US chief justice commemorates Jackson Center in NY
JAMESTOWN — U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts may need a bigger suitcase for his return to Washington following a visit to his native western New York for the 10th anniversary of a center dedicated to the late Justice Robert H. Jackson.
Jackson's grandchildren presented Roberts with a gift intended for the entire high court, a life-size bronze bust of Jackson.
"It will occupy a place of great prominence at the court," Roberts promised after accepting the bust Friday, "just as his portrait does."
And at a reception with Jackson Center board members and community officials Thursday, Roberts was presented with a framed lithograph of Jackson.
Roberts, who was born in Buffalo, spent about 20 minutes Friday addressing a crowd of more than 2,000, most of them schoolchildren, from the front porch of the center in Jamestown. He stayed away from the weighty topics pending before the court, such as gay marriage, reflecting instead on the changes it has undergone since Jackson's day, from serious ones like the diversity of the justices down to the shape of their mahogany bench and the offerings in the public cafeteria.
Jackson served on the Supreme Court from 1941 to 1954 after getting his start as a country lawyer in western New York. He took a leave from the bench to oversee the Nuremberg Trials following World War II. The center was dedicated 10 years ago by Roberts' predecessor, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who had been a law clerk under Jackson. Roberts was a law clerk under Rehnquist.
"For some lawyers and judges, the law is merely a way of earning a wage, and others cannot see beyond shaping a pattern according to precedent," Roberts said in his address. "But some inspired lawyers and judges, like Justice Jackson, have understood that they are participating in a loftier enterprise. The Jackson Center is an enduring monument to that ideal."
Following the address, U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins delivered to the center's co-founder, Gregory Peterson, a framed bill, signed into law, that named a newly constructed federal courthouse in Buffalo after Jackson.
College student, intruder killed in NY break-in
UNIONDALE — A Hofstra University junior sharing an off-campus house with her twin sister and several other college students was shot and killed during an early morning break-in Friday that also left the armed intruder dead, police said.
The shooting at a private house only steps from the Long Island campus cast a pall over the university community gearing up for commencement ceremonies this weekend. Hofstra's president said in a statement that the ceremonies would go on as scheduled.
It wasn't clear who fired the fatal shots or how many rounds were fired, but authorities said police were involved in the shooting, which happened about 2:30 a.m. A weapon was found inside the house, police said.
Nassau County police and Hofstra University identified the slain student as Andrea Rebello, 21, of Tarrytown, N.Y. Her sister, Jessica, was also in the house at the time of the break-in but was not injured, police said. The gunman was not immediately identified.
"It's my daughter, my baby daughter," a crying Fernando Rebello told The Journal News outside his home Friday afternoon. "She was so beautiful. I'm so confused.
"I don't know what to do," he said, declining to discuss the incident further.
The two sisters, another woman and another man were inside the two-story rental house when the gunman, wearing a ski mask, forced his way in, according to Nassau County Inspector Kenneth Lack. The intruder allowed the third unidentified woman to leave, and she called 911. Police provided no other details on the man who was in the house at the time of the break-in, except to say he was not injured.
60 injured in train collision
Fairfield, Conn.
Two commuter trains serving New York City collided in Connecticut during Friday's evening rush hour, sending 60 people to the hospital, including five critically injured and one very critically injured, Gov. Dannel Malloy said. There were no reports of fatalities.
The Metro-North Railroad, a commuter line serving the northern suburbs, referred in a news release to a "major derailment" near Fairfield, just outside Bridgeport. It said emergency workers were at the scene of the accident, which came shortly after 6 p.m.
"We're most concerned about the injured and ultimately reopening the system," Malloy said from the scene about three hours after the crash. He said there was no reason to believe it was anything other than an accident.
Malloy said that most people were not seriously hurt. He said there was extensive damage to the train cars and the track, and it could take until Monday for normal service to be restored.
He said the area where the accident happened was down to two tracks because of repair work and that the accident will have a "big impact on the Northeast Corridor."
Bill Kaempffer, a spokesman for Bridgeport public safety, told The Associated Press that about 250 people were on board the two trains.
Photos taken at the scene showed a train car askew on the rails, with its end smashed up and brushing against another train. Amtrak suspended service indefinitely between New York and Boston.
"At this stage, we don't know if this is a mechanical failure, an accident or something deliberate," Fairfield police spokesman Lt. James Perez told the Connecticut Post.
The railroad said a train that departed New York City's Grand Central station en route to New Haven derailed. A westbound train on an adjacent track then struck the derailed train. Some cars on the second train also derailed as a result of the collision.
Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph Gaudett said everybody who needed treatment had been attended to, and authorities were beginning to turn their attention to investigating the cause.
"Everybody seemed pretty calm," he said. "Everybody was thankful they didn't get seriously hurt. They were anxious to get home to their families."
The Metro-North main lines run from New York City's Grand Central Terminal into suburban New York and Connecticut.
Next step awaited in Oneida deal
Albany
Gov. Andrew Cuomo used his usual carrot-and-stick approach to drive a settlement deal with the Oneida Indian Nation, putting an agreement together in short fashion, behind closed doors and in a manner that at least a few people felt was bullying.
Announced Thursday, the deal allows the territory of the tribe, which has been buying property around its 32-acre reservation for years, to grow to up to 25,000 acres through acquisition. It would share of slot machine revenue from the tribe's Turning Stone Casino for gaming exclusivity in Central New York.
The governor informed officials from Madison and Oneida counties that if they continued to pursue litigation against the tribe's land claims in central New York, the state would no longer cover the $2 million in annual legal expenses, said Oneida County Legislator Chad Davis, a Democrat from the New Hartford area.
"The governor threatened to pull the money and we'll be on our own," Davis said of Cuomo's remarks to a gathering just before it entered the Red Room for the announcement of the agreement to resolve land rights and taxation issues with the tribe.
A spokesman for Cuomo said the governor said that if the state withdraws under the settlement but the county does not, the county would have to go it alone.
"This is one of those issues; it's been ugly and counterproductive," Cuomo said in a radio interview Friday, emphasizing that the counties will gain millions of dollars in revenues annually if the deal is passed.
