A tempest in a teapot is brewing today over the New York State Department of Environmental Conversation's looming layoffs. The Civil Service Employees Association, which is furious about the cuts and is considering a lawsuit, finagled a Freedom of Information Law request from the DEC that seems to show that the Department made a bunch of high-level hires even as it plotted cuts across the state.
In a press release, the CSEA made its case swiftly:
CSEA Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request has shown that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has added 36 top-level management/confidential positions to the state payroll since July 1, 2010, despite a state-hiring freeze. Eighteen of the 36 positions have a base salary in excess of $100,000 per year.
"At a time when the Paterson administration is seeking to lay off rank and file state employees, there is no way this administration can justify this action," said CSEA President Danny Donohue.
But David Paterson's administration is firing back, insisting that these 36 new positions are not, in fact, new hires, but rather internal promotions. Here's a statement issued to YNN's Capital Tonight and the Times Union's Capitol Confidential blog by a DEC spokeswoman:
“These are not new hires. This list represents existing DEC staff moving into new positions to fill vacancies at the agency. CSEA leadership is once again trying to distract from the fact that they were unwilling to negotiate with this administration to achieve workforce savings required by this budget and avoid State worker layoffs. Governor Paterson proposed a number of methods for achieving workforce savings this year, and the unions rejected every single one of them while failing to provide realistic savings alternatives.”
If you're curious, Capitol Confidential got its hands on the document that the CSEA FOILed from the DEC:
