POLITICS ON THE HUDSON

Ex-Cuomo aide drew income from Columbia

Jon Campbell
jcampbell1@gannett.com
Joseph Percoco, right, speaks to Howard Glaser in this 2013 file photo. At the time, both were aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

ALBANY – A former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo received outside income to teach classes in a Columbia University program run by a professor with deep ties to key players in an ongoing federal corruption investigation.

Howard Glaser, Cuomo’s former director of state operations, received between $25,000 and $70,000 total from Columbia for his work as an adjunct professor in the university's executive MPA program while he was still on the state payroll in 2012 and 2013, according to his financial disclosure forms.

At the same time, William Eimicke – director of Columbia’s Picker Center for Executive Education, which runs the executive MPA program – was working as a paid consultant for a central New York racetrack project and Syracuse-area builder COR Development, both of which had business before the state.

Some of the projects Eimicke worked on have drawn scrutiny from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office, which is investigating the Cuomo administration’s major economic-development initiatives and outside income earned by Joseph Percoco, another one-time Cuomo aide.

There’s been no indication Glaser or Eimicke, who worked in then-Gov. Mario Cuomo's administration in the 1980s, are the target of Bharara’s probe.

In a statement, Glaser said he “adhered to all required recusals relating to the Columbia employment.” He received approval from the state ethics board before he began working as a Columbia adjunct in 2012.

“I sought and received JCOPE approval for the engagement, was compensated at the standard rate for adjuncts, disclosed it on the financial disclosure forms, and taught two different public policy courses,” said Glaser, who left his $169,100-a-year job with Cuomo's office in mid-2014 and stopped working as an adjunct in May 2015.

In one instance, records show Glaser and Cuomo met with Eimicke, Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and a Syracuse University official about a proposal to have COR Development build a new sports stadium in 2013, when Glaser was on the state and Columbia payrolls.

The project, which would have replaced the aging Carrier Dome and required millions in state funding, never took off and did not get state money. A Syracuse University spokesman said Eimicke has never represented the university.

As Gannett’s Albany Bureau reported Monday, Eimicke’s consulting work is closely tied to clients of Todd Howe, a lobbyist who has been a focus of Bharara’s probe.

Like Eimicke and Glaser, Howe and Percoco also worked for Mario Cuomo in the 1980s. Later, Howe and Glaser worked together at the Mortgage Bankers Association, according to the Village Voice.

Recently, Eimicke has been a consultant for a still-under-construction, $25 million racetrack in central New York that has received more than $7 million in state grants and hired major firm CHA Consulting, a Howe client, for its engineering work.

He has also frequently performed consulting work for COR Development – a Howe client – in recent years, providing economic analyses for the company’s projects at Syracuse’s Inner Harbor, which earned a city contract, and Kennedy Square, which earned a contract from SUNY’s Upstate Medical University.

Percoco, who was long one of Cuomo’s most-trusted confidants, reported receiving up to $75,000 in consulting payments from COR in 2014, when he was off the state payroll as Cuomo’s campaign manager. COR has denied paying him.

Eimicke also sits on the board of Fuller Road Management Corp., a non-profit that awards contracts for projects controlled by SUNY Polytechnic Institute, which has overseen many of Cuomo’s biggest development initiatives.

His wife, Karen Murphy, sits on the board of Fort Schuyler Management Corp., another SUNY Poly contracting entity. Fort Schuyler made COR Development its preferred contractor for the Syracuse area in 2013, before Murphy sat on the board.

Eimicke has not returned repeated phone calls or emails seeking comment over the last week. COR on Monday declined comment on its relationship with the professor.

Spokesmen for Columbia University did not respond to a request for comment, while Cuomo’s office declined comment.

As an adjunct, Glaser taught two courses at Columbia. Both were part of the executive MPA program, which Eimicke oversees.

According to Glaser’s financial disclosure form, he received between $5,000 and $20,000 from Columbia in 2012, when he only worked one semester.

In 2013, when he worked both semesters, Glaser received between $20,000 and $50,000 from the university, according to his disclosure.

Glaser left Cuomo’s office in mid-2014.

One course  Glaser taught was titled “Public Management,” which taught the “basic concepts and techniques of public management” with an emphasis on “managerial strategies, management innovation, structure, organizational behavior, and control,” according to Columbia’s class description.

The other was a portfolio presentation workshop, in which students share their professional work for criticism and analysis.

“I began teaching a course at Columbia University as an adjunct professor in the 2012 spring semester at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) to replace a departing faculty member,” Glaser said in his statement.