Bush Went After Gonzalez,
Son Tells New York Times

By Henry J. Stern
August 30, 2006

Readers were understandably perturbed at the facts in Monday's column, which included a News editorial listing the state legislators who had legal problems, based on greed or acting out their anger. The latest case is that of Bronx State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, was federally indicted for using $37,412 of government money appropriated for community improvement for his own clearly personal expenses.
 
So far more than twenty people have commented on the story on our StarBlog.   You can do that either by e-mailing us at StarQuest@nycivic.org  or by posting at nycivicblog.blogspot.com.
 
The Gonzalez story leaked to the News and the Post on Friday. Saturday's Times carried a much longer article, by Al Baker and Timothy Williams, which included this defense of the senator:
 
"One of his four children, Carlos Gonzalez, 38, said yesterday that his father's criticism of the Bush administration was behind the federal indictment, as well as his father's objections to the recent merger of the Spanish-language Univision Communications and the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation."
 
The last six paragraphs of the Times story present the defendant's view of the case.   We observe that if criticism of the Bush administration was an inducement to an indictment, half the elected officials in the United States could be on trial.

In our Monday article, we asked whether other agencies had participated in making these cases. You can read the United States Attorney's indictment of Mr. Gonzalez by linking to indictment.  The New York City Department of Investigation had an important role in the Gonzalez case.  The Times reported that "[DOI's]  inquiry started during the course of an unrelated investigation, in which the agency discovered that public funds were being transferred to the nonprofit organization, the department said in a statement.  City investigators examined records, including canceled checks, bills and invoices from the West Bronx Neighborhood Association, and determined that some of the organization's money was being used to pay Mr. Gonzalez's personal expenses, according to the statement."

It is interesting that although Gonzales was a state official, and the moneys he is alleged to have stolenwere state funds, the investigation was conducted by a city agency and their data was turned over to a federal agency for the prosecution of the case.  We are fortunate to have three levels of government in this country, and 62 counties in New York State, so that one level, or one county, can prosecute criminals even if others are unable, indisposed, or too preocupied with other matters to do so.
 
Gonzalez's so-called non-profit, the West Bronx Neighborhood Association, secured taxpayer funds from the state legislature that were laundered through another dubious entity.  The News updates us in an editorial appearing today::
 
August 30, 2006
State Sen. Efrain Gonzalez, charged with defrauding a nonprofit group, has co-conspirators - namely, the Legislature, including Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. They dole out member items - piles of taxpayer cash - with no accountability.

Gonzalez secured $55,000 that way for an organization called Pathways for Youth, which funneled money to the West Bronx Neighborhood Association, from which Gonzalez allegedly looted $37,000.  

If prosecutors are right, the Legislature, which won't say who asked for what items, facilitated the transfer from taxpayers to Gonzalez. No wonder they want to keep everyone in the dark.

We appreciate the News calling attention to the secrecy involved in the attribution of member items.:
The New York State Legislature makes it difficult for anyone for anyone but the most assiduous researcher to find the list of member items, the sums appropriated for each item, and the identity of the recipients of the grants, much less the purpose for which the money will be used. The Empire Center, headed by E.J. McMahon, has done a laborious investigation, and  and you can find the results on their website, empirecenter.org, in a column anthromorphically labeled "Albany Oink".

However, the identities of the senator or assemblymember who sponsored particular items are kept totally secret, as if the solons were enrolled in the Witness Protection Program.  A timely lawsuit, by the Albany Times-Union, seeks to compel disclosure of the names of the sponsor(s) of each expression of legislative largesse,   The beneficiaries of the pork know who the sponsors are, and have the opportunity to demonstrate their gratitude.  The rest of the public has a right to know who their representatives supported with their tax dollars.  Some of these projects are valuable, others are simply subsidies to organizations that may or may not need them, and some are used for personal enrichment.

Whatever the Legislature does, the new governor will have the opportunity to clean out these particular Augean stables,
He will find many other situations where state government fails to meet reasonable standards of transparency, disclosure, equity and integrity.   Justice Louis D. Brandeis wrote that "sunlight is the best disinfectant".  The black hole of member items should no longer be a place where the sun never shines.