High Peaks recommendations released
Panel seeks ways to manage crowds of Adirondack visitors
Amid concerns about overuse and crowds in popular areas of the Adirondack Park, a panel that has been meeting in private since late last year submitted its preliminary recommendations to the state earlier this month for managing visitor use in the popular High Peaks region.
The panel’s 43-page report, released Monday, addresses issues that include parking enforcement, human waste management, trail maintenance, visitor use limitations and data collection, according to a news release.
The long-debated idea of issuing permits to restrict visitor use will be pushed for another day, but it is expected to be addressed in a second report.
Basil Seggos, commission
can take advantage of an early retirement incentive,” PEF President Wayne Spence said. “With years of NYS budget and staffing cuts, our members have been doing the work of two to three people during that same period and certainly deserve to retire early, if (that incentive is) made available.”
In some agencies and departments, workers are reporting that managers have floated the prospect of early retirement incentives being offered by September, which is what the legislation calls for. But those bills, in the Senate and Assembly, are stalled at the committee level and have not received public support from the majority leaders.
The legislation would also propose early retirement incentives be offered to school districts and local government entities that elect to participate in the program.
“In light of COVID-19 and its impact on revenues both at the state level as well as the local government level, it is becoming increasingly apparent that all options need to be on the table for reducing the other side of the balance sheet, which is expenses,” said Assemblyman John Mcdonald, D-cohoes, a co-sponsor of the Assembly’s bill. “Retirement incentives may be an item to consider to help lower expenses; however, those who elect to pursue this incentive, if approved, need to look closely at what expenses will be reduced and compare that to the experience that may leave government service.”
The Cuomo administration may be waiting to see whether a gridlocked Congress will pass legislation providing potentially billions of dollars in aid to New York and other states that were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Still, New York already had been facing a more than $6 billion deficit before the virus struck the state in early March.
According to PEF, certain members or specific titles designated by management would be eligible for up to three years of additional service credit for an early retirement — with one month of extra service up to an additional 36 months of pension credit. It would also allow eligible members who are age 55 and have 25 or more years of service (rather than 30 years) to be eligible to retire without penalty during the time period they are offered.
PEF contends New York agencies are already operating at staffing levels below what are needed.
“This workforce planning flaw has been exposed by the COVID-19 crisis where the state — through the services rendered by our members — has demonstrated how important having government capacity is in times of crisis,” Spence’s statement reads. “PEF members have been asked to perform herculean tasks without appropriate human or financial support. The state workforce is stretched way too thin.”
There are exceptions to the buyout offers in the legislation, including any reduction in services that are “required or mandated to protect and care for clients of the state or a participating employer or to assure public health and safety,” or that would “endanger the health or safety of employees of the state or a participating employer.”
Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state Budget Division, said buyouts are “not being considered at this time.”
Cuomo said last month that he is hopeful the state can avoid layoffs or furloughs, at a time when more than 30 percent of the state’s workforce have been doing their jobs from home during the pandemic, including many with diminished workloads.
At the end of March, Cuomo’s administration deferred for three months the 2 percent raises that roughly 80,000 state workers had been scheduled to receive. The state also has declined to renew numerous service contracts and implemented a hiring freeze.
Figures provided to the Times Union by Cuomo’s office had indicated that 59 agencies, departments, offices and commissions had 36,178 people working remotely, out of 119,135 workers.
Sen. James Skoufis, D-woodbury, said he has not seen “a careful analysis of up-front costs a buyout would require versus the savings it would yield.”
Skoufis said that type of analysis is a “necessary first step.”
“More urgently, it underscores the need for the federal government to do their damn job and provide state governments — and the essential workers they fund — with long-overdue relief,” Skoufis said. “Many people are predicting a second wave of the virus, but are overlooking a second wave of the recession if untold thousands of essential workers need to be laid off because the federal government failed to act.”