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From Albany, this is the legislative gazette, a weekly half hour review of New York State
government and politics.
Your host is political scientist and syndicated colonist Dr. Alan Sharton of the State University.
Hello and welcome to another edition of the legislative gazette.
Eight more New York public officials have been charged with accepting bribes,
and Democratic Senator Andrew Jenkins has been indicted.
Governor Cuomo is back from Russia.
We'll hear about the trip from two reporters who followed him through the week-long visit.
Stan Lundin talks about the presidential candidates,
and New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams testified at the Bork confirmation hearings.
It's all coming up on this week's legislative gazette.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is charged eight more highway superintendents
with illegally accepting kickbacks for materials they purchased but never received.
Among those indictments were two businessmen who were charged with offering illegal payments
to the highway superintendents.
Brenda McMahon has this report.
Since the last edition of the gazette, eight current and former highway superintendents
have been indicted in an FBI sting.
They're charged with allegedly taking over $30,000 in kickbacks for materials not delivered.
The FBI says the illegal payments were made over the last three years by the Adirandak Highway
Materials Corporation.
The company's president and a salesman were also indicted on mail fraud charges.
The two men pleaded guilty.
Two of the highway superintendents charges emerged from double steals 58 indictments.
The men were indicted in both proves.
Wayne Alford, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, says the money received in
kickbacks were public funds and not business profits.
A review of the Adirandak Highway Materials, Inc. books and records revealed that approximately
$30,000 in illegal payments had been made by this company over the past three years.
It is important to understand that the kickbacks paid by Adirandak Highway Materials Inc.
did not come from profits generated by this company.
But in fact, came from the citizens who reside in the municipalities where these highway
superintendents have been employed.
Alfred says the Adirandak Highway Materials Corporation manipulated company invoices in
order to pay the suspects.
He says equipment such as manhole covers and snow plow blades were ordered but not received.
The excess funds then went to the highway superintendents.
Totally fictitious invoices were generated and submitted to the respective towns for payment
after approval by the highway superintendents.
The amount of the fictitious invoices included funds paid to the highway superintendents.
Another example of an illegal payment would include the preparation of an Adirandak Highway
Materials Inc. invoices reflecting the purchase of a stated number of items being shipped
to the particular town when in fact a lesser amount of items was shipped to the town.
The overstated amount of the invoice would reflect the amount of money paid to the highway
superintendents.
In a third instance, the unit cost of an item appearing on an invoice would be inflated
in order to cover the cost of the kickback to the respective highway superintendents.
A total of 64 current and former highway superintendents statewide have been indicted
for kickbacks and Alfred says investigations will continue.
He says receiving illegal payments has become a way of doing business for many New York
officials.
I think we found this in double steel and in this particular case that this is a way
of doing business and we have to find a solution to this problem in New York State.
The suspects arrested last week were from the Plattsburg area and Saratoga County in
upstate New York.
The eight men were released on their own recognizance.
Their crimes are punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Almost half of the people charged in the original double steel investigation have pleaded
guilty and another third have been indicted.
The remaining 12 double steel cases are currently pending.
The trial dates are set for mid-October and all the individuals involved face maximum
sentences of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
For the Legislative Gazette, this is Brenda McMahon.
In a related story, another New York state legislator has been indicted on charges of
political wrongdoing involving large amounts of money.
With more on this story, here's Bruce Robertson.
New York state senator Andrew Jenkins, Democrat of Queens, has been indicted on charges he
violated US currency laws during an attempt last August to smuggle $150,000 in cash out
of the country.
Jenkins was arrested August 1st in Manhattan's Plaza Hotel after he allegedly accepted a suitcase
with the money from an FBI undercover agent who was posing as someone who wanted to
launder large amounts of money.
At the time of the transfer, which was videotaped, Jenkins reportedly assured the FBI that there
would be no problem getting the money out of the country.
All requires any amount over $10,000 be reported to US customs and Jenkins told the agents
they would not have to file those papers.
When arrested, Jenkins was booked on a flight to Kinshasa Zaire.
Jenkins now faces a second indictment because the Zaire bank where he planned to invest the
money is not authorized to do business in this country.
Jenkins faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each of
the indictments.
Jenkins is scheduled to be arraigned on October 8th.
For the Legislative Gazette, this is Bruce Robertson.
