Reisman: Do you know where Larry Schwartz works? Ask Cuomo

When Larry Schwartz resigned his post as Gov. Andrew Cuomo's chief aide and all-purpose hatchet man, the story was put out there that he had left for an undisclosed job in the private sector.

Everybody printed it, including me.

Now, it turns out it was undisclosed for a reason: There was no private sector job — and there still isn't. Forty days after the January announcement, Schwartz hasn't landed a job anywhere.

But he isn't out of work, at least not technically.

It turns out that Schwartz remains on the state payroll under the heretofore non-existent job title of "Dir of the NY Off," which, translated from shorthand could very well mean that he has a desk, a stapler and little, if anything, meaningful to do. But that would be a cynical interpretation, wouldn't it?

Schwartz was officially replaced as Cuomo's secretary on Feb. 2 by Bill Mulrow, who was a senior managing partner at the Blackstone Group and lives in Bronxville. Evidently, Schwartz is still roaming the corridors of state government.

According to the governor's press office, Schwartz, who earned a $181,500 salary, was owed accrued vacation time and has stayed behind to help Mulrow and other staffers with the transition.

The story was first reported Monday by Fred Dicker of the New York Post.

Citing unnamed sources, Dicker wrote that Schwartz couldn't find a job because he was "radioactive" to potential employers who are fretting over his alleged interference with the Moreland Commission. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has been looking into why Cuomo abruptly terminated the anti-corruption panel in April.

Quoting a source, Dicker wrote that Schwartz was still drawing an "astronomical" government paycheck "in order to help Larry out at a time when Larry could possibly do the governor a whole lot of damage." Dicker reported two sources saying that Bharara's probe had caused "tension" between Schwartz and Cuomo.

There is apparently no love lost between Cuomo and Dicker.

Dicker's report was met with a stinging rebuke from the governor's spokesman, Richard Azzopardi, who asserted that Schwartz was selflessly going beyond the call of duty.

Here is Azzopardi's full statement:

"Larry is using accrued vacation time. Even so, he is coming into the office almost every day to assist in the transition — something he doesn't have to do, but is in order to ensure a smooth transfer. This began Feb. 2 and will end in early March. These facts are in contrast to the fiction attributed to 'sources' that appeared in this morning's New York Post. There are liars. There are damn liars. Then there is Fred Dicker."

The part about Schwartz leaving in early March wasn't in Dicker's story because "he didn't ask," Azzopardi said.

Anyway, calling somebody a liar is awfully strong stuff, and it hedges perilously close to the kettle calling the pot black. After all, the question of Schwartz's future employment status wouldn't have come up in the first place if it hadn't been for that key bit of original disinformation dispensed way back on Jan. 11 that the super factotum, the man who ran "the ship" for Cuomo with ruthless brio, was poised for a private sector job.

One Albany insider, who requested his name be withheld because he didn't want to jeopardize his relationships with the players involved, expressed surprise over the discrepancy.

"I don't think it would be a big thing if he was still on the payroll if they hadn't announced he was leaving it," the person told me. "You make a statement he's leaving to go to the private sector and then you say, 'Oh by the way, he's not going yet'... I don't know, it's just strange."

There's been rumblings, unconfirmed, that Schwartz, who memorably served as the power behind the throne of Westchester County Executive Andy Spano, was trying to get a job in the health field or at a real estate firm. One rumor early on had it that he was in line to become executive director of the New York Port Authority. That went nowhere.

My sources tell me they don't believe Schwartz has anything to worry about as far as the U.S. attorney goes, but then how would they know? As one of them acknowledged, "it's all cocktail talk."

One thing everybody agrees on, however, is that Schwartz seems to have burrowed underground. He's not returning phone calls.

Admired by some and hated by others, he remains for now a public servant.