CAPITOL Cuomo says some lawyers wrongly getting school pensions BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday he is investigating upstate school districts for potentially fraudulent employment arrangements between public school systems and their lawyers. The investigation, which started on Long Island, has extended upstate, and Cuomo named Albany as one of six upstate counties “with the higher levels of activity.” The problem, Cuomo said at a news conference, is that many school districts are providing public pension and health benefits to part-time lawyers who are not entitled to them, and who in many cases work for private law firms. “The more we dig, the worse the situation gets,” the attorney general said, and multiple subpoenas have been issued to upstate lawyers and law firms. He has put a criminal prosecutor in charge of the investigation, although he said many of the cases will be better dealt with at the civil level, requiring the lawyers to reimburse money and give up benefits they should not have received. Cuomo said his office has identified more than 90 attorneys, more than 70 of them upstate, who may have been improperly placed on payrolls at more than 180 school districts, more than 150 of them upstate. In the most egregious cases, he said, lawyers were deriving benefits from several districts simultaneously. He declined to identify specific lawyers and districts under investigation. “It was a great scam that has gone on for many years,” Cuomo said. “We’re making it clear it’s going to stop and it’s going to stop now.” Several Albany County school districts contacted by The Daily Gazette Thursday said they do not have lawyers on their payrolls, only use them on a contractual basis and do not provide them with benefits. That was the position stated by spokesmen for the Albany, Guilderland, North Colonie, Cohoes and Bethlehem districts. Spokesmen for a few other Albany County districts could not be reached for comment. Albany, Guilderland and Cohoes said they used the Girvin & Ferlazzo law firm in Albany. North Colonie uses four different firms, a spokesman said, for general work, a bond counsel, assessments and special education. Girvin & Ferlazzo managing partner Jeffrey Honeywell said in an email: “The New York state attorney general’s offi ce has sought information relating to our firm’s relationship with school districts and BOCES. We have been cooperating and will continue to cooperate with the inquiry.” He could not be reached for fur- BOCES contracts for legal services and ther comment. does not pay benefits to lawyers. Cuomo said there was no ambiguity in the law, and that it was clearly illegal for private lawyers working on contract with a school district to receive public pension and other benefits. But Jay Worona, general counsel for the state School Boards Association, said the arrangements criticized by Cuomo may not have been illegal in the past for employees under Tier 1 of the state pension system. He cited part 370 of the state retirement code. Worona acknowledged, however, that the practices were not good public policy. Three other Albany County districts and Capital Region BOCES could not be reached for comment Thursday. But Charles Dedrick, the Cohoes superintendent who will soon become BOCES superintendent, said he has been told that The Schenectady School District has a full-time staff lawyer who gets benefits, a spokeswoman said last week. According to a Cuomo news release, “At least some of the attorneys who appeared on the payrolls did not actually provide legal services for the school districts or BOCES in question.” One attorney, the statement said, “who was listed on the payrolls of as many as seven school districts and BOCES in one year may have already collected in excess of $700,000 in taxpayer-funded pension benefits.” Others apparently have collected their retirement benefits and died, Cuomo said.
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