Lieutenant Governor Stan Lundin has a direct line to several members of the US Congress
who are running for president.
I spoke with him this week about his view on the presidential candidates left in the
race.
I heard this week that you put out an annual newsletter to all your friends.
Is that true?
During the time I was in Congress, I built up a list of about 4,000 people who either
had volunteered on a campaign or contributed financially to me or who were just friends
who I thought would want to have information about, mainly what I was doing professionally
politically, but also with some personal notes in it.
I decided to continue that practice this year, even though Lieutenant Governor and involved
with the Cuomo administration and we have a four-year term and I don't have any immediate
political objectives, but I think it's important to keep people who have supported you informed
about what you're doing.
Question two is that on that list, apparently, are four of the seven's
warfs.
Don't even bother to say you don't like the term seven's war.
Four of those people who you can as close friends who you served within the United States
Congress, a minus patch rotor who dropped out yesterday and who you may find yourself
having to make some difficult decisions down the road.
Well that's true.
It's the first time in my life that I've ever had personal friends.
I mean to the extent that they've been to our house and we've been to theirs and I know
their children and they know mine and that kind of thing.
In Gore, Gebhardt and Simon who are running for the presidency and it's a little unusual.
Intellectually you know that Gebhardt is just as smart, smarter, probably, and capable
as President Reagan, but you don't know President Reagan as a personal friend.
It just seems sort of funny to have a friend running.
Obviously, I'm not taking a position or are any of the other major elected officials in
New York state at this time.
It doesn't prevent me from talking to them and offering advice and that kind of thing.
So it hasn't been awkward and while I know Governor DuCoccas and Senator Biden and a
few of the other candidates of Jesse Dex and Biden as well.
Biden is in the candidate.
Right, he's a farmer candidate.
Have you heard the latest joke going around?
No, I haven't.
The latest joke is that he bought his staff together just before he dropped out and told
them the only thing they had to fear was fear itself.
Right.
I was doing a fundraiser for a judicial candidate in Westchester last Sunday.
He did a Biden joke very effectively.
He said that he had a cable from Biden and it said to just tell them what I always say.
They ask not what your country can do for you.
And then finally, there's the question when you have to make up your mind in all of this.
Clearly, you'll be consulting with your governor before you go for one of your friends.
Oh, absolutely.
I would be surprised if we didn't make a joint endorsement.
Should we decide to endorse?
Is it your sense that one of the, one of these people who are running for president is
in the lead?
I think that governor DuCacos is probably in the lead.
Now I know that the polls show that Jesse Jackson is and I think Jesse Jackson has a base
of support that is clear and is impressive, but I don't think that he's a real front runner.
I think right now, governor DuCacos looks like an emerging front runner with Gebhard as
his principal challenger.
Do you see your friend Pat Schroder running for vice president?
Well, that's a possibility.
I think though that the Democrats should very carefully assess the vice presidential
nomination and it ought to be made on the basis of who would be the best vice president
rather than a narrow political concern.
Now I'm not suggesting that Pat is not capable except she carries the women's banner.
I think she made it very clear that that wasn't the kind of candidacy she was considering
and I respect her for it and she certainly has got ability equal to most many men I know.
But I don't think we ought to nominate a vice president just because the person is a woman
or has some other peculiar characteristic like that.
Could you support Jesse Jackson for vice president?
Sure.
The only thing that bothers me about Jesse is that he's never been elected to public office
and he's an outstanding orator.
I think he's a very moving person.
He's very bright.
I had him as a witness before our subcommittee on international development last year and I was
just totally impressed with this man's grasp and understanding of the problems of poverty
and the political situation in Africa.
He really knew it.
It wasn't just that he had taken a trip and met a few leaders and had some impressions.
He really knew that subject matter very, very well and I'm very impressed with him.
I'm a little troubled by the fact that he's never held any public office.
But other than that, I don't have any problems with Jesse Jackson.
New York Attorney General Robert Abrams testified against Supreme Court Justice nominee
Robert Bork at the Senate Confirmation hearings.
Morrie Small looks at what he had to say.
Attorney General Abrams was one of several experts in antitrust legislation who spoke
against Bork.
Abrams is also president-elect of the National Association of State Attorney General, but
he stressed that he was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee as an individual.
