Politics
By Adam Andrzejewski for RealClearInvestigations
Mayor Eric Adams’ administration had 293 “special assistants” on the payroll throughout his first full fiscal yr in workplace, much more than his predecessor who was criticized for having too many, the New York Submit reported.
“The bloated band of vaguely titled aides, accountable only to Adams, comprised roughly one-third of the Mayor’s Office staff during the yearly period ending June 30 and cost taxpayers $24.3 million,” the Submit reported from metropolis payroll data.
Eighty-five of these assistants had been paid six-figures in FY 2023 – together with 13 who took in additional than $200,000.
At one level, Adam’s predecessor, former Mayor Invoice De Blasio, had much more particular assistants, reaching a excessive of a excessive of 339 in FY 2019. De Blasio was criticized for utilizing particular assistants to get round civil service guidelines and provides political operatives jobs.
With out civil service guidelines governing the positions, the mayor can set salaries and raises past the conventional ranges for comparable positions.
“De Blasio infamously used the special-assistant gigs in part to take care of political operatives biding their time waiting for the next campaign — a kind of publicly funded farm system akin to the ones used by Major League Baseball teams,” The Submit wrote.
By FY 2021, de Blasio trimmed his variety of particular assistants to 243, costing taxpayers $21.1 million, The Submit reported.
Adams introduced final yr that the anticipated $12 billion value of serving to asylum-seeking migrants necessitated across-the-board 5% cuts in any respect metropolis companies, with one other 10% minimize deliberate for early this yr.
However taxpayer-watchdog group Empire Middle for Public Coverage Analysis Director Ken Girardin mentioned Adams’ need to “bloat” his payroll with nearly 300 particular assistants “only weakens his case for more federal and state support” to assist the town cope with the migrant disaster.
The #WasteOfTheDay is dropped at you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
Reprinted with permission from RealClearWire.