Paterson, Attorney MIA On Tix Probe (Updated)
The state Commission on Public Integrity tomorrow morning is slated to convene a hearing into whether Gov. David Paterson violated the state’s gift ban when he accepted free tickets to the World Series at Yankee Stadium last year.
But whether the governor or his attorney will present their case before the commission is unknown, said commission spokesman Walter Ayres.
“We’re still waiting to see if they are going to show,” Ayres said. He said the commission had hoped to go over a potential witness list and other information with Paterson’s private attorneys last Thursday, but they didn’t show up.
A message left at the office of Paterson’s private attorney, Theodore Wells, was not immediately returned this afternoon.
Updated: In a statement just now, Wells ripped the commission, saying they should wait until the investigation into the matter is concluded by former Chief Judge Judith Kaye. As a result, Paterson will not be participating in the hearing.
“We are disappointed that the Commission on Public Integrity, after referring this matter to the Office of the Attorney General, is now unwilling to wait for Judge Kaye to complete her review before beginning its own proceeding,” Wells said in a statement.
“The Commission has not acted on this matter for close to six months, and has articulated no reason why it can no longer wait until Judge Kaye completes her review. We believe that the Commission’s request that the governor simultaneously appear in different proceedings involving the same underlying facts is unfair and unreasonable, particularly where Judge Kaye’s investigation was undertaken at the Commission’s own request. For all of these reasons, the governor is following our legal advice, and respectfully declines to participate in the Commission’s proceedings.”
Paterson is dealing with two issues regarding the free tickets. The commission forwarded the case to the Attorney General’s Office over whether Paterson committed perjury when they interviewed him. That is being investigated by former Chief Judge Judith Kaye.
Tomorrow’s hearing, which could last two days, deals with whether the Democratic governor violated the state’s gift ban when he received the tickets for himself, his son and his son’s friend. He has paid back the others, except his own, arguing he got the ticket appropriately through the Yankees.
The commission has indicated the violations, if the governor is found guilty by an administrative law judge, carry a maximum penalty of $40,000 for each of the two offenses, plus up to $10,000 for violating the state’s Ethics Code, which prohibits the governor from using his office to “secure unwarranted privileges.”
The commission said when they issued their findings in March that they found reasonable cause to believe that the governor did not plan before the game to reimburse the Yankees for the tickets for his son and his son’s friend.
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I will not at all surprised that David Paterson might be MIA at the ethics hearing.
The fact of the matter is that David Paterson has been MIA his whole life in public office. More damaging than being MIA, is that David Paterson has been MIA in terms of his governing ability.
“The Democratic Conference: Organizational and Operational Structure Report” is an eyewitness account of Paterson’s and his crew’s INCOMPETENCE and DYSFUNCTIONAL governing nature while Senate Minority Leader.
http://www.politico.com/static/PPM110_demreportfinal.html
Paterson’s office was criticized for PATRONAGE, LACK OF LEADERSHIP, INDECISIVENESS and INFIGHTING, set against a backdrop of general CHAOS – in other words the office, a ZOO. Those interviewed in the report indicated that its chief of staff the disorganized Michael Jones-Bey had no management skills, and should be relieved of his duties.
Amazingly, for running such a DYSFUNCTIONAL CHAOTIC office, the disorganized Michael Jones-Bey was hand picked by David Paterson to mismanage the Division of Minority & Women Owned Business Development (MWBE) at Empire State Development Corporation.
Now that’s the Paterson Way – being rewarded for your incompetence.
Paterson complains about the lack of ethics in Albany; then, when he or his people are called before the ethics committee, they don’t show up.
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