Judy Bachman of Vernon is the chairwoman of Citizens Equal Right Alliance, which is concerned about the Oneidas' acquisition of thousands of acres of land. She had heard from legislators about Cuomo's remarks, which she considered to be manipulative.
Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said the governor said there would be repercussions if they voted against the deal. Picente said he did not take the governor's words as a threat.
"Sometimes the facts get in the way with these people," he said of the deal's critics. "Our risk is greater to keep going than to settle an agreement we can all live with. ... The governor said if you want to continue litigation, go ahead — but we won't."
Picente said even though the state is responsible to protect subdivisions from legal attacks, the Cuomo administration could pull financial support because the localities are the plaintiffs in two cases against the Oneidas, one a foreclosure matter and the other the plan by the U.S. Department of Interior to place 13,000 acres into trust for the tribe.
He said the deal Cuomo put together was done in less than three weeks; he believes the majority of members of the Madison County board of supervisors and the Oneida County board of legislators will vote to pass it.
Davis complained that the detailed agreement has not been provided. "That's why they want to railroad this thing," Davis said, adding that the deal arrived just as it appeared the Oneidas might be vulnerable in the court cases.
Cuomo said the Oneidas are taking advantage of gaining gambling exclusivity in central New York in exchange for sharing casino revenues and for making payments that would cover property taxes. If passed by the state Legislature, the agreement will finally bring that body's endorsement to the 1993 gaming compact that a state court ruled void because it was never authorized by lawmakers.
Cops: Body found in Plaza was homeless man
ALBANY (AP) — Authorities say they've tentatively identified the body found at the Empire State Plaza as that of a homeless man known to frequent the sprawling state government complex in downtown Albany.
State Police say they received a report around 6 p.m. Wednesday that a body had been found at the Empire State Plaza. Troopers say an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death. Notification of the man's relatives is pending his positive identification.
The body was found outside one of the plaza's high-rise office buildings. Several thousand state government employees work at the plaza, which also includes an underground concourse, parking garages and conference and performance venues.
Lopez is leaving; timing criticized
Albany
Scandal-scarred Assemblyman Vito Lopez is willing to resign his seat when the legislative session ends on June 20. But that's not soon enough for the chamber's Democratic leadership, which has been hammered by criticism of its handling of sexual harassment complaints against the Brooklyn lawmaker.
The subject of a scathing report from the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, Lopez on Friday announced his intention to resign next month in order to run for New York City Council.
JCOPE's report and another from Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan were made public Wednesday, and concluded that Lopez engaged in serial sexual harassment and bullying of female members of his staff — including unwanted physical contact, demands for massages and the wearing of revealing clothing, and other inappropriate behavior.
In a brief statement released just before noon Friday, Lopez noted that Donovan's investigation concluded there was no basis for criminal charges. "I have maintained my innocence throughout this matter and I believe no criminal investigation should ever have been conducted," Lopez said.
"I have made no secret that I intend to run for New York City Council in November, which requires me to resign my current term. Nevertheless, because the citizens of my district voted me back into office last November by an overwhelming majority, I feel obligated to serve out this session of the Assembly," he continued.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's office announced Thursday evening that he would introduce a measure asking the chamber's Ethics Committee to review the full JCOPE report and consider sanctions against Lopez, including expelling him from the chamber. The draft resolution was circulated Friday in anticipation of a vote when the Legislature returns to Albany for its first four-day session week since the end of March.
Lopez's announcement was followed by a terse release from Silver's spokesman Michael Whyland: "Assembly member Lopez should no longer be in public office. We will move forward with our resolution on Monday."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a similar statement after saying in a radio interview that it would be "the height of hypocrisy" for the Assembly not to take action in response to Lopez's alleged misdeeds. "Vito Lopez should not spend another day in office, let alone a whole month," Cuomo said. "He should resign effective immediately and if he does not, he must be expelled. "
Silver faced criticism for his office's decision to strike a confidential settlement with two other alleged Lopez staffers for more than $100,000 in taxpayer funds. That secret deal, Donovan concluded, allowed Lopez to continue his alleged pattern of abuse.
Despite the heat, most Assembly Democrats were directing their ire at Lopez. Capital Region freshmen Patricia Fahy and John McDonald expressed their continued support for Silver despite his admission of errors in the settlement. "There's disappointment in how this may have been handled," said McDonald.
Fahy said she would not contribute to the "feeding frenzy" surrounding Silver, who has otherwise impressed her with his engagement on women's issues including anti-harassment efforts.
She said that a leadership vacancy would further undo an already scandal-plagued session. "What good would result," Fahy said, "from this place descending into complete chaos?"
cseiler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5619 • @CaseySeiler
Cuomo to Lopez: Quit or be expelled
Albany
Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on Assemblyman Vito Lopez, a former Democratic power broker from Brooklyn, to resign in the wake of sordid sexual harassment allegations brought by female staff members.
If he won't quit, Cuomo said Thursday, his colleagues should expel him from the chamber.
"The more facts that have come out in this matter, the uglier it has gotten," Cuomo said at a Capitol news conference. "I have three young daughters who would love to work in government, volunteer in government. ... Whatever procedures they have need to be dramatically redone, because this can't be allowed to happen again."
A "zero tolerance" policy is needed in cases of substantiated sexual harassment in the Assembly, the governor said. But Cuomo, a Democrat, stopped short of calling for action against Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, despite calls by Republicans and the good-government group Common Cause for a change in Assembly leadership.
Two reports released Wednesday detailed how Silver's lawyers entered into a confidential settlement with two women who accused Lopez of sexual harassment in 2011 — charges that the leadership never referred to the Assembly Ethics Committee. One report, by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, detailed how Assembly lawyers decided that since the women filed no formal "complaint," the matter could be settled without the bipartisan committee being informed. The women instead retained an attorney who negotiated the settlement, which included $103,080 in taxpayer funds and $32,000 from Lopez. The second report, by special prosecutor Dan Donovan, the Republican district attorney from Staten Island, said this action "encouraged" Lopez to offend again. Which he allegedly did.
It's not easy to expel a member of the Legislature, but the state Senate in 2010 voted to oust Hiram Monserrate after he was convicted of misdemeanor harassment in connection with a domestic dispute.
Cuomo was asked if he had any specific criticisms of how Silver, D-Manhattan, handled the matter.
