’s plan

Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo's pension NOW ONLINE
proposal for new Follow updates
workers would: on this story and

, talk about it.
- Raise the newsday.com/politics
retirement age
to 65 from 62

@ Increase employee contributions

@ Require employees to contribute more
when financial markets do poorly

@ Eliminate overtime from benefit
calculations

m Reduce benefits and offer the option
of 401(k)-style defined contribution plan.

$113 billion

over 30 years

Amount he says it would save state and
local governments. Most of the savings
would come in later years and the projec-
tion does not account for inflation.

‘Source: Governor's office; Ofice ofthe State Comptroller

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4

CSEA

Open hostility between governor & labor

Cuomo’s

threat

to unions

ie ERIK KRISS
ureau Chief
ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo
warned public-employee unions
yesterday that “thousands and
thousands” of their
members could be
thrown out of work
and taxes could
spike if their legis-
lative pals fail to
support pension re-
form.
And Cuomo’s
business allies
backed him up; the
Committee to Save
New York launched
a new, seven-figure
TV ad blitz urging
lawmakers to “rein in soaring
pension costs to avoid crippling
tax hikes and massive layoffs in
public safety and education.”
Cuomo used some of his stron-
gest language yet in threatening
to scuttle the state budget if it
doesn’t include measures to cut
the skyrocketing cost of public
pensions that is forcing govern-
ment cutbacks.

“You'll be laying off thousands
and thousands of public employ-
ces, period, and you'll be raising
taxes,” Cuomo warned on Al-

© 2012 NYP Holainge In.
Al Rights Reserved,

For heme delivery call 1-800-552-7678 or go te nypest.com/homecelvery. To sign up forthe e-eition, vist nypost.comeecition

bany’s Talk 1300
AM radio.

That could trig-
ger a showdown in
which Cuomo
forces lawmakers
to choose between
passing emergency
budget extenders
that include pen-
sion reform and
shutting state gov-
ernment.

“I have said
clearly, if we don’t

have pension reform, I’m not go-
ing to pass the budget, period,”
Cuomo added. “If they [egisla-
tors] believe in their position
that we don’t need pension re-
form, fine, bring it to a head.”

“You stand up and you make

your case and I’ll make my case
and we'll see who the people of
the state of New York agree
with,” he said.

Cuomo charged that for law-
makers who oppose his plan, “it’s
about the [union campaign] do-
nations ... on both sides of the
aisle. The dominance of these in-
terests has been clear for years.”

Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO,
which postponed its own ads
slamming the Cuomo plan last

week to give negotiations a
chance, planned to strike back
today, unleashing its ad barrage.

The Ci Service Employees
Association — the state’s Iargest
public-employee union — and
the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employ-
ees are already on the air charg-
ing the Cuomo plan will slash re-
tirement benefits by 40 percent.

“We were trying to let the pro-
cess play out a little bit and see if
there was some softening,” a la-
bor source said of the AFL-CIO’s
decision to delay its ads last
week. “But the administration in-
sists on calling for cuts.”

Cuomo calculates his proposal
will save state and local govern-
ments $113 billion over 30 years.

ekriss@nypost.com

a

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Page: 4

— — Keyword: CSEA

If we
don’t
have

pension
reform, I’m
not going
to pass the
budget,
period. LJ

— Gov. Cuomo, on
a potential standoff
with unions and
lawmakers

Page 2 of 2

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Monday, March 12, 2012
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522,875 (1)

Newspaper (D)

2

CSEA

FREDRIC U.
DICKER__
INSIDE
ALBANY

EXCLUSIVE

OP state labor leaders privately

predict that Gov. Cuomo will

win his fight for new, cost-cut-
ting, Tier 6 pension reforms.

The leaders also have conceded
that strong union opposition to the
plan, which could save the state
and New York City more than $100
billion over 30 years, is being
driven by bitter internal union pol-
itics, including a tough national
struggle for the presidency of the
American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees.

Tier 6 would be a classification for
new employees who would not have
the same pension and benefit rules.

Civil Service Employees Associa-
tion President Danny Donohue,
head of the state’s largest public-em-
ployee union, is the leading candi-
date for AFSCME president “and
Danny can’t afford to have it seem
like he’s been rolled by Cuomo,”
said a well-known union leader.

Donohue is battling AFSCME Sec-

© 2012 NYP Holainge In.
Al Rights Reserved,

retary-Treasurer Lee Saunders, a
Cleveland native who once held a
high-level post in DC 37, New York
City’s largest public-employee
union.

‘As a result, “you have Danny’s
people in CSEA and Saunders’ peo-
ple at DC 37 trying to outdo each
other in opposing Cuomo’s pension
reforms,” said a prominent city la-
bor official.

‘Also fueling union opposition is a
newly emerged insurgent challenge
to Kenneth Brynien, president of the
Public Employees Federation, the
state’s second-largest union. That
challenge has stiffened PEF’s resis-
tance to Cuomo’s proposals, the in-
siders said.

And the new head of the state
AFL-CIO, Mario Cilento, is under
pressure to show his militancy by
opposing Tier 6 so he can retain his
position this summer with votes
from CSEA, PEF and DC 37.

But behind the scenes, union lead-

Truth behind union ‘resistance’ to reform

ers say they’re willing to make ma-
jor concessions to Cuomo, including
accepting his plan to cap future pen-
sion payments and end the practice
of inflating overtime earnings to run
up final pension awards.

“The first thing that’s needed to
get an agreement is to not call it
‘Tier 6’ but to refer to it as ‘pension
reform,’ ” said a key union leader.

“And then the emphasis should be
on eliminating the stuff that the pub-
lic sees as outrageous, the abuses, by
capping payments and elimination
of overtime from the calculations,”
the leader continued.

A source close to the Cuomo ad-
ministration quickly responded,
“Calling the reforms something
other than ‘Tier 6’ would be fine.
Call it whatever you want, as long as
the savings are there. We will be rea-
sonably accommodating,”

fredric.dicker@nypost.com

Account: 23070 (11895)
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Date: Friday, March 09, 2012
NEW YORK, NY
26,418 (1)

Newspaper (W)

4

Keyword: CSEA

FOR THE
RECORD

Virtually from the time that
Governor Cuomo issued his new
Tier 6 pension proposal, rumors
have been floating that he will ul-
timately agree not to include fu-
ture city workers in the final bill.
The reasons for such an exclu-
sion, both government and union
sources say, range from the
change being less important for
the city than the state to the less-
noble desire to frustrate Mayor
Bloomberg one more time.

There are countervailing pres-
sures, however, against the Gov-
ernor pulling off what would
amount to a repeat of his Teach-
er-evaluation trick, when he
reached a comprehensive deal
with the state union but gained
just an agreement in principle
governing the Bloomberg admin-
istration and the United Federa-
tion of Teachers, leaving it to
them to work out actual details.

Besides the criticism he would
risk from business groups and
editorial writers for excluding
city employees, the Governor
would face stiff resistance from
the two biggest state-employee
unio ‘ivil Service Employees
‘Association President Danny
Donohue is running for presi-
dent of his national union, and
Public Employees Federation
head Ken Bepnien je facing 2
challenge for re-election; it
would hurt the chances of both
of them if their future members
were saddled with a new pension
scale-back when most city em-
ployees are not even feeling the
pinch of Tier 5 yet.

ns

Several sources told us last
week that the Department of
Investigation is probing
members of District Council

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

37 for abuses of release time,
an inquiry that was allegedly
prompted by DC 37 Execu-
tive Director Lillian Roberts
alerting DOI to one individ-
ual’s discrepancies.

That employee, a delegate
for both DC 37 and the Amer-
ican Federation of State,
County and Municipal Em-
ployees, is a supporter of
Danny Donohue in the up-
coming election for AFSCME
President.

Some sources say that the
individual broke release-time
rules, leaving the country but
still looking to be paid by the
city for working on union
business while abroad. But
Ms. Roberts’s support of Lee
Saunders for AFSCME Presi-
dent figured into her notify-
ing city officials, according to
others.

If so, the move may have
backfired, if DOI is in fact
casting a wider net and peti-
tioning locals and divisions
in DC 37’s headquarters at
125 Barclay St, for details on
city employees who work for
the union on release time.

Several of DC 37’s local
presidents stated that they
had not been contacted by
DOI regarding an investiga-
tion. There was no confirma-
tion or denial of a probe
from DC 37 or DOI.

ns

Health and Hospitals Corpora-
tion spokeswoman Ana Marengo
took issue with the claim in
Richard Steier’s column last
week that she had not respond-
ed to any of 10 questions he had
asked about a contract with
Navigant Consulting Inc. reach-
ed by the Physician Affiliate
Group of New York, which pro-
vides doctors for six hospitals
within the HHC network.

In fact, she provided responses
to three of those questions, but

Account: 23070 (11914)
Nyv-a25,

whether two of those responses
were accurate is open to question.

The one that is not concerned
whether the HHC board had ap-
proved the contract; she stated
in her e-mailed response that
such approval was not required.

Ms. Marengo had also stated in
that response that there had been
no decision to terminate the con-
tract with Navigant, notwith-
standing the departure of Dr.
Marc Bard, the senior executive at
the consultant who had served as
chief executive officer of PAGNY.
Mr. Steier’s source insists other-
wise: that although the contract
contained options for two one-year
extensions beyond its initial year,
it was only at the prodding of top
HHC officials that a single six-
month extension through June 30
was granted last fall.

Asked whether PAGNY’s board
had approved the firing of Peter
Gordon as its executive adminis-
trator, as was required under the
contract, Ms. Marengo had_re-
plied, “Mr. Gordon was not fired
from PAGNY. His role with
[Downtown Bronx Medical Asso-
ciates] did not roll over into the
newly formed PAGNY.”

That response did not square
with the inaugural newsletter is-
sued by PAGNY last September
that began with a statement from
Dr. Bard. He wrote in its first
paragraph, “To make ‘manage-
ment’ more visible and tangible,
permit me to formally introduce
the current members of our se-
nior management team.” Among
the 10 officials it listed was Mr.
Gordon, with his title given as
“VP for Operations.” At the begin-
ning of 2011, a letter from Navi-
gant spelling out the contract
terms was addressed to Mr. Gor-
don and described him as PAG-
NY’s “executive administrator.”

As was noted in Mr. Steier’s
column, calls to top officials of
both Navigant and PAGNY were
not returned.

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

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Page: 58

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

Contract, Layoffs Spur Revolt

Coalition Forms to Take On
PEF’s President Brynien

By MARK TOOR
A slate called NY Union Proud has
emerged to challenge Public Employ-
ees Federation President Ken Bry-
nien in union elections coming up in
the spring.

“We feel the current administration
has been providing weak leadership,”
the presidential candidate, Susan
Kent, said in an interview. Ms. Kent
is PEF’s statewide labor-management
chair and council leader in the De-
partment of Education.

‘Mr. Brynien disputed that charac-
terization, saying the union had held
up well against a hostile but popular
Governor.

Slate Features Union Veterans

The slate has a website (http://
nyunionproud.org) and a list of candi-
dates, including Carlos Garcia of DOE
for secretary/treasurer, and three vice
presidents: Wayne Spence of the De-
partment of Corrections and Commu-
nity Supervision, Wayne Bayer of the
Department of Environmental Con-
servation, and Barbara Ulmer of the
Department of Taxation and Finance.
All are longtime union activists.

Ms. Kent said that_ members were
dissatisfied with PEF’s recently-ap-
proved new contract, which like the
one ratified last summer by the larger
Civil Service Employees Association
contamed a three-year pay freeze, nine
unpaid furlough days and substantial
increases in health-care premiums. Af-
ter the membership voted down the
first contract negotiated with the
state, PEF worked out a second con-
tract with “small changes,” she said.

“Members of one of the nation’s most
important professional unions, the
public servants of PEF have suffered
profound disrespect, profound disre-
gard, not only from the Governor and
his appointees who boss the state agen-
cies but from their own union leaders,”
says the NY Union Proud website.

Tier 5 Still Rankles

But Ms. Kent said the contract was
not the most important issue for her
group. The impetus for the slate’s for-
mation came in the summer of 2010,
she said, when Mr. Brynien and oth-
er union leaders agreed not to oppose

the passage of Tier 5 in exchange for
a promise that no employees would be
laid off that year. As he left office, Gov.
David Paterson laid off hundreds of
workers at the close of business Dec.
31, claiming his no-layoff pledge did
not go beyond the end of the year.

Mr. Brynien, who was first elected
in 2006, did not aggressively chal-
lenge the layoffs or ensuing violations
of civil-service rules, she said, and he
went into the negotiations that result-
ed in the last contract without a pub-
lic-relations campaign seeking to
demonstrate that public workers de-
served a decent deal.

Despite the layoff-protection lan-
guage in the new contract, she said,
the PEF leader did nothing to prevent
recent layoffs from facilities closures
and consolidations of government op-
erations. (Mr. Cuomo himself has ad-
mitted that the language provides no
real protection.)

Ms. Kent noted that recommenda-
tions by the Governor's SAGE (Spend-
ing and Government Efficiency) Com-
mission, which already proposed con-
solidating information-technology and
human-resources functions across
state agencies, presaged more layoffs.

Promises to Confront Governor

With her as president, she pledged,
PEF would be involved in workforce
planning, making sure there is “a plan
in place for current workers to be re-
trained or to be reassigned to other
jobs.” She would make it clear, she
said, that the often-secretive Cuomo
administration had to give unions a
seat at the table, “or we're going to do
everything we can to let the public
know.” However, she said, Mr. Cuomo
is “a smart man and a good politician”
and ‘I don’t think he wants to go on
to higher office as an enemy of
unions.”

“We have been fighting the state for
years on a whole bunch of issues,” Mr.
Brynien responded in an interview.
He said that PEF had stopped facili-
ties from closing and that even in the
most recent contract, the union had

(Continued on Page 8)

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won improvements over what CSEA
settled for.

On the subject of layoffs, he said,
PEF has suffered them in the dozens
rather than the 3,500 Mr. Cuomo had
threatened during contract negotia-
tions. Mr. Paterson’s layoff of about
1,000 workers at the end of 2010, he
said, affected about 200 PEF mem-
bers. “Our main focus is preserving
jobs,” Mr. Brynien said. “.. .We'll fight
every layoff. ..Sometimes saving every
single person is not possible.”

‘Everybody’s Left Out’

On the union’s input into Mr. Cuo-
mo’s policy-making, he said, “legisla-
tors are left out too. Agency commis-
sioners are left out too.” The Governor
likes to make policy with a very small
circle of aides, Mr. Brynien said. “We
have a seat at the table, but we don’t
have any more clout than anyone else
at the table.” He noted that the clos-
ings of state facilities had affected
CSEA more heavily than PEF. “Ap-
parently they don’t have more clout
than we do,” he said.

PEF is fighting plans to close Kings-
boro Psychiatric Center and to move
some care functions from another
Brooklyn hospital, SUNY Downstate,
to Staten Island, he said. Bronx Psy-
chiatric Center was planning to get rid
of more than 100 people, he said, but
PEF negotiated it down to 10.

Mr. Brynien said he was reluctant
to criticize Ms. Kent, but “she’s never
been in a position to have to deal with
this stuff. She’s talking not from
experience.”

Ms. Kent pointed to the Office of
Children and Family Services as an
example of layoff problems and their
ripple effects. The agency is facing as
many as 900 layoffs as it fulfills Mr.
Cuomo’s pledge to transfer youthful
offenders from secure upstate facili-
ties to community programs closer to
their homes in New York City, she
said.

Trouble Brewing in Westchester?

She said she believed many of the
youngsters would end up in West-
chester County because the city does-
n’t have the capacity to handle them
right now. She also noted that the
community programs have far less su-
pervision than the secure units, and
see more violence and escapes. Hear-
ings should be held in Westchester
about the potential dangers this could
pose for communities, she said,
adding, “Everything’s being done be-
hind the scenes.”

Ms. Kent said she opposed not only
Mr. Cuomo’s Tier 6 proposal but also
Tier 5, explaining, “We're opposed to
anything that’s inequitable, anything
that sells out new members.” Employ-
ees in each tier will receive fewer ben-
efits at a higher cost than those in
earlier tiers.

NY Union Proud must collect peti-
tions with signatures from 10 percent
of PEF’s 54,000 members, a difficult
and expensive undertaking in a union
that has employees all over the state.
The petition effort will begin late this
month.

KEN BRYNIEN: A tough
contract to campaign on.

SUSAN KENT: Says she’d be
more asserti

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© 2012 CHIEF
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Cuomo: Compromise
On Tier 6 Proposal
Something | Can Do

Might Scrap 401(k) Piece
If Legislators Insist;
Hard-Liners Upset

By MARK TOOR

Governor Cuomo signaled last week
that he might. compromise on remov-
ing the 401(k)-style option from his
Tier 6 pension proposal in order to
win legislative approval. The re-
sponse from many of his pension-
hawk supporters: Don’t do it.

“I’m not saying, ‘This is my plan, it’s
my way or the highway’,” Mr. Cuomo
told reporters Feb. 27 after a meeting
with a group of Mayors. “There's a ne-
gotiation with the Legislature, and at
the end of the day it’s about the sav-
ings. I've gotten more flexible as Gov-
ernor. A veritable Gumby you need to
be to be a Governor.”

Boost Benefits in Better Times?

He also said he could be open to pen-
sion improvements in future years:
“Fine, then reduce it to the level you
can afford it today, and if the economy
turns around, and if you have the
money, and if you want to raise the
pension benefits down the road, raise
the pension benefits, and that’s fine.”

In likening himself to Gumby, Mr.
Cuomo took a step back from remarks
a week earlier. He had threatened
that if the Legislature removed Tier 6
from the budget, as many lawmakers
have urged him to do, he would re-
submit it as part of a budget-exten-
sion bill, which if not passed would
shut down state government.

However, Stephen. Madarasz, a
spokesman for the Civil Service

(Continued on Page 7)

Employees Association, declined to
characterize the statements as a
change in Mr. Cuomo’s position. “It’s
a very fluid situation,” he said of dis-
cussions surrounding the pension
proposal. Officials of the Public Em-
ployees Federation were not available
for comment.

Mayor Bloomberg, a strong advocate
of the original Tier 6 plan, indicated
Feb. 29 that he was sympathetic to Mr.
Cuomo’s position on the 401(k) issue.
“Whether it’s politically practical, he’s
got to deal with the reality,” he told re-
porters. “I understand that.”

Friends Become Foes

Many of his usual allies were less
understanding.

“Cuomo can’t have it both ways,” E.
J. McMahon, of the business-funded
Empire Center for New York State
Policy, wrote in Newsday Feb. 29. “He
can’t claim to be obsessed with saving
money in the long run while winking
at the likelihood that unions will push
to restore higher benefits before the
first Tier 6 employees are even vest-
ed in the plan.”

“In the face of this opposition, Cuo-
mo appears prepared to retreat,” the
Daily News, an enthusiastic opponent
of public-employee pensions and usu-
ally an acolyte of the Governor, edito-
rialized Feb, 24. “Now is not the time
to send such a signal. Now is the time
to impress upon legislators, again, that
he is fully prepared to give them the
choice of approving his full reforms or
shutting down the government.”

“Cuomo is reportedly toying with
dropping the 20105) style ‘direct-con-
tribution’ component of his plan,” pro-
claimed a New York Post editorial.
“Sheesh! Gumby seems like a verita-
ble Rock of Gibraltar by comparison.”

The plan, which would apply to new-
ly-hired state and city workers, would
raise paycheck deductions for defined-
benefit pensions while reducing the
amount a worker could receive. It
would exclude overtime from pension
calculations and increase the amount
of time over which the final average
salary is calculated from three to five
years. It also would raise employee con-
tributions in years when pension-fund
investments fell short on earnings.

The 401(k) Debate

It would offer, for the first-time, a
401(k)-style option that employees
could choose instead of the usual pen-
sion. The state would contribute the
equivalent of 4 to 7 percent of an em-
ployee’s salary and the worker could
Kick in up to 7 percent. In contrast
with the defined-benefit pension, an
employee who left state service after
as little as a year could take the
401(k) along. A defined-benefit pen-
sion would take 12 years to vest un-
der the proposal.

Public-employee unions, while they
oppose the entire Tier 6 proposal, are
especially unhappy with the 401(k)
option, in which the amount employ-
ees end up with depends on how well
their investments do rather than
length of service or final average
salary. Union leaders call it an assault
on the middle class.

Many state officials, including
Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, say

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401(k)s are too risky to depend on for
a decent standard of living in retire-
ment. And so many Democratic law-
makers are sympathetic to public
workers that it’s not clear the Legis-
lature will approve Tier 6, even with
modifications.

Mr. Cuomo says the plan would
save state and local governments
$113 billion over 30 years, but any ap-
preciable savings are at least 20 years
down the road. The 401(k) accounts
would provide only $8 billion of that
savings, he said.

CSEA: ‘Cuts Benefits 40%

On the other side of the equation,
Mr. Madarasz said, “Tier 6 cuts bene-
fits 40 percent... It’s another example

of Wall Street executives telling
Teachers and school-bus drivers and
mental-health workers that they can’t
have a secure future.”

The public debate about Tier 6 con-
tinued. “The truth is, Tier 6—coming
just two years after the creation of a
Tier 5 — will sharply reduce the tal-
ent pool of epee state employ-
ees and endanger the quality of serv-
ice we all need,” wrote Alan Lubin, co-
chair of Business and Labor Coalition
for New York, which includes mem-
bers of both groups. Mr. Lubin is a for-
mer top official of the state Teachers
union.

Katl Wilde, of the Partnership for
New York City, which is business-fund-
ed, sent a letter to Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority
Leader Dean Skelos saying, “Our state
and city cannot continue to attract and
keep new talent and compete global-
ly if we do not find ways to contain
the growing costs of government.”

Danny Donohue, president of CSEA,
issued a rebuttal: “The Partnership for
New York City’s corporate masters just
got a tax break in December that’s big-
ger than the pensions most working
people earn. Times may be tough, but
it’s a bit much that corporate CEOs tell
future nurses, school-bus drivers, high-
way workers and others to just accept
a 40-percent pension reduction.”

Even Wealthiest Got Relief

He was referring to Mr. Cuomo’s in-
come-tax restructuring in December,
in which a “millionaires-tax” sur-
charge on wealthy taxpayers that ex-
Pet at the end of the month was re-
placed by a tax cut for many high-
earners while the wealthiest are now
paying an additional tax that is slight-
ly less than the surcharge.

Harry Nespoli, president of the
Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Associa-
tion and chair of the Municipal Labor
Committee, was quoted in a newslet-
ter put out by the City & State news-
paper as warning Mr. Cuomo against
a gvernment shutdown. “What’s he
going to accomplish?” Mr. Nespoli
asked. “What’s the Governor going to
do after he shuts down the govern-
ment? It’s like the union side saying,
‘F--- yeah, we're going on strike.’ What
do you do after that? Because you've
got to have a plan.”

GUMBY: A more-flexible gu-
bernatorial side?

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E.J. McMAHON: ‘Cuomo can’t

MAYOR BLOOMBERG: Un-
have it both ways’

derstands need for practicality.

HARRY NESPOLI: Stop with
the shutdown threats.

Page 3 of 3

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© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserves,

Top AFSCME Official
Saunders to Seek Its

Presidency in June

By DAVID SIMS

American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees
Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders
announced his candidacy for presi-
dent of the international union Feb.
29, seeking to replace his mentor Ger-
ald McEntee, who has headed AF-
SCME for 30 years and announced his
pending retirement last year.

Mr. Saunders, who has served as
secretary-treasurer since June 2010,
announced his candidacy in Colum-
bus, Ohio, where he worked for Ohio
Employment Services before getting
involved with AFSCME. He would be
the first African-American president
of the union.

A Rematch With CSEA Leader

He will face a re-match with Civil
Service Employees Association Presi-
dent Danny Donohue, whom he nar-
rowly defeated to become secretary-
treasurer. Mr. McEntee has already
declared that he will endorse Mr.
Saunders’s candidacy; Mr. Donohue
enjoys the support of former Secre-
tary-Treasurer William Lucy.

Mr. Saunders served as Mr. McEn-
tee’s executive assistant for many
years, and also led District Council 37
from 1998 to 2002 while it was under
AFSCME administratorship follow-
ing a major corruption scandal. But in
his election announcement, he spoke
mostly about his upbringing in Ohio
and AFSCME’s recent work combat-
ing anti-union laws in states like
Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Mr. Saunders was elected months be-
fore the 2010 elections ushered in sev-
eral Republican governors who quickly
advanced legislation limiting collective
bargaining for state employees.

AFSCME has been a major player
in campaigns against those laws, and
succeeded in forcing a public referen-
dum on Ohio's controversial “SB5” ini-
tiative, which was roundly rejected by
voters. Wisconsin Governor Scott
Walker is facing a recall election after
signing a bill limiting the bargaining
rights of all public workers except
cops and firefighters; AFSCME repre-
sents most of those affected besides
Teachers.

‘Stood Up to Brutal Attacks’

“Even as we have faced the most
brutal attacks of our lifetimes, as
we've stood toe-to-toe with the most
mean-spirited and hypocritical politi-
cians, we remained united, we re-
mained strong,” Mr. Saunders said.
“Because of our activism, because of

(Continued on Page 9)

our militancy, because of our commit-
ment, they tried but they failed.

“We are making Governor Walker
and his legislative cronies wish they’d
never even thought of attacking col-
lective bargaining,” he added. “We
have not won all of our fights, but we
have beaten the odds.”

He said that if elected AFSCME
president, he would continue to mod-
ernize its approach to fighting such
anti-union efforts. “We're knocking on
doors and spreading the word, and
we're being smart,” he said. “We in-
vested in new technology and social
media, and we changed the story.”

Mr. Donohue said in a phone inter-
view that the difference between him
and Mr. Saunders was fundamentally
unchanged from their contest in 2010,
and that he had long pushed for more
focus on state governments.

“Two years ago when we were in
Boston [at the AFSCME convention],
my argument was, Washington’s im-
portant, but you can’t lose sight of the
statehouse, the counties,” he said in a
phone interview. “I think that he’s
saying the right things. The question
is, have we really been doing the right
things?”

Too Slow to React Locally?

Mr. Donohue argued that AFSCME
had been somewhat asleep at the
wheel in local races. “I think the union
has to be more involved in those local
situations before they become monu-
mental, such as in Wisconsin. We have
to be working with Democrats and Re-
publicans on the local level,” he said.

“We need to make sure the Gover-
nors there understand us. We have
different priorities. The international
tends to look at Washington as the
end of the world. We have to be in-
volved and out there, but we also have
to win the Governors’ races, the May-
ors’ races.”

He argued that Mr. Saunders, giv-
en his background, could not present
himself as the best option for that
kind of campaign. “He’s been working

with Gerry McEntee for 15-20 years,
and as secretary-treasurer he’s con-
tinuing what Gerry’s been doing,” he
said.

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“It’s really not in the best interests
of AFSCME to have a secretary-treas-
urer who's the protégé of the presi-
dent,” he continued. “You have to
bring new ideas, you have to be cre-
ative. It’s a team, not one individual.”

LEE SAUNDERS: Bids
succeed longtime boss.

GERALD McENTEE: Step-
ping down after 30 years.

DANNY DONOHUE: Run-
ning as ‘local’ outsider.

© 2012 CHIEF
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Making a play for
the national stage

CSEA's Danny Donohue wants
to lead the American Federa-

tion of State, County and Mu-
nicipal Employees’ union./A3

Page 1 of 1

© 2012 TIMES UNION
All Rights Reserves,

‘Account: 23070 (11885)
NVI

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TIMES UNION

Date: Friday, March 09, 2012
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Keyword: CSEA

EXCLUSIVE

Donohue trying to go national

CSEA president plans to run
for AFSCME’s top post

By Rick Karlin

ALBANY — He’s hinted at it previously,
and he took a run at the union’s No. 2 spot
in 2010. Now Danny Donohue is making
official his bid for president of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees national union.

“I bring something totally different to AF-
SCME: I’m a rank-and-filer,’ said Donohue,
who currently serves as president of the
Civil Service Employees Association. That
300,000-member union, which represents
blue-collar state as well as municipal work-
ers, is part of AFSCME, which has 1.6 million
members nationwide.

At AFSCME% June convention, Donohue
will face Lee Saunders, who beat him to win
the position of AFSCME secretary-treasurer
two years ago.

Saunders is closely allied with retir-
ing longtime AFSCME President Gerry
McEntee.

