Meanwhile Back in Albany (v35)

Nathaniel Brooks/NY Times

Everyone is so focused on the ethical shenanigans going on in Congress and the White House, where the even president himself has admitted to impeachable offenses, we sometimes forget that lots of other equally dubious stuff is going on in statehouses around the country, including here in New York State.

According to the Albany Times Union article linked above, our Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo has had his administration give as much as $1.2M more to a criminal defense law firm that was originally hired back in 2016 for the "Buffalo Billion" investigation. That's the one, you'll remember, that brought charges against several developers (including COR Development here in my neck of the woods) and others close to the gov.

Here's a bit of background on the contract with Morvillo Abramowitz, from the Times Union article:

For $950,000, the Executive Chamber originally retained Morvillo Abramowitz on April 29, 2016, the same the day administration was served with a sweeping federal subpoena from the Manhattan US Attorney's office. The document request was part of the upstate bid-rigging probe that included Cuomo's "Buffalo Billion" initiative.

After two extensions of the contract worth another $1.5M, the contract ended in July 2018 - the same month the second and final trial concerning state contract bid-rigging - featuring SUNY Polytechnic founder Alain Kaloyeros and others as defendants - ended with convictions.

But now? The firm is involved for a new reason: it seems the FBI is investigating Cuomo's administration for its practice of placing certain employees on the payrolls of state agencies and authorities, instead of on the Executive Chamber payroll where they belong.

Two years ago, the FBI was in the midst of interviewing Executive Chamber staffers in that manner as part of the probe. A Cuomo spokesman at the time dismissed the FBI inquiry as "absurd" and noted that governors had for decades engaged in the practice. 

The Times Union has been reporting on this for a while; it was their story in 2016 that 89 of 209 Executive Chamber employees were on other payrolls; that prompted the current investigation. Another group of employees, more than 20 of them, came on board in the spring of 2017, all but five of whom were paid outside the Executive Chamber.

Although the no-bid contract extension was originally denied by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office for being too broad, it was eventually approved and runs through the end of 2020. According to DiNapoli spokeswoman Jennifer Freeman,

We asked them to be specific about why they wanted to extend the contract. they provided us with justification for why they wanted to extend the contract and what the services were for and we approved in early 2019.

The article notes that Morvillo Abramowitz has worked for Cuomo not only on the Buffalo Billions case, and the hiring practices case, but also a third case, from 2014, when Cuomo shut down his Moreland Commission investigation into public corruption. (You can read posts about that debacle here). But what was different then was that Cuomo's campaign picked up that tab, whereas we taxpayers are carrying the load on the recent investigations.

What's telling here is that the Sonofa Gov apparently thinks it's OK to do this because others have done it too. And they probably have - honestly, I have no doubt about that - but the point is, being ethical and honest is an individual choice.

Making the decision to be ethical in spite of how others have acted in the past, are acting today, or are likely to act in the future is exactly as easy as making the decision to be unethical because of those same factors. That Cuomo and his advisers don't know this, or choose to ignore it, is a stain on them, but it's consistent with past behavior.

Need an example? Cuomo said we needed to close the LLC loophole in NY's campaign finance laws, that it was wrong and needed to be fixed, at the exact same time he was benefiting from it.

It's no secret that Cuomo happens to be the biggest beneficiary of  LLC donations. He has reported raising $16.54M from them since taking office in 2011. By comparison, his past three opponents - Republicans Carl Paladino and Rob Astorino and Democrat Zephyr Teachout - raised $8M from all of their contributors combined... 

Since Cuomo took office, 574 committees associated with candidates for one of the Legislature's 213 seats have received at least one donation from an LLC. Combined, those hundreds of individuals have reported raising $16.5M from LLCs, just slightly less than Cuomo's total.

And the Senate Republicans who bear the brunt of Cuomo's criticism? They've raised $6.4M from LLCs, or 39% of Cuomo's total. 

And, of course, we know that he rests peacefully at night because he knows he's ethical. Because he told us he is, back in 2014.

I'm going to make the decision that I think is right for them because at the end of the night I go home and I put my head on the pillow and I have to be able to fall asleep and I can't fall asleep if I don't believe I'm doing the right thing.

And somehow, five years later, that means taxpayers are on the hook for lawyers to help defend him in an FBI investigation for what (at the very least) has the perception of being unethical and dishonest.

Sleep well, Governor.

Meanwhile, Back in Albany (v17)

Nathaniel Brooks/NY Times

For the second time, former NY State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam were found guilty of corruption charges.  