Abrams said Judge Bork's legal writing shows that he would allow mergers of large companies,
leaving just two or three firms competing in one field.
Abrams warned this would hurt the average consumer.
On that point, Abrams said that while Bork has supported consumers welfare, Bork considers
corporations to be consumers just like individual citizens.
It is necessary to understand what Judge Bork means by his term consumer welfare in order
to understand how far his antitrust views depart from established law.
At the heart of the matter is his peculiar and artificial definition of the term consumer.
In his view, corporations, even monopolists and price fixers are consumers just as are
the individual citizens who buy products in the marketplace.
The Attorney General said Judge Bork's antitrust philosophy is geared to prevent restrictions
on the total production of goods and services.
Abrams says the Supreme Court nominee does not respect the original intent of the Sherman
Antitrust Act.
Cartels or even monopolies are perfectly acceptable in Judge Bork's view as long as they do not
cause restrictions in industrial output.
The theory guts the principle goal of the framers of the Sherman Act of 1890, which
was to protect ordinary citizens from the power of monopolists or price fixers to extract
exorbitant prices from them.
For Judge Bork, such a transfer of wealth from the purchases of products to monopolists
or price fixers is merely a shift in income between two classes of consumers as he puts
it.
The New York Attorney General appealed to the Senate Committee to keep the power to
change antitrust laws in the hands of Congress.
We all must agree that if such a monumental change in the law is to occur, it should only
occur in our system of government as the result of a clear act of legislative will.
Because Judge Bork would devote himself to advancing this agenda and clear disregard
of the will of Congress, I urge you to reject his nomination to the Supreme Court.
New York Attorney General Robert Abrams testifying Wednesday in the final day of Senate hearings
on the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork.
For the legislative gazette, this is Mori Small.
Governor Cuomo is back in town and so is the press entourage that followed him all the
way to the Soviet Union.
I asked Jeanne Cross of the United Press International what her impressions of the Russian trip
were.
The assessment is that he didn't awful lot of homework, but I'm not sure he did all
the right homework.
He obviously got a rundown on carnifers.
I'm not sure he had a really good grasp of Soviet history.
And there were a few things that he missed, even in the very area that he said he was championing,
which is human rights.
For example, he missed the fact that the US had replied to a Soviet request for human rights
conference in Moscow, that response had been made much earlier this year and he didn't
realize it at the time when he was there in the Soviet Union and seemed to tacitly endorse
the idea of a conference.
How damaging.
I don't know that in the long term it's going to be very damaging, but what I think it
did was show that there are some chinks in the armor of this man who is always had a reputation
for having a towering intellect for doing a lot of study.
And it showed that he missed the boat on a few lessons.
I hear from his press camp that you guys were all out of sorts because you were kept in
a different place because you weren't allowed into the meetings and therefore you turned
on him and try to take a bite out of him.
I don't think that's true.
In fact, a lot of the time when he was in meetings we were quite happy to go touring around
or file stories.
He gave us time to do some things that we otherwise wouldn't have had a chance to do.
I certainly don't think it was a vendetta because we weren't allowed into these highly
stylistic, ritualistic ceremonial functions.
Does he get hurt or does he get helped?
Where does this fit into the great presidential scenario?
Well, he's earned name-dropping rights.
He can say as he did at yesterday's press conference here in Albany that when I talk to
Dobrynian or when I talk to Polybureau Verotnikov, that's very helpful if he does want to run
for president someday.
It's nice even if he doesn't want to run for president.
He now earns the right to talk about foreign policy within the Democratic Party in the
same way that he's got V credentials for talking about domestic issues.
Gene Cross, Bureau Chief for the United Press International.
Fred Dicker, capital bureau chief of the New York Post, was also in Russia with the governor.
Fred spoke with me about the trip.
Well, I think it was really a success for the governor in terms of establishing himself
as having some foreign policy credentials, getting the experience of traveling, knocking
down those critics who we both know about who say that the governor never goes anywhere.
That's been true.
On the other hand, I think he's got some negatives out of this.
I think he made a couple of serious faux pas, which I would note that I had he been a presidential
candidate last week when he was in the Soviet Union, I think his campaign might be over
by now.
He was sort of taken in by a Russian official, a very serious high level Russian official,
into believing that the United States had failed to respond to a Soviet proposal for a human
rights conference, believe it or not, to deal with human rights violations, quote unquote,
in the United States and Russia.
