Taxpayer Pays State Workers To Attend Cuomo Climate Change Event

By Paul Homewood 

 

http://nypost.com/2015/10/14/cuomo-paid-state-workers-to-fill-seats-at-climate-speech/ 

 

 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wasn’t taking any chances that there might be empty seats at a speech he delivered last week on climate change — so state workers were summoned on the taxpayer dime to fill the audience, The Post has learned.

The workers said they left their jobs in the middle of the day Thursday and were paid their full salaries to hear Cuomo at Columbia University announce the state was joining a global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“I’d rather be at the park,” said one of the workers, who is employed by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and who has no connection to climate issues.

He explained that he went because his boss “asked me to make some time available in my schedule.”

The worker confessed that he didn’t know what the event was about before he agreed to go.

A state Department of Health worker told The Post that supervisors offered employees the ­option of attending the event ­“instead of working.”

If they watched Cuomo, they could go home afterward instead of returning to work, the employee said.

He called the practice “AstroTurfing” — an attempt to fabricate grassroots support.

“Public employees take an oath that they won’t use their position for their personal advantage,” the employee said. “How can you expect any state workers to take it seriously when the boss isn’t leading by example?”

Good-government advocates questioned why state workers were being paid to attend an event designed to bolster an elected official’s credentials.

“It’s a questionable use of state resources,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union.

They must be getting desperate.