Paid to Protest?
As Bythepeople noted in this post, Gov. Spitzer was in town recently to call Sens. Robach & Alesi out on their lack of accomplishments this legislative session.
An interesting thing happened at the Gov’s visit. One which seems to have gone unnoticed by all local media except WHEC Channel 10.
It seems there were a number of people protesting the Gov’s visit for one reason or another. Problem is, most of the protesters work for Monroe County, including some top level people, like Maggie Brooks’ Director of Parks, Larry Staub.
News 10 NBC has the scoop:
So why were some of Brooks’ employees in county government at the airport carrying signs and chanting slogans? One of the them was her Parks Director Larry Staub. In fact, half of the 30 or so people there were county employees. Also there was the republican Clerk of the County Legislature Mike Barry.
(snip)
Parks Director Staub said they were on their lunch hour. He declined an on-camera interview Thursday saying he was “on the job and kind of busy.”
If we take a look at the NYS Department of Labor (DOL) regulations on lunch breaks, we will see, at least as far as employees who work 9-5, or thereabouts, are concerned, an employee must be able to take their lunch break, or noon day meal period (in DOL speak), between the hours of “eleven o’clock in the morning to two o’clock in the afternoon.” According to a press release, the Gov spoke at or about 3:30 p.m.
While I’m sure it’s ok for an employee to take their break outside of the allowed period, if the employee consents, it seems a little odd that at least 15 County employees would take their lunch break at this time.
It’s a shame that Larry Staub is probably paid salary, and therefore doesn’t have to punch a time clock, but, I would wager, at least one of those County employees does have to punch in and out for breaks.
That’s a time card I would love to see.
Holy crap! Great catch, jrviper. Reminds me of those Tom Delay staffers who were flown down to Florida to rap on the windows to disrupt the Gore/Bush re-count efforts. And posed as “outraged Florida citizens”.
This is a Steve Minarik trick that goes back many years when he used to send county operatives (people appointed to their jobs by Steve) over to City Hall to protest against Mayor Johnson.
The article claims that these county workers were on their “lunch hour.” Baloney! If a person gets an hour lunch break, then most of that hour would have been spent driving from downtown, or in the case of Mr. Staub, the Parks Department, waiting for the Governor to arrive, then driving back to work. That takes more than an hour believe me. And what’s worse is that they were protesting while collecting a check paid for by county tax dollars. This tactic is lame but yet Minarik continues to pull it and the media or general public doesn’t question it one bit.
What is more disappointing to me is that Maggie Brooks has sold her soul to this man (Minarik) just to keep her, and her husband, in high-paying government jobs with great retirement packages.
I wonder what those two would have done had Maggie not gone into politics? She lost her TV job at Channel 10 and he was just a retired city cop. Not much money to be made there.
Great catch.
I used to work for the county, for DES. If they’d caught me protesting a Republican at 3:30 in the afternoon, all hell would have broken loose.
And, If I’m not mistaken, being county employees, is it not we who are paying them to protest? I want my money back!