Mt. Vernon Water Dept. Pays for DWI Attorney
By Dan Murphy
We continue our series of stories titled “Wasting Taxpayer Money,” which highlights instances of use or abuse, or mismanagement of tax dollars of New Yorkers and Westchester property owners, who continue to pay the highest property taxes in the country.
A recent headline from Fios1NY news, which will shut down its cable news cast in Westchester soon due to budget cuts, said it all: “Money to Fix Mario M. Cuomo Bridge Signs Will Come From Taxpayers.”
Of course the money to pay for changes to the signs for drivers as they approach the bridge will be paid for by taxpayers, but the question that many of us have is how did it happen? Who was the person or persons responsible for not making and erecting the signs properly?
For those who haven’t heard the latest bit of news that shows the incompetence, sometimes, of our governments in New York, the new signs for the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, formerly known as the Tappan Zee Bridge, are incorrect, in that they do not include the former governor’s middle initial, M., for Matthew.
To make matters worse, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, son of Mario, appeared to be unaware of the blunder in initial interviews after USA Today broke the story. When asked about it in a radio interview, the governor said: “When you change the name of the bridge you change the signs. We built a new bridge, it has a new name, and just so people understand you have to change the signs, I think that’s totally normal.”
The latest incident reminds Westchester and Rockland County residents over the fiasco of how the bridge was renamed and what a waste of money it was to change the name of the signs to the bridge. And now the bridge signs have to be changed again. For the moment, the New York State Thruway Authority, which is responsible for all signage on the bridge and the Thruway, is claiming it only has to have to paste over a blank space on the signs and place an “M.”
If he had known earlier, perhaps the governor could have taken the high road and said “I don’t want another penny spent on signage,” and the signs could have been left as they are, simply the “Mario Cuomo Bridge.”
When reporting the story last week, NY-CBS news called it “‘M’ for Mess.” David Mackay Wilson from LoHud and noted for his “Tax Watch” columns, wrote, “Your Tax Dollars Hard at Work.”
Others reminded us of other instances in which millions were wasted on signage, for the “I Love NY” signs that were in violation of federal regulations and jeopardized federal aid. It took years for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to finally agree to remove them after being threatened with a $14 million fine. New Yorkers on Facebook said of the latest sign scandal, “Cuomo egomania is very expensive for N.Y. taxpayers.”
Another waste of taxpayer dollars comes from Mt. Vernon, where it was reported that Building Commissioner Daniel Jones, after being charged with driving while intoxicated, had taxpayer dollars in the city’s Water Department pay for his defense attorney.
And a very expensive attorney it was – $25,000, to be exact, was paid to attorney Thomas Vallely from the Mt. Vernon Board of Water Supply. Why would any public servant expect that the taxpayers who pay their salary also pay for their attorneys after getting a DWI?
Our papers have said it before and we will say it again: Jones should have been fired from his job as building commissioner after getting the DWI. Instead he was rewarded and had his attorney’s fees paid for by the Water Department.
Under former Mayor Richard Thomas, the Board of Water Supply served as a slush fund of sorts to pay for things unrelated to water and illegal to use tax dollars for. Former Mt. Vernon Corporation Counsel Lawrence Porcari, who served under Thomas, has been charged with illegally steering $365,000 from the Water Department to pay for criminal defense attorneys for former Thomas.
It was also reported that attorney Vallely was blocked from representing Porcari because he also took funds from the Water Department. This all appears to be a legal scandal, with Porcari and Vallely using taxpayers funds meant to deliver and provide water to the people of Mt. Vernon for legal fees for Thomas, and a building commissioner who allegedly drove drunk.
Simple math tells us that at least $390,000 in taxpayer funds were spent improperly. Why Vallely would accept $25,000 from the City of Mt. Vernon for legal fees for his client’s personal, and allegedly criminal actions defies logic. Didn’t Vallely know he was improperly accepting taxpayer funds to pay for his client’s legal defense?
Will Vallely now be charged with a crime? Most important, will the $390,000 be returned to the Water Department and to the taxpayers of Mt. Vernon?
Thomas has not been charged in Porcari’s misuse of $365,000 to benefit Thomas and pay his legal bills. Are the people of Mt. Vernon to believe that Porcari acted on his own and without Thomas knowing that the taxpayers and the Water Department were about to pay his legal bills? As mayor, shouldn’t Thomas have noticed the expenditure of $365,000 when it crossed his desk?
City Comptroller Deborah Reynolds could not block the improper expenditure because Water Department funds are outside of her fiscal control.
Westchester County Court Judge David Zuckerman called Porcari’s attempts to hire lawyers who had also received taxpayer dollars from the Water Department “audacious.” We couldn’t agree more, and hope that the district attorney gets to the bottom of the matter before handing out any plea deals.
Criminal defense attorney Stephen Lewis is now representing Porcari, and commented outside the county courthouse about the case, claiming that his client “did not benefit one dime” from the crimes that he is charged with. He acknowledged that “mistakes were made,” but that funds in the Water Department were customarily used to pay for things because they had money on hand to do so.
The acting mayor of Mt. Vernon is now Andre Wallace. A judge made the ruling last week and that settles the matter until the election in November, in which Shawyn Patterson-Howard, the democratic nominee, will almost certainly be elected and take office Jan. 1, 2020.
Wallace fired Jones, saying: “This latest development is disgusting. Rest assured, I will not rest until every single dollar is accounted for and returned back to the people. To those who stole from the people, I am coming for you.”
