In an important sense, it doesn't make any difference whether a federal jury finds former New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno guilty of cheating taxpayers out of the "honest services'' they're entitled to.
The reason is if what he did isn't against the law, it should be.
Testimony and evidence admitted at his trial, the most closely watched political story in Albany since Eliot Spitzer's prostitution scandal last year, show that he violated the public trust even if it's unclear whether his conduct rises to the level of crimes.
Information disclosed at the trial shows that he:
-- Used state facilities and employees in his private consulting business that brought him $3.2 million;
-- Failed to disclose the source of his income;
-- Took money from investment firms for introductions to labor unions who were looking for advice about where to invest their pension money at the same time those unions had business before the Senate. Guess what? They took his advice and he made a 10 percent commission.
-- He took tens of thousands of dollars from a friend who had an interest in a firm that got $500,000 in grants from the state.
Federal prosecutors were able to dig out information that reporters, local and state officials apparently missed for years. It almost makes those citizens who believe that state officials should work exclusively for their benefit look like saps.
Meanwhile, Bruno's successors in the Senate are carrying on in the grand tradition of irresponsibility, refusing to make spending cuts that would hurt education and health care to balance the budget. By failing to act they are placing the state's financial stability at risk, according to the governor.
And while Bruno's financial dealings have been bared, one of the biggest unanswered questions at the Capitol is, how much money does Bruno's former counterpart in the Assembly, Speaker Sheldon Silver, get from the trial-lawyer firm he is associated with? Silver, who has been the top Assemlly official since 1994, has steadfastly refused to disclose how much he gets or who it comes from and he doesn't have to.
Like Bruno used to, Silver makes about $125,000 for his part-time government work.
Not counting Bruno, about 20 lawmakers have been removed from office for fraud-related crimes over the past few years.
... All of this news, and fewer reporters than ever to write about it, and fewer newspaper subscribers than ever to read about it... Is there a connection here?
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Jay: As always, asking the right questions. Do you think Gannett -- or any major paper covering Albany -- could have said to a reporter: hey, take six months, full-time, research all of Joe Bruno's outside business dealings and, if at the end, you end up with a namby-pamby story -- he has some connections, they do some business with the state -- but no real meat -- no conflicts that are worthy of indictment -- the paper's editors would say, when all is said and done, it is alright for the paper to have made that investment. No, those days when reporters could be be "sprung" for such an in-depth story seem to be gone forever. Instead, like acolytes in the Albany religion, the fourth estate goes from presser to presser, hoping for a new spin on the day's imminent events. Even Odato, who at least pieced togather some data on the helicopter use, was criticized because his source was tainted by leaks. The business economics as you so accurately sketch them, just all-but prohibit that Sinclair-like reporting. A sad state for the public, spending more for government than ever, and having no indepedent watch-dog able to nip at government's heels. Keep the commentary coming. Dollinger
ReplyDeleteJay:
ReplyDeleteWhat is really troubling to me is not the failure of the media to unearth these evident relationships-- with the limited resources available to the most intrepid of reporters--nor even the reluctance of front benchers and back benchers in the legislature to take on their powerful leaders, who remain in their chairs by dint of gerrymandered districts and royal prerogatives over the legislative purse. What cries out for examination is why past State AGs and local prosecutors, with all their independence and resuorces, never looked into these affairs and the Feds had to step in.
The most recent AG jumped in to investigate Gov. Spitzer and his staff on accusations of improprities and issued a scathing report, at the same time soft pedaling the activities of the accuser, Sen. Bruno, that led to the alleged executive department misconduct. Wasn't there enough on the table at that time, if not in the previous decade, to warrant further inquiry rather than a whitewash?
It is hard to see how the pervasive use of NYS staff and facilities for private business purposes is not theft of services, at the very least.
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