January 14, 2011

Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo

Governor, New York State

State Capitol                             

Albany, New York 12224

Dear Governor Cuomo:

            We too were shocked and surprised that the State Police requested and DOB approved salary increases for the 28 State Police top officials late last year.  There are many issues involved in this action and many questions.

            As you know, many management/confidential (M/C) employees currently face this same inequity that M/C employees have faced over the years; that their salaries are lower than those of their union represented subordinates.  This is true not only in the uniformed services such as the State Police, but also with PEF and CSEA represented employees and has been exacerbated by the withholding of M/C salary increases by the Paterson Administration during fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11.

            OMCE, as the representative of the interests of M/C employees, has tried over the years to get each successive administration to recognize and take positive action to establish a rational salary structure which ensures that M/C employees are fairly and equitably compensated.

            We have also in the past recommended changes to the statutory salary schedules for agency heads and elected officials as one of the actions needed to relieve this longstanding salary compression problem.

            There are many other inequities in compensation and benefits faced by M/Cs.  Given the difficulty in keeping competent and dedicated M/C employees and attracting new workers to state government, we believe the time is right to fix these inequities in conjunction with reinventing and rightsizing government efforts.

            We offer our experience, expertise and desire to work with you to make state government a more efficient and responsive entity, while ensuring that the management/confidential staff are fairly treated.

            We look forward to hearing from you soon.

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                    Barbara Zaron                                                  Joseph B. Sano