Step up Legislator John Bruso ! Would UPS of stood for this type of activities? Be a leader Legislator Bruso.
ECWA
Speaking of folks who like to spend someone else’s money…
Outgoing Authority Chairman Earl Jann has applied for the position of executive director, which pays $145,000 annually. The qualifications required for the position, as the Buffalo News has noted, are a bit loose. It certainly makes it easy to make such an appointment when the Board of Directors doesn’t worry too much about qualifications.
I have noted three things in previous posts on the ECWA: (1) it is essentially a small public works department that should be rolled into Erie County government; (2) viewing it as a small public works department, the salaries are way out of line with those of other public works positions in county government; and (3) there are way too many duplicative administrative positions in an organization that is as small as the Water Authority.
The commissioner of the Erie County Department of Public Works is paid a salary of $131,317 or $14,000 less than the executive director of the Water Authority. The County DPW has 40 percent more employees than does the ECWA, with a much broader agenda of responsibilities. But, as they say in TV infomercials, there is more.
Noah’s Ark only took on two of each species of animal, and Noah was planning on their procreation. Not having such needs, the ECWA nonetheless likes to pile up administrators with duties that are like carbon copies of one another. Consider this:
The Authority has an executive director at $145,000, plus a deputy director at $147,574; a director of administration at $138,399; and a deputy director of administration at $126,750
The Authority has four human resource executives who make a total of $427,076
The Authority has also contracted with Michael Caputo’s public relations firm for $60,000 per year. The responsibilities, as noted on The Investigative Post, seem to include hiding information from the public and escorting reporters out of public meetings.
The Erie County Legislature could appeal to state government to repeal the legislation that created the Authority and simply make the Authority a department of county government. The legislators could then brag about how they reduced the water rates for the tens of thousands of homeowners and businesses that get their water from this public monopoly. Ahh, but why would they want to do that?