By Adam Andrzejewski for RealClearInvestigations
Mayor Eric Adams’ administration had 293 “particular assistants” on the payroll throughout his first full fiscal 12 months in workplace, much more than his predecessor who was criticized for having too many, the New York Put up reported.
“The bloated band of vaguely titled aides, accountable solely to Adams, comprised roughly one-third of the Mayor’s Workplace employees in the course of the yearly interval ending June 30 and value taxpayers $24.3 million,” the Put up reported from metropolis payroll information.
Eighty-five of these assistants have 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 partially to maintain political operatives biding their time ready for the following marketing campaign — a form of publicly funded farm system akin to those utilized by Main League Baseball groups,” The Put up wrote.
By FY 2021, de Blasio trimmed his variety of particular assistants to 243, costing taxpayers $21.1 million, The Put up reported.
Adams introduced final 12 months that the anticipated $12 billion price of serving to asylum-seeking migrants necessitated across-the-board 5% cuts in any respect metropolis businesses, with one other 10% minimize deliberate for early this 12 months.
However taxpayer-watchdog group Empire Middle for Public Coverage Analysis Director Ken Girardin mentioned Adams’ want to “bloat” his payroll with virtually 300 particular assistants “solely weakens his case for extra federal and state assist” to assist the town cope with the migrant disaster.
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Reprinted with permission from RealClearWire.
