Q-What kind of help did you provide to Mr. Percoco?
A- Harckham: “I introduced him to Dr. Paul Kreitzer from the Katonah-Lewisboro
School District and also an introduction to the superintendent in the town –
Bedford Central School District.”
Tried to Get Wife Jobs at 4 Westchester Schools
By Dan Murphy
The State Senate campaign between incumbent Terrence Murphy and his democratic challenger Peter Harckham has gotten nasty, which should be no surprise to those of us who live in the 40th Senate District, which runs from northern Westchester to Putnam, to parts of Dutchess County.
Every election cycle, this Senate district gets flooded with campaign flyers and television commercials, in an effort to woo the public to vote for one candidate or the other. This competitive district is very much like the 37th District in Westchester over the past seven years, when then-State Sen. George Latimer and his republican opponents and their supporters spent millions of dollars trying to win that seat, which is now held by Sen. Shelley Mayer.
The Harckham campaign has responded to two allegations made by the Murphy campaign, and reported to you in this paper. First, that Harckham worked for two jobs in state government at the same time; and second that Harckham’s relationship to Joe Percoco, recently found guilty of political corruption and sentenced to six years in prison, enabled Harckham to get these two positions in state government.
The Harckham campaign has played down the relationship with Percoco, despite the fact that both live in South Salem, and both worked on the “Cuomo for Governor” campaign. A recent ruling by the Westchester Campaign Fair Practices Committee found that two of the charges made against Harckham by the campaign of State Sen. Terrence Murphy were unsubstantiated and based on “corruption by association.”
But the court transcripts from the Percoco trial indicate that Harckham and Percoco were political xxxxx. Harckham was called to testify at Percoco’s trial as a character witness for Joe, who was called by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as the “fourth Cuomo brother.”
Harckham testified under oath that he attempted to get a teaching position for Joe’s wife, Lisa, at four different Westchester school districts, and the two had known each other since 2002.
“I first met Joe probably 2002, I think, or (2003), when the governor moved to the Town of Bedford. I was in the private sector and I was the co-chair of the Bedford Democratic Committee. And we approached the governor about honoring his father and establishing an award in his name, and that’s when we began to work with Joe… And later, when I ran for office, seeking the governor’s endorsement, robo-calls, when constituents would – or other local officials would request tickets to the State of the State, those kinds of things,” testified Harckham, who was then asked when the Percocos first moved to his South Salem neighborhood.
“I think it was 2012. Joe first called me and said he was looking up in that area, and I offered to be a resource if he needed help. And then a while later, I got a call that they had bought a house in South Salem and his wife, Lisa, was looking for a teaching job closer to their new home, and did I have some connections that I could help introduce them to.”
Question: How did you respond?
Answer: I was happy to. He was – he was a colleague, we were friendly, and now he was a constituent. So there were two superintendents who I knew from recent storm recovery work.
Q: What kind of help did you provide to Mr. Percoco?
A: I introduced him to Dr. Paul Kreitzer from the Katonah-Lewisboro School District and also an introduction to the superintendent in the town – Bedford Central School District.
Emails between Harckham and Percoco were then presented to the court.
Q: How did you know Dr. Kreitzer?
A: A couple ways. My former wife was on the school board and my interaction with Dr. Kreitzer was due to the storm recovery work. That was my personal interaction with him.
Q: This is an e-mail from you to Dr. Kreitzer, correct?
A: Correct.
Q: The subject is Lisa Percoco?
A: Correct.
Q: This is you sending along Ms. Percoco’s resume?
A: Yes.
Q: Well, let me see. I guess it is the message of June 14, third from the bottom, you suggested that you could contact Jerry Hochman from Bedford Central, is that right?
A: Yes, correct.
Q: What is Bedford Central?
A: That is another school district and I worked with them on the storm recovery efforts, as well.
Q: Who was Jerry Hochman?
A: He was the superintendent at the time.
Q: OK. Did you try to contact people at Yorktown?
A: No. I asked one of my colleagues, and apparently there was, I think, a new superintendent who they didn’t know.
Q: Now, let’s turn to the top e-mail, please, in JPX 93. This is an e-mail from you to Mr. Percoco on Aug. 7, 2012?
A: Yes.
Q: You say that you sent the resume to Bedford Central and to Somers?
A: I believe so, yes.
Q: Is Somers another school district?
A: It is.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Zhou then cross-examined Harckham.
Q: And you mentioned on your direct testimony that you asked for Andrew Cuomo’s endorsement sometimes, is that right?
A: Yes, I did.
Q: Sometimes you coordinated the endorsement from Andrew Cuomo through Joe Percoco, is that right?
A: Yes.
Eventually, Lisa Percoco received what is not xxxxx called a “Lo-Show Job” with xxxx, and did not work as a teacher in Westchester. But for Harckham to try to downplay his relationship with Joe Percoco is disingenuous.
Indeed, Harckham’s testimony shows that there was more to his political friendship with Percoco than “corruption by association.” In his direct testimony under oath at a federal trial, we see Harckham trying to get a job for Lisa Percoco.
Are we to believe his claim that he would try to get a teaching job for any constituent? What did Harckham get in exchange for trying to get a job for Joe Percoco’s wife?
The other allegation made by the Murphy campaign and referred to in the Campaign Fair Practices Committee is the “double-dipping” allegations that Harckham was working at two state jobs at the same time. Harckham released his tax returns, which showed that “two state agencies operate on different fiscal years and trying to claim that the overlap meant I was being paid for two full time jobs,” said Harckham.
The “overlap” that Harckham refers to means that for a short period of time he was in fact paid by both the Office of Community Renewal and then the Thruway Authority.
