AG won't investigate Abelove in Crist case; majority opens minority's mail and finds out first

ABELOVE

     In a Feb. 6 letter to Peter Grimm, the minority leader of the Rensselaer County Legislature, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office said it would not pursue an investigation into District Attorney Joel Abelove’s decision to drop a case against Rich Crist, the spokesman for the Republicans on the Rensselaer County Legislature.

     “The Public Integrity Unit has carefully reviewed your correspondence and has determined that your complaint does not warrant action at this time,” according to the letter signed by an official in the AG’s office. The signature is not legible. (see the letter below.)

The letter was postmarked Feb. 13, but Grimm and his five colleagues in the minority didn’t receive the letter until Feb. 18. Instead of going directly to that office, it ended up in the majority office and someone there opened and read the letter before delivering it to the proper recipients on the other side of the building. The letter came from the AG’s New York City office and it is unclear when it was delivered to the county building. (See the envelop below)

CRIST

     “What the majority did is inappropriate and possibly illegal,” said Legislator Cindy Doran, D-Troy. “It’s another example of their complete disregard for our office and the voters of Troy.”

     All six Democrats on the Legislature are from Troy.

     Crist was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and harassment stemming from a family dispute he had with his teenage son in July, 2014. A motion to dismiss the charges was not challenged by Abelove’s office. While the disposition may be correct, the controversy came about because Crist worked on Abelove’s DA campaign last year.

     Meanwhile, the six Democrats on the Legislature, in a Feb. 17 memo, called for Abelove to fulfill his duties as DA and investigate Chairman of the Legislature Martin Reid for inappropriately collecting more than $15,000 in unemployment benefits or for the DA to step aside and let a special prosecutor take the case.

REID

 
   “In addition, you should agree that your office has a conflict of interest in proceeding with this case due to the fact that you have employed a relative of Mr. Reid as an assistant district attorney and the political difficulties you may foresee I prosecuting someone who has oversight of your budget,” according to the memo sent by the six democrats.

       An administrative law judge determined Reid willfully and intentionally defrauded the Department of Labor.

     Last week, the Democrats were prepared to call for Reid’s resignation however the chairman cut the meeting short before giving the elected representatives an opportunity to speak.

       Also, Reid, a Republican, did repay the $15,335 he improperly collected, according to an Aug. 4, 2014 receipt from the state Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance Division. I’m not authorized the release the receipt but there was some confusion on whether or not Reid paid back what he owed. The first TU article stated that the money would be taken from any future unemployment benefits Reid receives in the future.

DORAN

       Reid was let go from his state School Board’s Association position and began collecting the maximum unemployment benefit of $405 a week. He failed to tell the Department of Labor, however, that he was making $30,000 a year as chairman. An administrative law judge determined Reid willfully and intentionally committed fraud.
  
     According to the Times Union, the matter was referred to the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s Office. Abelove said he did not receive any such referral and surmised that it must have come while Acting DA Arthur Glass had the helm prior to Abelove’s being sworn in on Jan. 1.

Reid has remained silent on the issue but there are no public plans for him to step down.

      Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, R-Melrose, an outspoken critic of corruption in state government, recently let Reid go from his staff.

  

   

Minority Letter a g

Envelope

Chairman Reid cuts meeting short to avoid the heat

Rather than face a call for his resignation, Chairman of the Rensselaer County Legislator Martin Reid adjourned Tuesday's monthly meeting before the “Legislator’s Privilege” piece of the agenda - which gives the elected officials the opportunity to speak on whatever is on their minds.

 “Mr. Reid’s actions tonight reinforce why we are calling for his resignation immediately,” said Legislator Len Welcome, D-Troy, one of six Democrats on the 19-member body in a press release. “We had planned to ask Mr. Reid to do the right thing and step down as chairman.”

Reid came under fire after a state Department of Labor administrative law judge found he had “willfully and intentionally misrepresented the facts” in order to collect some $15,300 in unemployment benefits. Reid began collecting after he was let go from a nearly $80,000 job at the state School Boards Association. He failed, however, to tell the DOL he was working as chairman of the Legislature at an annual salary of $30,000.

Reid did reach a settlement with the DOL that includes paying a $2,300 civil fine and repaying the $15,300 out of any future unemployment benefits he receives, according to the Times Union.

The Department of Labor has referred the case to District Attorney Joel Abelove to investigate and possibly prosecute. Abelove has not yet said if he intends to follow through.

