Daily News Reports That Andrew Cuomo Has "Lawyered Up"

The Moreland disclosures just don't stop these days - here's another big one, courtesy of Ken Lovett at the Daily News:

ALBANY - Gov. Cuomo has lawyered up as the scandal over the handling of his anti-corruption commission has grown, the Daily News has learned.

Cuomo hired prominent white collar criminal defense lawyer Elkan Abramowitz in May to represent the governor’s office, sources told The News.

Cuomo’s top aides, Secretary to the Governor Larry Schwartz and counsel Mylan Denerstein, have also hired their own personal attorneys, the sources said. Cuomo separately has sought advice from several lawyers, the sources said.

Abramowitz confirmed to The News that he was hired to represent the executive chamber. He said he is serving in much the same role Denerstein might have filled if she wasn’t a potential witness.

Denerstein, who is set to soon leave the administration, is scheduled to meet with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office sometime this month.

Abramowitz once served as an assistant deputy mayor in the city and was a chief of the criminal division in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office that is investigating Cuomo.
Cuomo’s office had no comment.

And just because one Moreland disclosure isn't enough tonight, Capital Confidential had another one:

Joseph Percoco, a longtime political aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, contacted several members of the state’s now-shuttered anti-corruption commission during the past week and encouraged them to make public statements supporting the governor and affirming the panel’s independence.

According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Percoco allegedly offered to provide draft statements to those he contacted, and in some cases encouraged them to communicate with him through private emails rather than using their government email accounts.

Monday’s flurry of statements from Moreland members prompted a warning Wednesday from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who is looking into allegations that the administration interfered with the panel’s investigations.

Percoco, who previously served as the governor’s executive deputy secretary, has worked for Cuomo’s re-election campaign committee for several months. A quiet but formidable lawyer, he has been a behind-the-scenes fixture in Cuomo’s inner circle for many years, including during his four years as state attorney general and in his earlier role as U.S. housing secretary.

Attempts to reach Percoco were not successful.

Percoco allegedly offered to provide draft statements to the Moreland Commission members he contacted, the one's he and his boss wanted to publicly support the governor and say that Cuomo did not tamper with the commission?

Geez, you just can't make that up, can you?

I'm not a lawyer, but isn't Percoco's offering to draft the statements the governor wanted the commission members to make witness tampering, as Stephen Gillers laid out in The Nation?

Bharara has a basis to investigate Cuomo himself and his aides. The statute would be 18 USC 1512(b) and possibly others. It is a crime to knowingly corruptly persuade another to keep information from an official proceeding. That's the Arthur Andersen case in the Supreme Court among others.

There is a sitting grand jury, which is an official proceeding, and former Commissioners must have been aware that they could be witnesses even if not yet subpoenaed.  Cuomo would also be so aware.

Bharara is warning Cuomo that any effort to coordinate a false story (of non-intervention) that these Commissioners would  tell the grand jury if called would be a federal crime. This is so even if their statements are so far only public statements,  even if the effort fails because the Commissioners don't testify. The statute forbids attempts.

Now, as I say, it may all be innocent. The Commissioners who spoke out, and who  prior to doing so may have been contacted by the governor's people to solicit their statements (Bharara says he "has reason to believe" they were), may have spoken truthfully with no "knowing corrupt  persuasion" at play.

But Monday's events put the governor is at risk in ways he was not before. The US obstruction statutes are incredibly broad. Whoever got the idea to coordinate the concurrent Commissioner statements, assuming there was coordination and not a coincidence,  and even if any such idea was entirely benign, may not have been aware of  what they were handing Bharara for investigation.

Again, I'm not a lawyer and I know Cuomo does this stuff all the time, having statements he wants other politicians and public figures make drafted for them.

But the difference here is, these commissioners may have to testify before a federal grand jury over whether Cuomo was meddling in their work for the Moreland Commission.

Starts to sound very much like tampering to me if Percoco gave the statements of support to those commissioners.

Everyone Hates Andrew

That's the takeaway from Maggie Haberman's Politico story on Andrew Cuomo:

As of mid-Thursday afternoon, no Democrats in the state had come forward with statements backing the governor, and party operatives were loath to discuss his case publicly. Many pols in his party have existed in fear of Cuomo since he won a race for state attorney general in 2006, outlived Eliot Spitzer politically and became the governor in 2010 with a pledge to tame Albany.

No Democratic operative contacted by POLITICO wanted to discuss the Cuomo issue on the record.

 “Are you kidding me? I’d get killed,” said one in-state operative, who gamely offered to speak at length on background.

Cuomo has governed the state Democratic Party with something of an iron fist, which many New Yorkers saw as a refreshing change after the Wild West atmosphere that marked Albany politics under his predecessors. But Cuomo’s approach has also earned him enemies who have seethed quietly.

Cuomo has done little to help other Democrats, even in his own state, typically only endorsing candidates in races when it becomes overwhelmingly clear that they will win. He has aligned himself with state Senate Republicans in the past, though that ended this spring, when he disavowed them as part of a public plea for support from the liberal Working Families Party. His approach gave him an aura of independence, but it’s leaving him politically isolated now.

The press, which has often felt bullied by him, appears emboldened to challenge him now that he faces the biggest crisis of his tenure

 Cautious to a fault, Cuomo is known to game out situations and scenarios endlessly, trying to see what pitfalls may lay around the corner. But as has been the case with others in the governor’s office in recent years, he suddenly seems to be overtaken by events.

As attorney general, Cuomo once investigated his predecessor Eliot Spitzer’s alleged use of state police for political purposes and was often accused of making tactical leaks in the case. Now Cuomo is learning, as Spitzer did, how lonely Albany can be.

“You can’t actually have everyone in the world hate you,” said one New York Democratic operative. “That was true with Eliot, true with Christie, and certainly true with Andrew.”

I've written this about Cuomo as I have written it about Christie:

These guys engender fear and hatred in everyone around them and while they're up and in control, that keeps people in line.

But once there's blood in the waters, all bets are off.

Now both Christie and Cuomo have federal prosecutors looking into them.

And while many politicos in both New Jersey and New York are waiting to see what happens in the legal sphere before jumping full-on to Christie and Cuomo, if either gets dinged legally, the sharks will circle and chomp.

And that goes for the press as well as the politicians.

