Hiring Freeze or Hiring Frenzy?

Let’s be clear. A new government administration has the right to put qualified people into lead policy making positions. However, they can’t base their campaign on the evils of hiring friends and family and then proceed to do exactly that, especially during a self-imposed “hiring freeze."

On Jan. 1, we swore in in City Hall. Immediately, Fran Adelson, Len Torres, Scott Mandel, and Mike Fagen claimed there was . One of the few concrete promises they made during their campaign was to “end the policy of giving city jobs to family and friends." In fact, these are the words of the promise written on their website.

Then, on Jan. 3, Adelson, Torres, Fagen and Mandel . Immediately, he declared and a “hiring freeze” and the council passed a dramatically worded resolution declaring a "fiscal crisis." The resolution stated, “ …that the City Manager is authorized to establish a hiring freeze”. . 

Maybe there was a typo in the resolution, because the new administration’s actions don’t match their words. To date, they have broken the promise not to hire family and friends a number of times, and they have completely ignored the “hiring freeze”.

Since inauguration day Adelson, Torres, Fagen, Mandel and Schnirman have hired:

• Mike Zapson’s former secretary, Mia Amorosa, to be the City Manager’s personal secretary. Zapson is chairman of the , who ran the team’s campaign.
• , who Zapson knows from his days at Nassau County, was hired as  comptroller for close to $20,000 more than the previous comptroller.
• as police commissioner. He is the a longtime Democrat supporter and the husband of .
• Mike Robinson was hired as director of Community Development. He is a longtime campaigner and Democratic operative. He has zero experience in community development, but has been a Democratic Committeeman.
• Bobby Piazza as Recreation commissioner. Another longtime supporter of the Democrat team.
• Mike Cruz as Community Development liaison. He and Robinson were two of the Democrats’ biggest supporters. Cruz has also been a Democratic Committeeman.
• The son of two Democrat committee members to work in the City Manager’s office.

Either there’s a fiscal crisis and thus a hiring freeze, or the city can afford to hire additional people. The latter would mean the “fiscal crisis” has been exaggerated; they can’t have it both ways. It's pretty simple.

Maybe there was a typo with the term “hiring freeze." Maybe they meant to write that there was going to be a “hiring frenzy.” Maybe the campaign promise was to hire “as many family and friends to city positions as possible” instead of “ending the practice of hiring family and friends." 

What else can explain the blatant hypocrisy of Adelson, Torres, Fagen, Mandel, and Schnirman?