Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo plans to launch a hard-charging government right from the start, ordering his top aides to report to work on New Year’s Day — which is also Inauguration Day — and Sunday, The Post has learned.
Some of Cuomo’s top appointees began working even before they took office as they secretly filled dozens of top jobs last week in several state agencies. Lame-duck Gov. Paterson’s aides relayed the new assignments to many soon-to-be-fired state commissioners.
“Agencies were called up and told to put so-and-so on the payroll, effective Jan. 3,” said one agency head.
“Some of it was pretty cruel, because the calls with the names of new appointees came in on Christmas Eve, which means they fired people hours before Christmas,” the agency head bitterly complained.
Sources close to Cuomo said the firings should not have been surprising since political appointees had already been told to submit their resignations and new administrations almost always put their own people in top slots.
“Cuomo is hard-charging, and he’s looking to get his government under way right from the start,” said a source who speaks to the governor-elect often.
Cuomo plans to start work at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, hold a low-key inauguration inside the Capitol at noon, and then hold a symbolic open house at the nearby Executive Mansion, where he once lived.
Then he plans to return to the Capitol for several hours of additional work.
Cuomo’s intense weekend work schedule won’t surprise many who were familiar with the work ethic of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, who once famously responded this way when a top appointee told him he was leaving on vacation: “Why?”
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While Paterson publicly insists he’s content to be out of office for the first time in 25 years, some close to him say the former state senator and lieutenant governor is “bitter” and “seething with anger” over the fact that he’s leaving without a job to go to and with low approval ratings.
“David’s got that great, likeable exterior, but it often hides real anger and resentment. You can see it there,” said a source who has dealt him often.
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Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, an Orthodox Jew, won’t be attending Cuomo’s inauguration because the first of the year falls on a Saturday, the Sabbath.