NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Susanne Marino, recently appointed as Executive Director of New Rochelle Section 8 Program, has been removed that position following a series of stories on Talk of the Sound raising questions about the process through which she was hired and her claims to have established residency in New Rochelle, a requirement for the position.
She has been replaced by Deborah Pritchett who will assume the role under the position’s old title of Section 8 Administrator later this month.
Pritchett is a New Rochelle resident and the former head of the Pelham, New York Section 8 Department. She is one of three candidates interviewed for the position. The other two included Marino, and a long-time employee of the New Rochelle Section 8 Department, Linda Garnett. Garnett has worked for the City for 25 years.
Initially told she could remain on until June to help with the transition, Marino’s consulting contract was abruptly terminated after a story on Talk of the Sound raising doubts about the veracity of her claims to have established residency.
Talk of the Sound first learned of the controversy surrounding the Section 8 Administrator position during the August 2012 Civil Service Commission meeting. Former Development Commissioner Michael Freimuth and City Manager Chuck Strome sought exceptions that would allow Marino to be hired for the Section 8 Administrator position despite a requirement in the job specifications that applicants be New Rochelle residents.
The move was preceded by a decision of the City Council last July during what appears to have been yet another illegal executive session meeting. During the meeting, the position of Section 8 Administrator was removed from the CSEA bargaining unit. It was then retitled Executive Director, Section 8 Program.
To circumvent the job specification requirements that the applicant be a New Rochelle resident, the City hired Marino as a non-union “consultant” to fill the position. It did so without first negotiating with CSEA members which the union argued was a violation of New York State Civil Service Law.
The CSEA union brought legal action against the City on the grounds that City was circumventing Civil Service rules and seeking to change the position from a Civil Service position to a Confidential-Management position.
Union members have alleged that then Acting-Development Commission Joan McCallion was attempting to keep Marino on as a “consultant” until Marino was able to document New Rochelle residency for four months. New Rochelle Civil Service Rules and Regulations require candidates to be residents of the City “…for at least four months prior to, and at the time of examination…” in order to qualify for civil service positions.
City officials took a number of extraordinary steps to put Marino on the City payroll including attempts to hire her as a “provisional” employee, waiving residency requirements and hiring her as a consultant.
In February, Marino claimed she a New Rochelle resident based on a cable TV bill she presented from an apartment on Palmer Avenue. Talk of the Sound later obtained government records and made direct observations suggesting that Marino was still residing in Purdys, NY where she has been a resident as far back as 2004, according to records obtained from the Westchester County Board of Elections. Property records and Department of Motor Vehicles records also confirm Marino residing at the Purdys address.
The effort to remove the Section 8 position from a bargaining unit is similar to a parallel effort to reclassify the position of police captain to a civilian position, Assistant Police Commissioner. Talk of the Sound exposed similar back room maneuvers at City Hall leading to a humiliating defeat for City Manager Chuck Strome, Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll and Mayor Noam Bramson, all of whom supported the plan which was little more than a pension padding scheme wrapped in a power grab by Carroll who was so confident of the outcome that he had already purchased Assistant Police Commissioner shields for the three captains, sources say.
For now, the CSEA has tentatively settled its dispute with New Rochelle over the Section 8 Administrator position after Marino was let go and the City agreed to put the position back into the union under its original title of Section 8 Administrator.
The next step is up to City Manager Charles Strome who is expected to formally agree to restoring the position to the bargaining unit within the next 30 days.
Marino was said to be upset because she claimed she had spent a great deal of time setting up an apartment in New Rochelle. These same sources say that Marino received instructions from a senior official in City Hall on how to go about setting up an apartment to qualify under the residency requirement while maintaining her home in Purdys.