Big Apple Turnover

Turner Tops Weprin

Koch's Intervention,

Distaste for Obama

Reflected in Vote.

The election yesterday of Republican Robert Turner to Congress is significant for several reasons.

One is that the result will be widely perceived as a rebuke to President Obama and the Democratic Party, which it is. For some, the issue was jobs and the economy. For others, the administration's hostility to Israel is an important issue, which affected Catholic voters as well as Jews. The hostility of Muslim extremists extends to all other religions, and the Catholics were the original crusaders in the Middle Ages.

The Democrat, David Weprin, was clearly the machine candidate, chosen in part because he could be counted on not to squawk too loudly when his district was eliminated. Mr. Weprin, a retiring person and a hard worker, would not be in politics except that his father, the distinguished Saul Weprin, rose to be Speaker of the Assembly before he passed away in 1994, to be succeeded by Sheldon Silver. David's younger brother, Mark Weprin, was also a member of the Assembly before he was elected to the City Council in 2009. The Weprins are the last remaining political dynasty in the Queens delegation to Albany, the Hevesi clan having been reduced to son Andrew, an assemblyman since 2005.

There was no Democratic or Republican primary to select the candidate to fill the seat vacated by Anthony Weiner, whose troubles have been recounted at length and need no further exposition here. Normally party nominations are the result of primary elections, but in all five elections held yesterday, the departing officials left at a point on the calendar when a primary was not required, and the nominee could be selected by the county leader. Observers believe that Melinda Katz, the former Councilmember and Asssemblywoman, would have been a stronger candidate. She came in third while Weprin ran fourth in the 2009 contest for City Comptroller. But she would have been less likely to take a dive to suit the county leader.

In Queens, that is Congressman Joseph Crowley, in Kings it is Assemblyman Vito Lopez. For the Brooklyn-Queens congressional district, both leaders concurred in the choice of David Weprin; he would have been the only person in recent memory to have been a member of the City Council, the state legislature, and the U.S. Congress. That, however was not to be, although he could be consoled by the words of Meat Loaf, "Two out of three ain't bad" (Rule 20-T).

Many voters had negative views on the economy and the Obama administration, which were reflected in the vote. When seen together, Turner, at 70, was physically more imposing than Weprin, who is 55. Turner was a more folksy and less political figure, running at a time when politicians are not held in high regard for good and sufficient reasons.

The solidarity of Democrats, practically all the legislators lining up like sparrows on a wire to support colleague Weprin, left the field open for independent Mayor Koch and Assemblyman Dov Hikind, both of whom occasionally support Republicans. Both Liberal Party members and Conservative leader Michael Long supported Turner. The Liberals want Obama to win in 2012, and urgently wish him to change course before it is too late. The Conservatives simply oppose Obama, and are promoting the Turner victory as a national uprising.

Basically, this was an election between boss-picked candidates to fill a vacancy created when party leaders decided that a wayward Congressman guilty of infantile behavior was dispensable. The problem they must face is that the cure for Weiner's bizarre misconduct may be worse for the Democrats than the disease.

The wild card in the primary turned out to be Mayor Koch, a popular and credible octogenerian leader who seeks no public office, and is therefore more susceptible to the dictates of conscience. He has never been shy about expressing his opinions, and the fate of the Jewish people is an issue of great importance to him, although he is a secular Jew. His early intervention made the sleepy race competitive. The vigorous Turner campaign attracted both Russians and Orthodox Jews, neither of whom has particularly high regard for the other. Politically, the Russians are mostly conservative, having lived under an all-powerful state.

The Orthodox were upset that Weprin favored gay marriage, and said that his position was consistent with his Orthodoxy. His co-religionists disputed his claim. I support gay marriage, although I was late to the cause. Turner promised Koch not to exploit the issue, and he kept his word. The Orthodox, however, consider this an important matter, even though the State legislature had approved it and will not change its position, in part because of demographics and in part because of increasing public acceptance of same-sex marriage.

So it is that Mr. Turner will go to Washington, and the Ninth District, in its present gerrymandered dumb-bell configuration, with a narrow link between Brooklyn and Queens, will retire to well-deserved oblivion, having enjoying its moment in the spotlight. Unless there is another major hurricane or other disaster, the television towers will not return to Broad Channel and Howard Beach.

