Fool Me Once

As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Having learned nothing during the recent events with the now former Court Administrator Regina Hill, The Paul is back at giving away “the farm” once again. Annu Jacob, 35, the chief court clerk in Spring Valley, will assume the administrative lead position for the Greenburgh Town Court on January 23, 2012. In her position in Spring Valley, her salary was $59k. She’s practically doubling her salary with this move to Greenburgh. Hill was originally hired at $75k – which she agreed to – only to tell The Paul she wanted more! He then raised her salary, we believe unethically, if not illegally, to $100k plus benefits! As the other saying goes, nice work if you can get it.

So after this massive personnel search has found the Town’s next court administrator, what will the final costs be to us? ABG is sure the base salary will soon not be enough for Ms. Jacob and The Paul, who has just laid off two employees, will bring it right back to $100k, matching Hill’s coup-like move back to her old job at a hefty increase. In an article we read elsewhere, The Paul claimed that there were still 80,000 unpaid tickets in need of attention. The Paul told us that Hill was hired to address this. We were also told interns were brought in, in lieu of hiring personnel as requested by Hill, to address the unpaid tickets fiasco. The Paul had his media machines in high gear touting the great job being done by all. If Hill was such a good deal for us, why are there still 80,000 unpaid tickets? Maybe we got the better deal by her leaving.

If The Paul had kept Hill’s and now Jacob’s salary at $75k, ABG wonders if he could have kept at least one of the two laid off employees on staff? Perhaps Scott Uzzo, despondent after losing his Greenburgh Water Department job with the Town, wouldn’t have killed himself  by jumping off the Tappan Zee Bridge in December.

While the tragedy of Scott Uzzo cannot easily be dismissed, we believe there were numerous ways for The Paul to save these two positions. But politics and what The Paul desires spares no expense, nor people. Here, we see the unfortunate results of his lack of management skills. At best, he could have preserved the position and cut somewhere else; and at worst, offered Mr. Uzzo counseling after termination and as much assistance as could be had. But like the neglected residents of the Town, he got nothing but a pink slip and a boot out the door. The sad reality of this years budget hijinks had real and ABG believes fatal, results. It has to stop.

The New Year is upon us. While we can only hope The Paul learns how to do the right thing, we’re not holding our breath. We are hopeful to see some leadership qualities from newly elected Town Board member Ken Jones and will reserve an opinion until we’ve had a chance to see him in action. We can only hope that Annu Jacob keeps her job without too many pay increases from The Paul. We pray and are hopeful for the Uzzo family for strength and closure. We are hopeful about Mr. Jones. We are hopeful for our Town. ABG thinks that’s probably the best outlook to have for The Town. We can only hope.