Spitzer Plays the Ponies
Governor Spitzer's handling of the horse racing franchise bidding process shows the signs of what is becoming a hallmark of his governorship—disingenuousness cloaked in the mantle of ethical integrity. "Following my investigations a few years ago, a new leadership team at NYRA has turned the organization around to the point where it is demonstrating real results and true transparency," the governor said, announcing his recommendation that the New York Racing Association be awarded a 30-year franchise to operate Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga racetracks.
If Mr. Spitzer wants to talk about transparency, he could begin to address questions about the integrity of the review of the franchise bidders that he ordered up from the state inspector general, Kristine Hamann. Her office produced a report that matched the governor's own agenda. While glossing over concerns about NYRA's financial practices, the review smeared the private bidders, particularly Empire Racing, with innuendo and what Bennett Liebman, the coordinator of the Program on Racing and Gaming Law at Albany Law School, dismissed as unsubstantiated gossip.
Empire Racing suspects Ms. Hamann's report was rigged. While preparing the review, Ms. Hamann's office consulted with Neil Getnick, who helped NYRA avoid federal indictment as a court-appointed independent monitor. She treated him as a neutral observer. Yet the evidence suggests that the primary goal of Mr. Getnick, who failed to disclose to the public that NYRA trustees may have knowingly and illegally siphoned away horsemen's funds for more than a decade, has always been to promote NYRA's "transformation," rather than to offer a fair assessment of the association.
Apparently investigators never thought to ask Mr. Getnick whether he was planning to become a paid legal consultant to NYRA. Just nine days after the report was made public, the association announced that it retained the services of his firm, Getnick & Getnick, with a contract that guaranteed him at least $125,000 a month for five years. And apparently no one working at the inspector general's office questioned the wisdom of appointing Thacher Associates to undertake the review of Empire Racing given that the report was largely conducted by a former employee of Getnick & Getnick and that Thomas Thacher, a former inspector general for the School Construction Authority, was once a client of Mr. Getnick's.
We would not suggest that the average New Yorker suddenly sits up in bed in the morning worried about what's going on at the racing association. But they do worry about whether the swamp in Albany is going to be drained. Millions of New Yorkers placed their bets on Mr. Spitzer, but as he goes into what Jacob Gershman, in his column yesterday called the club house turn, they have a sense of disappointment. He is now back in the field of politicians to whom New Yorkers are looking for a sense of leadership in cleaning up state government. Before long voters will start throwing away their metaphorical tickets and looking for another nag on whom to bet.
