While Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver collects frequent-flier miles on the taxpayer dime on airplane trips from New York City to Albany via Washington, DC, his driver and bodyguard racks up thousands of miles on the ground.
Ex-cop Stephen E. Zagajeski, 52, is Silver’s driver, three sources told The Post, although his official state title is deputy sergeant-at-arms.
“Steve is in New York, and Steve is in Albany,” an Albany insider told The Post. “He is wherever the speaker goes.”
While Silver flies — often in first class — his nearly $80,000-a-year shadow sometimes drives Silver’s state-issued 2011 Ford Taurus from the city to Albany, the insider said.
When the state Assembly is in session in Albany for the first six months of the year, Zagajeski is “there on Monday and he stays until Shelly leaves [on Friday],” the source added.
When the The Post first inquired about Silver’s chauffeur on Aug. 8, Silver spokesman Michael Whyland denied the state’s second-most powerful Democrat had a driver.
“He uses his state vehicle for official business, and he generally drives himself or at times he will drive with staff. He uses his personal vehicle in Albany. He does not have a chauffeur,” Whyland wrote in an Aug. 9 e-mail. Shortly afterward, a Post reporter and photographer caught Zagajeski picking up Silver at the speaker’s home and driving him in a state-issued Ford.
When confronted again about Silver’s chauffeur, the spokesman changed his tune slightly: “Shelly does not have a driver. He has a security person, who also happens to drive.”
But Whyland has continued to deny that Zagajeski — a retired NYPD officer who spent 20 years on the force — drives Silver’s state-issued vehicle to the capital while the speaker flies, wasting thousands in taxpayer money.
Zagajeski “is in Albany occasionally, not every week,” said Whyland.
State records suggest otherwise. Between April 1, 2012, and March 8, 2013, Silver spent $1,949.28 on gasoline for the state car, records show. With the local price of gas averaging about $3.70 a gallon during this period, the cost translates into about 526 gallons for a car that gets about 28 miles per gallon — enough fuel for 14,750 miles, or 48 round trips between Albany and Manhattan.
Yet Silver’s spokesman insisted the car never traveled to Albany and remained in the city most of the time. The distance between Silver’s home and his office at 250 Broadway is only 1.7 miles.
When confronted with these mileage figures, Whyland showed The Post a maintenance receipt for a “2011 Ford Taurus,” dated May 2013, to show that in 31 months the state-issued car racked up “only” 20,758 miles.
Zagajeski, 52, of Middle Village, Queens, pulls down $79,350, almost equal to the base pay of an Assembly member, records show.
On top of his salary, Zagajeski collects a $24,192 NYPD pension, according to records. Every year, the state renews a special waiver allowing him to rake in both pension and state salary.
“The Counsel to the Majority consulted with numerous individuals in the law-enforcement/security community and determined that a suitable, competent, experienced and qualified individual could not be found elsewhere,” the waiver read.
It’s common practice for ranking lawmakers to hire drivers/guards who are ex-cops, sources said. Zagajeski has been with the speaker since 2002, records show.
But the waste of taxpayers paying both driver and airline for Silver’s transportation outraged Albany insiders and critics.
“Words can’t describe how you justify a plane trip and a car trip at taxpayer expense,” said the source who saw Zagajeski behind the state-issued wheels in Albany. “It’s outrageous.”
Since 1996, Silver has claimed $197,399 in travel expenses — including $151,183 for flights taken between April 2000 and July 1, 2013, records obtained through a Freedom of Information request reveal. The rest went toward “public transportation,” which Silver’s office vaguely defined as “a train, a bus or an airplane.”
The 36-year lawmaker flies an indirect route on US Airways and uses his Chairman’s Preferred Dividend Rewards card to rack up mileage, tickets obtained through an FOI request show.
Since 2011 he has expensed enough flights to from New York City to Albany via Washington to accrue over 200,000 miles on the elite card, enough to cash in for a trip around the world.