"The way the Assembly handled it? Yes," Cuomo replied. "Is that the speaker or other people? I don't know. ... It was handled poorly and terribly."
Silver has previously asked Lopez to resign. Mike Whyland, a Silver spokesman, issued a statement reiterating that mistakes were made.
"While the report found no legal or ethical violations by the speaker or his staff, the speaker has said since August that the Assembly should not have agreed to a confidential settlement," said Whyland who later added: "Speaker Silver intends to draft and introduce a resolution tomorrow, to be voted on Monday, to ask the Ethics & Guidance Committee to consider the full JCOPE report and to recommend appropriate sanctions including expulsion of Assembly member Lopez."
Republican State Chairman Ed Cox has been calling for Silver's resignation since the allegations against Lopez were first revealed in August. At the time, the speaker stripped Lopez of several perks and banned him from employing young women.
"By silencing earlier victims of sexual abuse ... Speaker Silver is directly responsible for their subsequent victims," Cox said.
In a radio interview, Albany County District Attorney David Soares said the Assembly's sexual harassment procedures are "awful," and urged any victim to contact his office.
Common Cause Executive Director Susan Lerner called for a leadership referendum, questioning whether Silver has "absorbed the lessons of any of the various sexual harassment/abuse scandals."
Lerner said Silver's aides abrogated their responsibility and "took every measure possible to avoid engaging in a proper investigation in compliance with (the Assembly's) own sexual harassment procedures in order to protect Vito Lopez."
jvielkind@timesunion.com • 518-454-5081
Photos: Going after a record
French professional sailor Francis Joyon takes his trimaran IDEC past Manhattan's skyline Thursday. Joyon arrived in New York with his trimaran as he waits for a weather window to challenge the solo trans-Atlantic sailing record from New York to Cape Lizard, England. Joyon will attempt to break the rec ord of 5 days, 19 hours and 20 seconds.
Cuomo finances detailed in report
Albany
A financial disclosure form posted online Thursday shows Gov. Andrew Cuomo's net worth to be at least $1.8 million.
Most of Cuomo's assets are in what his aides have said is a blind trust with AMG National Bank. On his 2012 tax returns, the governor disclosed he exchanged $668,539 worth of investments in the trust account for a net loss. The form reveals for the first time that the AMG account is worth between $1.75 million and $2 million. Cuomo also declared between $5,000 and $20,000 in a federal deferred compensation plan from his time as HUD secretary.
The disclosure form, filed with the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics, does not require Cuomo to declare the size of his personal checking account; Cuomo's taxes reported $1,657 in interest from an account at JP Morgan Chase Bank in 2012. The disclosure form indicates Cuomo does not have any interest worth more than $1,000 in any other stocks, bonds or real estate. Cuomo lives in a home owned by his romantic companion, Food Network host Sandra Lee. The two share in household expenses, Cuomo's aides have said.
Cuomo's taxes reported his adjusted gross income for 2012 as $187,499 — the bulk of it from his $168,910 salary as governor. Cuomo reported $40,705 in tax-exempt interest income related to the AMG account.
The disclosure form also revealed the governor accepted an airplane trip from Andrew Farkas, a developer who once employed the governor, in 2012. The value of the trip was over $1,000.
JCOPE also posted disclosure forms for Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
'New York Now' looks into team's name
Don't miss this week's episode of "New York Now," a state Emmy-winning co-production of WMHT and the Times Union. Here are highlights:
WMHT's Matt Ryan looks at the Cooperstown school district's decision to swap its sports team's name "Redskins" for the slightly more sensitive "Hawkeyes," and one regional tribe's way of saying thanks.
Times Union state editor Casey Seiler convenes the Reporters Roundtable with Bill Hammond of the Daily News and Pat Bailey of WRGB Ch. 6 to discuss the release of the report on Assemblyman Vito Lopez's alleged misdeeds, and the land deal struck between the Cuomo administration and the Oneidas.
"New York Now" airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. Sunday on WMHT Ch. 17.
Two Pivotal Elections: What The 1977 Mayoral Race Can Tell Us About 2013
NEW YORK — Seven Democrats want their party’s nomination for mayor and the frontrunner is a woman who would be the first of her sex to lead City Hall. Two Democratic candidates of color may eat into each other’s bases. Credible candidates on the Republican side have a good shot at a win. Minor party designations could play a major role come November. The New York Post is angling to have a big say in who gets elected.
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The 2013 mayoral race? No, the 1977 free-for-all — the last big, multi-candidate election for mayor where almost nothing was predictable.
A look back at the contest that marked a shape-shift in the city over 35 years ago demonstrates how much has changed in both our politics and our social and economic make-up since then.
But to Kenneth Sherrill, professor of political science at Hunter College and was elected Democratic District Leader in 1977, it is the voters who have changed most of all.
“A lot of the voters of that election are dead, the city is much less white, the make-up of white ethnics has changed, there was no Asian American vote then, and the immigrant population wasn’t what it is now,” he said. “Today there isn’t the bankruptcy or crime that there was then, so the inferences about what, for instance, the African American or Jewish vote would do now are very different.”
A TUMULTUOUS TIME IN POLITICSThe year 1977 was a tumultuous and pivotal one in New York City politics.
It was best remembered for a steaming hot July blackout that was followed by looting and arson, the “Son of Sam” murders that had the city on edge, the rise of Rupert Murdoch’s transformation of the once-liberal New York Post into a sensationalistic rightwing Brit-style tabloid, and the first Yankees World Series win under owner George Steinbrenner.
The Bronx was burning — figuratively and literally — and the city was still simmering from Republican Gerald Ford initial denial of a bailout two years earlier.
The year 2013 is no less pivotal and tumultuous for the city’s politics.
The longtime incumbent mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who was not supposed to have a third term and got one after changing the term limits law with the help of the City Council and Speaker Christine Quinn, is about to depart after overseeing a prosperous period of growth and development — at least for those at the top — that had the business elites cheering.
As his term winds down, the mayor is warning against a return to “the bad old days,” trying to answer the rising indignation of a coalition of progressives, people of color and civil rights advocates who have called attention to what they say have been overly aggressive police tactics during Bloomberg’s tenure, such as stop-and-frisk and the surveillance of Muslims.
