Yonkers - Responding to what the mayor calls a political attack by freshman Councilmember Joan Gronowski (D - 3rd District), the city administration released information today detailing improvements made under Mayor Phil Amicone to local civil service procedures, specifically as they relate to the hiring of new employees. The well documented improvements to what had been problematic hiring practices under prior administrations even drew praise from state regulators on several separate occasions. The documents released today chronicle several years of correspondence between the Yonkers City and New York State (NYS) Civil Service Commissions showing sharp and steady reductions in the numbers of "provisional" employees in city government over each year of Amicone's tenure.

Provisional appointments are new employees who have been hired to positions for which no civil service lists exist. While provisional employees are common to every public hiring authority in the state including local governments, school boards and libraries, having a high percentage of provisional employees is generally frowned upon by state authorities and can subject local hiring authorities to sanctions.
A press release issued by Councilmember Gronowski on February 7 attacked Amicone for his "poor administration" of civil service procedures and for his "abuse of provisional hiring." Gronowski also called on the NYS Civil Service Commission to conduct an audit of the local Yonkers commission.

Amicone claims statistics show something different.

 Provisional employees as a percentage of total workforce at year's end:

• 2001 (Mayor Spencer) - 16.8%
• 2003 (Mayor Spencer) - 13.2%
• 2004 (Mayor Amicone) - 5.7%
• 2005 (Mayor Amicone) - 4.0%
• 2006 (Mayor Amicone) - 4.0%
• 2007 (Mayor Amicone) - 3.9%