Beilein to retire Friday as Niagara sheriff
Nomination for state position sent to Senate, but timing of action on confirmation unclear
LOCKPORT — Apparently anticipating confirmation to a state position, Niagara County Sheriff Thomas A. Beilein has filed papers to retire as sheriff, Peter P. Lopes, county human resources director, confirmed Tuesday.
Beilein’s last day on the job will be Friday, Lopes said. He said the state Employee Retirement System has informed the county payroll office that Beilein sent in his notice, and his last county paycheck is to be cut Friday.
Beilein’s nomination as chairman of the State Commission of Correction was sent to the State Senate on July 9, according to Errol Cockburn, spokesman for Gov. David A. Paterson.
State Sen. George D. Maziarz, RNewfane, who has been promoting Beilein for the state post, said Tuesday he was unaware that Paterson had submitted the appointment.
John Caher, spokesman for the commission, said Beilein cannot serve until confirmed by the Senate.
According to talk in Albany, he said, the Senate will reconvene next month.
But Maziarz said the Senate will not return this summer unless Albany’s “three men in a room” — Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and new Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos — agree on a property tax cap. Many rank-and-file incumbents would like to campaign on that issue this fall.
Maziarz said the Senate will not hold a special summer session only to act on appointments.
Caher said Beilein will not be sworn in as a member of the Commission on Corrections until he is confirmed.
Maziarz said the state has no provision for “recess appointments,” a Washington practice that allows the president to fill vacant jobs while Congress is away.
Beilein, a Democrat, has been sheriff for 15 1/2 years. His salary this year was to have been $96,318.
He did not return calls seeking comment.
The chairmanship of the Commission of Correction, which oversees local jails around the state, pays $101,400 a year.
Then-Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer announced Beilein’s appointment Feb. 21, but he never got around to sending the paperwork to the Senate before he resigned the following month in a call-girl scandal.
If Beilein is confirmed by mid-September, an election will be held in November for a four-year term as sheriff.
Republicans already have chosen Ernest C. Palmer, Lewiston councilman and Niagara Falls Police Department chief of detectives, as their candidate for the job, while Democrats have selected James C. Voutour, Beilein’s chief deputy.
