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http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/after-gop-win-nassau-minority-leader-hands-out-raises-1.1569801

After GOP win, Nassau minority leader hands out raises

November 5, 2009 By CELESTE HADRICK celeste.hadrick@newsday.com

A day after Nassau Republicans won back the majority on the county legislature by campaigning to cut spending and reduce taxes, Minority leader Peter Schmitt handed out hefty raises to five members of his personal staff.

While Democrats cried foul, Schmitt said most of his employees were still making far less than the outgoing Democratic majority's staff even as they take on more responsibilities as control shifts.

"The Democrats have 30 people on their staff at a cost of $1,957,000. I have 20 people on my staff at a cost of $1,170,000," Schmitt said. "I'm not going to ask key staff to do additional work without compensating them."

Schmitt sent a memo to the legislative clerk Wednesday requesting that senior legal and financial adviser Dan McCloy's salary be increased from $143,00 to $150,150; Minority Counsel Christopher Ostuni's salary be increased from $107,000 to $117,700; Minority Executive Director Virginia Brown's pay be increased from $87,000 to $95,700; Deputy Press Secretary Cristina Brennan's salary be increased from $77,000 to $84,700 and her assistant, Robert Reill's pay be increased from $62,500 to $65,625. Ostuni is the son-in-law of Nassau Republican chairman Joseph Mondello.

"I was surprised by the election results, but this doesn't surprise me," said County Executive Thomas Suozzi, an eight-year Democratic incumbent who is a few hundred votes ahead of Republican challenger Edward Mangano before the absentee ballots are counted. "These are the same guys voters kicked out of power years ago because of this type of behavior. Maybe this will cause the voters to have buyer's remorse already."

Mangano, a county legislator from Bethpage, said he didn't know anything about his fellow Republican's raises. "My race is about cutting spending and reducing the size of government," he said.

Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove), who will be turning the gavel over to Schmitt in January, said, "This is an outrage . . . For them to dole out huge raises just two days after an election dominated by the recession and a bad economic climate is unbelievable."

Bristling, Schmitt said that he never said a word against Yatauro when she became presiding officer two years ago and gave policy director David Gugerty a $150,000 salary, special assistant Gerry Twombly a $95,000 salary and finance director Roseann Dalleva a salary of $108,150.

"Ask them how a legislative assistant is making $82,400 a year," Schmitt said, referring to Luann Lima, who works for Legis. Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin).

Schmitt said as presiding officer he intends to restore independence to the legislature no matter who is elected county executive.

He said the legislature will hold more hearings into county operations, such as why so many ambulances are out of service at the same time, while refusing to pass last-minute county executive requests without sufficient review.

"I'm going to work very hard to repair the institutional damage that was done by the Democratic legislature," Schmitt said. "The days of rubber stamping stuff are over."