Originally Posted by
gshowell
Intern policy sparks dust-up
GOP critic points to hiring as evidence of double standard in Assembly
By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau
Monday, May 14, 2007
ALBANY -- Assembly Republicans suspect Democrats who control the chamber are applying a double standard on how they deal with members who fraternize with interns.
Democrats say the Republican allegations are "a stretch."
The questions arise in the wake of a probe and sanctions against Republican Assemblyman Michael Cole of Alden, who was was publicly reprimanded and stripped of his ranking minority member title and $9,000 stipend after a unanimous recommendation from the bipartisan ethics committee. Democratic Speaker Sheldon Silver implemented the recommendations.
Cole was censured for fraternizing with a 21-year-old female intern at an Albany sports bar and spending the night at her Albany apartment to sleep off his heavy drinking. The young woman was fired, said Intern Committee Chairman Ronald Canestrari.
Unscathed was Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, who arranged the April 16 outing that drew Cole and the woman to Legends to root for the Buffalo Sabres in a playoff game. Hoyt, along with other Assembly members, attended the gathering. So did Hoyt's former intern, William B. Wadsworth.
Wadsworth had became Hoyt's committee clerk on March 22, payroll records show, making $1,600 every two weeks. He'd been an intern since Jan. 2, making $450 every two weeks.
William Sherman, chief of staff for Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, said Assembly Republicans have been told they cannot hire their interns when their internship ends, at least not until after the legislative session is over. At most, he said, those interns can be kept on as paid interns, subject to the anti-fraternization rules.
Hoyt, he said, got a break -- and got around the rules -- in being able to hire an intern midsession.
"It appears there's a potential for a coverup here," Sherman said.
Assembly employee rules say interns retain the title of intern for the remainder of the session "if employment is extended beyond the semester" -- typically the end of April or early May, said Silver spokeswoman Sisa Moyo.
The anti-fraternization policy, begun in 2004, adds that Assembly "employees" and interns who have prior existing relationships before the internship began are exempt from the policy. The exemption doesn't include Assembly "members."
But Wadsworth, Moyo said, was a different case, because he left the intern program before finishing it. That allowed him to be hired and no longer treated as an intern.
Hoyt said he he has known Wadsworth, 22, and his parents for years and treats him like a nephew. He said he specifically asked Silver for the ability to hire Wadsworth after Silver appointed him chairman of the Local Governments Committee.
Canestrari said the complaints by Republicans "are a stretch" and called them "nonsense."
"If they have the resources, they can hire who they want to hire," he said.
Sherman doesn't see it that way.
"We're concerned about this in that I was told personally by the counsel for the speaker that an intern may not be hired for anything other than being an intern during the session," Sherman said. He noted that Wadsworth's pay, worth $41,600 on an annual basis, is more than associate counsels in the minority are paid.
Canestrari pointed out that an intern for the minority's central staff was allowed to be promoted to an employee last year midsession. But Sherman said that since the rules took effect in 2004, no intern working directly for an Assembly minority member has been allowed a promotion after the internship ended during session, despite requests.
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Unscathed was Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, who arranged the April 16 outing that drew Cole and the woman to Legends to root for the Buffalo Sabres in a playoff game. Hoyt, along with other Assembly members, attended the gathering. So did Hoyt's former intern, William B. Wadsworth.
Wadsworth had became Hoyt's committee clerk on March 22, payroll records show, making $1,600 every two weeks. He'd been an intern since Jan. 2, making $450 every two weeks.
William Sherman, chief of staff for Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, said Assembly Republicans have been told they cannot hire their interns when their internship ends, at least not until after the legislative session is over. At most, he said, those interns can be kept on as paid interns, subject to the anti-fraternization rules.
Hoyt, he said, got a break -- and got around the rules -- in being able to hire an intern midsession.
"It appears there's a potential for a coverup here," Sherman said.
There are standards and rules and it APPEARS they may have been violated.
Here's a question I'd like answered:
Cole was censured for fraternizing with a 21-year-old female intern at an Albany sports bar and spending the night at her Albany apartment to sleep off his heavy drinking. The young woman was fired, said Intern Committee Chairman Ronald Canestrari.
Cole broke the rules. He fraternized with an intern. Why was the Intern fired? Is that in the rules.
If so...
Why are the penalties for Assemblymen censure, fines, and loss of rank, while the penalties for Interns firing?
Wouldn't it be fairer if the Assemblyman was fired too?