CSEA is AFSCME'’s largest component
union, but the upcoming contest represents
more than a geographic fight with a New
York leader challenging someone from AF-
SCME’s Washington headquarters.

‘There has been debate within AFSCME
— and other national unions — over wheth-
er to keep the focus on activism in national
politics and their close allegiance with the
Democratic Party, or spend more time work-
ing the localities.

“T want to move our strength to local gov-
ernment elections,” Donohue said, explaining
that local decisions can have as much impact
on unions as those made at the state and fed-
eral levels.

Donohue, who began his career in 1965 as
an attendant at Central Islip Psychiatric Cen-
ter, became the local president there in 1975,
moving to a post as executive vice president
at CSEA in 1988. He has served as president
of the union since 1994.

Last summer, Donohue negotiated a new

© 2012 TIMES UNION
All Rights Reserved,

contract for state workers that, while foregoing
raises for three years, avoided mass layoffs.

More recently, he has been one of the
main opponents to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
call for a new and less-generous pension plan
for future employees.

If Donohue wins the AFSCME vote,
CSEA’s Executive Vice President Mary Sul-
livan would take over as its president.

> rkarlin@timesunion.com «= 518-454-5758 =
@RickKarlinTU

TIMES UNION ARCHIVE
CSEA PRESIDENT Danny Donohue
describes himself as a “rank-and-filer”
who'd like to focus union strength on
local elections.

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LONG BEACH HERALD

Date: Thursday, March 08, 2012

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Union head blasts city

after demotions

Mooney: ‘Show some respect’

By ANTHONY RIFILATO

anfilato@liherald.com

Long Beach Civil Service Employ-
ees Association President John
Mooney criticized members of the City
Council and administration at Tues-
day’s council meeting after 14 city
workers were demoted and two were
fired.

Mooney, backed by more than 200
union members who stomped and
shouted in support, blasted the admin-
istration, saying that City Manager
Jack Schnirman stripped 14 union
members of grade changes and promo-
tions given last year, amid a fiscal cri-
sis want you all to know that the
CSEA was unaware that the city was
in any financial straits,” Mooney said.

“We were just as surprised as anyone
with the December payroll.”

On Feb. 16, the city rescinded what
Schnirman said were the “unbudget-
ed” promotions of 14 employees made
shortly before the previous administra-
tion left office. Schnirman said that the
employees in question are now receiv-
ing their previous salaries, and that
the move saved the city $52,000, not
including overtime.

At the meeting, Mooney asked the
See SCHNIRMAN, page 18
administration and council to explain how the
city hired a new comptroller, at $15,000 more
than the previous comptroller’s salary; a sec-
retary, at $5,000 more; and a deputy city clerk,
at $23,000 more, among others. “These totals
of unbudgeted expenses that you guys
approved were close to $100,000,” Mooney said.
“That is double the amount of the grade
changes and promotions that were rescinded.”

He also claimed that Schnirman let two
union members go without any union repre-
sentation, saying, “That is a disgrace. These

© 2012 LONG BEACH HERALD
Al Rights Reserved,

members should be treated with respect.
Maybe from Brookhaven, that’s how you do
it. That's not how we do it in Long Beach.”

Mooney said that the CSEA had filed a
grievance with the city on Feb. 14, when it
learned that the city was going to make the
grade changes. He also said that, contrary to
Schnirman’s claims, the promotions were
properly budgeted. Most of the promotions
were approved in August, Mooney said,
months before the previous administration
left office, by a committee made up of union
representatives, former City Manager
Charles Theofan and others.

Before the meeting, Mooney said that the
grievance was filed because the promotions
fall under the collective bargaining agree-
ment with the city. An arbitrator will ulti-
mately review the case, he said.

“The city still has to honor the contractu-
al obligations, even if some of the grade
changes weren't properly budgeted for by the
previous administration,” Mooney said, add-
ing that he was disappointed with the way
Schnirman handled the demotions. “We
understand the economy is bad everywhere,
however, you have to treat your workers with
respect and dignity. The people who got
demoted weren't even informed by the city
manager or in writing — they were only told
by the union, and in my opinion, the city
manager should have called them up and told
them. It’s about treating employees with dig-
nity If you [get] bad news, you want to hear it
from your leader and your boss.”

But Schnirman maintained after the
meeting that the previous administration
awarded the grade changes and promotions
in August and again in December, and that it
was aware that they were unaffordable.

“The real question is why were these
unbudgeted, unaffordable raises and promo-
tions done during a fiscal crisis at the elev-
enth hour by an administration on its way
out the door,” he said. “I don’t know who this

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Keyword: CSEA

phantom committee was and why we never
heard of them before, but it is unfair to have
given city workers false promotions that the
previous administration knew would have to
be rescinded.”

Schnirman also disputed claims that the
demotions were handled inappropriately, say-
ing that the city did not have a contractual
obligation to honor the pay raises. “They
were actually grieved before they happened,”
he said. “Because we've had a good relation-
ship, I informed the union before I made the
move. We have a weekly meeting every Fri-
day at 11 a.m., where we informed the CSEA
president of our intention to do this. We con-
sulted several times with corporation coun-
sel before making changes and eliminating
positions, as we always do, and all were done
properly.”

Schnirman acknowledged that two
employees have been let go — and insiders
say they included Mary Giambalvo, who han-
dled public relations — but he added that one
position, which he did not specify, was provi-
sional, while the other — a service assistant
— was eliminated. He said that it is only
“during matters of internal discipline” that a
union representative is present and that both
layoffs were handled properly.

Schnirman also disputed Mooney’s claim
that recent hires, such as that of Comptroller
Jeff Nogid, have cost the city $100,000, adding
that not all new employees are receiving

higher salaries than past administrators. “As
of today, on the management side, the city is
spending $250,095 less on management
employees,” he said.

Before the meeting, Republican Council-
man John McLaughlin said that he believed
an arbitrator would make a fair decision, but
he agreed with Mooney that the previous
administration did not issue the promotions
at the last minute, and he pointed out that
several paid firefighters who were promoted
late last year have not been demoted.

Democratic Councilman Mike Fagen —
who criticized the previous administration
for awarding what he called unbudgeted
grade changes and promotions following
Tropical Storm Irene, saying that city offi-
cials knew they were unaffordable — apolo-
gized to Mooney.

“T'd like you to know that I apologize,”
Fagen said. “I feel that this union has been
mistreated by the administration so far. I do
believe that the union deserves better. Mov-
ing forward, there’s going to be some really
tough decisions for this administration over
the next month. We can’t forget, no matter
what, we're still neighbors. Even during the
tough times, fair treatment, equality and how
we dispense funds and how we make the
tough decisions are important. I think it’s
important that this administration under-
stands that when those tough decisions come,
that this union be treated fairly.”

after 14 union employees were demoted

© 2012 LONG BEACH HERALD
Al Rights Reserved,

Anthony Rifilato/Herald
CSEA PRESIDENT John Mooney criticized the City Council at Tuesday's meeting

last month.

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Page 2 of 2
Daily Coutier-

Observer (air

Tuesday, March 06, 2012
POTSDAM, NY

Circulation (DMA): 7,800 (176)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
2

Page:
Keyword:

CSEA

Vote On Sale Of Home Health Agency Tabled

By MARTHA ELLEN

CANTON — Moved by emo-
tional appeals from Public
Health employees and ham-
pered by inadequate informa-
tion, the St. Lawrence County
Board of Legislators put off a
decision Monday on whether to
keep its Certified Home Health
Agency and Long-Term Home
Health Care Program.

“Take a ride with me and see
these people. Do you under-
stand this affects your moms,
your dads? Come on,” said Ro-
chele Pratt, who has worked
for the county for more than
12 years. “Can you sit here and
make that choice without doing
that? Would that make a differ-
ence to any of you?”

Ms. Pratt, one of more than
50 county employees, patients
and representatives of health
care agencies at the meeting,
said she started working for the
county so she could care about
her patients.

“It means something and it
should mean something to you
guys,” she said. “Sometimes it's
not about the money. Some-
timesit’s about doing the things
thatare right.”

© 2012 DAILY COURIER OBSERVER
Al Rights Reserved,

Amy J. Simmons, president
of Civil Service Employees As-
sociation, said union members
have bent over backwards to
help the county with its fiscal
problems only to find legisla-
tors preparing to lay off about
30 employees.

CSEA has supported the
county in its bid for a sales tax
increase, worked with depart-
ment heads on employee trans-
fers, agreed to a 10 percent em-
ployee contribution for single
health insurance premiums,
then watched the number of
county employees shrink by
more than 100 over the last two
years while legislators buy a
$700,000 software system.

“This was definitely a want
thing, nota need thing. Now we
hear you want to pay fora space
study. Seriously?” she siaid.
“Unlike a computer program,
you need us. We have spent the
last year supporting you and I
feel we have gotten nothing in
return. I think it's time to ask
you to give us alittle respect and
keep all of our members work-
ing.”

A task force recommended
the county sell its home health

agencies for $80,000 to North-
ern Lights, a newly formed
group made up of Claxton-Hep-
burn Medical Center, Canton-
Potsdam Hospital, Hospice and
Palliative Care of St. Lawrence
Valley, and United Helpers
Management Co., which would
serve as project manager.

Some legislators said they
lacked the information to know
whether the county will be bet-
ter off keeping the services or
selling them, so they will recon-
sider the issue at their Finance
Committee meeting March 26
which will be followed by a spe-
cial meeting of the entire Legis-
lature.

Legislator Frederick S. Mor-
rill, D-DeKalb Junction, said the
county's decision not to replace
Public Health nurses as they left
hurt referrals and revenues.

“We intentionally put the
CHHA into a death spiral,” he
said.

Administrator Karen M. St.
Hilaire said there was no con-
spiracy to slowly bleed out the
services.

“We would never do any-
thing to destroy the CHHA and
Itake offense at that,” she said.

Account: 23070 (11931)
NY-585

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THE DAILY NEWS 2:

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Tuesday, March 06, 2012
BATAVIA, NY

12,113 (49)

Newspaper (D)

AiA2

Keyword: CSEA

WCCH announces layoffs, job cuts

By Matt Surtel
msurtel@batavianews.com

WARSAW — A total of 23 peo-
ple are being laid off as the
Wyoming County Community
Health System tries to halt finan-
cial losses.

The staff reductions were
announced Monday. They'll be
among 31 positions eliminated,
including eight unfilled.

“The work force reductions are
necessary in light of declining rev-
enues in order to keep WCCHS
financially viable to provide the
community and its patients with
the health care services they need,”
said Chief Executive Officer Don-
ald Eichenauer in a news release.

The cutbacks arrived amid the
facility’s ongoing fiscal stresses.

The hospital lost $10,000 per
day in February, said Chairman
Douglas Berwanger of the
Wyoming County Board of Super-
visors.

“Tn order to break even, we need
lect about $135,000 per day,”
he s ight now we're collect-
ing about an average about
$125,000 per day.”

That adds up to a potential $3.65
million loss this year if the losses
continue, he said. Berwanger cited
a low patient census; decreased
Medicaid reimbursements; and
increasing state retirement costs.

Officials at WCCHS described
the layoffs as across-the-board,
affecting no single department
more than others. They did not
provide further details.

Considerable efforts were made
last year to downsize through attri-
tion, the news release reads, Each
vacated position was evaluated to
determine whether it could be
eliminated or reduced to part-time.

That resulted in 22 positions
eliminated through attrition. But
challenges remained, including the

© 2012 DAILY NEWS:
Al Rights Reserved,

low census in the hospital’s acute

See WCCH — page A-2
care section.

“The third-floor acute care
facility, in order for us to be
profitable, needs to average
30 patients per day,”
Berwanger said. “We've
averaged 18 patients per day
since September, thus the
reason for the $10,000 per
day loss.

“What has happened is we
are staffed for 46 people,” he
said. “We can accommodate
46 people on the third floor
and we're staffed for 46 peo-
ple, and obviously we need
to change that direction.”

Hospitals also noted short-
ages of specialty physicians
in certain key areas; patients
delaying services due lack of
insurance; and the fact peo-
ple don’t need to be hospi-
talized for as long as in the
past.

“In 2011, WCCHS and its
(Board of Managers) began
a number of initiatives to
better align community
health care needs with
resources,” the news release
reads. “The entity’s mission
was revised and potential
affiliations with larger health
care institutions are being
pursued with a primary
objective of addressing
shortages of certain physi-
cian specialties and provid-
ing operational support to
allow for financially viable
expansion of key services to
enable more patients to
receive care locally.”

Civil Service Employees
Association Local 1000
declined to comment Mon-
day afternoon.

“The county contacted
CSEA late last week and we

‘Account: 23070 (11888)
NAS

cannot comment until we
have had an opportunity to
review the situation and dis-
cuss it with the CSEA
Wyoming County Unit lead-
ership and membership,”
said Communications Spe-
cialist Lynn Miller, at the
Western Region Office in
Amherst.

The WCCHS is consider-
ing affiliation options
including the Catholic
Health System in Buffalo,
Erie County Medical Center,
and Strong Memorial Hospi-
tal.

Berwanger said the part-
nerships would hopefully
allow the hospital to
increase patient access to
orthopedic and urology
services, which are two of
its biggest revenue genera-
tors.

Without those resources,
he said the hospital feels it’s
also missing out on the diag-
nosis, treatment, surgeries,
and rehabilitation involved.

And the facility continues
to feel financial pressure.
Berwanger said its state
retirement system payments
increased from $243,000 in
2001 to $6.76 million in
2012.

The county received no
Medicaid relief last year, he
said. This year’s total will be
$35,000.

“We're hopeful the affilia-
tion process will provide an
increase in revenues by pro-
viding these new services —
hopefully orthopedics and
urology, and we're hoping
the staff reductions will
assist in reducing the day-to-
day loss,” Berwanger said.
“That’s the stand we're

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Page 1 of 2
THE DAILY NEWS

Date: Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Location: BATAVIA, NY
Circulation (OMA): 12,113 (49)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: AL AZ
Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 DAILY NEWS:
Al Rights Reserved,

going to take right now.”

He predicted more county
layoffs in general unless
some kind of state mandate
relief occurs. Hospital offi-
cials noted additional ongo-
ing challenges,

Berwanger said the
WCCHS layoffs are very
difficult.

“We’ve known this for
quite some time,” he said.
“We had to study the situa-
tion. There’s been a lot of
work put into identifying
which positions need to be
included in the staff reduc-
tion, and there’s been a com-
mittee that worked on it, and
that’s where we're at —
today is the day.”

The WCCHS is the coun-
ty’s largest employer, with
more than 500 people.

“There have been layoffs
in the hospital in the past,
but it’s a difficult situation,”

Berwanger said. “We've
prided ourselves in being
able to retain the work force,
but we're still in a very diffi-
cult situation.”

Asked about the hospital's
existing financial status, offi-
ials noted the difficulties.
he hospital made signif-
icant progress in 2011 and
reduced its loss from
$6,636,000 in 2010 to a pre-
liminary unaudited loss of
$1,050,000 in 2011 but con-
tinues to face financial chal-
lenges,” officials said in a
statement. “Approximately
$4,000,000 of a loan
received from the County of
Wyoming in 2010 was sub-
sequently paid back during
2011. The hospital has long-
term debt related to its
equipment and_ facilities;
however, vendors amounts

due remain current.”

‘Account: 23070 (11888)
NAS

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Keyword:

Saturday, March 03, 2012
LONG ISLAND, NY
297,601 (1)

Newspaper (D)

3

CSEA

Nassau
hospital
sacks 25

BY RIDGELY OCHS
ridgely.ochs@newsday.com

Nassau University Medi-
cal Center on Friday laid
off 25 nurses or nurses
aides and offered another
12 nurses part-time posi-
tions as part of an ongoing
effort to close a projected
$50-million budget gap.

The layoffs came three
months after the East
Meadow hospital laid off
175 employees to plug a
shortfall in its $533-million
budget.

The hospital and its as-
sociated facilities said the
gap was caused by rising
pension costs, lower Med-
icaid payments and higher
operating costs.

“This is the final phase
of the November downsiz-
ing,” hospital spokeswom-
an Shelley Lotenberg said.
No additional layoffs are
planned, she said.

Lotenberg said the 25
nurses or nurses aides
being let go had worked in
the hospital’s outpatient
clinics.

The clinics have been
consolidated “to be consis-

© 2012 Newsday in,
All Rights Reserved,

tent with patient volumes
and for increased clinical
productivity. No clinic spe-
cialties have been eliminat-
ed,” she said.

The 12 employees of-
fered part-time positions
— including registered
nurses and licensed practi-
cal nurses — were also
from the hospital clinics.

In addition, 40 employ-
ees from around the hospi-
tal — including nurses, cli-
nicians, clerical workers,
techs and executives —
had accepted early retire-
ment packages last month.
Each received up to a max-
imum of $20,000, based
on salary and seniority, Lo-
tenberg said.

That reduces the num-
ber of employees to 3,550
now at NuHealth/Nassau
Health Care Corporation.
The public benefit corpo-
ration includes NUMC,
A. Holly Patterson Ex-
tended Care Facility and
five community health
care centers.

“I think we're witness-
ing the dismantling of our
public hospital,” said Jerry

Laricchiuta, president of
the Civil Services Employ-
ees Association, which has
been locked in a contract
dispute with the corpora-
tion since 2009 when the
contract expired.

“Tt’s like watching a
slow-motion movie. He’s
just going to keep cut-
ting,” Laricchiuta said, re-
ferring to Arthur Gianelli,
chief executive of Nu-
Health.

‘After the layoffs in No-
vember, Gianelli had said
the corporation still had a
$5.5-million budget deficit.
Those funds would have
to come from union con-
cessions or further layoffs,
he said at the time.

But Laricchiuta said the
union couldn’t make con-
cessions without a con-
tract. “I can’t open up a
contract with him if we
don’t have a contract,” he
said Friday.

In a statement Friday,
Gianelli_ replied that
under the state’s Tribor-
ough Amendment to the
Taylor Law, which pro-
hibits a public employer
from altering provisions
of an expired labor con-
tract until a new agree-
ment is reached, “the
terms of the contract are
in full force and effect
and the CSEA could have
made any number of con-
cessions to offset, at least
in part, layoffs due to the
staggering increase in
pension costs. The CSEA
elected to make no con-
cessions.”

Account: 23070 (11845)
NY-56,

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Page 1 of 1
Date: Friday, March 02, 2012

Location: LONG'ISLAND, NY
Circulation (OMA): 297,601 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: A28

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 Newsday in,
All Rights Reserved,

LONG BEACH

Union grieves city’s
promotion reversals

BY CANDICE RUUD

candice.ruud@newsday.com

Long Beach’s largest union
has filed a grievance with the
city after more than a dozen
employee promotions award-
ed last year were reversed,
said local Civil Services Em-
ployee Association president
John Mooney.

The unbudgeted pay raises
given to 14 CSEA employees
were issued just before the
prior administration left office
at the end of December and
would have cost the city more
than $52,000 per year, City
Manager Jack Schnirman said.

“The previous administra-
tion ran out of cash at the very
same moment they were hand-
ing out unbudgeted rewards in
a very cynical manner, putting
the city’s workers in a bad posi-
tion,” Schnirman said. With
Long Beach in a fiscal crisis,
he said the city will take an
“across-the-board approach to
cost savings” and continue to
scrutinize “last-minute unbud-
geted raises and promotions.”

Mooney called it “a slap in
the face,” saying the promo-
tion reversals destroyed the
morale of many union workers
who “go above and beyond.”

“Its more about respect
than anything,” he said, adding
that the CSEA is the city’s low-
est-paid workforce. “Nobody
likes bad news. The economy
is screwed up all over the
country, but at the end of the

For reprinis or rights, posters and plagues, please visi www: NewscayReprinis.com or cal (212) 221-9505

day you'd like to hear from the
person in charge, ‘Look, this
isn’t personal, but to me it
doesn’t look that way.”

The move seems political,
he added, because the CSEA
endorsed local Republicans be-
fore the November election.
The GOP lost, and now a Dem-
ocratic City Council is in
power.

Schnirman rebuffed that
claim. “ ‘Political’ would be
handing out selected rewards
at the Uth hour,” he said.
“Here’s the real question, and
it remains unanswered: Why
were these unbudgeted, unaf-
fordable raises and promo-
tions done during a fiscal cri-
sis at the lth hour of an admin-
istration on its way out the
door?”

Former City Manager
Charles Theofan did not re-
turn a call for comment.

Mooney said he was noti-
fied Feb. 10 of the promotion
reversals — actually changes
in job grades — and the CSEA
filed a grievance four days
later.

But, he added, the city and
the union are still working
well together on other issues,
such as a recently announced
early retirement incentive
being offered to 52 CSEA mem-
bers.

“] appreciate they're doing
it,” Mooney said after a meet-
ing with Schnirman about the
incentive. “It’s a good thing for
the city and for the workers.”

Account: 23070 (11836)
NY-56,

ein change as but fic

Page 1 of 1
Date: Thursday, March 01, 2012

nlp Seana: SSarone
Democratans Chronicle "29! ees
Keyword: CSEA
‘ e e e e
Leaders: Pension situation dire
JOSEPH SPECTOR the state’s largest public- chuse of € pealeline De
Albany bureau chief employees union with 4 i

ALBANY — Mayors and county exec-
utives from across New York warned
Wednesday that local governments face
a dire fiscal picture if the state doesn’t
lower growing pension costs.

Monroe County Executive Maggie
Brooks said local governments could
face bankruptcy without pension re-
form. New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg said more city money goes
to retirees’ pensions than police, fire
and sanitation services combined.

“The alternative here is going to be
more people losing their jobs, fewer
people being hired in local government
and services declining,” said White

Plains Mayor Thomas Roach.

According to the state Labor Depart-
ment, there were 84,100 government
jobs in December in the Rochester met-
ropolitan statistical area, the latest fig-
ure available.

The local leaders have formed the
group, New York Leaders for Pension
Reform, and held a news conference
near the Capitol to back Gov. Andrew

Cuomo’s proposal for a new pension tier
for new public employees.

Public employees unions are oppos-
ing Cuomo’s push, arguing that a new
pension tier was implemented just two
years ago. They said a new pension tier
would be another assault on the middle
class and have no short-term benefit to
governments. Unions last year agreed
to pay freezes and furloughs.

“Wall Street nearly melted down the
economy and got bailed out, but future
nurses, teachers, highway workers and
school bus drivers are supposed to give
up hope of retirement security,” said
Stephen Madarasz, spokesman for the
Civil Service Employees Association,

See REFORM, Page 6B
ONLINE EXTRA

Click on this story at Democratand
Chronicle.com to see videos of Monroe
County Executive Maggie Brooks and
Mayor Thomas Richards in Albany.

© 2012 Gannett Rochester Newspapers
Al Rights Reserves,

265,000 members.

Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver, D-Man-
hattan, said he would en-
courage mayors to dis-
cuss reform with their lo-
cal unions and “see what
kind of agreements they
can come up with.”

Silver expressed the
concerns of his confer-
ence over a 401(k)-type
option included in Cuo-
mo’s pension proposal.

“I’m concerned about
people’s abilities to do
their own investing and
planning for 50 or 40 or 35
years down the road,” Sil-
ver said.

Cuomo has suggested
that the 401(k) option is
important, but perhaps
not critical to a deal.

Cuomo is proposing a

new Tier VI pension level
that would increase con-
tributions from 3 percent
of a new employee’s sala-
ry toas muchas 6 percent.
The retirement age would
rise from 62 to 65.

“Any resolution I seek
will be a resolution that
brings the maximum
amount of savings,” Cuo-
mo told reporters.

Pension costs have
soared for state and local
governments, in large
part because the declines

on Wall Street have
meant higher annual
payments to cover retir-
ees’ costs. Local govern-
ments estimate that pen-
sion costs have _in-
creased from $1.7 billion
in 2002 to $12.5 billion
this year.

“The threat of bank-
ruptcy hangs over every
single municipal gov-
ernment in this state be-

‘Account: 23070 (11820)
Nv-587

“The facts are clear, and
the facts are very dis-
turbing.”

Brooks said Monroe
County’s pension costs
would double from $19
million in 2010 to $40 mil-
lion in 2013. By next
year, Rochester’s total
revenue from property
taxes will go to fund

schools and pensions, said
Mayor Thomas Richards.
Richards warned that
because of the pension
costs, “the quality of life
will be gone long before
the pensions are gone.”
The growing pension
expenses have prompted
some municipalities to
borrow off the state pen-
sion fund to cushion their

annual payments. About
$200 million was amor-
tized this year by 162 enti-
ties that have public em-
ployees, according to the
state Comptroller’s Of-
fice. That’s up from near-
ly $44 million in 2011.

Monroe and Rockland
counties each borrowed
about $8 million to pay its
pension obligations this
year.

Roach said borrowing
to pay for pension costs is
bad fiscal policy, but an in-
dication of how serious
the problem is.

“The road to hell is
paved in amortizing pen-
sions,” he said. “All you
are doing is taking a cur-
rent operating cost and
pushing it down the line.”

JSPECTOR@Gannett.com

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Page 1 of 2
bch Bi it fh ad Date: Thursday, March 01, 2012
Location: ROCHESTER, NY
Circulation (OMA): 120,037 (78)

Democratan Chronicle =r) Geo

Keyword: CSEA

“The road to hell is
paved in amortizing
pensions.” You're
“taking a ... cost and
pushing it down the
line.”

THOMAS ROACH

WHITE PLAINS MAYOR

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 Gannett Rochester Newspapers
Al Rights Reserves,

‘Account: 23070 (11820)
Nv-587

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OLEAN TIMES HERALD

Date:
Location:

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

OLEAN, NY

Circulation (DMA): 11,360 (49)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
AZ

Page:
Keyword:

CSEA

County workers evacuated

Dangerous radon
levels discovered
in the basement

Rick Miller

Olean Times Herald

LITTLE VALLEY - More
than 25 Cattaraugus County
employees who work in the
basement of the County Center
were evacuated last week after
the discovery of high levels of
radon.

Employees of Emergency
Services, Information Services,
Probation, and Real Property
Tax Services, as well as essential
equipment and records, were
temporarily moved to alter-
nate locations until the radon
problem is remedied and tests
confirm the radioactive, color-
less, tasteless gas is removed
from the workplace. The
Superintendent of Buildings
and Grounds’ basement office
was also relocated.

County Administrator Jack
Searles confirmed Tuesday the
employees had been relocated
last week, and an Erie, Pa.,
company that specializes in
radon removal systems had
been hired to remedy the prob-
lem.

It is the third county office
building in Little Valley where
high levels of radon have been
discovered in the past two
years.

Earlier, sub-slab depres-
surization remediation proj-
ects that involve drilling a
hole in the floor of the base-
ment and installing a reverse
pressure ventilation system
were installed in the Board of
Elections office and the Old

© 2012 OLEANTIMES HERALD
Al Rights Reserved,

Supervisor's Building.

The county was informed of
the high levels of radon by the
state Health Department just
before the three-day President's
Day weekend, Mr. Searles said.
Last Tuesday, CSEA union
representatives asked that the
employees be relocated from
the basement because of the
high radon levels. Those offices
were relocated by Friday.

“This is being done in con-
cert with the union,” he added.

Mr. Searles said four com-
panies that specialize in radon
mitigation were invited to
visit the site and present their
proposals to rid the basement
of radon, which is the second
leading cause of lung cancer in
the US. It is the leading cause
of lung cancer in non-smokers.

Mitigation Specialists of
Erie proposed a plan to drill
three holes through the base-
ment floor into the soil below
and install a sub-slab depres-
surization system to collect the
radon gas and vent it to the
outside. The initial cost is about
$12,045. If an additional hole
needs to be drilled, it will cost
an extra $4,000. The County
Legislature will be asked to
approve a retroactive contract
at its next meeting.

Mr. Searles said during the
winter, radon, a byproduct of
the decomposition of radium,
often accumulates beneath
buildings, when ventilation
systems are not used as much
as the heating systems.

Mr. Searles said $10 canis-

ters available from the state
Health Department were used
to determine if there was a
radon problem. The other
buildings’ high radon levels
prompted someone to ask
whether it was a problem at
the County Center, he said.

“We identified the problem
and moved quickly toward
a process of mitigation,” Mr.
Searles said. Long-term expo-
sure poses the greatest risk, he
added.

Dr. Kevin Watkins, county
public health director, said the
US. Environmental Protection
Agency has set a permissible
radon level of 4 picocuries per
liter of air. There is no danger
to the public, he said.

