Nassau County routinely fails to carry out expected history checks on candidates for management positions, a new audit of nepotism and favoritism in county using the services of demonstrates.
The audit, executed by outgoing Nassau County Comptroller Jack Schnirman, reviewed the selecting of a sample of 78 managers from 2004 by 2018.
The survey located the county did not ask for Civil Support qualifications checks on 39 of the staff, or 50%.
Schnirman, a Democrat who leaves workplace Dec. 31, informed Newsday the audit aimed to establish “weaknesses in our techniques.”
The way to “assurance that there is no nepotism, is you start with the central concern: What are the demands of the workforce, as opposed to the reverse, when you start out with a individual you want to use since you have a feeling of favoritism towards that person,” Schnirman stated.
Schnirman proposed the thought of a “nepotism audit” though operating for comptroller in 2017 right after looking through a Newsday story detailing political connections of authorities workforce in Nassau.
The story discovered that additional than 100 current or previous elected officeholders, higher-amount appointees and political club leaders have been connected to staff members who labored in county, town and other municipal governments.
Questioned by comptroller auditors for the county’s coverage on history checks, County Government Laura Curran’s human methods director produced a 2004 memo from the administration of then-Democratic County Executive Thomas Suozzi, together with a 2010 e-mail from the administration of previous Nassau County Govt Edward Mangano, a Republican.
The Suozzi-era memo said history checks need to be necessary for “any unique who will be associated in a plan-earning role, administration capability, or any position of seniority in the Administration.”
The Mangano administration e-mail, written by the deputy director of human resources, explained Mangano had ordered history checks on all new hires apart from a few — a deputy county government, a employees counsel and a secretary to the county govt.
The names of the a few staff are redacted in the comptroller’s audit.
“These exemptions give the appearance of a deficiency of equity or fairness and possible nepotism,” the audit said.
“The evident dilemma is why were being factors not done in a uniform way,” Schnirman instructed Newsday. “Why did anyone say that these folks need to not be subject to the frequent qualifications checks?”
According to Schnirman’s audit, Mangano in 2017, his past year in business, moved much more than 40 administration personnel into Civil Services positions that secured them from termination.
Auditors reported the transfers “created the visual appeal of an unlevel playing subject” in comparison with that for staff who ” ‘played by the rules’ — that is, people today who applied for positions in an open competitive fashion and satisfactorily completed the necessary probationary period of time.”
Also, “nepotism was probably associated” when county officers hired a relative of a county seller the audit described as a close friend of Mangano’s.
The relative was hired by the county Office environment of Administration and Budget at a salary of $85,000 yearly, and was “loaned” to numerous departments as necessary, the audit explained.
The audit does not title the personnel.
Schnirman’s audit also examined the procedures of the Nassau County Civil Service Fee.
The agency accredited “extended leaves of absence to selected exempt County and City workers without justification, providing the visual appeal of favoritism/nepotism,” according to the audit.
Auditors also mentioned they found evidence that managers in greater county departments in some cases were not informed of their employees’ familial connections.
“A huge Department’s HR Supervisor recommended the auditors ‘we usually develop into mindful staff are related only when we go to the retirement get together,'” auditors wrote.