Let us hope that the President gains insight from the events in New York-9, as they call it, and returns to the foreign policy of American presidents starting with Harry Truman in 1948, with the exception of Jimmy Carter, who has established a Center in Georgia that requires continuous infusions of funds, provided by friends in the Middle East.

More will be written about New York-9. It may be remembered like one of those towns whose high point was a battle in the Civil War, and after which has slept quietly for a century. But, on September 13, 2011, ten years and two days after the fateful 9/11, the people of the district spoke. I believe they were influenced to some extent by the national tragedy whose anniversary they had so recently observed. In any event, an election is a great public event and an expression of the views of the community which people who believe in democracy are bound to respect.

Win Some, Lose Some

Cuomo Reaffirms Commitment

To Independent Redistricting,

But Promulgates Calendar

That Will Bar Primaries

Politics has its ups and downs, as this week's events show.

There was a bright spot. Governor Cuomo reaffirmed his decision, first announced in February, that he would veto any redistricting bill passed by the Legislature that did not provide for an independent districting commission to draw the boundaries of Congressional, state senate and assembly districts.

Under the Constitution of the United States, (Art. I, Sec. 2), a census is to be taken every ten years, and seats in the House of Representatives are to be allocated to the states in proportion to their population. Since 1790, the enumeration has been conducted in years ending in zero. It is called the decennial census.

Under the first census, the population of the United States was counted at 3,922,214, and New York State had 340,120 residents, which was 8.656 per cent of the U.S. total. The most recent census, taken in 2010 and reported in 2011, showed the population of the United States at 308,745,538, of whom 19,378,102 lived in New York State.

In the ten years since the previous census, New York State gained only 2.1 per cent in population while the nation's population rose 9.7 per cent. New York State's share of the nation's population is 6.276 per cent. Since there are now 50 states while in 1790 there were 13, New York has held up fairly well over the 220 years of counting heads. The last half-century, however, has not been kind to the Empire State, which peaked at 45 Congressional districts in 1930 and 1940, but has steadily declined in political strength since World War II.

New York's slow increase in the most recent decade, compared with the much faster gains of states in the South and Southwest, has resulted in the state's loss of two House seats, which in the 2012 election will bring our total number of districts down from 31 to 29. Texas gained the largest number of seats in the last decade, going from 32 to 36. Nevada had the highest percentage increase, 35.1 per cent. The Silver State still has fewer people than the norm for one district, now about 710,000. The red states generally outgrew the blue states in the early 21st century, and as the Constitution makes this a zero-sum game, the gains came at the expense of the blue states.

With the loss of two New York seats, the question arises: which two districts out of the 31 will be made to disappear by whichever legislative body, independent commission or Federal court ends up drawing the final lines? Normally when the flock is culled, the weaker sheep are slaughtered, but New York has a plethora of rookies, as a result of libidinous mishaps.

The last seventeen months have seen three sudden departures of New York State Congressmen, all based on a variety of sexual acts and images, although none involved actual intercourse. The first to go was Democrat Eric Massa, from the southern tier of upstate counties, who was credibly accused of groping his young male staffers and resigned in March 2010. Next was Chris Lee, a Republican whose district lies between the suburbs of Buffalo and Rochester, who resigned in February 9, 2011, the day a photograph of the shirtless legislator appeared on Craigslist. He was outed by Gawker, but exposure is almost inevitable when one trolls for companionship on the Internet.

The most important legislator to fall, also entangled by the Web, was Democrat Anthony Weiner, who accidentally posted a sexually suggestive photo of himself on Twitter on May 27. After a prolonged period of denial, followed by apology and refusal to resign, Weiner gave in on June 16 and left his Democratic seat in Brooklyn and Queens vacant. Queens Democratic leader Joseph Crowley selected Assemblyman David Weprin to run in a special election September 13 to fill the position through the end of next year, when it is likely to be abolished. If that does occur, David Weprin will be in the unique position of being a former member of the State Assembly, the City Council and the United States Congress, as well as being the son of the late Assembly Speaker, Saul Weprin, and the brother of City Councilman Mark Weprin, who is regarded as upwardly mobile.

The reform movement in New York State public affairs, which consists of traditional, well-regarded government organizations, joined by Mayor Ed Koch's New York Uprising, has made independent redistricting a priority for 2011. So far the legislature has ignored their wishes, instead convening its own instrument for redistricting, called LATFOR, an acronym for Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. The Albany Times-Union, in a well-written account by Casey Seiler and Jimmy Vielkind, brings us up to date on the latest skirmish. The article is worth your attention.