Mr. Searles said of the five
samples taken in the County
Center basement, four were
above the permissible level,
ranging from 23.2 picocuries to
34 picocuries. The Little Valley
region is in a very-high density
area for radon, he said.

The basement is empty
except for those working on
the remediation, which should
be completed in a few weeks.
It will take time to confirm that
the radon is no longer present
in levels of concern.

Dr. Watkins said, “It is
always a concern when you
have elevated levels in an
office or school or the home”
— especially when it involves
employees or residents who
face long-term exposure to
high levels of between 10 and
30 years. Those who smoke are

Account: 23070 (11875)
NY5I9

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Page 1 of 2
OLEAN TIMES HERALD

Date: Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Location: OLEAN, NY
Circulation (DMA): 11,360 (49)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: 43

Keyword: CSEA

at higher risk of getting lun;
cancer he added. ae ae

Dr. Watkins said he did not
think employees need to be
concerned. Other floors were
not tested, he said.

“Radon is pretty much
confined to the basement,” he
explained, and there is “ a low
probability” that itis a problem
in higher floors.

The last time the County
Center’s basement was tested
for radon was in 1998, when
the levels were all below 4
picocuries, and there was no
need for remediation.

Dr. Watkins said other coun-
ty buildings should be tested
for radon as well.

The public health director
said residents should consider
testing their basements as well
in light of the high levels found
in the County Center.

People can contact the state
Health Department’s Radon
Center at (800) 458-1158 ext.
27556, or (518) 402-7556 to
request a radon detector. Put
in place for 48 to 72 hours, the
canister is mailed to the state

© 2012 OLEANTIMES HERALD
Al Rights Reserved,

Health Department laboratory ed,” Dr. Watkins said.

along with $10. The homeown- The county's website is

er is no! f the results and = wwweattco.org.

how they can protect them-

selves. (Contact reporter Rick Miller
“On our website, we havea _at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com)

consumer's guide to radon and

information on how to reduce

radon levels if they are elevat-

Rick Miller/Olean Times Herald
Jamie Wandless of Mitigation Specialists of Erie, Pa., the
company hired to mitigate high levels of radon found in
the Cattaraugus County Center basement in Little Valley,
checks a holes bored in the boiler room floor and wall to
intercept and vent the colorless and odorless gas.

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012
SKANEATELES, NY

2,972 (79)

Newspaper (W)

At

CSEA

Village, union resolve labor issue

By Jason Emerson

The Skaneateles Village Board of Trustees and local labor
union officials have resolved a longstanding dispute over
what the union claimed were unfair labor practices, specifi-
cally that non-bargaining unit employees were performing
work previously done by union workers who were laid off
last year.

The village denied the charge and the two sides have been
seeking a resolution.

The matter was scheduled for an administrative law hear-
ing on Feb. 2, but at that meeting the village attorney and the
attorney for the Civil Service Employees Association, Local
1000, were able to reach a settlement agreement. Under that
agreement, the CSEA withdrew its charge in full and both
parties declared there was no wrongdoing by the village.

“I am very pleased that this matter has been resolved,”
Mayor Marty Hubbard read from a prepared statement at
the Feb. 23 village board meeting.

This was the second disagreement over the past year
between the village board and the CSEA. A previous change
to employee health insurance benefits went to an arbitrator

© 2012 SKANEATELES PRESS
All Rights Reserves,

who concluded in November that the village did not violate
its labor agreement.

The village board and CSEA still have yet to reach an
agreement on a new labor contract to succeed the previous
one that expired in May 2011.

“The village remains willing to meet with CSEA to resolve
the contract on mutually agreeable terms,” Hubbard said.
Also at the meeting:

—The village board approved a request from St. James’
Episcopal Church to hold lakeside services at 10 a.m. Sun-
days, beginning June 17 and ending Sept. 2, weather permit-
ting, in Thayer Park.

—The village board verified and approved information
concerning the March 20 village elections, approved the
candidates’ names and authorized publication of the infor-
mation in the newspaper.

—The village board approved a request from Red House
Arts Center to present the William Shakespeare play “The
Tempest” at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 17 in Clift Park.

—The village board authorized the re-hiring of Heather
Lolito as a part-time village police officer.

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
LONG ISLAND, NY

Circulation (OMA): 297,601 (1)
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Ala

CSEA

Hearings sought on hospitals’ ties

BY OLIVIA WINSLOW
olivia.winslow@newsday.com

A Nassau employees union
wants the county legislature to
conduct hearings into Nassau
University Medical Center’s ties
to North Shore-LIJ Health Sys-
tem because of fears the relation-
ship could spell the end of the
county’s lone public hospital.

The Civil Service Employee
Association launched a radio ad
campaign three weeks ago to
push for hearings by the Nassau
legislature.

“We're trying to alert the pub-
lic. The bottom line is, although
we have a lot of respect for
North Shore. . . what I do not
want to see one day is North

Shore’s logo on the side of
[NUMC’s] building,” said Jerry
Laricchiuta, president of CSEA
Local 830, which represents
3,400 workers at the hospital.
Laricchiuta said he wants
hearings because of concerns
Arthur Gianelli, president and
chief executive of NuHealth,

© 2012 Newsday in,
All Rights Reserved,

which includes NUMC, would
“deliver this hospital to a huge
conglomerate.”

Gianelli said Laricchiuta’s
fears were outdated and didn’t
recognize the need for health
institutions to collaborate to
achieve cost savings, improve
patient care and to respond to
new rules from the health care
reform act.

“The whole world is doing
this,” he said. “The CSEA has an
Atari attitude in an iPod world.
Either we keep up with the
times, or we'll be left behind.”

Gianelli said the affiliation
between the two medical insti-
tutions — which began in 2005
and has been extended through
June — as well as a recent appli-
cation to the state to create a
limited liability corporation
and joint partnership, would
not result in North Shore tak-
ing over NUMC or assuming
its assets or liabilities.

Gianelli noted — and legisla-

tive representatives confirmed
— the legislature has no role in
deciding the hospitals’ collabora-
tion, but Laricchiuta argued the
legislature could still conduct
hearings on behalf of the public.

The ad says in part: “If North
Shore eventually takes over,
will NUMC remain a public
hospital that serves us all?”

Brian Mulligan, a spokesman
for North Shore-LIJ, said the
goal is to “elevate the quality of
care at NUMC and achieve cost
savings and ensure the hospital’s
long-term viability.”

Laricchiuta also criticized the
hospital’s board of directors for
allegedly making decisions be-
hind closed doors, a charge Gi-
anelli vehemently denied, saying
the board operated with trans-
parency. Both Gianelli and Laric-
chiuta noted they have talked
about the hospitals’ collabora-
tion during union negotiations.

Account: 23070 (11785)
NY-56,

For reprinis or rights, posters and plagues, please visi www: NewscayReprinis.com or cal (212) 221-9505

Page 1 of 1
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Location: NEW YORK, NY
Circulation (OMA): 26,418 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: 19

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

Calls 401(k)s Too Risky
DiNapoli Sparks a War
Of Words on Pensions

By MARK TOOR

The war over Governor Cuomo’'s Tier
6 pension proposal turned into the bat-
tle of the press releases last week, as
supporters of the penurious plan at-
tacked State Comptroller Thomas P.
DiNapoli for statements he made op-
posing its inclusion of 401(k)s, and Mr.
DiNapoli’s labor defenders fired back.

Mr. Cuomo threw fuel on the fire
during a Feb. 16 radio interview, call-
ing Mr. DiNapoli’s stance “indefensi-
ble” and claiming “it argues the posi-
tions of the labor unions at the ex-
pense of the taxpayer and the citizen.”

The Comptroller, who is considered a
friend of public-employee unions and
enjoys their strong support, has said
the current defined-benefit pension
appropriate and af-
fordable. His position all along has
been that the pension plan is fully
funded and that 401(k)s, whiel
posed in the Tier 6 initiative a:
ternative to a reduced defined-benefit
option, are too risky because they are
subject to stock-market fluctuations.

Lost Years of Growth

The accounts, which cover a grow-
ing number of private-sector employ-
ees, lost much of their value after the
2008 recession began and only now
are regaining their value.

The Tier 6 proposal would change
the defined-benefit plan by wiping out
early retirement; raising required em
ployee contributions and increasing
them even further when a declining
stock market reduces investment re-
turns; exciuding overtime from final-
average-salary calculations; ‘stretch-
ing the final-average-salary period

from three to five years, and reducin;
the multiplier used to work out pension
payments by 17 percent.

Tier 6 would cover future state and
city workers but would not affect cur-
rent employees.

In proposing it when he released his
budget last month, Mr. Cuomo said the
state simply could not afford the cur-
rent pension plans—not even Tier 5,
which took effect just two years ago
and carries its own reductions. His pro-
gram would save $113 billion over the
next 30 years, he said, although most
of the savings would not be realized

until at least 20 years down the road.
The Comptroller repeated his long-

(Continued on Page 9)

standing opposition to 401(k)s during a
legislative hearing on the budget Feb.
7, saying the new pension plan would
“reduce retirement security for future
workers.” He repeated that concern in
his analysis of Mr. Cuomo’s budget, re-
leased the same day. The analysis also
said his actuaries estimated_that, it
would cost the state between $7 million
and $16 million to set up Tier 6, plus
additional costs for localities.

‘False’ Attacks on Pensions

“Coordinated, sustained attacks by
anti-pension advoeates have falsely
cast public pensions as costly, unsus-
tainable giveaways that are bank-
rupting states and localities,” he said
in a press briefing Jan. 19. Because
the pension fund lost $40 billion at
the beginning of the recession, the
state and localities are required to
pay moro temporarily to make up for
it. But Mr. DiNapoli said Tier 6 would
have no effect on those payments.

The hits from business groups be-
gan piling up at the beginning of last
week. Brian Sam sty executive di-
rector of Unshackle Upstate, also at-
tacked Binghamton a ayor Matthew
Ryan, who wrote in an op-ed piece,
“Even if a 401(Ik) plan were optional, it
would be dangerous for our retirees,
both economically and morally... Us-
ing a 401(k) in place of a defined-bene-
fit pension would undercut the financial
security that our workers deserve.”

“A good friend of mine summed it
up nicely,” Mr. Sampson said. “He
said, “‘Perhaps Mayor Ryan and
Comptroller DiNapoli should focus on
what the voters and taxpayers are
saying, and according to the recent
Siona Collogo poll, an overwholming
majority of voters, including union
households, support Tier 6.’ They'd
rather subject the taxpayers of New
York State to the volatility of the stock
market than back a reasonable plan
that begins to lessen the risks as-
sumed by the taxpayers. Someone
should point that out the next time
they are up for re-election.”

‘Long-Overdue Relief”

Account: 23070 (11797)
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© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

An op-ed piece by Heather Briccetti,
president of the Business Council of
New York, was more measured: “The
commonsense proposal for a Tier 6 re-
tirement system. ..would provide long-
overdue relief to business owners, tax-
payers, school districts and municipal-
ities across the state by saving a hefty
$123 billion over the next 30 years

. The opportunity to enroll in a 401(k)-
style retirement account would also be
anew option available to new employ-
ces, providing them with ‘portable’
benefits if they change careers.”

But Mike Durant, New York State
director for the National Federation of
Independent Businesses, raised the
temperature again: “The Comptrol-
ler’s continuous attack on the pro-
posed Tier 6 provision fails the smell
test. Comptroller DiNapoli is sup-

sed to be looking out for the fiscal
Pealth of the state, and the key to pre-
serving our financial security is re-
forming our pension system, not kow-
towing to special interests for person-
al political gains.”

The unions fired back almost imme-
diately.

“DiNapoli has raised legitimate con-
cerns that a 401(k)-style pension option
will lead to greater economic instabili-

id Civi

“Once again the corporate interests
and the 1 percent are at it trying to de-
monize anyone who stands up for fair-
ness and consideration of what’s right.”

401(k)s a ‘Wall Street Windfall’

“We've all seen enough damage to re-
tirement security tied to 401(k) plans,”
he added. He noted that historically 83
percent of the pension dollar has come
from inyestments, not taxpayers, ani
that “Wall Street stands to make a
windfall on administrative fees if Tier
6 is enacted.” 401(k)s carry such fees.

“The millionaires and lobbyists who
want to take sway | the hope of a secure
retirement from hard-working nurses,
firefighters, teachers and other workers
chou id be ashamed,” said Ken Brynien,
president of the Public Employees Fed:
eration. He said the average pension in
the state retirement system is $19,151
per year. When Tier 5 was adopted, the
state projected that it would save state
and local governments more than $35
billion over 20 years, he said, adding,

“We don't need a Tier 6 to cut pension
we just need to let Tier 5 work.”

‘Standing Up for Workers’

Mario Cilento, president of the
State AFL-CIO, said, “401(k)s simply
do not provide workers with the pre-
dictability and reliability of a defined-

benefit pension, and on their own are
not a viable option to allow workers
to retire with dignity. The Comptrol-
ler shou © commended for his
courage in standing up for working
men and women, rather than criti-
cized by those who simply want to ac-
celerate the race to the bottom.”

Mr. DiNapoli issued a statement re-'
plying to the business-community
criticism of his stance by saying, “
haven't seen such a coordinated at-
tack since Francesca was voted off
‘Survivor’ ,I stand firmly behind my
position that defined-contribution
[401(k)] plans are not adequate for re-
tirement security for public or private
workers. Study after study has shown
that defined-benefit plans cost less in
the long run than 401(k)-style plans
and perform better. It is uncon-
scionable that so many New Yorkers
and Amoricans do not have a secure
retirement, oftentimes because corpo-
rations have stripped retirement
plans for short-term fiscal gains.”

DANNY DONOHUE: ‘Corpo-
rate interests demonizing.’

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Keyword: CSEA

KENNETH BRYNIEN: Try
letting Tier 5 work.

IM DiNAPOLI: Jousts with
'-pension advocates.’

Page 3 of 3

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

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TIMES UNION =

Ftiday, February 24,2012
ALBANY,

66,835 163)

Newspaper (D)

3

CSEA

PEF slate to seek ouster of leaders

Union Proud group cites
dissatisfaction with
contract givebacks

By Jimmy Vielkind

ALBANY — A group of state
workers is moving to challenge
Public Employees Federation
President Ken Brynien in an elec-
tion later this spring, the Times
Union has learned.

Attacking Brynien’s handling
of contract negotiations last year,
Susan Kent led other members
of a group called “Union Proud”
in glad-handing at last weekend's
meeting of the Association of Black
and Puerto Rican Legislators.

Union Proud has launched a
website and is planning a cam-
paign event next week in Troy.
Kent declined to be interviewed,
citing a predetermined campaign
plan. She is an employee of the
State Education Department, as is
Carlos Garcia, the group’s candi-
date for secretary-treasurer.

Brynien also declined comment,
saying he was busy working on the
union’s advocacy efforts surround-
ing the 2012-13 state budget. PEF
has joined with other labor unions
to push back on Gov. Andrew
Cuomo’s proposal to include a
new pension tier in his budget. A
spending plan is due April 1.

But the Union Proud website
contains a founding statement that
is critical of Brynien’ ’s stewardship,
saying he “urged members to ca-
pitulate to the governor's demands
for givebacks” during contract ne-
gotiations last year. Brynien and
his team reached agreement on a
tentative contract with state lead-
ers that was initially rejected by
rank-and-file PEF members. A
renegotiated deal was ratified in
November.

‘The Union Proud site says
PEF’s leaders “hastily repackaged

© 2012 TIMES UNION
All Rights Reserved,

the deal with minor changes, and
some more concessions.” Brynien,
ina video message urging passage
of the new agreement, said in Oc-
tober that it repaid furlough days
and shortened the contract to a
four-year term, which will shift
the negotiating calendar so PEF’s
next bargaining session would be-
gin before the Civil Service Em-

ces Association, a larger state
worker union that agreed to a
five-year deal.

“These are some of many
changes PEF members asked to
bring them with this revised agree-
ment,” Brynien said at the time.

Kent's team must gather peti-
tion signatures from 10 percent of
PEF’s roughly 54,000 members
to force an election. The process
begins in late March. Balloting oc-
curs in June.

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Page: 47

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

Donohue and Team
Given New Terms
At Top of CSEA

By MARK TOOR

Danny Donohue, president of the
Civil Service Association since 1994,
has been returned to office without
opposition for another four-y«
the union announced Feb. 15. Hi
leadership team will remain intact,
overcoming any hard feelings about a
giveback-laden contract the union
agreed to last summer to avoid thou-
sands of layoffs.

Executive Vice President, Mary E.
Sullivan and statewide Secretary
Denise Berkley were also returned to
office without opposition. Treasurer
Joseph McMullen was re-elected.

Lester Crockett, a longtime activist

(Continued on Page 7)
and leader from the New York State
Insurance Fund, was elected Metro-
politan Region president, Mr, Crock-
ett had filled the position since last,

fall following the retirement of

George Boncoraglio.
Capital Region President Kath:
Garrison was re-elected to her fourt!
term. Long Island Region President
Nick LaMorte, Southern Region Pres-
ident Billy Ricealdo, Central Region
leader Colleen Wheaton and Western
Region head Flo Tripi were all re-
turned to office without opposition.

Started as Psych Attendant

Mr. Donohue, who was born in
Brooklyn, worked as an attendant at
Central Islip Psychiatrie Center on

Long Island and in 1975 won a write-
in campaign to become local president
there. He became president of the
Long Island region, then executive
yice president of the statewide union
in 1988.

“These are some of the toughest
times CSEA has faced in our 102-year
history, but there is only one way to
go and that is forward,” Mr. Donohue
said. “I want to thank CSEA members
for their confidence in my leadership.”

It is expected that in June he will
seek the presidency of the CSEA's na-
tional union, the American Federa-
fion of State, County and Municipal
Employees.

CSEA is the largest state-employ-
eas union and has 400,000 mambors

statewide.

DANNY DONOHUE: Con-
tract wasn’t a career-killer.

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MOUNTAIN EAGLE

Date:
Location:

Thursday, February 23, 2012
STAMFORD, NY

Circulation (DMA): 3,345 (157)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
AB

Page:
Keyword:

CSEA

Schoharie County Seeks Agency

To Investigate Conditions In The Workplace

By Erika Eklund

Mountain Eagle tat
SCHOHARIE - An evalua-
tion and inquiry into allega-
tions county employees are
facing fear and intimidation in
the workplace and are dis-
couraged from filing griev-
ances or going above depart-
ment heads could soon be
underway in Schoharie Coun-
ty. Members of the Schoharie
County Board of Supervisors
voted in favor of advertising
for an outside entity to con-
duct the evaluation during
their regular monthly meeting
in Schoharie last Friday.
Former Schoharie County
Health Educator Penny
Grimes, who was one of
numerous county employees
laid off in December during
the 2012 county budget
process, took privilege of the
flood to ask questions and
share several concerns with
board members. She thanked
those supervisors, county offi-
cials and department heads

Grimes later explained dur-
ing periods of her employ-
ment with the county she had
felt extremely bullied and tar-
geted by a superior and felt
she was discouraged from fil-
ing formal complaints for fear
of losing her job. While
Grimes said she could only
speak for herself, she believed
other county employees faced
similar challenges.

“T encourage every county
employee from here on out to
speak up,” Grimes said during
the meeting. “Don’t be like I
was; too intimidated and too
afraid to file a grievance.”

Schoharie Supervisor Gene
Milone said he only recently
became a member of the
board, but as a former council
member of the Schoharie
Town Board, had concern
over what was going on in
county departments and had
previously requested an inves-
tigation into allegations. He
said his request was mever
acted upon.

encouraged any potential
inquiry to be a larger assess-
ment of the overall culture
which exists between employ-
ees and their superiors in all
county departments and not
just focused on specific alle-
gations.

Jefferson Supervisor Dan
Singletary said he was
opposed to any potential large
scale inquiry and the role it
could play in undermining the
ability of employees to choose
their own advocates. “I
believe an inquiry on this
scale undermines the role of
the union,” said Singletary.
“As personnel chairman it
never came to our awareness
there is a problem in this
county and the union has
stood very tall in the past.”

CSEA Union President
Barbara Schaffer said she
agreed with Singletary to a
point, but had seen situations
in the past where county
employees were asked if they
wanted to file a grievance

who she said demonstrated After hearing the state- because of the way they were
compassion and concern for ments made by Grimes, treated and said no because of
employees during the budget Milone said the need for an _ fear of losing their jobs.
process and showed a true inquiry remained in the coun- “T understand I can be sus-
concern for them. ty. “I would like to know ‘id Milone.
Grimes asked the board to where this fear is generated it is imperative
first consider what their roleis from and who might be the board. do some soul
and who they work for, saying involved,” said Milone. searching on how you vote on

in her seven plus years as
public health educator, she
never forgot she worked for
the people of Schoharie Coun-
ty. She then asked supervisors
if they have oversight of
department heads and how
many of them, upon learning
of allegations within the
health department, had gone
in to see, first hand, how
employees were being treated
and what was really going on.

“There needs to be serious
concern with regard to work-
places, particularly those
overseen by this board of
supervisors. There needs to be
an investigation into these
allegations, even at the level
of this board.”

Blenheim Supervisor
Robert Mann said he agreed it
was time the board had a good
understanding of employee
relations in the county and

this issue. We are duty bound
and owe it to our county
employees to put this to sleep
once and for all.”

Supervisors voted in favor
of a motion to advertise for a
Request for Proposals (RFPs)
for services to come in and do
an evaluation and inquiry into
allegations. Singletary was the
single vote opposed to the
motion.

Page 1 of 1

(© 2012 MOUNTAIN EAGLE
Al Rights Reserved,

‘Account: 23070 (11810)
Nv-200

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QUEENS CHRONICLE (NORTHERN oe

Thursday, February 23, 2012
NY

ENS EDITION, Location: ay REGO Pan
irculation 160,000 (1
Qu. IS ON) Type Poaeray Nevenaset Ww)
Page: 10
Keyword: CSEA
THE

NEW YORK G@lorld

Get inside your . we

Keep young offenders near home?

Mixed reactions greet Cuomo plan for juvenile lawbreakers

by Eddie Small
The New York World

Two of Euphemia Adams’
sons have been through New
York City’s juvenile justice sys
tem, Based on the nature of the
boys’ charges, which included
assault and robbery, both were
placed in facilities upstate —
well over 100 miles from their
home in Staten Island.

“Thad to take the bus to the
ferry, ferry to the train, and then
I went to Metro North and had to
take another train up to visit.”
their mother recalled recently.
“When the kids are upstate, it
takes more time to get to visit
them than you have to actually
be with them.”

One of her sons made it out
and is now a stay-at-home dad
with two children of his own.
Another ended up heading back
into crime, and to adult prison.
Adams can’t help but wonder: had
the second son been housed in a
facility closer to home, would he
have had a much better chance at
rehabilitation?

New York State appears set to
embark on an experiment to find
out. Following years in which
New York City’s juvenile offend-
ers were sent upstate for rehabili-
tation, only to fall back into
crime, Gov. Cuomo’s executive
budget for fiscal year 2013
includes a proposal to keep New
York City’s young detainees near
their families. If approved by the
Legislature, the governor's plan
would give the city the authority
to stop sending juvenile offenders
upstate, as long as the courts
determine they don’t need to be
placed in a secure facility.

For years, the recidivism rate
among the city’s juveniles has

vexed the agencies and advocates
that try to help them. Approxi-
y residents at
any time are detained in facilities
erated by the New York State
e of Children and Family
Services, the majority of them
located upstate, in towns where
the facilities serve as important
sources of employment.

As the city seeks nonprofit
organizations to run non-secure
facilities in the five boroughs,
unions representing workers at the
state-run facilities are pushing
back. They contend the city is not
in a position to provide either the
services or security that sent juve-
niles offenders hundreds of miles
from home in the first place.

Members of two of the state’s
labor unions — the Civil Service,

popes Association and the
‘ublic Emplo: ition —
say the Cuomo plan, known as
Close to Home, suffers from
lack of clear strategy. Together,
the unions represent approxi-
mately 5,000 OCFS employees,
and members could lose hun-
dreds of jobs.

Representatives maintained
that employment losses were not
their main concern. “The issue is
whether or not this is good public
policy,” said Stephen Madarasz,
director of communications for
the Civil Service Employees
Union. “In the case of this pro-
posal, there is no plan. There's
really no plan explaining how this
is going to work. It’s just a con-
cept that they're going to do.”

Taurina Carpenter of the Public
ederation put the
n more. strongly.
“They're putting the community
at risk. They’re putting the kids at
risk.” she said, referring to the

© 2012 QUEENS CHRONICLE (NORTHERN QUEENS EDITION}

Al Rights Reserved,

Cuomo administration. “These
kids are way more difficult to
handle than they know.”

Indeed, juvenile offenders are
typically sent upstate for one of
two main reasons: They have
either been charg A with a de:
nated felony — a legal term
encompassing Gea crimes such
as murder, kidnapping. and arson
— or the courts have decided that
they need services best offered by
upstate facilities, such as drug
abuse programs or a high level of
mental health servic

According to
Pittman, whose son was sent
upstate to the Tryon juvenile jus-

acility when he was 12,

S n leave much
to be ‘desired. There was no
type of support from the staff”
she said. “They just made the
kids feel dow

Avery Irons, director of Youth
Justice Programs for the Chil-
dren’s Defense Fund in New
York. agreed that state services
have not always lived up to their
promise. “The point of the
OCFS facilities was to have a
greater level of security but also
a greater level of service for kids
that have higher needs,” she said.
“They've for many years failed
in that mandate, but they are try-
ing to reform now.”

It might be too late.

Close to Home seeks to reboot
a system that currently sees 89
percent of boys and 81 percent of
girls who have been released
from a state facility get rearrest-
ed by their 28th birthday,
according to the New York State
Juvenile Justice Advisory Group
The advisory group noted that
Ohio, Hlinois and California, as
well as Michigan’s Wayne Coun-

Account: 23070 (11823)
Ny-esae

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 1 of 2
QUEENS CHRONICLE (NORTHERN oe
QUEENS EDITION)

Location:
Circulation (OMA):
Type (Frequency):
Page:

Keyword:

Thursday, February 23, 2012
REGO PARK, NY

160,000 (1)

Newspaper (W)

10

CSEA

ty, home to Detroit, are among
the states and localities that have
witnessed a reduction in crime
and recidivism after shifting their
juvenile justice system
centralized state-run facilities to
local continuums of care.”

“The general theory is people

- kids, in this case — are better
off close to home.” s
Jacobson, director of the
Institute of Justice, a nonprofit
reform organization. “When you
look at the results of the kids
who go up, who are not close to
home, this would have to be
pretty bad to be worse than that.
.. It's basically not mathemati-

cally possible.”

A plan for keeping juvenile
offenders within the city will not
emerge until the Close to Home
ation has passed, according
to Tia Waddy, a spokeswoman for
the city’s Administration for Chil-
dren’s Servi which oversees
juvenile detention for the city.
However, during a forum at The
New School in Manhattan on Feb.
2, agency Commissioner Ron
Richter expressed strong support
for the proposal.

id Richter, “I don’t think that
you can for a moment not stop
and cherish the opportunity to
have New York City’s youth

moved hundreds of miles south to
actually be confined — when
neces — in locations that are
just miles away from their moth-
ers and fathers and siblings to be
rehabilitated.” 2]

rT)
Thess kids are way
more difficult to
handle than they
know.”

— Taurina Carpenter,
Public Employees Federation

This article is published under the Queens
Chronicle’s new partnership with The New York
World, which produces accountability journalism
devoted to deepening public understanding of the
ways city and state government shape life in New
York City. The New York World is published by

© 2012 QUEENS CHRONICLE (NORTHERN QUEENS EDITION}

Al Rights Reserved,

Account: 23070 (11823)
Ny-esae

Columbia Journalism School, and named for
school founder Joseph Pulitzer’s groundbreaking
newspaper of the same name. Reporters are gradu-
ates of the Journalism School, on year-long post-
graduate appointments. Their work is published
online at TheNew York World.com.

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 2 of 2
SYOSSET-JERICHO TRIBUNE (NYC P* Sfday, February 17, 2012

Location:

Circulation (DMA): 3,000 (1)
MARKET'AREA) Type Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: 5

Keyword: CSEA

Town Requests
Donations for
Soldier Collection Drive

The Town of Oyster Bay is participating in a Soldier
Collection Drive in an effort to gather needed supplies to
be sent to the men and women serving overseas and is ask-
ing residents to help support the drive. This is the fifth year
the town is participating in this collection drive.

