The top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose recorded remarks revealed by The Post have landed them both in hot water, is a trusted confidante who has worked for him nearly a decade — and at one point even took home a heftier paycheck.
Melissa DeRosa, 38, was hired by Cuomo in 2013, after earlier jobs as acting chief of staff for since-disgraced, ex-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and as the state director of Organizing for America, an advocacy group that grew out of former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Being named Cuomo’s communications director boosted her annual salary from $115,000 to $158,000, according to payroll data posted on the SeeThroughNY website.
In 2017, DeRosa — the middle child of leading Albany lobbyist Giorgio de Rosa — was promoted to secretary to the governor, making her the first woman to hold the powerful position, which officially ranks her No. 1 on Cuomo’s staff.
DeRosa’s salary for the fiscal year of 2019, the most recent available, was $206,510, compared to $200,000 for Cuomo — whose salary rose to $225,000 for fiscal 2020 again to $250,000 for fiscal 2021.
A source who has frequent contact with both DeRosa and Cuomo said that “Melissa is very fiercely loyal and protective of the governor.”
“She’s tough and puts on a good act,” the source said.
“She can be very tough to deal with. DeRosa is feared…If you cross her, you’re crossing the governor.”
The source also said DeRosa’s relationship with Cuomo was as close as ex-aide Joseph Percoco, who Cuomo publicly likened to a brother before Percoco was convicted on corruption charges.
“Melissa is Percoco with a skirt,” the source said.
Since the coronavirus crisis struck last year, DeRosa has routinely appeared at news conferences with Cuomo, to whom he sometimes defers to address certain matters.
“They have been hooked at the hip during the pandemic,” another source said.
A Cornell University grad with a bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations and a master’s in public administration, DeRosa earlier attended the private, all-girls Emma Willard School outside Albany.
Her classmates there included US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Glens Falls), whose 2017 wedding DeRosa attended.
On Friday, Stefanik — an outspoken Cuomo critic — said both he, DeRosa and other senior officials “must be prosecuted immediately – both by the Attorney General of New York State and the U.S. Department of Justice.”
DeRosa is married to Matthew Wing, head of work communications for Uber, who she met while he was Cuomo’s press secretary.
Sources were split Friday on how Cuomo would react to the controversy sparked by DeRosa’s recorded admission that his administration withheld nursing home death data from lawmakers out of fear that it would be “used against us” by the Department of Justice.
“Cuomo won’t abandon her,” one source said.
A Cuomo loyalist agreed, saying DeRosa “has worked with the governor to help get things back on track” amid the pandemic.
“Remember, we had refrigerators filled with dead bodies last year,” the source said.
But a government official who’s worked with DeRosa said she’d “abused her position of power and the faith the governor has entrusted in her.”
“This is likely going to be the end of her career,” the official added.
