Water Buffalo Press

They must wait until after 5 to do everything because the ones I see rarely seem to busy.

But I digress, courtesy of Joe Spector:

Overtime among the state’s nearly 400 agencies jumped by more than $66 million between 2005 and 2007, a 16 percent increase. Some employees have more than doubled their salaries because of generous overtime.

The top beneficiary in 2007 was Mei Kuei Lin, a nurse at the Rochester Psychiatric Center, according to records provided by the state Comptroller’s Office. She brought in $113,282 in overtime, more than double her $61,757 salary.

Also at the top of the list was Robert Henry, whom state records identified as a security officer. He earned $103,434 in overtime on top of his $50,312 salary at the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center in Orange County.

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Overall, state overtime soared to $481 million in 2007, from $437 million in 2006, and $415 million in 2005.

State Police had the largest amount of overtime in each of the past three years, with $43 million in 2007. Yet that was down from $52 million in 2006, records show.

Local Assemblyman Joe Errigo (R-130), who announced he would be seeking reelection to his fifth term earlier this month, has reached out to NYS Governor David Paterson urging a cap on overtime pay for state employees.

I wonder how these numbers factor into the pay equity debate?

Not that this is a reflection of other 5Linx reps or the founders of the company, take it for what you will:

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford started his own direct-sales business while serving as Jefferson County commissioner and used contacts that included county vendors to help him earn $120,000 from his business in 2006.

Langford, elected mayor last fall, quickly became a top regional salesman for the telecommunications company 5Linx after joining in fall 2005, reaching the second highest sales level in his first 90 days by recruiting others to market the company’s phone, Internet and satellite services, and by selling services himself.

Langford sold Birmingham lawyer Charlie Waldrep on the company’s services after Waldrep’s firm received county bond business. The Birmingham-based Haskell Slaughter law firm, which helped with many of the county finance deals, also bought the services from him.

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Langford’s business deals are part of the focus of an ongoing civil investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a criminal investigation by U.S. Attorney Alice Martin’s office in Birmingham.

Some businesses that competed for or received county work said they received federal subpoenas last month requesting information about contacts they had with Langford’s personal 5Linx sales business.

Alabama Ethics Commission Director James Sumner has said he advises public officials to avoid soliciting charitable contributions or business arrangements from vendors that have contracts with their governmental bodies.

Federal investigators also are looking into private charities Langford controlled that collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from businessmen and companies he approved for government work as Fairfield mayor and county commission president, according to court filings and a federal subpoena sent to some of the businesses.

The 5Linx business, known as multilevel marketing, rewards salesmen for recruiting others by giving them a portion of the sales and recruiting bonuses of those agents signed by their group. The concept is similar to Amway and Mary Kay cosmetics.

The more agents Langford recruits, the more money he can earn. The concept allows him to sign businesses up as marketing agents, even if they don’t sell the services or recruit others.

The article goes on to note that 5Linx phones initially purchased are no longer in use by the municipality due to high cost.

5Linx has also been subpoenaed by a Northern Texas District Court as the defendant in a property fraud/tort case. 

Lowell Conrad, Chairman of the Livingston County Republican Committee, endorsed Christopher Lee Monday along with six other GOP chairs from Western New York as their candidate in the 26th NYS Congressional district race.

I spoke with Chairman Conrad regarding his choice of Lee who, according to Conrad, was the consensus pick going into Monday evening’s vote.

While others threw their hat in the ring on the GOP side Conrad viewed Lee as the most able to run a campaign and as the candidate that would be “most well-received.”

Conrad stated that Lee’s platform must of course be fleshed out in the days to come but initially Lee has been a “proponent of small business, a fiscal conservative who represents the values of the territory.”

Conrad indicated that in his view Lee is very much a moderate though “certainly not considered a liberal.”

Lee is already at a slight disadvantage given his late arrival to the game, caused by the abrupt retirement announcement by Tom Reynolds, and additional challengers continue to announce candidacies.

GOP chairs chose Lee despite a vote last Friday by Western NY Conservative party leaders to back Rick Lewis. Lewis has not stated that he would mount a rare GOP primary but he has said that he is “not afraid” of challenging Lee.

Somewhere last night you could hear Jack Davis cry: “Oh no he didn’t.”

After 26th NYS Congressional district candidate Jon Powers (D) grabbed the endorsement of the Monroe County Democratic Committee the only county which eluded Powers was Erie.

You may remember a post on the WBP from July of last year with a statement from then unconfirmed candidate Jack Davis that Erie County Dem chair Len Lenihan had promised his endorsement to Davis in the event he chose to run.

Flash forward to April of ‘08, last night to be exact, and things have changed for Len Lenihan.  Lenihan and the Eric County Dems endorsed Jon Powers last night as their candidate for the 26th.

