Kings of Queens Are Knaves and Jokers

The dysfunction that amounts to government as usual in Albany over the past two weeks produced two striking and not-unrelated events: a transportation system doublewhammy of major fare hikes and severe service cuts, and indictments of two of the Legislature's lesser lights and two key aides to the former State Comptroller.

There is the temptation to think that there is something in the air in the state capital, since over the past 28 months that former Comptroller and a Governor have been forced to resign and a Senate Majority leader quit not long before he was indicted. Several other members of the Senate and the Assembly have during that time also wound up in the criminal dock, a procession that is so routine that it feels like prison is a kind of graduate school for some legislators.

But the most-recent transgressions seem especially instructive because those involved all have ties to what is generally considered the city's last successful bastion of Democratic organization politics—Queens. So does Malcolm Smith, the new Senate Majority Leader who couldn't put together enough votes to avert the lose-lose budget approved by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. (In defense of the borough's political leadership, it should be noted that the one Albany official whose stature has grown over the past couple of years, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, is also a Queens native and a product of its political culture.)

THE BOROUGH OF KNAVES: Among the veteran Queens officials who have either been criminally charged or had their reputations tarnished by the actions of associates are, from left, Alan Hevesi, Brian McLaughlin and Tony Seminerio.

A Machine Gone Haywire

If Mr. Smith and those officials from the borough who are either under indictment, awaiting sentencing or too close for comfort to those in such straits—Brian McLaughlin, Hiram Monserrate, Tony Seminerio and Alan Hevesi top the list—are emblematic of what a well-oiled political machine can produce, we'd better pray for anarchic confusion.

It was 23 years ago that Queens Democrats were plunged into that state by the suicide of Borough President and County Leader Donald Manes after evidence emerged that he was neck-deep in the corruption of the city's Parking Violations Bureau. Mr. Hevesi gave the eulogy at his funeral, which was what made it so shocking when the ex-State Comptroller's close friend and political guru, Hank Morris, and his chief pension fund investment adviser, David Loglisci, were indicted for their alleged roles in a massive kickback scheme involving the pension funds.

Nearly 18 months ago, when the first evidence of wrongdoing emerged, Mr. Hevesi— who stepped down for unrelated reasons shortly after being re-elected in November 2006—said he had no knowledge of any improper transactions. If true, it would suggest that he—who should have been particularly alert to any wrongdoing given the fallout from Mr. Manes's crimes—was hoodwinked by his top investment adviser and his closest confidant. It's hard to imagine Mr. Hevesi to be a fool—he was one of the brightest and most-eloquent men in government for the past quarter-century—but from a legal standpoint, it would be better for him to have been played for a chump than to have been aware of what was going on.

Mr. McLaughlin long had an image as a bright Assemblyman who was also a dynamic union leader, until evidence surfaced that he had used both those jobs to steal everything within his grasp. When Federal prosecutors made their case against him (given tape recordings of him at his venal worst, it might be said he made his case against himself), he proved himself resourceful one more time by helping to build a case against his fellow Assemblyman, Mr. Seminerio (and possibly others, given that Mr. McLaughlin's sentencing for his own misdeeds has been postponed several times).

A Seminarian He Ain't

Last September, Mr. Seminerio was charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan with receiving more than $500,000 over an eight-year period from individuals seeking to have him influence state decisions to benefit their businesses. The money was funneled through a consulting business that required very little work on his part, according to the FBI Special Agent who made the case against him with Mr. McLaughlin's cooperation.

Last week a superseding indictment was issued charging that Mr. Seminerio's ill-gotten gains amounted to roughly $1 million and sometimes veered from gentle persuasion into unvarnished shakedowns. A decade ago, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office, he "approached the founder of a Queensbased consulting company for whom he had previously worked and demanded 50 percent of the gross receipts of the Consultant's company." When the consultant balked, Mr. Seminerio "retaliated by writing and calling many of the Consultant's clients, pressuring them to stop paying the Consultant and instead hire Seminerio." He was successful enough in this endeavor that he put the unidentified consultant out of business, prosecutors charged.

At about that same time, Mr. Seminerio allegedly began pressuring the head of a Queens non-profit organization to hire him as a consultant. When the executive balked, Mr. Seminerio threatened to "kill" any bill that would benefit his organization and to ruin his relationships with other legislators.

In 2004, Mr. Seminerio allegedly tried the same tactic with a top executive of a hospital in his borough, asking him, according to prosecutors, if he "knew how miserable" he could make his life if he refused.

Monserrate's Past Scrapes

Mr. Seminerio is a former Correction Officer and a member of that union's board; State Senator Monserrate is an ex-cop who also apparently didn't believe religiously in the laws he once enforced. Where Mr. Seminerio is accused of using verbal pressure to bring people around to his point of view, Mr. Monserrate has a reputation for letting actions do his talking for him.

The March 23 indictment against him accused him of assaulting his girlfriend at the time, Karla Giraldo, with a broken glass last Dec. 19, opening a 20-stitch wound near her eye. The Queens DA's Office claims to have videotape of him pursuing her as she sought help from people in other apartments in his building and trying to pull her away from their doors.

Mr. Monserrate claimed that what happened was a misunderstanding and that the Queens DA has made a criminal case out of an accident because of a long-standing vendetta against him. But the Queens State Senator has been linked to too many "accidental" confrontations to credibly claim that he's simply a misunderstood man.

