BRUNO AND THE PERP
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/29026.htm
August 17, 2004 -- Let's see if we get this straight: Former state Sen. Guy Velella is doing time on Rikers Island, basically for criminal abuse of the public trust, and he's still cashing a public paycheck?
Yep.
As Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker reported yesterday, Velella left office May 14 — just 135 days, or 37 percent, into the calendar year. He's now serving a 12-month stint at Rikers for soliciting bribes from contractors.
Senate Majority Leader Bruno made sure Velella got $21,000 of his yearly "lulu" — the special stipend for serving as deputy majority leader.
The jailed pol should have gotten only $10,175 for the 135 days. His $21,000 payment exceeded that by more than $10,000. Clearly it helps to have friends in high places.
And that's not the half of it.
Velella was also allowed to pocket a state pension of $80,000 a year.
But then, why shouldn't pols look out for each other?
It's only taxpayers' money, right? And pols couldn't care less about taxpayers.
Nor is Velella — Bruno's fellow Republican — the only state pol to be rewarded by his peers for bad behavior.
State Sen. Ada Smith, a Democrat from Queens, also broke the law — by resisting a police officer and speeding through a checkpoint — and yet will continue to get her $16,500 "leadership" lulu.
Sure, her party's leader in the Senate, David Paterson, harrumphed about the need for "proper decorum around here."
Smith, you see, had also been accused of making anti-gay statements and, a few years ago, of biting a cop as he tried to arrest her in Brooklyn.
This time, Paterson swiftly fired Smith as chairwoman of the Democratic conference, costing her the $16,500 perk.
Except for one thing: Paterson, at the same time, made her an assistant minority leader — enabling her to keep the lulu, not to mention her state car.
The Albany wink-and-nod, it seems, is bipartisan.
For well-connected pols, that is.
The taxpayers are on their own.