Scott Bremner

For Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio and his staff, this has been one long week.

After months of smooth sailing, Flagship DiVecchio suddenly found itself floundering amid the rocks of a PR nightmare.

It started with word that the administration’s budget included pay raises for four top administrators that worked out to somewhere between 11 and 15 percent.

Some supporters tried to make the argument that the raises were needed to keep the posts in line with similar positions in the private sector. Others in the administration told me that the description of the raises (coming mainly from the newspaper, I suppose) was unfair because those amounts were to be given over two years and included monies already approved as cost of living increases.

Still, taxpayers made it pretty clear that if the aides were able to make more in the private sector then hey, there’s the door.

Faced with a groundswell outrage similar to two years ago when state lawmakers tried a midnight pay grab, the County Executive sent an apologetic letter to council respectfully requesting that the pay raise request be rescinded.

All of this was doing little to appease frustrated county workers who are split into nine bargaining units all of which have been without a new contract since January.

One of those units, the one that represents case workers for foster kids and staff workers for a juvenile detention center, finally became frustrated enough to hit the picket line.

They argue that their pay is so low and the caseload so heavy that 18 positions remain unfilled for a lack of want.

And their giblets really got fried when they saw an administration willing to add up to 15 percent to a $60,000 salary but who cried broke offering workers 3 percent of their $28,000 base.

That required a court judge to pat both sides on the head and gently ask them to go back to the table for two weeks before ruling on an injunction that could force picketers back to the job.

So there you have it, months of peace in the kingdom shattered in a few stormy days, but there is a silver lining for those looking to keep Flagship DiVecchio afloat.

Re-election isn’t until next year.