....February 5, 2:01 PM
 
 
 
Corruption In Albany; Politics At Borough Hall

By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

Joe Bruno was indicted last week.

The former Majority Leader who ruled the New York State Senate until retirement last year – which appears to be forced by the Federal probe — has been formally accused of corruption for soliciting business from those who he helped in his official government capacity.

Bruno is accused of setting up a bogus consulting firm to accept payments form a Connecticut investment adviser that specialized in advising unions in exchange for business he steered to the firm.

Bruno maintains his innocence and is entitled to a trial.

It’s just like Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio, who on a smaller scale is accused of setting up a phony consulting firm to pocket funds from a Queens hospital in a scheme to have them favorably handled in Albany.

Seminerio was caught on tape when corrupt former Queens Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin wore a wire. McLaughlin faces sentencing after copping a plea in a series of corruption charges for taking money in both his governmental and union capacity.

We could go on with a list of convictions and guilty pleas in recent years by members of the New York State Legislature in pay-to-play Albany. The Albany culture of corruption continues unabated.

In the past couple of years, New York State saw a Governor and Comptroller resign under fire for illegal activity; now another one of the “three men in the room” who ruled Albany for years has been indicted, adding to the expansive list of Albany officials accused of corruption.

With a new blemished Governor who continues to stumble and a legislature which is the most dysfunctional in the nation, what is the likelihood of the State emerging successfully from ill conceived budgets, political spending and a runaway deficit?

Political Maneuver

Watch Deputy Queens Borough President Karen Koslowitz take a slight shift in title with little change in what she does at Boro Hall. In her present title – considered “policy making” — Koslowitz would be prohibited from raising funds for her run for City Council this year. But as the political landscape becomes clearer and Comptroller Bill Thompson is running for Mayor, Forest Hills Councilwoman Melinda Katz seems likely to run for Comptroller and leave a vacant seat which Koslowitz occupied eight years ago.

Koslowitz wants it back and is considered by many the frontrunner for the 29th Council District.

Former Queens Assemblyman Mike Cohen, frequent candidate Lynn Shulman, Heidi Chain and others are also planning on running for the seat.

Koslowitz, a party loyalist, is expected to have the backing of the Queens Democratic organization. But before she can become a viable candidate she’ll have to bank some biggish bucks. To do so, she can’t remain as Deputy Beep with her $156,000 salary. But you can bank on the insiders enabling Koslowitz to begin her campaign while still on the public payroll. Watch for a quiet shift in job title, a slight reduction in salary in a cosmetic effort to maintain things as usual and by-pass any regulations that might smell of pay-to-play at Queensborough Hall.

Koslowitz is an old friend, but if she wants to raise money for a run for Council, we believe the Queens Deputy Borough President should step down and off the Queens Borough Hall payroll.

Y’know, it’s something about appearances of impropriety that gives the people their opinion of government officials.

What If

In Queens things often are not what they appear to be.

Since the shameful overturn of term limits by a self-serving City Council, two-term incumbent Queens Borough President Helen Marshall has stated her intention to seek reelection for a previously prohibited third term in office.

Marshall doesn’t look like much of a candidate. But then again does she have to?

She hasn’t even filed the required Jan. 15 Campaign Finance Disclosure Statement leaving herself subject to fine and penalty.

But then again, with a long record of public service and many years contributing to the pension fund, the septuagenarian seemed ready for retirement.

Is she really off and running?

Or might this not be another inside party ploy where they circulate petitions for Marshall and then, when she has no Democratic challenger, she declines and the party bosses name Audrey Pheffer, the longtime Assemblywoman who prior to the term limit override was running and fundraising for Beep? As a matter of fact, even though she says she backs Marshall, Pheffer has not let up on her borowide campaign activity.

Hmmm!

Just last year, Assemblyman Mike DenDekker replaced Ivan Lafayette with no election through such a last-minute petition trick. It was the same mechanism used by then Dem County Leader Tom Manton to hand his Congressional seat to now County Leader Congressman Joe Crowley.

