Spin Cycle

The latest development in the furor over public pensions for people who weren't even on public payrolls: Gil Henoch, Garden City attorney, has his revoked on orders from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. Sandra Peddie's latest story is here.

We tire of chewing Troopergate cud, and yet, there was something ambiguously arresting about the August 2007 testimony of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's state police liaison William Howard in Albany County District Attorney David Soares' probe, explaining an e-mail he wrote before the first news stories broke about former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's habits with state police aircraft. In the e-mail Howard said “the impending travel stuff implies more problems... I think timing right for that move.”

"That move"?

“I didn't know what they were going to do with this stuff, but I knew that Darren [Dopp] was collecting the information,” Howard testified. “...I didn't know what the move was. It could have been to ethics, it could have been to the IG (Inspector General)... I didn't know what the move was going to be and didn't know that it was going to be a media move....”

“I figured they were collecting it for a purpose, and I figured that purpose was that somebody would have a conversation with somebody, you know, at a high level and say look, you know, we've got to move the ball. We've got to get together.”

Elizabeth Moore

Andrew Cuomo’s tenure as federal Housing and Urban Development secretary and how it contributed to today’s mortgage crisis receives an in-depth look here from the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett.

The report shows that Cuomo’s drive to increase home ownership among the poor, while well intentioned, led the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) to become massively involved in risk loans. The Federal Reserve recently engineered a bailout for both – but Barrett argues had Cuomo done a better job at HUD the mess wouldn’t have occurred in the first place.

Cuomo declined to be interviewed by the weekly paper. But his aide Howard Glaser told the Voice that "mortgage bankers thought Cuomo was the toughest secretary they had ever known." Glaser also denied that Cuomo, now state Attorney General, wasn’t a vigilant regulator of Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac.

James T. Madore

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer reportedly approved the move to have statements submitted rather than testify when Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last year was probing choppergate, or troopergate, or whatever we're calling it in retrospect this week. This, while the Savant said he was cooperating...Oh well.

Mike Gormley of the AP has a report here.

Records released by DA Soares today are still being combed...Stay tuned.

Gov. David A. Paterson raised more than $3.2 million in contributions for his election in 2010 in the past two months, his political committee announced today.

The Paterson for Governor committee received more than 600 donations from individuals, businesses and groups since fundraising began on May 5, said spokesman Jonathan Rosen. Paterson established the committee on April 14, less than a month after he moved into the Executive Mansion upon Eliot Spitzer’s sudden resignation amid a scandal.

Rosen said the committee had spent little so far and details would be available Tuesday, the deadline for campaigns to file disclosure forms with the Board of Elections.

Experts said the magnitude of Democrat Paterson’s initial campaign haul would quiet concerns about his fundraising prowess as a middle-class lawmaker with fewer ties to the business community than millionaire Spitzer. Less than $25,000 of Paterson’s donations were transferred from his old election committee for lieutenant governor.

The Spitzer/Paterson campaign spent about $33 million in the 2006 election.

Paterson received no money from Spitzer’s committee, Spitzer 2010, but was given its office space and equipment, according to sources.

Paterson, a champion of public financing of campaigns as a state senator, is not adhering to the $10,000 limit on contributions from individuals established by Spitzer.

Last month, comptroller Thomas DiNapoli of Great Neck, announced a $20,000 limit on individual donations to his new DiNapoli 2010 committee. It wasn’t expected to report large sums because a kick-off fundraiser isn’t until late summer, said aide Dennis Tompkins.

A spokesman for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was not immediately available to comment.

James T. Madore

In a campaign that raged through the hot, tumultuous summer of 1977, Mario Cuomo lost the race for New York City mayor to Ed Koch. Today the ex-governor’s son, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, of Manhattan, draws mention as a possible contender when the mayoralty opens up next year. That may especially irritate Rep. Anthony Weiner, an expected candidate whose bluntness has been compared to that of Koch. Cuomo has said he is focused on being the best AG he can be — which is not a denial.

