Lawmakers reject Levy's hiring policy

Suffolk legislators voted overwhelmingly to override County Executive Steve Levy's veto of a bill to give the five other countywide elected officials authority to fill positions funded in the county's budget.

By a 16-1 margin, lawmakers Tuesday night rejected Levy's claim that the county's district attorney, comptroller, treasurer, sheriff and clerk should not be able to hire employees without the county executive's consent.

Levy had argued that his strict "position control" throughout the year - a power historically in the hands of the county executive in Suffolk - was the key to the county's balanced budgets.

"We're very appreciative of the legislature's confidence in us," District Attorney Thomas Spota said after the vote. In December, he accused Levy of forcing him to beg to replace his Gang Unit chief. "It's only fair that we have power over our own budgets, especially the offices that have investigative authority," Spota said Tuesday.

Levy said losing his control over hiring in other departments will increase the difficulty of making up the $20 million Suffolk lost in state health aid.

"I have to make up that difference," he said. "That would usually be done through position control but now the legislature has severely limited my ability to keep the budget down."

Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) said independent elected officials in Nassau County, New York City and New York State have the authority to fill positions within their departments once their budgets are approved by lawmakers.

Legis. Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Setauket) said Levy is overreacting to losing what she described as a small amount of control over county hiring.

"The total number of employees represent a small percentage of our workforce," she said. "The county executive will still have the responsibilities, the right and the ability to develop the budget amend the budget and all of the provisions that are delineated in the budget."

In other action, lawmakers failed to override two other Levy vetoes. One bill would have raised county bus fare from $1.50 to $2 and added Sunday bus service on selected routes, and the other would have forced the county to create locations to house homeless sex offenders.

Levy called on lawmakers to reinstate his policy of giving homeless sex offenders vouchers to stay in local hotels and motels. Lawmakers rejected and defunded the program last year.

Also, lawmakers passed legislation to forbid the county's sex offenders from living within a quarter-mile of an amusement park. Legis. DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville) said the prohibition would help protect the county's children. Levy will review the bill before deciding whether to sign or veto it, said his spokesman, Mark Smith.

Suffolk's sex offenders had already been banned from living within a quarter-mile of child-care centers, nurseries, schools, playgrounds or the home of their victim.