LATFOR met Wednesday for the first time. Its co-chairs are Republican Senator Michael Nozzolio from Seneca Falls and Democratic Assemblyman Jack McEneny of Albany. The meeting was brief and uneventful, but after it ended Mr. McEneny called Governor Cuomo's potential rejection "a very petty approach" based on "a dumb reason". Those remarks were gratuitous and injudicious, even from the assemblyman's point of view. One does not attack a popular governor without some preparation, definition of the issue, and sophisticated choice of language.

Reformers had worried about Governor Cuomo's adherence to his pledge to veto lines not drawn by an independent commission, fearing that as the price for the enormously successful legislative session, he may have promised to let the legislative leaders have their way on redistricting, which is of the utmost concern to them because it may determine who controls the Senate next year. The Assembly is 2-1 Democratic so the Senate will be the battle ground. The last time the Democrats organized the Senate, 2009-10, was considered a disaster. Previously the Republicans had held power for 44 years, in good part due to gerrymandering under an unspoken understanding in which each party controlled one house. Divided government was helpful to whomever was governor. At the same time, it made it more difficult to fix responsibility for anything, and in the long term was not helpful to the State or its fisc.

The McEneny sally Wednesday and the press inquiry that followed it provided an opportunity for Cuomo to express his views. The governor said that his attitude "is crystal clear, has been for a long time: I understand the assemblyman's point of view, he wants to draw his own lines... I want to have lines drawn that represent the people of the state of New York, not a particular assemblyman."

In a move announced late last Friday (considered the optimal time to put out stories of divorces and other possibly ill-received news), Governor Cuomo did make a concession to the state's party bosses, in particular Democratic Leaders Joseph Crowley of Queens and Vito Lopez of Brooklyn. In a move slammed by the editorial pages of The Daily News and The Times, Cuomo set dates for special elections to fill six vacant Assembly seats and one Congressional seat (Anthony Weiner's). The election date is September 13, which coincides with Primary Day, if there are any primaries.

Cuomo was not mandated to call special elections, and could have let the voters in the affected districts select their own party nominees in a September primary leading to a November general election. Instead, the party leader in each county will choose their party's nominees for the vacant public offices. Since Democrats prevail in most districts, that means the Democratic county leaders will decide who the incoming elected officials will be. In the normal course of events, this would make the elected officials particularly responsive to the wishes and preferences of the county leaders who have selected them to hold office. The public is effectively removed from the selection process until two years have passed, during which the selected nominee will have all the privileges of incumbency.

On one hand, how much heavy lifting is it fair to ask Governor Cuomo to do? On the other, what kind of democracy allows one man to choose so many public officials without the consent of the governed?

P.S. It doesn't bother me much that the Queens leader, Joe Crowley, lives in Virginia with his wife and kids. Why pick on one elected official who really seems to want a relatively normal family life, which at a minimum requires the presence of one's family, particularly young children? I object to a few of Crowley's political decisions, but choosing to live with his wife and kids is not one of them. In fact, for a public official, it is wholesome.

Hiram and Julissa

Hiram Monserrate Indicted

For Dragooning Employees

Of Nonprofit He Enriched

For His Own Political Gain



The other shoe dropped Tuesday for Hiram Monserrate. The first State Senator to be expelled from that body since 1781, Monserrate was indicted by a Federal grand jury for using employees of a non-profit group he sponsored while a City Councilmember to labor on behalf of his unsuccessful campaign for the State Senate in 2006.

The sixteen-page indictment, which you can read here, is summarized on p21 of Wednesday's New York Times by William K. Rashbaum and Fernanda Santos. The two federal charges against Monserrate stem from his relationship with the Latino Initiative for Better Resources and Empowerment Inc., known by its acronym LIBRE, a now defunct social services agency to which Monserrate was closely linked. He secured City funding for LIBRE to operate.

The indictment alleges that Monserrate used employees of the tax-exempt organization to register voters and collect signatures to get him on the ballot in his failed bid for Senate against John Sabini in 2006.

In 2008, the Queens County Democratic organization switched its support from Sabini to Monserrate in the predominantly Latino district, Sabini was accommodated with a six-year term as chairman of the State Racing and Wagering Board, and Monserrate was elected Senator.