And then the governor, I think foolishly, allowed himself to be positioned so he wouldn't
even defend the United States as human rights record until he had a series of very bad stories
and then day after that, he said, of course, he stood by the United States as human rights
and civil rights record.
So I think he damaged himself.
He made a couple of other gaps.
He suggested or he asked if there were American troops, for instance, with the Soviet forces
at the Battle of Leningrad for 900 days during World War II.
And I think anyone who knows Soviet American history or relations during World War II or
just Russian history knows that there were never any American forces with the Soviet troops
during the war.
And yet anybody who's listening to this might be saying when you said that, picky,
picky, picky.
Well, they might, but I think if he was a national candidate, one could reasonably be
picky, picky, picky, that we expect people who pretend to the highest office of our land.
Yes, but he's not.
I agree.
That's why I qualified what I said and said that if he was a national candidate when he
went there last week, I think he could have been knocked out of the race.
We both agree he wasn't.
And I think because of that, he's going to be given another chance that if he ever does
become a national candidate, he'll be far better brief than he was last week.
You know, Fred, it's interesting.
As I talked to those of you who came, went on the trip and you come back and especially
you, I hear some of the sort of smaller faux pas that he made, which add up in your estimation
to not being really well enough prepared.
And yet if you read this stuff in the newspapers and you haven't talked to Fred Dickoron
a one-to-one basis, he comes off pretty well.
I agree.
And I said at the beginning that I thought he benefited from this trip, neither I or
other members of the press, I'd say, were over there trying to do Governor Cuomo in.
And conversely, none of us were over there trying to build him up as a presidential candidate.
My role was to report what was going on a couple of days.
I think he made major mistakes.
It was reported.
Other days he made no major mistakes.
He did things that were interesting in and of themselves and positive for him.
And as you know, they were reported.
So I think on balance, the reporting was fair and that it was probably positive for him.
He made some serious errors.
And again, I say that if he was a presidential candidate, I think they could have been fatal.
Where does this fit in to presidential politics?
I think this keeps him on track, Alan, and it's a parallel track.
It's a track that allows him to run along with the other presidential candidates, not
in the race, but on the sidelines so that if and when he ever decides to get in, this
helps him be better prepared.
No longer can we say, look at that Cuomo.
He never goes anywhere.
He never even went to Russia.
He's been to Russia.
Apparently he's going to.
He's going to Mexico next.
And I suspect before the primary season really gets underway, he might choose the third
country as well.
Fred Dicker of the New York Post.
It seems like every week, more state legislators are getting into trouble.
This particular round began with former Assemblywoman, Bernie Lipshit, and her problem with
no show employees on her payroll.
And now Senate Minority Leader, Manfred Orinstein, has been indicted for allegedly paying political
employees with taxpayers' money.
I asked Assembly Minority Leader, Republican Clarence Rap-Rappoliet, what he thinks about
the state of legislative ethics.
I'm hoping that the Orinstein indictment illustrates a condition that some of us have
won, criticized, and that's the absence of public standards for the operation and manage
the legislature.
And I'm at least, maybe this will back, because the catalyst to change that condition.
But I think everyone, yes, is going to be operating in an atmosphere that is somewhat, I don't
know, I think uncertain, but as I indicated to the New York Times, just beginning of this
thing, it's tough to know there have never been any guidelines established.
And I think that what's happened to Freddie Orinstein is a proof positive of that.
Now Rap, you've been out in the hinterlands for a while.
You know what it's like to not have a lot of power because you're in the minority.
You've been yelling and screaming, it's only fair to share power to the majority.
Does this give you a little bit more leverage in order to make a more convincing case to the
majority?
I suppose it can be perceived that way, but I'm not so much concerned about leverage
to enhance our position.
Obviously, anyone already leader would like to do that, but I think it's essential in
this context, the legislature determined this can allow the absence of rigorous standards
to continue to invite abuse.
And I think it's very interesting that some legislative leaders are going to make a case
that has a constitutional separation of powers, mandates that the legislature police itself.
If this is the case, then we're going to have to do a much better job of making our
institution accountable and of establishing rules of conduct that our members and our
staff can have to direct their actions, and most importantly that the public can use as
a standard against which to judge our behavior.