“Last year, town residents, with the assistance of the
CSEA, donated more than 2,000 pounds of much-needed
supplies,” Councilman Macagnone stated. “This year, with
residents’ support, we hope to surpass that amount.”

Anyone interested in donating to the collection drive
may drop off items at Town Hall North in Oyster Bay;
Department of Public Works (CSEA entrance) in Syos-
set; Town Hall South in Massapequa; and at the Town
of Oyster Bay Ice Skating Center at Bethpage Commu-
nity Park. The collection drive will end on Wednesday,
Feb, 29.

Items needed include: antibiotic & cortisone ointments,
white crew socks, Visine, athletic T-shirts (black or brown
only), Pepto Bismol tablets, national phone cards,
Tylenol/Advil, uld cell phoncs (without chargers please),
Band-Aids, peanut butter, deodorant, cereal, powder, mi-
crowave pastas & soups, Mach 3 razors, GNC protein
shakes, mouthwash, tuna fish (pre-mixed packs), Chap-
stick, nuts, body wash, chip/dip (cans), feminine products,
gummi bears, baby wipes, lollipops/hard candy/mints,
empty shoe boxes, beef jerky and flea & tick collars (sol-
diers use them to repel fleas)

For more information on the collection drive call (516)
624-6618.

Page 1 of 1

© 2012 SYOSSET-JERICHO TRIBUNE [NYC MARKET AREA}
All Rights Reserves,

‘Account: 23070 (11750)
Nv-661

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
Date: Friday, February 17, 2012
Location: NEW YORK, NY
Circulation (OMA): 26,418 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: ALAS

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

For First Year, Anyway

Start-Up Costs for Tier 6
Outweigh Early Savings

By MARK TOOR

Governor Cuomo says his Tier 6 pen-
sion proposal will save the state bil-
lions down the road, but if it passes the
Legislature the state will lose money
on it as soon as it’s implemented.

Mr. Cuomo’s plan does not mention
start-up costs, according to a Feb. 7
statement by State Comptroller
Thomas P. DiNapoli’s office that ac-
companied its analysis of Mr. Cuomo’s
budget. Mr. DiNapoli’s actuaries esti-
mated the state would spend between
$7 million and $16 million setting up
the new tier. “The cost for implemen-
tation for local governments has not
been calculated,” the statement said.

‘No Immediate Savings’

Union officials said that means the
plan, for the first year anyway, would
wind up costing the state money rather
than conserving it. “It will cost far more
than it saves because there’s no imme-
diate savings from the new tier,” said
Stephen Madarasz, a spokesmansforthe
Civil Service Employees Association.

He said the disparity underscored
the CSEA‘s message: “on this budget,
what you see is not what you get.”

“We agree the costs would outweigh
any Potential savings (of which there
would be none in the beginning),”
Darcy Wells, a spokeswoman for the
Public Employees Federation, said in
an e-mail.

Mr. DiNapoli, joined by legislative
leaders, also questioned budget provi-
sions Mr. Cuomo’s opponents de-
scribed as a power grab, allowing him
to move money around without leg-
islative approval.

‘Minimal Impact on Spike’

The Comptroller’s analysis also
said that the Tier 6 proposal “would
have minimal impact on the spike in

rates caused by investment losses
from the near-collapse of the finan-
cial-services sector in the Great Re-
cession in 2008 and 2009.”

In 2009, the state’s Common Retire-
ment Fund lost $40 billion. Because
gains and losses are averaged over a
period of several years, the state and
municipalities have been required to

put in additional money to make up
for it.

‘The rising pension bills in a time of
declining tax revenue and Federal aid
put the state and municipalities in a
difficult position—one that is not re-
lieved by the fact that state and mu-
nicipal contributions were minimal or
nonexistent when investments per-
formed better. But the savings from
Tier 6 won’t be meaningful until well
after the spike has passed.

The proposed plan would charge

(Continued on Page 9)

workers a greater percentage of their
pay to fund pensions that would be cal-
culated more conservatively. It would
exclude overtime from final-average-
salary calculations and raise the re-
tirement age to 65. For the first time,
it would offer employees the choice be-
tween the traditional defined-benefit
plan and a 401(k)-style defined-contri-
bution plan. The plan would cover both
state and New York City workers.

“Both the proposed defined-benefit
and defined-contribution plan would
also reduce retirement security for fu-
ture workers,” the Comptroller's analy-
sis says. Mr. DiNapoli has been a de-
fender of the current pension system,
saying that it is adequately funded
and that 401(k)s are too risky.

He also criticized sections of the
budget that he said would reduce
oversight by his office and by the
State Legislature.

“The proposed budget includes lan-
guage that would allow the executive to
move spending authority from one agen-
cy to another with minimal oversight, or
legislative input, and without regard to
the original intent of the funding in the
enacted budget as approved by the
Legislature,” statement said. “Also,
public authorities would be authorized
to transfer monies to any other public
authority as long as the transfer is ap-
proved by their governing board.

Warns of Unbridled Discretion

“This raises the possibility that an
authority could use monies generated
for one program or purpose, such as
tolls intended for highway or bridge
maintenance, for an entirely unrelat-
ed purpose,” it continued.

‘Account: 23070 (11738)
Nyaa

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Location: NEW YORK, NY
Circulation (OMA): 26,418 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: ALAS

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© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

He also questioned initiatives “in-
tended to improve government efficien-
cy...that also reduce transparency, ac-
countability and oversight. For exam-
ple, the executive proposes to exempt
agency contracts from the State Comp-
troller’s review and approval...The
Comptroller's Office ensures that con-
tracts are awarded fairly and openly
and are the best value for taxpayers.”

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver and State Senate Majority
Leader Dean Skelos also indicated
they had problems with the provi-
sions Mr. DiNapoli said would reduce
oversight. “We have concerns about
the specific language contained in the
proposal,” Mr. Silver said in a state-
ment. He told the Albany Times Union
that the Legislature needs to have a
say in any reallocation of funds.

“Talk to Us Before Changing’

“I believe when we appropriate and
make a decision jointly with the Gov-
ernor, money should be spent a cer-
tain way, that’s the way it should be
spent,” Mr. Skelos said. “If the Gover-
nor thinks it would be more efficient
to spend it another way or another di-
rection, then come back to the Legis-
lature and we'll work it out.”

State Sen. Liz Krueger, during hear-
ings on the budget last month, said

she was disturbed by the provision. “I
have a great fear that this paragraph
actually goes far, far beyond even the
court-case interpretation of the consti-
tutional authority of the Legislature
vs. the executive,” she said.

Mr. Cuomo told reporters in Syra-
cuse Feb. 8 that he was speaking for
the people and that the lawmakers
who oppose his proposals just want to
keep the status quo. “I'he Albany
politicians created this system. ’'m
trying to change it,” he said. “They're
trying to protect it.”

GOVERNOR CUOMO:
‘Speaking for the people.’

THOMAS P. DiNAPOLI:
skeptic about Tier 6.

Account: 23070 (11738)
Nyv-a25,

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 2 of 2
The Post-Journal =<...

Type (Frequency):
Page:
Keyword: CSEA

Thursday, February 16, 2012
JAMESTOWN, NY

15,168 (49)

Newspaper (D)

ALAS

Union,
County
Still
Fighting

By Gis SNYDER
editorial @post-journal.com

DUNKIRK — Neither Rose
Conti, CSEA Chautauqua County
resident, or County Executive
g Edwards are backing down-in
the war of words over the CSEA’s
stalled contract negotiations with
the county.

On Wednesday, Rose Conti,
CSEA Chautauqua County presi-
dent, called some of County Exec-
utive Greg Edwards’ recent
remarks about Conti mischaracteri-
zations that were unprofessional,
unwarranted and unfair. According
to the CSEA, Edwards blamed
Conti for the failed contract talks
while not telling the whole story.
In addition, the release said the
CSEA met with its membership
Monday to ‘present the facts.”

Conti said the union began the
talks by asking union members for
their input and then bringing those
reese to the negotiating table.
While Conti said the 5 percent
taise broached by Edwards was
accurate at the beginning of negoti-
ations, there was a reason for the
union’s position. The CSEA Chau-
tauqua County Unit represents
1,000 county workers in many
general positions in the county
ranging from laborers to supervi-
sors.

© 2012 POST-JOURNAL
All Rights Reserves,

“Tf you bring everything you can
think of then you have room to
compromise,” she explained. “It’s
just unfair that if we truly want to

ring the public into this then we
need to let them know where we're
at with February information, not
information from August.”

Edwards said the starting offer
from the union was a five-year
contract with 5 percent increases,
more than the existing minimum of
40 days off with pay each year,
with senior CSEA getting more
than 50 days off with pay, a $1
increased shift differential and
other increased benefits and a guar-
antee of no layoffs. Those
demands, Edwards said, would
total a 30-percent increase in base
pay over the four-year contract.

See CSEA, Page A3

“The fact that they negoti-
ated off that position just
shows how out of touch it
was with the hard-working,
private-sector taxpayers, and
my non-union county
employees who have had
three straight years of zero
increases and are paying
more for their health insur-
ance,” Edwards said.

According to the CSEA, it
tried in October to complete
the contract to maximize
health insurance savings. Its
proposal called for a two-
year contract saving the
county $1.7 million while
agreeing to no wage increas-
es, no step increases, no
increase in longevity and an
increase to the cost of the
prescription plan. The union
Says it aj to the county’s
request for a high-deductible
health plan as an option for
the membership. CSEA
asked in return for the coun-
ty to agree to no layoffs — a
provision similar to the new
state contract, Conti said.

Edwards countered by

Account: 23070 (11742)
Nvid

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

saying the initial offer from
the CSEA amounted to a 30
percent increase in base pay
over the four-year contract.
He said Conti’s claims of
$1.7 million in savings from
the union offer would be
achieved by not pressing for
step increases and longevit
pay which nets workers a
percent increase each of their
first nine years and a 2 per-
cent bonus every year after
that — both of which take
effect even if there are no
pay raises.

“The undeniable facts are
that the payroll for CSEA
members is geproximatel
$42 million dollars eac
year. With the expected 18
percent increase in the cost
of the CSEA pension, and a
10 percent increase in the
CSEA health insurance, the
taxpayers are shelling out
over $2.7 million more in
2012 than 2011 just for
those two benefits for CSEA
members,” Edwards said.
“The result is that the tax-
payers were going to be
asked to pay $1 million
more with the CSEA pro-
posed deal and what Rose
leaves out is that there were
many more terms that were
not settled. Further, with just
a two-year deal we would be
right back to negotiating
next year for another con-
tract for 2014 and beyond.”

In the news release, the
union says it agreed to the
four-year length of a new
contract at the final bargain-
ing session on Feb. 1 as well
as the county’s proposals on
sep increments, longevity,
sick bonus and prescription
cost. The union said it also

ed to soften the node
off guarantee request by ask-
ing instead for job security

Page 1 of 2
The Post-Journal =<...

Thursday, February 16, 2012
JAMESTOWN, NY

© 2012 POST-JOURNAL
All Rights Reserves,

15,168 (49)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: ALAS
Keyword: CSEA
ige in the contract.
“When you have a give
and take and you feel there is

still motion and movement
that’s one thing, but when
you feel you sit there and
there’s nothing left much to
give and they say ‘no we
don’t accept that,’ there’s no
where else to go,” she
explained. “You can’t nego-
tiate with yourself.”

Ed said he is model-
ing his goals for the CSEA’s
next contract on the deal
agreed to recently between

ov. Andrew Cuomo and
the CSEA that has no raises
for four years, seven days off
without pay’ and increases in
the employees’ health insur-
ance contributions. _

“What I want is similar to
what the state CSEA Presi-
dent Danny Donahue’ agreed
to with Gov. Cuomo: three
years of zero increases in
pay increased obligation by

EA members to pay for
their health insurance, and I
am not even demanding the
nine days off without pay
that every state CSEA work-
er is now obligated to as a
result of the state contract,”
Edwards said.

Account: 23070 (11742)
Nvid

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 2 of 2
: Date: Thursday, February 16, 2012
e al az ette Location: SCHENECTADY, NY
Circulation (OMA): 60,360 (58)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
Page: Ba
Keyword: CSEA

Donohue re-elected
as CSEA president

ALBANY — Civil Service Em-
ployees Association President Dan-
ny Donohue has been returned to
office without opposition.

Donohue has been president of
300,000-member CSEA, the largest
affiliate of the American Federation
of State County and Municipal Em-
ployees, since 1994.

Among his recent accomplish-
ments was CSEA becoming the
representative for more than 25,000
independent child care providers
across the state, under a new model
of union representation. Donohue
also significantly strengthened the
union’s role and influence in both
the AFL-CIO and AFSCME, where
he serves as an international vice
president, according to a news re-
lease.

“These are some of the toughest
times CSEA has faced in our 102-
year history, but there is only one
way to go and that is forward,” he
said in the news release. “I want
to thank CSEA members for their
confidence in my leadership.”

Also returned to office for four-
year terms without opposition were
Executive Vice President Mary E.
Sullivan and Statewide Secretary
Denise Berkley. Treasurer Joseph
McMullen was re-elected.

Locally, Capital Region CSEA
President Kathy Garrison easily
won re-election to a fourth term,
defeating challenger Liz Clark, 68
percent to 32 percent.

Only the regional presidency was
contested. Candidates for the of-
fices of executive vice president,
Ist 2nd and 3rd vice presidents,
secretary and treasurer ran unop-
posed.

Page 1 of 1

© 2012 DAILY GAZETTE
All Rights Reserves,

‘Account: 23070 (11743)
vers

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
OBSERVER

Date:
Location:

Circulation (OMA):

Type (Frequency):
Page:
Keyword:

Thursday, February 16, 2012
DUNKIRK, NY

83,300 (49)

Newspaper (D)

ALAS

CSEA

County
Exec’s
words stir
CSEA ire

By GIB SNYDER
‘OBSERVER City Editor

A tough job may have
just gotten more difficult.

The mediator who will be
assigned the task of bringing
the positions of CSEA
Chautauqua County
President Rose Conti and
County Executive Greg
Edwards to some sort of
compromise will have a job
that just may be growing
tougher by the day.

The CSEA issued a
release Wednesday calling
some of Edwards’ recent
remarks about Conti mis-
characterizations that were
unprofessional, unwarrant-
ed and unfair.

According to the CSEA,
Edwards blamed Conti for
the failed contract talks, but
he picked his facts and did
not tell the whole story. In
addition, the release said
the CSEA met with its mem-
bership Monday to ‘present
the facts.’

What is fact is negotia-
tions began in August and
the union’s initial proposal
called for a 5 percent annual
increase in wages. After
that, the dispute begins.

CSEA’s TAKE
“Before we begin negotia-
tions we ask all our mem-
bers for input and we bring
everything to the table as a
starting point,” Conti said.
“This offers us the widest

© 2012 OBSERVER
All Rights Reserves,

variety of ideas and options
possible as we proceed. If it
is not on the table we can-
not discuss it.”

See CSEA, Page A6

While Conti said the 5 percent
figure was accurate at the begin-
ning of negotiations, there was a
reason for the union’s position.

“If you bring everything you
can think of then you have room
to compromise,” she explained.
“It’s just unfair that if we truly
want to bring the public into this
then we need to let them know
where we're at with February
information, not information from
August.”

According to the CSEA, it made
an attempt in October to complete
the contract to maximize health
insurance savings. Its proposal
called for a 2-year contract saving
the county $1.7 million and
agreed to no wage increases, no
step increases, no increase in
longevity and an increase to the
cost of the prescription plan. The
union also agreed to the county’s
request for a high-deductible
health plan as an option for the
membership. CSEA asked in
return for the county to agree to
no layoffs — a provision very sim-
ilar to the new state contract.

The CSEA claims Edwards was
not interested in a two-year con-

tract despite the savings to the
county. The union believes that
this was done for purely political
reasons and that Edwards did not
want the contract to expire in a
year that his position would be up
for re-election.

The union claims at the final
negotiation session on Feb. 1 it
agreed to a four-year contract and
the county's proposals on incre-
ments, longevity, sick bonus and
prescription cost. The union said
it also agreed to soften the no-lay-
off guarantee request by asking
instead for job security language
in the contract.

According to the CSEA, it was
willing to continue to negotiate and

offer more ideas to save the county
money but the county was not
interested in having the additional
savings in 2012. At that point, the
union felt no further progress could
be made without assistance of a
third-party mediator.

Conti said the mediator was a
necessity from the union’s posi-
tion. .
“When you have a give and take
and you feel there is still motion
and movement that’s one thing,

but when you feel you sit there
and there’s nothing much left to
give and they say ‘no we don’t
accept that,’ there’s no where else
to go,” she explained. “You can’t
negotiate with yourself.”

EDWARDS’ TAKE

“I simply do not believe their
statement that they ‘ask all our
members for input,’ because that
means a majority of the 934 CSEA
members in Chautauqua County
asked for a 5-year contract with 5
percent increases, more than the
existing minimum of 40 days off
with pay each year, with senior
CSEA getting over 50 days off
with pay, a $1.00 increased shift
differential and other increased
benefits and a guarantee of no lay-
offs,” Edwards said. “The fact that
they negotiated off that position
just shows how out of touch it was
with the hard-working, private-
sector taxpayers, and my non-
union county employees who have
had three straight years of zero
increases and are paying more for
their health insurance.”

Edwards added it was under-
standable why CSEA leaders

wanted to get the focus off their
demands which included a 30 per-
cent increase in base pay over 4
four-year contract. He pointed out
Conti’s claims of $1.7 million in
savings from the union offer
would be achieved by not pressing
for STEP increases and longevity
pay which nets workers a 2 per-
cent increase each of their first
nine years and a 2 percent bonus
every year after that — both

Account: 23070 (11740)
N¥-190)

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 1 of 2
OBSERVER

Date:
Locatie

Thursday, February 16, 2012
ion: DUNKIRK, NY

Circulation (DMA): 83,300 (49)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
ALAS

Page:

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 OBSERVER
All Rights Reserves,

before any negotiated raises.
“The undeniable facts are that
the payroll for CSEA members is
approximately $42 million dollars
each year. With the expected 18
percent increase in the cost of the
CSEA pension, and a 10 percent
increase in the CSEA health insur-
ance, the taxpayers are shelling
out over $2.7 million more in
2012 than 2011 just for those two
benefits for CSEA members,”
Edwards explained. “The result is
that the taxpayers were going to
be asked to pay $1 million more
with the CSEA proposed deal and
what Rose leaves out is that there
were many more terms that were
not settled. Further, with just a
two-year deal we would be right

back to negotiating next. year for
another contract for 2014 and
beyond.”

Edwards said Conti’s claims of
politics being involved aren’t true.

“What I want is similar to what
the state CSEA President Danny
Donahue agreed to with Gov.
Cuomo: three years of zero
increases in pay; increased obliga-
tion by CSEA members to pay for
their health insurance, and I am
not even demanding the nine days
off without pay that every state
CSEA worker is now obligated to
as a result of the state contract,”
Edwards stated. “I continue to be
pleased that the CSEA leaders
continue to want to talk about
their demands in the press. The
hard-working, tax-paying people
of Chautauqua County should
know what we currently offer to
union workers represented by the
CSEA and the additional demands
they are making.”

What is certain one way or the
other, county taxpayers will not
see their tax bills go down.

Send comments on this story to
gsnyder@observertoday.com

“When you have a
give and take and
you feel there is
still motion and
movement that’s
one thing, but
when you feel you
sit there and
there’s nothing
much left to give
and they say ‘no
we don’t accept
that,’ there’s no
where else to go.
You can’t negoti-
ate with yourself.”
CSEA Chautauqua

County President
Rose Conti

Account: 23070 (11740)
N¥-190)

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Page 2 of 2
Th D il G tt Costin’ ScHENECTAO NY,
e al Vv azette Girulation (OMA): 60360 (55)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
Page: 13
Keyword: CSEA

Page 1 of 1

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Al Rights Reserved,

‘Account: 23070 (11741)
Nvez3

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
LEADER

Date:
Location:
Circulation (OMA):
Type (Frequency):
Page:

Keyword:

Monday, February 13, 2012
CORNING, NY

13,585 (173)

Newspaper (D)

2

CSEA

Wheatcraft to retire after
40 years at city DPW

BY JEFFERY SMITH
jsmith@the-leader.com

CORNING | Terry
Wheatcraft, long-time
fleet service manager of
the Corning City Public
Works Dept., is retiring
after 40 years of service.

Wheatcraft, 63, said
much has happened
since he was hired in
October 1971.

“After I got out of the
Army, where I served as a
helicopter mechanic,
unemployment called me
and told me to take a civil
service test fora mechan-
ic position at the city of
Corning,” Wheatcraft
said. “I took the test, was
hired and have been here
ever since.”

Wheatcraft was hired
as a mechanics assistant,
was promoted to
mechanic the next year,
garage foreman in 1975
and then named fleet
service manager in 1995.

“T've really enjoyed
what I’ve been doing for
so long,” Wheatcraft
said. “That's the reason
I’ve stayed here so long.
Every day is different. 1
will miss the people that
1 work with.”

Mechanics Emie *
Horton and Brent LaBar
said Wheatcraft will be
missed.

“We'll miss everything
about him,” said Horton,
a 21-year member of the
department. “I’ve worked
with him for a long time
and he’s been just great
to work for.”

LaBar said Wheatcraft’s
sense of humor is often

© 2012 LEADER
All Rights Reserved,

just as important to the
success of the garage

as his leadership and
dedication.

Wheatcraft, who
served on and off as
CSEA union officer, said
the thing he will miss
the least is the politics.

“It’s just getting too
political,” Wheatcraft said.
“Too many people want
to tell you exactly how
to run your operation.”

City Manager Mark
Ryckman said the city
will hire someone to
replace Wheatcraft, but
the exact position title
has not been determined.

Account: 23070 (11814)
NVTa

Page 1 of 2

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Date: Monday, February 13, 2012
LEADER Location: CORNING, NY

Circulation (OMA): 13,585 (173)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)

Page:

Keyword: CSEA

ERIC WENSEL | THE LEADER
Fleet Service Manager Terry Wheatcraft will retire from his post at the end
of the month.

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 LEADER
Al Rights Reserved,
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For roprinis or rights, please contact the publisher
TIMES UNION = =

Date: Saturday, February 11, 2012
Location: ALBANY, NY
Circulation (DMA): 66,835 (56)

Type (Frequency):
CSEA

Newspaper (0)
13

Group

homes
hiring

staff

Jobs campaign is launched
to fill hundreds of openings
in state and private sites

By Rick Karlin

ALBANY — State agencies may be
in a consolidation mode, but at least
one office is listing between 150 and
250 job openings at any given time.

The state Office for People With
Developmental Disabilities has
launched a campaign that appeals
to the altruistic instincts of potential
direct-care workers to get the best
people for a difficult job.

The vacancies are for the front-
line employees of state and privately
run centers for the disabled. Direct-
care workers tend to the needs of the
state’s most vulnerable and helpless
New Yorkers, often providing round-
the-clock care.

The jobs are tough and the pay isn’t
great — a unionized state job starts at
around $33,000 — with private organi-
zations often paying less.

The new recruitment drive is em-
phasizing the friendships that caregiv-
ers develop with those they serve as
well as the rewards of helping people
in need and their families.

© 2012 TIMES UNION
All Rights Reserves,

‘To reach more applicants, the office
has put a video on You Tube featuring
people who work both in state-run
and private facilities.

In addition, the office has combined
a listing of job openings in state-run
and private centers on its web page,
www.opwdd.ny.gov.

“Even when we've had to reduce
the overall size of the workforce, we’re
still in a constant state of recruitment,”
Please see JOBS A3 >
office spokesman Travis Proulx
said.

OPWDD is one of the state’s
major employers with about
22,000 people on the payroll
at dozens of centers and group
homes where disabled people live.

Of the 22,000 workers, about
17,000 are involved in direct care.

Add the privately run not-for-
profit centers which are regulated
by the office and the workforce
totals about 100,000 people.

Of the 150 to 250 direct-care
openings at any given time, Proulx
said, there are about 50 such jobs
with state-operated facilities. State
applicants must take and pass a
civil service test. The rest of the
positions are in private centers.

Combining the two job listings
in a “jobs bank” on one website
is part of a push by OPWDD to
centralize and simplify the process
of acquiring staff.

It also comes as some of the
functions traditionally carried out
by state employees are being shift-
ed to not-for-profit organizations.

Currently, OPWDD is divided
among regional centers.

While each region had histori-

‘Account: 23070 (11700)
NVI

cally set its own hiring standards
the agency has recently central-
ized that function.

The changes have started since
OPWDD’s new Commissioner
Courtney Burke took over last
year with a mandate from Gov.
Andrew Cuomo to overhaul the
agency. She came to the post as
the organization was reeling from
a series in The New York Times
revealing cases of patient abuse at
some centers and group homes.

Burke has pushed to upgrade
hiring standards including screen-
ing potential employees for crimi-
nal records.

Relations with the agency’s
state workers union, Civil Service
Employees Association, have been
uneasy amid these changes.

While the union has fought ef-
forts to get rid of bad employees,
union members have also com-
plained of poor management deci-
sions. They’ve even outlined some
of their complaints on a video on
the union’s website, http://www.
csealocall000.org

Some of the tension may be
evident in how the video was pro-
duced. In the video of direct-care
workers, those who work at private
centers are identified while those
at state-run facilities are not.

Proulx cited privacy concerns
but CSEA officials aren’t con-
vinced of the claim.

“Tt would appear to be an un-
intentional slight,” CSEA spokes-
man Stephen Madarasz said.

> rkarlin@timesunion.com = 518-
454-5758

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1A,3A

Keyword: CSEA

Judge rules
union wins
challenge to
residency law

Parties have differing
interpretations of ruling

B Utica Mayor Robert
@ Palmieri said he
) FOF] doesn’t yet know
\ 2) whether the city will
appeal the ruling.

BY DAN MINER
dminer@uticaod.com

UTICA - If a state law
judge’s recent judgment
stands, city employees hired
before Jan. 1, 2009, will not
be subject to the city's resi-
dency law and can live wher-
ever they want.

City residents overwhelm-
ingly approved the law in a
2008 vote, but it has been a
subject of controversy since
then.

At issue: Whether those
hired before the law went
into effect are grandfathered
in, and can move to and live
wherever they want.

Consecutive administra-
tions — formerly of Mayor
David Roefaro and now of

© 2012 OBSERVER DISPATCH
Al Rights Reserved,

Mayor Robert Palmieri -
have maintained the law
applies equally to all city
employees.

But three city unions —cov-
ering employees from City
Hall to the public works and
police departments - see it
differently and have filed
separate challenges to the
law.

In a Feb. 3 decision, state
administrative law judge
Nancy Burritt sided with the
unions, saying a previous
residency law from 1984 was
enforced rarely and that the
city violated state law by try-
ing to apply a new law to
employees who already
worked for the city.

Burritt’s decision was a
response to the challenge of
one union — CSEA — but
addresses all city employ-
ees.

“T imagine it would have to
govern everybody,” said
Steve Price, the CSEA presi-
dent. “I can't see how they
could just rule in favor of
one party and not the other.”

What does it mean? The
pieces have yet to fall into
place.

City First Assistant Corpo-
ration Counsel Charles
Brown said he believes the
decision simply mandates the
city negotiate with the unions
before it enforces the law.

PLEASE SEE JUDGE, 3A

He said a previous deci-
sion on the public works

Account: 23070 (11701)
NY-708,

Teamster’s challenge
came down in the city’s
favor. The O-D could not
obtain that decision
Thursday, and Teamster’s
union President Timothy
Hogan could not be
reached for comment.

Palmieri said he does-
n't yet know whether the
city will appeal or try to
negotiate with the unions.
He said a decision will be
made after the last chal-
lenge — from the police
union — is resolved.

Sgt. Dominick Nitti,
president of the John E.
Creedon Police Benevo-
lent Association, said the
recent news was “encour-
aging for our union.”

“We're more positive
now than before,” he said.

ATA GLANCE

™ City unions have argued
with mayoral administrations
and the Common Council
about how the city residency
law, approved by referen-
dum in 2008, affects city
employees who were hired
before the law took effect.

mA state administrative law
judge recently came down
on the side of the unions.

