Lawmaker wants Pataki to resign from Tourism post

• MaryEllen Odell wanted former tourism head Val Hickman to leave tourism post in 2012
• If Hickman left, then Libby Pataki could fill the opening
• Hickman retired, under duress, in February 2012, and died in June.
• After a one-week job search, Pataki was named tourism director, but not by the tourism board

Upset that Putnam lawmakers were unaware of Libby Pataki's second income as county tourism director, County Legislator Roger Gross, R-Brewster, has called for her resignation.

On Tuesday, as state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman began his probe into the former New York First Lady's tourism nonprofit organizations, Gross told his colleagues that he was troubled that they didn't know of Pataki's double-dipping for her Putnam tourism work.

IRS reports from 2014 indicate that Pataki worked 40 hours a week for $70,000 from the taxpayer-financed nonprofit Putnam County Visitors' Bureau and 15 hours a week for $50,000 from the Putnam Tourism Corp., a private nonprofit organization.

RELATED: Attorney General probes Pataki tourism nonprofits

"The legislature was not aware of the dual stream of salary," he said. "Libby was making $120,000. We have people in the county government working  very hard for $45,000 or $50,000. It sends a bad message about government."

Neither Pataki nor Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell have responded to phone messages since a Feb. 3 Tax Watch investigation detailed how neither of Pataki's nonprofit organizations had a functioning board of directors, with the Tourism Corp. providing a second income stream for Pataki.

INTERACTIVE: Breakdown of the two organizations and boards

Gross' call for Pataki's resignation came as Tax Watch continued to review documents, audiotapes of public meetings and interview former board members of the Visitor's Bureau to learn the circumstances of Pataki's hiring.

Odell wanted Pataki in by March 15

A back-room drama unfolded in the winter of 2012, two months after Putnam County Executive Odell’s election victory. Her campaign was bolstered by the appearance of Pataki’s husband, George, New York’s former governor, at fundraising events and in campaign videos.

At issue was the power of Odell to fire Valerie Hickman, the founding executive director of the Putnam County Visitors Bureau, so that Pataki could be named tourism director. The Visitors’ Bureau, which serves as Putnam’s tourism promotion agency, is a private nonprofit organization that contracts with the county, and receives about $250,000 a year in state and county funding.

RELATED: Questions surround Libby Pataki, 2 tourism agencies

Kevin Bailey, then the president of the Visitors' Bureau board of directors, said Odell told him she wanted Hickman out by March 14 so she could announce Pataki’s appointment at her State of the County address on March 15. It was a way to strengthen her administration's ties with the Republican establishment on the west side of Putnam County, where she had promised increased county services as well as county offices in the Butterfield development in Cold Spring.

There were political benefits as well. By 2013, George and Libby Pataki were hosting a $100-a-head fundraising lawn party for Odell — and 200 donors — at their "stately Garrison home," reported the Putnam County News & Recorder. 

Just when Pataki began doing Putnam tourism work is uncertain. Pataki told Tax Watch in January that she asked Odell for the job on Nov. 12, 2011, at Odell's swearing-in by her husband. She said she immediately began to work, without pay, until her official appointment five months later.

Odell, meanwhile, told Albany reporter Liz Benjamin in 2012, that she first met Pataki at the swearing-in ceremony. Talk of the job developed "many many weeks later," according to the article.

Odell wanted Val Hickman out 

Standing in Pataki's way was Hickman, Putnam's well-liked tourism director since 1996. She was the widow of the late New York Supreme Justice S. Barrett Hickman, who made national headlines when he presided over the 1999 defamation case brought against the attorneys of Dutchess County teen Tawana Brawley. In the winter of 2012, Hickman had told Bailey she was battling Stage 4 lung cancer, but wanted to continue working as long as her health allowed.

Bailey recalled a conversation he had in early January 2012 with Odell, who informed him that she intended to fire the county tourism director.

“I told her she couldn’t because Val worked for me and my board,” said Bailey. “Then she demanded I fire her. I told her I wouldn’t.”

Then Bailey received a phone call from a despondent Hickman, who had heard the rumors about Odell's power-play.

