Corruption in state and local politics

[Anaxagoras]

First up, New York State:

Architect of Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion Project Is Convicted in Bid-Rigging Scheme

Alain E. Kaloyeros, a principal architect of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s signature economic development initiative, was convicted on Thursday in a bid-rigging scheme that steered hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts to favored companies in Buffalo and Syracuse.

Dr. Kaloyeros, 62, was found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy in the fourth week of a federal trial in Manhattan that invited harsh scrutiny of Mr. Cuomo’s ambitious plan to revitalize upstate and western New York, known as the Buffalo Billion.

The verdict was immediately seized on by the governor’s political rivals to criticize what they say has been a culture of corruption enabled by Mr. Cuomo; they also pointed to a conviction of one of the governor’s former top aides, Joseph Percoco, who was found guilty earlier this year of accepting more than $300,000 in bribes from executives working for two companies with state business.

Mr. Cuomo, who has not been accused by prosecutors of any wrongdoing, said after the verdict that he had “no tolerance for those who seek to defraud the system to advance their own personal interests. Anyone who has committed such an egregious act should be punished to the full extent of the law.”

Dr. Kaloyeros, the former president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, had been credited with helping to create a high-tech industry in the capital region, which led Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, to place him in charge of the Buffalo Billion project. The governor had praised Dr. Kaloyeros as a genius and “New York’s secret weapon.”

Soon, the money began to flow to Buffalo; waterfront parks, gleaming modern factories and a cluster of medical and technology facilities were built.

But at the trial, the prosecution presented evidence that Dr. Kaloyeros and Todd R. Howe, a former lobbyist with ties to Mr. Cuomo, conspired to defraud Fort Schuyler Management Corporation, a nonprofit real estate arm of SUNY Polytechnic, by steering lucrative contracts to two firms whose executives were significant donors to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign.

As part of the scheme, Dr. Kaloyeros and Mr. Howe tailored requests for proposals, or RFPs, to fit the specific qualifications possessed by the two companies — LPCiminelli, a Buffalo construction management firm, and COR Development, a Syracuse-area firm — and ensure that they be chosen by Fort Schuyler for the projects.

LPCiminelli, for example, received a contract to build what became a $750 million solar-panel plant on the banks of the Buffalo River, while COR received contracts worth more than $100 million for other projects. Both firms were clients of Mr. Howe’s.

Is it possible that Cuomo himself wasn't part of the conspiracy? Why is it that the people around him keep turning out to be corrupt?

At a minimum he must have a general sort of awareness that the people who give generously to his campaign coffers expect something in return. He may not have known the details of the big rigging process but he probably didn't need to.

[Doctor X]

At a minimum he must have a general sort of awareness that the people who give generously to his campaign coffers expect something in return. He may not have known the details of the big rigging process but he probably didn't need to.

Goodell will suspend him four games.

Unless he beats his wife or kids, in which case, of course, he will suspend him for two games.

--J.D.

[ed]

The Commission to Investigate Public Corruption was a public entity created by New York governor Andrew Cuomo in July 2013 under the state's Moreland Act, with the aim of investigating politicians and political organizations in New York for violations of state laws regulating elections, campaigns and political fundraising.[1] Cuomo disbanded the commission after approving modest ethics reform in March 2014,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreland_ ... Corruption

Read the article.

[Anaxagoras]

At a minimum he must have a general sort of awareness that the people who give generously to his campaign coffers expect something in return. He may not have known the details of the big rigging process but he probably didn't need to.

Goodell will suspend him four games.

Unless he beats his wife or kids, in which case, of course, he will suspend him for two games.

--J.D.

OK, I guess I see the parallels there.
Like Reagan with Iran-Contra it's best for the guy at the top to maintain some plausible deniability, and not know about all the dirty details of what his underlings are up to.

[Doctor X]

Save Iran-Contra actually happened.

As did the malfeasance under Cuomo.

--J.D.

[ed]

Funny thing was that after he disbanded the Moreland Commission the NYT supported him over an insurgent in the next primary. The thinking was that (I assume) a bit of corruption is preferable to a republican getting into office. Sorta like victims of sexual assault having to take it for the team if the politics of the attacker are correct.

[Anaxagoras]

Uh-oh. I stepped in it.

Yes, of course I didn't mean to impugn the great Tom Brady (PBUH) or imply that he can't literally walk on water.

[Witness]

Alabama Moves to Limit Sheriffs From Pocketing Jail Food Money

Alabama’s governor has begun to cut off a gravy train for the state’s sheriffs: the unspent money for prisoners’ meals that the sheriffs have long been allowed to keep for themselves.

