Andrew Cuomo has left his mark on the region, for better and worse.
View full sizeNew York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo speaks to the media before entering a fundraiser hosted by the New York's Democratic Irish community on March 2 in New York.
Syracuse, NY -- Andrew Cuomo is a Downstate guy, born and raised in Queens. He built his career in Washington, D.C., and Albany.
But Cuomo has left a mark on Central New York, both as attorney general and as former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary. In some cases, for the better. In other cases, for the worse, according to local officials who have worked with him.
Because of Cuomo, Central New Yorkers can visit a HUD storefront in downtown Syracuse to talk to an agent, find a home or file a housing discrimination lawsuit. Twenty local residents shared $15,000 in restitution for being scammed by a used-car dealer. And Tully breast cancer patient Christine Langlois, after a two-year struggle, received reimbursement — and peace of mind — after Cuomo pressured Excellus BlueCross BlueShield to reimburse her for $22,000 in medical claims.
But Cuomo’s legacy in Central New York also includes some stumbles.
In 2002, Baldwinsville officials blamed Cuomo and his HUD office for a botched grant program that delayed upgrades to a waterfront trail along the Seneca River. Former Syracuse Housing Authority Director Frederick Murphy said Cuomo “destroyed” HUD and the good working relationship city officials had with the agency. Former Rep. James Walsh, R-Onondaga, once accused Cuomo of pandering to the media — a claim that, years later, resurfaced as Cuomo crisscrossed the state for months talking about sex offenders and phony travel vouchers while refusing to say whether he would run for governor or answer tough questions about the state.
All eyes fall to Cuomo this week as Democrats from around the state gather in Rye Brook for the party’s nominating convention. After months of speculation, Cuomo announced Saturday he will run for governor. He has no Democratic opponents, and the party is expected to pick him Thursday to headline the state ticket.
A Siena Research Institute poll released Monday showed Cuomo beating each of his Republican rivals by more than 40 percent. Two-thirds of voters polled viewed Cuomo favorably.
What will the second Gov. Cuomo, if elected, mean for Central New York?
“He’s aware of the problems Upstate,” said Manlius businessman J. Patrick Barrett, a former chairman of the state GOP who is helping Cuomo gain support from local Republicans and who donated $39,540 to Cuomo’s campaign last year. “We’re not going to be forgotten.”
“He’s very attentive to what we need here,” said John F.X. “Jack” Mannion, an influential Democratic fundraiser and close family friend whom Cuomo calls “Uncle Jack.”
Supporters point to several successes Cuomo has had in Central New York. As attorney general, he convicted a Cortland County nursing home and several of its employees for patient neglect. He oversaw prosecutions from at least three major drug busts in Syracuse in which almost 80 people were arrested and more than a dozen pounds of cocaine and heroin were taken off the streets. And he ended the common practice of colleges, including Syracuse University and some local state colleges, of accepting cash kickbacks and other perks in exchange for steering students to “preferred” student loan lenders.
“He’s been absolutely relentless on consumer advocacy,” said Michael Kunzwiler, chairman of the Oswego County Democratic Committee.
As HUD secretary, Cuomo chose Auburn and Syracuse as “Good Neighbors Program” revitalization areas, allowing teachers, police officers and corrections officers to buy foreclosed homes at a 50 percent discount. He also launched the Canal Corridor Initiative that made millions of dollars in federal grants and loans available to canal communities. The money helped pay for a hotel in Auburn, a potato-processing plant in Port Byron and the reconstruction of a canal landing in downtown Fulton.
But critics accused Cuomo of bungling several of the Canal Corridor grants by announcing money and projects for communities that didn’t qualify for funding. Baldwinsville officials hoped to use part of a $300,000 federal grant to finish a waterfront trail along the Seneca River, but the village never saw a dime from HUD.
“In order to garner the most media attention, Cuomo scheduled these events in well-populated communities within the state’s largest media markets,” Walsh, who chaired the House subcommittee overseeing HUD spending, said in 2001.
(Walsh has since softened his stance on Cuomo, saying last week he has a “very cordial relationship” with the attorney general and finds him a good person to work with. The two have fished together on Skaneateles Lake and spoke as recently as spring, Walsh said.)
Cuomo’s “Good Neighbors Program” also was mired in scandal. A 2001 review by the HUD inspector general’s office found that as many as one in four of the 3,824 program participants nationwide had broken the rules. Investigators found serious abuses in 23 of the 108 cases audited.
Murphy, Syracuse’s former housing authority director, also found flaws with Cuomo’s one-stop HUD storefront, which continues to operate at 128 E. Jefferson St. Murphy said the concept of getting information to the public is a good one, but Cuomo failed to execute it properly.
“We all felt it was little more than a public relations exercise filled with people that were earnest but didn’t know very much,” Murphy said. “To answer constituents’ questions about programs, they had to go to us to get the answers. It seemed like a big waste of money at a time we were being squeezed to do more with less.”
When the inspector general’s office audited the $8.5 million nationwide storefront program in March 2000, it concluded the effort was poorly thought out, was used only infrequently by the public — a conclusion echoed by Murphy — and was largely a waste of taxpayer money, according to a 2002 New York Times article. HUD had little if any measurable evidence that the program benefited consumers, the audit concluded.
“He was very earnest and sincerely tried hard to make programs successful,” Murphy said of Cuomo. “But most housing authority directors were not big fans of his. You wonder how solidly on the ground his thoughts were.
“He might try and put up a good show, but I don’t know that he is his father,” Murphy continued. “To generate the kind of enthusiasm and commitment and promise that most of us felt towards his father, it was not there with the son.”
Back in 2002, long before she was Syracuse mayor, Stephanie Miner also compared Cuomo to his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo — and not favorably. “There was never a question about who Mario Cuomo was and what he believed in,” said Miner, who worked as Central New York regional representative for Mario Cuomo but supported H. Carl McCall, rather than Andrew Cuomo, in the 2002 Democratic bid for governor. “The difference is, I’m not sure Andrew has been able to express his beliefs and why he’s the best person at this time to lead the state forward. He doesn’t seem to have the authenticity that his father had. Maybe that’s because he’s young.”
Miner feels differently today. She said she will support Andrew Cuomo for governor in 2010. “In the intervening decade, Andrew Cuomo has proven to be an effective advocate for the citizens of New York,” Miner said. “He has been fighting for reform ... and I know he will continue to fight for and deliver reform as governor.”
Contact Delen Goldberg at dgoldberg@syracuse.com or 470-2274.