™ Mayor Robert Palmieri said
he will await the pending
results of all the union chal-
lenges before making a deci-
sion on how to proceed. The
City could appeal the deci-
sions or attempt to negotiate

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

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Location: NEW YORK, NY
Circulation (OMA): 25,258 (1)

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Page: 243

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

CSEA Nonprofit Pact:
2-Year Pay Freeze,

Reopener in Year 3

By MARK TOOR

The Civil Service Employees Asso-
ciation announced last week that it
had negotiated a contract on behalf of
1,500 members employed by Health
Research Inc., a nonprofit, affili-
ated with the state Department of
Health, that freezes wages for two
years but makes no changes to
health-insurance premiums or other
health-care provisions.

HRI is affiliated with DOH and the
Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buf-
falo. It provides fund-raising services
and helps disseminate scientific ex-
pertise from Roswell Park, a leading
cancer-research center. The unit also
covers administrative, clerical and

(Continued on Page 13)
scientific staff members at other loca-
tions, including DOH headquarters at
the Corning Tower in Albany.

‘Quite an Accomplishment’

“The contract maintains all the fi-
nantial benefits our members toid us
were important to them,” CSEA Pres-
ident Danny Donohue said in a state-
ment Jan. 30. “That is quite an accom-
plishment in times such as these.”

The proposed four-year contract,
which must be ratified by members,
includes a wage freeze for the current
fiscal year and for 2012-13, but speci-
fies that negotiations can be reopened
to determine whether a salary in-
crease will be given in 2013-14. It con-
tains a raise on April 1, 2014 of at least
1 percent, depending on what the pre-
vious year’s increase was, if any.

CSEA spokesman Stephen Madarasz
said the HRI contract, which was nego-
tiated with officials of the nonprofit, was
not comparable to the CSEA state con-
tract, which was negotiated with the
Cuomo administration. The five-year
CSEA contract ratified last year includ-
ed a three-year wage freeze, nine un-
paid furlough days and substantial in-
creases in health-care premiums.

He noted that the wage reopener in
the third year “could go either way,”
depending on the economy.

Transit Benefits Improved
The proposed contract keeps the

downstate adjustment—an additional
payment given to employees who live

in the more-expensive New York City
area—the same, the union said in a
press release. Tuition-reimbursement

ding also remains unchanged. The
tentative contract would extend pre-
tax transportation-account benefits
from New York City workers to those
across the state, and the benefits now
include parking as well as mass-tran-
sit expenses.

No date was set for a ratification
vote as of last week. Mr. Madarasz said
the contract most likely will not be re-
leased publicly until after the vote.

Account: 23070 (11696)
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Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

CSEA: Cop Shooting
Shows Problem With
Not Holding Juveniles

By MARK TOOR

Responding to the shooting of a
NYPD Police Officer allegedly by a
former resident of a state juvenile
center, the Civil Service Employees
Association scored Governor Cuomo’s
plans to send more juvenile offenders
to community-based programs rather
than upstate detention centers.

“There are real public-safety con-
cerns that need to be addressed here,”
CSEA President Danny Donohue said
in a statement Feb. 2. “It makes no
sense whatsoever to put these felons—
violent, repeat offenders—back into
the very neighborhoods where they
got into trouble in the first place.”

One Bullet Behind the Ear

The officer, Kevin Brennan, 29, was
shot once in the head by Luis Ortiz,
21, during a struggle at the Bushwick
Houses in Brooklyn Jan. 31, authori-
ties said. Officer Brennan and two
plainclothes colleagues from the
Brooklyn North Anti-Crime Unit were
responding to a man-with-a-; call.
After Officer Brennan tackled him,
Mr. Ortiz “managed to get his gun
hand free and shoot Brennan at point-
blank range behind his right ear,” said
NYPD spokesman Paul J. Browne.

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Com-
missioner Raymond W. Kelly said the
officer, the father of a six-week-old
daughter, was lucky that the damage
was not more extensive. Officer Bren-
nan was in stable condition at the end
of last week but faces several weeks
in the hospital.

“He’s doing very well,” said Patrol-
men’s Benevolent Association Presi-
dent Patrick J. Lynch. “He’s up and
he’s doing therapy, which is going to
be extremely hard for him..He’s a
strong kid and doing well.” Officer
Brennan had passed the Sergeant's
test and .was.waiting for. promotion.

‘Mr. Ortiz, who nas a record of 14
drug-arrests;jeered? at photographers
as he was led out of the precinct, say-
ing, “Yeah, take a picture of me.” Then,
in Spanish, he shouted, “I love the
Latin Kings.”

‘Could Have Had Time Extended’

He had been a resident of the

Goshen Secure Center. “It appears
that Ortiz was released by the NYS

(Continued on Page 8)

Office of Children and Family Ser-
vices when his time was served, even
though he was in the county jail on
assault charges after an altercation
with staff and could have had his
time extended by the agency,” CSEA
said.

Keeping Juveniles Close to Home

In his budget announcement last
month, Mr. Cuomo said he would al-
low more youths who would normally
be sent to upstate facilities to remain
in their downstate homes and be
treated by city employees and com-
munity programs. Mr. Bloomberg had
pushed for such a decision, saying the
state’s secure facilities had a poor
record of turning young people’s lives
around. The city and nonprofits could
do the job better—and cheaper—the
Mayor contended.

OCFS has had a serious internal
conflict for years. Commissioner
Gladys Carrién and her adherents
say that the vast majority of troubled
youth have mental or substance-
abuse problems and that the agency
needs to move from a prison-like mod-
el to a treatment model. On the other
side, many long-term employees and
their unions say that community pro-
grams are not equipped to handle vi-
olent young people like Mr. Ortiz.

Pendulum Swung Too Far?

The U.S. Department of Justice crit-
icized OCFS for pervasive staff vio-
lence toward residents. But employ-
ees say that changes put in place to
rein in the staff have given residents
the upper hand and that injuries to
staffers from residents have in-
creased. At the Taberg Residential
Center in Oneida County, CSEA said,
18 of the 33 Youth Division Aides as-
signed there are on sick leave because
of injuries suffered in attacks by res-
idents.

Mr. Donohue said that if not for
their age, many youthful offenders in
secure facilities would be in prison.
“This rapid and reckless dumping of
violent individuals back onto the
streets is dangerous and irresponsible
and will continue to put unsuspecting
communities at risk,” he said.

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28

Keyword: CSEA

DANNY DONOHUE: ‘N
sense to send them back.’

Page 2 of 2

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Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

‘It Can't Be Done’

Nassau Cop Unions Decry
Plan to Cut 4 Precincts

By MARK TOOR

Nassau County police-union leaders
criticized a plan unveiled last week
that would turn half the county's eight
precincts into ey olicing
centers” that would be staffed by offi
cers but would not handle arrest pro-
cessing or most other police functions.

County Executive Edward P. Man-
gano said Jan. 30 that the plan, which
needs approval from the County Leg-
islature, would save “up to” $20 mi
lion out of the department’s $686-mil-
lion budget. The number of patrol cars
on the street would remain constant
at 177, he said, and 48 officers would
be transferred from desk jobs to Prob-
lem-Oriented Policing units where
they would deal with specific commu-
nity issues... |
‘You Can't Dp It’

unions: reed with the
this w Tot affect public
fety. “County.government, their pri-
mary responsibility is to protect the
people of Nassau County,” James
Carver, presiden of the Nassau Police
Benevolent Association, told News 12
Long Island. “You can’t do that while
youre eliminating buildings, elimi-
nating police patrols and you're elim-

ing evel ig. It cannot be done.”

It’s “all political,” Gary Learned,
president of the Superior Officers As-
sociation of Nassau County, told

sday. “The most they can do is
directions to the new precinct.”

Mr. Mangano said his plan would
éliminate a total of 100 civilian desk
jets at the four precincts that would

ome community-policing centers.
Two officers would be assigned to
each center at all times, the county
said. (That probably means a mini-
mum complement of eight officers per
center.) The consolidation plan would
reduce overtime, he said, because
each of the remaining four precincts
would have enough officers to easily

meet the minimum-manning’ provi-
sion in the PBA contract.

The First Precinct in Baldwin, the
Fifth Precinct in Elmont, the Sixth
Precinct in Manhasset and the Eighth
Precinct in Levittown would become
community-policing centers under
the plan. Most of their work would be

transferred to the four remaining
precincts: the Second in Woodbury,
the Third in Williston Park, the
Fourth in Hewlett and the Seventh in
Seaford (which would be renamed the
First Precinct).

“The choices were made'through a
scientific approach based on caseload
and geography,” the county said in-a
press release.

‘It’s Not Like the Movies’

“This plan saves taxpayers signifi-
cant dollars while streamlining du-
plicative work, redistributing work-

(Continued on Page 6)

load and assigning more officers to
POP and special patrol,” Police Com-
missioner Thomas V. Dale said in a
statement. “Nassau County police of-
ficers change shift at their post and
not at the stationhouses like you see
in the movies. Residents should know
that response time will not be impact-
ed as police officers will remain in
their current neighborhoods and ad-
ditional officers will be assigned to
our neighborhoods.”

Mr. Dale said the main reason res-
idents go to their precinct house is to
pick up copies of traffic-accident re-
ports, which will be available over the
Internet as well as at both precincts
and community centers.

But Mr. Carver gave the FIOS 1 ca-
ble-news station an example of crime
victims who would suffer if the
precincts are closed: “You have people
who are victims of domestic abuse
who will not call a police officer to
their house to report domestic abuse
if their spouse or the person that’s
abusing them is there in the house. So
they come to the station house to re-
port that crime.”

‘Stationhouses a Deterrent’

He continued, “Police stations are
also a deterrent. They show a visibil-
ity, a strength that law and order is
in full force here in Nassau County.”

Mr. Mangano has been trying to ad-
dress the county’s budget problems by

Account: 23070 (11694)
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Page: 16

Keyword: CSEA

squeezing workers represented by the
Civil Service Employees Association,
many of whom earn $30,000 to
$50,000. About 400 CSEA members
have been laid off. County police,
whose base pay is in the neighborhood
of $107,000, were protected from lay-
offs last year by union contract. It was
not clear whether Mr. Mangano’s
budget was depending on any uni-
formed layoffs.

JAMES CARVER: Less pro-
tection is inevitable.

EDWARD P: MANGANO:
Won’t cut patrol cars.

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

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For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
BROOKLYN EAGLE Date: Thursday, February 09, 2012

Location: BROOKLYN, NY
Circulation (OMA): 100,000 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: 12

Keyword: CSEA

State To Close
B’klyn 300-Bed
Psych Center

By Zach Campbell
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

EAST FLATBUSH — Many in Brooklyn
rely on Kingsboro Psychiatric Center for mental
health care, particularly those who live in East
Flatbush and the surrounding area. The facility
maintains an extensive outpatient care program,
as well as 300 beds for those that need long-term
psychiatric care. Kingsboro is the only mental
health facility in Brooklyn that takes long-term
patients, and within the next year it will be closed.

The Office of Mental Health (OMH), the

Please turn to page 2

state department responsible for managing New York mental
health facilities, posted notice last week that Kingsboro will
close, and that all of its inpatient beds for long-term psychiatric
patients will be moving to South Beach Psychiatric Center in
Staten Island. For Brooklyn residents without a car, this will
mean a two-hour combination of trains, buses and a ferry to
reach the care center.

“If you’re moving beds from a community where many resi-
dents are living below the poverty line, there is going to be a se-
vere need there,” said David Galarza, a spokesperson for the
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), a union repre-
senting some of Kingsboro’s employees. “Brooklyn is one of the
state’s largest consumers of mental health care — moving
Kingsboro is going to be devastating.”

The decision to close Kingsboro follows last year’s report by
the Medicaid Redesign Team: Brooklyn Work Group, an Al-
bany-based group that was asked by the Department of Health
(DOH) to help solve the economic woes and health care deliv-
ery problems of many of Brooklyn’s hospitals. The group rec-
ommended a drastic restructuring of health care delivery in
Brooklyn, including the merger of seven hospitals into three, and
the closing of Kingsboro.

“We're hoping this will provide more efficient services and
better-quality care — Medicaid Health Homes are a better way to
get more patients centered,” said a DOH spokesperson. Medicaid BROOKE" EAGLE
Health Homes are a decentralized version of inpatient care. = ee)

“We were looking for solutions to a dire situation,” he added.

Many state and city representatives have expressed their con-
cern with OMH’s decision, which, some have said, could take
effect in as little as two or three months.

“I understand the drive to restructure health care in Brook-
lyn,” said state Assemblywoman Rhoda Jacobs (D-
Flatbush/Midwood/Prospect Park South), “but this is a quality-
of-life issue, and it is wrong to ask people, many of whom are
severely ill, to go to Staten Island for care.”

Many nearby residents are also worried about the closing of
Kingsboro, said Terry Hines, chairman of Community Board 17.

“Many people here are not comfortable seeking services out-
side of the neighborhood — many are likely to just forego serv- Page 1 of 2
ices,” Hines said, adding that residents who are dependent on

© 2012 BROOKLYN EAGLE
Al Rights Reserved,

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BROOKLYN EAGLE

Date: Thursday, February 09, 2012

Location: BROOKLYN, NY
Circulation (OMA): 100,000 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: 12

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 BROOKLYN EAGLE
Al Rights Reserved,

Kingsboro have been frustrated by the OMH’s decision to close
the facility without community input. “It has gone through with-
out concern for the public.”

A spokesperson for the Office of Mental Health, Leesa
Rademacher, explained that the agency believes closing Kings-
boro will improve care in the borough, saying it will free up
money for outpatient clinic- and community-based care.

Rademacher added that OMH also hopes to minimize the
jobs impact of closing Kingsboro. “Our planning will consider
Kingsboro employees,” she said. “Specifically, many employees
will continue to work in community services and residential po-
sitions or be offered employment at South Beach.”

The Brooklyn delegation to the City Council will meet with
staff from DOH, OMH and Governor Cuomo’s office today in
hopes of slowing down or stopping the closure.

“Let’s slow down and make sure we do this right,” Assem-
blywoman Jacobs later said, adding that many are hoping for
more public involvement, and potentially to keep Kingsboro
open.

“[t’s a one-stop shop, and we need it,” she said.

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Wednesday, February 08, 2012
PLATTSBURGH, NY

17,708 (90)

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15

CSEA

Child-care providers upset by dues

Stipend payments to union irks
those who opted out of joining

By MIRANDA ORSO
Contributing Writer

PLATTSBURGH — Child-care
provider Connie Ouimette says
she is paying her dues unwill-
ingly.

Ouimette, who opened Shoot-
ing Stars Daycare of Platts-

burgh in 2006, says she is one
of many child-care providers in
the North Country who noticed
a deduction in their monthly
stipend from Clinton County
Social Services beginning in
January.

The stipend exists to cover
child-care costs for parents who

cannot afford
it on their own.
Ouimette said any
reduction in these
funds should be a
cause for concern

“After I did some
investigating, I realized the pay-
ments were being made to the
union,” she said. “I didn't remem-
ber anything about deductions or
union dues when we signed a new
contract (with Clinton County)
last year.”

Ouimette had been ap-
proached in the
past about becom-
ing a momber of
the relatively new
union, Voice of Or-
ganized Indepen-
dent Child Care

Educators (VOICE)/Civil Ser-
vice Employee Association but
opted not to join.

“I think people are confused.
I've reached out to over 110 of
the 160 child-care providers in
the area, and only four of them
were union members,” she said.
“If someone isn’t a member, then
why are they paying dues?”

According Jill Asencio, a CSEA
communications specialist, said

© 2012 PRESS-REPUBLICAN
Al Rights Reserved,

providers themselves wanted the
union created

“More than 4,000 signatures
were presented to the State
Employment Relations Board
in 2007 and then subsequently
VOICE/CSEA was certified due
to a showing of sufficient inter-
est,” she said in an email.

See UNION Page AS >

FAIR-SHARE PAYMENT

The 2 percent deduc-
tion, recently authorized
for automatic payment by
New York state, is a fair-
share payment made to
the child-care union.

It comes out of the Social
Services stipend, whether
or not a provider opts to
join.

If the provider is a mem-
ber, the deduction is used
to pay membership dues.

The moneyis used for the
work of union staff repre-
sentatives with child-care
providers and, among oth-
er expenses, Asencio said,
“for assistance
from CSEA leg-
islative/political,
legal, communi-
cations, research,
health benefits
and other depart-
ments.”

Providers can
learn more about
that payment and
important issues
affecting families
around the state
at a meeting on
Thursday.

POLITICAL
ACTION
According to
its website, Child
Care Educators is
a union working

on behalf of child-

care providers in

the state of New

York. It fights for

social and eco-

nomic justice, ef-

fecting change
through collective _bar-
gaining, political action
and legislative advocacy.

The group was formed
when concerned provid-
ers in Schenectady joined
together in search of as-
sistance and answers to
some major issues that af-
fected their ability to pro-
vide proper child care in
their area.

Over the years, the or-
ganization has grown to
more than 7,000 family
and group-family provid-
ers statewide.

CHANCE TO SPEAK UP

Asencio is looking for-
ward to meeting with
providers as they share
stories and concerns at
Thursday’s session.

“We really want to en-
courage people to come
forward and use their
voice,” she said in phone
interview. “This is a
great opportunity to talk
to North Country child-
care providers and be

available for them.”

She said the organiza-
tion knows that giving
people the opportunity to
“speak up and be a part of
the discussion” is a great
way to get everyone in-
formed and onboard in re-
solving issues.

Asencio stressed that
their intent is to reach out
to as many providers as
possible.

“We really aim to be
open and up front so that

Account: 23070 (11682)
NY-551

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 1 of 2
PRESS-REPUBLICAN

Date:
Location:
Circulation (OMA):
Type (Frequency):
Page:

Keyword:

Wednesday, February 08, 2012
PLATTSBURGH, NY

17,708 (90)

Newspaper (D)

15

CSEA

we can focus on the task at
hand of bringing everyone
up to speed. As the need
for discussion arises, we
are responding,” she said.
“We want to really en-
courage debate,
alternative opin-

ions and views.”
She said pro-
viders are com-
ing from all over
the state to share
their experiences
and discuss how
to focus on their
main priority of
keeping “families
earning and chil-

dren learning.”

‘VALID

QUESTIONS’

At the meeting,
Terrie Tyler Per-
kins will share
her knowledge as
a provider.

She has owned
and operated
Live, Laugh, Love
in Saranac Lake
for 28 years. She
knows from expe-
rience the issues
facing providers

© 2012 PRESS-REPUBLICAN
Al Rights Reserved,

such as Ouimette and oth-
ers.

“Connie has some really
valid questions. I know we
are all excited to come to-
gether to learn more about
how we can strengthen
our relationships as pro-
viders,” Perkins said.

She supports the mem-
ber-driven union group.
She said it has helped al-
leviate a lot of adminis-
trative headaches over the
years that providers have
struggled with in the past,
giving them more time to
focus on quality care for
the children.

“They know the issues
and bring them to the at-
tention of the agencies.
They aren't just an exter-
nal group. VOICE is us.”

Ouimette remains posi-
tive that the session will
open the doors for impor-
tant dialogue.

“It will be a great chance
to get everyone in one
room and get everyone on
the same page,” she said.

rifts this online
at3:15 p.m.
ONLINE NLINE yesterday.

For breaking news, visit our website:
www.pressrepublican.com

“We really
want to
encourage
people
to come
forward and
use their
voice. This
is a great
opportunity
to talk
to North
Country
child-care
providers
and be
available for
them.”
Jill Asencio,

CSEA

Account: 23070 (11682)
NY-551

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

| pay T We first had

Page 2 of 2
The Post-Journal =<...

Type (Frequency):
Page:

Keyword: CSEA

Saturday, February 04, 2012
JAMESTOWN, NY

15,168 (49)

Newspaper (D)

ALAS

County,
CSEA

Head To
Mediation

By NicHo.as L. DEAN
ndean@post-journal.com

MAYVILLE — County Execu-
tive Greg Edwards on Friday
announced his disappointment that
contract negotiations with the CSEA
have ended.

By declaring an impasse and
moving to mediation, CSEA Unit
6300 President Rose Conti showed
interest in no longer negotiating,
Edwards said, which allows him to
discuss the issue.

The county and the union entered
into negotiations in August,

Edwards explained.

In the recent contract negotia-
tions, Edwards said, the CSEA was
coming off a four-year contract
which had pay increases every year
and averaged out to be a 2.9 percent
increase over the course of the four
years.

“In our first meeting in August,
we each submitted simultaneous
proposals, and you'll see the one
that I submitted and the one that
they submitted was stunning in the
sense of the way it was presented,”
Edwards said Thursday. “They
wanted five years of 5 percent each
year increases in their contract. And
they wanted more days off. They
wanted an extra $1 an hour for what
they call shift differentials, so if you
work anything other than 9 to 5 you
get an extra $1 an hour.”

Currently, the base pay for a
CSEA employee starts at more than
$12 an hour, Edwards said — with
$13 an hour guaranteed by the end
of their first year. In addition,

© 2012 POSTJOURNAL
Al Rights Reserved,

there’s a minimum of 40 days off
each year between sick days, vaca-
tion time and personal days — with
a senior employee having 53 days
available to them.

Furthermore, of the 934 employ-
ees in the CSEA union, not a single
one is working at that base salary
pay, Edwards said.

“So they came in with a proposal
after having come off a 2.9 percent
(es year increase and they want,

asically, a 30 percent increase in
pay over the next 5 years,” Edwards
said Thursday.

A document provided by Edwards
can be found attached with this arti-
cle online at www.post-journal.com.

See MEDIATION, Page A3

In it, Edwards details
issues of the county and
CSEA’s contract negotia-
tions and also offers up his
assessment. Conti could not
be reached at the CSEA
number in Mayville late
Thursday afternoon.

CSEA officials said
Wednesday that the union
had proposed a deal which
would have saved taxpayers
Close to $2 million over the
life of the contract. That
proposed contract is a dif-

ferent deal than the one
which Edwards said the
CSEA initially brought to
the table.

Conti confirmed Friday
that even during the short
few months of negotiating,
there had been multiple
contracts discussed.

“For what we believe are
purely political reasons, the
county is giving up the
opportunity to save $1.7
million over the next two
years, plus additional sav-
ings that would come from
changes to workers’ health
insurance coverage,” Conti
said in Wednesday's
release. “We want residents
to know that this union
found ways to reduce costs
and offer savings, but the
county executive turned
away a chance to save a sig-
nificant amount of money.”

Edwards questioned the
allegations of politics on
Thursday and cited state
CSEA President Danny Don-
ahue, who just settled the

Account: 23070 (11657)
Nvsid

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

NYS CSEA contract for four
years with three years of 0
percent increase, seven days
off without pay and signifi-
cant increases in state CSEA.
employees contributions to
their health insurance.

“That deal was struck
after Gov. Cuomo threat-
ened to lay off 3,500 CSEA
workers,” Edwards said.
“Even more interesting is
the fact that at least three
other state unions have
agreed to contracts in the
last two months with three
zeros, furlough days and
increase contributions for
health insurance. No one
has alleged ‘politics’ in the
state CSEA, but in this case,
the local CSEA president is
making just such a baseless
allegation.”

Edwards said he believes
he negotiated at least fairly,
and likely offered more lati-
tude than was offered by the

state’s CSEA leader.
“While I am disappointed

that the local CSEA has
decided to declare an
impasse, I am pleased that
PERB will assign a media-
tor to come in and work to
try to facilitate a deal,”
Elwards said. “My goal
continues to be to provide a
place where the 934 full-
time CSEA employees can
work, earn a fair wage,
receive fair benefits, con-
tribute to the welfare of all
who live here, and at a cost
that the taxpayers of Chau-
tauqua County can afford.”

Edwards said he was
insistent that the contract be
a four-year deal to provide
fiscal stability for the tax-
payers of the county.

“Virtually all of my
nonunion employees have
had their pay frozen for
three years with no increas-
es,” he said,

Additionally, those
employees have been par-
ticipating in the High
Deductible Health Insur-
ance Plan.

Conti on Friday said that
the union had been looking
for a two-year agreement
which would have saved the

Page 1 of 2
Date: Saturday, February 04, 2012
Fhe Post-Journal %<.,,,, #23**

Circulation (DMA): 15,168 (49)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)

Page: AL AZ

Keyword: CSEA

county money for the time
being and would have revis-
ited the issues shortly.

“As long as we were still
talking, then you don’t go to
impasse,” Conti said Friday.
“But when you see yourself
going nowhere, then you’ve
got to sit back and say, ‘If
we can’t go anywhere, we
go to mediation.””

The previous four-year
contract expired Dec. 31,
2011. The labor union is
one of five unions negotiat-
ing contracts with the coun-
ty. Four of the contracts
expired at the end of 2011,
though one, the contract for
the Civil Service Employ-
ees Association Unit 6322,
expired in December 2009.
That particular CSEA unit
represents part-time sher-
iff’s deputies.

The other four contracts
are for the Sheriff’s Super-
visors Association, which
represents lieutenants; the
Deputy Sheriff’s Associa-
tion, which represents pri-
marily road patrol person-
nel; the Sheriff's Employ-
ee’s Association, which rep-
resents primarily jail per-
sonnel; and the CSEA led
by Conti, which represents
many different general posi-
tions in the county, from
laborers to supervisors.

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 POSTJOURNAL
Al Rights Reserved,

Account: 23070 (11657)
Nvsid

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
Date: Friday, February 03, 2012
Location: NEW YORK, NY
Circulation (OMA): 25,258 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: ABA

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 CHIEF
Al Rights Reserved,

Overextended State
Workers Run Up

Overtime Record

By MARK TOOR

A decline in the number of state em-
ployees performing essential services
in hospitals, prisons and similar facil-
ities pushed state-government over-
time to record levels last year, accord-
ing to figures released last week by
State Comptroller Thomas P. Di-
Napoli’s office.

“There goes the savings, because
they're pa ing it out in overtime,” said
Darcy alls, a spokeswoman for the
Public Employees Federation.

‘Staffing Extremely Low’

The facilities reporting high over-
time—largely regular and psychiatric
hospitals, correctional centers and
units for the developmentally dis-
abled—are staffed 24 hours a day
year-round and have high rates of em-
ployees out on Workers’ Compensa-
tion fet gob selalse injuries, she said.

“Staffing levels are extremely low,”
she said, noting that Governor Cuomo
had said during his budget address in
January that the number of state
workers had dropped by 16,000, or 12
percent, sinco 2008, At many agen-
cies, minimum staffing is set by law
or under union contract,

“The dirty little secret is that the
Division of Budget would always
rather pay overtime than have
enough employees to do the job,” said
Stephen Madarasz, a spokesman for
the Civil Service Employees Associa-
fico a result, he said, “we don't

jave enough people in the facilities.”
He noted that if facilities paid for b
Medicaid do not have adequate stafi-
ing, they risk losing their funding.

Court facilities, which are under a
hiring freeze after a retirement incen-
tive in 2010 stripped them of more
than 1,500 employees, also reported
he overtime costs,

e issue came up during a Jan. 25

(Continued on Page 11)
budget hearing in Albany involving
workforce issues.

‘Agencies Falling Short’

“Some agencies have chosen to lay
off workers to the point where they
can’t accomplish their mission,” said
Assemb. Michael DenDekker, a

Queens Democrat and former city
Sanitation Worker. He said workers
are not putting in overtime “to pad
their pension, they're doing it because
they’re ordered to.”

Donn Rowe, president of the New
York State Correctional Officers and
Police Benevolent Association, con-
firmed that an officer who refused to
work mandatory overtime would be
dismissed.

The number of overtime hours
worked—12.2 million—is actually
down from 2008, when the total was
13.2 million hours. But because of ris-
ing pay rates in the public-employee
contracts that preceded the ones
reached this year, the total cost rose
from $466.8 million in 2008 to $469.1
million last year.

49 Overtime Hours Per Week

ATreatment Assistant at Mid-Hud-
son Psychiatrie Center, Robert Henry,
topped the list of overtime earners for
the second year in a row. Mr. Henry
has a base salary of $61,830 and also
earned $123,511 working 2,556 hours
of overtime last year. That’s the equiv-
alent of 49 extra hours per week,
every week of the year.

Each of the 20 top overtime earners
made more in overtime than they did
from their base salaries.

The Comptroller's Office released
overtime figures in the form of com-
puter spreadsheets and did not pro-
vide analysis. “This can be interpret-
ed in any number of ways,” said a
spokeswoman,

THOMAS P. DiNAPOLI: OT
soars as employees dwindle.