The Sounds Of Silence In Albany

A comment at the NY Times:

Consider the deafening silence from our state legislators over this affair verses the fire storm in New Jersey when Gov. Christie was involved. When the Moreland group was decommissioned, a great sigh of relief was audible through the halls of the Legislative Office Building. Cuomo is being called on his behavior and Democrats have to wake up to the fact that they have a choice. Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu represent traditional Democratic values with 21st century plans. The Primary is in 39 days. Cuomo is vulnerable. He can be rejected. New York deserves a Governor who will engender trust and speaks truth to the entrenched power cliques. No one should have to hold their nose while voting Democrat.

I can't argue with any of that.

Cuomo and the Legislature, all in cahoots together to enrich themselves and maintain their power and privilege.

That's why Teachout/Wu have my support.

It's Always The Cover-Up

Blake Zeff on Twitter:

Reminder: It's always the cover-up http://t.co/P4D1Dn3zKw
— Blake Zeff (@blakezeff) July 31, 2014

Stephen Gillers in The Nation writes in an article entitled "Andrew Cuomo's Watergate?" that up until now, he didn't see much for US Attorney Preet Bharara to get Cuomo on, but after Cuomo's shenanigans this week stage-managing his defense, he thinks Cuomo gave Preet an opening:

Before Monday, I and others had been trying to figure out what statutes Bharara may have been looking at. Certainly, he could pursue evidence of corruption by state officials, including lawmakers, whom the Commission had been investigating before it was dismissed, and about which it had files.

But Cuomo's claim that he had a right to disband the Commission, because it was "my" Commission, did not seem to be a basis for federal investigation even if it was a politically foolish decision and defense.

Now,  Bharara has a basis to investigate Cuomo himself and his aides. The statute would be 18 USC 1512(b) and possibly others. It is a crime to knowingly corruptly persuade another to keep information from an official proceeding. That's the Arthur Andersen case in the Supreme Court among others.

There is a sitting grand jury, which is an official proceeding, and former Commissioners must have been aware that they could be witnesses even if not yet subpoenaed.  Cuomo would also be so aware.

Bharara is warning Cuomo that any effort to coordinate a false story (of non-intervention) that these Commissioners would  tell the grand jury if called would be a federal crime. This is so even if their statements are so far only public statements,  even if the effort fails because the Commissioners don't testify. The statute forbids attempts.

Now, as I say, it may all be innocent. The Commissioners who spoke out, and who  prior to doing so may have been contacted by the governor's people to solicit their statements (Bharara says he "has reason to believe" they were), may have spoken truthfully with no "knowing corrupt  persuasion" at play. 

But Monday's events put the governor is at risk in ways he was not before. The US obstruction statutes are incredibly broad. Whoever got the idea to coordinate the concurrent Commissioner statements, assuming there was coordination and not a coincidence,  and even if any such idea was entirely benign, may not have been aware of  what they were handing Bharara for investigation.

NY Times reporter Nicholas Confessore tweeted this earlier:

It is genuinely puzzling that Cuomo, a politician with so many ex-federal prosecutors in his kitchen cabinet, is messing this up so badly.
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) July 31, 2014

I think the answer for why that is happening is fairly obvious, given who Cuomo is:

@nickconfessore It's arrogance & hubris. He thinks he's untouchable, thinks he's smarter/tougher than anybody else.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) July 31, 2014

In Bharara, Cuomo seems to have met his match.

An Ominous Warning For Governor Cuomo

Mike Allen on The Morning Joe Show:

This is turning into a potentially defining episode for Governor Cuomo, who is of course up for re-election in November and is expected to easily be re-elected. But through all this bad press throughout the ethics commission, this bombshell story last week about how the governor's office had been said to have interfered, the trillion dollar question had been, what nobody was really sure of was, just how interested is the US Attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, in this? He had gotten a lot of documents, but how interested is he in this? Well, this morning we have the answer and the answer is very. The wording of this letter could not be more ominous for the governor. And what happened, just to connect a couple of dots there, the US attorney says in this letter that his office was contacted after these statements of support for Governor Cuomo and the suggestion was that they had been requested, that they had been asked for, maybe somebody had even been pressured to give these statements.

Michael Fiorillo here at Perdido Street School blog:

The vise is closing, and our Reptilian Governor's testicles are about to get caught in it.

It's gonna be sweet watching this awful facsimile of a human being go down...

Until early this morning, I wasn't so sure Bharara was really targeting Cuomo and his administration in his Moreland investigations.

Yes, there had been various signs that he might be heading there, but I didn't want to get ahead of the story - I learned my lesson well in the "Karl Rove sure to be indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald" story back during the Bush administration. 

But after the NY Times story went up around midnight, with Bharara warning Cuomo he would hit him with obstruction and witness tampering if he didn't lay off the intimidation and behind the scenes stage-managing, it finally hit me.

Preet Bharara really is going after Andrew Cuomo.

That letter was, as Allen said on Morning Joe today, "ominous for the governor."

Now who knows, maybe in the end Bharara decides no laws have been broken and Cuomo skates legally in all of this.

Nonetheless, the damage to his national profile has been considerable - Mike Allen again on Morning Joe:

Our sister site, Capital NY, has a story up by Laura Nahmias, pointing out that one problem Governor Cuomo is that there's kinda been a vacuum in his national image, he hasn't done a lot of interviews and this is filling that vacuum.

Can't wait for Cuomo's book tour in the fall - which may or may not happen, depending upon how bad this Moreland mess gets for him.

Cuomo Tries To Turn A Corner On Moreland Mess, Preet Says Not So Fast

Last night around 9:30 PM, Reuters posed the following story:

Exclusive: Cuomo intervened in BNP deal to get $1 billion more for NY state fund

(Reuters) - Only days before U.S. authorities reached a landmark $8.97 billion settlement with BNP Paribas over the bank’s dealings with countries subject to U.S. sanctions, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo intervened to ensure the state government got a much bigger share of the proceeds, according to three people familiar with the situation.

One of these people said Cuomo called Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, on June 27 to seek a big chunk of the $2.2 billion that was going to be available to Vance to tap for law enforcement projects.

Vance eventually agreed that $1.05 billion of the $2.2 billion would go into the state’s coffers because otherwise the whole deal could be jeopardized, this person said. The settlement was announced on Monday, June 30, after last-minute negotiations over the preceding weekend.

The state’s general fund was already set to receive $2.24 billion from a state regulator’s piece of the settlement, and the eleventh-hour deal pushed the state’s take up to $3.29 billion. That change was contained in a side agreement signed by Vance on June 29, and a lawyer for Cuomo on June 30.

After a week of getting beaten up on the airwaves (including The Daily Show and Morning Joe), in the papers (especially on the editorial pages) and on the Internet over the NY Times expose on Moreland, Andrew Cuomo finally surfaced on Monday in Buffalo to push back against the narrative that he had manipulated the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption.

