Joel-ita

Better late than never.

"I think we need an orderly downsizing of county government," Weinstein said. "We need to keep health and safety and critical county services in mind, and we need to cut out the discretionary spending." By "discretionary" Weinstein partially means the friends and family of County Executive Joel Giambra who are on the county payroll. We wanted to know if they would be the first to go. According to Giambra, the answer is yes. "There are some people in my office who are going to be laid off," Giambra said. "There are family and friends, and strangers, a whole lot of strangers." By Giambra's layoff outline, he would lose nearly his entire staff of 18, although his two deputies would stay along with two low-level assistants. Also, all non-mandated county positions will be gone, including the job of Giambra's one-time driver Victor Getz, who is currently making $73,000 a year.

Victor Getz is finished in county government. The patronage positions go first. Now, we need to yank back the $150,000 in wasteful "member money" that each legislator gets to spend on pet projects. No more. Enough. Basta. Genug. That right there is a savings of $2,250,000. If you listen very, very carefully: I think you can hear Joel Giambra ... is he singing? Yes! Yes, he's singing: Don't cryyyyy for me Erieeeee Countyyyyyyy!