Dan Janison

The ouster of the New York Power Authority’s chief executive appears related in part to an uproar over the agency’s former inspector general, who’s the focus of a widely-publicized state-police probe headedby Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Insiders expect Roger Kelley’s Aug. 1 departure as the authority’s president to clear the way for Gov. David Paterson to tap Richard Kessel (left), the former Long Island Power Authority chairman, for the post which paid Kelley (right), an appointee of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, $235,000 a year. Mark Harrington's full story is here.

Cuomo’s office has been inquiring about NYPA’s ex-inspector general, Daniel Wiese, a former top state police official once close to both Spitzer and Gov. George Pataki, and his handling of an authority security contract. Sources believe this was the last in a series of issues that battered the CEO.

Dan Janison

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a $60,000 settlement last week with Long Island attorney Gilbert Henoch to settle claims that he improperly received health and pension benefits by being listed as an employee of two Nassau school districts. He’s a principal in Berkman, Henoch, Peterson & Peddy in Garden City. Like many prominent firms, this one has politicos: State and Nassau Republican chairman Joseph Mondello and Assemb. Mark Weprin (D-Queens) are of counsel, and former Hempstead Supervisor Gregory Peterson is a principal. But while Cuomo in other cases settled with the firms as well as individuals, the Cuomo case solely involves Henoch, not the firm.

At Jaspan Schlesinger Hoffman in Garden City, Carol Hoffman, a senior partner now on leave, is under investigation involving financial relationships with school districts, Newsday previously reported. Sen. Craig Johnson and Assemb. Marc Alessi (D-Wading River) are of counsel to the firm. A Johnson spokesman explained the senator steers clear of the firm’s education and municipal matters and arrived after the actions at issue.

Last news story is here.

Dan Janison

As state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer went after Wall Street corruption. As his successor, Andrew Cuomo has turned more towards State Street, or at least its subsidiaries. Note how he's been drawing public attention: responding to the scandal over the free-for-all distribution of health benefits and pensions to the connected by hundreds of small taxing units, as reported in Newsday; probing the possible use of state police for political purposes, as hammered at in the Post, and most recently, challenging the free E-Z pass perk enjoyed by MTA board members as described in the Daily News. Can't be a bad political strategy to strike at the pinata of personal privileges at a time of pressure on taxpayers...

....Assemb. Richard Brodsky has an amusing line about the legal fight over the E-Z passes. "It's dopey on any level," he told William Neuman of the Times. "And there ought to be a dopiness standard before we get to court...This is not where we want to see the attorney general and the MTA."

Dan Janison

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s pension-abuse hearing last week earned positive reviews. His steady questioning of Nassau and Suffolk BOCES officials, conducted alongside senior Long Island legislators at Farmingdale State College, brought out the essential point that approvals of pension double-dipping by school administrators have become the rule, rather than the exception as clearly intended under state law. Will there be more, elsewhere in the state? His systemic reform drive continues while the AG's office determines if any of the abuses rise to the level of criminal charges.

Dan Janison

By far the most common public response from top law enforcement officials to a question about a matter being probed is: “No comment — it’s under investigation.”

Not true of Andrew Cuomo, certainly not on Thursday.

New York State’s attorney general insisted on commenting on pension abuses, the subject of a criminal investigation he is running, as he led a public hearing of nearly four hours on the issue at Farmingdale State College.

(Big news on the pension front was the state education chief's suspension of double-dipping waivers for school districts; story is here. Earlier, in today's paper, the waiver issue was explored here).

Like his predecessors, Cuomo makes sure to keep himself in the public eye. And the flexible mandate that the state constitution allows his office means agendas can be shaped accordingly.

It may strike you as strange that he conducted a public inquiry — flanked by a bipartisan panel of four Long Island legislators — on a matter in which potential criminal cases have yet to be resolved.

This even surprised jaded veterans of state government. “It is highly unusual,” said a skeptical former state official who is still part of the Albany mix. “Usually a law-enforcement guy lets the investigation speak for itself — and doesn’t jazz it up on the side.”

