Presumably, Larry “The Brain” Schwartz’s departure from the confines of the Westchester County Executive’s office presents a golden opportunity to shrink the county payroll just a tad, um, about $160,000, not including bennies. By going to work for Gov. David Paterson, he’ll up his pay to $178,000  a year.

That’s a substantial raise over the increaase that County Executive Andy Spano unsuccessfully tried to slip to him and to a bunch of other county commissioners and department heads during the last budget go-round. Schwartz comes out a winner.

Schwartz will be replaced by Sue Tolchin, who is currently the chief adviser/ director of communications to County Executive Andy Spano.  The chief adviser side of her job will be eliminated. But the communications half of her job will be filled by two people (two!)

You can go crazy thinking about this stuff, especially when you contemplate the twisted logic. If the chief adviser portion of Tolchin’s job, could be eliminated, then it must have been superfluous all along. Right? That leaves only half a position.

And how is it that two people are needed to perform the other half of Tolchin’s responsibilities? If that’s true, then it  seems to me she should have been a part-time employee and only making one-quarter of her $155,245 pay all along.

Anyway, people are watching to see if they don’t sneak another hiring into the equation. The following is a statement from Greenburg Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, a Spano nemesis who heads a movement to “rethink” county government.

I was pleased to read that Larry Schwartz is stepping down as Deputy County Executive. This resignation provides County Executive Andrew Spano with the opportunity to cut the size of county government. We don’t need a Deputy County Executive. And… New York State doesn’t need a Lt. Governor (we haven’t had a Lt. Governor since Governor Spitzer resigned and David Paterson took office). The responsibilities of Deputy could easily be handled by other members of the county government.
One of the problems with our county government is that it is top heavy—there are too many administrative positions. Eliminating the office of Deputy County Executive would send the public a positive message that the county is listening to the complaints residents have about excessive county government.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor