By Henry J. Stern
November 20, 2006

Like it or not, Alan Hevesi is toast.
 
The decision by Governor Pataki to grant Moreland Act powers to his special counsel, David Kelley, means that a full-scale inquiry, buttressed by subpoena power, will chew over the details of what is known and has been admitted, the use of a state driver to transport Comptroller Hevesi’s invalid wife.  What investigators will try to show here is criminal intent, knowledge of the violation of law, efforts to conceal the facts, and other nuggets which will indicate that the acts were intentional and willful.
 
Rule 33-LT: "If the lions don't get you, the tigers must."  applies here with Pataki the lion and Spitzer the tiger.  And don't forget the Albany County District Attorney, David Soares, who provides another arena for tormenting the wounded prey. You could say lions and tigers and bears, oh my.
 
The public should be outraged that after years of failing to establish Moreland Act Commissions to uncover the widespread corruption in state government, this governor acts in his dying days to show the people of Iowa his concern for official misconduct.   By proceeding against a Democrat who has just been re-elected, and by initiating action that cannot be completed during his administration, Pataki has put himself on record for rectitude.  Whether or not Kelley took a dive by not recommending that Pataki proceed to bring charges in his Oct. 23 report, he can now take another bite.  On Nov. 19 the governor decided to give him subpoena power.  Pataki’s term expires Dec. 31, so the strategy of letting the clock run out, while aligning himself with the angels, is likely to succeed, as far as Pataki is concerned. 
 
Hevesi obviously blundered in using the state driver for three years, especially after city and state ethics commissions had told him not to do so.  His conduct raises questions of his fairness and judgment in deciding other, much more important matters.  It is troublesome that he is being pursued and judged by an administration whose ethics are far worse than his.
 
The machinery set up by Pataki, unless superseded by Spitzer, will make the presentation of charges to the Senate inevitable. The scenario then will have to be to extract the Comptroller from his position with minimum damage.  If he is removed from his position, the governor will fill it until the next election.  If he resigns, both houses of the legislature. dominated by the Assembly, will make the choice.  Speaker Silver has a majority of 66 votes (108-42), Majority Leader Bruno has a majority of six (34-28).  Which man do you think wins that one?
 
The issue will arise as to whether it will be Governor Spitzer or Speaker Silver who chooses the next Comptroller.  We believe the appointment should be made on the merits, with a premium on integrity, fairness and the ability to make wise investment decisions. The office should be overhauled to provide checks and balances in making investments and other decisions, the comptroller should not have the power of the Pope.

There is also ambiguity as to whether an election to fill the vacancy will be held in 2007 or 2010. Different sections of the state Constitution are in conflict on that issue, and it will likely have to be resolved by the Court of Appeals. 
 
The position should certainly not be used as an ornament, to provide ethnic or geographic balance, to Democratic officeholders. That is what Governor Cuomo did years ago when he forced the Democratic legislators to select Carl McCall his defeated running mate in 1982 as comptroller.  Most legislators favored Carol Bellamy, a former state senator and future city council president, who had a sterling reputation.  Bellamy later served with distinction for ten years as head of the United Nations Children's Fund, showing there is light at the end of the UN sewer.
 
We do not condemn the public career of Alan Hevesi. He is better than most and worse than some.  His strength lies in his demonstrated intelligence.  His weaknesses include errors in judgment, his war with Mayor Giuliani and his attempts to undermine Mayor Koch, and his betrayal of the Liberal Party in 2001.  In distress, he finds he has few friends.  Yet that is what would happen to many people in public life if they were to lose their power.
 
One must be sympathetic to the Comptroller in his plight.  He has made many wise decisions which have benefited the state. There may be unstated reasons why he needed a confidant to care for his seriously ill wife.  In any event, that is not enough, in our judgment, to disqualify an ELECTED official from holding office, especially if the public knew about his derelictions in advance, as they clearly did here.
 
We must also be wary of letting the governor select the comptroller, who is supposed to be the fiscal watchdog. That is the reason they are elected independently, and it is not right for one to be a creature of the other.  All in all, if all Hevesi did wrong was assign the driver to care for his wife, that does not constitute grounds for dismissal, except among Puritans, whom New York State officials decidedly are not.
 
There is deep suspicion, and some rumors, that there may have been other mistakes made by the comptroller.  We do not discuss them here (Rule 18: Don't spread the stain.) but it is possible that investigative authorities know more than we do. If that were to be the case, his departure would be justified. Although we do not convict on the basis of rumor or smear, those intimations, if true, could influence the governor’s decision to proceed with removal of the official on the limited grounds which can be proven.
 
When we began by saying that Alan Hevesi was toast, we were not concluding that he should be burned.  It is, however, our belief that in the current state of affairs, his position will become untenable, and his resignation will be the likely outcome.
 
With his abilities, Hevesi will do well in the private sector unless he is convicted of a crime. His double pension (CUNY and 22 years in the State Legislature plus eight years as city comptroller and four years as state comptroller) will help keep the wolf from his door. On balance, he has been a superior public servant, and it is a pity to see him at the mercy of his running mates, whose regard for each other is on par with their sympathy for Hevesi..  On the other hand, what he has admitted doing raises serious questions about his judgment in a position in which the highest standards of integrity are necessary.

Hevesi made another disturbing error on June 1 of this year.  At the Queens College graduation, while delivering the commencement address, he said that “Senator Chuck Schumer, the man who, how do I phrase this diplomatically, would put a bullet between the President's eyes if he could get away with it."  His context was praising Schumer, while distancing himself from President Bush. Nonetheless, his hypothetical was certainly not phrased diplomatically, and Hevesi apologized profusely that afternoon, calling his own statement "remarkably stupid, incredibly moronic and totally offensive."  He was right.

No one should be removed from office because of a Freudian slip, but the incident does raise the question of how he could say such a thing in front of thousands of people, even in jest.  First, one does not joke about assassinating the President of the United States. Tragically, it has already happened four times.  Second, it is highly insulting to describe Senator Schumer. as a would-be murderer.  To some extent, the incident and apology used up Hevesi's one bite, so when the driving situation arose, he was somewhat more vulnerable.  Despite his prompt apology, we are concerned, not on behalf of those alleged to have been insulted, but because of what the public remark may or may not indicate about the comptroller's judgment and reliability.  It is also another good reason for speakers not to improvise.

It is also possible that, after 34 years in public office, the Comptroller is simply tired of the pretense of it all.  He knows how unbalanced the state budget is, and how he has been unable to restrain legislative spending.  Maybe he should spend some years working for himself directly, as 16-year city comptroller Jay Goldin has done with such great success.  

One's mind turns to chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes: "To everything there is a season..."   The winter of our discontent has been a season for political change, but that is no reason to anathematize an intelligent and generally responsible public official.


#331 11.20.06  1447wds