Opinion

Nonprofit nightmares

The new spate of political scandals in Albany highlights yet again the unseemly relations between pols and community nonprofits, which abound across the state.

The charges against state Sen. Shirley Huntley center on a family-run nonprofit to which she funneled state grants. Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera is under fire for allegations of nepotism, malfeasance, harassment and intimidation — with some involving a nonprofit, others her office payroll.

And, while Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s current woes center on sexual harassment, they follow long scrutiny of the Ridgewood nonprofit empire that is the heart of his political machine.

All this following countless other scandals involving the likes of ex-Sen. Pedro Espada and ex-Sen. Vincent Leibell and the looting of their nonprofits.

Nonprofits began to flourish — indeed, many were born — in the 1960s, when federal anti-poverty largess began to flow. Almost at once, some community leaders used them as political launching pads. And, inevitably, other lawmakers started their own nonprofits as sources of patronage, support, election workers and votes. Today, in cities like New York they now rival or exceed the old political clubs as the route to office.

Sen. Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr. founded the Christian Community Benevolent Association in 1977. Leibell founded the Putnam Community Foundation and was later convicted of taking kickbacks from contractors doing work for the group. Buffalo Comptroller and ex-Assemblyman Mark J.F. Schroeder founded the South Buffalo Education Center earlier in his career.

Some lawmakers are neither Democrats nor Republicans, but Kleptocrats — simply interested in looting the community chest.

Disgraced ex-lawmakers — Espada, Leibell, Efrain Gonzalez, Gloria Davis, Brian McLaughlin, Larry Seabrook, Miguel Martinez, etc. — had ties to nonprofits that they squeezed for kickbacks.

So what do we do about it?

For starters, in the name of public integrity, it’s vital that member items stay dead.

The money in the Huntley case was disbursed before 2010 — when then-Gov. David Paterson stopped member-items. Gov. Cuomo has rightly held that line — but lawmakers will keep pushing to get their “goodies” back, witness the state Senate’s recent end-run around the ban (using monies from a previously approved account).

Cuomo’s regional economic councils have taken up making grants to a mix of community nonprofits and private firms performing important services. The Legislature could emulate that mechanism — but making it absolutely impossible for a lawmaker to direct funds to a group he or she has ties to.

What else? Well, we need better protection (and compensation) for whistleblowers — whose honesty renders them unemployable in the political world, once they’ve broke the code of silence.

And state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — both former legislators — must ensure the permanence of the Joint Task Force on Public Integrity, a panel set up by the two men, and dedicate sufficient fiscal resources so it doesn’t wither or become an afterthought.

And we may need new ethical rules.

It’s not at all likely that Huntley is the only member of the Legislature to have committed such abuse; less amateurish bad actors are probably flying under the radar.

It may be overly idealistic, but I believe all lawmakers and their staffs should be separated by clear, bright lines from nonprofits that get state money. Clearer, more transparent disclosure may be in order.

Mayor Bloomberg — someone in public life who is beyond reproach — has used public money as well as his philanthropic foundation to curry political favor and reward allies, such as the embattled Vito Lopez and the Rev. Calvin Butts. We need to ensure that less-savory characters are not using “nonprofits” to profit at the expense of taxpayers and the needy New Yorkers that these groups are supposed to aid.

The investigations into Huntley and Rivera are just beginning to unthread the web of politicians, nonprofits and consultants/lobbyists feeding at the public trough.

More can and must be done to establish a culture of zero tolerance for wrongdoing in Albany.

The indictment of Sen. Huntley and the army of investigators looking at Assemblywoman Rivera are proof-positive that the system is willing to expose and punish transgressors.

Those still operating in the shadows should begin to panic. Their day of reckoning is coming. And the public should be cheering.