Secret 'pork' data targeted in lawsuit
Times Union seeks access to how tax dollars are being spent
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
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First published: Friday, June 23, 2006

ALBANY -- The Times Union sued Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Thursday for concealing the names of lawmakers who arranged to spend millions of dollars in taxpayer money on pork barrel projects called "member items."

In a petition filed in Albany's state Supreme Court, the newspaper alleges the two powerful politicians have violated New York's Freedom of Information Law by refusing to let the public see secret computer data kept at the Capitol. The data catalog what projects each lawmaker obtained and who got the money.

The Senate and Assembly divvy up $170 million taken from taxpayer revenue each year, sign a confidential deal with the governor, then transfer the cash to a special member-item account Bruno and Silver control as a kind of political piggy bank.

Lawyers for the Hearst Corp., owner of the Times Union, prepared the lawsuit, which seeks to have the courts order both legislators to release their records and to pay legal fees for the lawsuit.

"This case is critical to accountability and transparency that our political leaders speak about and do not always put into practice," said Eve Burton, general counsel for Hearst. "At its heart, this case is the right of New York taxpayers to know where and how their tax dollars are being spent."

Bruno spokesman Mark Hansen said "the Senate is for openness and transparency," but had no comment directly on the suit. "We have not heard or seen anything about your lawsuit," he said.

Charles "Skip" Carrier, a spokesman for Silver, said only that the lawsuit has been handed over to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office. The attorney general represents the Legislature.

Also named in the suit are Secretary of the Senate Steven Boggess and Assembly Records Officer Sharon Walsh. Court papers ask a judge to declare they and lawmakers violated the state's FOI Law and the basic right-to-know afforded all citizens.

State spending through member items is a longstanding tradition in New York. For the past several years, $200 million in member-item money has been appropriated by the Legislature, with $85 million going to Bruno, $85 million to Silver and $30 million to Gov. George Pataki. They each can decide how to distribute the money, with the legislative leaders typically making it available to legislators from their own party for local projects of their choosing.

"You're right to demand it," said Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group. "We certainly agree there's no reason why the public shouldn't have access to the spending of their own tax dollars."

Since March, a Times Union investigative reporting project has unearthed a number of member items that raise questions. In one case, hundreds of thousands of dollars were directed from the Republican-led Senate to the North Bronx Westchester Neighborhood Restoration Association and controlled by former Republican Sen. Guy Velella, even after his 2004 conviction for taking bribes.

Millions in member-item funds, almost all from Assembly Democrats, went to the Metropolitan New York Coordinating Council on Jewish Poverty. Its executive director, who earns $273,181 a year, is married to Silver's chief of staff.

In March, Bruno refused to answer questions about such expenditures, instructing anyone who wants to know to file a Freedom of Information Law request.

But when the Times Union did, Bruno's top aide, Boggess, said that information isn't subject to FOIL. Instead, the Senate supplied a chart that contained only brief project titles, funding amounts and the agency handling each project.

In the Assembly, Walsh provided a computer disc containing printed pages with more information about approved legislative member items, but she refused to give the names of any members sponsoring them. Their identities are secret, she claimed, because the names are "pre-decisional" intra-agency recommendations not subject to FOIL.

Appeals of both denials were rejected. On June 13, Assembly lawyer Carolyn Kearns said lawmakers' names are not "objective information" under state case law and not "central administrative records" releasable under the Assembly's rules.

The newspaper has since obtained lists of Senate and Assembly members who sponsored some member-item projects from some state agencies, from the governor's office and from the Senate and Assembly minority leaders. But the refusal of the leaders of the majorities in each house to honor the FOIL request has left the public in the dark about the details of millions of dollars more in spending.

"It's the public's money, and they have a right to know," said Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, D-Harlem. "Anybody or any entity that's obfuscating it probably deserves that there's an action taken out to find out if this is just. I don't know how the court is going to rule, but it certainly deserves the inquiry."

Phil Oliva, spokesman for Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, said the conference released the information readily because the public has a right to know how taxpayer funds are spent.

"It's public money," he said. "Who spends it, where and how it's spent, should be fully disclosed and the process should be more transparent."

The Times Union has for several years been represented on First Amendment and access issues by Michael Grygiel, a partner in the Syracuse-based law firm Hiscock & Barclay, but that firm refused to handle this case. A partner in the firm, Richard R. Capozza, declined comment. "It's disappointing that the lawyer who has a long history of representing us was unable to assist us in this matter," Burton said.