Okay, that means that everybody will know that they're entitled to a certain amount of
payroll that they're responsible for, that they're entitled to a certain amount of staff.
That gets treated essentially the same.
That's mixed in there, I'm sure, but things like payroll management guidelines, job
descriptions from employees, performance evaluations, standards for legislative staff conduct,
have got to be adopted.
And in that context, yes, I would hope that maybe the disparity that exists between minorities
and majorities, unlike in the count, in the Congress of the United States, perhaps will
come to this legislature, which I think even something is basic, because in ethics and
procedures manual should be published to give guidance to members and staff and to provide
information to the press in the public right now.
None of that is easily available.
Those are working in the legislature and those are watching.
Okay, have you been speaking to the other three legislative leaders about this?
No, I've had not at any length.
I've been here, obviously, in the house for the most part.
Some people don't know that you injured your ankles, is that right?
Yes, I've suffered in the Kelly's tendon playing in an old type of baseball game.
I've been around Labor Day, so I'm casted and I've been here.
I've talked to the leaders on the phone, but it's been pretty much a social call to see
what kind of shape I'm in.
But no, nothing in the way of any formalized discussion.
We are hearing from some sources in the legislature, in and around the legislature now, that there
will be, that there's a possibility now of a deal, that the governor would say, if you
will pass some kind of campaign-financing bill, then I might be willing to sign a bill
that essentially exonerates Orinstein and says it's up to the legislature to decide what's
kosher and what's not.
No, I certainly have heard that rumor, but I don't know it to be factual.
And I has never been put forward in any formalized context.
I would hope that it's not going to be dealt totally on.
That may well be a good thing.
I think that campaign-financing is something that bears reworking and reform as well, but
I would hope that we're not going to be satisfied with any sort of quick fix or deal here,
because I think this thing runs too deeply right now.
I think the whole process, the credibility, the whole process, is at stake.
And in the context we're in, I would think that we would take the opportunity to look
long and hard at it and see what we can do to make it not only more workable, but more
credible and accountable to those people who watch it, named it the constituents out
there.
Rap, is this a bad day for the legislature this whole thing?
I don't think it can be anything but a bad day.
I think right now, and for the next several months, we're going to suffer a tremendous
handicap in terms of trying to do constructive legislative work, because this is going to
set a great deal of energy and attention, and it's going to certainly create mountains
of paranoia, and that's understandable, but most importantly, I hope we can address
some of these things that really have created the problem, the Freddie Ornstein, now finds
himself in.
Clarence Rapalier is the Republican minority leader of the New York State Assembly.
I'm Brenda McMahon.
Ellen, something tragic happened in Albany this week.
Could you tell us about it?
Yeah, it's a great tragedy for those of us who cover state government, because perhaps
the most informed articulate of the electronic media people was a fellow by the name of Bill
Duffy, and Bill Duffy worked for WRGB Channel 6, and got to hundreds of thousands of people
was able to take state government to put it into perspective.
He was the first of the electronic media that belonged to the Legislative Correspondence
Association, which tends to look down its collective nose, the print people, at the
electronic media people.
And of course, there weren't many who could kiss his shoes, because he was an extraordinary
person.
Just about everything that you could know about state government.
The governor called him Duffy, and was known far and wide around here as a man who could
take these complicated subjects and make them into simple things.
A guy like that is almost impossible to replace.
When you look at the large numbers of people who are trying to do the same thing without
success, a Fred Dicker of the Post often talks about a concept known as institutional
memory.
Somebody who's around long enough to remember what happened last year and the year before,
and before that, and Bill Duffy had an incredible memory.
He could remember something that happened in a legislature 20 years ago.
He could remember anything about local politics.
And when a guy like that goes, it is never going to be possible to replace him.
We'll all miss him very much.
And that's it for this week's Legislative Gazette.
This show was produced in the studios of WAMC Albany.
I hope you enjoyed our show, and you'll join us again next week to find out what's happening
in and around New York State.
Until then, I'm Alan Chartac.
The Legislative Gazette is a production of WAMC News.
Dr. Alan Chartac is executive producer.
This program is made possible with funds provided by the State University College at New Ports.
statewide satellite distribution of this program was made possible by the Lawrence Group,
providing residents throughout New York State with total insurance coverage.
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