New Policy Is Sought in Albany After Report on Silver’s Travel

Government watchdog groups are calling on the state Legislature to tighten a transportation policy that allows lawmakers to commute to Albany by plane, bank frequent flier miles, and send the bill to taxpayers.The demand for stricter standards follows a report in yesterday’s New York Sun that the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, frequently takes indirect flights to Albany with layovers in Washington, D.C., racking up large expenses without saving any time.“The current policy is too vague and should be tightened to ensure that the cost incurred is the most affordable. The state should have a far clearer and possibly more restrictive policy on the use of air travel,” the executive director of the nonpartisan Citizens Union, Richard Dadey, said.“It seems that the frequent use of air travel is questionable. If time is of the essence, it seems other modes of transportation would be appropriate,” Mr. Dadey said, referring to Mr. Silver’s roundabout travel arrangements. “‘Why doesn’t he drive?’ is a legitimate question when both time and cost seem to be more than driving,” he said.The Sun reported yesterday that Mr. Silver, who represents a district in Lower Manhattan, regularly commutes to Albany by air, often by taking indirect flights on a commercial airline from La Guardia Airport. To get to Albany, the speaker frequently flies first on a shuttle to Washington and then boards another plane en route to the state capital.Mr. Silver’s travel arrangements are puzzling because he does not appear to be saving any time. It takes about three and a half hours for him to fly to Albany — not including the time it takes to drive back and forth from airports and pass through security. That’s about an hour longer than it takes to drive to the Statehouse in regular traffic conditions, and a half hour longer than using Amtrak.Mr. Silver’s transportation choice is also not saving any money for the taxpayer. The state comptroller’s records show that Mr. Silver pays in the range of $500 to $760 for his round-trip airfare, more than four times the price of traveling on Amtrak. The state reimburses him for the price of the tickets.The Assembly’s own employee guidelines, which are set by the speaker, discourage lawmakers from flying, saying that air travel should be used “only when it is clearly in the Assembly’s best interest.” The Legislature’s ethics body does not monitor the use of frequent flier miles.The speaker often flies first class because he is an elite member of a US Airways frequent flier program, which rewards him with extra points each time he adds a segment to his journey. Mr. Silver’s office said the speaker has not redeemed any of his miles for personal use, but did not say whether he would redeem them in the future.“The big unanswered issue is who is supposed to set the objective standards,” the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, Blair Horner, said. Mr. Horner said Mr. Silver should at least use his frequent flier miles to defray the costs of his governmental flights.“The benefits should be plowed back into future flights to benefit taxpayers. They are the ones paying for the flights,” Mr. Horner said.Aides to the speaker said Mr. Silver does not like using Amtrak because he does not want to be bothered by lobbyists during his commute and prefers the relative anonymity that comes with flying. They also say the state would pay extra if he were driven to Albany in a chauffeured state vehicle.The Legislative Ethics Commission, which enforces the state’s public officers law for members of the Legislature and their staffs, has not handed down any policy governing the usage of frequent flier miles.The Public Integrity Commission, an ethics body that has jurisdiction over state employees but not lawmakers, issued an advisory opinion in June that concluded that employees are allowed to use frequent flier miles and other “reward points” for personal use as long as the benefits “could not reasonably be seen as an attempt by the offeror to influence any governmental decisions or to reward any State officer or employee for any official action.”The commission said that because frequent flier programs are offered to “large segments of the population as a marketing tool,” state employees would not be “seen as having improperly exploited their government positions.”

New Policy Is Sought in Albany After Report on Silver’s Travel

New Policy Is Sought in Albany After Report on Silver’s Travel

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