DaBrinker Report

The Dave Renzi Pension Scandal - from other sources

What do others have to say about the Renzi Scandal?

From the The Palladium-Times:

Amidst the mudslinging, city of Oswego First Ward Councilor Connie Cosemento has taken it upon herself to write a letter to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo calling into question Renzi’s pension enrollment while he served as counsel for the town of Pamelia for the past four years. Cosemento told the attorney general that the situation raises more questions than answers and she believes the taxpayers deserve answers.

Oh dear.  That sounds like trouble.  From the Watertown Daily Times:

Attorney David A. Renzi accrued state retirement credits for the past four years that he was not entitled to while serving as counsel for the town of Pamelia

The Brown, Dierdorf & Renzi partner was incorrectly designated as a town employee, which made him eligible for the state benefit. But Mr. Renzi, who is running for the 48th district state Senate seat against Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine, D-Cape Vincent, does not meet the state criteria for being an employee for several reasons, including that he does not submit time sheets to the town, work fixed hours there, have a permanent work space at the town or report to anyone at the town during each work day.

And finally what does Dave Renzi say? From Oswego County Today:

“If cutting school aid mid-year, and taking away tax relief is Darrel Aubertine’s idea of ‘trying’ to cut property taxes, it’s clearly time to give someone else a chance. As Senator, I won’t just ‘try’ to bring relief, I will cut your taxes,” Renzi said referring to a new campaign commercial, in which Aubertine says he is “trying” to reduce property taxes.

All while further padding my state pension, is what Renzi forgot to add.

Dave Renzi Pension Scandal Story Grows

More is coming out about the potential pension scandal that Dave Renzi, State Senate candidate for SD 48, is involved.  Newzjunky posted an Aubertine press release about the scandal:

 

WATERTOWN, N.Y., Oct. 29, 2008  —  In another bizarre and misleading twist in the Dave Renzi pension scandal, Mr. Renzi told a local newspaper that he "did not receive a salary—his compensation was access to the benefits." Mr. Renzi's pension records show, however, that he claimed $26,539 in salary credit in the New York State Retirement System as well as 300 days of service credit. 

"Pension credits are based on salary, among other things, and if now he claims he did not get paid then he needs to explain why he claimed $26,000 in salary credits," said Aubertine Campaign Coordinator Cort Ruddy. "First we learned of the improper enrollment for the past four years. Then he reveals he had no contract. Then question arose about his padded hours. And now we learn he also padded his salary credits. If he had no compensation, what was his pension contribution based on? This is one tangled web." 

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 A comptroller's auditor who is working on a report on this situation told the town of Pamelia that he had never seen such an agreement in any other town he audited across the state.

"Mr. Renzi has also claimed he didn't ask for these improper pension credits, yet now he's saying it was his only compensation," Mr. Ruddy said. "If we are to believe his latest story, became the town's attorney only to receive pension credits, with no contract, no set hours, and no salary. This means his only reason to work for the town of Pamelia was to get a pension he is not entitled to."
Ruddy said that Renzi still has yet to answer questions about his lack of a contract, improper compensation or anything documenting the more than 1800 hours and 300 days he has claimed on pension records to have worked as Pamelia town attorney – a town of 2,900 people. 

This is absolutely ridiculous.  This guy is a lawyer and he claims that his only compensation was the pension credits.  But he also didn’t ask for the credits.  What a bunch of crap.  Just like with any pension plan or 401k, you need to fill out paper work to state beneficiaries and personal information. 

 

Renzi, you’re a lawyer.  You should know better.  I think AG Cuomo will be knocking on your door soon. 

Obama’s commercial

I thought Obama’s commercial last night was well done and effective.  It was a new tactic in campaigning.  It was impressive.  And what does McCain have to say about it?
 

• I wouldn’t postpone the World Series for an Infomercial.
• John McCain blasted Barack Obama's "gauzy, feel-good" 30-minute network ad Wednesday night as having been bought and paid for with "broken promises," affordable only because Obama did not accept public financing.

• Responds McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds: "As anyone who has bought anything from an infomercial knows, the sales-job is always better than the product. Buyer beware."

   

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, John McCain needs a new PR team.  He sounds like a huge whiner with these lines. 

 

 

Rough Time to be an Elected Official

Beginning this January, politicians are going to be tested like never before.   Facing a $12.5 billion deficit in the 2009-2010 New York State budget, legislators will be considering cuts to popular programs.  There will be tremendous pressure from groups and individuals to minimize the cuts to their interests.  The 2009 Legislative Session will be a spectators sport.

