The Kessel Cover-Up

Why is Richie Kessel stonewalling Street Corner Conservative’s FOIL request for information about improper and abusive contributions?

How long can it take to compile a list of NYPA 501(c)3 contributions?

On August 23, 2010, over fifteen weeks ago, Street Corner Conservative (SCC) filed a short FOIL e-mail with NYPA requesting, among other things, disclosure of NYPA contributions to not-for-profits in 2009 and 2010.  On September 14, 2010, SCC received a response from NYPA’s corporate secretary stating the Authority would release FOIL material “on or about October 26, 2010.”  That date came and went.  On November 1, SCC received another notification putting off the release of documents until December 7, 2010.  And that date came and went.  On December 7, SCC received the following notification putting off the release of documents until January 18, 2011 — about five months since the initial request:

Dear Mr. Marlin:

 This is in further response to your e-mail dated August 23, 2010 and received by this office on August 23, 2010, requesting the following records:

 1.     Information and records as to contributions and payments to not-for-profit entities from NYPA or any subsidiary or affiliate including purchase of tickets or sponsorships to events conducted by any such not-for-profit for the period January 1, 2009 through and including July 31, 2010;

2.     Information as to each NYPA facility or office the President and CEO of NYPA was physically present in during each business day of the period from February 13, 2009 through and including July 31, 2010.

3.     Information and records as to discussions, memoranda, financial and analyses and information as to any proposed merger, consolidation, combination or other transaction of any kind between or among NYPA and the Long Island Power Authority created (whether or not by or on behalf of NYPA) from February 13, 2009 and through and including July 31, 2010;

4.     Information and records as to health insurance coverage or benefits or indemnification against health insurance coverage provided to any NYPA Board member;

5.     Information and records as to use of cars in NYPA’s car pool for the White Plains office from the period from September 1, 2008 through and including July 31, 2010 by any of Richard Kessel, Bert Cunningham, Rocco Iannarelli, Francine Evans, Sarah Barish Straus, Denise Ellison, Roni Epstein, Victoria Simon and Francis X. Ryan (collectively, the “Subject Employees”);

6.     Information and records as to expense reports by any of the Subject Employees filed during or with respect to the period (or any part thereof) September 1, 2008 through and including July 31, 2010.

With regard to items 3 and 4 above, a search of the Authority’s records has not produced any records responsive to any portion of your request.

With regard to items 1, 2, 5 and 6 above, Authority staff will need an additional period of time to identify, locate, retrieve and review any such responsive records and will contact you on or about January 18, 2011 with the status of your request.

Sincerely,

Karen Delince
Corporate Secretary
New York Power Authority

Since SCC’s initial request, North Korea has threatened war, the Yankees were dismissed from post season play, control of the House of Representatives has shifted to the GOP, natural disasters have struck the globe, the Roman Catholic Church has named new cardinals, and Oprah has retired but the NYPA bureaucracy continues its cover-up to protect Kessel’s sinecure.

Is Richie Kessel stonewalling the FOIL request because there have been abusive NYPA contributions of public monies?  Does Kessel fear that releasing the contribution list would trigger an Inspector General investigation before our new governor takes office?

The following appears in the December 3-9 issue of the Long Island Business News:

Breach of public trust in New York’s state government has been the state’s only growth industry during the Great Recession. In recent years a score of state officials, both elected and appointed, has been indicted or convicted of taking bribes; committing conspiracy, mail fraud and grand larceny; corrupting bidding processes, misappropriating funds, soliciting illegal campaign funds, embezzling, money laundering and influence peddling.

It appears that many officeholders have forgotten they are public servants, who, by the very nature of their positions, are expected to adhere to the highest ethical standards and must, above all, place the common good above private gain. These pols have ignored Aristotle’s maxim, written in his “Politics” 2,300 years ago, that those chosen to govern must possess the capacity to “have at heart the best interest of the state and of the citizen.”

