Giambra's new chauffeur.

Kings ride in style. Kings don't drive - they are driven. That's why King Joel joins only three other NYS county executives who use drivers. (Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester, all of which are wealthier and fiscally healthier than Erie County).

"A soon-to-retire sheriff's deputy will become Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra's new driver, with his salary capped at $30,000 a year as a condition of his pension. No one has been named as of yet"

Joel explains that he can get work done while being driven around - writing, reading and being on the phone. Erie County ain't that big, and the traffic doesn't even come close to that in Westchester, Suffolk, or Nassau counties. Joel : do what those of us in the dreaded private sector do and GET A HEADSET FOR YOUR CELLPHONE. I think Tracy Diina's got one you can use. And we don't want to affect that guy's pension, now do we? Fricking joke. That would be an outrage under a proper, non-banana-republic government. This means that the driver will be pulling a NYS-income-tax-free state pension, which is probably north of $50k/year AND get 30k as Joel's chauffeur. I'm such a goddamn schmuck for having gone to law school. I should have just befriended and brownnosed some politically connected guy right out of high school, and I'd be making some cool bucks driving around. Victor Getz, Giambra's former driver & patronage "czar", is now reassigned to a job at the Parks Department that pays less than his former $81,000. EXCEPT...according to Illuzzi, Getz can pull in overtime at his new job, which he couldn't do while he was Giambra's AA. Sucking at the public teat and mauing at the public trough. Must be nice to be so cavalier with public money. Must be refreshing to be conscience-free.