Signs of Institutional Corruption in Albany, NY (The City, Not the Capital)

Alysia Santo wrote an excellent Insider Politics column in the Albany Times-Union last week on the need for a post-employment provision in the city that is the capital of New York state. But the columnist went further than this, looking at some aspects of the city's institutionalized corruption (without actually giving it a name).

She focused on one recent instance involving Albany's commissioner of development and planning, who has accepted a job with a firm that is "responsible for nearly all commercial construction in the city." The company "has sought city approval on several large projects" and been granted incentives, including tax breaks, in recent years. Albany has no post-employment provision that even requires a cooling-off period before an official can take a job with a company he did business with as an official. In fact, it has no ethics code at all. One was discussed in 2009 (see my blog post on it), but it was not passed.

This is not an isolated incident. Not only have other city officials taken jobs with this company, but they've been doing it for years. I wrote a blog post about the relationship between the company and the commissioner (and the then mayor and police chief) back in 2009. The commissioner's attitude then about going to the company's fundraising parties says a great deal about the government's attitude toward perceived conflicts of interest:

''As far as why I attend specific events, I really think it's nobody's business. Why I go or what I do when I'm off the clock, I don't understand why that would be newsworthy.''

Considering that the council hasn't changed the law and the commissioner spent another five years in office, it's clear that the government does not think it's anybody's business how close officials' relationships are, or appear to be, with companies that get millions of dollars of government contracts and incentives, as well as permits and other benefits.

A government ethics program says that this is the public's business, because it is public funds that are being spent. It says that the people who are elected with contributions made at the fundraisers of restricted sources are the people who spend this money and, therefore, that they have fiduciary duties to the public (the officials who report to these elected officials have the same fiduciary duties).

Institutional corruption exists where officials do not believe they have such fiduciary duties, or act as if they didn't. It is evidenced not only by conduct, such as attending restricted sources' fundraisers and taking jobs with these companies. It is also evidenced by what officials say, and how their colleagues and, especially, the most high-level officials respond to what they say.

For example, the column says that the same commissioner said recently that he has no direct vote on projects and incentives received , and that wherever he got a job outside the city government, there would have been a perceived conflict of interest. "That would mean I wouldn't be able to take a job with anybody. That means I would work for the city for the rest of my life?" He disputed that the subject was even a news story. "What am I, the Kim Kardashian of Albany?"

You don't have to have a direct vote to have a great deal of influence on the special benefits companies obtain from the city government. The mayor and council members should have immediately made this clear. And for someone with the commissioner's experience, there are jobs with companies he has not recently been involved with, even in Albany. And jobs with other governments.

No one else in the government seems too concerned. The mayor is quoted as saying, "I understand the concern. But I also respect the fact that Mike is looking to move on and has found a position."

A council member is quoted as saying that she "was not surprised at all" about the commissioner taking the job. "Over the years, it's been clear they had a very strong working relationship."

But the longest-serving council member is quoted as saying there is a "history of similar arrangements in the past. ... These situations come up more and more as the private sector gets more involved in municipal development projects."

No one can stop the commissioner from taking the job. But the mayor and council could make an important statement by saying that they will not speak with the commissioner in his new position, and that no city official or employee should speak with him or with his staff. If the commissioner believes that what he did while a public servant was private, what he does as a private individual should have as little to do with the public as possible. After all, he's not the Donald Trump of Albany.

And then the mayor and council can make sure that the current version of the 2009 ethics code (attached; see below), which appears to be before a council committee, actually gets passed, and an effective, independent ethics program is instituted in Albany.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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