“Since that time, numerous constituents have contacted me to express outrage at these findings, which involve the wrongful taking of taxpayer funds and a violation of the public trust,” said Legislator Cindy Doran, D-Troy, in a statement she was prepared to read before Reid cut the meeting short. “I am calling for Chairman Reid to resign his chairmanship post immediately so that the Legislature may move forward under new, unblemished leadership.”

“I believe Chairman Reid’s continuing leadership of the Rensselaer County Legislature is inappropriate and that it will distract from the important work we have been elected to do,” said Legislator Gary Pavlic, D-Troy.

 “What galls me is the fact that he has not repaid the $15,335 which he obtained by dishonesty and deceit,” said Legislator Mark Fleming, D-Troy.

The "Legislator's Privilege" is on the Feb. 10 agenda and is slated or the last item of business before the meeting is adjourned. 

Reid, and the majority’s spokesman Rich Crist, could not be reached for comment.  

(As an aside, this is the first time the Democratic minority has done or said anything of significance in more than a decade.)

It's an understandable mistake

REID (TIMES UNION PHOTO)

I think it is an honest mistake. Actually, it’s so understandable it’s painful.

I can see how it all went down now.

Martin Reid, chairman of the Rensselaer County Legislature, gets let go from a pretty nifty $70,000--plus job at the state School Board’s Association and signs up for unemployment. The state Labor Department is pretty liberal in granting unemployment benefits to those just out of work – only to scrutinize later - and since he was making a good buck he gets the max, $405 a week.

Each week he hops online and answers a series of questions to get his $405, one of those being: “Did you work from such and such a date to such and such a date.”

Reid, sitting at his computer on a Sunday night or Monday morning, thinks about the previous week and comes to the only logical conclusion – he didn’t work.

Sure, he approved a resolution honoring the Hoosick Falls Junior Varsity Volleyball team for coming in third out of the four JV volleyball teams in Class DD. Yes, he signed off on another resolution urging state lawmakers to repeal the Safe Act.  And yes, he personally found the legislatures Veteran of the Month to honor and nominated a Rensselaer County Dairy Queen because he is friends with the teen’s parents.

That’s the gist of what the 19-member panel – that has an annual budget of $1.3 million – does at their monthly meetings so it’s understandable if Reid was confused with the word “work.”

But, for being the titular head of that body, Reid gets $30,000. Therein lies the rub.

He failed to report that income – whether he earned it or not – while collecting more than $15,000 in unemployment benefits and that is a problem.

 According to the Times Union, a state administrative law judge assigned the case said Reid: “Willfully and intentionally misrepresented the facts.”

According to the TU, each week Reid collected benefits he told the state he made less than the $405 eligibility threshold to collect any unemployment at all. But, also according to the TU, he made about $1,150 every other week to clap for volleyball teams (that last part was mine, not according to the TU.)

I did, however, break out my calculator and divided $1,150 by two and discovered Reid earned (made is a better word) $575 per week as chairman of the Legislature. That, in case you need me to hold your hand through this complex arithmetic, is $170 more than $405.

The state Labor Department referred the case to Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove, who has yet to indicate whether or not he will pursue criminal charges.

I would say Abelove, who like Reid is a Republican, is in a tough spot.

ABELOVE

His office just agreed to dismiss endangering the welfare of a child charges against the county’s top Republican operative, Rich Crist, for an altercation Crist had with his 17-year-old son. And it just so happens Crist makes more than $95,000 a year working for Reid. Also, according to the TU, Abelove , who has been in office all of 21 days, hired one of Reid’s relatives, Christine Labbate, as an assistant district attorney.

And, Crist’s brother, Greg Crist, represented Reid through his dance with the Labor Department.

Legalize for that scenario is: “In a tough spot.”

As an aside, I don’t see the difference between this case and that of Councilman Gary Galuski, D-District 6, who the AG threatened to sue in an effort to recoup more than $30,000 in unemployment benefits Galuski collected while he earned $15,000 a year on the Council.

One difference is that Crist, who is Reid’s spokesman, told the TU Reid settled the case and paid what he was supposed to pay. I don’t know if Galuski did or not, but one reason the AG threatened civil action was because he wasn’t making his payments.

Why one is civil at the state level and the other referred to a local DA as a criminal matter I have no idea.

