During its first term, the Giuliani administration cut taxes, cut spending, and reduced the municipal payroll, thereby closing the budget gap.

Now lawyers are negotiating compensation for the three men, who are still not back on the municipal payroll.

There would be no layoffs, but the municipal payroll would be reduced by 3,182 workers through attrition.

"You have to shrink the municipal payroll and grow the revenue base," he said, adding, "The skyline should be full of cranes right now."

That'll give you better than seven months to rebuild your old private consulting business before you're dropped from the municipal payroll.

It began the process of laying off 280 workers in a purge that might trim more than 7,000 employees from the municipal payroll in the coming weeks.

But the borough also has a generous municipal payroll that includes, for example, salaries of $83,000 for a police sergeant.

The mayor aside, who on the municipal payroll is more an object of curiosity and controversy than the top cop?

This municipal president has been accused of nepotism, putting family and friends on municipal payrolls for no work.

Dozens of no-show employees have been purged from the municipal payroll.