“I’ve never seen this kind of thing before,” added a legislative aide.

For his part, however, Cuomo said yesterday of the dual role he’s assumed as prosecutor and system fixer: “I call this the definition of the attorney general’s office.” He stressed that no specifics of potential criminal cases were discussed at the hearing. He also made clear...

Dan Janison

Gov. Paterson has tapped a one-time political rival, Galen Kirkland, to head the state’s Human Rights Division.

In 1985, the pair vied for the Democratic nomination in a state Senate race after the death of Leon Bogues. Paterson beat Kirkland more than two to one in votes cast by the party committee, and served in the Senate until becoming lieutenant governor last year.

Kirkland has spent much of the past 23 years working for the attorney general’s office, under Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo, most recently in the attorney general’s civil rights bureau.
“He will continue to be a vital advocate for those in need of a powerful voice,” Paterson said last week.

Kirkland succeeds Spitzer appointee Kumiki Gibson, one of a handful ousted by Paterson. Weeks after becoming commissioner, six division employees accused Gibson in a federal lawsuit, oddly enough, of discrimination.

James T. Madore

Why wait to speculate? One of the more cutting-edge observers of the local scene, whose modesty forbids being quoted by name, finds it entirely plausible -- if unsupported by any evidence -- that Hillary Clinton, after losing the presidential race, would quit the U.S. Senate and run next year for New York City mayor.

There is always an extra burden for any City Council speaker to run for mayor. The last two tried and did miserably. So if Manhattan's Christine Quinn also fades from the contest for the Democratic nomination, Hillary could ride in as the only well-known woman candidate -- an advantage. And she could run unopposed, our sage says, as she did in 2000 when she arrived in the state to seek the Senate seat.

Mike "the Maintainer" Bloomberg leaves due to term limits at the end of 2009. But he has fixed up -- and maintained -- Gracie Mansion very nicely without ever having moved into it. So the Clintons could choose to keep or turn over the place up in Chappaqua, depending how the real estate market is doing.

One side-effect: Gov. David Paterson, if striving for a term of his own in 2010, could keep Attorney General Andrew Cuomo from breathing down his neck by appointing him to the Senate seat vacated by Clinton.

In the ever-dizzying process of delegate assignment, the state Democrats in Saratoga today added 85 to the 156 total that was decided proportionally at the polls on Feb. 5.

The state will have 281 overall, and those acted on today include 4 unpledged at-large -- AG Andrew Cuomo, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, C. Virginia Fields and Carmen Arroyo, all currently Clinton supporters who are "free to vote their conscience" at the Denver convention in August, which will of course depend on circumstances then. (Obama's camp today announced that 3 Obama supporters from Illinois had, likewise, been chosen today as "add on" superdelegates from that state).

There are also pledged pary leaders and elected officials -- 30 of them -- and pledged at-large delegates, totalling 51. In all, the delegation is decided with consideration to national rules that include affirmative action by race, gender, age, veteran status, etc.

In working this out, Suffolk's Barry McCoy has been tracking the numbers and pointing out that geographically, Long Island gets short-changed -- with heavy representation from New York City.In terms of Clinton-Obama, it's all supposed to come out as closely as possible to proportional to the state's primary vote.

Dan Janison

For state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who by the way we hear is doing well in the fundraising department for 2010, the "community partnership initiative" -- a.k.a. holding night meetings with citizens around the state -- seems a sure-fire plus. Last night he got his staffers doing what they do at at a session in the Town of North Hempstead. It drew what looked like a healthy turnout from those with questions and problems involving such gnarly issues as health insurance procedures and plans. There were positive quotes from local Democratc officials, including Supervisor Jon Kaiman, Legis. Roger Corbin, Legis. Wayne Wink and Councilwoman Lee Seeman.

Going district-to-district with earnest q and a events is an old Cuomo-family modus -- like, setting up the ombudsman's offices in the secretary-of-state's domain long ago, or those community posts in Housing and Urban Development a little less long ago, when Andrew Cuomo was in the Clinton administration.