Behind the scenes he engineered four similar statements backing him from Moreland Commissioners, including one by co-chair William Fitzpatrick (someone Cuomo elevated yesterday to "senior co-chair," though he was never called that before.)

Cuomo made another appearance yesterday, this time on Long Island, doing governor's stuff and dismissing efforts by his GOP opponent to make a big deal over Moreland as "entertaining."

Then came the BNP Paribas leak to Reuters that went up as a story last night, one that reflected well on Cuomo (and was meant to reflect well on Cuomo.)

You can see the strategy here - Cuomo, behind the scenes, calling Moreland Commissioners to solicit support and suggest what they should put in press statements that he wanted released on the same day he re-emerged from hiding over the Moreland mess, then pointing to those statements as proof positive that he hadn't meddled with the commission.

Then, to put an exclamation point on the whole thing, he has the BNP Paribas story, the one that makes him look good, leaked to Reuters, a way to try and counter the negative coverage he's been getting on The Daily Show and especially Morning Joe.

Just Andrew Cuomo being Andrew Cuomo, exerting influence, pulling strings, controlling things behind the scenes - in short, Cuomo back in the saddle, turning the corner on the Moreland story.

And then Preet Bahrara says not so fast and this story appears in the Times right around midnight:

In an escalation of the confrontation between the United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo over the governor’s cancellation of his own anticorruption commission, Mr. Bharara has threatened to investigate the Cuomo administration for possible obstruction of justice or witness tampering.

The warning, in a sharply worded letter from Mr. Bharara’s office, came after several members of the panel issued public statements defending the governor’s handling of the panel, known as the Moreland Commission, which Mr. Cuomo created last year with promises of cleaning up corruption in state politics but shut down abruptly in March.

Mr. Bharara’s office has been investigating the shutdown of the commission, and pursuing its unfinished corruption cases, since April.

 In the letter, sent late Wednesday afternoon to a lawyer for the panel, prosecutors alluded to a number of statements made by its members on Monday, which generally defended Mr. Cuomo’s handling of the commission. The statements were released on the same day Mr. Cuomo first publicly responded to a report in The New York Times that described how he and his aides had compromised the commission’s work.

At least some of those statements were prompted by calls from the governor or his emissaries, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation who were unwilling to be named for fear of reprisal.

One commissioner who received a call from an intermediary on behalf of the governor’s office said he found the call upsetting and declined to make a statement.

The letter from prosecutors, which was read to The New York Times, says, “We have reason to believe a number of commissioners recently have been contacted about the commission’s work, and some commissioners have been asked to issue public statements characterizing events and facts regarding the commission’s operation.”

“To the extent anyone attempts to influence or tamper with a witness’s recollection of events relevant to our investigation, including the recollection of a commissioner or one of the commission’s employees, we request that you advise our office immediately, as we must consider whether such actions constitute obstruction of justice or tampering with witnesses that violate federal law.” 

... 

The letter noted “the commissioners and the commission’s employees are important witnesses in this ongoing investigation, and information from those with personal knowledge of facts of the investigation is highly material to that investigation.”

The letter warned that tampering with the recollections of commission members or employees could be a crime, and directed them to preserve any records of “actual or attempted contact” along those lines.

So much for Sheriff Andy, back in the saddle, turning the corner on the Meddling in Moreland scandal.

In addition, Bharara very visibly lunched with State Attorney General Eric Scheniderman earlier in the week in a place they were sure to be seen, another message aimed at Cuomo from the US Attorney's office - Scheiderman is not a target of any investigation, but he may be helping out with our investigation into Moreland meddling.

Jimmy Vielkind tweeted the following this morning about Preet's warning to Cuomo:

In a letter, Preet Bharara warns Andrew Cuomo about being Andrew Cuomo http://t.co/AuPQJIFnuk
— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) July 31, 2014

Indeed, Cuomo is just doing here what he has done on every other issue/crisis - stage-managing it to go the way he wants.

The difference here is, Preet Bharara is having none of it.

Here was the coverage Cuomo got this morning on Morning Joe:

As the questions build over Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his staff’s involvement in the Moreland Commission corruption-busting panel, the flap has increasingly picked up national media.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this morning, the panelists warned about the increasing damage it could cause Cuomo after U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a letter warned the administration to not meddle with commission members who could be witnesses.

“There’s a serious cloud hanging over the governor’s mansion,” Ari Melber, a MSNBC co-host.

BNP Paribas/Cuomo back in control story?

What BNP Paribas/Cuomo back in control story?

So much for turning the corner on the Moreland mess.

US Attorney Warns Governor Cuomo Over Witness Tampering, Obstruction Of Justice Charges

The battle between US Attorney Preet Bharara and Governor Andrew Cuomo over the Moreland mess just got ratcheted up some more:

In an escalation of the confrontation between the United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo over the governor’s cancellation of his own anticorruption commission, Mr. Bharara has threatened to investigate the Cuomo administration for possible obstruction of justice or witness tampering.

The warning, in a sharply worded letter from Mr. Bharara’s office, came after several members of the panel issued public statements defending the governor’s handling of the panel, known as the Moreland Commission, which Mr. Cuomo created last year with promises of cleaning up corruption in state politics but shut down abruptly in March.

Mr. Bharara’s office has been investigating the shutdown of the commission, and pursuing its unfinished corruption cases, since April.

 In the letter, sent late Wednesday afternoon to a lawyer for the panel, prosecutors alluded to a number of statements made by its members on Monday, which generally defended Mr. Cuomo’s handling of the commission. The statements were released on the same day Mr. Cuomo first publicly responded to a report in The New York Times that described how he and his aides had compromised the commission’s work.

At least some of those statements were prompted by calls from the governor or his emissaries, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation who were unwilling to be named for fear of reprisal.

One commissioner who received a call from an intermediary on behalf of the governor’s office said he found the call upsetting and declined to make a statement.

The letter from prosecutors, which was read to The New York Times, says, “We have reason to believe a number of commissioners recently have been contacted about the commission’s work, and some commissioners have been asked to issue public statements characterizing events and facts regarding the commission’s operation.”

“To the extent anyone attempts to influence or tamper with a witness’s recollection of events relevant to our investigation, including the recollection of a commissioner or one of the commission’s employees, we request that you advise our office immediately, as we must consider whether such actions constitute obstruction of justice or tampering with witnesses that violate federal law.” ... 

The letter noted “the commissioners and the commission’s employees are important witnesses in this ongoing investigation, and information from those with personal knowledge of facts of the investigation is highly material to that investigation.”

