{"id":5601,"date":"2012-02-29T06:54:43","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T11:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=5601"},"modified":"2012-02-29T09:45:48","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T14:45:48","slug":"morning-read-seven-years-after-sen-ron-staffords-passing-stafford-firm-faces-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/02\/29\/morning-read-seven-years-after-sen-ron-staffords-passing-stafford-firm-faces-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Read: Years after Sen. Ron Stafford’s passing, Kay Stafford draws scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, the Albany Times-Union<\/a> reports on a detailed investigation by the state Comptroller’s office<\/a> into alleged mismanagement and corruption at the state’s Office for Technology.<\/p>\n

The report details behavior by OFT that amounts to bribery and nepotism.<\/p>\n

It also describes a complicated arrangement involving Kay Stafford, widow of\u00a0 the North Country’s legendary state Sen. Ron Stafford.<\/p>\n

The Times-Union article recounts how OFT “set up an unfair bidding process that resulted in CMA Consulting Services being inserted into a deal between OFT and Computer Associates<\/a> Inc…”<\/p>\n

Latham-based CMA has deep political connections: Kay Stafford<\/a>, its president, is the widow of Republican state Sen. Ron Stafford<\/a>. During the period in question, former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno<\/a> had just come aboard as the firm’s\u00a0CEO.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the three-way deal between OFT, CMA and Computer Associates<\/a> ran aground, causing the state to terminate the contract “for cause,” a determination with potentially serious consequences for both firms. But in an arrangement that the comptroller determined at the time to be questionable, OFT offered to drop the “for cause” determination in exchange for a credit of $350,000.<\/p>\n

Computer Associates employees described feeling “held hostage” by OFT’s terms, which the agency pursued despite telling the comptroller’s office it had dropped the idea. It eventually provided OFT with $222,743 in credits. CMA’s management refused to pay a similar\u00a0sum.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This isn’t the first time that Kay Stafford has faced media questions about her company’s ties.\u00a0 In 2009, when former Senate Majority leader Joe Bruno was facing Federal charges, the New York Times profiled her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She hired [Bruno]<\/a> as CMA\u2019s chief executive in the summer of 2008 after he retired from the Senate amid a federal corruption investigation. She kept Mr. Bruno on even after he was indicted on eight felony counts earlier this year. And she has been his constant companion at the most difficult time in his public life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 2009, the New York Observer<\/a> also noted that Kay Stafford continued to wield Ron Stafford’s political funds, distributing roughly $60,000 to candidates and charities that year.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never heard of ghost contributions before, but I guess it applies,” said Blair Horner, NYPIRG’s chief lobbyist for government reform at the Capitol. “This clearly underscores that there needs to be a law that you have to give the money back.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That year, the Albany Times-Union<\/a> cited Stafford fund’s continuing political donations as a concern in a lead editorial.<\/p>\n

Not to fault Ms. Stafford’s charitable contributions, but that’s a lot of good will she can buy for herself and her company, CMA Consulting Services<\/a>, which is registered to do lobbying work. It can’t even remotely be argued that Mr. Stafford’s campaign fund exists for its original purpose \u2014 to finance his re-election\u00a0campaigns.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The former Senator passed away in 2005, but one of his campaign funds still has more than $27,000, according to filings completed in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning, the Albany Times-Union reports on a detailed investigation by the state Comptroller’s office […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4872,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5605,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601\/revisions\/5605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}