New York's FOI Law limits public access to records of the Legislature -- it only makes public that body's laws, bills, committee reports and other standard paperwork most citizens would expect to see at the Capitol. But the FOI Law also says "factual or statistical tabulations" kept by lawmakers for their official business are public, too.

In 1994, in the case Weston v. Sloan, the state's highest court stunned some lawmakers when it ordered a senator to turn over records of spending on newsletters mailed to constituents because those records were factual data related to appropriated state money.

"The core purpose of FOIL is to enable the public to know what the government is doing," said Robert Freeman, executive director of the State Committee on Open Government, an arm of the secretary of state's office. "Clearly, there is a public interest in the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars."

A judge will get to decide whether lawmakers keep lists of member items and whether it is data tied to state spending. "If a list exists, in my opinion, there is a precedent to make it available," Freeman said.

Michele Bolton can be reached at 434-2403 or by e-mail at mbolton@timesunion.com.

June 29, 2006
Spitzer issues 'F' to Legislature
Yancey Roy, Albany bureau

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MENANDS — Democrat Eliot Spitzer's assessment of the 2006 legislative session? A big fat "F."

Despite a few gains on some issues, there were way too many clunkers and omissions, the gubernatorial frontrunner and state attorney general said at a chamber of commerce breakfast in an Albany suburb.

"I'm not a teacher handing out grades. But it's hard to see how you can look at this session and give it a passing grade," he said.

Later in the day, Spitzer picked up the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, as he continued to lock up most of the unions in the state. His foes, Republican John Faso and Democrat Tom Suozzi, have claimed the unions' support would make it likely that Spitzer would raise taxes and spending, a charge Spitzer denies. They also accused the frontrunner of ducking issues.

The flaws of the session, according to Spitzer: no government reform, no full disclosure of pork-barrel funds, no new energy policy, no answer to the massive school-funding lawsuit and a questionable 9 percent growth in spending.

The gains: an expansion of the DNA crime databank, tougher DWI laws, a change to the statute of limitations on rape and a deal to lure a computer-chip producer to the Albany area.

Too often, lawmakers spend all year fighting while not making enough changes, he said.

"I often feel state government has become a World War I battlefield," he said. "We've dug trenches. We shoot across at each other. There's carnage in the middle. And the trench moves one or two feet and people declare victory."

The AFL-CIO didn't even interview Faso or Suozzi.

Spitzer said he disagreed with the union over a bill to allow some day-care workers to unionize and join the state workforce. Gov. George Pataki, who is stepping down at the end of the year, vetoed the measure but the Legislature may override.

Spitzer declined, however, to outline a specific position on two issues dear to the union: to grant public employees an automatic 1 percent raise if a government agency is found to have bargained in bad faith and to cap the amount of time a worker who is partially disabled on the job can get workers'-compensation benefits. Spitzer said the automatic raise idea needed more study; he said workers'-comp needed to be restructured but didn't provide details.

Faso opposes the 1 percent raise guarantee and favors the benefits. Similarly, Suozzi's campaign manager accused Spitzer of dodging crucial issues.

YROY@Gannett.com

Albany Times-Union, March 18, 2006
'Slush' Spent At $100M A Year
James M. Odato

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The Pataki administration Friday provided a glimpse into some of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent at the discretion of legislative leaders and the governor -- but with little explanation of how it was used or which lawmaker asked for it.

Ten days after Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno dodged criticisms of so-called "slush" funds in the budget and directed reporters to "FOIL" for an accounting, the Division of Budget complied.

It provided data for 2003, 2004 and 2005 showing dollar amounts, recipients and dates of grants from the Assembly, Senate and Gov. George Pataki.

The sums total about $100 million a year, according to state comptroller records. It represented spending for "member items," one of several deep pools of money used by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Bruno and Pataki. The pots come together under MOUs -- memorandums of understanding -- among the three leaders.

Michael Marr, a spokesman for the budget division, said data on spending from the economic development and community pots will be made available after staff can get through budget negotiations and have time to comply.

State Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, and other Senate Democrats raised Bruno's ire last week by calling for complete disclosure of expenditures from discretionary funds.

"I'm not sure you should have MOUs at all," Krueger said. "I can't seem to find any other states or cities that have them."

Bruno wouldn't discuss the issue, saying Democrats were in "campaign mode." He told reporters to use the Freedom of Information Law to get the materials Krueger says should be routinely available.

Bruno's press office wouldn't discuss discretionary spending Friday, even after Bruno announced a grant of $500,000 to a school in his district. The money, apparently, will come from a discretionary pot available to Bruno.

