Murphy's Law

An expert is one who knows less and less about more and more until he knows absolutely nothing about everything - Murphy's Law Number 1984

Back in June 2012 I began to wonder why many politicians spoke of the numerous patronage jobs that existed in Rockland County but yet no one would identify these patronage jobs or name their holders. In Who are they? Where are they hiding? I asked does anyone ever wonder who the 'ghosts' are that occupy the positions of "patronage" in the Town governments and in the government of Rockland County?  

We hear about them all of the time - they are said to be everywhere - but some of them must be 'phantoms' as seldom does anyone name these chimeras and tell us where exactly we should look to find them.

In an article in Patch on May 31, 2012 I searched in vain for the identitiy of the nameless unknowns that have populated the public payroll:

Officials of the CSEA, which represents most of the unionized county employees, claimed political patronage jobs escaped the proposed cuts. “It’s bad enough that people are being laid off through no fault of their own, but it adds insult to injury to see that county department heads are sparing political appointees and other friends while making almost all of their cuts in the unionized workforce,” said CSEA Southern Region President Billy Riccaldo. “Once again, the little guy suffers while the higher ups are spared.”

Here we have a crop of 'phantom friends' apparently known only to department heads. The CSEA says it has asked for a list of appointed positions but the request has always been denied. Why? Are these appointed' people not employed by those who pay taxes? Are the appointed positions 'phantom' also?

But then I found a big one when the Clarkstown Town Board gave the job of conducting the Town of Clarkstown's tax certiorari matters to Bronx, 'fat cat', Republican Party Chairman, Jay Savino.

Savino turned out to be a whopper!   Here is his history .....

a) Town Attorney Marsha Coopersmith, who until December 31, 2011 conducted the Town's tax cert matters, was Chair of the Independence Party. She controlled that party and Mr. Gromack ran as its candidate.  The Indendence Party isn’t so much a political party as it is a racket, albeit a legal racket.  It is controlled by a couple of people who will make a Democrat or a Republican their 'independence' candidate in exchange for a patronage job. 

b)  Coopersmith was subsequently ousted by Debra Ortutay and Ortutay then controlled the Independence Party election line.

c)  Ortutay is the mother-in-law of Republican, Frank Sparaco, who serves in the Rockland County Legislature and who is said to be a protege of Rockland County Republican Chairman, Vinny Reda. 

d) Ortutay resigned under indictment for perjury and fraud and served a prison sentence in the Rockland County Jail having on December 6, 2011, pleaded guilty to perjury and falsifying records.

e) Ortutay was represented in court by the then Bronx GOP Chairman, Jay Savino, who was reported to be friends with her son-in-law, Sparaco, as well as Rockland GOP chair, Vinny Reda. It is believed that Savino was in line to be the next Rockland County GOP chair. Reda, who is over 75 years old, has run the Rockland GOP for almost 20 years.  He was reported to have been instrumental in Savino getting the patronage job of tax certiorari in Clarkstown. 

f)  Savino contributed financially in 2011 to the Independence Party of Rockland previously headed by Ortutay and Coopersmith.

g) The Board allowed Deputy Town Attorney Coopersmith's contract to expire and then outsourced her tax work to Ortutay's attorney, Jay Savino, for an annual 'retainer fee' of $87,000 saying that the decision was made to save money as part of an ongoing consolidation of government services.

h) Councilwoman Hausner said Savino came with "baggage" which she later confessed meant that she had concerns about his "character". 

He sure did have "baggage" and a questionable "character" yet Hausner found her conscience clear and voted for his appointment.  In the space of four months after Hausner's vote, Savino managed to get himself arrested by the FBI for accepting a bribe and was summarily dismissed by the Town Board for being arrested.  Put simply, Savino was hired, fired, and wired by the FBI for being mired in criminality before I got tired complaining about him to Councilwoman Hausner. 

Then came another whopper ..... 

The Clarkstown Town Board created a new position so Wayne Ballard could hire a Savino patronage 'wannabe', County Legislator, Frank Sparaco, for $75,000 part time to answer Ballard's telephone, surreptitiously videotape Ballard's enemies, traipse around town treading a thin line in convincing people that voting from the comfort of their homes by Absentee Ballot may not be a felony, and provide Ballard, Supervisor Gromack, Councilwoman Hausner, and Councilman Hoehmann the "legal racket" Independence Party line for the November 2013 local elections. 

And so on Monday, August 26, 2013 when I happened to tune in to WRCR and heard the Editor of the Our Town newspaper, Art Aldrich, chatting amiably with County Legislator, John Murphy, I thought I should call in and ask a fellow Irishman for a straight answer to a straight question on the issue of patronage.

Perhaps I should not have wasted my time because you know what they say about we who hail from the Emerald Isle:

"The Irish have no principles but they are prepared to die for them".

Legislator Murphy, I found out to my chagrin, is not someone who will "die on the air for his principles" but apparently he is prepared to run back to Orangetown where he may have left them.  

