Hikind Scores Part-Time Government Jobs For Sons And Friends

Assemblyman Dov Hikind used his political connections to land part-time jobs for his sons and friends. The New York Daily News is reporting that the jobs, which are on the state level, entitle those who hold them with taxpayer-funded medical care.

The rules for lawmakers directly hiring family members to jobs in the legislature was clearly stated by the Legislative Ethics Commission in February of 2011.

“No…member of the legislature…may participate in any decision to hire, promote, discipline or discharge a relative for any compensated position at, for or within any state agency, public authority or the legislature,” the commission said.

This rule does not stop lawmakers like Hikind from getting their family members hired by other legislators that they are friends or colleagues with. Hikind used this loophole to get his son Yoni, 32, a part-time job with Bensonhurst’s Assemblyman Peter Abbate Jr. and his son Shmuel, 29, a job as a community liaison for Assemblywoman Rhonda Jacobs of Flatbush. The report noted that Yoni has a full-time job running a small yeshiva in Flatbush.

The Daily News also reported that Hikind directly hired his friends to legislative positions:

The lawmaker quietly put the head of Yeshiva Simchas Chaim, Elchanan Schwartz, and a teacher at the school, Israel Tabi, on his taxpayer-funded payroll over the last two summers.

Since September 2011, Schwartz earned $42,283 and Tabi hauled in $17,451 working for Hikind.

“People are always looking for additional work to supplement their jobs,” Hikind said, noting that Schwartz has declined to join his staff again this summer.

Schwartz worked on a report detailing the harms of gambling while other Brooklyn lawmakers lobbied for a casino in Coney Island.

“If I would have had a lawyer work on it it would have cost a fortune,” Hikind said.

Hikind was open about his practice of getting jobs for his children and hiring friends.

“I help strangers and I certainly don’t discriminate against members of my family,” Hikind told the Daily News.

Despite Hikind’s honesty, some critics, like Russ Haven of the New York Public Interest Research Group, believe that some politicians cross a line when it comes to patronage.

“It’s supposed to be on the merits but sometimes politicians treat public service as the family and friends employment agency,” Haven told the Daily News.