ALBANY —- Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino – the Republican candidate for governor – has a side job.
Astorino is reeling in about $30,000 a year as a consultant to a major media conglomerate, the Daily News has learned. The pay is on top of his $160,000 annual salary as Westchester’s top elected official.
The earnings from Connecticut-based Townsquare Media were redacted from a copy of Astorino’s official financial disclosure statement released by Westchester County.
His spokeswoman, however, provided the information to The News.
As the Westchester County executive, Astorino oversees a $1.7 billion annual budget. It is unusual for county executives with such responsibilities to have outside employment.
Democrats charged that Astorino’s moonlighting runs afoul of the Westchester County Charter, which states he must “devote his whole time to the duties of his office and shall hold no other public office.”
“Who knew that as Westchester County executive you could have so much extra time on your hands that you can earn consulting fees on the side,” said Mike Morey, a spokesman for the Democrat-backed Astorino Truth Squad. “I thought it was a full-time job.”
Astorino spokeswoman Jessica Proud scoffed at the Democrats’ claims and said Astorino simply provides “programming and formatting advice” to the company, which owns 312 radio stations, including more than 30 in upstate New York.
“This was cleared through the county attorney, there is no prohibition of earning outside income, and there is absolutely no conflict of interest,” Proud said.
Proud also said it was the county’s policy to redact personal information like outside income when releasing disclosure statements.
“Perhaps Gov. Cuomo should focus his attention on his pal Shelly Silver who has earned millions from trial lawyers who have business before the state,” Proud charged.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) recently disclosed earning as much as $750,000 from the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg but has provided little detail about what he does for the firm.
Astorino backers also noted that Cuomo has a lucrative book deal with HarperCollins that paid him $188,333 last year.
Before being elected county executive in 2009, Astorino had a lengthy media career with stints at ESPN Radio in Manhattan and as program director for the Catholic Channel on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio.
“Mr. Astorino serves as one of a number of programming consultants that work with Townsquare Media,” said Townsquare Vice President Alex Berkett in an email. “This role allows Townsquare to benefit from Mr. Astorino’s considerable professional expertise in radio programming.”
