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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Overtime is salary booster for top earners
Department heads say practice needed to carry out vital work
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    A caseworker in the Schenectady County child protective unit earned $133,244 in 2007 — more than 2 1 /2 times his base salary, making him the highest paid nonmanagement employee that year, according to payroll records.
    The second highest paid nonmanagement employee was a corrections officer in the Schenectady County Jail, who earned $126,187. His 2007 payroll also was 2 1 /2 times his base salary.
    Salary figures for 2008 are not available. The county is facing a tough fiscal year for 2009, projecting a 13 percent tax levy increase on a $279 million budget. The county Legislature must adopt a budget by Nov. 1.
    Rounding out the top five county earners were two more correction officers and a supervising nurse at the Glendale Home. The Daily Gazette requested a list of the highest paid non-management employees for 2007 who earned more than $75,000, through the state Freedom of Information Law.
    Caseworker Lance Harvey’s current salary is $52,927. It includes a 5 percent premium related to his responsibilities. The county hired him in 1990.
    Dennis Packard, commissioner of the county’s Department of Social Services, said Harvey earned the extra money through overtime. “He carries a case load and goes out and investigates at night, weekends and on holidays,” he said.
    The child protective unit must be able to respond to complaints 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Packard said. To meet this responsibility, the unit maintains rotational and on-call systems.
    Packard said Harvey “is someone who is willing to be part of rotation.” People assigned to rotation received special training (the 5 percent bonus) to investigate child abuse and neglect, he said.
    County Manager Kathleen Rooney said the child protective unit’s work “does not end at 5 p.m. Investigators perform work that we need to have done in a timely fashion.”
    Packard said the child protective unit is “out there trying to ensure the safety, protection and well-being of children. That is the mission.”
    The three correction offi cers who came after Harvey in earnings are Mark Turner, who made $126,187; Bruce Farmer, who earned $95,180; and Judith Eldred, who earned $90,767. Their current salaries are $50,377.
OVERTIME DEMANDS
    Sheriff Harry Buffardi said corrections officers earn time-and-ahalf for working overtime.
    Some, like Turner, seek out overtime as often as possible, Buffardi said. Turner often works a day shift in addition to his regular third shift, he said.
    “It is a need-driven thing. If the jail population creeps up, we need staff,” Buffardi said.
    Buffardi said the jail needs extra staff. “The state told us that and we acknowledge that,” he said.
    The state Commission of Correction ordered the county to increase jail staffing to approximately 160 officers and supervisors. The jail has 140 officers currently.
    The state issued the order in 2006 as part of a report critical of county procedures that led to the escape of a dangerous jail inmate earlier that year. The commission is a state agency charged with overseeing local jails and with establishing standards for their operation.
    Buffardi is hiring 12 officers in 2009 and 12 more in 2010. Each batch costs approximately $500,000.
    The corrections officers’ union determines who receives overtime based on seniority, Buffardi said. Turner was hired in 1986. “We have certain posts and when they become vacant, we notify the union. The union selects people for overtime, based on seniority that rotates,” Buffardi said.
    Not every corrections officer wants overtime, Buffardi said. “More than 50 percent of people who work here will not work any overtime at all,” he said.
    When an officer works overtime, he or she must do so in either four-hour or eight-hour blocks. The officer must work the entire block to be paid overtime, Buffardi said.
    Some law enforcement agencies operate under different systems, such as paying officers overtime based on the completion of an assignment, regardless of the actually time worked.
    At the jail, officers are “working the actual hours,” Buffardi said. Corrections officers do not earn
comp time, he said.
GLENDALE NURSE
    The final employee in the top five is Linda DePaula, a supervising nurse at Glendale Home. Her base pay is $69,306, which includes a 10 percent differential. Her 2007 salary totaled $92,224.
    The list contained 31 names, 11 of whom are corrections officers; seven are from the child protective and child welfare units; six are from the Glendale Home; three are from the highway department; and the rest come from four other departments.
    The highest paid non-management employee earns a base salary of between $60,000 and $71,000. Managers and department heads earn more. The highest paid department head is Ray Gilllen, commissioner of planning, whose current salary is $150,707.

