Full salaries for Albany part-timers mak...

Full salaries for Albany part-timers mak...

Philip Kamrass/Albany Times Union

Nice work if you can get it. Part-time politicians in Albany have been collecting full salaries in the Legislature.

ALBANY It really pays to be a part-time staffer in the state Legislature.

In one of Albanys dirty little secrets, some of the Legislatures highest-paid employees arent required to work anywhere near full-time hours but pull in salaries and benefits as if they did.

These workers 345 in the state Senate, 271 in the Assembly enjoy a special annual designation that lowers the mandatory number of hours they must work each week, compared with 35-hour weeks most employees put in.

The advantage, little known to the taxpaying public, is that having fewer required work-hours can free up these staffers to do campaign work that legally cant be done while punched in on the state clock, insiders say. Or, in other cases, the workers are able to focus on their nongovernment side jobs.

How does that benefit the public? questioned Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/New York.

It raises questions as to whether this is a scheme to subsidize political activities on the taxpayers dime, she added.

Of the 345 Senate staffers who get the special designation, 267 work for the GOP majority, and 78 toil for Democrats, according to the latest payroll records. Some 56 of the Senate part-timers take home at least $ 50,000 and seven of them make more than $ 100,000.

The seven in six-figures are all top staffers, advisers, or counsel to Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and the Republican conference. At the top is Thomas Dunham, Skelos director of operations, who is paid $ 165,000 a year. Senate GOP officials wouldnt say how many hours he is required to put in each week.

In terms of those with lucrative side jobs, Skelos $ 140,000-a-year counsel, David Lewis, has a law firm that has been hired in the past by individual state senators. And, John LaValle, a private lawyer who is Suffolk County GOP chairman and the son of a state senator, makes $ 50,000 as the assistant counsel to the Secretary of the Senate even though he is based on Long Island.

These individuals have worked incredibly hard to help turn New York around, and have far exceeded the minimum hours required, said Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif.

Among the Senates 20 highest-paid part-timers are five Democratic aides, led by Paul Rivera, the $ 80,000-a-year special adviser to Minority Leader John Sampson. He is required to work just 25 hours a week, and was in line to get a $ 50,000 raise until it was nixed after the Daily News reported it last week.

In the Assembly, which handles its payroll designations differently than the Senate, 40 part-timers gross more than $ 50,000 a year, records show. Most of the 271 total are year-round part-timers who still qualify for salaries and benefits that top those of many full-timers in the private sector. Others are considered full-time, but work just 30 hours a week.

Only one has a six-figure salary: Marc Kronenberg, who earns $ 107,703 a year as Brooklyn Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikinds chief of staff; he is required to work 30 hours a week.

Insiders say that those who are selected to be part-timers are often key players on the political front. The designation also allows them to more quickly bank compensation time for overtime work, and the comp time is then put toward campaign work, the sources added.

klovett@nydailynews.com