SCHENECTADY COUNTY City police retiree gets STOP-DWI job Delaney to earn $47,000 plus pension BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
A Schenectady police detective who was a top earner in the city for years has landed a new job with Schenectady County a month after retiring, a job that will pay $47,000 on top of his pension. Thomas Delaney was hired this week as the program administrator for the county’s STOP-DWI and Traffic Safety Program by Sheriff Dominic Dagostino. Delaney retired Feb. 26 after 21 years with the Schenectady Police Department. He replaces Denise Cashmere, who retired last year. In the last three years of his employment, Delaney earned $153,096, $138,341 and $112,163. His base pay for those years was $62,519, $58,341 and $53,939. The state Comptroller’s Office said it has not yet calculated his pension. He was not available for comment. Delaney is the second Schenectady Police Department offi cer to obtain a job with the county after retiring. The other is Mark LaViolette, who replaced John Nuzback as director of emergency management. Nuzback served as both the director and county fi re coordinator since Thomas Constantine abruptly left the position in November. LaViolette earns $62,547 with the county. He was hired almost immediately after his retirement last June. Both Delaney and LaViolette are members of the Schenectady County Conservative Party, which has helped Schenectady County Democrats in local elections. Democrats cross-endorsed Dagostino, a Conservative, in his race for sheriff. His mother is Judith Dagostino, a county legislator representing Rotterdam, Princetown and Duanesburg. The positions of STOP-DWI administrator and director of emergency management are non-Civil Service, meaning the county manager can appoint people to them based on their qualifications. These exempt positions are sometimes used to reward party favorites, critics say. In a controversial move, Edward Kosiur, a former Schenectady County legislator and Democrat, was given an $80,000-a-year job overseeing county youth services in 2008 after he lost a bid for a seat in the 105th state Assembly District. The county Civil Service Commission in February made the STOP-DWI administrator’s position exempt from Civil Service. It had been Civil Service under Cashmere, who was the county’s fi rst and only STOP-DWI coordinator since its inception in 1982. A county planner, she was appointed to run the STOP-DWI program after the state Legislature created the program in 1981. Eventually, she worked full time as the STOP-DWI and traffi c safety coordinator. When Cashmere retired, Sheriff Dagostino worked with County Manager Kathleen Rooney to restructure the position and bring it under the Office of the Sheriff. The position had been part of the county’s Economic Development and Planning Department since its inception. As part of the restructuring, Dagostino wrote a new job description for the administrator. The minimum qualifi cations for the job are a high school diploma and at least 20 years’ experience as a certifi ed police offi cer. Seven of those years must have involved DWI and traffi c safety incidents and investigations. Delaney, who was the only applicant for the position, fi ts those qualifi cations exactly. Delaney has 21 years of experience as a certified police officer with the city of Schenectady, seven as a detective. He also has extensive experience handling DWI and traffic safety incidents and investigations. Dagostino said he did not write the job specs with Delaney in mind. He said he was looking for someone with that “skill set” in order to move the program into a new direction. “We are looking to increase and expand programming areas,” he said. .......................>>>>.............................>>>>.......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00102&AppName=1
I know someone who worked a fulton montgomery nursing home and retired there with county benefits but is prohibited to get paid more than $25,000 a year if they decide to go back to work for the county.......
hhhhhmmmmm......what do we do? screw ourselves every time.....so I guess that they are expecting all the gin mills to provide the salary/fees for this position and income.....
if you build it they will come
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
As part of the restructuring, Dagostino wrote a new job description for the administrator. The minimum qualifi cations for the job are a high school diploma and at least 20 years’ experience as a certifi ed police offi cer. Seven of those years must have involved DWI and traffi c safety incidents and investigations. Delaney, who was the only applicant for the position, fi ts those qualifi cations exactly. Delaney has 21 years of experience as a certified police officer with the city of Schenectady, seven as a detective. He also has extensive experience handling DWI and traffic safety incidents and investigations. Dagostino said he did not write the job specs with Delaney in mind.
So, Mr. Dagostino wrote this job description at the time that this person was retiring and it just happened that this person specifically fit what he was looking for. Now, tell me, if a person had less than what would qualify them for this position, like say ONLY 10-15 years of experience, what would make them any less qualified? What is it that this person learned in the last 5 - 10 years that the other candidate wouldn't have had the "time" to learn? Especially the fact with the number of hours of overtime the police work in Schenectady, maybe it should be a total number of clock hours worked as a police officer, not the number of years they've been in the field.
Of course Schenectady County Sheriff Dominic Dagostino denies that the job description he wrote for the STOP-DWI administrator vacancy was tailor-made for retired Schenectady cop Thomas Delaney. What is he going to say? The circumstantial evidence, however, argues quite the contrary: 1) Delaney is a member of the county Conservative Party, which just so happens to be Dagostino’s party; 2) After getting county Democrats — who cross-endorsed him when he ran for sheriff — to restructure the position, putting it under his control (instead of Economic Development and Planning) and making it non-Civil Service, Dagostino got to write the job description any way he wanted; and 3) the way he wrote it — requiring 20 years’ experience as a police officer — ruled out almost anyone who might have had an interest in the job. Anyone, that is, except Delaney, who retired from the city PD a month ago. He may only be getting paid $47,000 in the new job — some $31,000 less than his predecessor — but don’t feel too bad for him: After more than doubling his base pay in each of his final three years at the PD, he’s qualified for a pension that’s sure to exceed his fi nal base pay of $62,500. In fact, Delaney was the only applicant for the job, and while Dagostino says he wished there had been more, he only waited two weeks after advertising to fi ll it. Perhaps if Dagostino hadn’t done virtually the same thing when he hired Mark LaViolette — lo and behold, another Conservative Party member — as director of emergency management last spring, for $62,547, when he retired from the Schenectady PD, his explanation might be a bit more credible. ......................>>>>..........................>>>>..................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00702&AppName=1
MV..............what is a surprise!!! Sure make HB credible.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I wonder what the Copservatives promised Harry in return for running? From what I understand, the Copservatives and Harry were old foes when Harry was Sheriff. Looks like they are running thin on candidates.
LOL. He looks a little bit like he is of Arab descent!
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Correction Yesterday’s editorial on the hiring of Thomas Delaney as Schenectady County’s new STOP-DWI administrator incorrectly stated that Sheriff Dominic Dagostino was responsible for hiring Mark LaViolette as director of emergency management. LaViolette, like Delaney, was a retired Schenectady police offi cer and Conservative Party member who was appointed to a non-Civil Service job with the county that had been minimally advertised, but Dagostino was not involved in his hiring.
Mark LaViolette is a good guy, he used to own a business on Erie Blvd awhile back then moved it out of the city when all the talk of ripping down the buildings were being discussed.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
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