In the space of a week, a Ballston councilman publicly called into question the hours worked by the town supervisor and then backed off his challenge.
Councilman William Goslin called for a review of Town Supervisor Patti Southworth’s hours worked at a Tuesday, July 31, Town Board agenda meeting — not for being too few, but rather for being too many for the part-time post.
“I’m concerned about the hours the supervisor is working, which has her working … essentially every day of the year, full time, and I’m not sure what to do about that,” said Goslin at the meeting.
He spoke of Southworth’s Standard Workday and Reporting Resolution for elected officials, which the board unanimously approved at a July 3 meeting. The system is intended to report to the state the “standard work days” for elected or appointed officials for the use of the state retirement system. In effect, the information is used to calculate retirement benefits for employees who do not punch a time clock.
Brian Butrye, a spokesman for the state Comptroller’s Office, said the form is essentially a way to determine what pension credits an elected or appointed office at the local government level will receive.
“It’s a three-month log (of hours worked) to ensure an employee is only getting pension credits for what was worked and credit you deserve,” said Butrye.
He added the form serves as an example for anticipated hours to be worked by an official in one year and is good for eight years. It also follows the election cycle, and as such officials have 180 days after an election to submit their Standard Workday and Reporting Resolution form.
Goslin said Southworth’s forms indicate she works 30 days per month, based on a six-hour day. He said it does not matter to him how many hours Southworth works, but he is concerned because the supervisor position is a part-time post.
“She works very hard,” he said. “Essentially, we have a part-time supervisor who is working or submitting the hours to New York State Retirement System for a year-and-a-third or almost a year-and-a-half worth of service for what is supposed to be a part-time job.”
Goslin said in a later interview he didn’t take a “good look at the form” when he approved Southworth’s work days at the July meeting. He called for the issue to be discussed at a Tuesday, Aug. 7, regular board meeting, during which the reporting system was explained.
“At this point, I am satisfied with the explanation that I’ve heard,” Goslin said on Wednesday, Aug. 8. He added he feels there still needs to be some investigation into Southworth’s hours to confirm that they do not have any further impact on the retirement system, and he plans on looking into it.
Southworth provided to The Spotlight hand written calendars of her hours worked from the two time periods the reports concern: January through March 2010 and January to April 9, 2012. During those periods, excepting a vacation in March of 2012, she reports taking eight days off and working anywhere from 27 to 51 hours per week for the town. She reports working anywhere from one or two to upwards of 10 hours on various days.
The Spotlight has filed a Freedom on Information Law request with the Town of Ballston for the reports of all five of the Town Board members submitted to the state, but as of press time had not received a response.
Southworth said her predecessor, Ray Callahan, also declared working full-time hours even though the position carries a $20,455 salary.
“The pay is actually that of a part-time supervisor,” she said.
As supervisor, she also sits on the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors, which is considered a full-time position, and draws about $18,000 a year from that county work. She reports those hours separately, and said she reports working at least 20 days for the county every month.
“My hours at the county, I’m already deemed a full-time employee so I’m already getting one year of service (through NYS Retirement),” Southworth said. “The only reason I enrolled in the retirement system was because New York State Retirement told me I had to. It was not optional.”
Southworth said she sees Goslin’s audit request as politically motivated.
“A couple of meetings ago I did say, ‘Let’s just lay it on the line, you want to be supervisor,’ … and he’d didn’t rebuttal me,” she said.
Goslin said that’s not the case.
“I have no plans to run for that. I have started a new position and a new career five months ago with CDPHP,” he said. “I’m very pleased here and absolutely have no plans to do anything but continue my term as councilman.”