Suffolk County Dems and Jimmy Dahroug

I read Azi’s piece on Jimmy Dahroug yesterday.  And this part kinda jumped out at me.

 

His trouble started when the establishment Democrats in the relatively conservative Suffolk County district balked at backing Dahroug, a progressive candidate who had already lost to Trunzo twice.

My guess is that the established Democrats balked at backing a progressive candidate, because he already ran for the seat twice before and lost.  How many chances do you have to give a candidate before you give someone else a chance, without being called partisan or the establishment.  We should be calling the Suffolk Dems realistic. 

 

My guess is that they backed a candidate they felt could actually win.  And I am confident that the Suffolk Dems would even back someone like Roatti if they felt he could beat a Republican incumbent. 

Long Island Enrollment - Dems Gaining

This spells trouble for Skelos and the Senate Republicans, as it’s just a matter of time now.  From the Spin Cycle:

Swelling of LI electorate favors Dems, new stats say

More than 141,000 new Long Island voters have registered to cast ballots on Nov. 4 and are registering as Democrats at a rate of better than 2.5 to one, local elections officials said.

The new voters make up a bloc that is 8.1 percent of the 1.74-million-person Nassau and Suffolk electorate.

The region, once a bastion of GOP power nationally, officially turned Democrat in Nassau by a narrow margin earlier this month and the party’s edge over Republicans now stands at 162 after registration rolls closed. Since the beginning of the year, 35,483 new Nassau voters have enrolled as Democrats, while 12,597 have become Republicans.

In Suffolk, 32,487 voters have registered as Democrats since January, compared to 12,853 Republicans. Those numbers have shrunk the Suffolk GOP’s enrollment edge by more than half from 73,657 only four years ago to just 31,780, with the latest figures. In 2004, Democrats also led in enrolling new voters, but by a far narrower margin — 20,290 to 15,060 for Republicans.

Will Obama’s mojo bring Malcolm the Majority?

If politics is the allocation of scarce resources—and those resources appear more scarce by the day at both the state and federal level—there appears to be more at stake with this coming election than any time in the last 50 years.

The presidential candidates differ enough on the issues to know where each would target his priorities: Obama on the middle class and McCain and those at the upper end of the financial spectrum. Obama on education, health care and jobs; McCain on business interests, earmarks and health care. Undecideds, at this point in the game, clearly have not been paying attention or are looking for an October surprise to sway their vote. We are running out of time for an October surprise. It looks like the economy and Obama may carry in more dems to both houses of congress.

 

On the state level, the question is whether the economy and Obama will carry the dems into the State senate. It depends on who you ask, when and where. But, with two weeks to go, the question that many in NY are trying to answer is: will Obama’s mojo bring Malcolm the Majority?

Senate Candidate Dave Renzi SD48

Apparently Dave Renzi, who is running for Senate against incumbent Daryl Aubertine up in Jefferson County, may be caught up in the outside lawyer receiving retirement benefits from a school district scandal. Danger Democrat:

Dave Renzi sorta dressed up before halloween today. In a grasp at getting some free media State Senate Candidate David Renzi figuratively wrapped himself in a makebelieve crusader's cape and propounded to the gathered press he was pointed at cleaning up Albany. He supplied a list of previous offenders. Of course he left one potential enemy of the state off his list. That would be David Renzi. David has been seriously accused of entering into a deal with the Town of Pamelia to defraud the State of New York's retirement system. It seems its reported that he tried to pile up retirement credits as an employee but there was a problem. He wasn't an employee. I'm told that could be considered a Class E felony. Dave when you start that cleanup crusade maybe you could look at the person wearing your shoes.

Another nice job of vetting by the Republicans. And just what everyone one wants to see from their Senate candidates - dressing up in capes.  

Cuomo & AIG

Nice work by Andrew Cuomo who went after AIG for handing out ridiculous bonuses and holding lavish parties while their company is going down the crapper.  All this was done after taxpayer money was used to save the company.  From the NYT:

American International Group agreed Thursday to help the New York State attorney general’s office recover tens of millions of dollars in improper expenditures, including compensation given to two former top executives.

A.I.G. also agreed to cancel a $10 million severance package for its former chief financial officer, Steven J. Bensinger. He was replaced on Thursday by the giant insurance company’s comptroller, David L. Herzog.

The agreement came a day after Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo assailed A.I.G. for making “unwarranted and outrageous expenditures” that he said violated New York law and that he called particularly “irresponsible and damaging” in light of the federal government’s $123 billion rescue of the company.

Keep up the good work Mr. Cuomo and go after some more of these companies!

McCain's Pix

I am sure McCain is already regretting making this gesture/expression