The letter warned that tampering with the recollections of commission members or employees could be a crime, and directed them to preserve any records of “actual or attempted contact” along those lines.

Can't get any starker than that:

Preet to Sheriff Andy: Stop fucking around with the Moreland Commission witnesses and evidence or you're getting hit with witness tampering and obstruction charges.

This comes on top of Bharara lunching earlier in the week with Attorney General Scheiderman in a place where they were guaranteed to be seen:

At the height of Moreland madness, two of the most high profile players in this seemingly never-ending saga – US Attorney Preet Bharara and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman – met for a very public lunch in lower Manhattan yesterday, multiple sources confirm.

The Democratic duo was spotted lunching at City Hall Restaurant – an eatery favored by members of the New York City political set due to its proximity to (you guessed it) City Hall. Schneiderman and Bharara have known each other in a professional capacity for the past several years, but aren’t personal friends, according to a source familiar with their relationship.

It’s worth noting that Bharara, who is investigating the demise of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s now-defunct corruption-busting Moreland Commission, would probably not be seen in such a public place with Schneiderman if the attorney general was a target of that probe.

Given the role that Schneiderman played, however, through his agreement to deputize its 25 members to broaden their purview beyond the executive branch and loaning of top aides to staff the commission, it’s possible that he is providing information to the US attorney as the investigation progresses.

If it wasn't already clear before the events of this week, with Cuomo flailing away at a press conference on Monday, contradicting himself over his previous statements (and the official statement his administration gave to the NY Times in response to their Moreland piece) and now Bharara sending Cuomo a couple of not-so-subtle messages, it should be now:

The US Attorney is looking very, very closely at Governor Cuomo in these Moreland investigations and Sheriff Andy has no idea what to do about it.

Cuomo Getting Beaten Up By National Press

Laura Nahmias on Cuomo's press strategy around the Moreland mess:

The way the Moreland story took hold nationally following the bombshell Times piece may be of particular concern to Cuomo because the bad press fills something of a vacuum—while the governor is unusually energetic in his attempts to manage local press coverage, he has rarely engaged the national media since taking office, citing a desire to stay out of presidential speculation.

He’s given a handful of interviews on major news networks, mostly in the immediate aftermath of the New York area’s two recent major storms, Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy, and he gave select interviews to a few favored publications after he presided over a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in 2011. (In January 2013, he gave an exclusive interview to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow for Gotham magazine, a glossy publication where his sister-in-law Cristina Cuomo was once the editor in chief.) But those few instances have all been situations in which Cuomo was almost assured of uncritical, if not gushing, coverage.

Facing this potentially governorship-defining scandal, Cuomo has so far stuck to the strategy, holding a press conference in Buffalo with late notice to the press, and otherwise preferring to try and influence the coverage from behind the scenes.

Mocked on The Daily Show, mocked on The Morning Joe Clown Show - not exactly the re-election rollout Cuomo wanted.

And what does Cuomo do to try and change the trajectory of the coverage?

Why, make a phonecall and attempt to influence the story behind the scenes:

After a particularly brutal ten-minute segment on "Morning Joe" on Monday, in which Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough cited the details of a dead-to-rights Times investigation to compare Cuomo unfavorably to scandal-damaged New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Cuomo called Brzezinski privately to explain his side of the story, according to the co-host.

"I spoke to Governor Cuomo—most of it was off the record—last night about this, cause he saw our conversation—our heated conversation here on the show," said Brzezinski on Tuesday morning.

She said she was not swayed by the governor's rationale for not addressing the issue more publicly.

"I'd love for him to come on," she said. "It's one thing to do a press conference really far away, and I understand, and we talked about the different reasons why he doesn't really want to do a lot of interviews right now. But I'm wondering if he should, and if it would help a lot because it does seem incredibly defensive. I even was sort of pushing back, saying don't you understand what this looks like?"

This strategy of stage-managing coverage has worked well for Cuomo in New York so far - but it surely isn't going to work well on a national stage.

Mark Halperin told his fellow clowns on The Morning Joe Clown Show on Monday that the worst part about the coverage of this story for Cuomo is that it seems the national press doesn't take him very seriously as a 2016 candidate.

Halperin's point was, if this had been Christie, the national press would have been all over it.

But Cuomo?

Pretty much chuckles and a little mockery and that's about it.

I think Halperin makes a good point there and I think there's even a bigger point to make here.

Cuomo's press strategy post-NY Times/Moreland story suggests he shouldn't be taken seriously as a White House contender.

Does Cuomo really think he's going to be able to bully a national press corps on the phone/behind the scenes the way he does with some in New York?

Didn't seem to work well with Mika Brzezinski.

She went public with it instead.

Hard to see going forward how that strategy works nationally.

Have to wonder, did Cuomo call Jon Stewart to "explain" his side of the story as well?

And if so, will Stewart mock him for that too?

Here's Comes The "Health Care Savings" From City Workers

From the NY Times:

When Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his first labor agreements with New York City unions this spring, he was sharply criticized for granting long-awaited wage increases in exchange for promises of unspecified though sizable savings on health care expenses.

Now, some of the specifics are coming into focus: City officials and union leaders say they hope to push municipal workers to use walk-in clinics more and emergency rooms less, order generic drugs more often than brand-name ones, and buy them through the mail rather than at retail pharmacies to achieve bulk discounts.

The city hopes the unions will agree to steer workers to use centralized, cheaper centers for blood tests, X-rays or M.R.I.s, rather than having those tests performed in doctors’ offices or at costly physician-owned facilities. Patients who resist could face higher copayments, while savings would be passed on to the city in lower premiums.

The cost-cutting comes with high stakes: If the city and unions are unable to save a total of $3.4 billion on health care by 2018, a mediator will be empowered to order increases in workers’ premiums to cover the shortfall, officials said.

As an added inducement, if the unions help the city exceed that goal, the first $365 million in additional savings would be distributed as lump-sum bonuses to workers, officials said. Any savings beyond that would be split evenly between the city and its employees.

The Times article notes that de Blasio did not push for city workers to pay a percentage of salary toward health care contributions - unlike in some of the other union deals made lately:

Missing from the labor contracts with teachers and other city workers that were announced beginning in May was any requirement for union members to begin contributing toward their health insurance premiums. That prompted some critics to say Mr. de Blasio was not being tough enough at the bargaining table.

Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the unions representing 5,400 Long Island Rail Road employees agreed that those workers would begin paying 2 percent of their wages toward their health coverage.

