Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol has interviewed more than four dozen of the fired corrections officers who want to continue their career in law enforcement at the county jail. He said the governor's executive order, which removes the fired officers from something called the Law Enforcement Registry, is getting in the way of that.
"I have people who want to start working for me, literally, well not tomorrow, but literally in the very near future," Maciol said. "Their backgrounds are underway. They're awaiting various steps of the hiring process, and I don't know where we go from here. As you know, we probably have about 80 vacancies in our facility. We have the opportunity to fill probably half of them."
The issue could end up in court after Oneida County lawmakers voted to allow the county to sue New York State over the executive order. County Executive Anthony Picente said local governments have the power to hire whomever they want. Regardless of what the governor says.
"That is complete and utter overreach by the governor of the state of New York, who, in the hypocrisy of it, has stated to the federal employees that have been dismissed, come and work for New York State," Picente said. "But in the state, employees the amendment dismissed, 'You can't work anywhere else.'"
The Hochul administration fired more than 2,000 prison guards for failing to return to work this week after a three week long wildcat strike. They had walked off the job, complaining about working conditions in state facilities.
