By Dan Murphy
Former Mount Vernon Mayor Ernie Davis said about the recent arrest of current Mt. Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas that Thomas “was not ready for prime time.” Thomas was arrested last week and charged by the New York attorney general with felony acts of misusing campaign funds and accepting gifts and payments for his credit card and tuition payments from family members and those doing business with the city.
Thomas denies the charges, or at least claims that the misuse of campaign funds is a common practice and that he is being singled out by getting prosecuted. But Thomas other alleged improprieties, that an unnamed person in the charges paid Thomas’ credit card and tuition bills and that the same person was hired for a position in the Mount Vernon Police Department.
Thomas is also alleged to concoct a scheme by which vendors who were also friends and relatives of Thomas submitted bills to Thomas’ inauguration committee, and then wrote checks directly to Thomas. The two additional items that Thomas was charged with mentioned above does not include misuse of campaign funds, but two campaign expenses of $2,000 to pay for a Chanel purse for his wife and a family trip to Mexico, both paid for by the inaugural committee, are difficult for the public to forgive.
A felony conviction would force Thomas to resign; a misdemeanor conviction could mean that Thomas could stay in office, but speculation has already begun as to when Thomas may resign and what happens next. That could take months if, as expected, Thomas decides to ride out the storm and wait the more than one year a trial could take to begin.
Many are wondering why Thomas was so “blatant” with his greed, and what Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said: “As we allege, Mayor Thomas used his campaign and inaugural accounts as personal piggybanks. Mayor Thomas treated these accounts as slush funds to pay off cars, dinners, and even a Chanel purse, and then lied about it in his filings. Public corruption strikes at the very heart of our democracy, and we’re committed to continuing to root it out across New York.”
Others are questioning what happens to the redevelopment of Memorial Field while Thomas remains charged with a felony and sits in City Hall. Thomas recently unveiled a plan to open Memorial Field, a city landmark and an important facility for Westchester County to see open. It may be difficult for the city to obtain any county funding or assistance, with millions of county funds always a part of previous plans to rehab the field over the past 10 years.
Mt. Vernon City Council members are taking a wait-see-approach to what the future of their mayor holds. Others want to see more proof of the accusations made by a fellow Democratic attorney general against a Democratic mayor who is only 35 years old.
Another Westchester resident walked out of federal court last week convicted of political corruption. His name is Joe Percoco. He is a former executive aide and campaign manager to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and he was convicted of accepting more than $300,000 in bribes.
A federal jury took two weeks to find Percoco guilty of three federal felony charges of conspiracy to commit honest services, wire fraud and one count of solicitation of bribes. Percoco, who lives in South Salem, faces up to 50 years in prison when he is sentenced by District Court Judge Valerie Caproni this summer.
Jurors found Percoco guilty of soliciting and accepting more than $315,000 in bribes in return for taking official state action to benefit energy company Competitive Power Ventures and Syracuse-based real estate developer COR Development after an eight-week trial. Steven Aiello, a COR executive, was also convicted of bribery conspiracy.
The term “lo show job” was discussed throughout the trial to explain how Percoco got a job with little or no responsibilities or requirements for his wife, Lisa Toscano-Percoco, who was paid $90,000 per year by private companies with ties to Todd Howe. Howe, who worked with Percoco and Cuomo over the years, was also arrested, and testified against Percoco as the government’s star witness.
Jurors believed that many of the charges against Percoco came from his time working on the re-election campaign of Cuomo in 2014, when he was still doing business in state government. Other payments were made to Percoco through intermediaries.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said: “Joseph Percoco was found guilty of taking over $300,000 in cash bribes by selling something priceless that was not his to sell – the sacred obligation to honestly and faithfully serve the citizens of New York. As every schoolchild knows, but he corruptly chose to disregard, government officials who sell their influence to select insiders violate the basic tenets of a democracy. We will continue relentlessly to bring to justice those public officials who violate their oaths by engaging in this especially offensive.”
Opponents of Cuomo had hoped that Percoco’s conviction of corruption would hurt the governor’s re-election campaign this year. Cuomo is seeking a third, four-year term this November.
Two of the major Republican opponents to Cuomo spoke out against the guilty charges against Percoco, who the governor called “the third Cuomo son” of his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo. Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro called it a “sad day for New Yorkers. Despite all his progressive rhetoric, this trial proved conclusively that, for a price, the rich and powerful get special treatment in the Cuomo administration,” said Molinaro, who called on Schneiderman to investigate the governor’s office further.
State Sen. John DeFrancisco added: “He’s the governor. He should have commented appropriately when this evidence was coming out and explain himself if there’s a reasonable explanation.”
Cuomo commented on the Percoco trial, saying: “We strive for total integrity and this is a total aberration from the people who work in the administration.” Cuomo admitted that “there should be no other work done from a government office besides that transition work. And in the trial, there was a suggestion that there was, and that’s a violation of the rules.” He denied any involvement or knowledge of what Percoco was up to, or any wrongdoing on his part.
“There was absolutely no suggestion ever made that I had anything to do with anything,” he said. “It was an exhaustive investigation, an exhaustive trial and there was never any suggestion about any involvement by me.”
A Sienna College poll conducted in February found Cuomo’s favorability rating down to 53 percent, from 62 percent in January, and Cuomo’s job approval rating “underwater” at 45 percent.
“Cuomo’s drop this month comes as there was little change in how voters viewed the Legislature, just a modest drop in voters’ optimism about the direction of the state and, largely, continued strong support for many of the governor’s high-profile proposals,” said Siena pollster Steve Greenberg. “Of course, much of what Cuomo has been talking about over the last several weeks has been overshadowed by the ongoing coverage of the federal corruption trial in Manhattan, in which the governor has been featured prominently.”
More polls will come out after Percoco’s walk out of a federal courthouse in Manhattan as a guilty felon, which will indicate one way or the other if Cuomo’s political hopes not only this year in his re-election race for governor, but perhaps a future run for president in 2020, will be stopped, or even stalled a bit by Percoco
