By Michael Orbach
The Village of Lawrence is investigating how a former village administrator managed to earn close to $200,000 in the last year, much of it in overtime, according to a board trustee.
Dan Herron, a twenty-eight year employee of the village, was appointed acting village administrator last November at a salary of $117,000. According to www.seethroughny.net, a website that monitors government salaries through overtime work, he actually earned $193,771.96, a figure which ranks him as the seventh-highest paid employee in Nassau County, excluding police and fire.
On September 27th the Lawrence Board of Trustees passed a unanimous resolution that transferred Herron to the village’s building department. According to the minutes of a meeting two days earlier, the board also convened in executive session and adopted a policy prohibiting overtime for village employees without the prior approval of the mayor, except in a case of emergency.
The previous two administrators did not receive overtime, according to a board member who did not want to be named since board policy is not to comment about personnel matters.
Herron earned more than government employees with similar responsibilities. Salvatore Evola, the village clerk treasurer of Cedarhurst, earned $110,050 according to the most recent numbers available on www.seethroughny.com; John Giordano, the village administrator of Lynbrook, earned $142,751.39.
Herron told The Jewish Star the extra pay was due to overtime and said that his hours had been correctly signed off by his superiors. The switch to the buildings department was for “personal reasons,” he said.
Lawrence Mayor Simon Felder defended Herron’s compensation as village administrator.
“People are making all kinds of salaries. If it’s in the range of what a person was able to earn, I think it’s okay. The salaries in general in Nassau [are] rather high; I think the same can be said for the police forces. But I’m really not an expert in that. I’ve heard it said that the salaries of Nassau, in general, of people working in government are rather… I don’t know the exact number, but I think that included some overtime if I’m not mistaken.”
Edward Klar, a village trustee, declined to comment, adding only that he was “very pleased to welcome Dave Smollett,” the new village administrator.
