The recent convictions for corruption of two of the three top political figures in New York State government — ex-State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and now ex-Senate majority leader Dean Skelos — didn’t surprise me. 
As a reporter for the daily Long Island Press, I would go to Albany and help cover the State Legislature for the last week of its regular yearly session.
It was outrageous to see how state government ran — so counter to the democratic process. Major decisions were — and continue to be — made by what’s become a sorry political description: three men in a room.
Indeed, there’s even a 2006 book, co-authored by former New York state senator Seymour P. Lachman, titled “Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse.” A professor and dean before being elected to the state senate, he left in disgust after five terms.
“When did 20 million New Yorkers agree to be ruled like a triumvirate in Roman times?” asks U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara — the honest, independent prosecutor behind the investigations and convictions of Silver and Skelos and a long line of other crooked state officials in recent years.
The three-men-in-a-room New York political phenomenon, preventing transparency and public participation — indeed, even the participation of other elected officials — is just one of the many very serious ills in Albany.
The Center for Public Integrity this year gave New York State government a D-minus. It examined political financing, electoral oversight, public access to information, executive accountability, legislative accountability, budget processes and procurement, among other issues.
The indictment last week of James Burke, former chief of the Suffolk County Police Department, who is now being held without bail for what federal prosecutors and a judge describe as his corrupting the department, has mildly surprised me.
My first beat at the Press was “cops-and-courts,” the cops being the Suffolk County Police Department, which I got to know well. But this was years ago, soon after the department’s formation in 1960. Great care was being taken for the new agency to set off on the right foot. It and a charter form of government in Suffolk with a county executive in charge came after what were called the “Suffolk scandals” in the 1950s. Widespread corruption was uncovered by a series of special state prosecutors.
Now, years later, we see Suffolk police unions as aggressive political actors in the county — spending $564,000 in the past election to shape results.
The largest amount was poured into the Town of Riverhead in an apparent move to expand the department’s boundaries into the East End.
Burke has been charged with beating a suspect in a police station, orchestrating a cover-up involving many officers and committing other wrongful acts. A police union link is also alleged. U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Wexler agreed with federal prosecutors that Burke should be held in jail because of what has been described as his campaign of coercion and secrecy.
“I find the corruption of an entire department by this defendant is shocking,” said Judge Wexler. “The evidence is clear.”
On the “courts” part of my old beat, I regularly covered a pre-eminent Suffolk criminal defense lawyer whom I knew as Lenny Wexler — a brilliant, careful attorney. His findings now as judge in the Burke case should be of great public concern.
Power corrupts, it’s often been said. U.S. Attorney Bharara called Albany a “cauldron of corruption.” He has achieved major wins. In addition to the Silver and Skelos convictions, another ex-Senate majority leader Malcolm Smith was sentenced in July to seven years in prison for trying to pay his way — with a half million dollars in state funds — to running on the Republican ticket for New York City mayor.
“Stay tuned,” says Bharara of his probes into state government.
An especially disgraceful aspect of the Silver trial was the insistence by his lawyers that the fraud, extortion and money laundering with which he was charged were just the normal ways of Albany. This cannot be any longer.
Meanwhile, the Suffolk Police situation continues to churn with the Republican members of the Suffolk Legislature last week calling for a federal monitor of the department in light of the Burke indictment. And Newsday is blasting County Executive Steve Bellone’s choice for police commissioner: his former deputy, Timothy Sini, 35, who for four years was an assistant U.S. attorney, and was defeated in his bid for a county legislative seat in November.
The “department needs a strong, inspirational leader. But Bellone will never know who was best for the job because he never even looked,” Newsday editorialized. The GOP legislators also objected to the Sini selection.
Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. Grossman and his wife Janet live in Sag Harbor.
Suffolk Closeup is a syndicated opinion column on issues of concern to Suffolk County residents.