Previously convicted in back in 2015, that verdict was thrown out and a new trial ordered based on a Supreme Court decision in another dirty politician's trial. The Skelos case was kicked off by former US Attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by the Trump Administration, as happens sometimes when administrations change. (Bharara is now more than holding his own on social media, hosting a podcast on NPR and otherwise keeping us in the know.) 

And yes, while the trial was in Manhattan, the case has legs beyond the boundaries of New York City.  Because, meanwhile back in Albany, these are just a couple more convictions in a list of convictions on ethics-related charges that have occured in the past few years, reinforcing the message that we need to do something about the people we elect, the people they appoint, and how they all operate.

Who's in the rogue's gallery, in addition to Skelos? Here's a partial list, covering the nine years I've been publishing veritable pastiche of just the convicted state pols, not the 'resigned in disgrace because of a sex scandal' gang or any who served at the federal level:

• Sheldon Silver, Assembly Leader
• Deputy Senate Majority Leader Tom Libous
• Senate Minority Leader John L Sampson
• Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith
• Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa
• Assemblyman William Boyland
• Assemblyman Eric Stevenson
• Assemblyman Nelson Castro
• State Senator Shirley Huntley
• Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Jr.
• State Senator Vincent Leibell
• State Senator Nicholas Spano
• State Comptroller Alan Hevesi
• State Senator Carl Kruger
• State Senator Hiram Monserrate
• State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, Jr.
• State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello

Pretty impressive, kinda sorta, isn't it? You know, in a shameful kind of way, or in a 'seriously, we can't do better than this?" kind of way.

We've tried to address this, in any number of ways, including suggesting that the legislators get paid more so they would be less tempted to be bad.

We've tried passing ethics legislation - that didn't work, either.  And we had our Sonofa Gov's Moreland Commission, which was abruptly cancelled just when things started getting interesting.

Do we maybe just need better people?

Sunday School 6/11/2017

Boy, it was a hot one today, no air conditioning in the school, since it's the weekend and all. I only had the energy to visit one classroom today, and it was a good one: This Week with George Stephanopoulos, on ABC.

One of George's guests today was former US Attorney Preet Bharara, who, you might remember, is the guy who brought about the end to the reigns of Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos in the New York State Legislature, and who was also not shy about delving into potential ethics violations by New York's Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, his close associates, and less-close associates affiliated with Cuomo's Buffalo Billion and other economic development activities. He was not thrilled with the premature shuttering of the Moreland Commission, either.

Right here in Syracuse, he's got the leaders of COR Development under indictment; motions are still being filed in those matters, even as COR continues working on our Inner Harbor project, where they have exclusive development rights. Bharara's firing has not yet had an impact on the cases, and I hope it doesn't. Better to see these go through the legal process than to have things messed with simply because we have a new administration in Washington.

Anyway, today Bharara talked about James Comey and Donald Trump, answering some specific questions from Stephanopoulos. When asked if Comey lied under oath, the answer was clear:

It does not appear that way. I mean you've got someone who...has a reputation for telling the truth, someone who has contemporaneous notes of what happened... On the other hand, I think a lot of people will tell you that the president himself sometimes makes accusations that turn out to be not true...  And when it comes down to who's telling the truth and who's not, I think most people would side reasonably with James Comey.

Stephanopoulos asked about Comey leaking his notes, and whether there was "anything illegal" there.

So, I'm not in the business of making legal pronouncements on... what's legal or what's criminal anymore. But I will say, it sounds like more of a distraction... Nothing that was in the memo or in the conversations he had with his friend... was classified.

So I think the main point that people should be focusing on, from what I can see, is that you have... uncontroverted from someone who was under oath that on at least one occasion, the president of the United States cleared a room of his vice president and his attorney general, and told his director of the FBI that he should essentially drop a case against his former national security advisor. 

And whether or not that is impeachable or that's indictable, that's a very serious thing. And I'm not sure that people, you know, fully get that the standard is not just whether something is a crime or not, but there should - you know, whether or not it can be charged as a crime or Congress will impeach, it's a very serious thing.

And there's a lot to be frightened about and a lot to be outraged about if you have a president who, A, may have done it, although I know he denies it, but he hasn't (denied it) under oath yet. And B, he seems to suggest that even if he had done it or said words to that effect, there's nothing wrong with it. And you have other people who seem to be excusing it.  

 That's an incredibly serious thing if people think that the president of the United States can tell heads of law enforcement agencies, based on his own whim or is own personal preferences or friendships, that they should or should not pursue particular criminal cases against individuals. 

That's not how America works.

There's more, including a discussion on whether or not this is ever going to be more than 'he said/he said case'. Bharara doesn't know but did toss out this out there.