Even without the public debate over police tactics, there would be enough to shape the mayoral election: school reform and whether to continue mayoral control; rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy and responding to future disasters; and the erosion of the city’s middle class and the inequality gap that has widened over the past decade.
1977: A Stellar Field Of CandidatesIn 1977, despite presiding over the city’s economic meltdown, Democratic Mayor Abraham Beame — who had the added liability of having been the comptroller when the city’s books were coming apart at the seams — ran for re-election.
In addition to Beame on the Democratic side, two liberal Manhattan Congress members jumped in — the relatively unknown Ed Koch and the famous Bella Abzug, who was coming off a razor-thin primary loss in 1976 to Daniel Patrick Moynihan for the Democratic nomination for US Senate.
Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton also got in the race — the first black with a credible shot at becoming mayor — but so did Herman Badillo, a Congressman from the Bronx who had served as Bronx borough president and was the first Latino with a serious chance of winning the top spot in City Hall.
The longest-shot Democrat in 1977 was the former chair of the City Club of New York, Joel Harnett, who got on the primary ballot but would only go on to garner 1 percent of the vote.
And last but by no means least there was Mario Cuomo, Gov. Hugh Carey’s secretary of state, whose claim to fame then was mediating a dispute for Mayor John Lindsay over a public housing project planned for upper middle class Forest Hills.
It was Carey, one of the architects of the bailout for the city, who pushed Cuomo to run for mayor.
There was a Republican primary in 1977, too, with liberal state Sen. Roy Goodman of the Upper East Side, heir to the Ex-Lax fortune, squaring off with popular conservative radio talk show host Barry Farber.
Minor parties played a key role in 1977 as they very well may this year. Farber lost the Republican nomination to Goodman but had the Conservative Party line. And Cuomo won the Liberal Party line.
The conventional wisdom made Abzug, who died in 1998, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination — based on her name recognition and strong showing for US Senate — and all the talk was about who in the crowded field would end up in the runoff with her after the initial primary vote.
Legendary journalist Doug Ireland, who is still writing today, managed Abzug’s Senate campaign but tried to discourage her from running for mayor and to instead try again for Congress, which he said he felt was more suited to her talents.
“I told her she wasn’t prepared and it would kill her chances for future office,” he said. “It Stassen-ized her,” he said, referring to Harold Stassen, a wartime Minnesota governor who ran for the Republican nomination nine times starting in 1948.
Abzug lost two subsequent U.S. House races on Manhattan’s East Side in 1978 and in Westchester in 1986. She also tried to get her old West Side seat back in 1992 when Ted Weiss died, but was beaten in a party convention by Jerry Nadler, who still holds the seat today.
A Violent Summer Shaped the 1977 RaceThe 1977 race was very much a creature of external events, primarily the “Son of Sam” murders that had begun the previous year, with most victims young lovers in parked cars, and the arson and the chaotic aftermath of the July 13 blackout.
As Sewell Chan of the Times wrote on the 30th anniversary of the blackout: “1,000 fires were reported, 1,600 stores were damaged in looting and rioting and 3,700 people were arrested. Neighborhoods from East Harlem to Bushwick were devastated. The authorities later estimated that the total cost of the blackout exceeded $300 million.”
While these events by themselves might not have been enough to turn voters away from the more liberal candidates — particularly Abzug — the sensationalizing of these events by the New York Post under its new owner Mudoch were.
As Jack Doyle wrote in “Murdoch NY Deals: 1976-77,” the Post blackout headline was “24 HOURS OF TERROR.” He quotes Pete Hamill of the Daily News writing, “Something vaguely sickening is happening to that newspaper, and it is spreading through the city’s psychic life like a stain.”
When Murdoch decided to endorse Ed Koch, he was running at about 4 percent in the polls and was a virtual unknown citywide.
While Koch might have been the bachelor congressman from Greenwich Village — and was gaybaited by some in the Cuomo camp with “Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo” posters in conservative precincts — Murdoch picked up on him as one of the only pro-death penalty Democrats who was willing to take up the banner of “law and order.”
“There are many reasons why Mr. Koch became the next mayor,” wrote Joyce Purnick, a reporter for the Post during that election, in a story a few years ago in the New York Times, “but I will always believe that the blackout separated him from the pack.”
Koch also hired legendary political consultant David Garth, who had guided John Lindsay to re-election in 1969 and went on to make Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg mayors. Garth's famous winning ad slogan for Koch was: "After eight years of charisma and four years of the clubhouse, why not try competence?” -- digs at both Lindsay and Beame respectively. In 2010, the NY Times wrote, "Just by signing on with Mr. Koch, Mr. Garth had conferred instant credibility on his fledgling campaign. 'Without him,' Mr. Koch said, 'I would never have been mayor.'"
Koch was also helped by an innovation taken for granted now — overnight polling. The Fix reported in an article titled "Ed Koch, polling pioneer" that polling data in 1977 had to be filtered through university computers, a process that took days. Garth hired Mark Penn, then still a college student, and his pal Doug Schoen, to do their polling, and Penn built his own computer to be able to process their polling data immediately — such as testing Koch's famous slogan for impact.
While Abzug is generally regarded as the most liberal candidate in the race — Ireland calls her “the first radical elected to Congress since Vito Marcantonio” (the East Harlem Communist elected as a Republican to the House in 1934), Badillo was also running to the left as “a champion of the poor,” Ireland said, “and then he went on to work for Koch and Giuliani who were declared enemies of the poor."
To help Koch, the Post focused its negative coverage on Abzug and Cuomo.
About two weeks before the primary, a Times/CBS News poll had Beame and Abzug at 17 percent each, Cuomo at 14 percent, Koch with 12 percent, Sutton with 9 percent, and Badillo with 7 percent. It was anybody’s ballgame.
When the votes were counted on Sept. 8, 1977, Koch led the pack with 19.81 percent followed by Cuomo, who had the Times’ endorsement, with 18.74 percent, putting them in the runoff triggered by no one getting 40 percent.
In third was Beame with 17.98 percent and early frontrunner Abzug finished out of the money with 16.56 percent. Sutton got 14.42 percent, Badillo 10.97 percent, and Harnett 1.53 percent.