"The Senate Democrats are right. It should be lined out and spelled out," said E.J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center. Federal budgets, he said, disclose all "pork."

What the Budget Division provided, he said, "is almost worse than nothing."

Pataki is pushing budget reform legislation to requires all the spending from the various MOU pots to be made available electronically and posted on Web sites. Krueger is about to introduce a bill that would require the state budget to detail plans for slush money.

Sign it, governor — Page 1 — TimesUnion.com
A stronger state Freedom of Information Law will serve the public’s right to know

It’s been nearly a month since Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, joined with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, in support of a stronger Freedom of Information Law for New York state. By last week, a compromise bill had moved quickly through the Legislature. But as of yet, Gov. Pataki has not signed the bill into law. We urge him to do so before the Legislature breaks for its summer recess this week.

A stronger FOI law is needed to improve on legislation, passed last year, that set strict limits for public agencies to comply with FOI requests. Until then, agencies had wide latitude in determining when to act on a request. That gave them a license to deny requests by stalling them to death. The Legislature wisely adopted, and the governor signed, legislation that imposed a strict 20-day deadline for agencies to respond.

But as welcome as last year’s law was, it contained a flaw. While it allowed petitioners to go to court if an agency hadn’t met the 20-day deadline, or had denied a request, it also placed the burden squarely on the shoulders of those seeking access to public information. A petitioner had to hire an attorney to plead the case, and bear other legal expenses. For large organizations, such as the press, these costs were manageable. But for individuals with ordinary means, the prospect of going to court might be costly enough to discourage a suit. Thus, a large segment of New Yorkers would be denied their right to a day in court.

That whole last paragraph needs to be re-written.
The burden should be on the state to give to the people the information they want thru the Freedon of information Act.

They all know how to hide the info from us and this practice has got to stop. Pataki needs to sign it but at the same time amend it to read that it is their responsibility to give the info within 20 days otherwise they will be held in contempt, or something like that.. I’m not a lawyer.

Posted in Sheldon Silver, Joe Bruno | No Comments »

Doling out tax dollars in secret
Sunday, June 11th, 2006
Doling out tax dollars in secret — Page 1 — TimesUnion.com
ALBANY — Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver refuse to let anyone know how lawmakers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money.

Since April, the two powerful politicians have rejected all requests to disclose the names of legislators who arranged some $340 million in appropriations of the public’s money in recent years for thousands of pet projects, grants and gifts.

Some of that money went to churches, private clubs and hundreds of obscure special interest groups across the state — all of it exempt from auditing by state Comptroller Alan Hevesi.

The special appropriations, called “member items,” have become a secret piggy bank for Bruno and Silver. As leaders, they decide in private how to spend $170 million the Legislature routinely inserts into the state budget each year for themselves and their 210 colleagues. They add another $30 million for Gov. George Pataki to use as he wishes.

Despite repeated requests from the Times Union made through New York’s Freedom of Information Law, the two elected leaders for weeks have claimed the public has no right to see records showing which legislators arranged what deals — and how much money each lawmaker’s projects received. Bruno and Silver say the information is secret, even though their voluminous lists of member-item projects become an official law of the state each year.

There are plenty of reasons for taxpayers to worry about member-item money.
Please read the rest here….

Here they are the leaders of the pack, if anyone should be pushing for more open government it should be these two. This is disgusting and proves the need to change the leadership in Albany.

Talk about in your face! Their blatant disregard for the taxpaying citizens of this state and their continued desire to rule over their kingdoms just shows everyone how dysfunctional Albany is. Are they even being challenged by any candidates? They will walk right back into office and the cowards representing us will once again vote them right back in to the leadership positions so they can continue screwing the people. When will we ever see people with a backbone represent us and vote these two out.

Liz Krueger Sues Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno

Lawyer Leads Students In Putting Pressure on Legislators
by Winnie Hu - New York Times
May 20, 2000

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ALBANY, May 20 -- They do not have many political allies, or a lot of money, but Charles W. Juntikka and his band of part-time student workers almost always get quick responses from state legislators: complaints, curses, often just sighs.
Mr. Juntikka, a bankruptcy lawyer from Manhattan known for taking up political causes, and his students have engaged in guerrilla tactics against 27 Democratic and Republican legislators who they say did not support recent proposals to overhaul laws on campaign finance, lobbying, ballot access and the budget.

The students have mailed 80,000 postcards to registered voters since September, urging them ne for their local senator or Assembly member.