Abelove should not have touched Crist case

ABELOVE

In one of the most egregious displays of political payback I have ever seen, District Attorney Joel Abelove did not contest a request by Rich Crist, a longtime Republican operative, to dismiss charges of harassment and endangering the welfare of a child.

Crist was arrested for a July 11, 2014 incident involving his 17-year-old son, the culmination of a months-long disciplinary issue with the boy that included law enforcement. I’m told the kid took the family car for the night against the parents’ wishes and when Crist caught up with him in the parking lot of the Castleton Elementary School it became physical.

According to the Times Union, Child Protective Services determined there was nothing to warrant the violation harassment charges and the misdemeanor endangering charges stem from children who witnessed the incident in the parking lot of the Schodack school.

It was a weak case from the get go and the charges probably should have been dropped. But not by Abelove. Crist is one of the reasons Abelove beat Carmelo Laquidara for the seat he now holds.

As the TU astutely points out, Crist helped Abelove win the Independence Party primary. On that line, Abelove received 1,596 votes on Election Day. He won the election by 492 with 45,470 cast. 

CRIST

As such, Abelove should not have touched the case at all. But, Crist’s attorney, William Dryer, made a motion to dismiss the charges and Abelove didn’t challenge the motion in Sand Lake Town Court. The judge is not mentioned in the TU article but the case was bounced around a bit in an effort to find an objective jurist given Crist’s political activity in Rensselaer County. But there are two Democrats on the bench in Sand Lake.   

Crist makes $95,000-plus in his official role as the legislative liaison for the Republican majority, a position he’s held for some two decades. He is also the GOP’s most prolific operative, is the party’s de facto chairman and has a consulting business on the side.  In the past he has come under fire for allegedly doing political work out of the county office building using county staffers. He has worked as a consultant on a number of judicial and other races including those for statewide office and congress. He also serves as the Schodack Republican town chair.

There is no record of Abelove paying Crist for political work at the state Board of Elections but Abelove has not filed his January, 2015 disclosure statement yet either.

Abelove told the TU he saw no reason to recuse himself because most of the work on the case was done before he took office.

"And, he was not directly involved in heading my campaign," Abelove told the TU of Crist.

But Arthur Glass, who was acting DA until Abelove was sworn in on Jan. 1, said there should have been a special prosecutor appointed.

"You don't even want to give the impression of any impropriety," Glass to the TU.

Too late for that.

 

 

Top Rensselaer County Republican aide arrested

CRIST

The top aide for Republicans on the county Legislature was arrested over the weekend for a physical confrontation he had with his 17-year-old son.

Rich Crist is charged with two counts of misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child and one count of harassment, a violation.

According to sources, there has been a months-long disciplinary issue with the 17-year-old that included involvement by law enforcement. The issue culminated in the early morning hours Friday in the parking lot of the Castleton Elementary School and included use of a family vehicle and efforts to get it back. It’s unclear who called Schodack Police to the scene, but in the end Crist was arrested on the abovementioned charges.

Crist, who is the county’s de facto Republican Party chairman, was released on his own recognizance. He will be arraigned at a later date since town police could not find a judge to perform the arraignment. When contacted, he declined comment.

Crist makes 95,000-plus in his role as legislative liaison, a position he has held for some two decades. He is also the Republicans’ most prolific operative in the rough and tumble world of Rensselaer County politics. He has come under fire in the past for allegedly doing political work out of the county office building using county staffers. He has also worked as a consultant on a number of local judicial and other races as well as statewide and congressional campaigns and serves as the Schodack Republican chairman.

If I get more information, I will pass it along.       

Troy's influence on RPI election

THE APPROACH

For years, decades even, Troy has tried to get Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students into the city to spend some time and, more importantly, spend some money.

For as long, students and the college itself resisted every effort, preferring to stay on the hill and look down The Approach as if it were a nose at the lowly “townies” below. The residents of Troy, not known to overlook a slight, looked back up The Approach at the “rich, spoiled kids” who thought they were too good to rub elbows with those who chose “Troylet” as their home rather than a pit stop enroute to bigger and better things – even the moon. It’s a vicious cycle.

But all amour has a chink, and all rules have exceptions. RPI, directly or indirectly, invested millions into the old Best Western and the Proctors Theater and Chasan buildings. And Trojans have an indescribable yet indisputable endearing quality about them – which is why I spent more awake time in the Collar City than any other place on earth for more than 15 years – and more students are slowly starting to hang out downtown.

