The environment abhors a vacuum
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- February
- 28
A group of environmental activists plans Thursday to push the Senate to confirm Assemblyman Pete Grannis as the state’s new environmental conservation commissioner. They shouldn’t hold their breath.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer picked Grannis, 65, who has represented the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the Assembly for 32 years, last month as Grannis was making a pitch to be the next state comptroller.
Grannis withdrew, and Spitzer said the Legislature, which was picking a new comptroller, shouldn’t choose a lawmaker (like Rochard Brodsky) to be the state’s chief fiscal officer. They should pick someone with an extensive financial background instead, he said – one of three recommended by a screening panel.
Lawmakers defied him and picked a Long Island Assembly Democrat, Thomas DiNapoli instead. A furious Spitzer blasted the lawmakers for “a lack integrity’’ and other sins. Of course, the main rap on DiNapoli was his lack of relevant experience and thin management background.
So here is Grannis, the longtime chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee, picked by Spitzer to run an agency with about 3,500 employees – about 1,000 more than work for the comptroller. Plus, senators point out, Grannis isn’t a favorite with an important EnCon constituency, people who like to hunt and fish. So the Senate is likely to let the nomination sit there for a while, although in the end most people think he will be confirmed.
In the meantime, EnCon has no leader. One official said no new initiatives are likely to be launched until Grannis or someone else is named commissioner.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 5:05 pm by Jay Gallagher.
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