Koch beat Cuomo in the runoff for the Democratic nod 55 to 45 percent, and Cuomo ran hard on the Liberal line in the general election losing 50 to 41 percent with Goodman the Republican and Farber the Conservative getting 4 percent each.
How did Koch win?
“One, I lost the black vote because they came and asked for a deal — a commitment for a black vice mayor,” Mario Cuomo told the Gotham Gazette. “I didn’t think that such a deal was a good idea. Badillo asked for same thing. I told him no. Meade Esposito, the Democratic boss in Brooklyn, asked for a deal and I said no. That was the Koch victory. Nothing illegal or terrible for them asking for it, I just wasn’t comfortable in giving it.”
Koch did make those deals to get elected, but they didn’t work out for him in the long run. He appointed Basil Paterson, a Harlem leader and father of former Gov. David Paterson, and Badillo as deputy mayors. But neither lasted much longer than a year — Paterson becoming secretary of state under Carey and Badillo quitting in a dispute with him over his failure to deliver for the South Bronx. The deals with boss Esposito, Queens boss Donald Manes and Bronx boss Stanley Friedman didn’t catch up with Koch until his third corruption-scarred term.
Role of Minor PartiesBarry Farber, still a conservative radio talk show host, said there was one big difference between 1977 and 2013: “There was a meaningful Liberal Party and a meaningful Conservative Party in ’77.”
Indeed, though Farber ended up with 4 percent in the general election in 1977, “there was a scenario for me to win on the Conservative line and doing an insurgency on the Republican line if the Democrats had lived up to their habits and nominated the leftmost candidate” — Abzug.
In Farber’s view, he was preempted by conservative Democrats.
“Ed Koch took the biggest broad jump in history and adopted the social welfare policy of Genghis Khan. He didn’t edge toward right. He came out as though there had never been a leftist,” he said. “Cuomo was considered the second most conservative and he finished second. Beame, the incumbent, was the third most conservative” and he finished third with Bella fourth.
The Liberal Party hasn’t enjoyed automatic ballot status since Andrew Cuomo had their line for governor in 2002 and then refused to campaign and opposed the Democratic nominee Carl McCall, having already dropped out of the Democratic primary.
But this year, the Liberals, which were the key to Rudy Giuliani’s two mayoral wins, have given their line to grocery store chain billionaire John Catsimatidis who wants to be the next Bloomberg.
The Working Families Party, which supplanted the Liberals, has yet to designate a candidate and may be unable to settle on one in the crowded primary given their complex, consensus-building nomination process.
The Independence Party, which gave Bloomberg the minor party help he needed to become mayor three times, has designated former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion as their nominee.
Carrion and Catsimatidis along with former Giuliani Deptuy Mayor and Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joe Lhota and homeless advocate George McDonald are running for the Republican nomination with Lhota the early favorite — though no poll has come out since his labeling of Port Authority police as “mall cops” got a lot of pushback from his base and he had to apologize.
The Conservative Party, long led by Mike Long, has not yet made a pick, but will before the September primary.
Carrion doesn’t want his nomination, but the others in the Republican primary do and Long will pick one of them (despite some of their socially liberal positions) because he fears the leading Democrats “would really take the city backwards a lot of years,” he told Crain’s.
2013 a Different TimeWhat has changed since 1977? To Bill Lynch, it is the voters who have changed.
“The difference is the voters have changed drastically,” said Bill Lynch, a Harlem-based political consultant who managed David Dinkins’ mayoral campaigns and served as his deputy mayor. People of color — once called “minorities” — have became the majority.
But the city has also become what Bloomberg calls “a luxury product,” which in recent years has attracted the people of means who fled urban America in the 1970s but have returned to New York City en masse, driving real estate to stratospheric levels while the market still languishes in most parts of the country.
“One lesson of 1977,” said Sherrill, “is that once you have a certain number of candidates, it is impossible to go over 40 percent, and it is hard to predict who will be the top two. The other lesson given who ended up in the runoff is never to underestimate anybody. There were some people who predicted Koch-Abzug, but nobody predicted Koch-Cuomo.”
This year, the Democratic field is as crowded as it was in 1977 and gaming out who will be the top two in the expected runoff following September’s primary is anybody’s guess. Three seem to be vying for most liberal — Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Comptroller John Liu, and former City Council Member Sal Albanese — while former Comptroller and 2009 Democratic candidate Bill Thompson has moved toward the center.
Quinn is to Thompson’s right, though even she is tacking left with proposals to oversee the police department more closely after she agreed to back a bill that would impose an independent monitor over the NYPD, and finally giving in on a paid sick leave bill — albeit in a much watered-down version.
If former Congressman Anthony Weiner jumps in — and he comes in second to Quinn in recent polls — he would fit somewhere between the left candidates and Thompson.
Sherrill said that for all the help Koch got from the Post, the election came down to a message that resonated with voters. And, so far, he said he had not heard a message from any of the 2013 candidates that resonates.
“You go to the boroughs outside Manhattan and you hear about an unresponsive government that took care of the affluent on Wall Street and did not help them,” Sherrill said. “I think a candidate who makes an appeal to frustrated working-class people that he or she will stand up for against the relatively well off who saw a much more rapid recovery can do very well in the parts of the city that were devastated and haven’t bounced back. With the rising inequality, there is a strong sense that no one is looking out for ‘people like me.’ I would not be surprised to hear Anthony Weiner take that up. I would not be surprised if the election turned on personality and style more than the issues. I think an angry candidate can do very well, I’m afraid.”
Andy Humm is the co-host of the weekly Gay USA cable TV show, a contributor to Gay City News, and a former city Human Rights commissioner.
UPDATE: This version is updated with more information on Koch's 1977 campaign.
Lopez helped to get top state post
Albany
One of the marginal details in the long-awaited report on alleged serial sexual harassment by Assemblyman Vito Lopez casts a light on how a young attorney landed a top job at the state Workers' Compensation Board.
The 68-page report by the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics refers to "Employee 2," a woman who worked as a legislative assistant in Lopez's district office for two years before being promoted in January 2011 to serve as his chief of staff.