But Mr. Linn said the city would gain far more by trimming health costs than by getting municipal workers to pay the same 2 percent of their wages toward their health premiums. That contribution, he said, would translate into $400 million a year.

“Look at it this way,” Mr. Linn said in an interview. “Isn’t it better to achieve savings so an employer pays $16,000 toward health coverage per worker, than to have a total cost of $20,000 per worker, with the employee contributing $2,000 of that?”

We'll see if the approach the unions took with de Blasio works or not.

The worst case scenario would be to make these cost-cutting moves, then still get stuck in 2018 with paying a percentage of salary to health care anyway.

One thing I know is, once you start paying a percentage of salary toward health care contributions, that contribution goes up every contract.

I think the LIRR union leaders were fools to have given what they gave in their contract - they ate their young on salary progression and pension payments AND they agreed to have workers pay 2% of salary toward health care.

You can bet that 2% of salary for health care will go up next contract - and every contract after that.

The municipal contracts give the city an opening to make workers pay a percentage of salary toward health care - but only if the $3.4 billion in "health care savings" isn't hit by 2018.

The Times reports the "savings" calculation will work this way:

Labor leaders and city officials began the talks on health care cuts in mid-July and are to meet again in early August, with the goal of agreeing on $400 million in health savings this year, $700 million next year, $1 billion the year after that and $1.3 billion in fiscal 2018, for a total of $3.4 billion.

Finally de Blasio labor guy Bob Linn tells the Times the de Blasio approach to health care savings is better than getting workers to pay into health care:

Mr. Linn said some critics of the administration seemed preoccupied with getting employees to pay toward their health insurance premiums, while underestimating workers’ ability to embrace cost-saving, innovative approaches to their health care.

Before joining Mr. de Blasio’s administration, Mr. Linn was a consultant who helped restructure health care services for 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, the giant health care union. He said he was using that deal, which includes central blood and imaging labs, generic drugs and mail-in prescriptions, as a model.

The city’s new agreements create strong incentives for the unions to find savings.

If the prospect of lump-sum bonuses does not do the trick and the unions fail to agree to steps that reach the savings target, then the mediator in the contract dispute with the teachers, Martin F. Scheinman, is to step in and order cost-saving measures to reach that goal. Those measures could include requiring the workers to contribute to their premiums for the first time.

Carol Kellermann, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said the potential bonuses could be an important catalyst. 

“We haven’t tried it before,” Ms. Kellermann said. “I think it will motivate the managers of the unions. There’s nothing like getting your members a bonus.”

Mr. Linn said many New Yorkers underestimated the potential benefits of collective bargaining.

“Our approach is, how do you get people to work together and find common interests to achieve savings?” he said. 

“We’ve created a system in which labor and management have a joint incentive to achieve health savings.”

It behooves us to watch closely and see what happens here.

Common Core Proponents Mount - Yet Again - A Public Relations Offensive

Politico's Stephanie Simon writes that Common Core Federal Standards proponents are putting together a new P.R. offensive:

Supporters of the Common Core academic standards have spent big this past year to persuade wavering state legislators to stick with the new guidelines for math and language arts instruction. Given the firestorm of opposition that took them by surprise, they consider it a victory that just five states, so far, have taken steps to back out.

...

But in a series of strategy sessions in recent months, top promoters of the standards have concluded they’re losing the broader public debate — and need to devise better PR.

...

So, backed with fresh funding from philanthropic supporters, including a $10.3 million grant awarded in May from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, supporters are gearing up for a major reboot of the Common Core campaign.

“We’ve been fighting emotion with talking points, and it doesn’t work,” said Mike Petrilli, executive vice president of the Fordham Institute, a leading supporter of the standards. “There’s got to be a way to get more emotional with our arguments if we want to win this thing. That means we have a lot more work to do.”

Step one: Get Americans angry about the current state of public education.

To that end, expect to start hearing from frustrated college students who ended up in remedial classes even though they passed all their state tests and earned good grades in high school. “These kids should be as mad as hell” that the system failed them, Petrilli said.

Expect poignant testimonials, too, from business owners who have tried to hire kids from the local high school only to find they can’t do tasks involving basic math, such as separating out two-thirds of a pile of lumber.

Step two: Get voters excited about the prospects of change. Teachers who like the standards are going to be sharing more concrete examples of benefits they see in their classrooms. Groups representing minority students will likely be more vocal, too. The National Council of La Raza, for instance, is promoting a new video featuring a little girl who credits the standards with teaching her the word “whimsical.”

And there will be a whole lot more from the pro-Common Core side on social media, including Pinterest pages full of student work. A coming Twitter blitz will aim to stir up buzz for a new video that tracks a debate between four people who at first seem to want very different things from their schools — but end up discovering they all support the standards. The video, produced by an Arizona coalition, doesn’t once mention the well-worn talking points “academic rigor” or “international benchmarks.”

“The Common Core message so far has been a head message. We’ve done a good job talking about facts and figures. But we need to move 18 inches south and start talking about a heart message,” said Wes Farno, executive director of the Higher State Standards Partnership, a coalition supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable.

In short, expect lots of emotional manipulation in the coming wave of corporate-funded pro-CCSS ads and social media blitz.

The ironic thing is, we just heard two months back about how Common Core proponents were sick of losing the message war over Common Core and were devising a corporate-funded pro-CCSS ad campaign to change the trajectory of the war:

ALBANY—Critics of the Common Core in New York have been winning the debate about the controversial education standards, but now they'll face a counterattack backed by a considerable investment.

High Achievement New York, a nonprofit coalition of mostly business groups, plans to launch a roughly $500,000 phone and digital advertising campaign over the next several weeks in an attempt to promote the controversial curriculum standards.

...

While most of the coalition members are business groups, including several chambers of commerce, the membership also includes advocacy groups that have been vocal in supporting the Common Core and other education reforms, including Educators4Excellence and StudentsFirstNY. The latter has been a major supporter of charter schools.

A spokesman for High Achievement New York would not disclose information about the nonprofit's finances. The spokesman said the bulk of the funding will be grants from philanthropic organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Helmsley Charitable Trust. The group has applied for grants and expects to receive them.

 
Guess the localized ad offensive in New York didn't take, eh?

Judging by the latest Siena poll released last week in which 49% of New Yorkers said they want to see Common Core implementation ended, that pro-CCSS ad blitz did not take.
 

So now it's on to a national ad campaign and social media blitz, one aimed at the "heart" and not the "head" (i.e., one meant to manipulate heart strings.)

I dunno, pro-CCSS groups have a lot of corporate backing and thus a lot of money to throw around.

