Wolfe Proposes Local Law to Prohibit Rehiring of County Employees Who Accept Enhanced Incentives

Vice Chairman of the Rockland County Legislature Alden H. Wolfe has proposed a local law that would prevent the rehiring of former county government employees who retired or separated from county government and are receiving compensation for unused fringe benefits or accepted incentives. The law would also prohibit hiring the former employees as consultants or outside contractors.

Legislator Wolfe explained that the county has participated in New York State pension incentives and also created local incentive proposals to encourage employees to terminate employment with the county. “These programs are a means to achieve financial savings to the county,” said Wolfe, “however, oftentimes participating employees were rehired or employed again. Therefore the financial benefits sought were lost or drastically reduced in value.”

“We need to be able to rely upon the savings projections,” added Wolfe, “as well as enforce the intention of the incentive program, specifically that, there will be savings and reduction in personnel of the county workforce when incentive or enhanced compensations are accepted by employees.”

Wolfe’s proposal will be scheduled for committee review. All legislature committee meetings are open to the public and attendance is encouraged. Meetings take place in the legislature’s chambers in the Rockland County Office Building, 11 New Hempstead Rd., New City, NY. To obtain information on committee agendas, please visit www.rocklandgov.com, click on County Legislature and follow the link to Committee Agendas, or call 845-638-5100.

  Alden Wolfe, government, rockland county employees