Kessel Asides

Long-time observers of Richie Kessel will remember that after being fired by then Governor Eliot Spitzer as CEO of LIPA in early 2007, Kessel was casting about for another government gig.  Before our accidental Governor, David Paterson, appointed him to NYPA in October 2008, Kessel had serious discussions with Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi who reportedly agreed to appoint Kessel as Deputy County Executive for “local government consolidation” or somesuch.  Kessel is believed to have held the Suozzi offer as insurance against striking out with Paterson.  The inept Paterson did not disappoint our Richie.

Faithful readers know that Street Corner Conservative believes that the next Governor of the Empire State (assuming it is not the hapless Paterson) will once again give Kessel his walking papers. That’s no surprise.

But what is new is the results of the recent Nassau County elections, Kessel’s home county.  Last month, after running an arrogant and careless campaign spending more time over the months in Buffalo than Bethpage and more time with the Watertown Times than with the Anton weekly papers, Suozzi has lost a close election to the giantkiller, Ed Mangano.  Further, the Nassau Dems lost control of the County Legislature.  Jay Jacobs, the one time wonderkin of the Nassau Democratic Party and now State Chair of the Democratic Party, has been exposed as a summer camp director who rode the anti-Gulotta sentiment to control of the County and now is no longer seen as the political wizard behind the screen.

The bottom line is that should our next Governor again send Richie to the showers, he will find no soft landing working for Suozzi or the Democratic majority in the Legislature.

THE KESSEL COUNTDOWN: 391 DAYS UNTIL RICHIE KESSEL IS FIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.

Kessel Asides

As former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s sad corruption trial winds down revealing systemic corruption as a way of life in Albany, NYPA CEO Richie Kessel, who, befitting his reputation as a bipartisan operator and favor dispenser, was listed on both the FBI and Bruno defense witness lists, has not been called to testify.  The Feds and Bruno’s defense lawyer passed for unknown reasons.  It is important to note, however, that activities at LIPA, Kessel’s former sinecure, were raised in testimony by prosecution witnesses, including one testifying under a grant of immunity.

Street Corner Conservative calls on Kessel to release the transcripts of any pre-trial cross-examination by Federal prosecutors to the public immediately.  Should Kessel fail to do so, Street Corner will seek public release of Richie’s testimony and will post it on this site when available.

Street Corner has learned of multiple reports that Rocco Iannarelli, the elected Receiver of Taxes for the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, will be leaving shortly that challenging position and decamping for White Plains where he will serve as, get this, Director of Human Relations for NYPA and its 1,000 or so employees.  Rocco, according to his bio on the Town website “developed a reputation as a keen administrator with many governmental accomplishments to his credit.”  The bio doesn’t speak to his HR experience although he did send some time in the food distribution business and stayed in a Holiday Inn Express the night before his interview with Kessel.

Careful observers of Richie will remember that, while at LIPA, he hired as Director of HR, the daughter of the then Nassau County DA, who herself had been an unsuccessful candidate for public office in Nassau County and, before that foray into electoral office, a barmaid.

THE KESSEL COUNTDOWN: 403 DAYS UNTIL RICHIE KESSEL IS FIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.

The following appears in the November 20-26, 2009 issue of the Long Island Business News:

As Ed Mangano’s recount lead widens in the Nassau County executive race, incumbent Tom Suozzi has been busy spinning that his electoral demise is not his fault but rather that of angry, misinformed voters who punished him for taxes and policies that were not under his purview. “I’ve pretty much been a leader of the property tax revolt,” he told the Times, “and now I’m maybe a victim of it.”

To promote his “I am a victim” strategy, Suozzi in a post-election Newsday op-ed called for Nassau schools, which are currently run by 56 independent elected school district boards, to be controlled by the county executive. Suozzi’s rationale: Since he gets flack for onerous school taxes, he might as well have oversight responsibility just like New York City Mayor Bloomberg.

Suozzi’s “Hail Mary pass” proposal, tailored to address his electoral shortcomings, is deeply flawed and his comparison to Mayor Bloomberg and New York City is absurd.

When Michael Bloomberg took office in January 2002 he inherited a failing school system that was controlled by a seven-member Board of Education of which only two were his appointees. There was also a top-heavy educational bureaucracy that was not only riddled with corruption and cronyism but had failed to set or monitor performance standards.

And yet, the mayor had no choice but to fund this floundering system out of his operating budget. In other words, while the mayor had the responsibility to annually come up with billions of dollars to pay education bills, he did not have the corresponding oversight rights to determine if the money was being spent properly or wisely. Even Albany potentates, who are generally under the thumb of teachers’ unions, realized this was unjust and agreed to give Bloomberg mayoral control.

Nassau County’s executive, on the other hand, has never had any responsibilities over education. Unlike New York City, the county does not spend a dime on schools; hence it has no valid claim for control.

There are other flaws in Suozzi’s plan. Since each school district has its own budget, teachers’ contracts and bonded debt, in addition to receiving Albany’s blessings to get a final OK, district taxpayers would have to vote for unification; bondholders would have to approve debt consolidation covenants; and teachers would have to agree to replace individual contracts with a countywide one. The chances of all this happening: zero.

Citizens are very protective of their school districts. They are not going to give up their say on how their taxes will be spent on their neighborhood schools to some county bureaucrat. Bondholders, particularly those who hold highly rated school district debt, are not going to exchange their bonds for lower-rated county ones. As for teachers, they would rather negotiate with the devil they know.

Suozzi’s plan, like his political career, is about himself. His favorite word, the personal pronoun “I,” was used 18 times in his Nov. 8 Newsday op-ed. If he was so passionate about school consolidation plans, why didn’t he put out a thoughtful position paper during the campaign rather than days after his statewide ambitions evaporated as he sat on $2 million saved for his next statewide campaign? Suozzi must be mature enough to realize that Nassau voters punished him not because of school taxes, but because he was an absentee landlord who has conjured small-bore, short-term tricks to paper over the county’s fiscal and economic woes. The voters sent a message that they want a full-time county executive, not a part-timer in search of another office.

When all the votes are counted, if Suozzi goes down, he’ll be a victim all right – a victim of his narcissism.