RELATED EDITORIAL: Libby Pataki's Putnam patronage

Bailey said he drove to Hickman's home to console her, and tell her that the Visitors' Bureau nonprofit board would not buckle under Odell's demands. Visitors Bureau board members Dave Cooke and Leonora Burton told Tax Watch they didn't want Hickman to leave.

"After MaryEllen got elected, we heard rumors about George wanting to run for president, and Libby wanting to be tourism director," said Cooke, president of Cold Spring Antique Dealers, Inc. "Everything was flying around for a couple of months. I was told that the new administration was disbanding the board, and I asked Val if it might be prudent to notify the board members."

Former Visitors' Bureau director Dee Kraft, who kept in touch with Hickman after she left the board in 2011, said Hickman told her she didn't want to retire as the pressure mounted for her to step down. Kraft, who remembers rumors that Libby Pataki was angling for the job, recalls a phone conversation she had with Hickman, after the tourism director said Odell had told her that she was to be replaced by Pataki.

"Val did not want to leave at all," Kraft said. "Val told me: 'If I fight her, she’d make my life a living hell,' so she just gave in."

Weakened by the cancer, and unwilling to battle Odell, Bailey said Hickman opted to announce her retirement in mid-February, with her last day March 14, a day before Odell's address. She died on June 30 at the age of 76.

Visitors' Bureau board angered 

Hickman's decision to step down angered members of the Visitors' Bureau board, who had worked along side the South African native for years. Bailey said he never convened another meeting of the board.

"After Val left, we never went back," said Cooke. "Val busted her butt for Putnam County. And then she was squeezed out by MaryEllen. "

Hickman made her parting valedictory on Feb. 9, in which she told the County Legislature that up until a few weeks prior, she was looking forward to working in partnership with Odell. Then she kept hearing rumors that Odell wanted her out, and Pataki in.

"Kevin came to me, and said it was entirely my decision, and I could have stayed on," she told the legislators, according to the audiotape of the meeting. "But it is much better that I depart, let people have their ideas, and move on."

Bailey was relieved.

"Now that Val was OK with it, and Libby Pataki had the background, I didn't have a major problem," said Bailey.

But then the county Legislature passed a resolution, calling for the Visitors' Bureau to conduct a "full and open process" to find Hickman's replacement.

Kevin Bailey to Odell's rescue 

Bailey, who also headed Putnam Economic Development Corp. at the time, had to improvise because he said he was the only one left on the Visitors' Bureau board. Time was tight, with the March 15 speech looming.

Bailey put together a three-person interview group, which he said included  EDC member Tom LaPerch and Marissa Brett, of the Putnam County Industrial Development Authority. Brett said she recalled reviewing resumes but didn't remember conducting any interviews.  LaPerch did not return phone messages.

A Feb. 22 ad in the Putnam County News and Recorder instructed applicants for the Visitors' Bureau job to send their resumes by Feb. 29 to the EDC.

Among the applicants was Garrison resident Barbara Hobans, who was running the Philipstown Welcome  Center in Cold Spring on weekends. After two interviews, Hobans said she was told she had the job, as long as Odell approved it.

"Oh my God, I was so excited," said Hobans, who now serves as the town of Hyde Park historian. "But two days before the state-of-the-county address, I got a call saying that the county was going with Libby. I was upset. I was hurt. But there was nothing I could do about it."

Bailey denied that he told Hobans she had the job. He said Pataki had the best experience among the five applicants.

"It was bad the way it went down, but Libby had far and away the best resume," Bailey said.

The table was set for Odell's March 15 address, in which she announced that Pataki had been chosen to head up the Visitors' Bureau. Official minutes of the meeting stated: "County Executive Odell announced that Ms. Libby Pataki was selected as the new Director of Tourism by the Tourist Promotion Agency, Inc."

That agency would be the Putnam County Visitors' Bureau, which at the time lacked a board to make such a selection.

A review of the audio recording, however, found that Odell made no such comment. Instead, she said that Pataki was backed by Bailey and the EDC, a separate nonprofit organization, which Bailey then headed. There was no mention of the Visitors' Bureau selecting a new director.

Said Odell: "Tonight I’d like to welcome Libby Pataki, Kevin Bailey and the EDC have supported Libby Pataki to be the project director of the Putnam County Visitors Bureau."

After this was pointed out to Legislature Clerk Diane Schonfeld, she said the official record would be corrected to reflect what Odell said.