"Many staff members said she was very highly regarded by Lopez, and Employee 2 herself described how she and her boyfriend (now husband) traveled to Atlantic City to gamble with Lopez," states the report, which was made public Wednesday. "Employee 2 also acknowledged that Lopez played a role in securing a job for her husband as the Executive Director of a New York State agency. Employee 2's husband was appointed to the position in January 2010."
While the couple remains unnamed in the public version of the report, the only person appointed as the executive director of a state agency in January 2010 was Jeffrey Fenster, who was selected by Gov. David Paterson to lead the Workers' Compensation Board for an annual salary of $141,730. Fenster was at the time dating and is now married to Lopez's former chief of staff.
At the time of his appointment, Fenster was a 29-year-old attorney with the New York City law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. His lack of management experience or expertise in workers' compensation law raised eyebrows. Nine months after the hiring, the Daily News spotted Fenster running interference between Lopez and reporters at a raucous meeting of the Kings County Democratic Party.
Employee 2, who according to the report became aware of Lopez's bullying treatment of female staff members during her employment in his office, left the lawmaker's service in August 2011 for a job with the New York City Department of Finance — a position she initially kept secret from the Brooklyn Democrat.
Employee 2 told investigators that remaining Lopez staffers confided that he tried to meddle with her new job as retaliation for her departure.
Fenster did not respond to a request for comment. Instead, board spokeswoman Rachel McEneny said in an email that "Jeff's been a consummate professional in his work on the board and was an instrumental part of our reforms to the workers' compensation system that will save businesses $800 million" — a reference to changes Gov. Andrew Cuomo included in the state budget for the fiscal year.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi would not comment on the record. Paterson did not respond to a reporter's request left with his spokesman, and Lopez's lawyer was unresponsive.
There are others at Workers' Compensation with current or past family ties to power: The board's vice chair is Frances Libous, a registered nurse who is the wife of state Sen. Tom Libous, R-Binghamton.
Four of the board's 13 members are serving past the expiration of their terms.
cseiler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5619 • @CaseySeiler
NYC's subway system preparing for next big storm
NEW YORK — Removable panels and inflatable plugs are among the ideas New York City's transit officials are considering to stop the next big storm from flooding the subway system the way Superstorm Sandy did, officials said Thursday.
Interim Executive Director Thomas Prendergast said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority investigating whether removable panels could be placed over ventilation grates and stairwells. The panels would be sealed shut with foam and should work better than the plywood and sandbags the agency uses now, Prendergast said.
"We don't have to wait for space age solutions or rocket science solutions," he said.
Prendergast said the MTA is also exploring other technologies such as an inflatable plug big enough to seal off a subway tunnel.
Eight of the MTA's underwater tunnels flooded during the storm last October. Most subway lines were out for only a few days but parts of the system have taken much longer to repair.
Prendergast said "A" train service to the Rockaways will resume May 30 for the first time since the storm.
The MTA is still assessing the closed South Ferry station at the southern tip of Manhattan, where Thursday's briefing was held in a crew room that flooded during the storm.
Lower Manhattan, home to the financial industry, City Hall and tens of thousands of residents, was where the subway system took its hardest hit from Sandy other than in the Rockaways.
Prendergast said there are 540 places in lower Manhattan where water can get into the system, including stairways, ventilation grates and emergency exits.
He said the MTA hopes to have some mechanism in place to plug them up by the end of the 2013 hurricane season or at least by the beginning of the 2014 season.
Should a hurricane come in the meantime, he said, "we would do what we did last time, which is sandbags and plywood."
— Associated Press
Judge blocks NYC plan for new taxis
NEW YORK — A judge has blocked New York City's plan for a mandatory uniform fleet of yellow taxis, ruling it violated a provision requiring a hybrid option.
The city's so-called Taxi of Tomorrow, a Nissan NV-200, is not a hybrid.
The judge's decision Wednesday declared the law creating the uniform fleet "null and void."
But the new taxis could still go forward. The Taxi and Limousine Commission had anticipated the judge's ruling. It said it will vote on a proposed rule that would allow drivers to continue using hybrids provided they met minimum size requirements.
The commission said in a statement that the new fleet's adoption later this year wouldn't be delayed.
City officials didn't challenge the judge's decision.
— Associated Press
O'Hara admits to felony
Albany
Ten days before his trial was to start, a former owner of the Albany Patroons championship basketball team pleaded guilty to a felony count in Texas as part of a public corruption investigation.
Entrepreneur and businessman Joseph O'Hara is scheduled to be sentenced July 30 after pleading guilty on Friday to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, according to federal court records. A plea agreement calls for a term of 36 months and cash restitution to be determined. O'Hara, of Schenectady, once owned local sports teams and other businesses and served as a business consultant to public governments, school districts and private firms, including the personal improvement business NXIVM. Principals of NXIVM, which is based in Colonie, have had legal disputes with him for several years.
O'Hara, an attorney who owned the Patroons in the early 1990s, was indicted in November 2010 on three felony charges in El Paso, Texas. The 65-year-old was accused of bribing an administrator in a local school district. Federal prosecutors said he used a $5,000 campaign contribution to help secure a computer services contract.
While several documents in the O'Hara case are unavailable to the public, the record shows that O'Hara's guilty plea was accepted by Judge Frank Montalvo on Friday.
O'Hara's lawyer Albert Weisenberger said the plea offer had surfaced recently and O'Hara had been planning to go to trial May 20.
A former associate of O'Hara's had previously pleaded guilty to a felony charge related to the case and was planning to testify in the trial prior to his own sentencing, said Weisenberger. Some records in the case are sealed, he said, because of an ongoing investigation involving the El Paso Independent School District.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Western District of Texas was unavailable on Wednesday.
Weisenberger said that office has conducted a multi-year investigation of public corruption in the El Paso region. He said he is unaware of O'Hara assisting in other cases.
He said the maximum sentence his client faces is 20 years in prison. Under terms of the agreement, O'Hara, who has had a series of medical problems, seeks to begin his sentence Dec. 1, court records show.
Reporter Brendan Lyons contributed; jodato@timesunion.com • 518-454-5083
NanoCollege chief assigned to develop 'innovation hot spots' at state universities
Albany
Hoping to transition the state university system toward "entrepreneurial academics," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he has tapped Alain Kaloyeros, head of the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, to help set up business incubators the governor calls "innovation hot spots."
