Bloomberg Names Four to LCRC;
Andrew Wolf Defends Guy Velella;
Pataki Knew Bruno was in Saratoga

By Henry J. Stern
October 29, 2004

Here is today's update on the two stories we have been tracking:

Governor Knew of Senator's Brother's Office in Saratoga

I am informed by a reliable source that Governor Pataki and his staff knew full well about the Saratoga office rented by the state for the senator's brother. The office was opened in March, and continued until its existence was exposed on October 18 by the New York Post, and subsequently by the Times and upstate newspapers. Once the office became a public issue, the governor acted in damage control mode. He was willing to be helpful to Senator Bruno — until the matter became a potential threat to his own reputation.
 
The Post quotes an OASAS source who "said Robert regularly complained about his 'long, hard drive to work' before the office suite was rented." For some, the Saratoga site may have been less convenient than Albany. Others may have been upset at the waste of state funds. Related issues include what business was actually transacted in Saratoga, and what hours Robert Bruno kept at this isolated location. "Two employees told the Post that Robert isn't often seen in the office. 'Sometimes it gets very lonely here,' sighed [a] secretary..."


Mayor Appoints Four New Members to Join Richman on LCRC
 
Mayor Bloomberg today appointed four new members to the Local Conditional Release Commission (LCRC). The positions had been vacant since the resignation of three members and dismissal of the remaining member of the previous LCRC on October 13. The mayoral housecleaning came in the wake of the commission's release of former Senator Guy Velella from Rikers Island on September 28. For the text of the mayor's announcement and biographies of the four appointees, link here. The four will join Daniel Richman, a law professor at Fordham, whom the mayor selected on October 12 to chair the commission.
 
The appointees appear from their resumes to be highly qualified professionals in criminal justice. Their backgrounds are in sharp contrast to their predecessors. The mayor deserves credit, not only for his selections, but for the administration's promptness is restocking the commission after its implosion.


Andrew Wolf Responds to My Challenge

An opinion column, written by Andrew Wolf, editor of the Bronx Press and the Riverdale Review (two community weeklies), appears every week in the New York Sun. He usually writes on education, but today he responds to an invitation we offered in a column on October 12:

NOTE: Some people may believe that the commentary which accompanies the press stories reported here is unfair to the senator. If anyone — his lawyers, or friends, or outside observers — has a different opinion on the case, or feels that the release of the three men was justified in the circumstances, please write to us, and your views (if not obscene) will be posted for all to read. You have not read contrary views here so far because none has been expressed in the media. The senator's lawyers have remained silent, possibly out of wisdom and discretion. But there are two sides to almost every story, and we would welcome hearing from people who hold different opinions on this matter.

Andrew Wolf begins his response in a kindly manner:

"Henry Stern, the former Parks Commissioner, who has become one of our city's most knowledgeable watchdogs of the public interest, has issued a challenge to anyone who wants to present an alternative view on Guy Velella's early release from prison. No one has yet taken an advantage of this offer to make a case on Velella's behalf. Until now."

To read his column, titled "Velella's Not at Fault," link to Andrew Wolf. Rather than restating or condensing his argument, I recommend that you look at his column yourself. It is cogent and well-written if not necessarily persuasive.
 
This is not the place for me to respond in detail to the case he made on behalf of the senator, except to say that the circumstances of the senator's release go far beyond his own desire to secure it. Any inmate has a right to try to get out of jail by legal means, but there are other people involved here whose basic responsibility is not to the three individual defendants, but to the entire community and to the concept of equal justice under law. That is why the mayor acted as he did in removing the commission and appointing a new one.