However, he was unable to complete his term, having been expelled in February 2010, ostensibly for slashing his girlfriend with a broken glass, although the court found that allegation unproven. His greater sin was joining renegade Senator and hospitalier Pedro Espada in an attempted coup that tied up the State Senate for over a month. Although the standoff led to the appointment of Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch, it left the Senate, and the two plotters, lower in public esteem. Espada returned to the fold when rewarded by the Democrats with the position, lulu and staff of the majority leader, but all his power and influence went to Senator John Sampson of Brooklyn, the new Democratic conference leader.

LIBRE is the latest nonprofit to come under scrutiny for its subordination to the elected official who secured its funding. It joins the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, founded by Vito Lopez, and Espada's Soundview Health Center in the Bronx. Monserrate's relationship with LIBRE was intimate. Over his seven years in the Council (2002-2008), Monserrate steered more than $2.7 million in City discretionary and capital funds to LIBRE, including more than $2 million for a community center, which was never built.

Monserrate's connection with LIBRE ran deeper than money. According to the indictment, Monserrate "played an important role in selecting LIBRE's staff and the members of its board of directors", including the chair of LIBRE's board of directors from 2005 through 2007, its interim executive director in 2005, and its executive director from late 2005 through early 2007. According to a 2008 article in the Times by Russ Buettner and Serge Kovaleski "Dysfunction at a Charity That Relies on Council Largesse", Monserrate also negotiated the lease for LIBRE's former office.

The chair of LIBRE's board of directors alluded to in the indictment is current Councilmember Julissa Ferreras, Monserrate's former chief of staff and his hand-picked successor for his former Council seat which he resigned when he was elected to the Senate.

For those who have not followed Queens politics, it would be understandable to overlook the connection between Ferreras and Monserrate. Ferreras carefully distanced herself from Monserrate during her February 2009 campaign to replace him on the Council, presumably because at the time he was under investigation for slashing his girlfriend's face. Currently, Ferreras lists no mention of her association with Monserrate or LIBRE in her bio on the City Council's website, despite the fact that they were her principal qualifications for election. Leaving Monserrate off her resume, for whom she began working in 2001 as his campaign manager and then, following his election, as his chief of staff, makes for a gaping lacuna in Councilmember Ferreras's resume.

Chronologically, the most recent accomplishment she claims on her Council bio prior to her term in office is her appointment by former Assemblyman Ivan Lafayette and Congressman Joseph Crowley to serve as a New York State delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention, a decade ago.

Monserrate's relationship with Ferreras has soured along with his political and personal fortunes since he appeared at her 2009 victory party. Last month, Ferreras claimed that Monserrate was responsible for the slashing of her tires, several vulgar notes left on her car, and an assortment of other allegations of harassment.

It does not appear from published reports that Ferreras ever filed formal charges against Monserrate. Councilmember Ferreras failed to return several phone calls seeking comment and clarifications for this column, but she did issue a statement to the media saying that she has "been cooperating with authorities from the very beginning."

The newly unsealed indictment implicates not only Monserrate, who surrendered to authorities Tuesday morning, it alleges a conspiracy where others colluded with Monserrate to skirt the campaign finance laws by illegally using LIBRE resources and employees to fund and support his State Senate runs in 2005 and 2006. The co-conspirators are unnamed in the indictment, but presumably one of the people involved is former LIBRE executive director Javier Cardenas, who Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced yesterday had pleaded guilty to conspiracy and mail-fraud charges and is cooperating against Monserrate.

Celeste Katz reported in the Daily News that "federal prosecutors subpoenaed and questioned several former members of [Monserrate's] Senate staff, including Wayne Mahlke and Luis Castro, about Monserrate's dealings with LIBRE."

Mahlke, who is Monserrate's former chief of staff, was arrested in May of this year in an incident unrelated to the indictment for "possessing a forged police placard and for failing to obey a police officer - after hurling an insult at the officer." Castro has been identified in news reports as a former campaign consultant to Monserrate.

According to the indictment, around May 2006, Monserrate sent an email from a personal email account to an unnamed member of his Council staff requesting a database of voters LIBRE had newly registered, apparently at Monserrate's request. A month or two later, "Monserrate stamped numerous LIBRE checks that were thereafter issued to individuals who had participated in LIBRE's voter-registration and petition-gathering activities with a signature stamp of the person who was then the chair of LIBRE's board of directors." In an article on The Queens Courier's website, reporter Steve Mosco identifies the chair of LIBRE's board of directors at the time as Councilmember Ferreras.

