Raise your right hand, and repeat after me

On April 2nd, the North Greenbush Pipeline reported that the temporary Assessor for North Greenbush, John Harkin was the accountant for Victory Lane, LLC, the profitable political consulting company that had been rumored to be run out of the Rensselaer County Office Building. 4/2/07 Well it’s a rumor no more. A second sworn affidavit filed by a former employee of the County Legislature confirms those rumors and more giving Special Prosecutor David Soares plenty of fodder to investigate in the growing scandal. Mr. Soares has already demonstrated his intolerance for public corruption with the prosecution of now former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi. His office also scored a big conviction in a ballot fraud scandal involving a Democratic Ward Leader in Albany County, again showing his intolerance for political and election fraud.
Mr. Soares kept a major campaign pledge to create a Public Integrity Unit to investigate the political corruption that lingers in the Capitol. Rensselaer County Republicans wanted no part of a similar proposal by local legislator Kevin Harrington, and now we know why. Pity, instead of having the Albany County unit pack their bags to travel to the east bank of the Hudson, we could have saved all that gas had the GOP just created such a unit here.
The North Greenbush Pipeline has learned that the sworn affidavit may cause sweat to fall on our assessment records because of Paragraph 7 in the affidavit. It alleges that Mr. Harkin was the accountant for Victory Lane and “visited Crist at the legislature on a number of occasions in this capacity.” It further alleges that he would have “detailed knowledge” of the clients who paid money to the company for political services which are also detailed in the affidavit.
Anyone is free to visit a government office to conduct legitimate business, but we have to wonder whether Mr. Harkin and the others named in the affidavit realized that discussing the running of private business enterprise in a government office at taxpayer expense was an inappropriate use of his time. (Hopefully he is not receiving county visitors in North Greenbush Offices under the same pretense.) We’re confident the Special Prosecutor will want the details of just how much time he and “others” named in the affidavit spent in those offices conducting the business of Victory Lane, LLC.
The North Greenbush Pipeline has also learned that the affidavit names three other North Greenbush residents, who as “candidates”, “consulted with Mr. Crist at the county legislature” on county time. Former Councilman Robert Ashe, former Town Board candidate Lou Desso, and former candidate for legislature, Leon Fiacco, are all named in the affidavit. It also alleges that “All Staff” of the Majority Office were ordered to work on their campaigns.
Let’s see, the boiler plate questions they might want to prepare for might include:
Did you have occasions to enter the offices of the Rensselaer County Legislature in 2005 in connection with your political campaign?
Who did you meet with?
How much did you pay for those services?
To whom did you give the checks?
Did you report the expenditure as required by campaign finance laws?
Approximately how many times did you enter those offices?
Approximately how long did you stay each time?
What did you discuss during those meetings?
Did you bring anything to Mr. Crist or take anything from Mr. Crist while at those offices in connection with your campaign?
Exactly what to you bring or take from those offices?
Did you witness other county staffers working on your campaign related material?
Did you think it was appropriate to visit a government office to engage government employees with such private business issues?

Add up all the visitors, the time spent by each and before you know it, the Special Prosecutor has witnesses and “counts” to a potential criminal indictment. Running a private business from a government office at taxpayer expense is a fairly serious crime. Doing political work, fundraisers, mailings, labels, notices of meetings, whether for profit or not is a serious crime. (You don’t think North Greenbush committee people who work in town hall are doing things like that now, do you?) Regardless, if Victory Lane was run out of the County Office Building using county staff and resources, it becomes a criminal enterprise. Some North Greenbush residents may be explaining their participation assisting, paying a fee to, or receiving a fee from a criminal enterprise run in a government office building.
Yes, we at the North Greenbush Pipeline love a good scandal and we expect a lot of gas being consumed from North Greenbush politicos on trips to the Grand Jury. Gentlemen, it works like this, “Raise your right hand, and repeat after me!”