Account: 23070 (11632)
Nyv-a25,

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Page 1 of 1
SMITHTOWN NEWS (NYC MARKET pa

AREA)

Location:
Circulation (OMA):
Type (Frequency):
Page:

Thursday, February 02, 2012
SMITHTOWN, NY

14,000 (1)

Newspaper (W)

1,14

Keyword: CSEA

Highway Department insi

levels charges at co-workers

Public Safety investigating, DA's office has letters

By DAVID AMBRO

The Town of Smithtown
Department of Public Safety
is investigating allegations of
impropriety and wrongdoing in the
Smithtown Highway Department,
according to Director of Public
Safety John Valentine.

The Smithtown News this
month received an anonymous
envelope containing 13-pages of
letters about alleged wrongdoings
in the highway department. The
NEWS this week provided copies
of the documents this week to the
Department of Public Safety.

During an interview from
his office Tuesday, January
31, Mr. Valentine said that all
allegations about governmental
wrongdoing are taken seriously
by his department and that the
allegations in the letters will be
looked into. “We investigate any
allegation whetheritis anonymous
or not,” he said.

While Mr. Valentine said the
allegations in the letters are
being taken seriously and will be
investigated, a source told The
NEWS this week that the letters
have also been turned over to the
Suffolk County District Attorney’s
office with a request that the
allegations be investigated.

Some of the most serious
allegations in the letters involve
the use of drugs by highway
workers. By names, the letter
details employees who are using
cocaine and perscription drugs
during work time. The writer
alleges that in one instance top
level highway officials covered up
a drug find before calling police to

(© 2012 SMITHTOWN NEWS (NYC MARKET AREA)
Al Rights Reserved,

the highway yard. The letters are
detailed with names and crews
involved in the incident

Another serious charge in the
letters involves the allegation that
highway employees absconded
with a “very expensive” hi-lo
forklift and other valuable items
during an eviction of a company
from a building in the Hauppauge
Industrial Park in late December
or early January. Again, the
letters contain the names of those
people allegedly involved in the
incident.

Several pages of the letters are
also about top level employees
in the department working
out of their job description or
responsibility.

The envelope directs the letter
to The NEWS editor David Ambro,
however, the letter starts, “To
Whom This May Concern,” and it
appears that the documents are a
series of letters previously written
about a variety of matters and
sent to town officials. The names
of the officials to whom the letters
were sent had been removed from
(he tops of the letters, however,
lists of town officials to whom the
letters are copied remain on the
bottom of the pages.

(Continued on page 14)

The writer claims in one
of the letters that highway
department officials are trying
to figure out who is the source
of the letters. “Hopefully we
will be protected as we have
not done anything wrong,”
says the letter. “All we have
done is report the truth.”

The writer, who claims to
be a highway department

Account: 23070 (11664)
Nv-897

employee who wants to remain
anonymons in fear of lasing
his job, alleges that much of
the information in the letters
is known by town officials and
the press and has been covered
up. He includes The NEWS
among those responsible for
the coverup by not reporting
about some of the allegations.
Last year The NEWS did
report about the theft of
scrap metal from the highway
department by a worker after
that employee was caught and
brought up on disciplinary
charges. Another incident, the
cleaning of street sweepers at
the Smithtown Highway Yard,
was brought to the attention
of The NEWS last year and
was investigated but did not
rise to the level of a story,
thus the accusation that the
situation was covered up.
One of the people named
as having been copied on
the letters ic Civil Service
Employees Association (CSEA)
Smithtown Unit President
Kelly Brown. During an
interview at town hall last
week, Ms. Brown said that
although her name is listed
on the letters she never
received copies. She said that
some of the allegations in the
letters regarding personnel
issues have been brought to
her attention and that they
ocem to be the writings of a
disgruntled highway worker.
Ms Brown said that she
is not aware of any union
grievances related to the
personnel charges outlined in

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

der

Page 1 of 2
SMITHTOWN NEWS (NYC MARKET Tureday, Fobra 02,2012

‘AREA Location: SMITHTOWN, NY
Circulation (OMA): 11,000 (1)
) Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: 114
Keyword: CSEA

the letters. A town hall source
said that with respect to some
of the personnel issues raised
in the letters the highway
department worked with the
personnel department and
corrected the out-of-title work.

SP eres

BLUFF TRAGEDY: Old Dock Bluff in Kings Park, a popular Town of Smithtown fishing and boating facility
at the mouth of the Nissequogue River, was closed Tuesday morning, January 31 while Suffolk County
police conducted a “non-criminal” death investigation. The body of a man was found in a maroon and black
Jeep parked in the inner parking lot at The Bluff. The body was removed from the scene at about 11 a.m.
Tuesday by the Suffolk County Medical Examiners Office.

(© 2012 SMITHTOWN NEWS (NYC MARKET AREA)
Al Rights Reserved,

Account: 23070 (11664)
Nv-897

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 2 of 2
Date: Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Mid HUDSON TIMES 22%. SE

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: 19
Keyword: CSEA

Occupy Orange rally set for Thursday

The “Occupy” movement is moving into Orange
County.

Acelebration/pep rally/organizing meeting is planned
for Thursday, Feb. 2, at 6:30 p.m. at Mulberry House, 62-70
West Main, Middletown, to set up an Occupy Orange
group.

Bennett Weiss of Newburgh, one of the organizers,
says," 2011 will be remembered as the year people, ordi-
nary people, took to the streets. From Tahrir Square in
Cairo to Madison, WI something special was happening.
Voices that were long silenced by fear or deadened by
hopelessness rang out in protest. No movement better
encapsulates the raw and awesome power of people com-
ing together in new and vital ways than the Occupy move-
ment. It is truly amazing how a small, leaderless move-
ment centered in a half acre park in lower Manhattan
captured the imagination of the world and rapidly spread
to over 80 countries and 1,000 cities. And now it's coming
to Orange County."

There will pizza and several other dishes served at the
opening of the event.

Organizers will be collecting canned goods for a food
drive to benefit the needy of our community.

Sponsoring groups include Orange County Peace and
Justice, CSEA of Orange County, Democratic Alliance,
Community Voices Head of Newburgh and 1199 SEIU.
This list will be updated in the coming weeks.

In the event of extreme weather, the meeting will
held at the same time and place the following week on
Thursday, Feb. 9.

For more information, contact Verne Bell at 845-569-
8965 or email VerneMB@aol.com. Also, one can contact
Bennett Weiss 845-569-8662 or email benweiss@aol.com.

Page 1 of 1

(© 2012 MID HUDSON TIMES
Al Rights Reserved,

‘Account: 23070 (11660)
Nv-2528

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
Rockland Journal-Newss Fier:

Circulation (OMA):
Type (Frequency):
Page:

Keyword:

Wednesday, February 01, 2012
WHITE PLAINS, NY

76,272 (1)

Newspaper (D)

5

CSEA

Union rips
Liberty care

Company will
take 100 jobs
at med center

By Theresa Juva-Brown
tiuva@lohud.com

VALHALLA — The pri-
vate health-care compa-
ny set to take over more
than 100 jobs at West-
chester Medical Center
has a “record of failure,”
union officials charged
Tuesday.

“What we found out
about Liberty Health-
care is frightening,” said
John Staino, president of
the Civil Service Em-
ployees Association,
which is losing 150 jobs
at the Behavioral Health
Center. “This is what
they are bringing to
‘world-class medicine’?”

history of poor manage-
ment in Kentucky and
Florida.

In 2006, Communities
at Oakwood, a state
home for the develop-
mentally disabled in
Kentucky, received 21
citations by the state for
allegations of abuse and
neglect, according to
The Associated Press,
and was fined $1.4 mil-
lion for health and safety
problems.

The Courier-Journal
reported that Oakwood.
was cited for allowing a
resident to leave with a
woman posing as his sis-
ter, then got drunk, visit-
ed a strip club and had
sex. Liberty’s interim di-
rector at Oakwood, Wes
Perkins, told the paper the
company was “terribly
embarrassed” by the inci-
dent.

employees, manage disci-
plinary problems and en-
force policies and proce-
dures” to avoid serious ci-
tiations from the state.

As for the lawsuit,
“Liberty had actually re-
ported the abuse and
helped bring the case to
closure,” the statement
said.

The union noted a 2007
New York Times article
that described Liberty’s
problems with managing
the Florida Civil Commit-
ment Center for sex of-
fenders.

“Liberty is proud of its
service to the state of
Florida and record of re-
solving issues that were
within our control,” the
company said Tuesday.

CSEA members said
they fear Liberty wages
won't attract high-quality
and experienced employ-
ees.

Psychiatric aides now
make about $20 per hour;
Liberty is offering about
$15 an hour, the union has
said.

“The patients are going
to suffer,” said Patrick
Roache, a psychiatric aide
for 29 years who helps

Management an- Liberty’s 11-month i is :
nounced last month that stint at Oakwood also pata ce
it had hired Liberty drewa lawsuit fromares- getting hurt. Staff is going
Healthcare, a Pennsyl- ident, who alleged he was_ to be getting hurt.”
vania-based company, _ beaten by staff. Westchester Medical

and more than half the
staff at the BHC would
be laid off.

The union circulated
a list of news reports to
show that Liberty has a

Liberty said in a state-
ment that it “was unable
to gain the necessary
management authority to
terminate abusive state

Center said Liberty has a
“more than positive track
record” with 200 organi-
zations across the U.S.

Page 1 of 1

(© 2012 JOURNAL NEWS {ROCKLAND EDITION)
Al Rights Reserved,

‘Account: 23070 (11630)
NvSI0

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
Wednesday, February 01, 2012

JOURNAL NEWS Cacaton: WHITE PLAINS, NY

(WESTCHESTER/PUTNAM) Ghelaton {OMA 76.272 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Keyword: CSEA

Union: Liberty has a ‘record of failure’

Health-care company to take over
100 jobs at Westchester Med Center

By Theresa Juva-Brown
tiuva@lohud.com

VALHALLA — The pri-
vate health-care compa-
ny set to take over more
than 100 jobs at West-
chester Medical Center
has a “record of failure,”
union officials charged
Tuesday.

“What we found out
about Liberty Healthcare
is frightening,” said John
Staino, president of the
Civil Service Employees
Association, which is los-
ing 150 jobs at the Behav-
ioral Health Center. “This
is what they are bringing
to ‘world-class medi-
cine?”

Management an-
nounced last month that
it had hired Liberty
Healthcare, a Pennsylva-
nia-based company, and
more than half the staff
at the BHC would be laid
off.

The union circulated a
list of news reports to
show that Liberty has a
history of poor manage-
ment in Kentucky and
Florida.

In 2006, Communities
at Oakwood, a state home
for the developmentally
disabled in Kentucky, re-

ceived 21 citations by the
state for allegations of
abuse and neglect, ac-
cording to The Associat-
ed Press, and was fined
$1.4 million for health and
safety problems.

The — Courier-Journal
reported that Oakwood
was cited for allowing a
resident to leave with a
woman posing as his sis-
ter, then got drunk, visit-
ed a strip club and had
sex. Liberty’s interim di-

rector at Oakwood, Wes
Perkins, told the paper
the company was “terri-
bly embarrassed” by the
incident.

Liberty’s 1i-month
stint at Oakwood also
drew a lawsuit from a
resident, who alleged he
was beaten by staff.

Liberty said in a state-
ment that it “was unable
to gain the necessary
management authority to
terminate abusive state
employees, manage disci-
plinary problems and en-
force policies and proce-
dures” to avoid serious ci-
tiations from the state.

As for the lawsuit,
“Liberty had actually re-
ported the abuse and
helped bring the case to
closure,” the statement

(© 2012 JOURNAL NEWS {WESTCHESTERIPUTNAM)

All Rights Reserved,

said.

The union noted a 2007
New York Times article
that described Liberty’s
problems with managing
the Florida Civil Commit-
ment Center for sex of-
fenders.

“Liberty is proud of its
service to the state of
Florida and record of re-
solving issues that were
within our control,” the
company said Tuesday.

CSEA members said
they fear Liberty wages
won't attract high-quality

and experienced employ-
ees,

Psychiatric aides now
make about $20 per hour;
Liberty is offering about
$15 an hour, the union has
said.

“The patients are go-
ing to suffer,” said Pat-
rick Roache, a psychiat-
ric aide for 29 years who
helps control violent pa-
tients. “Patients are going
to be getting hurt. Staff is
going to be getting hurt.”

Westchester Medical
Center said Liberty has a
“more than positive track
record” with 200 organi-
zations across the coun-
try over the past 25 years.

Account: 23070 (11631)

Ny-2a72

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Page 1 of 1
Sunday, January 29, 2012

JOURNAL NEWS SUNDAY teeation: WHITE PLAINS, NY

(WESTCHESTER/PUTNAM) Circulation (OMA): 0 (1)
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Page: 18
Keyword: CSEA
MEDICAL CENTER See CENTER, Page 8A What's happening across

Labor ills,

fiscal gap
batter
hospital

Medicaid, pensions weigh
on Valhalla institution

By Theresa Juva-Brown
tiuva@lohud.com

said they fear more cuts
and declining patient
care, while hospital lead-
ers argue they are trying
to keep the organization
afloat.

“We’re not going to pri-
vatize the hospital, but if
there are certain aspects
where we can preserve
the mission yet improve
the economics, we will be
forced to doit,” said Mark
Tulis, chairman of the
medical center’s board of
directors. “We have been
set adrift by the county
and by the state, and we
have to do what's neces-

the country. The dollars
are not there.”

Though the medical
center doesn’t get county
money, it doesn’t pay rent
under its 60-year lease
with the county. And until
the end of 2009, the county
covered the hospital's
utility costs.

Assemblyman Thomas
Abinanti, D-Greenburgh,
said the medical center
can’t solve its financial
problems until there is a
“united front” between
leaders and labor.

“The first thing is they
need to get together and
talk,” said Abinanti, a for-

sary.” mer county legislator who
VALHALLA — With strained labor re- The medical center, chaired its medical center
lations in the wake of 400 job cuts and which sits on county prop- committee. “It’s not just

leaders still grappling with a $26 mil-
lion budget gap, there seems to be no
panacea for the woes at Westchester
Medical Center.

The medical center is dealing with
the same financial problems as other
hospitals — declining Medicaid and
Medicare reimbursements — but be-
cause it’s a public-benefit corporation,
it has the added pressure of state pen-
sion payments, said Kevin Dahill,
president of Northern Metropolitan
Hospital Association, which repre-
sents hospitals in the Hudson Valley.
That contribution is projected to hit
$70 million by next year, hospital offi-
cials have said.

“There’s going to be a continuing
need for ‘safety-net’ hospitals, and

erty, used to be part of
Westchester County gov-
ernment. Amid concern it
was entangled in politics
and limited in how it could
generate revenue, a state
law turned it into an inde-
pendent, public-benefit
corporation in 1998, A hos-
pital board of directors,
appointed by elected offi-
cials, oversees staffing
and the budget.

It wasn’ta smooth tran-
sition. In the early 2000s,
poor financial manage-
ment led to a near-col-
lapse that required tens of
millions of dollars in

about contracts, but how
to best run the hospital.
There has to be a better
relationship between
management and labor,
and that doesn’t exist
now.”

Peter Piazza, president
of the Civil Service Em-
ployees Association at the
medical center, described
the situation as “somber
and dire.” He said that al-
though officials claim a
major loss in revenue,
they haven’t complied
with state law and been
transparent with their
records, a charge the

there is going to have tobea way toen- Countyaidtofix. medical center disputes.
sure they are around and that they are But that crisis is differ- He also criticized the
viable,” Dahill said. “Exactly how ¢ntthan what’s happening county Board of Legisla-

that’s going to occur is anybody’s
guess.”

As the region’s safety-net hospital,
the medical center provides advanced
care and treats many uninsured pa-
tients and those on Medicaid and Medi-
care. About half its patients get gov-
ernment-subsidized health coverage.

The past year has been filled with
major changes at the medical center
including hundreds of layoffs, an over-
haul of psychiatric emergency ser-
vices and the subsequent private take-
over of more than 100 jobs at the Be-
havioral Health Center. Labor unions

© 2012 JOURNAL NEWS SUNDAY (WESTCHESTER PUTNAM)
All Rights Reserves,

now, medical center CEO
Michael Israel said. The
medical center no longer
gets county funding andis
receiving smaller reim-
bursements. On top of
that, it has soaring pen-
sion costs it can’t control.

“We, along with all oth-
er hospitals, have to fig-
ure out how to do more
with less,” Israel said.
“We want to do as much
for employees as we can.
But people have to open
their eyes. Take a look at

Account: 23070 (11606)
Ny-2692

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

tors for arguing that the
medical center is a state
entity and refusing to step
in. Piazza noted the coun-
ty board, executive and
governor work together
to appoint the hospital
board of directors.

“The elected officials
of this community play an
important role in the sur-
vival and viability of this
magnificent institution,”
Piazza wrote in an email.
“They have abandoned

Page 1 of 2
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(WESTCHESTER/PUTNAM)

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Keyword: CSEA

that responsibility.”

The office of County
Executive Rob Astorino
declined to be inter-
viewed for this article.

Board of Legislators
Chairman Ken Jenkins
said the issue is whether
the public-benefit corpo-
ration model still works.

“We can put different
board members in, but
does that change the eco-
nomic situation? No,” he
said.

County Legislator Wil-
liam Ryan, former board
chairman and member of
amedical center financial
oversight committee, said
the hospital’s current
struggle raises questions
about whether govern-
ment should help again.

“TJ don’t know if there is
the political will to do

provements last year and
plans to spend another $63
million this year, officials
said. It also recently
recruited prominent phy-
sicians such as Dr. Juan
Asensio, a trauma sur-
geon, and Dr. Mitchell
Cairo, a leading pediatric
hematologist/oncologist.
“T am very optimistic
about the future of the
medical center and see
continued expansion, con-
tinued program develop-
ment and __ continued
recruitment of new physi-
cians,” Israel said. “I
think the medical center
five years from now will
look very different from
the way it does now.”
“The level of care be-
ing delivered here is abso-
lutely superb,” he said. “T
do not believe what we are

that,” he said. doing hurts that.”
In the meantime, it “There has to be

needs to focus on staying

competitive with other @ better

hospitals, Ryan said. relationship
“Historically, they

have had top-notch physi- between

cians, top-notch nursing, management

and those are critically

important to the success and labor, and

of that medicalcenter,”"he that doesn’t exist

said. “They have to ag- 3s

gressively market how 720W.

good they are.” THOMAS ABINANTI,
The medical center assemblyman

spent an estimated $60
million on capital im-

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 JOURNAL NEWS SUNDAY (WESTCHESTER PUTNAM)
All Rights Reserves,

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Ny-2692

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
Date: Thursday, January 26, 2012
LONG ISLAND GRAPHIC Location: FREEPORT, NY

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Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: 1

Keyword: CSEA

HELPING OUT THEIR
NEIGHBORS

Hempstead Town Councilwoman Angie M. Cullin
(second right) and Hempstead Town's GSEA Local
880 President Charles Sellitto (third right) and
5th Vice President Jo-Ann Delgado (third left)
recently dropped food and clothing collected by
Hempstead Town employees off at the Freeport
Outreach at Holy Redeemer Church. The food and
clothing will be distributed to local families in
need. Pictured ({-r) are: Alfonzo Martinez and
Sister Dorothy of Holy Redeemer Church, Delgado,
Selitto, Councilwoman Cullin and Bellmore resi-
dent Jose Rodriguez.

Courtesy Town of Hempstead

Page 1 of 1

© 2012 LONG ISLAND GRAPHIC
Al Rights Reserved,

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SOUTHERN DUTCHESS NEWS Date: Wechosday, January 25,2012

Location:
Circulation (OMA): 7,646 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: 1

Keyword: CSEA

Polar Plunge team bowls
for Special Olympics

Hudson Valley, care for individuals with
developmental disabilities who take part
in the many sporting opportunities
offered through Special Olympics.
CSEA’s Region 3 Office is located in

FISHKILL -- Close to 50 union mem-
bers and community supporters came out
Jan. 18 to the Southern Dutchess Bowl in
Fishkill for CSEA Region 3’s first-ever
“Beat the Bear” Bowl-a-Thon. The event
was a fundraiser for a team of CSEA Beacon.
union members who will brave the icy Donations can be made to the CSEA
waters of Fishkill Creek when Special Region 3 Polar Plunge team by logging
Olympics New York holds its annual on to http://tinyurl.com/fishkillplunge.
Polar Plunge Feb. 25 at Sharpe
Reservation in Fishkill.

Bowlers teamed up to beat the bowling
score of the event’s mascot, a polar bear
(aka CSEA Dutchess Education Local
President Scott Rajczi).

“Everyone who turned out said this
bowl-a-thon was a fun way to help the
athletes of Special Olympics and show
support for our union members who are
gearing up for another great Polar
Plunge,” said CSEA Region 3 Polar
Plunge Team Co-Captain Guy Bilyou.
“We’ve decided to make this an annual
event and we hope more members of the
community will join us at next year’s
bowl-a-thon.” Bowlers at the first-ever CSEA Beat

This is the fourth year that CSEA has the Bear Bowl-a-Thon had to beat the
sponsored a team at the annual Fishkill score of the polar bear mascot (aka
plunge event. Many members of CSEA, CSEA Dutchess Education Local
which represents 40,000 workers in the President Scott Rajczi).

Page 1 of 2

© 2012 SOUTHERN DUTCHESS NEWS
Al Rights Reserved,

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Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2012
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Circulation (OMA): 7,646 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: 1

Keyword: CSEA

Participating in the bowl-a-thon were (left to right) Special Olympics Coach Kathi
Nolan, athlete Ann Hertel, Coach Theresa Ann Miller and athlete Ricky Miller.
‘Courtesy photos

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 SOUTHERN DUTCHESS NEWS
Al Rights Reserved,

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For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
The Daily Gazette

Date:
Location:

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
SCHENECTADY, NY

Circulation (DMA): 62,015 (56)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
ALAS

Page:
Keyword:

CSEA

CAPITAL REGION

Presidency

of CSEA unit

contested

Challenger: Raucci scandal
taints current leadership

BY STEVEN COOK
Gazette Reporter

The 2012 CSEA election for regional offices is
under way, with the three-term incumbent Region
4 President Kathy Garrison facing a challenge from
a Dormitory Authority local president, Liz Clark.

The election is the first to take place since the
Steven Raucci arson trial two years ago, a trial in
which the prosecutor asserted that CSEA regional
and central officials missed crucial warning signs

See CSEA, page A3

of Raucci’s reign of vandalism and
bombings.Clark cited that trial as
the most prominent example of
what she alleges is a regional lead-
ership that hasn't given members
the representation they need.

Garrison argues that changes
have been made. She also said she
believes members have moved on
and are focusing on issues like job
security and salary issues.

Ballots were mailed out to as
many as 40,000 Region 4 Civil
Service Employees Association
members last week. They are due
back by Feb. 14.

Only the regional presidency is
being contested. Offices of execu-
tive vice president, Ist through 3rd
vice presidents, secretary and trea-
surer are running unopposed.

Region 4 includes CSEA mem-
bers in the entire greater Capi-
tal Region. At stake is a position
that, according to testimony in the
2010 Raucci case, has a salary of
as much as $102,000.

Garrison, 46, of Wilton, is seek-
ing her fourth four-year term. She

© 2012 DAILY GAZETTE

All Rights Reserves,

took the job 12 years ago having
been a principal account clerk for
the Department of State.

Garrison said she wanted to
run for a fourth term because the
region has had success saving jobs
and working out contracts to im-
prove wages and protect benefits.
“People are concerned about job
security first and foremost,” Gar-
rison said.

Garrison said no one has brought
up the Raucci case to her. But she
said members in Schenectady have
gotten as detailed information as
she could provide about the situ-
ation. “As bad as it was two years
ago, it’s very, very promising,” Gar-
Tison said.

Clark is 38 and from Clifton
Park. She is a training coordinator
for the state Dormitory Author-
ity and has been president of her
Local 698 for 2/5 years.

Clark said she is running for the
spot because of the issues raised in
the Raucci trial. She said testimony
of CSEA members from the trial
shows that members repeatedly
reached out to the region officials
and they “turned a blind eye to it.”

“T think it’s probably the high-
est profile example of it out there,
but this runs rampant,” she said.
“I believe that we can do better
and need to do better.”

Asked about Clark's conten-
tions, Garrison said Clark doesn't
give specifics. Garrison also said
she believes the region's repre-
sentation of members has been
“second to none.”

The votes are to be tallied Feb.
14 by the American Arbitration
Association, Garrison said, with
results expected that evening.

Raucci was convicted of 18 of 22
counts in his March 2010 trial, in-
cluding first-degree arson. He was
acquitted of terrorism charges. The
prosecution charged that Raucci
was responsible for numerous
criminal acts, including placing
bombs on homes or cars, in a series
of incidents intended to intimidate
people he perceived as enemies or
enemies of his friends. He was ar-
rested in February 2009.

Raucci served as the Sche-
nectady school district’s facilities
manager and also led the union
unit representing the workers he

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
SCHENECTADY, NY

62,015 (56)

Newspaper (D)

ALAS

CSEA

© 2012 DAILY GAZETTE
All Rights Reserves,

supervised. It was a dual position
that prosecutors alleged made him
valuable to the school administra-
tion for his ability to keep labor
peace. Raucci also protected him-
self from the union by befriending
the then-local president in Sche-
nectady County, Joanne DeSarbo.

The two positions, prosecutors
alleged, allowed him to intimidate
his workers without fear of reprisal
from the union or school district.

The 2008 CSEA regional elec-
tion was one of many focuses in the
Raucci trial and a related lawsuit.

A federal lawsuit filed in the
wake of the trial alleges that Gar-
rison sought and won Raucci’s
and DeSarbo’s assistance in her
re-election bid in 2008.

In return for that assistance, the
suit alleged, Garrison “took steps
to silence the critics of both Ste-
ven Raucci and Joanne DeSarbo.”
Garrison, though, said she didn’t
know Raucci supported her in her
2008 re-election bid and never
had a conversation with Raucci
on that issue. Garrison has consis-
tently denied the allegations and
the suit remains pending.

Garrison was also called by
Raucci’s defense as a witness in his
criminal trial. During that testimony
she underwent blistering cross-ex-
amination by Schenectady County
District Attorney Robert Carney.

In his cross-examination, Car-
ney suggested that the information
was there to stop Raucci’s reign.

“I do believe there were lots of
warning signs and the people at
regional and even central CSEA
didn’t care about it,” Carney said
in a news conference after the
2010 verdict.

‘Account: 23070 (11637)
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Page 2 of 2
Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2012

! Location: POUGHKEEPSIE, NY
Circulation (OMA): 27,656 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: 1

Keyword: CSEA

Psychiatric hospital is ‘like a ghost town
Poughkeepsie center’s last
day is today; patients gone

By Craig Wolf

Poughkeepsie Journal

Today is the last day
for Hudson River Psychi-
atric Center, a Pough-
keepsie institution that
since 1871 has been home
for those with mental ill-
ness, and until recently, a
workplace for hundreds
of people.

As part of Gov. An-
drew Cuomo’s downsiz-
ing agenda, the state will
close the hospital and
move patients to other fa-
cilities, primarily Rock-
land Psychiatric Center
in Orangeburg.

A spokeswoman for
the state Office of Mental
Health, Leesa Rademach-
er, said most of the cli-
ents were moved over

of mental health facilities
after the Legislature
adopted a budget that he
said would close an over-
all state budget deficit of
$10 billion. The closing
would affect 375 workers
and about 125 patients at
Poughkeepsie.

Mary Casale worked
for 30 years and eight
months and requested re-
tirement. It’s three years
early for the 59-year-old
Town of Poughkeepsie
woman, who said it would
mean a less-senior work-
er will get to keep her job
as a result.

Many of the workers
took jobs in other facili-
ties or state agencies
where their civil service
seniority gave them
“bumping” rights to dis-

numbers Tuesday.

Casale said some re-
fused to move for a job.

“They work in food
service or housekeeping,
and they were unable to
make that drive with the
price of gas,” she said.

About 30 workers rep-
resented by the Civil Ser-
vice Employees Associa-
tion lost their jobs, said
Jessica Ladlee of the
CSEA. She said that with
a pay grade in the low
$30,000 range, “you just
can’t commute to Rock-
land County.”

Ross Pavilion is emp-
ty, its future undeter-
mined.

“It’s like a ghost
town,” Casale said.