The check stamping allegation, which is detailed in the indictment, raises the question of who really was in charge of LIBRE's finances. In an October 18, 2008 Times article by Ray Rivera about Libre's suspiciously slipshod accounting practices, entitled "Group Spent City's Money, but Has Not Shown How", Monserrate referred all questions about LIBRE's accounting practices to Ferreras, saying, "She's the person to have the conversation with," he said. "I wasn't the director. I don't know what paperwork was there, what books were there."

Contacted at the time by Rivera for comment, Ferreras said LIBRE's records were in the organization's offices. "I personally don't keep the records," Ferreras told the Times.

As Monserrate's case advances it is likely that we will learn more about LIBRE and what, if anything, Councilmember Ferreras knew about his former boss's alleged manipulation of the nonprofit. What is for certain is that no matter how hard Speaker Christine Quinn tries to leave the slush fund scandal in the Council's past, the investigation is still very much ongoing and just how many of her members were involved is still yet to be determined. Another Councilman who was elevated to chair the Civil Rights Committee, Larry Seabrook of the Bronx, is currently under a 13-count indictment for a litany of corruption charges, and former Councilmember Miguel Martinez of Manhattan is already serving time in Federal prison.

It gives us no satisfaction to watch one elected official after another done in by their greed and contempt for the law. This parade of corrupt politicians denigrates New Yorkers' faith in local government, and further degrades the reputation of the City Council and its leader, who is supposed to look out for this sort of thievery.

We continue to encourage our prosecutors, Federal, State and Local, to pursue every elected official who has abused the public trust until all of them are rooted out. Regrettably, the only way to keep some of our legislators' hands out of our pockets is with handcuffs.

Perverted Justice

Why Public Crimes Outrage Us;

Readers Name More Offenders.

A recurring question which many people have asked is: Why do there appear to be so many crooks in government? Here are some thoughts on the matter:

There are criminals in the private sector, as well, but their crimes are less likely to be reported by their companies and publicized by the media.

In government, there is no single authority in control, there are independently elected legislators, judges who are selected by different constituencies, authorities, boards and commissions which most people, even those in government, have never heard of. There are thousands of local districts, dealing with schools, water supply and other areas, many of which are independently elected, with most board members serving fixed terms.

There is also strong political influence in selecting government personnel and making decisions involving contracts. Those are two primary areas of legal corruption: first is maneuvering someone you control into a government job, and second is getting your catspaw to make decisions that bring economic benefit, either for your friends, your campaign committee, or clients you are paid to represent.

Crimes punishable by law are the umbra of governmental corruption; but there is a vast penumbra of unsavory actions, based on improper influence, which are not punishable in the absence of direct payment to an individual. Many businesses believe that government decisions are fixed, and do not bother to compete for them. To an unfortunate extent, their fears are well-founded, and the playing field consequently is left to thieves.

Another reason that public-sector crimes receive more attention is that in private-sector crime one person steals from another or a corporation. In the public sector, most thieves cheat the general public. We are all the victims of their wrongdoing and therefore are more outraged than when we read of some private swindle or other misdeed.

In our October 7th article, we listed an array of sinners who held public office in the last decade. If you are not interested in this cavalcade of corruption, this is a good place for you to stop reading.

If you continue, remember that you have been warned.

ROGUES GALLERY, CHAPTER 2

We asked our readers to remind us of other public officials who had committed crimes. Several readers fingered Gloria Davis, a Bronx assemblywoman who had been in office for 22 years, rising to majority whip. She resigned in 2003 after pleading guilty to receiving a bribe of $24,000 from a contractor who wanted to secure an $880,000 deal. She was sentenced to 90 days in jail, five years probation, the payment of $20,000 in restitution and a promise never to seek public office again. In the seven years since, the public's attitude to crimes by legislators has hardened, and penalties have increased.

Other readers suggested the Brooklyn judiciary as a place to find criminals. In 2002, Justice Victor I. Barron was sentenced to prison for soliciting a $250,000 bribe to approve the settlement of a tort case. The judge's defense was that his request for the bribe was a symptom of dementia resulting from Alzheimer's disease or Pick's disease. The trial judge did not swallow that line, and sentenced Barron to 3 to 9 years, the longest prison sentence for an active New York judge. He ended up serving 23 months before he was granted work release for good behavior.

