Opinion ID: 504646
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Assembly's Secretarial Staff Arrangements

Text: 7 The Assembly provided Rubin with a secretary in Albany, New York, who worked during the Assembly session, which ran from January until June, and with occasional help from an Assembly secretarial pool maintained in Manhattan. Rubin had neither the budget nor the authority to hire additional secretarial help. 8 Members of the Assembly had budgets to hire office staff and staff for committees on which they had leadership positions. With the approval of the Assembly Speaker or his chief administrative aide, members could obtain budget increases for the hiring of additional staff. Though there were no ceilings on or guidelines governing such increases, there were safeguards designed to ensure that employees placed on a member's payroll actually worked for the Assembly. The employee was required annually to fill out an application for employment and to sign a Certificate of Continuing Performance of Duties (Continuing Performance) stating that the employee was providing the services of the position. The Assembly member was required to fill out an annual Personnel Action Request for each employee as well as a biweekly Personnel Service Voucher certifying that the employee was working in the appropriate position; only after receipt of the latter form was the employee's paycheck released. 9