Legislature to Vote on Ending Residency Requirement for Top Post
News that the Putnam County Executive’s administration is proposing to appoint an out-of-county person to a high-paying, top-level position has not been well-received by some Putnam County residents, according to some county legislators.
After a full vote to amend the residency requirement that would allow the administration to hire the person, described as the most qualified candidate to be appointed Planning Commissioner, was tabled earlier in the month, the matter again became a point of discussion at a personnel committee meeting on Sept. 18.
Legislator Sam Oliverio, who is adamantly against the proposal, said that he had received many phone calls and emails from constituents inquiring as to why a qualified Putnam County resident cannot be found to fill the position.
“We need to have Putnam County people lead Putnam County….I will be a negative vote on this,” Oliverio said.
Legislator Roger Gross, who does not sit on the committee but attended the meeting, said he, too, had heard from people who questioned having an out-of-county resident named Planning Commissioner.
“There is some anger out there that out-of-county people are getting these jobs,” Gross said.
In addition, there was some concern from legislators that the advertisement for the open position had not reached out to a broad enough area in order identify the top candidates for the job.
Putnam County Personnel Director Paul Eldridge addressed both concerns at the meeting.
Eldridge said the way the opening had been publicized followed the same protocol used in the past to seek out candidates for both appointments and other county government positions.
In regards to a suggestion that for these types of highly-skilled positions the county might consider advertising in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as opposed to just small, local publications, Eldridge said doing so was cost-prohibitive.
“I don’t know if people realize how extraordinarily expensive that is,” he said, noting that a single Sunday ad in the Times with a posting on the newspaper’s website cost $10,000. “I believe the way we’ve done it is an effective way to do it.”
Eldridge said out of the applications received, six were chosen for sit-down interviews; three of which were county residents and three of which were not.
In the end, the administration officials charged with finding a new commissioner, decided on the person they believed to be the best candidate for the job and who happens to reside just across the border in Fishkill. It was noted the person graduated from Carmel High School.
Eldridge said that there was nothing in the county charter that required top level appointed officials to be county residents and said the applicable state law could easily be amended with a local law; a change other counties already have made, including Westchester, which has ten times the population of Putnam and hence a larger pool of job candidates.
Eldridge said the proposal to appoint the top candidate was not done in disregard of any effort to find a Putnam County resident to fill the spot, but was a result of trying to find the most qualified person to lead the county planning department.
Eldridge pointed out that the county’s Commissioners of Consumer Affairs, Health, Finance and Purchasing were all Putnam County residents, as is the county attorney.
“Let’s not lose site of the fact that we are homegrown in Putnam County government,” he said. “We are not a county run by outsiders.”
With only two of the three committee members present at the meeting, and Oliverio against the proposal, the matter was not moved to be voted on at the next full meeting of the legislature.
Legislator Dan Birmingham, who is not on the committee but attended the meeting, said that he would take the prerogative of moving the resolution to the full legislature for an up or down vote at either the full legislative meeting in November or December.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