Here is the transcript of my discussion with Legislator Murphy ......

Hull: I would like to ask a question of Legislator Murphy about patronage. Back in late 2012 Legislator Jobson remarked that there were a lot of 'fat cats' in the County and that all of the 'fat cats' were taken care of but not (as he coined it) the 'little' people. The same evening other legislators had pointed out that there was one head of a department who was making as much as the County Executive; there was a Deputy Commissioner who would be collecting three pensions; the head of the Rockland Tourism department was receiving more than $100, 000 for what was basically a position overseeing a website; and there was one patronage person who had been laid off but immediately re-hired into a "temporary" position which paid a higher salary. On the same evening that these comments were made in the County Legislature I took occasion to ask P.T. Thomas, the Head of the CSEA what he thought about those comments. He replied that there were 110 patronage positions in the County costing $ 5-7 Millions per year in salaries.

Aldrich: John, do you want to respond to any of those comments?

Murphy: Are you asking me if we have people on the payroll that we don't need? Of course! Of course! Do I approve of it? No. Have I tried in the past to have some of those jobs eliminated? Yes. But politics is politics and many people who are on the payroll are there because they are being politically rewarded. That is reality from the Federal level, the State level, the County level, the Town level; maybe not at the Village level. But, yes, there are people on the payroll WE DON"T NEED (Murphy's emphasis). Where do you find .... you have to get a majority of the legislature to eliminate those jobs and I have never seen it happen. Though recently many of those people have been let go ... but only recently.
 
Aldrich: You might comment on whether you think the Tourism department and what it is doing is productive for the County or not.

Murphy: Oh, I don't want to ..... I'm a great person ... if I am going to say something about an individual I have to be looking into their face and give them a chance to respond. I am not going to comment on any single individual in the County.
 
Aldrich: OK, fair enough. But if you are going to cut, reduce, eliminate some of these "unnecessary" jobs because that is certainly in the eye of (a) the beholder and (b) the person who is on the receiving end of the County job, you are going to have to start some place.
 
Murphy: Yes, definitely. I mean .. but I want to do it .... you know everybody has a right to face their accuser. I am not going to be on the air when they can't defend themselves and talk about let's fire this person or that person. I am going to do it in a legislative chamber where they can be sitting in the seat in front of me and look me in the face.
 
Aldrich: OK. Very good but just having been around a long time - I have been in Rockland since 1966 - I have seen legislative governmental bodies very reluctant to eliminate jobs and reduce hours and let people go. That is for sure!
 
Hull: I have heard Legislator Murphy's answer that he did not want to mention any person by name who had received a patronage job. Then let me ask him about his own fellow County legislator, Frank Sparaco, who has a patronage job at $75,000 per year for 25 hours of work a week in the Town of Clarkstown. Would Legislator Murphy comment on the propriety of that?

Murphy: Well, people are acting like that is something new. All the years I worked in the legislature we have had Town council people on the legislative staff and I have never heard anybody say anything about those people. Many of the 'Constituent Representatives" were, and are, Town councilmen and that seems to be an approved .....
 
Hull (interrupting): The position that was given to Mr. Sparaco had 260 applicants for it. Many of them felt they were more qualified than Mr. Sparaco and many people think the 'fix' was in to give Sparaco that job. Now, do you think it is appropriate for a County Legislator to take a patronage job?

Murphy: I'm ...eh .. eh .... that is ... that is a Clarkstown problem ... that is a Clarkstown issue .... that is Clarkstown .... John Murphy represents Orangetown and I am not likely to make judgments about something that happens in another constituency. I have not commented on anything that has gone on in Ramapo or Haverstraw or Stony Point because the people of Orangetown elected ... the people of Orangetown are hooked ... the people of Orangetown I am responsible to. So if you have an issue with that, the place to bring it up is to the Clarkstown Town Board.
   
Aldrich: Well, we know what the back story there is with the third party endorsements. We have been through that discussion about these endorsements before. It is an open secret that these are the machinations of the various Town and County political parties. I doubt very much that if Mr. Sparaco did not have connections to the third party lines whether he would have got the job at all. So that is my opinion which I am expressing!

"An expert knows all questions are silly and if answered will reveal absolutely nothing about everything" - Murphy's Law Number 1985 

Legislator Murphy's position was poetically penned by a writer of Scots-Irish heritage who wrote:

“Don't ask me silly questions
I won't play silly games
I'm just a simple choo choo train
And I'll always be the same.

I only want to race along
Beneath the bright blue sky
And be a happy choo choo train
Until the day I die.”

Stephen King, The Waste Lands

This blog is authored by Michael N. Hull, a retired senior citizen who was born in the "Emerald Isle" and who writes opinion pieces on local political issues. He is a Director of Clarkstown Residents Opposing Patronage with Tom Nimick and Ralph Sabatini.  Hull contributes periodically to the Facebook page Clarkstown: What They Don't Want You To Know.