Will Troy Look To Spain?

UPDATE:Happy January 19th from the Record.
UPDATE Happy January 12th from the Record.
UPDATE: Happy January 8th from the Record
Troy officials who read about their Personnel Director, Al Spain and his fellow Councilman, Lou Desso's money saving job combo in North Greenbush, must surely be wondering if they should implement his idea in Troy?

Surely if the Town of North Greenbush can eliminate the full time salaried position of the Town Comptroller and make it a part time unpaid job given to the full time salaried Assessor, so could Troy. We bet Al's boss, Mayor Harry Tuntunjian is just foaming at the mouth to go to his Democratic Council with "Democrat" Al Spain's idea. Imagine, all this time such a money saving job combo was just waiting to be detailed had the Mayor just walked over to Spain's City Hall Office and asked the big question, "Hey Al, any ideas how we can combine jobs in the City like you do in North Greenbush and save some money?"

Al surely would have said, "Mr. Mayor, just have the City Assessor appointed City Comptroller and have him do the Comptroller's job part time and without a salary!" "What the heck Mayor, people won't care that their assessments are being done by a Comptroller who is always looking for more revenues to pay for services and the City Council will love the idea of not paying someone to audit the thousands of vendor claims we process every year as part of our 65 million dollar budget and do it after normal business hours when the Assessor's Office is closed and only on a part time basis."

Yep, we bet Mayor Tutunjian is beaming with anxiety over the brainchild of his very own Personnel Director, Al Spain who showed 'em all how to run a government with less money, expertise and personnel.

We also hear Al may have yet another money saving job combo for Troy, this one right under his nose all these years. For some strange reason Troy is paying salaries for both a Civil Service Commission and a Personnel Director. Most municipal governments, like Rensselaer County for example, have either one or the other, and perform the duplicitous functions without paying for positions and duties twice. Hell, Al figured that out when he went to visit the Rensselaer County Civil Service Commission as a Town Councilman to do some wheeling and dealing with job titles without telling the Town Supervisor.

That's an easy sell, combining the Personnel Director's duties with the Civil Service Commission. It's a whole lot easier than trying to explain in North Greenbush how a full time Assessor can also be a part time nonsalaried Comptroller after regular business hours, and adequately safeguard a 10 million dollar town budget.

So Al, we think it awfully magnanimous of you to offer your dual City Consolidation of Services Plan to your boss Mayor Tutunjian and the City Council. Finally, a bipartisan agreement in Troy. Well, almost. We hear some are wondering about the judgment of their Personnel Director in combining these conflicting positions in the Town of North Greenbush and wondering whether they should look at some of the judgments being made by Spain in the Personnel Director's Office in Troy. The folks in Troy really know how to pick 'em and we folks in North Greenbush think you're lucky because you can fix your problem before we can fix ours in November.