Published: May 08, 2008 05:12 pm            

CHRISTY: Republican or Democrat

Each political party thinks they get attacked, picked on or singled-out every time an official gets labeled as doing something stupid, unethical or even illegal. It’s the classic kindergarten strategy: look, they do it too, go yell at them.

And both political parties believe, as sure as there is a sun or a moon, that certain newspapers, television channels or radio stations are “republican” or “democrat.” I’ve had the dubious pleasure of walking among the staunchest of politicians from both parties. Every one is absolutely positively convinced that (fill in media outlet) is against them.

So let’s be absolutely clear: what follows is a commentary on the rot in the system, and that rot is complete, absolute, and knows no political party.

This week we learned about a very troubling practice called double-dipping in public service. Apparently, retired doesn’t mean retired anymore, or at least not when you retire from a government payroll. And let me clarify: we didn’t learn about double dipping this week. We’ve heard the 3-minute crowd at the Niagara County Legislature bring this practice to light in relation to the Legislature’s Chairman, Bill Ross, who is drawing a full government pension, full health care as a New York State retiree, and taking a $15,000 salary to be a legislator. So while it’s not a new revelation to Niagara County watchdogs, I guess what we’re learning is how large and pervasive the practice is statewide.

We’ve all heard the complaint “it doesn’t pay for me to work anymore; my pension pays me just as much to not work than to work, so I had to retire”.

Now, the tens of thousands of you not in a government pension system are throwing up, I know, but bear with me. If you’re not in a government pension plan you have to suspend reality-thinking to understand this stuff, but just try to digest that comment.

But what if you’re too young to retire? What if you’re a driven, dedicated public servant who wants to keep working? Well, it turns out the government has an answer for that. They are, after all, constantly vigilant in their dream to protect us from ourselves. Don’t forget that the State Senate has hired staff to determine who deserves color printing and who gets black and white. They are that focused on our safety.

One very troubling news story about this retirement scam was contained inside the story about the New York State Police having a secret political dirty tricks operation, established by a former Pataki neighbor, operating in the good old J. Edgar Hoover mold with political files on people deemed not in favor of, well, who knows. Since this dirty tricks department was established under Pataki, but quickly adopted by Spitzer, who can say what political party it served. I’m imagining it was more likely exactly like J. Edgar Hoover’s operation in that it served to make someone more powerful than the governor, no matter who that governor was.

Anyway, the director of that operation, Dan Weise, actually retired from the State Police because he could, probably because his pension paid him just as much to work as not work, and he was promptly hired by — swallow hard — the New York Power Authority. According to newspaper accounts, he still ran the dirty tricks department inside the State Police, but he just switched payrolls, took his full pension from one job and got a full paycheck from another government job. It was estimated that his salary, benefits and New York State pension totaled $225,000 per year.

Since he was hired the first time by Republican George Pataki, it’s easy to assume he was hired by those rascally, vile and deceitful republicans.

Then we learn that Western New York’s most dedicated democrat — someone who could never, ever be mistaken for anything but a democrat straight out of the FDR or Harry Truman mold, is doing the exact same thing.

Sheila Kee, who Niagara County nearly hired as its county manager but, it turns out, couldn’t afford to move to Niagara County and wanted the residency requirement waived for her, collects $99,389 in untaxed pension money from taxpayers while at the same time employed as an associate health commissioner with the State Health Department. That “second job”, which probably helps her with a bit of extra money around the holiday’s or the rising property tax or gas tax or sales tax, which is why most people get a job after they retire, pays her $151,722 each and every year.

It’s been weeks since the State Police employee double-dipping scam came to light. We’ve yet to hear one outraged state legislator. Sheila Kee’s retirement package and salary are now very public. Nobody has tripped over themselves trying to file legislation to correct the system.

The rot that pervades our state government in Albany knows no political party. Cleaning it up will fall to no one political party. Maybe elected officials should be “held back” in kindergarten for a second year instead of promoted to first grade without mastering the basics of kindergarten: treat all fairly and play no favorites.

Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reach via email at aim1986@mac.com.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.