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Publishing name, salary was violation of privacy

    I am writing this regarding the Oct. 8 article, “Overtime is salary booster for top earners.”
    As one of the top three, I felt my rights were violated by the Gazette printing my name stating how much I earned. No regard was placed on what it might do to myself or family. Not only was my salary stated, but my occupation was stated. The occupation alone should have given your newspaper the red flag as to not to publish the name.
    If the public wants to know what anyone of us make, because we are county employees, the record is available to be seen at the County Offi ce Building. You do not have to publish my name in your newspaper.
    My line of work alone puts myself and the others at risk in our job and at times outside of our jobs. By printing our salaries, you have put us at a higher risk.

    JUDITH A. ELDRED
    Schenectady

We pay your salary there Judy ... we have a right to know.  Higher risk?

She can't be to concerend about her family if she is at work all the time

Judy just doesn't want us to know how much money the taxpayers are giving her every year.

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My line of work alone puts myself and the others at risk in our job and at times outside of our jobs. By printing our salaries, you have put us at a higher risk.

She really needs to elaborate on this one cause I'm not buying it! And she must really really love her 'high risk' job since she is putting in a ton of overtime.

And on that note of 'privacy'....what about when the gazette list the 'personal' sales of real-estate? That has nothing to do with the taxpayers, but yet they print, how much a 'private citizen' sold or bought property for. AND not only giving their name, but their addresses. Now THAT is a clear invasion of privacy to me!

So lighten up there Judith....we work to pay your salary!

It's public information and typical fake outrage from and overpaid County lob.

      Here's a quick way to balance this horribly bloated County Budget. Fire Ray G. End Metroplex. Return the sales tax money to the people. Then sell the County Home and close all City library branches. This would result in a sales tax decrease, a property tax decrease and an end to Socialism in this County which is destroying small businesses. It would also result in a huge increase in property values, sales tax revenues and property sales Countywide. A real renaissance not a smoke and mirrors renaissance.

Each town gets a share back yearly in revenue's from the plex. IF the plex were desolved, would the towns actually still get that same amount back in sales tax. Rotterdam gets about $1M back from the plex now. Although it may be decreasing since sales tax revenues are down.

these people are worth the weight in gold over there so why would you go and take away the pay like this? They do the job of Jesus helping the people and the kids. You people are cold hearted

Yep, cold hearted and empty walleted

Hey Mobile, that sarcasm is unnecessary...you heard Sal... the "job of JESUS"

That's no laughing matter...hahaha

Sal, who does the job of Jesus? The individual making the $133,000? I bet you would call him/her "Judas" if they made that much as small business people or corporate executives? Right? But since they are government workers, civil servants or political patronage employees, they automatically become akin to "Jesus." Yeahhhh...Ok....

Quoted from bumblethru

She really needs to elaborate on this one cause I'm not buying it! And she must really really love her 'high risk' job since she is putting in a ton of overtime.

And on that note of 'privacy'....what about when the gazette list the 'personal' sales of real-estate? That has nothing to do with the taxpayers, but yet they print, how much a 'private citizen' sold or bought property for. AND not only giving their name, but their addresses. Now THAT is a clear invasion of privacy to me!

So lighten up there Judith....we work to pay your salary!

Oh  thank you for paying my salary  Bum..........

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Quoted from Salvatore:
... They do the job of Jesus helping the people and the kids. ...

If the Metroplex Authority is doing the "job of Jesus", does that make its leader the Second Coming?"
And, here we've been told that Obama is "the Messiah".  

I must say, Sal, that your post leaves me very confused. (tic)

Quoted from 78

If the Metroplex Authority is doing the "job of Jesus", does that make its leader the Second Coming?"

Good one!!!

You're are right BT about the towns but the City's share is dumped into Metrograft and wasted giving property tax give aways to the rich and hundreds of thousands to Bethesda House for a useless parking lot. Ray G. should be fired for mishandling the Van Dyke and Big Hose. He need to hire another County Planner with economic development experience to run the County Planning Department. Metrograft should be terminated and the half percent tax refunded to the oppressed County taxpayers.