Not your average pasta dish: Muchnick's 'Best Thing' this week is lasagna in Westchester
PHIL REISMAN

Spoils system stays strong in Westchester

Phil Reisman
preisman@lohud.com
Phil Reisman

The way of politics is patronage. Government is full of people who owe their jobs to family ties and exchanges of favors.

I once joked that if you yelled "Spano!" at Yonkers City Hall, half the employees, starting with the mayor, would reply, "What you do want?" and the other half would say, "Leave me alone, I'm just an in-law."

Job centers for the vast Army of the Politically Connected include traditional feed troughs such as the Board of Elections, parking violations bureau and most departments of public works. It's the way it is, and shall always be.

But then there's the extraordinary case of Marty Finneran, who was hired by Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino to serve as "administrator for special operations," a fancy title that might mislead you into thinking that he is a highly trained agent drawing a bead on al-Qaida or ISIS. Spec Ops — that's the stuff of silencers and night-vision goggles.

In reality, Finneran, 49, is part of Astorino's security detail and, aside from being an auxiliary cop who once worked in building maintenance, it's alleged he has met few, if any, of the qualifications for the $93,000-a-year job. He also happens to be the boyfriend of Astorino's mother-in-law. Bingo.

This was first reported in the New York Post days ago. Westchester Legislator Ken Jenkins, D-Yonkers, who aspires to be county executive, pounced on the story by demanding an investigation into whether Finneran's hiring constituted an improper bending of the rules. He told the tabloid that Astorino's call for ending corruption in Albany should begin with him cleaning out his "own closet."

"Rules aren't supposed to be bent or broken to take care of someone," Jenkins said. "This is clearly a patronage job for a family relative who is not qualified for the job."

Jenkins is right. But hearing him talk about patronage favors is amusing. He's a product of Yonkers, where the spoils system was perfected — and where, incidentally, Mayor Mike Spano, a fellow Democrat, gave him a pretty nice side job as chief of the city's Industrial Development Agency.

Back in 2010, when he was chairman of the Board of Legislators, Jenkins hired a White Plains woman to be his chief of staff who reportedly had once been the paramour of then-Gov. David Paterson. Lila Kirton was paid an annual salary of $135,000.

Coverage of the extramarital scandal two years earlier included a front-page photo in the Daily News that showed Kirton, Paterson and Reginald Lafayette, who is the Westchester Democratic Party chairman and a commissioner of the county Board of Elections. The accompanying headline was "The Honey & The Money."

Kirton was let go at the start of this year when Mike Kaplowitz, D-Somers, took over as chairman. She got another job — at the county Board of Elections.

I asked Jenkins about the Kirton appointment and how it squared with his criticism of Astorino's hiring of Finneran. He drew a sharp distinction.

"Go check her resume," he replied in an email. "She is an attorney, Brooklyn DA's office, senior staff for Eliot Spitzer in Attorney General's office then in Governor Spitzer's office. Lila Kirton's government credentials and knowledge of government operations are exemplary.

"There is no comparison."

Maybe, but a lot of qualified people aren't the ex-girlfriends of governors. Jenkins also left out that Kirton also worked for Paterson after he took over for Spitzer, another avatar of government ethics who, you will recall, resigned amid revelations that he patronized prostitutes. (By the way, people who take money for sex may be guilty of some things, but hypocrisy isn't one of them.)

Jenkins noted that Finneran's hiring was "especially troubling" because Astorino was critical of the security afforded his predecessor in office, Andy (no relation to Mike) Spano.

"First he hides the security detail under Public Safety then hires his mother-in-law's boyfriend to 'supervise,' " Jenkins said.

The man Astorino seeks to unseat, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is hardly above the patronage game himself. Last year, The New York Times revealed how he was all but stuffing the state economic development agency with "political associates, donors and friends or their relatives …"

There are lessons in all this. An obvious one is that if you take a cushy patronage job that is undeserved, be prepared to see your name attached to insulting words like "corruption," "crony" "gal pal" and "no-show."

And if you are a politician, remember that pleasing your wife's mother can have unintended consequences. Actually, that one goes for everybody.

Reach Phil Reisman at preisman@lohud.com. Twitter: @philreisman.