Fortunately, New York taxpayers have such a person in the state’s Office of Inspector General Judge Joseph Fisch has been fearless in exposing abuse of power. His blockbuster October report on the awarding of the Aqueduct video slot contract to an unqualified consortium and multiple breaches of public trust and law is an extraordinary example of how the tainted motives of many of our highest elected officials corrupt the procurement process.

This month, Fisch released another eye-opening investigative report that details abuses by officials at the Battery Park City Authority.

B.P.C.A., located next to Ground Zero in lower Manhattan’s west side, is a government-owned and managed apartment complex. Created in 1968, the authority was empowered to clear deteriorating and abandoned property and “to plan, coordinate and maintain a balanced community of commercial, residential, retail and park space within its designated 92-acre site.”

The project, which has been a great success, unfortunately was not sold when completed to private developers and managers and returned to New York City’s property tax rolls because it would have meant abolishing highly prized political board appointments and high-paying patronage jobs and perks. Indeed, a founding B.P.C.A. board member’s proposal to do exactly that was rejected by the board chair and senior management feeding at the B.P.C.A. trough.

The I.G.’s report on B.P.C.A., which originated in November 2008 after receiving a complaint which alleged “fraud and corruption,” revealed a blatant abuse of power by senior management and the squandering of the people’s money:

• The authority spent over $300,000 on annual rent of more than $50,000 to lease an apartment;
• B.P.C.A. made contributions totaling millions of dollars to charities not related to its mission;
• It inaccurately reported its contributions in required financial filings;
• The authority spent more than $45,000 a year for employee parties and gifts;
• B.P.C.A. routinely catered meetings and paid for business lunches for its executives;
• The authority improperly compensated the then-chairman by providing a car and driver, which the chairman failed to claim as income on his tax filings;
• B.P.C.A.’s head of audit and its ethics officer created an inaccurate and inadequate automobile log; and finally
• The authority’s audit division prepared a misleading and inaccurate audit report of the use of authority vehicles.

Such political arrogance must come to an end. The new governor should demand resignations from all board members and toss out all the holdover political hacks from the Pataki and Paterson eras. He should embrace passage of Fisch’s proposal to trap what he calls “kleptocrats.”

Fisch’s idea is to empower one truly independent investigative office to police all branches of state and local governments. Fisch wants “a watchdog with the authority and power and jurisdiction to look at the whole ball of wax, including the state Legislature.”

If Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo implements such a plan early in his tenure, he would not only be setting the right tone but would be giving real teeth to his “Clean up Albany” campaign.

This article I wrote appears in the New York Post on November 22, 2010.

The following appears in the November 19-25 issue of the Long Island Business News:

Congratulations on your election. You received a decisive mandate from an angry and frustrated public that’s clamoring for radical fiscal restraint and ethical reforms imposed on state and local elected officials.

You have your work cut out for you but if you vigorously exercise the inherent powers of your office early in your term, particularly those granted in the state Constitution’s Executive Budget Amendment that gives the governor primary responsibility for shaping the state’s financial policies, you will save the Empire State from swerving over the edge of the precipice.

No doubt you are being inundated with advice from scores of political wags. So, here are a few more suggestions to add to the pile offered in the spirit of bi-partisanship from a New York conservative.

The budget. To tackle New York’s financial woes you should consider hiring a strong-willed Patti Woodworth-type budget director who has a national reputation as an aggressive disciplinarian over spending and is capable of working smarter with less. Also, announcing on Jan. 1 a hiring freeze and moratorium on regulations would be a good opening salvo.

Unfunded state mandates. There are over 2,000 unfunded state mandates that consume, on the average, 60 percent of county governments’ budgets. Creating a bipartisan panel to recommend ways to curtail these unfair burdens would be a godsend for financially strapped local municipalities.

Local property tax cap. Retiring baby boomers, whose entire Social Security allowance is being used to pay property taxes, are selling their homes in droves and moving to low-tax states. Young people are also leaving New York because they don’t have the earning power to cover mortgage payments and with huge taxes. Despite all the talk of frugality, school taxes on Long Island continue to soar. My tax bill due this month jumped 8 percent – three times the inflation rate. If the mass exodus is to be stopped, a genuine cap that restrains tax and spend school district bureaucrats should be a top priority.