The latest incident though is perhaps the most clear cut example of the RPI student body assimilating itself into Collar City ways.

 According to The Rensselaer Polytechnic, the campus newspaper, five members of student government were caught on tape ripping down signs advocating for changes to the Rensselaer Union Constitution that were on the ballot as a referendum. In all, according to the newspaper, some 1,000 signs were ripped down campus wide.

I won’t go into what the Constitutional changes were but safe to say they were controversial enough within the RPI cocoon to motivate those in favor of the changes to start ripping down posters against them. In the end, the university Judicial Board ruled the five candidates involved cannot hold elected or appointed positions and must complete 15 hours of community service. Furthermore, according to The Poly, “all election results for Constitution amendments and alumni vice president, secretary, and treasurer are null and void.”

Obviously, Troy is wearing off on RPI and I’m not just talking about the most recent voter fraud scandal that saw eight indictments and three trials. Messing around with elections goes back to at least 1893 and Bat Shea, a story turned into a book by Troy author Jack Casey that includes ballot stuffing and murder. While I don’t think anyone has committed murder over an election since, I know there have been variations of ballot stuffing, outright forgeries and even dead people voting by absentee – which isn’t that far from the truth but illegal just the same.

JACKSON

However, unlike Bat Shea or the most recent scandal, most of those committing the infractions don’t get caught because they don’t actually break the letter of the law – they’re just bent to fill a particular need. Taking over parties by electing committee members, running shadow candidates and yes even filling out fake absentees are all legal provided they are done within certain parameters.      

Maybe President Shirley Ann Jackson would serve the student body well to have Troy political operatives like Bob Mirch, Tom Connolly, Mark Streb, Tom Mathews, Bill McInerney, John Sweeney, Rich Crist, Steve Bogess, Ed McDonough, Bill Powers or Tom Wade participate in her next Colloquy instead of someone like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. They may not have the nationwide stature of a Scalia, but they can teach the political neophytes on the hill some practical lessons on how to mess with an election the proper way – or at least not get in too much trouble if the envelope is pushed a bit too far.    

 

 

 

Jimino's sneaky raise

JIMINO

I read in the Times Union - and no other publication - that Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino is asking for a raise for herself and her deputy, Chris Meyer. Of course it wasn’t made public until after her budget presentation and, coincidentally, after November’s election.

Not that it mattered much in her own campaign because for the third straight election cycle the Democrats failed to find a candidate to run against her. Then why wait? You may ask. Why not just be up front about the whole raise thing if you truly think you deserve it?

Well, it was to protect the Republican legislators, some of whom actually had an opponent and had to run a race. God forbid they have to take a stand on something as controversial as a raise for an elected official while heading into an election.

I’m not going to weigh in on the size of the raises – Jimino’s salary would go from $112,000 to $121,300 while Meyer’s would jump from $87,751 to $98,700 – that’s up to the Legislature to decide. She is asking just like anyone would and the 19-member panel has to decide to grant them the first raise they’ve had in eight years. But, the sneakiness is … well … just, sneaky.

If you remember eight years ago, after the budget presentation and after election, Jimino and the Legislature gave everyone a raise including themselves, County Clerk Frank Merola, the majority spokesman Rich Crist and a slew of others in county government. The minority got a raise too, if for no other reason than to keep them quiet. It worked.

I’m convinced there is a grand conspiracy going on where the GOP get the towns in Rensselaer County and in turn the Democrats get Troy. And the organizational hierarchy of each party directs the machinations to act in line with that unwritten rule. The Republicans mentioned above all make a pretty decent buck and so does city Chair Jim Gordon – who works for the county – and there are a bunch of Democrats who make a decent buck in the city. Why rock the boat when to many people who control too many jobs are making out OK.

It could be a reason not a lot of Republicans made a lot of noise in the city this time around – or for the last few years actually - and Democrats in the towns are all but non-existent. Sure, every once in a while we get a maverick in Troy like former Mayor Harry Tutunjian and Carmella Mantello but by and large the city is Democratic. (As an aside, Tutunjian had four lines and still failed to come in the top six in his bid for the Legislature but it’s difficult to run for anything after serving eight years as mayor.)

Or, I could be over-analyzing the entire thing and it’s just the way the demographics are shaking out with Troy, like most cities, decidedly left of center while the towns maintain their right of center tradition.

Na, it’s more fun to over-analyze and make a conspiracy theory out of it.