Suozzi: 500 union workers to leave county payroll

Suozzi: 500 union workers to leave county payroll

BY CELESTE HADRICK

July 20, 2009

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi said Monday he expects 500 union employees to leave the county payroll by the end of the year as part of a negotiated workforce reduction.

Suozzi said the departures, combined with other cost-cutting moves, will mean that he will not have to close any county facilities or resort to layoffs to help close a budget gap originally projected at more than $100 million.

"This is a good example of trying to address the fiscal crisis in a responsible way," Suozzi said before a news conference in Mineola.

As the national recession slashed county revenue, Suozzi earlier this year proposed cost-cutting moves including layoffs, salary reductions and sporadic closing of county facilities.

Suozzi avoided those steps by negotiating lag payrolls and retirement incentives with the three police unions and the Civil Service Employees Association. Because of the incentives, 120 police officers left the force by July 1; 130 CSEA members retired as of Monday and another 229 will be leaving July 31, he said. He projected another 45 police officers will leave by the end of the year.

Those retirements will bring the number of county union employees to 8,067, officials said. Another 723 full-time appointees are on the county payroll. "We're going to have a big struggle in front of us," Suozzi said. "Now we have to do our best with less."

Nassau Legis. Ed Mangano (R-Bethpage), who is challenging Suozzi this fall, said, "The real story is taxpayers are paying more and getting less."