In fact, some of the most-damning statements raising doubts about his emotional stability come from Mr. Monserrate himself. In 1999, after 11 years in the NYPD, he applied for a disability pension on psychological grounds, stating that he suffered from "adjustment disorder, with mixed anxiety and depression and post-traumatic stress disorder." Police officials immediately confiscated his guns, and his application was granted a year later.

Arrested Just Before Primary

In 2001, he ran for City Council and, early on the morning of Sept. 11, a few hours before the Democratic primary was supposed to be held, Mr. Monserrate was arrested for allegedly attempting to run over a tow-truck operator who had tried to repossess his car. The World Trade Center bombing later that morning led to the primary's postponement, but his arrest got little attention—not surprising given the timing. He wound up being elected to the Council that November; the criminal case was eventually dismissed and the file sealed.

Earlier in that campaign, another disturbing incident occurred that one prominent elected official believed might have been the work of Mr. Monserrate or his supporters. The official, who spoke conditioned on anonymity, displayed a lawn sign backing Mr. Monserrate's opponent in the primary, until one morning when a car parked outside the official's home was discovered to have had all four tires slashed. A police report was filed, but no one was ever found responsible for the vandalism.

Three years later, Mr. Monserrate endorsed a challenger to the State Senator representing his district, John Sabini. On the day of that endorsement, Mr. Sabini said last week, he discovered one of his tires had been slashed, and men he knew as Monserrate supporters visited his district office and told one of his aides, "The adults are involved now." There was nothing to directly connect Mr. Monserrate to the tire-slashing, but Mr. Sabini also wondered about the timing and the cryptic remark to his aide.

Last year, Mr. Monserrate decided to challenge Mr. Sabini himself, and he was given a good chance of winning, given the primarily Latino makeup of the district, which covers East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Corona. Mr. Sabini ultimately decided to give up his seat and forgo a tough primary in order to become Chairman of the State Racing and Wagering Board.

3 Other Bailout Foes No Saints

None of this should suggest that Queens is the home office for miscreant legislators—among the halfdozen Democratic State Senators who opposed the MTA bailout plan (Mr. Monserrate included), two from Brooklyn and one from The Bronx have also had troubles with the law in the past. But it is symptomatic of the kind of breakdown of personal discipline— never mind the party vari- ety—that typifies the culture in Albany and makes it so difficult to get the right thing done.

It's not a new phenomenon: more than a quarter-century ago, Maggie Boepple, who at the time headed Mayor Ed Koch's lobbying operation, described how her previous experience in Albany transformed her from a "goo-goo," meaning a good-government type, to "a ga-ga," someone who would go along to get along. But it helps explain why the State Legislature is considered among the worst in the country.

Feared Motorists Most

The outer-borough legislators who opposed the bailout proposal crafted by former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch and then modified to reduce the planned tolls on East River and Harlem River bridges by Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver cited opposition by those in their districts who drive into Manhattan. It didn't matter that there are far more people in each of those districts who use mass transit to commute and would be paying a greater price and receiving less service for their money if the bailout plan foundered; the legislators were convinced that it was the motorists who would hold the deepest grudge when they sought re-election.

It probably also didn't help that Mr. Smith, in order to secure enough votes to be elected Senate Majority Leader earlier this year, gave away far too much in power to the Democratic holdouts, Carl Kruger, Pedro Espada Jr. and Ruben Diaz Sr., to win their backing. (The "Gang of Three" briefly had a fourth member, Mr. Monserrate, but he defected before the incident with his girlfriend that suggested he was a gang unto himself.) As public reaction to the higher fares and service cuts intensifies, pressure will mount on Mr. Smith to back the plan supported by Mr. Silver and Governor Paterson, but the six holdouts figure to try to get the same type of inducements for their support that the Gang of Three gained two months ago.

There were those who questioned why Mr. Smith didn't seek the support of Republican Senators, both in the city and in suburban counties whose constituents are going to be socked twice—counting commuter rail hikes on the same order as the transit fare increases—if they work here.

Bill Lynch, who played a key role in David Dinkins's election as Mayor 20 years ago, shrugged when he was asked about that outside City Hall March 24, where Transport Workers Union Local 100—to which he has ties—endorsed Queens City Councilman John Liu for City Comptroller.

The danger in reaching across the aisle, Mr. Lynch said, was you might wind up paying too steep a price in the long run in return for the votes you needed now.

'Always Liked Ravitch'

Asked if he saw any flaws in Mr. Ravitch's proposal, he shook his head no. "I always liked him, even when we were running again him," Mr. Lynch said, referring to Mr. Ravitch's generally forgotten candidacy in the 1989 Democratic mayoral primary, where Mr. Dinkins defeated Mr. Koch and then won narrowly against Rudy Giuliani in the general election.

By that time, Mr. Ravitch had basically rescued the transit system and presided over the City Charter Commission that redefined the city's power structure after the old Board of Estimate was found in Federal court to violate the Constitution. He was arguably the most-capable manager of any of the candidates in that field, but he never stood a prayer of being elected because he lacked the others' political skills.

In Albany, those in charge suffer from the opposite problem: they're a lot better at figuring out how to win office and keep it than they are at accomplishing what they were elected to do.