Reach Craig Wolf at

time. The last 15 were re- place less-senior workers 845-437-4815 or
located this week. in similar titles. Others cwolf@poughkeepsie
In May, Cuomo an- lost their jobs. Rade- journal.com.

nounced a restructuring

© 2012 POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL
Al Rights Reserved,

macher didn’t have the

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Page 1 of 1
Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2012
OBSERVER DUNKIRK, NY

Location:

Circulation (DMA): 83,300 (49)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: ALAS
Keyword: CSEA

CSEA president
cites importance

of County Home
By NICHOLAS L. DEAN
OBSERVER Mayville Bureau

The Chautauqua County
Home has a reach which
extends outside of Dunkirk.

Speaking recently with
the OBSERVER, Rose
Conti, CSEA Unit 6300
president, said that though
she represents the employ-
ees who work at the County
Home, her concerns are for
the county as a whole.

“{ just don’t think people
understand the huge impact
this will have countywide if
this is sold,” Conti said
Friday. “It’s not just the
north end (of the county).”

In addition to workers at
the home residing through-
out the county, Conti said
taxpayers as a whole in
Chautauqua County have
invested in the facility
through their tax dollars.

See CSEA, Page AG

More than anything, Conti said she fears there not being
any guarantees if the facility is to ever change hands.

In November, a representative from Marcus &
Millichap addressed the County Legislature, detailing how
the group’s marketing process works.

Most importantly though, the rep stressed, is the fact
that the county can make stipulations to the sale or lease
of the nursing home facility — stipulations which would
address many of the concerns which have been raised by
workers and residents.

“We're not putting a sign out in front of the facility,”
said Joshua Jandris, the representative from Marcus &
Millichap. “It’s a very strategic process and the people that
would be bidding on the facility will come through quali-
fied and vetted.”

Still, Conti said a sale could result in major changes to
the facility.

-“There’s no law that says. they have to keep it a nursing
home, at least no law that I’m aware of,” Conti said. “And
if they choose not to keep it, those people have to go some-
where. They have to go somewhere else, which will then
create long waiting lists at all the nursing home facilities in
this county. That affects everybody.”

Changes to the employees’ wages and health benefits Page 1 of 2
too, Conti said, could have larger impacts than on just the

© 2012 OBSERVER
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OBSERVER

Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Location: DUNKIRK, NY
Circulation (DMA): 83,300 (49)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: ALAS
Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 OBSERVER
All Rights Reserves,

individual employees. zi

“Right now, my members, yes, they have taxpayers’
insurance,” Conti said. “But they also pay for their insur-
ance to some degree and they pay a co-pay. If they become
employees who are making a lot less money, then the tax-
payers, through Medicaid, will pay all of their medical
expenses. They won’t have to put anything in.

“A lot of the people who work in these facilities which
have been sold don’t make enough money,” Conti contin-
ued. “Then they become consumers of that type of money,
of food stamps and Medicaid. If they work and have a half-
way decent wage though, they are going to go out shop-
ping on Friday night, buy their family a pizza or their chil-
dren a pair of shoes. But if they lose that income and lose
their retirement, they have to start worrying about things
like that. Then they don’t spend because they can’t any
longer. Somehow, we all of a sudden have decided that
everyone can do less and make less and it is the corpora-
tions who seem to be making more.”

In December, the majority of the legislature approved a
resolution naming Marcus & Millichap as the firm chosen
to market the County Home. That proposal had been
tabled in November, but was brought back to the floor by
lawmakers during the body’s December meeting.

“I worry about the entire county and not just the people
who work there,” Conti concluded. “It’s not just the peo-
ple that work there and not just the people in the north
end of the county. It’s a bigger problem than that.”

Account: 23070 (11598)
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Page 2 of 2
Newsday

Date:
Location:

Page:
Keyword:

Thursday, January 19, 2012
LONG ISLAND, NY

Circulation (DMA): 297,601 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Ag

CSEA

A union challenge

NUMC subsidiary would allow nonunion workers
= CSEA prez says hospital is trying to bust union

BY ROBERT BRODSKY
robert.brodsky@newsday.com

Nassau University Medical
Center, the county’s only pub-
licly funded hospital, is plan-
ning to create a nonprofit sub-
sidiary that would allow it to
hire nonunion employees.

But the union representing
NUMC employees said it will
challenge the move, claiming it
undermines the mission of the
public hospital.

The East Meadow hospital
hopes to establish a nonprofit
entity known as NuHealth Ser-
vices Corp., which would co-
run the facility, according to
documents submitted to the
state Health Department.

NuHealth Services Corp.
would run existing health pro-
grams and facilities with the ex-
isting public benefit corpora-
tion, the Nassau Health Care
Corp.

The plan must be approved
by the state Health Depart-
ment’s Public Health and
Health Planning Council.

The new entity would allow
the hospital, which is facing a
projected $50 million budget
gap, to hire private-sector, non-
union employees. The Civil Ser-

© 2012 Newsday ine,
All Rights Reserves,

vice Employees Association
represents 3,400 employees at
the hospital, the A. Holly Patter-
son Extended Care Facility and
several outlying clinics.

Nassau Health Care Corp.
president and chief executive
Arthur Gianelli said the plan
would provide the hospital
with flexibility.

The new entity would have
the same board as the public
benefit corporation and would
have the option to hire new
nonunion employees, Gianelli
said. “The union can represent
such employees, assuming it
follows the proper process to
do so,” Gianelli added.

CSEA president Jerry Laric-
chiuta accused Gianelli of try-
ing to bust the union.

“We will fight to the death
on this one,” Laricchiuta said
yesterday at the hospital’s
board of directors meeting. He
contends that Gianelli attempt-
ed to “sneak” the change past
the union.

Employees hired by the pro-
posed nonprofit would not re-
ceive the same contractual
health care and pension bene-
fits afforded to hospital CSEA
employees, Laricchiuta said.

Although the proposal does

not require county approval,
the state Health Department
has asked Nassau County Exec-
utive Edward Mangano for a
“no objection” letter, hospital
Officials said.

On Tuesday, County Attor-
ney John Ciampoli wrote to
Ronald Stack, chairman of the
Nassau Interim Finance Authori-
ty, which controls the county’s fi-
nances, seeking its input. Stack
declined to comment yesterday.

The proposal would “allow
NUMC to remain viable de-
spite its mandate to provide
health care to the indigent,” Ci-
ampoli wrote.

In a letter to Gianelli yester-
day, Ciampoli said the county
will await NIFA’s comments be-
fore offering its opinion.

Legislative officials. have
pledged to investigate the pro-
posal.

“At a minimum I would ex-
pect the Health Committee to
hold a hearing on NUMC’s in-
tent to operate the hospital as a
nonprofit,” said Dave Gugerty,
chief of staff to the Democratic
minority.

With Sid Cassese

Account: 23070 (11473)
NY-56,

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Page 1 of 2
Date: Thursday, January 19, 2012
Location: LONG ISLAND, NY
Circulation (OMA): 297,601 (1)

Page: AB

Keyword: CSEA

NEWSDAY PHOTO / KAREN WILES STABILE

CSEA chief Jerry Laricchiuta contends the hospital's CEO attempted to “sneak” change past union.

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 Newsday in,
All Rights Reserved,

Account: 23070 (11473)
NY-56,

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Date: Thursday, January 19, 2012
BALDWIN HERALD Location: LAWRENCE, NY

Circulation (OMA): 3,773 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: At

Keyword: CSEA

t i

CSEA hold MLK celebration at Coral House
CSEA Local 830 held their 18th Annual Dr. win. Town of Hempstead Councilwoman
Martin Luther King, Jr luncheon chaired by Dorothy Goosby presented Certificates of

the Unity Committee. The ceremony andlun- Recognition to this year’s honorees and
cheon was held at the Coral House in Bald- _ scholarship awardees.

Page 1 of 1

© 2012 BALDWIN HERALD
Al Rights Reserved,

Account: 23070 (11561)
N38:

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
ms Date: Thursday, January 19, 2012
FREEPORT-BALDWIN LEADER Location! FREEPORT. NY
Circulation (DMA): 997 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: AA
Keyword: CSEA

2 WINTER Cony onive |

FOOD AND CLOTHES FOR HOLY REDEEMER: Hempstead Town Councilwoman Angie M. Cullin
(second right) and Hempstead Town's CSEA Local 880 President Charles Sellitto (third right)
and Fifth Vice-President Jo-Ann Delgado (third left) recently dropped food and clothing collect-
ed by Hempstead Town employees off at the Freeport Outreach at Holy Redeemer Church. The
food and clothing will be distributed to local families in need. From left are Alfonzo Martinez
and Sister Dorothy of Holy Redeemer Church, Ms. Delgado, Mr. Selitto, Councilwoman Cullin
and Bellmore resident Jose Rodriguez.

Page 1 of 1

© 2012 FREEPORT BALDWIN LEADER
Al Rights Reserved,

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Newsday

Location:
Circulation (OMA):
‘Type (Frequency):
Page:

Date: Monday, January 16, 2012
LONG ISLAND, NY
297,601 (1)

Newspaper (D)

A25

Keyword: CSEA

LONG BEACH

City to declare fiscal crisis

BY CANDICE RUUD

candice.ruud@newsday.com

Long Beach’s newly appoint-
ed city manager, Jack Schnir-
man, and the new five-mem-
ber City Council are poised to
pass a resolution tomorrow
night to declare a fiscal emer-
gency, which would give
Schnirman more authority to
tighten and veto spending.

“We will scrutinize and sign
everything by hand,” he said.
“We are not shy about sending
things back for more informa-
tion, more documentation or
just plain saying no.”

Long Beach owes $48.3 mil-
lion in general obligation debt
and last month was downgrad-
ed five investment rating lev-
els by Moody’s Investors Ser-
vices to Baa3, the lowest in-
vestment-grade rating that
Moody’s issues.

Schnirman said the extent of
the city’s financial crisis be-
comes more apparent each

© 2012 Newsday ine,
All Rights Reserves,

day. One recent report, for ex-
ample, showed nine depart-
ments already had exceeded
their overtime budgets only
halfway through the fiscal
year.

As a result, Schnirman said
he is more closely analyzing
spending requests, and some
employees have pushed back.

“Some say, ‘But this is the
way we've always done it be-
fore,’ and it’s important for us
to make the point that that is
not an answer that we accept,”
Schnirman said.

The president of the Long

Beach Civil Service Employ-
ees Association, John Mooney,
said he likes Schnirman’s ap-
proach so far — he has been
open and fair, Mooney said.
But the belt-tightening has
many union members worried
about job security, he said.
Schnirman_ hasn’t men-
tioned layoffs, Mooney said.
“He just said they're going to
tackle the budget and see how

‘Account: 23070 (11416)
NY-56,

bad the finances are, and then
they’ll sit down with the
unions and work with them.”

John McLaughlin, the new
council’s lone Republican, said
communication has been solid
so far.

“As a minority member, I
can’t complain about being left
out in the cold,” he said. “Jack
has been keeping me up to
speed. And I think this council
meeting will show we really
have to tighten our belt.”

But as a lifelong Long Beach
resident, McLaughlin said he
knows taxpayers are used to a
high level of services, which
he expects will be cut back
this year.

“This is a tough town to
keep everybody happy,”
McLaughlin said. “The same
way the rest of the country has
adjusted to it, we'll have to ad-
just to it.”

The council is to meet tomor-
row at7 p.m. on the sixth floor of
City Hall, 1 West Chester St.

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Page 1 of 1
Date: Saturday, January 14, 2012
JOURNAL NEWS Location: WHITE PLAINS, NY
(WESTCHESTER/PUTNAM) Circulation (OMA): 76,272 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)

Page: 3

Keyword: CSEA

Briefs

Astorino seeks end
of Triborough rule

WHITE PLAINS —
Westchester County
Executive Robert Asto-
rino on Friday said the
state should either re-
peal or change the Tri-
borough Amendment,
which lets expired
union contracts con-
tinue with pay raises
until a new deal is
reached. The law hin-
ders fair negotiations
with public employee
unions in contract nego-
tiations, he said. Astori-
no said the measure
adopted in 1982 has
discouraged unions
from agreeing to give-
backs or concessions.
He said because the
contracts continue after
they expire, there is
little incentive to reach
a deal with local gov-
ernments. Westchester
County’s largest union,
CSEA, responded, say-
ing that the amendment
leveled the playing field
in negotiations since
most unions cannot
strike.

It also is another
attempt to distract resi-
dents from Astorino’s
refusal to negotiate
with unions, they said.
For more, read the Poli-
tics on the Hudson blog
at www.lohud.com.

Page 1 of 1

(© 2012 JOURNAL NEWS {WESTCHESTERIPUTNAM)
All Rights Reserved,

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Ny-2a72

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
LEVITTOWN TRIBUNE

Date:
Location:
Circulation (OMA):
Type (Frequency):
Page:

Keyword:

LEVITTOWN, NY
4,054 (1)
Newspaper (W)
3

CSEA

Friday, January 13, 2012

CSEA Holds Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Matthew D’Albenzio among scholarship winners

CSEA Nassau Local 830 hosted its
18th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Luncheon on Saturday, Jan. 7 at the
Coral House. This event is designed to
honor the life and times of Dr. King, as
well as preserve his “dream” for future
generations. That is accomplished by
providing four $500 scholarships for
children of CSEA members. This year’s
winners were Alicia Robinson of
Freeport, Raven Holmes of Roosevelt,
Matthew D’Albenzio of Levittown, and
Nichole Tagufa of Uniondale.

There were also four honorees that
were lauded for their community service.

The honorees were Antonio Cunha of
Uniondale, Daryl LiGon of Roosevelt,
and Marion Terry and Ricky Ford of
Hempstead. The keynote speaker was
Reginald Brantley, Esq., of Westbury.

Over 150 people attended as well as
several dignitaries including Town of
Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy
Goosby, and County Legislators Kevan
Abrahams, Wayne Wink, Robert Troiano
and Carrie Solages.

CSEA Nassau Local 830 President Jer-
ry Laricchiuta was in attendance along
with CSEA Long Island Region One
President Nick LaMorte.

Luncheon

© 2012 LEVITTOWN TRIBUNE
Al Rights Reserved,

Account: 23070 (11484)
N32,

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

igeaeece’

CSEA Unity Committee member Barbara Jones, scholarship winner Raven Holmes, CSEA Local 830 President Jerry Laricchi-
uta, CSEA LI Region One President Nick LaMorte, honoree Ricky Ford, Nassau Legislator Kevan Abrahams, keynote speaker
Reginald Brantley, Esq., Town of Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, honoree Marion Terry, CBTU Long Island Presi-

dent Alan Jennings, scholarship winner Matthew D’Albenzio, CSEA Unity Committee co-Chair Carol Croston and Nassau Leg-
islator Wayne Wink.

Page 1 of 1
Date:

Circulation (OMA):
Type (Frequency):

TIMES UNION = =

Friday, January 13, 2012
ALBANY, NY

66,835 (56)

Newspaper (D)

38

CSEA

CSEA: Aides suffer as Tryon shut

Union cites high injury
rates among workers at
Oneida County youth site

By RICK KARLIN
Capitol bureau

ALBANY — Rather than im-
proving conditions, closure of the
Tryon youth prison has simply
meant more conflicts between
incarcerated youngsters and their
caretakers, a major state union
said,

Noting 18 of 33 youth division
aides at the state’s Taberg Residen-
tial Center in Oneida County are
out of work due to injuries from
alleged attacks by youngsters, the
Civil Service Employees Associa-
tion claims the state agency that
runs the center is heedless of the
union’s concerns.

“Tt’s time someone else listens
before anyone else gets hurt,”
CSEA President Danny Donohue
said.

He said 19 employees at Tab-
erg, including the facility’s direc-
tor, have been violently attacked at
the center.

Susan Steele, spokeswoman for

the state Office of Children and
Family Services, which runs the
youth centers, disputed CSEA’s
contention that the injuries oc-
curred during assaults,

“The majority of the injuries
are not due to assaults. They oc-
cur during the course of the re-
straints,” Steele said, referring to
procedures in which aides grab
and subdue a youth, using a vari-
ety of holds.

OCFS has brought in senior

© 2012 TIMES UNION
All Rights Reserved,

managers and provided more
training to the workers at Taberg
since November, she added.

CSEA officials said the dis-
tinction between an assault by a
youngster and restraint by an adult
is a matter of semantics, since re-
straints aren’t launched unless a
resident begins to act up and pose
a threat.

“How do you do a restraint if
you're not being assaulted?,” asked
CSEA spokesman Stephen Mad-
arasz. “That’s blame-the-victim
stuff.”

Regulations about when a
worker can or cannot restrain a
resident have grown more strin-
gent in recent years, he said.

The union has clashed with
OCFS and the agency’s commis-
sioner Gladys Carrion since she
took over during the Spitzer ad-
ministration.

Contending that many of the
juveniles at state youth centers are
mentally ill and are being housed
in remote locations far from their
downstate homes, Carrion began
closing centers and pushing for
actions that provided more treat-
ment than punishment.

Supporters of Carrion have also
characterized some of the youth

Please see AIDES AS >
centers as sources of public sector
jobs for residents of rural upstate
areas, even though the bulk of the
residents come the New York City
area.

Unionized workers contend
Carrion needs to acknowledge
some of the residents are danger-
ous.

Youth centers hold young adults,
or juveniles, who are too young for
the criminal justice system but have

usually been convicted of a crime
and sentenced by a judge.

‘Tryon, which once housed for-
mer heavyweight boxing cham-
pion Mike Tyson, was closed last
summer. Many of the remaining
girls at the facility were moved to
the Taberg center. A separate boys
wing was shut down previously.

Disclosure of the attacks and
injuries at Taberg prompted state
Sen. Joseph Griffo, whose 47th
District includes Taberg, to write
to Carrion urging more training
and heavier staffing at the center.

“Dedicated front-line workers at
Taberg are clearly not being given
the adequate protection, training
or staffing needed, and the result is
a series of injuries that seriously is
damaging morale and forcing staff
to endure dangerous working condi-
tions,” wrote Griffo, a Republican.

Other members of the mostly
Republican upstate Senate delega-
tion have in the past complained
to Carrion about what CSEA says
are the unsafe conditions in youth
centers.

> Reach Karlin at 454-5758 or
rkarlin@timesunion.com.

Account: 23070 (11403)
NV-10

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Page 1 of 1
Daily Freeman

Date: Friday, January 13, 2012
Location: KINGSTON, NY
Circulation (OMA): 14,914 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)

Page: 3

Keyword: CSEA

Union boss opposes having
prisoners answer DMV calls

COXSACKIE — Using prisoners to
do the work of Department of Motor
Vehicles employees is a bad idea, the
New York president of the Civil Service
Employees Association said this week.

Union leader Danny Donohue was
responding to a decision by New York
state to allow inmates at the Greene
Correctional Facility in Coxsackie, along
with those at the Bedford Hills Correc-
tional Facility for women in Westches-
ter County, to answer calls for the state
Department of Motor Vehicles.

Donohue said the decision is par-
ticularly bad in light of the current
economy.

“At a time when thousands of New
York families are struggling to find jobs
and pay their bills, New York state has
decided to help prisoners develop ‘mar-
ketable skills’ rather than make appro-
priate and necessary jobs available to
law-abiding citizens who would then
pay their taxes, spend their paychecks
and contribute in the local community,”
Donohue said in a prepared statement.
“CSEA can only remain skeptical about
claims of taxpayer savings from this
scheme when security and close-supervi-
sion costs are considered.”

The DMV call center at the medium-
security Greene Correctional Facility
was announced by the state Department
of Corrections and Community Supervi-
sion and the state Department of Motor

© 2012 DAILY FREEMAN
Al Rights Reserves,

Vehicles in a press release issued Tues-
day. The release stated the inmates are
expected to answer more than 1 million
calls per year and that the center is a
way to cut state costs while continuing
to deliver services. The agencies said
the call center will save taxpayers about
$3.5 million per year.

The call center at Greene Correctional
replaces one at the Arthur Kill Correc-
tional Facility on Staten Island. That.
call center closed on Dec. 1.

The Greene call center will employ
45 inmates when fully operational, but
inmates will not have access to DMV
computers and will not be able to access
any customer data, the press release
stated. It also said convicted of tele-
phone-related crimes or credit card or
computer fraud are not eligible to work
in the center.

The inmates in the call center will
answer general assistance questions,
such as those about office hours and
locations and identification require-
ments, the release stated.

Donohue called the move “another
swipe at public employees by equating
the work of hard-working, responsible
and dedicated employees with incarcer-
ated criminals in the public’s mind.”

The state Department of Motor Vehi-
cles press office declined to respond to
Donohue’s comments.

Account: 23070 (11409)
Nvsi8

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Page 1 of 1
Date: Thursday, January 12, 2012
BALDWIN HERALD Location: LAWRENCE, NY

Circulation (OMA): 3,773 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: 9

Keyword: CSEA

local 880 collected toys
at Coral House

a Pa empstead Town Councilwoman Dor- Councilwoman Goosby, Denise Thibou of
bie) othy L. Goosby (2nd left) helped col- Hempstead, TOH CSEA Local 880 Vice-Presi-
ie lect toys at the Town of Hempstead dent Peter Giorandano of Mer: Mary

CSEA Local 880 holiday party held — Burns of Hempstead and Larry Paretta of eases]
at the Coral House in Baldwin. Pictured (left. Wantagh. i
to right) are Michael Hilkewicz of Baldwin,

Page 1 of 1

© 2012 BALDWIN HERALD
Al Rights Reserved,

‘Account: 23070 (11443)
N36

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
Date:

OBSERVER-DISPATCH 2.x,

Type (Frequency):
Page:
Keyword:

Thursday, January 12, 2012
UTICA, NY

34,128 (169)

Newspaper (D)

7A

CSEA

NY union: Juveniles injure
detention center staff

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

TABERG — A union rep-
resenting workers at state
juvenile detention cen-
ters says they are taking a
beating from youths in
their care.

The Civil Service
Employees Association
cites Taberg Residential
Center, where 18 staff
injuries included three
broken bones, a concus-
sion and a dislocated
shoulder.

CSEA said Taberg is
symptomatic of increas-
ing attacks under a policy
shift from a correctional
model to a_ so-called
“sanctuary model” in dis-
regard for staff welfare.

© 2012 OBSERVER DISPATCH
Al Rights Reserved,

The union said adding
females from the recently
closed Tryon Girls Resi-
dential Center to previ-
ously all-male Taberg
increased the violence
risk.

The Office of Children
and Family Services said
Wednesday safety is a pri-
mary concern, senior
managers have been sent
to provide support at
Taberg, and most staff
injuries happened while
restraining youths, not in
assaults by them.

State Sen. Joseph A.
Griffo, R-Rome, Wednes-
day called on Gladys Car-
rion, state Office of Chil-
dren and Family Services
commissioner, to take

“Lam outraged and demand immediate
steps to address the serious situation at

the OCFS Residential Facility at Taberg.
... Rapid steps need to be taken to stabi-

lize the situation.”

State Sen. Joseph Griffo
R-Rome

strong, swift and effective
action to protect staff at
the Taberg center.

“IT am outraged and
demand immediate steps
to address the serious sit-
uation at the OCFS Resi-
dential Facility at Taberg,
where the appalling
record of injuries suf-
fered by staff is a clear
indication that rapid
steps need to be taken to
stabilize the situation for
the protection of remain-
ing staff and to institute
changes that will create a
safe work environment
for the staff,” Griffo wrote.

Contributing: The Associated
Press, Observer-Dispatch

‘Account: 23070 (11459)
Nv-703

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Date:

8 Location:
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Keyword:

Thursday, January 12, 2012
AUBURN, NY

8,968 (79)

Newspaper (D)

3

CSEA

NEW YORK

Public employees union:
Attacks on juvenile detention
center staff increasing

The Associated Press

ALBANY — A union rep-
resenting workers at state
juvenile detention centers
said they are taking a beat-
ing from youths in their
care.

The Civil Service
Employees Association
cites Taberg Residential
Center in Oneida County,
where 18 staff injuries

included three broken
bones, a concussion and a
dislocated shoulder.

CSEA said Taberg is
symptomatic of increas-
ing attacks under a policy
shift from a correctional
model to a so-called “sanc-
tuary model” in disregard
for staff welfare.

The union said adding
females from the recently
closed Tryon Girls Resi-

dential Center to previ-
ously all-male Taberg
increased the violence risk.

The Office of Children
and Family Services said
Wednesday safety is a pri-
mary concern, senior man-
agers have been sent to pro-
vide support at Taberg and
most staff injuries hap-
pened while restraining
youths, not in assaults by
them.

‘Account: 23070 (11460)
NY

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Page 1 of 1
Location:

Circulation (OMA): 8,750 (56)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: 3

Keyword: CSEA

LEADER-HERALD ee rca rer ill

CSEA: Inmates
causing Injuries

ALBANY — An influx of in-
mates from the shuttered Tryon
Residential Center in Perth is
being cited as a reason for an
increased risk of violence at an-
other juvenile detention center
operated by the state Office of
Children & Family Services.

Civil Service Employees As-
sociation President Danny
Donohue on Tuesday said the
relocation of female Tryon in-
mates to the Taberg Residential
Center near Rome changed the
makeup of the formerly all-
male facility and has led to 18
of 33 youth division aides and
the center’s director being tem-
porarily out of work because of
severe injuries sustained in at-
tacks by inmates.

“For years, CSEA has consis-
tently and loudly warned about
the danger front-line workers at
OCFS face, and it’s time some-
one listens before anyone else
gets hurt,” Donohue said in a
news release.

The Tryon facility was shut
down in August as part of a
state initiative to remove beds
from the juvenile justice sys-
tem. Before it closed, more than
a half-dozen inmates were ar-
rested for assaulting employees.

Tryon employees had made
complaints about violent in-
mates when the local facility
was open.

Page 1 of 1

© 2012 LEADER-HERALD
Al Rights Reserved,

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Nv-258,

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()a=(

~ Ser Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Location: ROME, NY
at baa8 TITEL. Circulation (OMA): 12,057 (169)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: ALA2
Keyword: CSEA

Injuries from
unruly females
at youth center

BY SEAN I. MILLS
Sentinel staff writer

TOWN OF ANNSVILLE
— Responding to union claims
of injuries to 18 of 33 aides at
a state-run detention facility
for young females, State Sen.
Joseph A. Griffo is calling for
better safety measures and staff
training at the Taberg Residential
Center.

Griffo, RA7 Rome, called the
reports of injuries “appalling”
and demanded immediate action
from the commissioner of the
state Office of Child and Family
Services.

‘Tam outraged and demand
immediate steps to address the
serious situation at the OCFS
Residential Facility at Taberg,”
Griffo wrote to Gladys Carrion.

“The appalling record of inju-
ries suffered by staff is a clear
indication that rapid steps need
to be taken to stabilize the situa-
tion for the protection of remain-
ing staff and to institute changes
that will create a safe work envi-
ronment for the staff.”

Officials with the OCFS, how-

| CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Trouble

ever, said today that the claims
of the employee union — the
Civil Service Employees Associa-
tion (CSEA) — are not entirely
accurate, and that the Taberg
Residential Center has received
increased training and an influx
of staff since a change in 2011
from an all-male facility to all-
female.

“The safety of both staff and
residents is a primary concern
of the OCFS,” said Susan Steele,
assistant director of communica-
tions in Albany.

“In recognition of issues at
Taberg, since November, OCFS
has deployed senior managers
and staff from both regional and
home offices to provide facility
staff with technical assistance
and support.”

The Taberg Residential Cen-
ter is a limited-security facility
at 10011 Taberg-Florence Road.
It provides counseling, educa-
tion and other services to girls
ages 13 to 18 who have been
sentenced in Family Court for
various crimes. Prior to 2011, the
Taberg facility was an all-male
campus, but that changed due to
the closing of several other facili-
ties in 2011, OCFS officials said.

As of Monday, there were 14
female residents at the facility,
Steele said. They center can bunk
amaximum of 25 youths.

According to the union, 18 of
the 33 Youth Division Aides, as
well as the facility director, are
currently out of work due to
injuries suffered in attacks from
the female residents. They said
the injuries include two broken
collarbones, a concussion, a bro-
ken ankle and a dislocate shoul-
der. The union said that other
co-workers have had to take on
double shifts to ensure that the
residents receive the round-the-
clock supervision, adding to the

physical and emotional drain of
the job.

“For too long, OCFS has shown
acomplete disregard for the safe-
ty of its staff,” said Danny Dono-
hue, president of the CSEA.

