Look Beyond Rotten Apples

Last week the city paid out $150,000 to three cops who claimed their Sergeant created a hostile work environment. A nominee to chair the state Parole Board stepped aside amid allegations that he sexually abused and harassed a subordinate. And two former school bus inspectors pleaded guilty to taking bribes to overlook safety violations.

It would be a mistake to merely write off these cases as instances of bad boys will be bad boys when the actions of government higher-ups warrant questions that to this point haven't been answered.

The most serious cases, from both a legal perspective and a public safety standpoint, involve the two disgraced bus inspectors, Neil Cremin and Ira Sokol, who each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to receiving tens of thousands of dollars in bribes over an extended period from school bus companies. In addition to not enforcing safety standards, the two miscreants falsified records to allow the companies to pad their billings to the city. The case against them grew out of an investigation of crooked transactions between school bus companies and the union representing the drivers, which has long been a wholly owned subsidiary of the Genovese Crime Family.

The most-shocking detail regarding last week's guilty pleas is that the five bus firms from which Mr. Cremin and Mr. Sokol acknowledged taking bribes— Logan Bus, Rainbow Transit, Mar-Can Transportation, N.Q.T. Bus and United Tom Tom Transportation— still retain their contracts with the city.

For decades many of the same bus firms have kept their contracts, even after it was established that some were making payoffs to the Genovese flunkies who were running Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181. The excuse that has always been trotted out by the Department of Education is that it had not been definitively established that the companies' owners were willing participants in a conspiracy rather than reluctant victims who feared for their safety if they reported that they were being shaken down.

We've always been dubious about that excuse, largely because the bus companies that did business with the mob tended to profit handsomely rather than having their assets drained while they paid off.

And DOE's rationale in those cases flies out the bus window when it comes to the crooked bus inspectors. All five firms that were identified as their bribers should be stripped of their contracts immediately.

It is also high time that all the school bus contracts be put up for competitive bid. A failure to do so by the city in light of the criminality that's been uncovered in the industry would be a black mark against the claim by Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein that mayoral control of the schools should be renewed on their terms by the State Legislature in June.

Governor Paterson's administration took a peculiar stance last week when its choice to chair the Parole Board, Felix Rosa, withdrew his name from consideration. A day later, Parole Interpreter Pamela Menera held a press conference where she alleged that 14 years ago, Mr. Rosa exposed himself and tried to molest her, and when she complained about it, her supervisors at the time ignored her.

Mr. Rosa has been allowed to continue in his job as Executive Director of the Division of Parole. Asked why Ms. Menera's allegations of serious past misconduct— which included her claim of a subsequent, sexually charged threat by Mr. Rosa—was sufficient to take him out of consideration for Parole Chair but not enough to cost him his current post, a Division of Criminal Justice Services spokesman noted Mr. Rosa had "strenuously" denied the allegations.

If that was good enough for the Paterson administration, then why not urge him to keep his nomination alive while he sought to rebut Ms. Menera's charges? Until state officials can determine whether they are valid, it would be best for all concerned for Mr. Rosa to be placed on paid leave.

Finally, there is the case of NYPD Sgt. William Planeta, who was accused by three cops who worked for him in the Identity Theft Squad of making a series of ethnic and racial slurs about various groups in their presence.

NYPD chief spokesman Paul Browne last week declined to say what disciplinary action had been taken against the Sergeant, a stance that is consistent with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's tendency to keep a tight lid on the handling of internal penalties.

In this case, however, we believe the Commissioner ought to spell out the severity of the action taken against the Sergeant, who, if guilty of the ugly remarks he is alleged to have made, is so stupid as to raise questions about whether he paid someone to take both the entry-level and promotion exams that got him his present job.

And frankly, when the city agrees to pay $150,000 to the aggrieved parties (Sergeant Planeta is personally paying $3,000 to the three cops as well), it's a pretty damning admission that it believed the evidence was strong enough to leave it on the hook for a lot worse—financially and image-wise—if the case had gone to trial.

Given the circumstances, there is a greater interest to be served on behalf of the overwhelming majority of the police force that does not hold such ignorant, bigoted views by publicly spelling out how he is being punished than there is in protecting a dignity that Mr. Planeta doesn't seem to possess in large supply. And we wonder how a man who allegedly referred to one group as "chimps" and stated that his own flag was a swastika could be considered fit for any job in the NYPD, let alone that of a first-line supervisor.