DIGRESSION: Barron's case reminds us of the "twinkie defense", said to have been offered on behalf of San Francisco Supervisor Daniel White, who had made a heroic rescue as a firefighter. White's lawyer said that he was depressed and had switched his diet from healthy food to sugary junk food, which was a symptom of his depression. White's diminished capacity clouded his reason, which his lawyers said was why he shot to death Mayor George Moscone and Councilman Harvey Milk in 1978. White served five years at Soledad State Prison. Two years after his release in 1985, he committed suicide in his car by carbon monoxide poisoning. A biopic, Milk, with Sean Penn in the title role and Josh Brolin as White, came out in 2008, thirty years after the assassinations.

To resume the local roll of shame, Brooklyn Surrogate Michael Feinberg was removed from the bench by the State Court of Appeals in 2005 for awarding about $9 million in legal fees to his good buddy, Louis Rosenthal. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson was convicted of taking money to fix divorce cases in 2007. Wikipedia has a fascinating article describing the sordid details of the case, which you can click to here.

Justice Michael Garson, Gerald's first cousin, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for stealing $163,000 from their elderly aunt while holding her power of attorney. He was required to resign from the bar and pay $219,000, which included interest on the money he stole from the aunt.

Justice Reynold Mason was removed from the bench in 2003 for misusing his escrow account and improperly subletting an apartment. After being disbarred, Mason became a realtor in Georgia. He was jailed for four months in 2007 by order of a New York judge for failure to support his three children. We wrote about the Mason case at the time it was current. Mrs. Mason had run her husband’s 1994 campaign for the Civil Court, but after he became a Supreme Court Justice he left his pregnant wife and their two children. She spent the next nine years pursuing him in court. Read more about the sad situation here.

Another Brooklyn judge, former Assemblyman Frank Seddio, resigned from the surrogate's court bench in 2007 after coming under investigation by the Commission on Judicial Conduct. Seddio was chastised by the Daily News for allegedly violating judicial rules by making over $31,000 in campaign donations to his political allies and the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club.

He was not, however, convicted or even indicted for a crime, nor is there evidence that he received money personally.

Seddio remains a powerful force in the Kings County Democratic Party. His name has frequently been mentioned in the press as a possible successor to Vito Lopez at Brooklyn County Leader if Lopez should for any reason vacate the post.

We have only written about the Brooklyn judges who were caught, because their crimes are on record. It would require the now classic "suspension of disbelief" to think that all the guilty parties have been found out. I recall that phrase being used skeptically by Senator Hillary Clinton in a hearing at which General David Petraeus was questioned about the situation in Iraq before the surge.

Other readers mentioned people caught in earlier waves of scandal, but we limited our list to the 21st century. The notorious Boss Tweed was a 19th century figure. Mayor "Gentleman Jim" Walker resigned in 1932 and sailed to France with his girlfriend while Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt was conducting removal proceedings dealing with Walker's unexplained income. Mayor William O'Dwyer resigned in 1950 when President Truman appointed him Ambassador to Mexico. He returned briefly to New York City in 1951 to answer questions about his relationship with gangsters. O'Dwyer resigned as Ambassador in December 1952, but remained in Mexico until 1960.

Jail to the Thief

Hevesi Cops a Plea,

Cuomo to Accept It

26 Days to Election



There was little surprise in Alan Hevesi's confession that he was a corrupt Comptroller. News of the Attorney General's investigation had leaked over the years, and the guilty pleas of his co-conspirators made it clear that his office was a cesspool of favoritism obtained through bribery.

For a person in such high office to betray it so completely is shocking, even to those of us who are accustomed to reporting on political corruption. It is one thing for a Vito Lopez, Pedro Espada and Larry Seabrook to turn their anti-poverty organizations into automatic teller machines for themselves, their mistresses, their unemployed children, their campaign managers, and the friends and relatives (kith and kin) of any of the above insiders. Their conduct is highly offensive and, if convicted of the allegations against them, they should go directly to prison. Efrain Gonzalez, another state senator from the Bronx, was sentenced to 7 years in a Federal prison for similar crimes.