Dan Janison

The reported focus by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo' office has been on former state police Col. Daniel Wiese, whose kept close relations with back-to-back governors Pataki and Spitzer and now has a $180,000-a-year Power Authority job.

Now Fred Dicker writes of a private security contract through the authority that he suggests lies at the heart of suspected political surveillance of legislators. Plausible enough, in theory, but there are no specifics -- so far.

When Wiese was up for the Power Authority post in 2003, Assemb. Richard Brodsky obtained this gushing praise from then Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, as the Times writes here. The same nugget brings up the mystery of exactly what Sen. Dale Volker was talking about at that hearing last week.

Dan Janison

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has "sharply escalated" his probe of lawyers allegedly larding school board pensions, Newday's Bob Kessler reports here.

As a first-term AG, Cuomo has certainly ratcheted up his task list.

Just based on what's been announced so far, he's got investigations going into: potential misuse of state police for political purposes; insider middlemen who invested state pension dollars; circumstances surrounding the fatal fire at the former Deutsche Bank building in lower Manhattan; conflicts of interest involving student-loan operations, bank mortgages, you name it.

It'll be interesting to see how much depth each of these efforts achieves and compare them to the portfolio of his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer.

UPDATE: There is also this dimension: Cuomo probing town and village governments as well as school districts.

UPDATE: And as commenter Jim points out below, Cuomo in January was announced as taking on a role as prosecutor in the explosive Tankleff murder case. Here is how it was reported at that time.

Dan Janison

AG Andrew Cuomo has named two legal veterans -- former Manhattan US Atty and Whitewater special counsel Robert Fiske (he was replaced by Starr) and former Knapp Commission chief counsel Michael Armstrong -- as special advisers in his probe of allegations that the state police have engaged in political activity.

"Fiske and Armstrong will play a vital role in advising the team we are assembling to fully uncover the truth of this matter. Our goal is to conduct a thorough, fair and objective examination and follow the facts wherever they lead.”

An early guess would be that Cuomo expects the probe to go places that will look inherently political or anti-police. He wants a couple of graybeards to cover his flanks and confirm that Andrew is being very fair and apolitical when necessary -- although both men know a thing or two about investigating, too.

Armstrong is viewed as having Republican ties (he helped Al D'Amato pick judges), while Fiske (left) is seen as having Democratic links (he was picked by Janet Reno to head the early Whitewater probe of the Clintons).

UPDATE: Two of Armstrong's recent appearances in the public spotlight included his representing former Democratic Assemb. Brian McLaughlin, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges, and his organizing of an open letter from fellow former prosecutors criticizing Rudy Giuliani's performance as U.S. Attorney -- before the former mayor quit the presidential race.

As a man of so much spite and so little irony, Eliot Spitzer could scarcely have guessed that his clearest economic legacy as governor would consist of turning himself into a public-works project for government investigators.

Now a gaggle of paid inquisitors from a half-dozen public agencies is rushing in to carry off trophies and teach lessons from the downfall of the Sheriff of State Street. Even an investigation of three other investigations has been announced — by the state Investigation Commission, a model of bureaucratic survival first created to take on organized crime in the 1950s.

The bipartisan panel has set its sights on the performance of the Albany County district attorney, the state inspector general — who quit yesterday — and the state Commission on Public Integrity — and their roles in probing the Spitzer farce known as Choppergate.

This scope of SIC interest happens to fall on executive offices occupied by one-time Spitzer allies and appointees. In this uber-prober role, the panel bears the clear stamp of Albany’s waxing power center, the legislature, whose leaders appoint four of the commission’s six members. These include three former assemblymen and a former counsel to state Sen. Cesar Trunzo (R-Brentwood). There’s a businessman who once was New York Mayor John V. Lindsay’s campaign manager and then his deputy mayor, as well as a former top aide to Gov. George Pataki.

So Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno — who got to choose two of the three Republican members......