...look at the surrounding circumstances and indicia of truthfulness and those things include contemporaneous statements to other people. They include the track record of the witness... and whether or not one of the hes in the 'he said/he said' has a track record for lying or not both on the air and in legal proceedings...and I believe there is such a track record with respect to one of the parties.

We all know which one he's talking about, don't we?

Bharara himself was the recipient of a three calls from Trump, two from him as president-elect and a third after the inauguration, including the one Bharara refused to return. He was fired the next day. Regarding those  conversations, he also noted

The number of times that President Obama called me in seven-and-a-half years was zero. The number of times I would have expected to be called by the president of the Unites States would be zero, because there has to be some kind of arm's length relationship given the jurisdiction that various people had.

I miss Preet Bharara, I do.

See you around campus.

Meanwhile, Back in Albany (v4)

Nathaniel Brooks/NY Times

When we last checked in on doings in Albany, we were looking at the issue of a possible legislative pay raise, with something in the neighborhood of 47% on the table.

My earlier posts touched on the recent legislative session, the pros and cons of a big raise, and good people.

I had hoped, by now, that the transcript from the September 13th meeting would be available, so we could see how the Commission tackled the part-time vs. full time issue, which they touched on in the July meeting and were to address in more detail this month, Alas, nothing's been posted yet.

But that's OK, because there have been even bigger doings in Albany than something as inconsequential as a monster pay raise for the Leg, the Gov, and the various commissioners who do those things about which we often hear little and know even less.

Our old friend Preet Bharara, the US Attorney in Manhattan and the person most actively interested in getting rid of corruption in Albany, has struck again - in a big way.  He has indicted several people on bribery, bid-rigging and other charges. Here's who made the list this time:

• Joseph Percoco and Todd Howe, both former aides of Andrew Cuomo and his father, late Governor Mario Cuomo. Percoco was referred to as "Mario Cuomo's third son" by the current governor - "and the one he loved the most." Percoco allegedly accepted bribes arranged by Howe from a couple of development companies.
• Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, of Syracuse-based COR Development, who were alleged to have paid bribes for help in avoiding a labor agreement, getting paid by the state for work done, and obtaining a raise for Aiello's son, who worked for Percoco. The company was not charged.
• Peter Galbraith Kelly Jr, the lobbying guy for Competitive Power Ventures; the company wanted help on a project in the Hudson Valley, and paid bribes to Percoco's wife. Again, the company itself was not charged.
• Louis Ciminelli, Michael Laepple, and Kevin Schuler, of LPCiminelli. The goal of these bribes was to ensure that the company (itself not charged) was the sole eligible bidder on a project.
• Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, head of SUNY Polytechnic, who was the mastermind behind high-tech economic development projects across the state.  NY Attorney General Eric Schneidermann also charged Kaloyeros last week for other corrupt actions

Naturally, everyone did nothing wrong, they will all be exonerated, this is a sham, Bharara has designs on something bigger, and on and on. I like to think he has designs on continuing to clean up Albany, something that the Governor and the Legislature are unable to do themselves. JCOPE is an example of that.

JCOPE, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, is more of a reporting organization than anything else, and like other commissions, is lock stock and barrel comprised of representatives of the people it oversees.

The Commission consists of 14 members, three appointed by the Temporary President of the Senate, three appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, one appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate, one appointed by the Minority Leader of the Assembly and six appointed by the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor. 

As with the Commission looking at the pay raise, none of the members are appointed by the people of the Empire State. None answer to the people of the Empire State. None are looking after the interests of the people of the Empire state. The fox is overseeing the hen house, with the full commitment of the hens.

This is ridiculous, but it's not as ridiculous as Cuomo's personal attempt at rooting out corruption.

I've done a number of posts on the reasonably well conceived but poorly executed and prematurely shut down Moreland Commission. This commission would have been a complete waste of time and money, except that it really put front and center our Sonofa Gov's lack of interest in getting ethics reform. He's been talking reform for a number of years, but the reality of what he's accomplished pales in comparison to his rhetoric.

Cuomo has always maintained that he's clean as a whistle, and so far, he's not been touched by Bharara's investigations, which also took down Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos. But now, the investigations have closed in on people who are extremely close to the Governor, who are huge donors, who are actively involved in the Buffalo Billion and in the other signature projects that came from the Gov's porkfest, the Regional Economic Development Councils.

I suspect Cuomo may be having a little more trouble sleeping at night.

Grains of Salt (v8): Fitzing Around

Onondaga County's DA-for-Life, William Fitzpatrick, is investigating Syracuse's City Hall and Stephanie Miner, our term-limited mayor, for allegedly attempting to influence people's opinions against a tax deal for a developer who has been given exclusive rights to make the Syracuse Inner Harbor pretty.