But for Alan Hevesi, a reasonably affluent, well-educated intelligent and articulate elected official, descendant of rabbis, state legislator for 23 years, two-term Comptroller of the City of New York, Professor of Political Science at Queens College, recipient of a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 1971, after having written his thesis analyzing the leadership of the state legislature, to turn out to be have repeatedly betrayed the public trust - that is difficult to accept.

Since Hevesi has turned out to be a crook, what politician can we believe to be honest? We assume that most of them are, but we know there are some who are dishonest, even if we do not know their names. We are familiar with those who have been convicted in recent years. Former Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno heads the list, with Senators Guy Velella and Hiram Monserrate, Assemblymembers Diane Gordon, Roger Green, Brian McLaughlin, Clarence Norman, Anthony Seminerio, and Councilmembers Angel Rodriguez and Miguel Martinez. Governor Eliot Spitzer and Congressman Vito Fossella were not tried for criminal behavior, but were disgraced when their extra-curricular activities became known to the public. Councilman Dennis Gallagher was convicted of criminal harassment. Spitzer and Gallagher resigned, Fossella finished out his term, but did not seek re-election. For appointed public officials, one can start with former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, now in a Federal prison in Maryland.

If we have omitted any convicted public officials, please let us know and their names will be added to the list.

The question arises: what is an appropriate punishment for a high official who betrays his trust? He is responsible not only for the money he took for himself and his family, but the depredations of Hank Morris, who was his political manager. Morris appears to have enriched himself far more than Hevesi, but we do not really know where the money extorted from people who wanted to deal with the pension fund ended up.

In China, such a person would be executed, but that is not the American way. Hevesi was born on January 31, 1940, and is now 70 years old. A prison sentence is required, but should the length be calibrated with his life expectancy? One obvious penalty is to forfeit the pensions he now receives from the City University and the State Legislature. He certainly did not provide honest services to the public while holding high elective office. Restitution to the state for his ill-gotten gains should be part of any plea arrangement.

It is likely that when a person demonstrates such a basic character flaw as we have in this case that there are all kinds of other situations in which he behaved improperly. Without going into rumors, we will not go into rumors.

We have not so far mentioned Governors John Rowland of Connecticut or James McGreevey of New Jersey, who resigned in the face of allegations of misconduct, financial and sexual. Since Governor Spitzer was forced to resign to avoid impeachment by the state legislature which hated him, none of the three governors in the tri-state area was able to complete his term in office. That is highly unusual, and thoroughly shameful.

Back to Hevesi, whom we defended in 2006 because we felt using a state car for a sick wife was not a felony. We would send him to state prison for at least five years, forfeit his pension and require restitution of any money or benefits he received through his misconduct. He should also be asked (he cannot be compelled) to write a book about his crimes and their punishment, to be distributed to all newly-elected public officials as required reading. That is unusual, but in the circumstances it does not appear to be cruel. See the Constitution, Eighth Amendment.

This is a terribly sad case: for the former Comptroller, for his family, for the people he victimized, for his community and for those who admired him. I am reminded of the kid who met "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, a star outfielder on the 1919 White Sox who took bribes from gamblers to throw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. "Say it ain't so, Joe," the youngster said to his hero, or so the legend goes.

Sadly, it was so. The eight guilty athletes were banned from baseball for life. Jackson and pitcher Eddie Cicotte confessed their participation to a Chicago grand jury, but the players were acquitted.

The reputation of the national pastime was so scarred by what was dubbed the "Black Sox Scandal" that the owners named Federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis to be the first Commissioner of Baseball. Kennesaw Mountain was the site of a major battle in General Sherman's march on Atlanta in 1864. Judge Landis was born in 1866 in Millville, Ohio.

Landis served from 1920 to his death in 1944. During that time, his word was considered law in baseball. Since then, there have been a series of commissioners appointed by the owners and generally serving their interests.

INFORMATIVE LINKS

In the wonderful world we live in, documents relating to legal proceedings are often available immediately.

To read Hevesi’s allocution, click here.
To read the charges against Hevesi, click here.

King of Kings (County)

Pedro Espada Es Terminado.

Press Focuses on Vito Lopez,

Poverty Boss, County Leader,

State Assembly Housing Chair




FIRST OF A SERIES

With Pedro Espada defeated for re-election, the new target of reform in New York City is Vito Lopez, the Democratic county leader of Brooklyn who doubles as chair of the Assembly Housing Committee.

