Familiar Faces on NYC Payroll

NEW YORK —  Several relatives and friends of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani have held on to well-paying City Hall jobs despite a change in administration and deep budget cuts.

The former Giuliani aides generally have stayed on the city’s payroll without attracting much public attention. This week Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed Giuliani cousin Raymond Casey as president of Off-Track Betting Corp., which operates city betting parlors.

During Giuliani’s tenure, Casey was appointed to several city posts, including chairman and executive director of the Trade Waste Commission, executive director of the Gambling Control Commission and inspector general of the Department of Sanitation.

Casey, who had said he did not want to rely on his Giuliani connection to get a job, earned $162,800 at the Trade Waste Commission. His salary at OTB has not been determined.

Casey declined to comment, but the mayor said Casey’s Giuliani ties had nothing to do with the hiring. The Casey family, related to Giuliani by marriage, has two other members on the Bloomberg payroll.

Casey’s brother, Jeffrey, works in the Office of the Mayor, where he earns $79,560. During Giuliani’s tenure, he worked in the Department of Buildings.

And Raymond L. Casey, the Casey brothers’ father, makes $98,000 a year as an executive in the city’s labor relations office. He was appointed to that post by Giuliani.

They have stayed on the payroll despite the city’s $4.8-billion budget deficit and orders from Bloomberg to cut staff at the Office of the Mayor and other agencies by 20%. Last week, the mayor’s office cut 127 jobs.

The other Caseys did not return calls seeking comment.

Spokesmen for Bloomberg and Giuliani did not return calls seeking comment, but last year Giuliani defended his appointments.

“My administration has probably done more to straighten out the management of this city than any administration in 40 to 50 years--and that is because I select people that are very well qualified,” Giuliani said.

Analysts say there is not necessarily political pressure being placed on the new administration to keep Giuliani relatives on the payroll.

“It takes a long time for a political transition to take place,” said Columbia University political science professor Steven Cohen. “You may get a job because of your connections. But keeping a job, especially when your patron is gone, is more difficult.”

Not all of Giuliani’s kin and friends kept their government jobs. Catherine Giuliani, another cousin of the former mayor, resigned as chief of staff at the city’s Economic Development Corp.