State Inspector General Joseph Fisch, New York’s new ethics-in-government watchdog, is making it clear to Albany: There will be no statute of limitations on official misconduct.
To that end, Fisch this week released a devastating report on Dr. Antonia Novello, who served as health commissioner in the Pataki administration.
Citing testimony from numerous former aides and Health Department officials, the report portrays Novello – a former US surgeon general – as a self-absorbed martinet who used her staffers as personal servants.
The same kind of alleged behavior led to ex-Comptroller Alan Hevesi’s resignation in 2006 and his guilty plea to a felony count of defrauding the state.
Which is why Fisch has referred the case to Albany DA David Soares for possible criminal prosecution.
Uh-oh.
Soares did his duty on Hevesi. But he sure dropped the ball during the Eliot Spitzer-Troopergate scandal.
Not that Fisch hasn’t handed Soares a strong case.
According to the report, Novello used staffers as chauffeurs, shopping assistants and furniture movers during her seven-year tenure. They were forced to water her plants and shop for her groceries – racking up a combined 2,500 hours of tax-funded overtime in the process.
Novello didn’t cooperate with the probe and has retained a top criminal lawyer, who insists she did nothing “unjustified or unwarranted.”
Of course, the circumstances surrounding Novello and Hevesi are different: The immediate aim in Hevesi’s case was to get him out of office as quickly as possible; Novello has been off the public payroll for more than two years.
But corruption in Albany will never be curbed until prosecutors root it out.
Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker reports that a felony indictment of Novello may be just weeks away. But given Soares’ track record, it’s hard to know whether he’ll actually follow through.
So which Soares will it be?
The one who forced Hevesi from office – or the one who played patty-cake with Spitzer on Troopergate?
We’re atwitter with curiosity.