Posted on 11/27/2016 5:03:39 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Governor of New York State hasn’t been indicted for anything yet, but nearly every rock which gets kicked over in Andrew Cuomo’s vicinity seems to reveal more roaches scurrying away from the light. After a pack of his aides and associates were indicted last week by Preet Bharara, the Albany Times Union began digging into the background of some of the state executive branch staff and almost immediately turned up something interesting. One of the indicted individuals, Steven F. Aiello, has a son who is employed by the Governor as a senior policy adviser. The son, Steven L. Aiello, had been in the position for roughly a year after moving over from the state’s affordable housing agency. But here’s the funny thing… the younger Aiello doesn’t show up on the payroll roster for the Governor’s office. He’s actually assigned to (and paid by) the Division of Military and Naval Affairs.
As the Times Union discovered upon further inspection, Aiello’s case was hardly unique. In fact, nearly half of the people working for the Governor were on the payroll of other agencies or “quasi-governmental entities.”
Observers of state government say the practice of loading up the governor’s staff with people not officially on its payroll has been ongoing for decades. E.J. McMahon, research director of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, said it has quietly allowed governors to expand their staffs while escaping criticism for increasing their budgets. Still, the full extent has not been previously known.
“It’s an accountability and transparency issue,” McMahon said. “It’s done so that the Executive Chamber staff doesn’t look so big. That’s the only conceivable reason they’d do it.”
The governor’s office recently provided a list of the 209 people it says work for the chamber, in response to an open records request by the Times Union.
But recently provided payroll records from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office state that the Executive Chamber itself is only paying 120 employees.
So 89 of 209 staffers for the Governor’s office are not on their payroll. Is that illegal? Well… technically no. (Or at least it doesn’t appear so.) But these are all positions which are being paid for by the taxpayers. How fat is the budget of the Division of Military and Naval Affairs that they can have no-show employees on their payroll just so Cuomo can keep their names off his balance sheet? And if the DMNA’s budget is really all that fat, why hasn’t it been trimmed down to save the taxpayers some money?
Other examples abound. One of Cuomo’s speechwriters, Tom Topousis, is collecting a $125K salary which is great work if you can get it. Except he’s being paid by the Office of Children and Family Services. But hey, I’m sure the widows and orphans are doing just fine without that money, right? Tom’s speechwriting colleagues, Jamie Malanowski, is collecting a similar salary, but his pay is coming from the Affordable Housing Corp. Not to worry… I’m sure all the low income families find their current hovels to be just dandy.
Forty percent of Cuomo’s staff is being paid in this fashion and nobody knew about it until the local press corps began doing some digging. This is taxpayer money he’s spending, and when the citizens’ representatives submit a budget and have it approved, don’t the voters have the right to understand where all that money goes and what it’s being spent on? This gives me flashbacks to all of the book juggling which went on at the State Department to keep Huma Abedin on the payroll. Even if this doesn’t rise to the level of being a crime, there’s something awfully fishy going on at the Governor’s office and we’re going to need more than a little sunshine to clear out all the mold.
Looters.
Grifters.
Shysters.
Almost same binez model as hildabeast state dept when you had special waivers for US DOS employees working for state while moonlighting for xlintonista foundation, teneo, plus their own personal “foundations”
ain’t life great feeding at the gummit trough!
Pretty amazing stuff....it’s even being reported...
Except it’s SOP for democrats....and NY keeps voting these people in...
I would bet this is just the tip of the iceberg...
I wonder what we’d find if we looked at Andy’s email setup?
We used to do this in private business all the time. If your company makes money, nobody really cares what account you allocate each expense to.
Of course, the NY State GOP won’t have anyone to replace Cuomo (or deblasio, schumer and gilibrand) so he can just relax
NY will keep voting them in until the NY GOP comes up with decent candidates.
-——We used to do this in private business all the time. If your company makes money, nobody really cares what account you allocate each expense to.-——
I don’t know where you worked for, but the auditors were I worked frowned upon that a great deal....
It looked like shenanigans were going on and charging expenses in wrong accounts screwed up the budget process for the next upcoming year...
It was a big no-no...
"FED'S TOP COP: GOV USES WELFARE FUNDS FOR PERSONAL SLUSH FUND, PAYS SERVANT STAFF FROM BABY MILK ACCOUNT"
It figures. Cuomo uses the jobs officially assigned to other departments to pay back his political friends and associates. By doing this, he is leaving the other departments short of staff, and keeps people on the street from being able to get a State job. I worked for New York State. Every job has an item number, and each job is created and funded by the State Legislature. I don’t know why it is that politicians, especially slimy ones like Cuomo, think that these jobs are theirs to do with as they please. They most likely shop the different Departments to determine which ones have vacancies, then put one of their hand-picked cronies into that slot, but instead of that person doing the job in the department they are being paid from, they’re fetching Cuomo’s coffee, or wheeling and dealing on his behalf with God knows who. All in the good name of scratching the backs of their donors and cronies.
How is that not unlawful?
Neither is it a company, nor does it 'make' money.
Shut the sanctuary city spigot off and watch them eat thier democratic politicians
The policy probably involved here is called “detailing”, that is, lending someone to another division or agency for a limited amount of time, in order to work on a specialty project that needs their skills.
However, it was never meant to be a permanent position because after a certain amount of time, if I remember my law correctly, the hosting agency has to ask the lending agency to either take them back or to release them permanently to the tasking agency.
I’ve been detailed before but my salary was covered by my company’s contract (this included working on the Organized Crime Task Force which should have put Hillary’s Mafia friends in jail but was quashed by Att. Gen. Reno in order to protect both Clintons from being exposed as “mob-moneyed up”; a terrorism task force for prosecution, and probably a few smaller projects).
What Cuomo is doing could be very illegal under state law if the person is kept working for him on a permanent basis.
That is where to look for a prosecutable law violation.
Go get the little bastard.
“Almost same binez model as hildabeast state dept when you had special waivers for US DOS employees working for state while moonlighting for xlintonista foundation, teneo, plus their own personal “foundations”
And the same as the Harry reid crime organization, which I track and which has a pack of corrupt aides running theings lke Senate Majority PAC and Clear Energy Project. All payola scams.
No, we usually fixed it for the next year.
The problems arose when we had adopted a budget, made a list of projects, and settled on a headcount for the year. Then in February, management decides they need to do something else right away, and there is not enough headcount to cover. You don’t want to go over budget and turn red on some executive’s dashboard, so you simply finagle a little bit.
If the work was still going on the following year, we did move the slots into the correct department. Too many positions? OK, Mr Big Shot, what projects do you want to cut?
Maybe CNN can report this on their news from another Cuomo. Yea right!
The Cuomo Organized Crime Family just keeps chugging along.
If he was keeping up with the times crimes, he would be running his own foundation!
even the bern has jumped on board the foundation train!
plus harry could hire his boy on for a million a year to run a respectible foundation instead of being a mr fix it attorney.
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