After two decades as Putnam county”™s executive, Robert Bondi was ready for someone else to take over last November. Vincent Leibell won the position, but rather than finding himself being sworn in, he was answering a warrant sworn out for federal income tax evasion.
That left Putnam County in a bind. Bondi offered to stay on until a replacement was found. But the county Legislature unanimously chose longtime county personnel director Paul Eldridge to fill the seat until a special election can be held in November for the three years remaining in the term.
Eldridge, played a pivotal role in working on Bondi”™s team to meet Putnam”™s challenges. “Bob has been a great mentor. He put together a strong team of advisers and made Putnam only one of two counties in the entire state where the cost of government is the lowest per capita.” Saratoga is the other.
Eldridge credited Bondi with several initiatives, including consolidation of services and literally “creating a bare-bones structure for government in Putnam … long before the crash made it a necessity.
“Bondi also saved the county money by selling off its certified home health agency. It was really duplicating services that so many others offer, including Putnam Community Hospital,” Eldridge said. “We now have CHHA”™s through Visiting Nurse Service of Westchester, which took over on December 22nd and is doing an excellent job. Some staff was cut; others were moved to other jobs. The goal was to eliminate redundancy.”
Putnam is currently in the midst of negotiating with the state to extend its 4 percent sales tax rate, 1 percent higher than the standard rate. “Because we need special approval from the Legislature every two years, we are working on getting this done as quickly as possible,” he said. “Without it, we will have $12 million less in income we will have to work with in our budget if it is allowed to expire on November 30. How do you come up with $12 million during these economic times?”
While other counties are struggling to negotiate with unions over health care benefits, Eldridge said Putnam County workers have been paying into their health care and pension funds since 1980.
“The first year we instituted this, we had 30 employees drop out of the health care program immediately and go on to their spouses”™ health insurance. Depending on the length of service, employees pay between five and 30 percent of the cost. The retirement age has been moved from 55 to 62 and all employees pay three percent into the fund.”
The MTA tax is another issue Putnam, like its fellow “quarter-pounder” counties, has had to contend with. Putnam shares a single vote with Dutchess, Orange and Rockland; hence, the nickname.
“We”™re going to continue to fight it. It”™s amazing what is being thrown at us … and we have to find a way to pay it. It”™s just one more issue to contend with in an economy where we are already bare-bones.”
Eldridge has no intention of running for the remainder of the county executive term, saying he plans to return to his job as personnel director when Bondi”™s replacement is elected in November.
“It”™s one thing to be an adviser to the county executive ”“ and quite another to be county executive,” Eldridge said. “I worked closely with Bob on his team of advisers, so I know what the issues are, but I love my job and will be very happy to get back to it.”
