February 8, 2007

The selection of Tom DiNapoli as Comptroller should not cause any great surprise. The legislature has a habit of choosing one of its own when there is an opening in a state-wide office. 

In 1994 they selected Assemblyman (now City Councilmember) G. Oliver Koppell to fill the vacancy as Attorney General caused by the resignation of Robert Abrams a year before his term ended. The year before that, they were considering a former State Senator, Carol Bellamy, for Comptroller after the resignation of Ned Regan, but the late Speaker Saul Weprin was pressed by Governor Cuomo to select another former Senator, H. Carl McCall, who had been unsuccessful in his race for Lieutenant Governor in 1982 as Cuomo's running mate.
 
When a choice position is available, especially in politics, people have a normal tendency to select someone they know and have worked with over the years.  That is an aspect of human nature, and legislators have human strengths and frailties.

We pause here for a little history.  DiNapoli will be the 54th Comptroller in the history of New York State.
The first to hold the office was Azariah C. Flagg, a Democrat, who served from 1842 to 1847.  He was suceeded by a Whig who had been a member of the State Legislature from 1829 to 1831, one Millard Fillmore, who held the office from 1847 to 1849, when he was elected Vice President of the United States on a ticket headed by Zachary Taylor, who passed away unexpectedly in July 1850.  President Fillmore appointed Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, and it was during his term that California was admitted to the Union, following the influx of forty niners looking for gold..
 
In the selection of Tom DiNapoli, an embarrassing problem is the alleged agreement by Speaker Sheldon Silver to abide by the recommendations of an "independent screening panel", consisting of three former comptrollers.  The panel chose to require a level of experience in major financial positions that none of them fully possessed before they were (he was?) elected comptroller by the people.
 
If the position of Comptroller is most appropriately filled by the best accountant, or the shrewdest investment manager, there should be a competitive examination under civil service rules to determine who gets the job.  But the State Constitution provides that the Comptroller is elected every four years by the people.  In case of a vacancy, the State Legislature, elected representatives of the people, fill it. The Constitution could have provided that the Governor appoint the new Comptroller or Attorney General, it is the Governor who will select a new United States Senator if our junior senator is elected President of the United States, or if a vacancy occurs in that office for any other reason..
 
The screening panel's decision to approve Commissioner Martha Stark and reject Commissioner Andrew Eristoff caused some to believe there was an element of partisanship in their deliberations, as well as a desire to offer gender and ethnic diversity.   Ms. Stark is qualified, but what about a man who was not only City Finance Commissioner, as she is, but also State Commissioner of Taxation and Finance, an elected City Council, and the manager of not insubstantial assets. experience?

Another oddity, undoubtedly a coincidence, is that the independent screening panel consisted of three members, one African-American, one Irish and one Jewish.  That is precisely the ethnic composition of the group of three found highly qualified to serve as State Comptroller.

This is meant to tweak, not to denigrate the screening panel, which sat through two days of interviews, and made decisions that can be rationally defended. Their service should be appreciated, and we do not want to discourage people from serving on panels.  The fact is, however, that there is no law which makes them the last word, or even the first,  on who should hold the office to which Alan Hevesi was elected in November.

As to Speaker Silver’s promise, assuming it was made:  No person  has the right to make a promise or assume an obligation on behalf of 107 other people, who have individually been elected.  It is presumed that he reneged, but that was in the face of massive opposition from the Democratic caucus which elected him Speaker, not on his own whim, or to spite the Governor.

There is a rumor afloat that Governor Spitzer desisted from appointing a Comptroller on January 1 or 2 in reliance on Speaker Silver’s promise to abide by the findings of a screening panel.  We have no idea whether this is true, so we called the Governor’s press office to find out.  We have not yet heard back from them, but if we do we will surely let you know.
 
Tom DiNapoli is a decent, honorable and fair-minded person, conventionally liberal but not extreme in his views.  The paper that knows him best, Long Island's Newsday, wrote, in an editorial entitled, GOOD CHOICE, BAD PROCESS: DiNAPOLI WILL BE A FINE NY COMPTROLLER."But if the Assembly was determined to choose one of its own, it could not have done better than Assemb. Thomas DiNapoli (D-Great Neck). ... aka Mr. Clean and Mr. Consensus...If DiNapoli handles the job as well as we believe he will, neither Spitzer nor any other cynic will have reason to pout."

 There was plenty of pouting in three other New York City dailies.  The Speaker and the the selection process were strongly denounced on the editorial page of the Times, A MEMBER OF THE CLUB, the News, STUNNING LACK OF INTEGRITY, and the Post, THEIR WORTHLESS WORD.  Who can say we do not pffer both sides of the argument?

DiNapoli should not be dismissed because he is not part of the Manhattan elite, nor the beneficiary of an Ivy League education.  His father worked in construction for the telephone company on Long Island.  Is high office limited to people who possess more prosperous, privileged pedigrees?.  DiNapoli chairs the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee.  Perhaps if he had been appointed to head that agency (DEC), Assemblyman  Pete Grannis would have been been able to continue his candidacy for Comptroller.  We assume for this purpose that Grannnis, a graduate of the Loomis School, Rutgers University and the University of Virginia Law School, with 32 years in the Assembly and the chairmanship of the Insurance Committee under his belt, would have been found qualified.  On such quirks of fate hangs destiny.
 
Now that he has been selected,  DiNapoli should move as quickly as reasonably possible to reform the Comptroller's office, which is not precisely a temple of merit.   He does not have the head start that Governor Spitzer enjoyed to plan his administration.  He should begin by adopting the ethics code issued by the Governor on January 1, applying it to himself and his 2400 employees.  He should go beyond that to eliminate 'pay to play', in which campaign contributors and their law firms are rewarded by patronage assignments.
 
There is much more that a Comptroller can do to improve the agency over which he now presides.  He should recruit competent people to work for him, not political hacks whose resumes have been floating around Albany since November. He should appoint an advisory council of distinguished public figures, Republicans as well as Democrats, and give them something meaningful to do.  He should explore what limitations, if any, should be placed on the Comptroller’s power to act unilaterally, but he should not subject his high elected position to committees and panels interested in dividing the loot.
 
Tom DiNapoli has the unique opportunity to prove Governor Spitzer wrong.  He should take full advantage of the situation by doing an outstanding job.  And watch out about the cars and drivers, not only your own, but every car and truck in your agency. The papers are waiting to catch you in a bar.  BTW, do not drive yourself, you should spend the time reading the business sections.  Also, if there is an accident, you do not want to be in the headline.  And if the Governor calls you on

All the best today to you, the Governor and the Speaker.  We hope it works out for all of you, at least for now.

 
#350 02.08.07   1366wds