The continuing investigation of former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno has washed up on Long Island.  The Times Union’s Jim Odato reported last week that LIPA had received a subpoena, which by its terms appears to be focused on Richie Kessel’s tenure as Chairman and CEO of LIPA, related to construction work done for LIPA by an obscure firm named Roadway Contracting and its principals, Russell Ball and Dori Evans, and one Robert Bannon — all reported to be political supporters of Senator Bruno. Interestingly, Kessel who always enthusiastically welcomes press inquiries told Odato and Newsday’s Mark Harrington that he was aware of the LIPA subpoena but would neither confirm nor deny whether he personally had received one. By all appearances, LIPA is cooperating with the US Attorney and the current LIPA senior management team is uninvolved in the matters under investigation.

Street Corner Conservative had many issues with Senator Bruno’s policies during his time as Majority Leader and his role in increasing State spending and taxes but hopes that a thorough investigation reveals that Bruno’s conduct in this matter did not violate the law. We note, however, that Kessel’s history reveals him to be a bipartisan purveyor of favors with public monies and that during his time at LIPA, Kessel directed monies to lobbyists and other politically-favored vendors through subcontracts paid with LIPA ratepayer funds. We will be watching this matter with interest.

Merry Christmas to all Street Corner Conservative readers especially those past and current NYPA employees whose interest in the matters covered by this blog is most appreciated.

This entry was posted on December 22, 2008 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Richie Kessel NYPA Watch-SCC. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.