They have even posted photos of the legislators on a Web site, www.students4reform.com, branding them as opponents of political reform.

They set up toll-free numbers for voters to weigh in, then transferred so many calls to the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, and the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, that their aides complained to the phone companies. When Bell Atlantic and AT&T tried to intervene, Mr. Juntikka merely taped their warnings to him and replayed them for reporters. He did not stop the calls.

"We are distressed by the slow pace of reform in Albany," said Mr. Juntikka, flanked by several high school and college students during a trip to the Capitol last week. "These are all things they know in their hearts ought to be done. We want them to pay a political price for not supporting political reform."

But the legislators have accused Mr. Juntikka's group of distorting their records without giving them a chance to reply, and of unfairly singling them out on issues that have long divided the Legislature.

Many claim they are simply easy targets because they face tough re-election campaigns.

"It's a political hit list," complained Senator Frank Padavan, a Republican who has represented Queens for 28 years. "I think it's irresponsible to target people without talking to them. It's not fair, and doesn't serve a useful purpose, and it's misleading."

Mr. Juntikka and his students have angered -- and worried -- many legislators who are unaccustomed to fending off such direct attacks. Most lobbyists and special interest groups focus their efforts almost exclusively on the influential leaders of the Legislature. But these students have pursued rank-and-file members with a tenacity that has won cautious praise from public advocates.

"While we don't engage in these kinds of electoral tactics, it's nice to have an attack dog on our side," said Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Mr. Juntikka, 46, has relished taking on the political system. In 1996, he came close to forcing New York City to hold a referendum on whether to establish a $100 cap on campaign contributions and allow more public money to be used in elections. He dispatched students to collect the 50,000 petition signatures required, but a state appellate court later ruled that campaign finance was not a topic for a referendum.

"He's an irritant to those in power, but he's very effective," said Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat who represents parts of Manhattan and the Bronx. "He doesn't have a political agenda other than raising issues and pestering the people in authority until they do something. You can't buy off a guy who loses money every time he does one of these causes."

Mr. Juntikka has spent $35,000 of his savings on his latest cause, mainly to pay for postcards, phone lines, a Web site and, most recently, television ads. From his law offices in Midtown Manhattan, he commands a small army of high school students and recent graduates who work for him on weekends and during vacations, earning an average of $8 an hour plus free lunches.

Several legislators acknowledged they check the group's Web site and phone lines, if only to find out what is being reported about them or their colleagues. And Mr. Juntikka's phone bills and Internet visitor logs showed more than 300 calls or Web site hits from other legislators and their staff members.

A few legislators have even suggested new subjects to Mr. Juntikka on the sly -- Democrats singling out Republicans, and vice versa.

The most important thing for all legislators, if they want to run again, is obviously to win," said Assemblywoman Sandra R. Galef, a Democrat from Westchester County. "This can be very effective. It's not like it's your opponent; it's someone else, and that gives it credibility."

A moment later, Ms. Galef confided, "I would not want to be a targeted person."

Mr. Juntikka and his students have intensified their attacks on legislators this month with a series of negative television ads around the state. One ad, titled "The Three Stooges," lambastes the budget process controlled by Gov. George E. Pataki, Mr. Silver and Mr. Bruno. The ad, which has run in a half-dozen cities, including Albany, Rochester and New York City, asserts that the local Assembly member or senator does not want change and should not be re-elected.

Senator Padavan, who was singled out in a cable TV ad shown in Queens, called the assertion "absolutely wrong" and pointed out that he has served on committees that held public hearings on the budget for the last two years. But Mr. Juntikka said the senator did not sign on to legislation that would have guaranteed that these committees would be called in the future.

The bill, sponsored by Assembly Democrats, has support from only 19 senators -- all Democrats -- out of the total 61.

Other legislators complained that they were not exactly sure why their records had been attacked. "They have not lobbied me with a specific matter," said Assemblywoman Susan V. John, a Democrat from Rochester, after she was named in an ad about lobbying abuses.

Mr. Juntikka said she did not support a Senate bill that would have closed loopholes in the lobbying law; Ms. John said the bill never came up for a vote in the Assembly.

Undeterred by criticism, Mr. Juntikka and his students have continued to plot against the legislators whose names are on yellow stickers posted on a state map in his office.

"It's funny to think it was my little summer project, and now they're all nervous," said Olga Kaplan, 18, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan who plans to study politics at Wellesley College. "You know, it's not personal. It's about where you stand, what you believe in, and what you represent. I think anyone you ask is going to say, 'I want cleaner elections and less corruption.' "