The practice, born of a bickered-over ambiguity in a state law, has let sheriffs pocket tax dollars that over the decades almost certainly ran into the millions. To curtail the practice, Gov. Kay Ivey ordered in a memorandum to the state comptroller that payments of certain funds related to jail food “no longer be made to the sheriffs personally.” Instead, the governor wrote, the money must be paid to county general funds or official accounts.
[…]
Even so, the move is sure to infuriate sheriffs in at least some of Alabama’s 67 counties, and the governor’s order may be tested in the courts. Economic disclosure forms filed by sheriffs suggest that many do not take the leftover money, sometimes because of local laws. But some do: Records show that the sheriff in Etowah County, in northeast Alabama, for example, has taken more than $670,000 in recent years.
[…]
Some sheriffs and their allies have called in the past for changes to a system that critics said was unique in the United States and created a powerful incentive to cut corners and mistreat prisoners. But barring a change in state law, the sheriffs have argued, retaining the unspent funds for personal use was legal and acceptable.

The practice has been the subject of periodic controversy. In 2009 a federal judge jailed the sheriff of Morgan County after concluding that the sheriff was in “blatant” breach of previous agreements to care adequately for prisoners.

At the time, the sheriff had retained more than $200,000, while the breakfast that Morgan County was serving to prisoners was sometimes no more than a slice of toast, part of an egg and several spoonfuls of grits. At one point, prisoners were fed corn dogs at every meal for about three months, after two area sheriffs had bought a truckload of sausages at a bargain price.

A later sheriff in Morgan County used unspent jail-food money to invest $150,000 in a used-car dealership.

And this year, when the Alabama Media Group described the Etowah County sheriff’s handling of leftover food money, it reported that he had purchased a beach house for $740,000. The sheriff, who said he was acting in accordance with state law and angrily denied wrongdoing, was defeated last month in a primary.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/us/a ... money.html

[Witness]

The chief wanted perfect stats, so cops were told to pin crimes on black people, probe found

The indictment was damning enough: A former police chief of Biscayne Park and two officers charged with falsely pinning four burglaries on a teenager just to impress village leaders with a perfect crime-solving record.

But the accusations revealed in federal court last month left out far uglier details of past policing practices in tranquil Biscayne Park, a leafy wedge of suburbia just north of Miami Shores.

Records obtained by the Miami Herald suggest that during the tenure of former chief Raimundo Atesiano, the command staff pressured some officers into targeting random black people to clear cases.



“If they have burglaries that are open cases that are not solved yet, if you see anybody black walking through our streets and they have somewhat of a record, arrest them so we can pin them for all the burglaries,” one cop, Anthony De La Torre, said in an internal probe ordered in 2014. “They were basically doing this to have a 100% clearance rate for the city.”
[…]
Amid the probe, Atesiano abruptly resigned in 2014. Afterward, there was a stark change in village crime-busting statistics.

During his roughly two-year tenure as chief, 29 of 30 burglary cases were solved, including all 19 in 2013. In 2015, the year after he left, records show village cops did not clear a single one of 19 burglary cases.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... 47764.html

[Anaxagoras]

Holy shit. I bet he twirls that mustache of his too.

And racist law enforcement isn't still a problem.

[Nyarlathotep]

Only Libtard Cucks think that racism in law enforcement is a bad thing

[Doctor X]

Look, if you do not want to be judged on your race then you should have chosen a better race!

--J.D.

[Nyarlathotep]

I'll keep that in mind next time I am born

[xouper]

Look, if you do not want to be judged on your race then you should have chosen a better race!

I'll keep that in mind next time I am born

Why wait?

If you can choose your gender, then why not also your race, especially since (some unquantified subset of) liberals claim there is no biological basis for either gender or race?

Just ask Shaun King, Rachel Dolezal, or even Elizabeth Warren.

See also: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-wor ... ing-fluid/

[Abdul Alhazred]

If you can choose your gender, then why not also your race ...

If you really want to be hip and not Squaresville, invent your own race instead of glomming onto one of the popular ones.

It works (sort of) with gender.

[ed]

True. One can self identify as anything one wishes.

Right?

[xouper]

[Abdul Alhazred]

Pert of the "trans" issue is people with genuine problems (physical, mental, and yes including other people's attitudes) being used as ideological human shields for deconstructing fucking everything.

[gnome]

True. One can self identify as anything one wishes.

Right?

It depends on the consequences, IMO.

I continue to argue that those throwing biology at people speaking of gender identities are off target. I think it's fairly well established that appearance and behavior are more relevant to many gender issues than actual anatomy or chromosome types. These more relevant matters are fairly in scope for applying self-identification.

Race? No frigging clue how that needs to work.

[RCC: Act II]

True. One can self identify as anything one wishes.

Right?

Maybe in an optimal world without bigots. If a black guy wants to claim to be white such a claim is irrelevant to a racist cop looking for a black guy to pin a crime on.

Race as a social constrict rather than a biological fact makes the issues of race no less real. Same with gender, if one wants to go there. As long as there are those that act in a bigoted fashion, being the person who ignores race is just enabling bigotry.