Over the last week, the Daily News, New York Post, and The Brooklyn Paper have published a flurry of articles about Vito Lopez, his political tactics, and his nonprofit empire, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council.

The first articles in the News and the Post focused on an internal Department of Investigation report on the Ridgewood Bushwick organization, which Joseph Goldstein and David Seifman of the Post describe as the "sprawling social service agency funded with $75 million in taxpayer money that has long served as Assemblyman Lopez’s power base", since he founded the organization in 1973.

According to the News' Erin Durkin and Adam Lisberg, DOI found that Ridgewood Bushwick and its affiliates submitted "at least $340,000 in fraudulent or fishy claims submitted to the city". The Post tabulated that "the city disallowed $304,549 in claimed costs, including $193,892 for events and trips for which there were no attendance lists."

The false claims against the city were just the tip of the iceberg in DOI’s investigation. Earlier in the week, on September 12, the Post published an article entitled "WEALTH OF FRIENDS" by Joseph Goldstein, Isabel Vincent and Christina Carrega, which revealed that Christiana Fisher, the executive director of Ridgewood Bushwick and Lopez's campaign treasurer, "pulled down $659,591 in 'base compensation' over a 12-month period in 2008 and 2009 for working only 17.5 hours a week at Ridgewood Bushwick", according to tax filings. Fisher's salary, "an eye-popping 182 percent more than the $234,234 she made just two years earlier," shocked the nonprofit expert who the Post interviewed.

Angela Battaglia, Lopez's longtime girlfriend and Ridgewood Bushwick's housing director, received "$329,910 in 'compensation' over the same period -- 73 percent more than the $190,609 she made two years earlier." Morevoer, both Battaglia's brother, Jack Battaglia, and Christiana's sister, Pam Fisher, were elevated to the bench by Lopez, who controls judicial appointments in Brooklyn.

In sharp contrast to Fisher and Battaglia's robust salaries was the $25 that The Daily News reported Friday that 86-year Carmen Orlando was paid for each meeting she attended as a board member of Ridgewood Bushwick for 17 years. Orlando, a retiree with no business training, was one of several elderly members of Ridgewood Bushwick's nine-member board that the DOI report found had practically no knowledge of the organization and its finances. The News quoted the report’s finding that "Two board members who are not fluent in English indicated having a limited ability to understand everything being discussed at the meetings... However, both told DOI that they recalled always voting 'yes' whenever a vote was taken."

For his part, Lopez defends Ridgewood Bushwick, but claims to be similarly in the dark about the group's operations. Lopez no longer has any official role in the organization he founded, though Aaron Short, in his article in the The Brooklyn Paper entitled VITO'S 'MONEY HONEYS' GET BIG SALARIES – SUBSIDIZED BY YOU, points out that the Assemblyman has "funneled $380,000 in member items" to Ridgewood Bushwick since 2009.

Lopez's own words may ultimately betray his claims that he is disconnected from Ridgewood Bushwick. Yesterday, in an exclusive cover story in the New York Post with the headline DON VITO and the sub-head B'KLN PARTY BIG THREATENS LITTLE OLD LADIES FOR VOTES, the Post published excerpts from a hidden tape recording of the Assemblyman made in 2005 and obtained by the paper from an unnamed source. On the tape, Lopez, who was not yet County Leader, tells a group of eight elderly women that they must support his then-pick for civil court judge, Richard Velasquez, a former lawyer for Ridgewood Bushwick, so that he can prove his political might and keep bringing in money to pay for the taxpayer-funded trips he sponsors with Ridgewood Bushwick. Lopez's quote on the cover of the Post reads: "The only thing I have that’s worth something is politics. That’s how I get the money." To listen to the complete recording, click here.

Tonight, the executive committee of the Kings County Democratic Party will vote on whether to re-elect Lopez as County Leader. The spate of negative articles is highly unlikely to affect his re-election. His power is likely to be curbed only by law enforcement; he doth bestride Brooklyn like a colossus.

And with all the nepotism, cronyism and favoritism that Lopez engages in as a matter of course, it has yet to be demonstrated that any of these acts constitute crimes for which he can be prosecuted. Rule 5: "Where there's smoke, there's fire" probably applies here, and there are certainly clouds of thick smoke. But under the law, the existence of fire must be proven and not merely surmised.