DISHONORED GUEST: Assemblyman Charles Lavine has asked Speaker Sheldon Silver (above) to his fund-raiser, even as Lavine co-chairs an ethics probe of Silver. (Shannon DeCelle)
DISHONORED GUEST: Assemblyman Charles Lavine (right) has asked Speaker Sheldon Silver to his fund-raiser, even as Lavine co-chairs an ethics probe of Silver. (
)
This is what passes for ethics in Albany: The co-chairman of a commission reviewing a 58-page report on disgraced Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s sexual harassment, and Speaker Sheldon Silver’s attempted cover-up, is having a fund-raiser next week — featuring Silver as the “honored guest.”
Assemblyman Charles Lavine (D-LI) even notes on the invite that he chairs the Assembly’s Ethics Committee.
“This is a very common practice done in the New York State Assembly, and I very much value the friendship and the leadership of the speaker,” Lavine told the Post yesterday when asked about the fund-raiser. “I’m very honored that he agreed to be a featured guest.”
Lavine also co-chairs the Legislative Ethics Commission, which received the Lopez report two weeks ago and will determine which sanctions — if any — to order. Earlier in the week, Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan asked the commission to put the report on hold while his office continues a criminal investigation of the case.
Good-government groups say having Silver headline the March 5 fund-raiser in Albany will make any conclusion that the commission reaches appear biased.
But the appearance already exists, based on the way the ethics commission is set up — Lavine was appointed to the panel by Silver.
“People are not showing up to fund-raisers because they like legislators; they show up because they want influence,” said Bill Mahoney, of the government-watchdog group NYPIRG. “The current system only provides incentive for members to be loyal to their leadership.”
Lavine was elected to the Legislature in 2004 on a “Fix Albany” campaign. But since then, he has fallen in line, voting to re-elect Silver as speaker and now using him as rainmaker to fill his campaign coffers.
“Fund-raising is necessary,” said Lavine, a proponent of publicly-financed elections. “Until I can persuade my more conservative colleagues to go along with what is common sense, then I am one Democrat who will raise money, and will continue to do so within the confines of the law and within the confines of good faith.”
Lavine declined to comment on the report and whether the committee would keep it under wraps while the DA investigates.
Silver has called for the release of the report, which his spokesman says clears him, but sources have said it is still critical of Silver for negotiating a secret, $103,000, taxpayer-funded settlement with two of Lopez’s accusers.
“We’re confident that the commission has found no legal or ethical violation by Speaker Silver or his staff,” said Silver spokesman Michael Whyland. “The Speaker, as leader of the Democratic Conference, routinely allows members to use his name for fundraising purposes.”
Silver stripped Lopez of the powerful Housing Committee chairmanship and later said he was wrong to keep the transaction a secret.