And all the while, they may have lulled Councilman Peter Vallone back into the Council giving Pheffer a free Beep ride.

No, we have no inside information.

Just, what if?

 
 
Paterson Lied About Kennedy; Don’t Most Politicos Fib?

By HENRY STERN

By HENRY STERN

Every now and then we grab an issue by the tail and hold on until it is resolved.

We have locked in on the selection of a successor to Senator Hillary Clinton. When there is a mid-term vacancy, a Senate seat is filled by appointment of the governor until the next even-numbered year. Governor Paterson’s choice, Kirsten Gillibrand (soft g), will serve through 2010, when an election will be held to fill the remaining two years of the term to which Clinton was elected in 2006.

We are still dealing with the fallout of the botched Senatorial appointment by Governor Paterson. The Post published a Pinocchio cartoon showing the governor’s nose continuing to lengthen. Then Post state editor Fred Dicker repeated Paterson’s denial of leaking the negative material about Caroline Kennedy after she withdrew from consideration.

Dicker goes as far as a journalist will with the sentence:

“The Post reported yesterday that the source was so well known to Paterson that he spends about as much time with him in the daytime as he does with his wife at night.”

The timeliest digger in Albany is the Daily News’ Elizabeth Benjamin. who fingered Judy Smith, a former Bush aide who does public relations for Paterson as an out-of-state contractor, for persuading the malleable governor to go public with the mud.

A perceptive column by Bill Hammond appeared in the News mildly sympathetic to the beleaguered governor:

“Gov. Paterson doesn’t set out to mislead and confuse.

“It’s just that he has a bad habit of saying whatever he thinks the person in front of him wants to hear at that moment -- even if that means completely contradicting what he said two minutes before. Before long, he has said so many things to so many people that he loses track of what the real truth is.

“It’s a personality flaw that finally caught up with him in the Caroline Kennedy fiasco.”

Michael Goodwin, who has criticized the governor, wrote a balanced and informative column in the News: “He’s erratic and is getting a reputation for being loose with the truth. But here’s the really bad news: Gov. Paterson remains our best hope for reform in Albany. Paterson’s rocky performance, especially in the botched contest to replace Hillary Clinton, is fueling talk that he’s toast.

“I hope he bounces back. New York needs him. Otherwise, the inmates, aka the Legislature, will have total control of the asylum.”

What fascinates us is that neither the Governor nor his allies have disputed the version of events laid out by fair-minded men like Goodwin and Hammond. Nor are the two contradicted by other writers. No one believes the obvious fictions that have been told. This was not an inadvertent leak; someone called the newspapers to spread the story. And many of us who were critical of the Kennedy candidacy joined in denouncing the maligning of an American favorite, who never did any harm to any of the people who slandered her.

Hopefully, the Governor will hire staff who are wiser and stronger than those whose advice he does not heed. To be effective, the staff will have to be able to say “no” to their boss. And the boss will have to choose people whose judgment he respects to help him to consider matters more seriously.

It is not necessary for everyone to tell the whole truth all the time. People in politics know that one appeals to different groups for different reasons on different occasions. Sometimes plans are under way which would be impolitic to disclose. Full disclosure is not always imperative, but it is generally desirable if possible.

We have a rule on the subject: “Always tell the truth when you can.”

Some politicians (and others) lie gratuitously, some gain pleasure from deceiving others, and some are so far gone they can no longer distinguish fiction from reality. The consequences of falsehood are described by Aesop in his fable, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” That brief tale should be required reading for politicos, lobbyists and all those involved in the process of making our democracy work.

Integrity and truthfulness are important aspects of reputation. Even thieves are more highly regarded if they keep their word. We still refer to Abraham Lincoln as “Honest Abe.’

Can anyone suggest a New York incumbent who is particularly worthy of that accolade? Please let us know your nominees.

Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato
Michael Schenkler can be reached via this contact form.