Dan Janison

No, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi wasn’t offered the Lt. Governor’s spot to back off his plan to run a primary for governor against then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer more than two years ago.

The rumor was all over Nassau last week that Suozzi again had missed his chance after the man who did take that ballot spot, Lt. Gov. David Paterson, became the governor designate following Gov. Spitzer’s resignation.

But sources close to Suozzi and his dealings with the Spitzer camp back then said the offer — which they described as very hypothetical — was for attorney general: Would Suozzi consider backing off his planned primary for governor if he were to be offered the attorney general nomination?

Suozzi turned it down flat, the sources say. Suozzi announced for governor Feb. 2006 and lost badly.

And a fellow named Andrew Cuomo became Attorney General.

Celeste Hadrick

Following fellow Democrat David Paterson's swearing-in as governor, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo rolls into Suffolk Monday with his top aides to meet with local groups and officials at a community forum at 7 p.m. Topics at the forum, in Brentwood High School, include consumer fraud, health care, Internet safety and student loans.

A series of stories in Newsday uncovered the practice of private attorneys drawing fat pensions from school districts -- prompting fraud inquiriies by state and federal investigators.

The findings and probes are particularly explosive because they come at the intersection of several remarkable political trends: School spending as a major priority; fiscal trouble that puts added pressure on record-high property taxes, and new skepticism and reviews of how special taxing districts are really run.

You can find all the paper's extensive coverage to date on this and other special-district doings simply by clicking here .

Your feedback is welcome.

Months after issuing his split-the-difference, improper-but-not-illegal report on Troopergate that reached conclusions without the need to speak to all the witnesses, Andrew Cuomo continues to nibble around the edges of the still-ongoing investigation.

Speaking to the NY Post ed board about Albany DA David Soares on-hold probe of whether Spitzer aide Darren Dopp might have lied in a statement he made to Cuomo's investigators, and questions about whether Cuomo made sure the statement was technically under oath and subject to penalties for perjury, the AG said:

"There are other theories to pursue if [Soares] wanted to pursue them. I don't know where [Soares is] going, but there are other crimes besides perjury." And also: "There's a lot of crimes that you could charge that don't require a sworn statement."

Although we wish Andrew a very happy 50th, this is strange for a couple of reasons.

First, doesn't Cuomo remember that his own report already concluded that there were no crimes? And second, why is he talking about another prosecutor's investigation? Why can't Cuomo master the quote that dozens of prosecutors across the country have learned:

"I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation." Period.

The new "Project Sunlight" Web site unveiled by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, which will go live for the public at 3 pm at www.sunlightny.com, sets up links between lawmakers and public spending and lobbying and campaign cash. Naturally, it comes replete with a video, which begins with an interesting quote from the AG himself: "Transparency and disclosure to me are the pillars of restoring public integrity."

Does that mean disclosure to Cuomo is essential, or is Cuomo saying that in his opinion, transparency and disclosure are such pillars? You can't be too sure in Albany. Another point: The figure with the bowling ball head and abbreviated arms has an electric bulb next to his head -- which isn't really sunlight.

But why pick? For those of us with sunny dispositions, it sounds like a good enough program far as it goes....View for yourself.

Melissa Mansfield and Dan Janison

When Gov. Spitzer and AG Cuomo announced yesterday that they were opposing the relicensing of Indian point, we called the office of the current governor (Spitzer) to ask how he would replace the 2000 megawatts of electricity it produces.

The answer? First on the list was wind power, followed by a long list of other generation or transmission projects on the drawing board. We were referred to the petition to the Nuclear Regulator Commission for further details.

But not everyone agrees. DN columnist Bill Hammond today argues that the Spitzer/Cuomo approach would leave the state depending on future sources that would increase global warming, if and when they actually get built. As for windmills:

"That would mean covering thousands of acres of open space with unsightly towers. And their power wouldn't be anywhere near as reliable as nuclear. You can't count on the wind to be blowing upstate when the mercury rises in the city on a July afternoon."

