Neary v. New York State Division of Budget

192 Misc. 2d 375, 745 N.Y.S.2d 864, 2002 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 856
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJune 28, 2002
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 192 Misc. 2d 375 (Neary v. New York State Division of Budget) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Neary v. New York State Division of Budget, 192 Misc. 2d 375, 745 N.Y.S.2d 864, 2002 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 856 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Bernard J. Malone, Jr., J.

The petition is granted to the extent that the petitioners are awarded a judgment annulling as arbitrary and capricious the determination of the Director of the New York State Division of the Budget (hereinafter the Division of the Budget and its [376]*376Director are referred to collectively as DOB) which retroactively applied the 12% of salary limitation of Civil Service Law § 134 (5) to emergency overtime already earned by petitioners under Civil Service Law § 134 (6) at 1½ times the hourly rate of pay received by petitioners, which overtime rate of pay DOB established for the initial 160 hours of overtime worked by petitioners, and directing the respondents to process the overtime pay requests of the petitioners without applying the 12% of salary limitation.

The five petitioners are employed by the Division of Military and Naval Affairs State Emergency Management Office (DMNA) in salary grade 23 or 25. Four of the petitioners are disaster preparedness representatives and one is a supervisor of nuclear civil protection planning. DMNA administers the state’s, military forces and coordinates the state’s emergency preparedness plans. Petitioners receive annual salaries and are not eligible for overtime pay except in certain circumstances defined by statutes. One of the situations under which petitioners are eligible for overtime pay is set forth in Civil Service Law § 134 (6) as follows: “Notwithstanding any other provisions of law to the contrary, any employee in any title or individual position ineligible to accrue overtime credits under the rules and regulations promulgated by the director of the budget pursuant to the provisions of this section who is required to work beyond a normal workweek during a period deemed? .by the director of the budget to be an extreme emergency, may be granted additional compensation upon the approval of and at a rate established by the director of the budget; provided, however, that such additional compensation shall not exceed one and one-half times the hourly rate of pay received by such employee in his regular position. Such compensation shall be in addition to, and not be a part of, the employee’s basic annual salary and shall not affect or impair any increment or other rights or benefits to which the employee may be entitled under the provisions of this chapter; provided, however, that any differential payable pursuant to this subdivision shall be included as compensation for retirement purposes.”

In response to the September 11, 2001 attack upon the World Trade Center, Governor Pataki issued Executive Order No. 113 (9 NYCRR 5.113) declaring all of New York to be in a state of disaster emergency and directing DMNA to respond appropriately. On October 3, 2001, DOB issued Budget Bulletin G-1030 which provides, in pertinent part:

[377]*377“Effective September 11, 2001 the Division of the Budget, in consultation with the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations, is instituting a special policy to accommodate employee overtime compensation for essential work associated with the September 11th World Trade Center disaster. This Bulletin provides commissioners and agency heads with additional flexibility to manage personnel resources within existing budget allocations. This bulletin also recognizes the unique and unprecedented nature of the World Trade Center disaster and the drastic measures some agencies must take in deploying staffs that are critical to the State’s efforts.
“overtime
“1. Blanket overtime authorization is granted for staff in Grade 27 and below positions, provided that such overtime is both essential and directly related to activities associated with the State’s response to the World Trade Center disaster. Agency heads will be responsible for determining which overtime requests fulfill the ‘essential and directly related’ criteria.
“2. Staff authorized to incur overtime shall be paid in a manner determined by the agency head. Compensation can be allowed for time actually worked consistent with standard overtime rules and collective bargaining agreements. However, the hourly rate shall not exceed one and one times the regular hourly rate of the employee for time worked over 40 hours per week. Authorized payments for otherwise overtime ineligible staff in Grade 27 and below positions which are submitted to the State Comptroller shall be considered preapproved by the Division of the Budget.”

Petitioners were directed by DMNA to work overtime due to the extreme emergency caused by the World Trade Center attack. The petitioners worked the following amount of overtime hours: Holmes — 383 hours; DiNuzzo — 406 hours; Anderson — 311.25 hours; Hein — 242.25 hours; and Neary — 448 hours. To meet its statutory duty to set the overtime rate DOB, according to paragraph nine of the affidavit of DOB Chief Budget Examiner John E. Burke, set the hourly rate of overtime at IV2 times the regular hourly pay rate of the petitioners. Sometime after the overtime was earned, DOB apparently made an oral determination that the 12% of basic annual salary overtime limitation set forth in Civil Service Law [378]*378§ 134 (5)

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Related

Maurer v. State Emergency Management Office
13 A.D.3d 751 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2004)
Maurer v. State Emergency Management Office
196 Misc. 2d 750 (New York Supreme Court, 2003)

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Bluebook (online)
192 Misc. 2d 375, 745 N.Y.S.2d 864, 2002 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 856, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neary-v-new-york-state-division-of-budget-nysupct-2002.