For the first time Monday, District Attorney Lawrence Friedman spoke at length publicly about the Governor's Office mandated pay raise for county district attorneys and made his case that the County Legislature should pass the resolution boosting his pay.
"I would like to think that after myself, being a district attorney for 20 years and in the office for 35 years, that if it was not for the mandated salary, I would think that the district attorney salary would be at least as much as the salary being paid to the new county attorney," Friedman said.
The statewide fight over DA salaries arose, Friedman said, because members of the legislature didn't want to give county judges raises without giving themselves raises, and if judges didn't get raises, then neither did DAs.
That went on for 13 years before Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed a commission to recommend a new salary structure.
The county benefitted all those years that there were no mandated raises, Friedman said.
Furthermore, even with the raises, the county is paying less for the DA than the county attorney because the state picks up $72,000 of the DA's salary.
Under the mandate, Friedman's salary will go from $152,500 to $183,350 and then up another $10,000 in April 2018.
Legislators, such as Mike Davis, said they have no problem with the job Friedman is doing, but they object to the mandate and Davis expressed concern that the salary is out of line with rural expenses.
Friedman said that one reason the wage increase is being pursued at a state level is that it was getting harder to retain DAs in their jobs, with many opting for higher paying county court judge positions.
The committee voted to advance the pay raise resolution on a unanimous vote.
"The ramifications of not doing this, however, would impact our budget even worse because we would not have the benefit of the New York State supplement for the DA's salary that we're getting now, so we would end up paying even more," said Committee Chair Marianne Clattenburg. "We are supposed to be a country of laws and whether we like this or not, this is a law and this is the Public Service Committee, so I vote to follow the law."
that mean social security
that mean social security going to get a rase
That pay raise is mandated,
That pay raise is mandated, not much we can do about it really.
But, there is a proposed pay huge pay raise for the daughter of the Chairman of the Legislature, who works in the DA office. They are cutting money for Libraries, the Holland Land Office and other things, but giving his daughter a big pay raise.