May 23, 2008
"Payroll padding" and "Double dipping"
Amid controversy over private attorneys collecting government pensions and the revolving door careers of school superintendents, state politicians and the education department are seeking solutions.
Saying "the system is broken and it has to change," Attorney General Andrew Coumo was joined by a couple of state legislators at a hearing Thursday in Riverhead focusing on ways outside attorneys and retired school superintendents game the state retirement system. As the Times Union reports, legisalators condemned the controversial pension practices:
"The good old boy network has been working overtime,"said Sen. Kenneth LaValle, R-Port Jefferson.
"When I think about the thievery that's taking place, it's really upsetting to me," added Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, D-Long Beach.
While the Riverhead hearings were underway, state Education Commissioner Richard Mills issued a statement in Albany, announcing a moratorium on granting waivers to retired superintendents so they can work for another school districtwhile collecting their pensions.
At the hearing, Cuomo showed slides illustrating "a bit of an old-boy network" of retired school officials who pass around interim jobs among themselves. Newsday notes:
In one slide, Michael Griffin, interim assistant superintendent for instruction in the Longwood School District, was shown to have previously served as an interim official in the Seaford, Glen Cove and Locust Valley school districts while collecting a pension as a retiree.
In Oneida County, the Observer-Dispatch reports the Whitesboro school board will decide Tuesday whether to appoint retiring Superintendent Arnold Kaye as interim superintendent when he retires June 30. The story quotes a state education official as saying Kaye would not need a waiver because he is over 65.
Meanwhile, Harry Corbitt, 60, apparently has changed changed his mind about collecting his $84,000 trooper pension while getting paid $136,000 to head the State Police. The Paterson administration has withdraw its request for a Civil Service Commission waiver to allow him to double dip. Gannett News Service reports:
The section of law under which Corbitt is seeking permission to keep receiving his pension mandates he has to be uniquely qualified for the job and nobody who is not retired could be found to fill it.
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