Kaloyeros sat two seats away from Cuomo for several hours on Wednesday as state officials ceremonially kicked off a third round of activity by the state's 10 regional economic development councils.
Cuomo stocked each council during his first year in office, and has used them as a vehicle for distributing state resources and encouraging local political, business, labor and arts representatives to develop strategic plans to guide development.
The councils will vie for a slice of $225 million in funding this year.
They'll also submit plans to create one of the new incubators. Five would be backed by seed money and allow participating companies to avoid paying taxes. Each would be attached to a university.
Kaloyeros did not give remarks during Wednesday's summit, but did ask several questions of council co-chairs, who gathered from around the state to brief the governor and his top aides on their efforts.
Cuomo called the NanoCollege — where companies pay to do research in a commonly owned facility on publicly owned tools — a "model."
The governor said Kaloyeros could help state universities convert research into economic activity, a process called "tech transfer."
"We're going to recruit Alain Kaloyeros, who has figured this out before most people knew the question, and he is going to help expedite this transition of thinking," Cuomo said. "It's delicate, because academics are academics. ... But you can be a great academic and you can be entrepreneurial, and I would argue you'd be a better academic if you were actually entrepreneurial."
Exactly what Kaloyeros will be doing is unclear, and most council members said they were unaware of his new role.
A spokesman for Empire State Development said Kaloyeros would serve as an adviser but would not get a formal title.
The spokesman said his work would not be limited to the regional councils, but would also include universities.
When asked, Kaloyeros said simply, "Whatever the governor wants me to do, I will do."
jvielkind@timesunion.com • 518-454-5081 • @JimmyVielkind
Bill: Ban fracking pollutants for treatment or dumping in state
Albany
State Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk was joined Wednesday by opponents of the natural gas drilling technique known as high-volume hydraulic fracturing to announce she'll introduce a bill to ban "the treatment, discharge, disposal, transportation or storage" of hydrofracking waste products in New York state."
The legislation, which is so new it currently lacks an Assembly sponsor, is meant to wall off the Empire State from what fracking opponents describe as a steady stream coming over the border from Pennsylvania, where the technique has been used for several years in the gas-bearing Marcellus Shale region.
"It simply makes no sense that we would accept hazardous wastes from other states while we are working to determine the environmental impact fracking would have on New York," the Duanesburg Democrat said at a Wednesday news conference.
Roger Downs of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter said fracking fluid had been shipped to treatment facilities or industrial use in Buffalo, Chautauqua County and other communities, while drill cuttings have ended up in landfills in a half-dozen localities.
"New York should not be Pennsylvania's dumping ground," Downs said.
Katherine Nadeau, water and natural resources director of Environmental Advocates, said the new bill should be addressed in parallel to a broader moratorium on fracking in the state — a measure that has been passed by the Assembly but remains blocked in the state Senate, where most Republicans support the implementation of the technique or are at least willing to place the decision in the hands of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo is still waiting for the completion of the Department of Environmental Conservation's regulatory framework for fracking, which in turn awaits a Department of Health review of the portion of the massive document concerning potential health impacts.
James Smith, a spokesman for the Independent Oil & Gas Association, said in an email that "the assumption that the lawful transportation and disposal of waste water is somehow a secret or an unregulated activity is absurd. Presenting this as some sort of crisis is irresponsible."
cseiler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5619 • @CaseySeiler
File form, or waive right to gun privacy
Albany
Gun owners in New York who don't want their license information available to the public are facing a deadline to file an exemption form with local licensing authorities.
Starting Wednesday, the records of anyone who has asked to be exempt from the state Freedom of Information Law will be kept secret. But the information will be available for gun owners who haven't acted.
The secrecy provision was included in January legislation that toughened New York gun laws to require registration of military-style weapons as well as pistols and limit the number of bullets allowed to be loaded into a magazine.
Lawmakers were reacting to controversy surrounding the decision by The Journal News newspaper in White Plains to publish a map showing information about gun owners in Westchester and Rockland counties following the Newtown, Conn., school massacre.
The county clerk in neighboring Putnam County, Dennis Sant, refused the newspaper's request for the information, which has traditionally been public, and there was a sharp reaction from some lawmakers who argued gun owners could be put at risk of burglaries or assaults.
Sant said Wednesday that he will continue to resist requests for the information, even if permit holders have not requested exemptions.
He said that under existing law, he can refuse if he determines "that the information given out would be an unwarranted invasion of privacy or puts the citizen in harm's way."
CynDee Royle, editor and vice president/news, said in Wednesday's Journal News that the paper would pursue the information and "take whatever steps are necessary" if the clerk refuses.
The form to request the exemption is available online and must be given to the local authority in charge of licensing. Anyone who doesn't file by the initial deadline, including those getting new licenses, may still file in the future. Their records will be subject to FOIL requests in the meantime.
Authorities can deny the request for an exemption, based on answers to questions on the form.
Among those eligible are active or retired law enforcement officers, people under a currently valid order of protection and current and former witnesses and jurors in criminal cases.
Secrecy cited in Lopez case
Albany
Two reports released Wednesday uncovered new and cringe-worthy details in the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez. While a special prosecutor found "no basis" for criminal charges against Lopez for inappropriate behavior toward his female legislative aides, a separate state review determined that the Brooklyn Democrat's pattern of sexual harassment of the young women in his charge amounted to repeated violations of his public office.
Reports unveiled on Wednesday by Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan and the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics also highlighted unusual steps taken by aides to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to keep under wraps a set of complaints from two Lopez victims that were settled just before another pair of women from Lopez's staff began facing the same sort of mistreatment.
Donovan said the "secretive manner" used by Silver's staff "encouraged" Lopez to keep up his harassing behavior. Silver's press officer responded by noting that the reports found no criminal acts by the speaker's staff.
In his own response, Lopez suggested he is the victim of politics and that "salacious and sensational claims" are "fallacious." He faces fines of $10,000 for every violation if the Legislative Ethics Commission agrees with JCOPE's findings.
Donovan checked into allegations against Lopez last year after the Assembly's ethics committee validated harassment allegations against Lopez, leading to Silver stripping the veteran lawmaker of perks and posts.
