HALLOWEEN EDITION OF THE KESSEL WATCH

Last week, our hapless and (now that he has outsourced the State budget to Lt. Governor Ravitch) irrelevant Governor sent Richie Kessel to Long Island to campaign for one of two amendments to the State Constitution. Proposition 1 occasioned Kessel’s visit to one of his favorite haunts, the Mineola courthouse pressroom. In Prop 1, National Grid would exchange 43 acres of upstate land for six acres in the Adirondack Park to allow building a 23-mile, 46kv power line that it is believed will improve electric service upstate. Actually, the line had already been built but that’s an inconvenient detail.

Street Corner Conservative has not studied extensively the merits of Prop 1 and is not recommending that readers vote for or against Prop 1 although Street Corner, like we suspect, many New Yorkers this year will vote against any Constitutional amendment proposed by Paterson, Shelly Silver and whichever collection of NYC Democratic Senators is ruling that chamber at the moment. Voters are angry and the credibility account of the State’s political class is overdrawn. By absentee ballot, Street Corner has voted against Props 1 and 2 and makes the following observations.

First, the only person with less credibility on Long Island than Governor Paterson is Richie Kessel. Sending him down here to push for anything is a small political miscalculation by the Governor but this Administration ain’t very good at politics, or much else. Polling by both parties indicates that Richie isn’t popular and that the guy who raised rates and obfuscated over the years isn’t trusted. Paterson’s intrepid political team didn’t know that. Better they should have asked LIPA CEO Kevin Law to explain this one.

Second, Richie’s press magic has disappeared. The purpose of his visit was surely to end up in the pages of struggling Newsday. He failed in the hard copies of last week’s papers and a review of Newsday’s awful web site indicates a similar strikeout. Claude Solnik of Long Island Business News did a good piece on the Kessel visitation but no ink and no picture in Newsday is a defeat.

Third, the LIBN story indicates that the line was built and is already operating which raises the question of whether if angry voters reject Prop 1 the line will cease operating. Environmentalists were co-opted into supporting the line and may have created a dangerous precedent because next time the intrusion into the park may be more extensive and the argument to “let us build it and we’ll get approval later” will be trotted out. Street Corner Conservative doubts that UK-based National Grid is likely to abandon the line if the voters say no. A National Grid rep said that the company would go back to the Legislature if the public says no.

Finally, Richie has done lots of business with National Grid and its predecessors over the years, much of that very profitable for National Grid (formerly KeySpan) and painful for Long Island ratepayers. Richie’s NYPA does much business with Grid and what role that played and who absorbs Grid’s $30 million investment in this transmission line if the voters ignore Kessel’s entreaties is worth scrutiny. Street Corner fears there may be a $30 million trick in the baskets of unwary State taxpayers and NYPA ratepayers.

THE KESSEL COUNTDOWN: 426 DAYS UNTIL RICHIE KESSEL IS FIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.

EVERYBODY WANTS TO QUESTION RICHIE IN JOE BRUNO CORRUPTION TRIAL

Sadly, former Senator Majority Leader Joe Bruno is spending his golden years defending himself against eight felony corruption charges in Federal District Court in Albany.  (Senator Bruno is presumed innocent until proven guilty.)  Street Corner Conservative has no inside information on the charges and hazards no prediction as to the outcome of the trial.  But Street Corner Conservative does note with interest that both the Federal prosecutors and Senator Bruno’s defense team have listed Richie Kessel, former LIPA Chairman and CEO and current NYPA CEO, as a witness they expect to call at trial.

As Jim Odato reported in the Albany Times Union late last year, Senator Bruno played an unknown role in introducing Richie when he was Chairman and CEO of LIPA to a married couple in Brooklyn engaged in construction work for utilities.  The husband has since been indicted for alleged bribery of Con Ed employees to obtain road construction work.  (He too is presumed innocent.)  In fairness, there is as yet no suggestion that Richie committed any violation of federal or state law.  But Street Corner will be following the trial with interest and will keep its readers informed of developments.  In addition, Street Corner notes with bemusement that, in keeping with his well-deserved reputation as a bi-partisan purveyor of favors, both the prosecution and defense want to question Richie.  This trial, which is scheduled to start November 2, and Kessel’s testimony promise to be interesting.

Finally, readers will remember that Odato and Newsday’s Mark Harrington reported last year that Kessel would neither confirm nor deny whether he had received a subpoena in the Bruno corruption trial.  It is now safe to vouchsafe that Kessel was subpoenaed and despite his usual lengthy eloquence with the press clammed up on this uncomfortable subject.

Thanks to several correspondents for focusing Street Corner Conservative on this unique development.

THE KESSEL COUNTDOWN: 440 DAYS UNTIL RICHIE KESSEL IS FIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.

THE IG’s GUIDE TO RICHIE KESSEL’S NYPA

As we observe the first anniversary of the Kessel regime at NYPA, and since Richie disbanded the internal Inspector General function at NYPA, Street Corner thinks a primer on NYPA’s annus horribilis will be useful when the inevitable investigations begin.

1. How was NYPA Chair Michael Townsend able to vote on part of the NYPA money transfer to the State earlier this year but not the portion in which his upstate law firm had been hired to represent the Division of the Budget on the transfer documents? Did Townsend’s affirmative vote on one transfer which made possible the second transfer on which he abstained not call into question the entire matter? Is this in accord with State law and regs? With the Legal Canons of Ethics?

2. A related question—how was it that of all the hungry lawyers in the State of New York, Budget hired the firm of NYPA’s Chairman for this task? Propriety and avoiding even an appearance of impropriety would have called for some other lawyer to do this work. Did Kessel play any role in requesting or directing DOB that this work go to Chairman Townsend?

3. Has any past or present NYPA Trustee received health insurance since Attorney General Cuomo’s announcement that such coverage was illegal for unpaid, part time directors and trustee of State agencies such as NYPA?

4. Has any NYPA trustee received Kessel’s Knicks tickets or other sports tickets gratis from Richie?

5. Does Kessel pay fair market value for his game ticket when he travels to the Super Bowl each year?

6. Did Kessel play any role in directing business directly or indirectly to any NYPA trustee?

7. How much has NYPA given to charities not related to its core mission in violation of State law since Attorney General Cuomo’s determination that State authorities could not use public funds for such contributions? Has Kessel asked vendors, actual and prospective, to support events in which he receives a plaque, commendation or tchotchke?

8. What were the circumstances under which NYPA entered into sole source contract with Bank of America to issue an opinion blessing the turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars of NYPA funds to the State? Why was this sole sourced when lots of firms could do this work for over $100,000?

Street Corner Conservative notes that this is a partial list, some of which like Chairman Townsend’s interesting conflict kabuki and the BofA contract are a matter of public record and others of which were passed along by our readers. We thank NYPA staff for their suggestions and welcome further thoughts. As always, confidentiality will be strictly maintained.

THE KESSEL COUNTDOWN: 444 DAYS UNTIL RICHIE KESSEL IS FIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.