The New York Post
NEW YORK — Gov. Cuomo says he was “surprised and . . . shocked” to read in The Post that 28 top State Police officials were secretly given pay raises of as much as 18 percent shortly before he took office.
We’re shocked, too. But we doubt that any New Yorker should be surprised these days by news that the State Police is still in disarray.
Ethical scandals have plagued the force for a dozen years. And the last three governors have used it as a political enforcement brigade.
No sooner had Cuomo been sworn in, in fact, than he learned that David Paterson’s hand-picked interim superintendant, John Melville, had openly defied the new governor by giving Paterson a costly, round-the-clock security detail and free chauffeur service.
Now Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker reports that Melville secretly awarded $600,000 worth of hikes - even as the state is in the process of laying off 900 government workers to help plug a $9 billion deficit.
Among those on the holiday gift list: Melville himself, whose pay was hiked by $20,394 to $179,756.
Police officials justified the hikes by saying a new contract increased the salaries of majors to an amount equal to or higher than their superiors’ pay - and that not raising the other officers’ pay accordingly would make it difficult to promote majors.
Nonsense.
As Cuomo noted, “Giving large raises at this point in time . . . is problematic; I think it is insensitive.”
To put it mildly.
So it’s good to see that Cuomo’s office is already “reviewing those raises.”
It also sounds like a job for his new inspector general, Ellen Biben, who was recently named to replace IG Joseph Fisch after a four-year stint as Cuomo’s deputy AG for public integrity.
Given the sordid recent record of State Police officials, we doubt there is an innocent explanation for these last-minute raises. This is as good a test as any to see if Biben can carry on Fisch’s legacy as a public watchdog.
Copyright 2011 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.