The Republican prosecutor also examined how Silver's administration in the Democrat-dominated chamber arranged a settlement for two women accusers of $103,080 in taxpayer funds and $32,000 from Lopez's personal account.
The deal included a confidentiality clause that was drafted by Silver's Assembly lawyers, particularly Counsel William Collins, a well-regarded attorney known for being apolitical, fair and loyal to the speaker. Silver's staff expressed concerns about bad publicity, according to data unearthed by JCOPE, and arranged to keep the matter quiet. The settlement was kept secret even from the Assembly Ethics Committee when it began reviewing a second set of complaints from different women. The committee discovered the earlier claims after subpoenaing deputy Assembly counsel Carolyn Kearns, who worked with Collins.
JCOPE concluded that Lopez used his position for prolonged mistreatment of female staffers in a "pervasive pattern of abuse" that breached the public trust and violated Public Officers' Law.
Donovan said he could not make a criminal case for actions that occurred in Kings County, but that the initial allegations warranted a probe before a settlement was considered. He faulted Silver, D-Manhattan, for not referring the claims to the Assembly committee, a mistake Silver has acknowledged and promises not to repeat.
Lopez, who invoked his Fifth Amendment right to not testify to JCOPE, was found to have made inappropriate remarks and directives to dress provocatively as well as unwelcome physical contact and sexually suggestive passes in recent years to at least four women who complained to Silver's staff.
JCOPE investigators said one described Lopez's continued demands to have his hand rubbed by her while he placed his other hand between her legs, sometimes touching her underwear.
Another revealed that Lopez insisted that she accompany him to Atlantic City. She experienced a night of gambling, drinking, dining and unwanted kisses from him. He required her to document the outing as a government business trip.
Aides to Lopez, such as his Albany chief of staff Jonathan Harkavy, were faulted by the women for doing nothing to report the misdeeds of their boss.
The women were described as young and hired to beginner's jobs. Their salaries swelled during their brief careers with Lopez. He controlled their compensation and advancement just as he brokered votes and power in his Brooklyn district, the reports indicate.
Instances when women rejected his passes resulted in threats of firing, tirades or the silent treatment from Lopez. In one example, a young woman staffer was invited to attend a trip to Puerto Rico for the annual Somos El Futuro legislative gathering but was told she would have to share a hotel room. She turned him down.
Another case involved Lopez arranging to rent an Albany apartment with the intention of sharing it with female staff, including one woman who cried when he insisted she rub his hand during a car ride. Even after revealing to Lopez that she was a victim of a college sexual assault and felt uncomfortable with his requests for neck and hand rubs, she was told by the lawmaker to continue her massage because he loved the feeling.
She continued to cry, and he told her they would cuddle when they shared the proposed apartment together. He also promised that he would take her to Monaco and Morocco and expected her to be "adventurous" with him, according to conversations she recorded.
jodato@timesunion.com • 518-454-5083 • @JamesMOdato
Cities to petition panel for more aid
Albany
Any city that asks for more state money would have to approach a new restructuring panel to help it develop a plan, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
This would apply to Albany, Cuomo said, which for the last few years has plugged budget gaps with advance payments on future aid.
The governor promised during a press briefing that he would introduce a bill creating the panel "this week," and offered details on its proposed powers.
It would help any "fiscally distressed" municipality with "voluntary" restructuring: A city or village could ask the panel for a plan, which could include state money from "various pots," Cuomo said.
Population shifts, deindustrialization and a spike in pension costs have stretched municipal budgets near the breaking point, prompting layoffs, calls for increased state aid and a new program that will let cities and school districts borrow to "smooth" required pension contributions.
The panel, first discussed in January's State of the State speech, is Cuomo's latest response. The governor met with municipal and union officials for more than two hours Tuesday morning, and then announced details in the Red Room.
The panel will include outside restructuring experts as well as officials from the state Budget Division and the attorney general's and comptroller's offices. The governor said its restructuring recommendations would become binding if a municipality accepted state funding offered with them.
The panel would not have the power to freeze or modify labor contracts, which municipal officials say are their primary cost drivers.
The powers would remain with individually created financial control boards, which Cuomo said are "invasive" and could become involved after the restructuring panel did its work.
Instead, Cuomo said the restructuring panel's strength is in offering advice, and perhaps political impetus, for service consolidations that stall in the molasses of local inertia.
"It can't force the change, but it can work with the locality to come up with an overall restructuring plan," Cuomo said. "I say all day long: Localities should work on consolidation plans and merger plans with neighboring localities. You know, it's not so easy. The state coming in and trying to facilitate those conversations — that's a much, much different dynamic than one town knocking on the door of a neighboring town and saying, 'Is this a good idea?'"
Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, who recently stepped down as president of the New York Conference of Mayors, said Cuomo's plan would help by bringing more "eyes, ears and intelligence" to the problem.
"A lot of problems cut across municipal borders," he said. "We need to change the paradigm. ... It goes well beyond financial incentives and into brass tacks."
Others said some of what Cuomo is contemplating is already being done by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, whose office is implementing a system for monitoring local finances and offers advice and training for local financial officers.
"I'm not going to say no to anything, but there still needs to be more details," said Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, a Democrat who has criticized the governor for not doing more to help cities. "What is it that the comptroller's office hasn't been able to recommend to us that this panel can?"
The panel would also serve as a second option for binding arbitration, a process police and fire unions use to have labor contract disputes settled by a three-person panel.
Cuomo proposed language to limit the size of arbitration awards in his message, but the idea was dropped amid legislative opposition.
Arbitration language is the subject of ongoing discussions with union officials, he said.
And Cuomo indicated cities which had used "spin-up" payments of future aid promises to balance their budgets would need a panel recommendation.
For the past two years, Albany has closed its budget with $7.8 million spin-ups on state payments in lieu of taxes for the Empire State Plaza.
"That's the dance that we've been doing for the past 20 years, and what we want to stop," Cuomo said. "If Albany wants assistance, they're going to have to come and talk to the panel about a real restructuring plan. If the state is to give assistance, it's going to be pursuant to that plan."
An aide to Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings did not return a call.
jvielkind@timesunion.com • 518-454-5081 • @JimmyVielkind
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