April 3, 2008

Weitzman calls on Attorney General & Nassau DA to probe baffling status change for County consultant

Contractor was inappropriately listed as employee for pension purposes, costing County over $102,000

Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman today called on New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice to investigate how Albert D’Agostino, a County consultant for the Planning Commission, had his status converted to “full time employee” so that he could receive over two decades worth of pension credit retroactively, costing the County $102,259.

“Who was watching the store in 2000 when a private lawyer who had County contracts for over two decades is retroactively given 21 years of employment status without the County ever hiring him?,” asked Comptroller Weitzman.  “How many other instances might exist of County contractors, converted retroactively to employee status prior to retirement?”

Following an inquiry by Newsday investigative reporters, Comptroller Weitzman’s office found that County payroll records and County Civil Service Commission records showed that D’Agostino was employed as a “Special Assistant, Planning Commission” starting January 4, 1999 and retired from the County on October 13, 2000.  Prior to his employment, the County’s records showed that D’Agostino had worked under contract to the County as counsel to the Planning Commission from April 6, 1978 through December 1998, with earnings rising over the years from $12,000 annually to $100,000.  He was paid a total of $910,946 under his contract payments during this time period.

But that wasn’t what the State Retirement System showed for D’Agostino. State records showed that he was employed by the County continuously from 1978 through 2000. 

The Comptroller’s office followed up with the State Retirement System to request records of how D’Agostino was granted full time employee status. The Comptroller received copies of letters from two members who said they had served on the Planning Commission while D’Agostino was under contract as its counsel. The letters of support were from then-Chair of the Planning Commission, Howard Blankman, and Herbert Libert, administrative head of the Planning Department until 1990. 

Mr. Blankman and Mr. Libert wrote in support of Mr. D’Agostino’s request that he be given retroactive credit for 21 years of employment with the County during the years that he worked under contract.  Both letters state, in identical language, that the County’s original intention was to hire Mr. D’Agostino, but “government being what it is” the intention to hire Mr. D’Agostino was not “corrected” until Mr. Blankman became Planning Commission chair in December 1998.

“The claim that for two decades Nassau County administrations intended to take the necessary steps to employ Mr. D’Agostino but did not because of governmental inertia is untenable,” Weitzman said. “Mr. D’Agostino’s law firm, Minerva & D’Agostino, was rehired under a contract as Planning Commission counsel for the period 12/1/00 – 12/19/02, at an annual payment of $83,300 in 2001 and $59,563 in 2002, and no one claimed that he was an employee for this time. It would be interesting to explore whether Mr. D’Agostino revised his income tax returns for those years.”

In addition to the two letters of support for his status change and his 1099’s evidencing payments made by the County to him as an outside contractor, Mr. D’Agostino also provided a letter from former Comptroller Fred Parola, attesting to payments made to him under contract for the years 1978 - 1982, which predate the County’s electronic financial system records.

The State Retirement System evidently accepted D’Agostino’s application and gave him credit for 21 years of employed service during the time he worked for Nassau County under contract and Nassau County was billed $102,259 to cover the payments it would have made to the retirement system if D’Agostino had actually been carried as an employee during those 21 years, plus interest.

Weitzman said that apart from the letters from Blankman and Libert, there is no evidence that any other County official approved this request when it was made in 2000. Blankman told Newsday that he wrote the letter because he thought D’Agostino was at risk of losing his employee status.