The state court system has failed to recover lost wages from its slacker former spokesman — six months after he was fired from his $166,000-a-year job when he butt-dialed a Post reporter and admitted he barely showed up to work, officials said Friday.
“This should’ve been negotiated by now. They’re dodging us,” said Albany County Comptroller Michael Conners.
Chief Justice Janet DiFiore told the comptroller’s office in August that she was “taking all appropriate steps to deal with” the at-least-$149,400 Conners estimates David Bookstaver owes taxpayers in unworked hours — including a probe from the court system’s own inspector general.
But there’s been no word of the review, and Bookstaver hasn’t been squeezed for a cent, Conners says.
He sent a letter to Inspector General Sherrill Spatz on Thursday demanding answers.
Bookstaver — who in August inadvertently admitted he was only working two days a week — is receiving a pension, so recovering the money shouldn’t be a problem and could be done in small increments, he added.
Although other watchdogs could go after the court for action, Conners says State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli likely won’t act until the report comes out and he doesn’t have high hopes for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.
“If Vance can’t go after [Harvey] Weinstein he’s certainly not going to go after a politically connected figure,” he scoffed, referring to Vance’s failure to arrest the pervy producer over multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
His office has skin in the game because it previously helped conduct audits of Albany County attorneys who’d been unwittingly overpaid, he said.
“It’s disgraceful. We helped them collect from attorneys in Albany County, but the person who does the PR for the chief justice isn’t going to be held to account?” he said.
“They figure the hick from Albany’s going to go away — but it’s not going to go away.”
A spokesperson for the state court system refused to say what was happening with the probe or the wages, saying only that the review is ongoing.
“The matter remains under criminal investigation, under the primary direction of the New York County District Attorney’s Office. While we maintain the right to act administratively, at this point, it would be inappropriate for us to take any action, until all facts of the case have been carefully reviewed,” Lucian Chalfen told The Post.