Politics on the Hudson

Lieutenant governor candidate Richard Ravitch said in an interview last week that
he will have to resign from at least one board that has business with
the state now that he’s been tapped to serve in public office, but he
has connections to at least four boards that have state contracts,
records show.

Ravitch’s financial disclosure form filed last week with the state
Commission on Public Integrity list two dozen boards that he sits on,
and four have state contracts, according to records from the state
Comptroller’s Office.

Ravitch’s disclosure only lists Waterside Plaza LLC,
a set of apartment buildings in Manhattan, as having business with a
state or local agency. Ravitch serves as a managing member of the
development, which has contracts with New York City.

Ravitch said in the interview last week that he would likely have to
resign as a director of the Parsons Brinckerhoff Group, an
international engineering firm. The company has $6.4 million in
contracts with the state—including $4.8 million for construction of
the Southern Tier Expressway. Ravitch receives a director’s fee from
the company.

He also receives a director’s fee from Alphatec Spine Inc.,
a California-based company that makes medical devices for people with
spinal injuries. The company has a $3.5 million contract with the SUNY
Upstate Medical College in Syracuse.

Ravitch is a director of the Sports & Arts in Schools Foundation, which is getting $6.4 million in state and federal grants, and a trustee with The Fund For Public Health in New York, Inc., which has an $111,000 contract with the state Department of Health. Those appear to be unpaid positions.