April 18, 2008  letter to Journal News

On Tuesday, at the Rockland County Legislature meeting, I proposed that county government undertake to prohibit the appearance of "pay-to-play" contributions from county vendors. I asked that the county Solid Waste Authority do likewise (as seven county legislators sit on its board).

I pointed out that the Waste Authority's outside counsel (from New York City) was paid $104,000 to prepare a "friend of the court" brief on behalf of an upstate authority, containing a mere 13 pages of argument. I doubt the authority pre-approved such extravagant waste of taxpayer dollars, amounting to $8,000 per page. I also found that the law firm's PAC and a partner contributed more than $10,000 to officials who might have influence in the firm's hire. Big bucks to a law firm. Big political contributions. It smells. So I sued.

The case is now in Albany County Supreme Court.

To settle the lawsuit, I have proposed to Solid Waste Authority Chairman Christopher St. Lawrence that the New York City law firm refund its fees, and that political contributions to the county officials by county vendors (for example, the law firm) be prohibited.

At a minimum, our elected representatives should publicly pledge to refuse political contributions from county or authority vendors. This will avoid the appearance, if not the reality, that such officials are receiving personal political benefit from steering contracts to their generous vendor friends.

Mike Diederich Jr.
Stony Point