SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Outrage In The Legislature Over Funding For Contract Agencies

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

 August 11th press conference Steve Flotteron (LD 11), Catherine Stark (LD1, Trish Bergin (LD 10, Rob Trotta (LD 13), Dominick S. Thorne (LD7)A measure has been introduced before the Suffolk County Legislature that would prohibit county funding of a contract agency—organizations that receive county funds to help finance its work—if any person at it gets a salary “greater than” the salary of the governor of New York State, which currently is $250,000.

The measure is aimed especially at chief executive officers of the agencies.

Indeed, at a Sunday, August 11th press conference involving five county legislators, behind them were two large charts listing many Suffolk government contract agencies, their budgets, and the salaries of their CEO’s who are paid more than $250,000.

They included organizations that provide mental health services, assist with employment and housing and are engaged in other social assistance and also educational activities. Among the agencies were: Family Service League; Maryhaven Center of Hope; New Horizons Counseling Center; Options for Community Living; Phoenix House; Samaritan Daytop Village of Suffolk County; WellLife Network; YMCA of LI; BOCES II; Concern for Independent Living; Federation of Organizations; YMCA of Long Island; and Family & Children’s Association.

The bill is sponsored by Legislators Rob Trotta, a Fort Salonga Republican, and Trish Bergin, an East Islip Republican.

Trotta declared: “It is time to rein in the out-of-control not-for-profit executives who are making more than the governor and the people they serve who live in poverty.” A retired Suffolk Police Department detective, he said he had been thinking about such a bill for years. He said an agency that helps the “poor and underprivileged shouldn’t pay” its CE0 $400,00 annually.

Bergin said: “These agencies set their own salaries, but when they seek county assistance to fund their administrative expenses rather than use those resources towards the programs benefitting our community, it is not fair to the taxpayer.”

Legislator Dominic Thorne, a Patchogue Republican, said: “It is vitally important that funds that are intended for the less fortunate actually go to the less fortunate, and not exorbitant salaries.”

Also at the press conference were Steven J. Flotteron from Brighwaters, and Catherine Stark from Riverhead. 

Although all five legislators are Republicans, the issue was pushed several years by Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, when he was New York’s governor. In 2012, Cuomo signed an executive order similar to the Trotta-Bergin bill. It capped the amount of state funds that would go toward executive salaries at non-profit organizations to $199,000. 

There was strong opposition to his move. “In order to attract the talent necessary to lead those kinds of institutions, you need to pay executives well,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the century-old Citizens Union, which describes itself as a “good government” organization.

There was a court battle and in 2018 the state’s highest court, its Court of Appeals, gutted most of the order. And in 2022, Hochul, after succeeding Cuomo as governor, rescinded it.

About the Suffolk bill, Legislator Rebecca Sanin, a Democrat from Huntington Station with familiarity with non-profit contract agencies—she is former president and CEO of the non-profit Health and Welfare Council of Long Island—said she will oppose the bill. She told Newsday: “Human services executives are highly qualified leaders running complex organizations that help meet Suffolk County residents’ needs that government cannot. We engage these organizations because they provide cost-effective solutions to serve residents through competitive procurement, not as an act of charity.”

The Suffolk County Legislature is split 12-to-6 with the GOP having a majority.

Trotta said he expects a vote on the bill “will be close.”

Legislator Ann Welker, a Southampton Democrat representing the South Fork, says Suffolk County’s contract agencies provide “vital services” that the county would be hard pressed to duplicate. The county lacks the resources and the staffing to provide these important services. These nonprofit organizations are governed by boards of directors which “set forth the agencies’ budgets and salaries.”

The bill will first go before the legislature’s Budget and Finance Committee on August 27^th.

It opens by declaring that “the County of Suffolk has adopted guidelines and technical requirements, as well as financial filing and reporting requirements, for county contract agencies for the purpose of increasing oversight and accountability in the use of county funds by these agencies.” The legislature “has determined that further restrictions on contract agency eligibility is needed to ensure that county funds are being utilized efficiently…”

Thus, under the measure: “No contract agency shall be eligible for funding by the County of Suffolk from county funds in any fiscal year where any employee, officer, director, or member of the contract agency received a salary in the previous year greater than the budgeted salary for the governor of the State of New York for that year.”

The issue goes beyond Suffolk County and New York State. Online, for example, there is a “Reddit San Diego” discussion page headed: “Why do our non-profit executives have such high salaries?” There is sharp criticism of this and also defenses with one person asking: “Our society has no problem paying people high salaries for making smaller microchips or trading stocks. But when it comes to paying someone to fix the ills of the world, we think, somehow, that they should be doing it out of the kindness of their heart. Shouldn’t someone who is working for a non-profit be compensated the same as for-profit if they do a good job?”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY at Old Westbury and the author of six books.