“We cannot afford to continue
policies that compromise public
safety and put youths and staff
at risk. We need a commitment
to provide the leadership and
resources necessary to ensure the
safety and well being of youths,

Page 1 of 2

© 2012 DAILY SENTINEL
All Rights Reserved,

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NY-605

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()a=(

Daily Sentinel

Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Location: ROME, NY
Circulation (OMA): 12,057 (169)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
Page: AL AZ
Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 DAILY SENTINEL
All Rights Reserved,

staff and the community.”

Steele said she could not
confirm the accuracy of the 18
reportedly injured aides. She said
there are currently 40 filled Youth
Division Aide positions at the
Taberg Residential Center.

Donohue said that chief among
the problems is the gradual shift
from a detention model to a new
“Sanctuary Model” for the facil-

ity.

According to OCFS literature,
the Sanctuary Model is “a cul-
tural model rather than a treat-
ment intervention.” ‘Employees
and residents are expected to
follow seven daily commitments,
including nonviolence, emotional
intelligence, open communica-
tion and more.

Steele said the new model is
“a complete shift in philosophy,”
and is “a way to move away from
restraints.”

“Contrary to claims made by
CSEA, OCFS has increased train-
ing at Taberg,” Steele said.

“Also contrary to CSEAs
claims, most of the injuries iden-
tified were sustained during the
course of employing restraints,
not during assaults by youth.”

Steele said the injuries
occurred when employees tried
to physically restrain the youths.
She said she does not believe
the facility uses actual mechani-
cal restraints, but simply physi-
cally restrains the youths when
needed.

“Clearly the juveniles in the
state system have some very
complex behavioral and psycho-
logical needs,” Steele said. “It’s a

challenging population.”

One such incident occurred
at the facility on Dec. 12, when
state police were called after
facility resident Jessica J. Wil-
liams, age 16, attacked one of the
male employees. State police said
Williams had been in a fight with
another girl when the employee
tried to break them up.

Williams is accused of attack-
ing the employee with her fists,

giving him a concussion. She
was charged with third-degree
assault.

“I wouldn't call it a problem
area,” said State Police Captain
Francis S. Coots. He said not
all law enforcement calls to the
facility result in charges, though
“It’s certainly been physical con-
frontations between residents, as
well as against staff.”

Coots said “it's just noticeable
that we're receiving more calls
at the facility” since the change
to an all-female campus. There
were reports of violence when it
was all-male, “but certainly not
as frequently,” he stated.

Neither Coots nor Steele would
comment on what it is about the
all-female campus that has led to
more reported attacks. They also
did not have the exact number
of state police responses to the
facility over the past year.

In his letter to Commissioner
Carrion, Griffo called these inju-
Ty reports the “latest black eye”
for the OCFS.

Griffo said a facility in Goshen
in Orange County was cited last
year for an “out-of-control orgy
and sex party” that was held in
December 2009 with OCFS sup-
port.

“It's time to clean house and
restore order,” Griffo said.

“Dedicated front-line workers
at Taberg are clearly not being
given the adequate protection,
training or staffing needed, and
the result is a series of injuries
that seriously is damaging morale
and forcing staff to endure dan-
gerous working conditions.”

Account: 23070 (11425)
NY-605

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 2 of 2
SOURCE: AP State Online New York
DATE: 01-11-2012
HEADLINE: NY union says juveniles injuring staff

Source Website
The Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y.

A union representing workers at the state's juvenile detention centers says they are taking a beating from
youths in their care.

The Civil Service Employees Association cites the situation at Taberg Residental Center in Oneida County
where 18 staff suffered injuries, including three broken bones, a concussion and a dislocated shoulder.

CSEA says Taberg is symptomatic of a larger problem, with increasing attacks on staff under a policy shift
from a correctional model to a so-called "sanctuary model" at the juvenile centers in disregard for staff

welfare.

The union says an influx of females from the recently closed Tryon Girls Residential Center in Fulton County
to previously all-male Taberg has increased the risk of violence against staff.

Calls to the Office of Children and Family Services were not immediately returned.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed.

Highlights: Civil Service, Employees Association, CSEA
NEW HYDE PARK HERALD COURIER > Fide tang oor

Location: NEW HYDE PARK, NY
(NYC MARKET AREA) Circulation (DMA): 2,875 (1)
‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: 10
Keyword: CSEA

Axe falls on
county workers

There’s blood on the floor of the county offices.

Less than a week after Christmas nearly 300 county workers were giv-
en pink slips last week and another 137 others were demoted. The workers
are frightened and angry but their union bosses cannot say they didn’t see
this coming.

It could get worse. If the Civil Service Employees Association can’t
reach an agreement with the legislature, Nassau County Executive Ed Man-
gano has wamed that another round of layoffs could take place in February.

The union leaders say Mangano could have balanced the budget with
a small tax hike as low as 25 cents a day. But the county needs to close a
budget gap of more than $300 million and Mangano insists that he won't
raise taxes.

It was painful to see the budget axe fall. Employees, some with more
than 15 years on the job, were escorted out of their offices when they ar-
rived for work on Thursday morning. According to union officials most of
the targeted civil service workers were from the county departments of
social services, probation and public works.

The work that they do is important. They keep our streets in good re-
pair, make certain that the poorest in the county have access to medical
care and food stamps and monitor people given a second chance by the
courts. No one should pretend that their services are not needed. And, ex-
cept for some overtime excess, these workers were not overpaid.

Nearly a dozen county workers had accepted an early retirement pack-
age. They will get $1,000 for every year of service with the county. This was
not nearly enough to balance the budget. The union officials expect that
more workers will accept this offer. It’s not clear if that is still an option for
the laid-off workers.

The labor leaders said it was a “dark day” an indeed it was.

“This is supposed to be one of the greatest counties in the country,” said
Jerry Laricchiuta, president of the county’s largest union, told reporters in
his Mineola office. He called Nassau County “the embarrassment of New
York State.”

Unlike the people he represents, Laricchiuta will still have a job on Opinion
Monday morning. If this is an embarrassment then Laricchiuta and other
union leaders share in the blame. They should have worked with county on
givebacks that would have averted the need for layoffs. In tough times that
is far better than being out of work.

Mangano wasn't posturing. The county must produce a balanced bud-
get. And raising taxes should not be an option. Nassau County already has
the highest taxes in the nation. The county has to learn to live within its
means.

There is still time for the union leaders to come back to the bargaining
table. The rank and file should urge them to do so immediately.

Page 1 of 1

(© 2012 NEW HYDE PARK HERALD COURIER (NYC MARKET AREA}
Al Rights Reserved,

‘Account: 23070 (11438)
Nvatt

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
TOWN REPORT

Date: Friday, January 06, 2012
Location: NEW ROCHELLE, NY
Circulation (OMA): 6,367 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: 113

Keyword: CSEA

Eastchester slides under tax
cap, projects 14 layoffs

By PAIGE RENTZ
STAFF REPORTER
paige@ homerwn.com

The Eastchester Town Board
approved Dec. 20 a $34.13 million
2012 town budget that stays within
the new property tax cap but cuts 4
jobs and projects 10 more layoffs
in 2012.

Town Supervisor Anthony
Colavita (R) announced at last
month's meeting that the town
was able to restore three positions
— one each in the parks, highway,
and police departments — through
a combination of savings in the
Highway Department and from
two town employees who agreed
to take an incentive to retire by
February. The town agreed to pay
all health insurance premiums for
up to 36 months for employees
who agreed to retire by that time.

Officials had hoped that a pro-
posed agreement with the CSEA
could save more jobs, but a deal
was overwhelmingly rejected in
December by union membership
in a 78-11 vote.

Bill Haas, president of the local
CSEA, said he believed the biggest
reason the proposal was rejected
was because of a provision that
would have all employees pay
something into their healthcare.
He speculated that the ‘yes’ votes
were likely cast by those whose
jobs were on the chopping block.

Colavita said the proposal
would have saved approximately
$340,000.

As it stands, the budget cuts one
part-time and three full-time posi-
tions across town departments,
including two civilian positions in
the police department. Two other
positions will see a reduction in
hours. In addition, 10 golf mainte-
nance employees at Lake Isle are
expected to lose their jobs later this
year after the town privatizes that

BUDGET continued on page 13

© 2012 TOWN REPORT

Al Rights Reserved,

function at the club.

“The employees who are facing layoffs
must have such a sense of loss and anger,” said
Councilman Glenn Bellitto (R). But on the flip
side, he said, “hearing fourth and fifth genera-
tion Eastchester residents saying they will prob-
ably have to leave is gut-wrenching. So what do
we do? We must make cuts while maintaining
the town’s quality of life.” The councilman said
that though the Town Board would have pre-
ferred to work with the CSEA to save jobs, the
positions cut in the coming budget will save the
town a considerable amount of money without
diminishing services.

This year’s layoffs will bring the total num-
ber of positions cut over the last eight years to
46. The town also came to an agreement over
parking meter hours, extending the active time
from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., rather than the previously
proposed 9 p.m. Several residents spoke out
against what they considered an unfair tax on
homeowners who utilize the metered spaces at
night, but the council members expressed that
the move was a good compromise. The supervi-
sor said he expects the change will provide the
town with about $50,000 in revenue. He and
several council members indicated that the town
may continue to examine the parking situation
and revisit the issue throughout the year.

The budget carries a 4.6 percent tax rate in-
crease for residents of the town outside, which
equates to an additional $106.77 per year for an
average home assessed at $10,000. For village
residents, the budget carries a 2.36 percent tax
rate increase, which means a $16.64 bump in
a Bronxville resident's tax bill for an average
home assessed at $22,000 and an additional
$6.05 for an average Tuckahoe home assessed
at $8,000.

Some of the cost drivers in this budget
were a $3 million pension bill and a 2 percent
reduction in assessed valuation in the town
— more than $5 million over the past two years.
Councilman Fred Salanitro (R) pointed out the
town's authorization of an $84,000 tax cer-
tiorari just before the budget vote, which will
affect next year's assessment rolls. “Before we
even opened up the budget, we were looking at
an increase,” he said.

The board members took aim at Albany for
the fiscal crisis local governments have found
themselves in.

“The only way that we can control the pen-

le

Account: 23070 (11414)
Nv-2a13

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Page 1 of 2
TOWN REPORT

Date: Friday, January 06, 2012
Location: NEW ROCHELLE, NY
Circulation (OMA): 6,367 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: 113

Keyword: CSEA

sion costs is to reduce our staff,” said Salanitro.
“We cannot continue paying $3 million-plus
dollars into the pension.”

“With the last [state] comptroller sitting in
jail because of mismanagement, because the
market took a tank five years ago, the taxpayers
are paying for those mistakes,” Salanitro added.
The councilman said the without changes to
the pension system, local governments like
Eastchester will eventually fall into bankruptcy.
“We would have to eliminate all services to ba-
sically get out from under this weight the state
has put on our shoulders,” he said.

Colavita called the size of the town’s pen-
sion payment “ridiculous” and accused state
lawmakers of passing the buck down to local
municipal “They need to take accountabil-
ity for what is going on here,” he said. “They're
up in Albany, and they're not dealing with this
here; They're not in front of you telling people
you can’t work here anymore, and you've got

© 2012 TOWN REPORT
Al Rights Reserved,

to feed your kids and pay tuition...We're doing
that for them, and quite frankly, it’s not very
pleasant.”

Salanitro told the audience that the town’s.
budget work isn’t over. “The 2013 budget starts
January 2012." he said. Continuing from the
work the town has put into this budget cycle,
he added, “we have to try to implement some of
those ideas, try to make those changes so that
when 2013 comes, we're going to be able to,
again, hopefully stay under the 2 percent cap
and keep the increase as low as possibl

In April. the town will likely pass a capital
budget to purchase heavy equipment and fund
special projects and paving for roads and side-
walks. Colavita said over the last couple of
years, officials have tried to keep the capital
plan within about $1 million. He expects it to
be comparable for the 2012 cycle.

-With reporting by CHARLIE JOHNSON

Account: 23070 (11414)
Nv-2a13

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Page 2 of 2
Date:
Location:

Page:
Keyword:

Friday, January 06, 2012
LONG ISLAND, NY

Circulation (OMA): 297,601 (1)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)
AB

CSEA

Fired, then hired

= Nassau finds funds
to reverse some layoffs

= Social Services was
hardest-hit department

BY ROBERT BRODSKY
robert. brodsky@newsday.com

Nassau County officials said
yesterday they have found
new grant money to rehire
roughly 40 Department of So-
cial Services employees who
were laid off last week.

That department lost 106
employees in the Dec. 29 cuts,
more than any other. Several
laid-off employees com-
plained that Nassau would
gain only minimal savings be-
cause a significant portion of
their salaries were subsidized
by state and federal funds.

The county will tap grant
funds it has recently identified
to rehire about 40 workers,
said Deputy County Executive
Rob Walker. County operating
funds will not be used for the
rehires, which will occur with-
in a few weeks, he said.

“We have done our due dili-
gence and found new funding
to bring back some workers,”
Walker said.

Civil Service Employees As-
sociation president Jerry Laric-
chiuta said, “Cuts at DSS were
just too deep. DSS is ready to
implode on itself.” Walker
said the county is “comfort-
able” with the cuts and that

© 2012 Newsday in,
All Rights Reserved,

the department has sufficient
resources and manpower.

Also yesterday, the county
offered new details on the com-
position of last week’s layoffs.

Of 264 total layoffs, 243
were CSEA members and 21
were appointive, non-union
employees, including senior de-
partmental officials in informa-
tion technology and housing,
Walker said. The departing or-
dinance employees were ei-
ther laid off or quit in advance
of their termination, he said.

Laricchiuta said the higher-
paid employees should have
borne more of the brunt of the
layoffs. “So far, I have not seen
any shared pain,” he said. “It’s
just CSEA pain. And, you can’t
balance this entire mess on
one union’s back.”

Walker said the administra-
tion has “shared the burden,”
cutting patronage jobs by 30
percent for savings of more
than $15 million.

Walker also said yesterday
that no decision has been
made yet on whether to ex-
tend a voluntary retirement
program that provided CSEA
members with $1,000 for
every year of service with Nas-
sau. The program ended Dec.
29 but employees had until

yesterday to rescind their re-
tirement papers.

A total of 114 employees ac-
cepted the incentive, saving
Nassau $7.3 million in labor
costs and preserving roughly
150 jobs that otherwise would
have been lost in a second
round of layoffs, Walker said.

The legislature appropriat-
ed $20 million in borrowed
funds for the incentive and
termination pay. The layoffs
and retirements cost the coun-
ty about $30 million, although
some of the money will be
spent in 2013 and 2014. De-
parting workers had the op-
tion to be paid out over three
years.

Meanwhile, even as some
workers were being brought
back, seven Traffic and Park-
ing Violations Agency em-
ployees were laid off yester-
day and three other workers
were demoted, the union
said. CSEA is contesting the
moves.

NOW ONLINE
Look for the latest

on the Nassau

budget woes.
newsday.com/nassau

Account: 23070 (11314)
NY-56,

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Page 1 of 2
Date: Friday, January 06, 2012
Location: LONG'ISLAND, NY
Circulation (OMA): 297,601 (1)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (0)

Page: AB

Keyword: CSEA

PHOTO BY HOWARD SCHNAPP

Lauren Quigley, left, is escorted by her supervisor as she leaves after layoff last week.

Page 2 of 2

© 2012 Newsday in,
All Rights Reserved,

Account: 23070 (11314)
NY-56,

For reprinis or rights, posters and plagues, please visi www: NewscayReprinis.com or cal (212) 221-9505
LEVITTOWN TRIBUNE Date Fi tana 06,2012

Location:

Circulation (OMA): 4,054 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: 2

Keyword: CSEA

a

Z i = ae
Hempstead Town “Angels” Collect for Toy Drive

Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray (third left) presents Salvation Army Ma-
jor Philip Wittenberg (third right) with a room full of toys collected by Town of
Hempstead employees for the Salvation Army’s 2011 Angel Tree Toy Drive. For
more than 20 years, the Town of Hempstead and its Civil Service Employees Associ-
ation has helped the Salvation Army provide a happy holiday season for thousands
of area-disadvantaged children. The Salvation Army distributes the beautiful, new
unwrapped holiday toys to parents the week before Christmas. Pictured (left to
right) are Hempstead Town Highway Commissioner Thomas Toscano, Highway De-
partment employee Sharon Sweeny, Supervisor Murray, Major Wittenberg, CSEA
Local 880 President Charles Sellitto and CSEA Treasurer Bob Murphy.

Page 1 of 1

© 2012 LEVITTOWN TRIBUNE
Al Rights Reserved,

Account: 23070 (11402)
N32,

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher
JOURNAL NEWS
(WESTCHESTER/PUTNAM)

Date: Friday, January 06, 2012

Location:
Circulation (OMA):
Type (Frequency):
Page:

Keyword: CSEA

WHITE PLAINS, NY
76,272 (1)
Newspaper (D)

14

Med Center
to lay off
another 150

Pa. company to take over
patient care at BHC

By Theresa Juva-Brown
tiuva@lohud.com

VALHALLA — It’s a new year and a
new round of layoffs at Westchester
Medical Center.

Just weeks after slashing 250 posi-
tions across the hospital, the embattled
medical center announced Thursday
that up to more than half the staff at the
Behavioral Health Center could lose
their jobs as an outside company takes
over direct patient care and treatment.

The medical center is laying off
about 150 Civil Service Employee Asso-
ciation workers, including recreation
therapists, mental health aides and so-
cial workers.

The BHC currently has a staff of
280. Nurses and physicians will not be
affected by the change, officials said.

“At what point does it stop?” said
Jessica Ladlee, spokeswoman for
CSEA, which has 1,500 members at the

See LAYOFFS, Page 4A

medical center. “It’s a
bloodbath. It’s really
shameful.”

Medical center admin-
istrators project to save
$4 million a year by part-
nering with Liberty
Healthcare, a Pennsylva-
nia-based health-care de-
livery company. The
medical center will pay
Liberty $8.8 million a
year under the three-year
agreement.

Liberty plans to em-
ploy 125 to 135 people and
overhaul the treatment
model at the BHC, said
Marsha Casey, executive
vice president of opera-
tions at the medical cen-

(© 2012 JOURNAL NEWS {WESTCHESTERIPUTNAM)
All Rights Reserved,

ter.

The new model will
have a greater focus on
individualized therapy
programs, she said. She
also noted that the cur-
rent center is “probably a
bit overstaffed” and the
new model will adjust
staff levels based on
need.

The transition to the
new model will take eight
weeks.

Laid-off BHC workers
can apply for the new
jobs, but Liberty is in
charge of hiring, medical
center officials said.

The Liberty contract is
the latest cut ina series of
shakeups to close a pro-
jected $60 million budget
gap.
Last month, the medi-
cal center eliminated 250
jobs to save $30 million.
Officials have said soar-
ing state pension costs,
plummeting Medicaid
and Medicare reimburse-
ments, and eliminated
county support has led to

the gap.
“We cannot spend
more money than we take

in,” said medical center
CEO Michael Israel. “If
there’s an assertion that
all these things are occur-

ring just at the medical
center, that’s not reality.”

The BHC change, he
said, will “provide a bet-
ter service and deliver
more service in a more
cost-effective way.”

Union officials said
they believe it will lead to
more job outsourcing. Pe-
ter Piazza, president of
CSEA at the medical cen-
ter, said he’s concerned
the BHC transition could
be disruptive and danger-
ous.

“The psych aides are 6
foot 6. They are like line-
backers, and these guys
protect the (registered
nurses),” he said. “The

Account: 23070 (11344)
Ny-2a72

RNs are going to be
scared during this transi-
tion.”

Although BHC nurses
aren't facing job cuts,
they may have to take on
more work during the
change, said Samuel Ca-
quias, president of the lo-
cal bargaining unit for the
New York State Nurses
Association.

Inastatement, Liberty
Healthcare said it’s “very
eager” to work with the
medical center and
“bring new talent and a
fresh perspective to the
direct care and therapeu-
tic services at the hospi-
tal.”

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 1 of 1
EAST MEADOW HERALD

Date: Thursday, January 05, 2012
Location: LAWRENCE, NY
Circulation (OMA): 3,917 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)

Page: AiO

Keyword: CSEA

bs Si aa

NEIGHBORS INTHE NEWS

Courtesy Town of Hempstead

MAJOR PHILIP WITTENBERG, 4th from left, accepted new toys on behalf of the
Salvation Army from Highway Commissioner Thomas Toscano, left, Highway
Department employee Sharon Sweeny, Supervisor Kate Murray, CSEA President

Charles Sellitto and CSEA Treasurer Bob

Murphy.

Town of Hempstead hosts successful toy drive

Town of Hempstead employees collected
toys for the Salvation Army’s 2011 Angel
Tree Toy Drive and Town Supervisor Kate
Murray presented the donations to Salvation
Army Major Philip Wittenberg on Dec. 14.

The Town of Hempstead and its Civil Ser-

© 2012 EAST MEADOW HERALD
All Rights Reserved,

vice Employees Association has helped the
Salvation Army provide a happy holiday sea-
son for thousands of disadvantaged children
in the area for more than 20 years.

The Salvation Army distributed the new
toys to parents the week before Christmas.

‘Account: 23070 (11464)
Ny-3049

For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher

Page 1 of 1
° Date: Wednesday, January 04, 2012
e al tar Location: ONEONTA, NY
Circulation (DMA): 13,914 (169)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
1,2

Miller: City workers may face layotis

ONEONTA — Mayor Dick
Miller had a stark message in
his State of the City address de-
livered Tuesday night: layoffs
of city workers are possible as
Oneonta deals with continued
financial strains.

Those fiscal strains are driven
largely by personnel-related ex-
penses. with more than 70 per-
cent of the city’s budget paying
for wages or benefits, the mayor
said from a small podium in
front of the city flag.

Butcuts tothe city’s work force
would mean cuts to the services
provided by the city, he said.

Our situation is a difficult
one. I can't imagine how we
could operate with the current
levels of service with fewer em-
ployees.” Miller said.

The warning on layoffs was
part of a wide-ranging speech as
the mayor starts his third year at
City Hall at the head of a Com-
mon Council that includes five
new members.

Civil Service Employees Asso-
ciation Unit 8101 President Tom
Pondolfino was one of two dozen
audience members on hand for
the mayor's speech.

Pondolfino said he isn't too
worried about layoffs in 2012.

One of the main reasons is
that the city’s CSEA work force
has been pared back through
attrition to the point where it
can't be cut anymore without
reducing services. according to
Pondolfino.

Pondolfino noted the city po-
lice and fire departments, which
have their own unions. have very
visible presences in the commu-
nity. But CSEA workers main-
tain the city’s water and sewer
systems, as well as work in other
ways for the community.

“You have to have your roads.”
he said.

But Pondolfino said cutting
workers — and therefore ser-
vices — may be an eventuality

© 2012 DAILY STAR,
Al Rights Reserves,

“It's going to be somebody's
headache.” Pondolfino said.

Fire Chief Patrick Pidgeon,
who has lobbied vigorously for
additional firefighters to help
with his department's _ staff-
ing woes, said he will continue
those efforts. but acknowledged
it will be a tough fight.

TOUGH DECISIONS AHEAD

The Common Couneil will face
tough decisions and will have to
reduce services through layoffs
or find other ways to generate
revenue. Miller said.

Those include seeking finan-
cial help from the city’s non-
profit organizations or merging
with the town and sales tax pre-
emption. Other ideas mentioned
by the mayor include a commut-
er tax. similar to the New York

SEE MAYOR ON PAGE 2
City income tax for non-city resi-
dents, a sales tax increase or a re-
negotiation of the city’s share of the
county's sales tax revenue.

“None of these ideas are popular
ideas,” Miller said.

Four of the new council members
were present for the mayor’s speech,
delivered at City Hall. They include
David Rissberger of the Third Ward,
Mike Naples of the Sixth Ward, Bob
Brzozowski of the Seventh Ward and
Chip Iolmes of the Eighth Ward.

First Ward Council Member Mau-
reen Hennessy. Fourth Ward Coun-
cil Member Mike Lynch and Fifth
Ward Council Member Madolyn
Palmer are returning to the city's
governing body.

Newly-elected Second Ward
Council Member Larry Malone was
absent.

Miller reflected on 2011 and out-
lined a list of successes: A strength-
ened code enforcement office; the
adoption of a new City Charter.
which calls for the hiring of a city
manager. by voters: a revamped zon-
ing code: a reorganized Department
of Public Works; continued work on

Account: 23070 (11346)
Nya

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Page 1 of 3
The

Daily Star

Date: Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Location: ONEONTA, NY
Circulation (DMA): 13,914 (169)
Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)
Page: 12

Keyword: CSEA

© 2012 DAILY STAR,
Al Rights Reserved,

the former Bresee's project; and a
re-energized Oneonta Police De-
partment following a police brutal-
ity case.

The challenges faced by the city
are largely fiscal in nature and in-
volve the city using its reserves to
pay off operating expenses, accord-
ing to the mayor.

It's a problem that will “simply
not go away,” Miller said. “We have
pushed out the day of reckoning.”

But, the mayor said, the city’s def-
icit situation is better than it was
three years ago when it was first cal-
culated in a five-year fiscal plan.

However, the bud-
get deficit for 2011
was originally pro-
jected at $460,000,
but is now $700,000.
The mayor said this
was because of a
renovation project
on the municipal
parking garage and
the initial funding of the Johnson
Controls energy efficiency project.

The $3.8 Johnson Control plan
pays for itself entirely over a 15-year
period and generates positive cash
flow in every year of the project and
$1 million in total, according to the
mayor.

Miller outlined how he hopes
joint efforts with community groups,
organizations and businesses will
benefit the city in 2012, naming a

housing summit scheduled for next
month, a soon-to-be launched .com-
munity-wide effort to meet future
recreation needs and a revitalized
Main Street Oneonta organization
working with Foothills Performing
Arts and Civic Center and the One-
onta Theatre.

Palmer said she was enthusiastic
about 21012 —a year in which the city
is implementing its new charter.

“We iare a new council, and we
are goimg to be working under a new
charter,” Palmer said. “I think it’s
great.”

She thanked several members of
the Charter Revision Commission
in the audience.

The cornerstone of the charter is
the city manager position.

“IT hope somebody can be in place
in early fall,” Miller said.

The incoming Common Coun-
cil skirted the open meetings law,
which requires that meetings with a
quorum of members be announced
and open to the public. Miller said
the incoming members met in a re-
treat Dec. 10 to discuss the upeom-
ing year before they were sworn in
as public officials.

“We were able to sneak the one in
December in,” Miller said.

The next retreat would now be
considered a formal meeting of the
Commom Council, according to the
mayor.

Account: 23070 (11346)
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Page 2 of 3
° Date: Wednesday, January 04, 2012
1 tC = ONEONTA, NY

Circulation (OMA): 13,914 (169)

Type (Frequency): Newspaper (D)

Page: é
Keyword: CSEA

JAKE PALMATEER |THE DAILY STAR
ONEONTA MAYOR DICK MILLER gives his State of the City address at the
Common Council meeting Tuesday at City Hall.

Page 3 of 3

© 2012 DAILY STAR,
Al Rights Reserved,

‘Account: 23070 (11346)
Nvsei

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Rockland County Times &

Date: Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Location: NANUET, NY
Circulation (OMA): 2,500 (1)

‘Type (Frequency): Newspaper (W)
Page: 5A

Keyword: CSEA

(© 2012 ROCKLAND COUNTY TIMES
Al Rights Reserved,

Unions Sue Over Rise in
Health Costs For Pensioners

A coalition of CSEA, PEF,
UUP, NYSCOPBA, NY-
STPBA, NYSPIA, and AF-
SCME Council 82, unions
representing virtually all of
New York State employees
have filed lawsuits in federal
court challenging the Cuomo
Administration's increase in
the percentage of health insur~
ance contributions required of
state retirces.The legal chal-
lenge applies to changes made
by the administration this fall
and covers state employees
who have retired and seen
their share of health insurance
premium increase beyond the
level at which they retired.

Retirees have long contrib-
uted 10 percent of individual

coverage and 25 percent of
family coverage for their
health insurance coverage
in retirement based on the
percentages included in the
state contracts when they re-
tired. The changes imposed
by the Cuomo Administra
tion increase the percentage
of contribution 2 percent for
both individual and family
coverage. The unions said the
changes will have "severe and
unexpected” consequences on
retired employees. The coali-
tion of unions asserts that it is
illegal for the state to increase
those rates for already retired
members. The unions did not
negotiate such increases.

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Page 1 of 1