Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos yesterday moved to halt the award of a contract to build a slot-machine casino at Aqueduct race track — suggesting Gov. Paterson’s selection of a Queens-based business consortium reeked of favoritism and election-year politics.
Skelos demanded Senate hearings into the governor’s decision to award the Aqueduct “racino” contract to Aqueduct Entertainment Group — whose partners include powerhouse Queens minister and former Rep. Floyd Flake.
“This is probably the largest faith-based initiative I’ve ever seen in terms of funding to a group,” said Skelos (R-Nassau), only half in jest.
Flake — pastor of Greater Allen A.M.E. church in Jamaica — hails from one of the largest black constituencies in the state, sources said.
He has not declared whom he would back in a potential Democratic primary for governor between Paterson and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
“There potentially could be a conflict of interest,” Skelos told reporters in the state Capitol. “The discussions right now have all been behind closed doors. It wasn’t vetted in a public way.”
Skelos questioned whether AEG had the resources or experience to run a gambling facility.
“Let’s make it a success rather than a temporary thing to either employ people or solve some political needs that may exist out there,” Skelos said, referring to Paterson.
AEG’s ties to the governor include:
* Carl Andrews, a former top aide to Paterson, who was hired as a top AEG lobbyist. Since last spring, he has been paid $7,500 a month to win support for the project in the Legislature.
* Another investor in AEG, Darryl Greene of the Darman Group, who is a former business partner of Paterson chum and Senate President Malcolm Smith, a Flake protégé from southeastern Queens.
Greene was convicted in 1999 of stealing $500,000 from city agencies.
Skelos said he was concerned about the relationship between the key players in the AEG bid and a state-funded not-for-profit group called New Direction Local Development — first outlined in Sunday’s Post.
The Post reported that Smith funneled thousands of dollars in state grants to New Directions Local Development Corp, whose founding members included Greene’s wife, Cathy.
For his part, Paterson denied any sweetheart deal in his selection of AEG.
“I don’t think Reverend Flake’s involvement with them had anything to do with it,” Paterson said.
“There was a deadlock. I myself did not have a preference. Time had long since worn out and I was trying to break the deadlock and that was the best thing that I could do.”
Additional reporting by Brendan Scott in Albany