The other endorsements which Powers has accumulated, combined with the war Davis is waging against the Millionaire’s Amendment in McCain-Feingold which will only draw negative press on the left, essentially decided Lenihan’s endorsement for him.

Lenihan must have been reeling trying to choose between a guy who is actually more of a Republican or a guy who used to be a registered Republican.

NYS Senate hopefuls Rick Dollinger, Sandra Frankel and Willa Powell could not have had better weather in which to grandstand, I mean demonstrate, outside the office of Senator Joe Robach yesterday.

See our earlier post on the matter that caused all the hub-bub for the background on this story which led to the Rochester branch’s NOW-organized picket:

Barbara Moore, secretary of the Rochester chapter of NOW, said she didn’t think the candidates were using the issue for political gain.

“Economic justice, the economy, is the bedrock of the Democratic party and these are strong Democrats,” she said. “Democrats care about raising people out of poverty. They know something has to be done and they know pay equity is the way to do that.”

Uh-huh.  What Moore failed to mention is that Robach’s bill passed the Senate unanimously with bi-partisan support.  Moore also failed to address the mythological nature of discriminatory pay practices in New York and across the country.

Public: “Hey Maggie, how are you going to fix that $29 million budget gap?”

Maggie: “I don’t know, what ya got?”

Brooks is still holding fast to the prospect of her FAIR plan being ruled legal on its appeal before the NYS Supreme Court.

Frankly, the fact that Brooks offered no so-called ‘Plan B’ should surprise no one as the current administration has not been big on contingency plans.

In addition to being Earth Day today also serves as Equal Pay Day. Senate challenger Rick Dollinger is taking the opportunity to challenge local Senate incumbent Joe Robach (R,C,I,WF) on his stance over the New York state Fair Pay Act legislation that has been debated in the legislature recently via a public demonstration at Robach’s district office:

“Joe’s flip-flopping is both condescending and wrong – it’s classic Albany politics,” said Rick Dollinger. “It takes a lot of nerve to duck an issue by passing a study bill and then claim to be a champion, but it’s hardly surprising.”

Below is a repost of my article from last week which includes an overview of the Senate debate, Robach’s alternative bill and the truth about pay gaps between men and women. Reposted for Equal Pay Day and all you knuckleheads who did not read it the first time.

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My wife is pregnant with our second son and is due end of May/early June and she still, bless her, is working four days a week despite the fact she’s as large as a house.

She makes less money than I do despite the fact that I could not even fathom working, much less actually doing so effectively, in her current condition.

A strange, and as of yet unexplained, introduction I know. I swear it will pay off in the end.

Much ballyhoo recently around debate in the New York state legislature over Senate bill 3936, the so-titled New York state Fair Pay Act. The legislation is at first a noble and wholly right bill seeking to bring the pay scale for men and women in the workplace into equity with one another.

Capitol Confidential had a nice little series starting on Monday when Irene Jay Liu was hassled as she attempted to take video of the Senate floor debate as local Senator Joe Robach (R,C,I,WF), that’s WF as in Working Families, argued for S.7521 - the GOP counterpart to 3936.

CapCon returned to the Chamber on Tuesday to film the beauty of our legislature in action:

I came and taped what is a time-honored tactic used by Senators who don’t want to go on record as voting against something: leaving the chamber when another lawmaker calls for a motion to petition, which if approved, would move a bill out of committee to the floor for a vote.

The catch is, it takes a simple majority of the 62 senators in what is essentially a non-role call vote to move to petition. So if lawmakers don’t like the measure being petitioned, but fear it may look bad to oppose it, they can simply leave the chamber when the motion comes for a vote. Thus Tuesday’s near-empty chamber.

The strangeness continues as Robach’s opponent bill passed the Senate by a unanimous vote. And this is where I saw the first hint of that ugly beast known as politicization of an issue for personal gain in an election.

I battled the monster during the SCHIP debate and it appeared the Beast had again returned to feed.

The reason the Dems had to vote for Robach’s bill was the same reason the GOP could not be seen voting against bringing 3936 out of committee. Imagine the following two scenarios if the opposite had occured in the aforementioned instances:

1. GOP Senate candidate X: “My opponent did not vote to increase penalties on companies who discriminate against women/minorities in the workplace. Vote for me and I will fight for equitable wages!”

2. Dem Senate candidate (say Rick Dollinger): “Joe Robach did not vote for equitable pay between men and women/minorities in the workplace!”

When a bill becomes so political I have found it is likely a stinker so I began to dig.