But I think the messaging war has already been lost long ago.

CCSS proponents were arrogant from the start, they imposed the standards with little input or say from the public, they tried to marginalize critics as "kooks" and "tinfoil hatters" rather than admit to any problems with the Core or the ancillary reforms that came with it, and they never responded well to charges that a coterie of wealthy business interests and individuals were the primary backers and proponents of the CCSS reforms.

Now Common Core supporters think they can win back the hearts, if not the minds, of Americans through an ad campaign and social media blitz funded by the very coterie of wealthy business interests critics and opponents have pointed out were behind the CCSS reform agenda in the first place?

Good luck with that.

I'm not saying manipulation and propaganda can't win a message war.

But they have to be deployed early enough, often enough and skillfully enough, and to be honest, Common Core proponents and supporters didn't do any of those things.

War's over, folks.

You could see that clearly in the response to Glenn Beck's anti-CCSS national townhall last week as well as how quickly even blue states like New York have turned against the Core.

Christine Quinn Looks For Commissionership In Second Cuomo Term

You just can't keep a corrupt politician down:

Astute political watchers noticed when former mayoral candidate Christine Quinn attended a recent women’s press conference at City Hall in support of Gov. Cuomo’s candidate for Lt. Governor, Kathy Hochul.

Quinn has been keeping a low profile since her primary loss to Bill de Blasio, who was able to carry the gay vote even though Quinn is an out and proud lesbian.

Sources say the former city council speaker is expecting a commissionership from Cuomo if, as expected, he is re-elected. But she has avoided campaigning in the gay community, where some activists still hold a grudge against her for not pushing the gay agenda hard enough.

What exactly would Christine Quinn do for Andrew Cuomo that he would give her a commissionership in his second term?

Connections to the crooks in real estate?

Cuomo's already got that.

Help in the gay comunity?

Cuomo already has high numbers in the gay community as a consequence of his pushing marriage equality - plus many in the gay community despise Chris Quinn, as the Post piece notes.

I get that Cuomo likes to surround himself with crooks and liars like Quinn, hatchet people who will do his bidding and are beholden to him.

So maybe that's what Cuomo gets out of hiring Quinn for his administration.

She'll fit right in with so many others there.

In any case, it would be nice if Quinn just went back to the rock she's been hiding under since the election and give new, fresh crooks a chance at politics.

Hey, maybe that's what Quinn can do for Andy?

You know, find him hiding places.

Because it seems after re-emerging yesterday to declare the Moreland Commission a "phenomenal success!", he went back into hiding today:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City and the New York City “area” today with no public schedule. 

That must be it - Quinn will be hired for a second Cuomo administration and bring fresh ideas for places Sheriff Andy can hide in.

Moreland Mess: The Parade Of The Browbeaten

Michael Powell on Twitter:

The Parade of the Browbeaten. Various NYS Democrats issue Press Releases Hailing Moreland Commission and Himself.
— Michael Powell (@powellnyt) July 28, 2014

And indeed, that's what we got today from former Moreland Commission members as well - a coordinated PR effort, starting with a long statement released by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick:

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick released a lengthy statement on Monday insisting the Moreland Commission To Investigate Public Corruption made decisions independent of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, though he confirmed a top aide to the governor sought input on the panel.

In the same four-page statement released on his office’s letterhead, Fitzpatrick said the commission “was not an independent prosecutorial agency” that couldn’t make arrests or convene grand juries.

...

The statement from Fitzpatrick today comes as Cuomo is due to appear in Buffalo this morning to make an unrelated economic-development announcement.

Then Cuomo made his long-awaited statements about Moreland this morning that - lo and behold - referenced Fitzpatrick's :

Throughout the back-and-forth with Buffalo and limited Albany media, Cuomo stuck to his guns and didn’t waver from his stance that the commission was a success and that there wasn’t interference from his office; rather, conversations and dialogue were just that.

“The Moreland Commission was a phenomenal success,” Cuomo said. “It generated all sorts of interest in the behavior of the Legislature. It brought all sorts of cases that have actually come to fruition. And it was, I believe the stimulus to get the ethics reform passed that we got passed. And the ethics reform bill is great.”

...

The governor said the panel accomplished what it was set out to do: help devise new stronger ethics laws.

Cuomo said the commission took guidance from many people, held hearings and spoke to the Senate, Assembly and Executive Chamber.

“No one ever said they shouldn’t be talking to people or get advice or consultation from people. They should be independent,” he said. “And the co-chair today says, ‘I was 100 percent independent. I made the decisions. Did I talk to people? Or course I talked to people. It would be unintelligent not to talk to people. But I made all the decisions.’”

Earlier Monday morning, commission Co-Chair William Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney, sent out a three-page statement defending the commission, his role in the commission and the governor’s handling of the commission.

Cuomo said the best example of independence was Fitzpatrick deciding to send a subpoena the second floor did not want the commission to send. The New York Times detailed to a subpoena sent to an media-buying firm that initially was withdrawn at the behest of the governor’s office but later went out anyway.

But the Parade of the Browbeaten backing Cuomo up wasn't done yet:

Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen disputed reports that he threatened to resign over frustration with the governor’s office involvement with the now-defunct Moreland Commission.

Mollen said he knew that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office would have input in the panel’s direction, but he backed up statements today by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick that the commission was ultimately independent.

 “I never had any quarrel or misunderstanding that the governor and his people would provide advice, support and input on what we were doing,” Mollen said in an interview today with Gannett’s Albany Bureau. “But I also always believed that we had absolute independence to go wherever the commission wanted and the governor could not stop us if we choose to go somewhere.”

Mollen was mentioned in the New York Times investigation Wednesday that he was among district attorneys that threatened to resign over the intervention of Cuomo’s office in seeking to direct who was issued subpoenas by the panel.

“I always had the opportunity to be heard with the commissioners and chairpersons,” Mollen said. “I always had the opportunity to express my viewpoint. Sometimes it was accepted, sometimes it was not. But I never came to a point where I said, ‘Look it, we’re going to do this or else I’m going to resign or we should resign.’”

The Parade of the Browbeaten continued later in Rockland County:

Last week, Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe declined comment on the role Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office played in the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption’s now-defunct investigation, citing an ongoing probe by the U.S. Attorney’s office into the commission’s abrupt shutdown.

On Monday, Zugibe apparently changed his mind.

Hours after Gov. Andrew Cuomo publicly addressed claims in a lengthy New York Times investigation published last week, Zugibe issued a three-paragraph statement denying he ever threatened to resign from the Moreland Commission. The Times reported Zugibe, a Democrat who was one of the panel’s 25 members, had discussed leaving the Moreland Commission amid frustrations caused by Cuomo’s office’s interference with its work.

