Governor Carcieri is charging the salaries of some of the top people in his office, including policy director Tim Costa, to other state agencies.

In response to queries about when this began and why, Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said: “The practice of assessing a percentage of an employee’s salary to another department is not uncommon or unprecedented and is done when a staff person dedicates a significant portion of their time working with various agencies on items of importance.”

She denied that the moves saved the governor from running over budget in his own accounts. But she was unable to cite any other governor who charged off the salary of a high-level staffer to another agency.

Here’s the deal, according to the state budget office: sometime in June, the governor’s office began charging 25 percent of Costa’s salary to the Department of Human Services “for work done on Medicaid reform,” 75 percent of Gerald Bedrick’s $62,136 salary to the Department of Administration “for assisting the division of purchases,” and 25 percent of Christopher Long’s $57,814 salary to the Department of Corrections and another 25 percent to the Department of Transportation for “work done on corrections reform proposals…[and] transportation issues during the year.”

Their job titles do not in all cases match their jobs.

Though he functions as the governor’s policy director, Costa’s official title is deputy executive assistant/communications. Long is a senior policy analyst, and Bedrick, who began his tenure in the Carcieri administration as a long-term temporary employee working for Smart Staffing Service while serving as the “public member” of a state contract selection committee, currently holds the title of supervisor financial management reporting.

Kempe’s explanation: “In the instance of Tim Costa, Chris Long and Gerry Bedrick, the individuals lent their expertise to different agencies, spending a percentage of their time working exclusively on issues related to those agencies. Therefore, a portion of their salaries were appropriated to those agencies for work done on behalf of that agency. Tim Costa, as an example, spent a significant time working with the DHS on Medicaid reform.”

The governor’s office also retroactively “transferred” months of the $56,541-a-year salary paid Klaus O’Neal, the staffer filming the reporters at a recent Carcieri news conference, to the Department of Administration’s information-technology division. Though O’Neal is listed as an associate executive assistant in the governor’s office, Carcieri’s communications director, John Robitaille, said he really provides “support to the governor’s office and the treasurer’s office. He also manages the governor’s Web site and is responsible for sourcing and posting of any photos, video and audio files.”

And there’s one more: the governor’s deputy legal counsel, Dan Majcher, “is currently budgeted within the Department of Administration, but has been assigned to work in the governor’s legal office. … His salary is $80,893 and benefits total $45,786. The benefits may change based on new co-pays on medical, but I used the ones that were in place when we developed the budget,” deputy state budget officer Thomas A. Mullaney said.

Would the governor have run over-budget in his own accounts had his office not charged these salaries off to other agencies?

Kempe said the governor was budgeted at $4,773,728 for the year that ended June 30. As to where he stood in the weeks leading up to the date, she said: “The fiscal year books have not been closed out yet, and final numbers are not yet available. The Controller officially releases the final numbers on September 1, 2008 (although that is Labor Day, so it will be released on September 2).”

Assembly aides’ comp time kept under wraps

The General Assembly has secrets.

Among them: the identities of the 51 legislative staffers who were given special dispensation by House Speaker William J. Murphy and Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano to take more than 140 hours in paid time off.

Rhode Island lawmakers meet, on average, three days a week, six months a year. The 2008 session ended in a 12-hour blur of stop-and-go activity on Saturday, June 20.

As a matter of stated policy, General Assembly employees are “capped at 140 hours of comp time per year.” Working the standard 35-hour state workweek, that would be tantamount to a month off.

But, “exceptions can be granted by the speaker or president to exceed the cap,” and this year, legislative spokesman Larry Berman acknowledges, the leaders granted an undisclosed number of additional hours, days and possibly weeks to 51 unidentified legislative staffers.

Had they been paid overtime, Berman acknowledges, those payments would be public information.

But he said Marisa White, the director of the legislature’s hiring and spending division known as the Joint Committee on Legislative Affairs, advised him that the legislature was not required to disclose the names of people ineligible for overtime who were getting a month or more of paid time off.

White was required to submit a report on the practice by July 31. The deadline came and went.

When asked for the report again last week, Berman said: “JCLS submitted a report as required to the Department of Administration of all JCLS employees’ accrued vacation time, sick time and personal time as of June 30, 2008,” but does not believe any of that information is public. (The JCLS is a House-Senate leadership committee, chaired by Speaker Murphy.)

On another matter, Berman belatedly filled in the blanks on this question: which legislators went to New Orleans at state expense for the National Conference of State Legislatures’ big summer event. Only one was previously disclosed and he coincidentally is among those not running for reelection: Rep. Peter Lewiss, D-Westerly.

Others who went on the trip included: Sen. Juan Pichardo; Representatives Brian Patrick Kennedy, Agostinho Silva and Kenneth Vaudreuil, and Sharon Reynolds Ferland, the deputy house fiscal adviser.

The state-paid tab for the six totaled $11,158.

Kerwin joins state scholarship agency

There has been a changing of the guard in General Treasurer Frank Caprio’s press office.

Press Secretary Peter Kerwin has left for the Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority, where he will direct the marketing and outreach activities for the CollegeBoundfund (the state college-savings program) at an approximate salary of $67,000.

Though he took a pay cut, Kerwin said he saw the new job as an opportunity to build “some management expertise” while promoting “a program that gives Rhode Island families a powerful vehicle for saving now for the children’s higher education.”

Kerwin had previously worked in the secretary of state’s office under James R. Langevin, now a congressman, and Matt Brown.

Taking his place in Caprio’s office is former TV reporter Tim Gray, who has been hired at an anticipated $75,779 salary.

Gray’s resumé includes 16 years in TV, most recently as a weekend sports anchor/reporter and fill-in news reporter at WJAR (Channel 10) from 1998 to 2004. Before that, he worked at stations in Michigan, Washington state, Florida and New York state.

After leaving WJAR, Gray, 41, started Tim Gray Media Inc. and produced mostly documentary films. They include D-Day+62 Years: Rhode Island Veterans Return to Normandy, a chronicle of the stories of World War II veterans that won two regional Emmy Awards for writing and photography. For the past year, he has been public and media relations officer for Mystic Aquarium.

Gray’s father, Walter, was a press secretary during the Republican administration (1959-61) of Gov. Christopher Del Sesto, and is a former president of the South Kingstown Town Council and two-term state senator.

Correction: A previous version of this story gave the wrong party affiliation for Walter Gray.

DCYF lawyer now Family Court special advocate

Speaking of job changes, Andrew J. Johnson is expected to start work today as the new director of Family Court’s Office of the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), which advocates for abused and neglected children.

Johnson, 43, of Warwick, has worked for the state Department of Children, Youth and Families for six years, including four years as deputy chief legal counsel. Previously he was a staff lawyer in the special advocate’s office.

He succeeds Francis Pickett, who has retired. The position has a base salary of $93,000.

Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. said, “I hired him because he is the most capable attorney I could find to head that department, which is very important. He’s the best attorney at DCYF. He did all the liaison work between DCYF and Family Court.”

Johnson said he was looking forward to being CASA’s director.

“The biggest thing is it’s representing just the needs of the children in DCYF care,” he said. “You don’t have to balance the mandates of the department versus what’s in the best interest of the children.”

Johnson emphasized that CASA is always looking for volunteers to represent children in DCYF care. Volunteers visit and interview and visit children and report to CASA lawyers about how the children are doing. Volunteers also provide written reports to the Family Court. “They provide a voice for the child,” he said.

efitzpat@projo.com