Take Away the Cell Phones!
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- April
- 10
Readers of the Journal News and lohud.com know about the Westchester County Board of Legislators and their use of “cellular devices,” which amounted to a cost to the taxpayers of $11,578 last year.
Well now, when County Executive Andy Spano delivers his state of the county address tonight, he ought to take a page out of the playbook of Erie County Executive Chris Collins who, according to the Buffalo News, recently declared that he will save his constituents $142,964 a year by taking back 271 of the cell phones, BlackBerrys and air cards that were issued to departmental employees. The News reported that that constituted roughly one-third of the communication equipment distributed to staff who work under the control of the county exec’s office.
Part of the savings will come from stopping a $35-a-week stipend, called “beeper pay” given to some employees who carry a pager. Collins said those employees will get cell phones which cost less than $30.
News staff writer Mathew Spina said Collins is getting union resistance on this point “but his confident he will win.”
The newly elected county executive has promised to run government more like a business. We’ve heard that one before.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 12:07 pm by Phil Reisman.
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Phil Reisman is a veteran journalist and native of Westchester County. He began his career in 1977 as the head copy boy of a startup New York City newspaper that quickly went belly up. Reisman was not to blame for the newspaper's failure, or so he claims.
There’s something skewered with the figures the Board continues to release on this issue. There are 17 legislators. Divide $11,500 by 17 and you get about $69 per year per legislator. Forgetting about the cost of the “device” itself, what plan offers usage at $5 per month? In addition, It would not be surprising to find that a myriad of other county board associates also have these free “devices.” Am I missing something?
Not all of them use the cell phones—that I know.