S.3936 seeks to pay women, men and minorities equally:

IN JOBS THAT ARE DISSIMILAR BUT THAT REQUIRE EQUIVALENT COMPOSITES OF SKILL, EFFORT, RESPONSIBILITY AND WORKING CONDITIONS

All right. Basically, paying a woman the same wage for a job as a man who does a different and likely completely unrelated job and using the government to establish a scale for how this should then be done while administering and enforcing the legislation.

Now even if I agreed with this illogical and socialist idea, and giving the government arbitrary control over wage scales is socialist, my first question would be who is going to decide what job is equal to another and how would he or she do that? Don’t look to the bill for answers to that question, it doesn’t have any.

However, as an issue that has been beaten around since the mid-80’s, models from so-called comparable wage advocates have included a point system where different values are assigned to aspects of one’s job like the amount of education needed for the position, the degree of hazard or risk of injury faced, managerial duties and so on.

Despite the fact that such a point system would be completely subjective, imagine the hostility created in our society.

Successful white male: “Hey (insert minority or female name here), what’d you get for a Life Score (see, the company that New York state would outsource the scoring system to would call it Life Score)? Oh, only a 47? Too bad you didn’t go to a four year college and now oversee a staff of 23 people like I do, you would’ve scored much higher! Later (insert minority or female name here)!

See? Kind of just beating the proverbial dead horse.

Read more »

Before commenting extensively on 26th NYS Congressional district candidate Jon Powers’ questionable FEC filings I wanted to look at them myself.

By now anyone interested is aware of the amended filing and the reimbursement to the campaign account from Powers.

However, the official Request for Additional Information filed by the FEC on March 13th does not necessarily question only the rental monies:

Schedule B of your report discloses reimbursements to individuals for expenses other than travel and subsistance. Please be advised that reimbursements to individuals . . . if the payment to the original vendor aggregates in excess of $200 in an election cycle, a memo entry including the name and address of the original vendor … and purpose of the original purchase.

While this calls into question monies in addition to those reported on in the AP rent payback story it still does not mention any specific disbursement claims in the filing.

Gannet is reporting that the combined amount in question is as high as $12,000:

4/18/08 - In addition to agreeing Thursday to pay back campaign funds used to pay for his home office, Powers also had to address issues raised in a FEC letter in March about $12,000 in unexplained contributions to him and DuRoss, Gannett News Service has learned.

$4K, $12? Time to check the actual filing for myself. Here is the breakdown as I found it -

Remember this filing accounts for three months starting in October and ending 12/31/07.

Powers original filing shows roughly $2500 listed as “reimbursement” in the Purpose for Disbursement field on the filing. The amended filing listed an additional $532 reimbursement to Powers for “car mileage.”

Eben DuRoss received a bi-weekly paycheck for $1342 as well as $800 again listed as reimbursement.

Kevin Linder received a “payroll” disbursement bi-weekly as well for $948 except for one week in October when he received $996.

The amended filing also included a $117 “health care reimbursement” and $4500 to Webstrong for “internet consulting” which were not on the original document filed by Powers for Congress Treasurer Ann Marie Glaser.

$15500 in disbursements went to various firms in New York City, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles for “financial consulting.”

Former Republican and current Democratic Congressional candidate Jon Powers of Clarence, New York was found in violation of Federal Election Commission guidelines:

Powers charged $500 for “office rental reimbursement” on Oct. 4, Nov. 5, Dec. 11 and Jan. 3, according to his campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

In all $3500 was given to Powers out of the campaign coffers.  The Powers campaign has stated that all misappropriated funds will be reimbursed.

Worst case scenario is that Powers is using campaign funds for personal gain, best case is that the campaign management is completely inept.

Senator Dale Volker says state troopers spied

Local NYS Senator Dale Volker (local because he represents my area) revealed yesterday that he was subject to being spied upon by state troopers last summer in a manner similar to that experienced by Senate GOP leader Joe Bruno.  What a boring tail that must have been.

Some called this revelation shocking but perhaps most shocking is that Volker is considered one of the top experts in Albany on law enforcement matters:

The Senate’s top criminal-justice expert stunned a public hearing yesterday when he claimed to have been under police surveillance during last summer’s Dirty Tricks Scandal

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The explosive charge by Senate Codes Committee Chairman Dale Volker (R-Erie), a lawyer and former police officer, described the surveillance as taking place just weeks after Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released his July 23 report concluding that Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno had been targeted by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s office in a plot involving the State Police.

He said he believed the surveillance was carried out by members of the State Police or by investigators from the attorney general’s office still loyal to Spitzer.

Volker said that even before he spotted the alleged surveillance, he was told by his own State Police contacts that questionable activities were taking place, including the possibility that he and others were being spied upon.

“We all knew there were some things going on,” said Volker. “I do have some contacts that maybe other people don’t have - let’s put it that way - and I was warned,” he said.