“At no time during my tenure with the Commission did I ever threaten to resign from the Moreland Commission,” Zugibe said in the statement. “This blue ribbon group under the guidance of the co-chairs did incredible work, recommending substantive policy changes and pursuing investigations that would strengthen ethical standards and provide comprehensive oversight. I am proud of the work we accomplished through this landmark effort to practice and promote the highest standards of ethical behavior in New York State government.”

Zugibe’s statement mirrors comments Monday from Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen, who also said he never threatened to quit the Moreland Commission. (The Times’ story doesn’t say the commissioners “threatened” to quit the Moreland Commission, but rather “discussed” it.)

The statement strikes a different tone than comments Zugibe gave to Gannett’s Albany Bureau earlier this year.

In May, Zugibe was critical of the package of laws Cuomo agreed to in exchange for disbanding the commission a month prior. Those laws included tougher bribery penalties and a more-independent office to investigate election-law violations, but didn’t include several recommendations of the Moreland Commission—including the closing of a loophole allowing individuals and companies to flout campaign-contribution limits by opening multiple limited liability companies.

“I cannot fathom when the governor sent over the recommended legislation, why would they negotiate out the LLC loophole or the limitations on the housekeeping accounts?” Zugibe said in May. “Did their constituents want that? Of course not. It was self-preservation.”

And then the parade finished up in Erie County:

Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita in a statement on Monday said no one, to his knowledge, threatened to quit the Moreland Commission To Investigate Public Corruption over concerns of gubernatorial involvement.

Sedita, in his statement, said the commission wouldn’t stand for any interference from the governor’s office and resignation was discussed as possibility.
But after the governor’s office agreed to not interfere with the work of the panel, the resignation talk stopped.

“In the summer of 2013, rumors began to circulate that members of the Governor’s Office sought to veto the issuance of subpoenas for those with political ties to him,” Sedita said. “Although we recognized our statutory duty to regularly report to the Governor and to the Attorney General, we would not stand for any interference, and discussed a number of options, including resignation. The Governor’s Office, through our commission chairs, agreed not to interfere with our work. No one, to my knowledge, threatened to resign.”

Why was Cuomo MIA for five days after the NY Times published their Moreland story?

He was putting together the Parade of the Browbeaten, that's why.

You have to wonder just what he's got on these people that they're tying themselves into pretzels to back him up.

Whatever it is, it must be really good - or bad, depending upon your perspective.

Unless of course this was all coincidence and these men decided to make these statements today, on the very same day Cuomo was surfacing to defend himself, because some strange alignment in the universe we don't yet understand compelled them to do so:

I'm sure it's coincidence multiple Moreland members decided to put out similar statements today, 5 days after NYT published its report.
— Jon Campbell (@JonCampbellGAN) July 28, 2014

Yeah, that must be it.

In any case, who doesn't love a parade?

Cuomo Says Moreland Commission Was "A Phenomenal Success"

Matthew Hamilton at Capitol Confidential:

Throughout the back-and-forth with Buffalo and limited Albany media, Cuomo stuck to his guns and didn’t waver from his stance that the commission was a success and that there wasn’t interference from his office; rather, conversations and dialogue were just that.

“The Moreland Commission was a phenomenal success,” Cuomo said. “It generated all sorts of interest in the behavior of the Legislature. It brought all sorts of cases that have actually come to fruition. And it was, I believe the stimulus to get the ethics reform passed that we got passed. And the ethics reform bill is great.”

...

The governor said the panel accomplished what it was set out to do: help devise new stronger ethics laws.

Cuomo said the commission took guidance from many people, held hearings and spoke to the Senate, Assembly and Executive Chamber.

“No one ever said they shouldn’t be talking to people or get advice or consultation from people. They should be independent,” he said. “And the co-chair today says, ‘I was 100 percent independent. I made the decisions. Did I talk to people? Or course I talked to people. It would be unintelligent not to talk to people. But I made all the decisions.’”

Earlier Monday morning, commission Co-Chair William Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney, sent out a three-page statement defending the commission, his role in the commission and the governor’s handling of the commission.

Cuomo said the best example of independence was Fitzpatrick deciding to send a subpoena the second floor did not want the commission to send. The New York Times detailed to a subpoena sent to an media-buying firm that initially was withdrawn at the behest of the governor’s office but later went out anyway.

Various Twitter commentators pointed out problems with Cuomo's statements today:

Cuomo pitches Moreland as a go-between in negotiation of ethics package. If so, this was a part of its mandate that was never announced.
— Capitol Confidential (@TUCapCon) July 28, 2014

Cuomo calls Fitzpatrick “the definitive source” on Moreland independence. But Fitzpatrick hasn’t disputed any facts in @nytimes story.
— Capitol Confidential (@TUCapCon) July 28, 2014

In Buffalo today, Gov. Cuomo suggests the Moreland Commission WAS independent. Last week, his office said it wasn't: http://t.co/Vl2LenJDC6
— Jon Campbell (@JonCampbellGAN) July 28, 2014

#Cuomo should get his story straight for the feds. At first the commission was independent, then last week it wasn't, now it was. #weboflies
— Kieran Michael Lalor (@KieranLalor) July 28, 2014

Short of it is, Cuomo made sure there is no video of the back and forth with reporters over Moreland, so he doesn't have to worry about this showing up on the evening news.

And we remain with a scandal that involves no hookers, no bridge closures, and no state troopers being used for political payback.

Thus, Cuomo hopes the political waters are muddied enough that this doesn't hurt him much politically in November.

Of course, none of that matters to US Attorney Preet Bharara and what he's looking at in his investigation.

And as was pointed out:

@maslowsneeds @TimWBEN @NewsRadio930 @NYGovCuomo They are as we tweet! Grand jury convened today!
— Seema Kalia (@seemakalia) July 28, 2014

I think that's where this is right now.

Cuomo muddying the political waters as best he can but unable to do much about the criminal justice side of things.

Cuomo Says He Disappeared To Finish His Book

Here's Governor Cuomo explaining why he has been MIA for seven straight days, five of those coming after the NY Times/Moreland expose:

Cuomo: "I'm in the middle of writing a book."
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 28, 2014

Cuomo says "it's really, really difficult" to write a book.
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 28, 2014

Here's the video:




There you have it.

