DiNapoli won’t audit Cuomo over Percoco calls from office nor has he yet told nancy groenwegen, high priced errand boy, to opine on whether ny pml sec 109 is constitutional, applies to nassau otb, violates the rights of nassau county bettors secured by ny const art 1, sec 3, is vague, indefinite. and or overly broad. if tom were looking for fluffy records he could easily see that nassau otb lobbyists are paid for nothing. any reference by tom to jcope is simply business as usual expletive deletive you. he cares not as long as d'amato, meara, lieberman et are paid. dinapoli covers up the documents beneath the "protective order" in butler v nassau otb to protect..... she was fired for not ringing the doorbells for tom suozzi
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has rejected a request to conduct a sweeping audit of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office despite the disclosure that corrupt former Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco made numerous calls from the governor’s Manhattan quarters while running his re-election campaign in 2014.
Using government resources for campaign purposes is illegal.
The audit request was filed by Republican candidate for governor Marc Molinaro, and quickly shot down by DiNapoli.
“The circumstances prompting your request to the OSC [Office of the State Comptroller] — the disclosure of facts at Mr. Percoco’s criminal trial about his having made over 800 phone calls from state offices on 68 separate days — present factors that make it inappropriate for the OSC to commence the requested review at this time,” Nancy Groenwegen, counsel to the comptroller, said in an Aug. 27 letter to Molinaro.
“When conducting audits, OSC staff work to avoid interfering with ongoing criminal proceedings or other investigations.”
Groenwegen went on to say that while Percoco has been convicted, he has not yet been sentenced, and an appeal is expected.
“In addition, we are aware from published reports that the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which has enforcement authority over violations of the state ethics laws, has been requested to examine very similar issues,” the comptroller’s chief lawyer said.
Groenwegen also said the state Internal Contract Act calls for “independent” audits of the Executive Chamber and Budget Division every three years by an outside accounting firm.
“To the extent you believe the revelations from the Percoco trial in your letter indicate a lack or inadequacy of internal controls in the Executive Chamber, it would appear the Internal Contract Act provides a means for addressing your concerns,” Groenwegen said.
But the comptroller has broad powers and there’s nothing to stop him from examining Cuomo’s office operations.
Responding to DiNapoli’s rebuff, Molinaro spokeswoman Katherine Delgado said, “Clearly, the Comptroller’s Office believes what everyone knows — despite his loud denials, Andrew Cuomo and his administration remain under active investigation.”
Percoco was found guilty of pocketing $300,000 in “pay-to-play” bribes.
Cuomo was not personally accused of wrongdoing in the Percoco case.
But critics point out that Percoco made the phone calls in an office right next to the governor’s while he was off the government payroll.
Percoco’s lawyer insists his client didn’t talk politics on the government phone.
Butler v. Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation et al
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