ALBANY — With Albany reeling from the corruption conviction of former Senate boss Joe Bruno, key lawmakers yesterday introduced a measure slapping an ironclad ban on using state workers for personal business.
The issue was thrust to the forefront when longtime Bruno secretary Patricia Stackrow admitted on the witness stand that she handled much of the senator’s private business affairs from his Senate office.
Several Senate lawyers also testified that they helped Bruno vet and draft outside consulting deals that allowed him to amass some $3.2 million over 13 years.
The bill, sponsored by Sens. Daniel Squadron of Brooklyn and Eric Schneiderman of Manhattan, would bar state officials from using “property, services or other resources of the state in an amount greater than nominal value for private business.”
The current law is full of loopholes, the lawmakers said.
“The law must be more explicit,” Squadron told The Post.
“Federal courts shouldn’t be the only place where these issues get addressed. We need state laws.”
A federal jury convicted Bruno Monday of two felony counts for collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees from an Albany-area man who had business before the state.
During the trial, Stackrow told jurors that her duties as the Senate majority leader’s $100,000-a- year state secretary included everything from balancing Bruno’s checkbooks to filling out his Christmas lists.
Stackrow testified that most mail from Bruno’s private businesses came to his Senate office.
The secretary was so angry about the treatment she received from the senator that she skimmed money from his accounts, she said.
Bruno’s lawyers argued that Stackrow did most of Bruno’s private work on her own time.
Yesterday, staffers from both the Assembly and Senate met to negotiate a compromise on a more sweeping ethics-reform package, also sponsored by Schneiderman and Squadron.
Senate spokesman Austin Shafran said the chamber’s Democratic majority hopes to bring that bill to a vote by mid-January.
“We want a firm stance on reform from Day One of the legislative session,” Shafran said. “We want to make this our first significant achievement of the new year.”