Rockland County Legislators met for a special afternoon session on Thursday to vote on resolutions dealing with the approved 2013 county budget. The 13 legislators present voted in favor of passage of referrals levying county taxes and adopting town and sewer district tax rates and levies.
One resolution was amended. The original resolution called for the elimination of five positions in the county Health Department on Jan. 1, 2103, however due to legal and contractual issues the date was pushed back to February 22. That gives the employees time to exercise their “bumping rights,” which can allow them to keep their jobs based on seniority. That can result in the elimination of a position held by an employee with less seniority.
Before legislators voted on the amendment they sought assurances from county Commissioner of Finance and Budget Director Steven DeGroat and Deputy Budget Director Steven Grogan that there were funds in the budget to pay the salaries for the next seven weeks and they were budgeted properly.
“The fiscal side was there,” said Grogan. “Personnel I guess in conjunction with our office failed to announce or state properly or clearly in the budget that we funded it through the 23rd.”
Four of the five jobs are associated with the prenatal clinic, which the county is transferring to Nyack Hospital as of Jan. 1, 2013. They are Senior Public Health Nurse, Registered Nurse – Community Health, Public Health Social Worker II and Nutritionist –Public Health. The fifth position is that of a part-time Adult Home Attendant. The adult home closed earlier this year.