NY Post: Cuomo "Paralyzed" And "Humiliated" By Moreland Mess

Fred Dicker in his Monday column:

Gov. Cuomo’s reputation has been severely damaged and his chances of running for president destroyed by revelations that he interfered with the Moreland Commission’s efforts to probe political corruption, influential Democrats have told The Post.

The Democrats, who called the disclosures in last week’s New York Times “a political game changer” and a “Cuomo nightmare,’’ said the scandal would also provide the first real boost to the campaign of Cuomo’s long-shot Republican rival, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.

...

Insiders described Cuomo as “humiliated’’ and “paralyzed’’ and unable to develop a strategy to respond.

“If Cuomo had a good argument to make he’d make it, but he doesn’t know what to do,’’ said a source close to the governor.

Ken Lovett reports that the Jon Stewart Daily Show "takedown" of Cuomo has been the most "devastating" hit he's taken politically:

Of the slew of bad coverage Cuomo suffered last week after the Times story hit, none may have been more devastating than his takedown by Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show."

Stewart, in his lead segment Thursday, listed a host of recent Albany corruption scandals and then ran numerous videos of Cuomo vowing to clean up Albany, his creation of the commission to do so, and then his disbanding of it.

Stewart focused on Cuomo’s original vow that the body would be independent before more recently saying that the panel couldn’t realistically look into him because he appointed it.

“I really hope there’s nothing to this because New York’s governors have two halls — Shame and Fame," Stewart quipped. “One of them is very crowded.”

A source close to Cuomo admitted the jibe from Stewart — a reliable liberal — hurt.

"Having it on Stewart's show takes it from being just a discussion among the political chattering class to the general public nationally," acknowledged the source. "Stewart's audience is the type of people (Cuomo) needs."

Until last week, Cuomo frequently touted the state's turnaround by noting that state government is no longer the target of late-night comedians as it had been under scandal-scarred predecessors Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson.

Cuomo has been out of the public eye for seven straight days now, though this on tap for today:

As expected, Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be at the University at Buffalo South Campus in Buffalo to make an economic development announcement at 10 a.m.

It will be interesting to see what statements he makes about the NY Times/Moreland story and if he takes questions from the press.

I don't think he can make an appearance in public and not address the story in some way, so I would expect him to make some kind of statement about the mess.

But I also don't think he's going to want to subject himself to a feeding frenzy of press questions over Moreland, so I'm betting that there may be one or two questions from the press that he takes after his statement at most, then he'll be off to some "pressing engagement" elsewhere.

If Fred Dicker has it right, that means returning to his darkened room and brooding in private over how to handle this "nightmare."

Andrew Cuomo Held Hostage: Day Seven

It's been seven days since Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has been seen in in public, five days since the NY Times published its expose on Cuomo's Moreland Commission machinations:

… And on the 7th day, he once again had no public events: Sunday marks a week since @NYGovCuomo poked head up. An administration record?
— Capitol Confidential (@TUCapCon) July 27, 2014

For all out there wondering when the governor might finally resurface post-Times/Moreland story, this news broke this morning:

1st post-NYT Moreland article appearance for @NYGovCuomo: Tomorrow, UB Main Street campus 10am. @WGRZ
— Steve Brown (@WGRZ_SteveBrown) July 27, 2014

.@NYGovCuomo public appearance tentatively set for Buffalo Monday AM at UB.1st since Moreland scandal re-broke last wk.
— Tom Precious (@TomPreciousALB) July 27, 2014

Key word for the Cuomo appearance is that it's "tentatively" scheduled.

There has been some conjecture on Twitter on when the UB appearance was first scheduled and whether it's still on or not.

One thing we know is, whether Cuomo makes an appearance at UB tomorrow or shows up somewhere else, that appearance will be tightly controlled and press access limited.

Cuomo already has the rep of making sure nothing gets asked that he doesn't want asked at his public appearances.

You can bet post-Times/Moreland that he will double down on that tight control.

After staying out of sight for seven straight days, what Cuomo most wants is to make an appearance and get the "In Hiding" and "Cuomo Held Hostage" memes off the Internet.

But he wants to do this while making sure he has to answer nothing of substance at whatever public appearance he makes.

Campbell Brown Uses A Paid Organizer Of StudentsFirstNY As The Face Of Her Tenure/Seniority Lawsuit

From the Daily News:

Seven families will file suit Monday to end teacher tenure in the fiercest attack yet on job protections enjoyed by New York State educators.

The families, including five from some of the most impoverished communities in the city, claim their children were underserved in school due to incompetent teachers who only kept their jobs because of tenure rules that violate kids’ constitutional right to a sound, basic education.

The lawsuit will be filed in Albany and is backed by the politically connected journalist-turned-education advocate, Campbell Brown.

“There’s no reason why my kids should not be reading on grade level. The law should be changed,” said Nina Doster, 33, of South Ozone Park, Queens. The mother of five is a plaintiff in the suit and also a paid organizer for the StudentsFirstNY advocacy group.

“Every child should be subject to the best education and teaching in every classroom,” she said.

One of the plaintiffs is on the StudentsFirstNY payroll as an organizer?

Doesn't that set up at least the appearance of a conflict of interest in the case?

I mean, this parent is part of a lawsuit that is financially backed by the same financial interests that back StudentsFirstNY.

In any case, Brown's lawsuit here in New York is going to have a rougher road than the Vergara lawsuit in California.

But observers say it will take much more than just education horror stories to win the case.

Brown “has to prove inequity, inadequacy and causation — that the different legal constellation in New York causes the learning issues that we see throughout the state,” said David Bloomfield an education professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Are teacher tenure and seniority rules the reasons why Ms. Doster's kids are not reading on grade level?

And do teacher tenure and seniority rules lead to systemic problems around the state that cause learning issues like this?

That's what Brown and her cohort have to prove.

To my mind, that they're using a paid organizer for StudentsFirstNY as one of the faces of that lawsuit to prove that says a lot about the legitimacy of the lawsuit.

Ironically, the former head of StudentsFirstNY was Micah Lasher, Mayor Bloomberg's former liason in Albany.

So now what we have here is a woman who works for an organization that was led by Michah Lasher, a Bloomberg crony, suing over teacher tenure and seniority rules in the NYC school system that supposedly caused her children learning problems while Michael Bloomberg was running the system and Michah Lasher was pushing his agenda in Albany.

To make matters worse, we don't know who Campbell Brown's donors are and she refuses to reveal the list, but it is thought that the education reform-friendly Bloomberg may have donated to her cause, as he has donated to StudentsFirst, the parent group of StudentsFirstNY in the past.

I dunno, I'm not a lawyer but it seems to me there are all kinds of conflict of interest problems with that part of the suit.