December 26, 2016

The Update Desk: Grains of Salt (v8)

Back in May, I talked about the Onondaga County DA-for-Life William Fitzpatrick and his head-scratching, head-spinning decision to open an investigation into Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner's administration.

The reason for the investigation? Fitzpatrick thought the Mayor was trying to influence public opinion against a local developer in a lawsuit. COR Development, once a local success story, went around the city's development agency to the county's development agency, got a tax deal, and the mayor was not happy. She sued and lost, but Fitz - not known to be a fan of the mayor or her police chief, for that matter - wanted to protect us from any undue influence from a politician.

He is one - a politician, of course -  and one who is not shy about trying to influence public opinion either in his official capacity as DA, or in his political capacity as, say, a member of our Sonofa Gov's Moreland Commission on ethics, or as, say, a boss getting involved in employment matters in his office.

Anyway -- back to our investigation,which one judge called a "fishing expedition": seems it's over, and there will be no findings or indictments, or even a report that we'll ever see, it appears. Here's the update from the local paper last Thursday:
A politically-charged investigation by the Onondaga County district attorney looking for misconduct at Syracuse City Hall has fizzled out without producing any allegations of wrongdoing.
District Attorney William Fitzpatrick's investigation of Syracuse Mayor Miner and her political allies produced no criminal charges or reports of malfeasance. 
According to the article, the Grand Jury records have been sealed, so we will likely never know for sure what happened, nor will folks, including at least two common councilors, officially have their names cleared.

That may be enough for Fitzpatrick, but is it enough for the elected officials? And is it enough for city taxpayers? Or County taxpayers who ultimately paid for this investigation?

No comment from Fitz, or from the Mayor.

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