Gov. Spitzer, AG Cuomo, Westchester Exec Andy Spano joined together today to file an NRC petition opposing relicensing of Indian Point nuclear power plant. Well, mayber "joined together" is putting it too strongly.

According to this entry on the Politics on the Hudson blog, the announcement -- and the phraseology of press releases -- were a matter of disagreement and haggling that continued throughout the weekend.

Spitzer's release is after the jump. Cuomo's release is here. The only difference we can see is that Cuomo thought that Spitzer, Cuomo and Spano should be featured on the first page, while Spitzer thought that LG David Paterson should be at the top instead of Spano.

One day after the Senate voted thumbs down, AG Andrew Cuomo announced today that he will defend the Spitzer licensing program in court because he thinks it's legal. That was no big surprise, but there was a little question about a statute that requires the DMV to collect Social Security numbers. Cuomo seems to be reading it as non-mandatory.

For those willing to let a few facts get in the way of their emotions, this Newsday story makes a good read. It reports a mixed bag on the central claims made by Spitzer: The two other states that have tried what Spitzer proposes have both seen their percentages of uninsured drivers drop, but only one has seen traffic fatalities drop.

It also reports that NY already has lower traffic fatality rates and uninsured driver rates than the six states that haven't required SS numbers for some time. And it reports that in the years since NY started requiring SS numbers, fatality rates and uninsured driver rates haven't really changed much, up or down.

All of which ends up leaving a kind of unconvincing case for the dramatic benefits Spitzer claims, which provides a good counterpoint to the unconvincing case opponents have made that drivers licenses for illegals somehow equal terrorism.

Want a compromise? Read this piece, suggesting licenses that denote undocumented status so they can't be used to access other benefits to which undocumented immigrants may not be entitled.

The huge settlement described here with the American Electric Power Company out of Ohio involved multiple states and the federal government. The New York attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, emphasized this state's role since 1999 in pushing for the environmental changes that this promises to bring. Click on the "continued" bar just below for the AG's full statement.

Somewhere past 57th St., a short middle-aged man saw Gov. Eliot Spitzer stride by, so he stepped off the sidewalk just off the curb along the Columbus Day parade route up Fifth Ave.

"Licenses for illegal aliens?!" he bellowed. "You're gonna be a one-term governor!"

Without a word, a shaved-head plainclothes officer from Spitzer's security detail who'd been walking the route moved over -- and forcefully shoved the guy back toward the curb.

None of the statewide or citywide pols are up for election this year, but the annual Columbus Day fete as always had its little political edges. One week after the speculation about Spitzer purportedly "snubbing" AG Andrew Cuomo in Garden City after his speech to the state Democrats, the two chatted rather extensively in the street before the parade began...

Dan Janison

Some Democrats are worried about the impact of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan for allowing illegal immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses.

Spitzer's numbers remain strong despite or perhaps because of the recent bash-fests.

The Spitzer speak-and-run that kept the governor off the same stage as AG Andew Cuomo is available for your perverse viewing pleasure thanks to Azi at the Observer, who posted some video here.

As the Gannetteers in the northern suburbs report here, Assembly Republicans will be convening tomorrow in a move aimed to keep up the noise on licensing.

In a detailed investigative report today, Newsday's Ridgely Ochs and Michael Amon describe how U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer helped prod officials in the Phillipines regarding staff recruitment for a nursing-home chain whose principals are among his campaign backers.

In the political universe, prominent names with a role in the disputed issue include the nation's president, President Gloria Macagapal-Arroyo.

Closer to home, there's Howard Fensterman, chief attorney of the nursing home company SentosaCare, who is Schumer's Long Island finance chairman and a top fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, chaired by Schumer.

As noted in the story, Fensterman's an owner of a SentosaCare nursing home in Great Neck, as well as a leading fundraiser for Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. He is also chairman of the Nassau Industrial Development Agency.

UPDATE: Nassau Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs comes to Fensterman's defense, with remarks here.

Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota's probe of the nurses at the center of the controversy is described and elaborated on