Miner prefers that developer candy baskets include specific hiring requirements for city residents, among other things, and defends (too fiercely, many think) city territory on these deals. The mayor challenged this one because COR Development, the company in question, went straight to  the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency  instead of to the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency, because they anticipated a friendlier reception - and they got one.

Miner sued, saying that COR promised not to seek a PILOT on the Inner Harbor project; the judge didn't buy it, and tossed her lawsuit. Fitzpatrick is investigating to see if there was undue influence by City Hall on legislators or other witnesses, or on public opinion generally. (Note that there was apparently some attempt to influence, as noted by the discovery of a letter to the editor that was 'signed' by five religious leaders, some of whom were surprised to see their names in the paper. Comically, or sadly, all of the local judges recused themselves from the case.)

COR Development once had close ties with Miner, and has a connection with the mayor's husband and his family; the company still has close ties with OnJoanie Mahoney, only the third county executive in Onondaga's history, and perhaps the last, depending on what happens with the Consensus Commission's recommendations to merge government functions between the city and the county.

It was this same developer who was in on the plans to build a half-a-billion-dollar stadium for Syracuse University - in the city - and we know that the plan was not discussed with the mayor in advance of it being announced, and eventually was not given the green light. The property where the stadium was to have been built remains basically undeveloped by COR at this time; all of the grand plans for the Loguen's Crossing development pre-stadium debacle have not yet been realized, nor has any real intent to act on them, as far as anyone knows.

The developer is also huge supporter of our Sonofa Governor Andrew Cuomo, giving a couple hundred thou to his 2014 campaign, and benefiting by having millions of dollars in contracts associated with the Sonofa Guv's gimmicky economic development programs around the state come their way. That includes right here in our own back yard where they have - you guessed it - exclusive rights to develop things like the 'nano-center' where we have a movie production studio generating some jobs, and a new LED lighting manufacturer which will bring in a few hundred more.

Those deals came about through COR's relationship with the Gov, er I mean through their interactions with the SUNY Polytechnic Institute. SUNY Poly is heavily involved in the "Buffalo Billion" project, a shining star in Cuomo's portfolio of economic successes.  Parts of the Buffalo Billion, including SUNY Poly, and people associated with it, including a very close former aide to Cuomo, are currently being looked at as part of the ongoing investigation of US Attorney Preet Bharara into politics and ethics in New York.

Bharara, who has already gotten convictions of both former NY Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and former State Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver, has made it clear he's not stopping his investigations even if the Governor's ill-fated and "totally independent" Moreland Commission to investigate corruption in NY's government was nipped in the bud when it apparently got too close to Cuomo, his donors, media partners, and so on.

I say 'apparently' that's why it was nipped in the bud, because pretty much everyone thinks that -- reporters, Bharara, and most New Yorkers, except maybe the members of the State Legislature; they're glad the Commission is out of their hair, and I don't think they care why.

One person who doesn't think that, though, is Fitzpatrick, who was one of the three co-chairs of the Commission (OnJoanie was also a member) and who suggested in emails that were uncovered that "the Second Floor" (the Sonofa Guv's home base in Albany) needed to understand what "independent" meant. Many people took that as suggesting at least some level of meddling, but apparently that was not the case.

Because the Commission asserted in court papers that it was fully independent, only a couple of months before it was unceremoniously shut down by the Governor, who pretended that his objectives on ethics reform were met through the budget negotiation process. Bharara noted that the shutdown didn't really pass the smell test. He ordered the Commission to preserve all papers and then, a few months later, let people know he would not take kindly to attempts by the Second Floor to influence any of the now former Commission members into painting a rosy picture of things when that was likely not the case.

And who was one of the Commission members who made glowing statements about the independence of the Commission, noting that no one can push him around and make him drop something he was interested in looking at, oh no siree?  None other than our very own DA,  Bill Fitzpatrick.

Heads spinning as we try and sort out this plate of spaghetti, we're Fitzing around here in Syracuse, fingers pointing, accusations and denials flowing like wine, he saids and she saids and who remembers and who signed and who didn't and who told on who and, frankly, for what?

Absent a smoking gun in Syracuse's City Hall, I would be confused as to how the Mayor's attempts to influence public opinion about a tax deal are really any different than Fitzpatrick's attempt to influence public opinion about an independent ethics commission?

They're both elected officials, speaking to constituents (many of whom don't like them) about things that any number of their constituents don't like or don't believe, and about which many people couldn't care less.

Do we want honest politicians? Of course we do. Do we want to uncover corruption? Sure we do. Would it be better if the person doing the investigating was not someone who has long-standing issues with the folks he's investigating? Of course it would.  Is that likely to happen here?

Nope.