Debt reform. There should be an overhaul of New York’s long-term debt practices. Backdoor borrowing that evades ballot box approval should be halted. Thirty-year bonds used to finance current operating expenditures and not capital projects should be eliminated.

Moreland Commission. To tame the Legislature, you should consider employing the Moreland Act which vests you with broad unilateral authority to create an investigative commission with power to issue subpoenas and take testimony to document corruption, fraud or wrongdoing. Creating a Moreland Commission with a panel of renowned New York “wise men” who are above partisan politics would ensure an honest report that details for taxpayers the ugly reality of the Legislature and the lobbyists and other rent-seekers that feed off them.

Public authorities. It’s time to tame the sprawling maze of state authorities. An inspector general’s report released last week details outrageous abuses at Battery Park City Authority. Vast sums of the people’s money were squandered on lavish parties, expensive apartments and other shenanigans. The time has come to clean out the political hacks from these authorities. You should send a letter to every authority board member and CEO requesting their resignations. This will give you the opportunity to replace them with public-minded people who are not interested in perks and self-aggrandizement.

Finally, I recommend you hang on your office wall your father’s Holbein portrait of Sir Thomas More and always remember these words he uttered: “When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.”

Space limits me to these few recommendations, but your reform opportunities are practically unlimited. To succeed, stick to the principles of shared pain you outlined in the campaign. If you can pull our state back from the brink, anything is possible.

What is Richie Kessel hiding?

On August 23, 2010, over ten weeks ago, Street Corner Conservative (SCC) filed a short FOIL e-mail with NYPA requesting, among other things, disclosure of NYPA contributions to not-for-profits in 2009 and 2010.  On September 14, 2010, SCC received a response from NYPA’s corporate secretary stating the Authority would release FOIL material “on or about October 26, 2010.”  On November 1, SCC received this notification putting off the release of documents until December 7, 2010:

Dear Mr. Marlin:

This is in further response to your e-mail dated August 23, 2010 and received by this office on August 23, 2010, requesting the following records:

1.     Information and records as to contributions and payments to not-for-profit entities from NYPA or any subsidiary or affiliate including purchase of tickets or sponsorships to events conducted by any such not-for-profit for the period January 1, 2009 through and including July 31, 2010;

2.     Information as to each NYPA facility or office the President and CEO of NYPA was physically present in during each business day of the period from February 13, 2009 through and including July 31, 2010.

3.     Information and records as to discussions, memoranda, financial and analyses and information as to any proposed merger, consolidation, combination or other transaction of any kind between or among NYPA and the Long Island Power Authority created (whether or not by or on behalf of NYPA) from February 13, 2009 and through and including July 31, 2010;

4.     Information and records as to health insurance coverage or benefits or indemnification against health insurance coverage provided to any NYPA Board member;

5.     Information and records as to use of cars in NYPA’s car pool for the White Plains office from the period from September 1, 2008 through and including July 31, 2010 by any of Richard Kessel, Bert Cunningham, Rocco Iannarelli, Francine Evans, Sarah Barish Straus, Denise Ellison, Roni Epstein, Victoria Simon and Francis X. Ryan (collectively, the “Subject Employees”);

6.     Information and records as to expense reports by any of the Subject Employees filed during or with respect to the period (or any part thereof) September 1, 2008 through and including July 31, 2010.

Authority staff will need an additional period of time to identify, locate, retrieve and review any such responsive will contact you on or about December 7, 2010 with the status of your request.

Sincerely,

Karen Delince
Corporate Secretary
New York Power Authority

How long can it take to compile a list of NYPA 501(c)3 contributions?

Do NYPA officials fear embarrassment?

Did this upstate authority donate large sums to Long Island not-for-profits?

Did Richie Kessel direct contributions in return for honors and awards?

Are these unexplained delays designed to hide abuse and waste till after the new administration picks its new team?

New York rate payers have the right to know if their money was squandered to promote Kessel on his home turf of Long Island!

Richie Kessel, stop stonewalling and come clean!