New York Law Blog

-New York governor David Patterson signed a new bill this month that puts more stringent rules on private attorneys who have been collecting public pensions. Roughly 29 neighborhoods in Long Island alone have attorneys that are also employees of the village, many of which get both a salary from the city as well as from their private law firm.

Although most public employees must file time sheets, work regular hours and meet other criteria to qualify as public employees, the comptroller’s office says elected and some appointed officials do not have to. As a result, hundreds of officials statewide are allowed to earn coveted pension credits without having to keep time sheets of the hours they actually worked in what essentially is an honor system.

-The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, will sign the new term limit bill on Monday, November 2:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has scheduled a Monday bill-signing ceremony for the law that gives officeholders the option of a third consecutive four-year term.

The bill narrowly passed the City Council last week after just three weeks of debate. Bloomberg pushed the law through the council because he wants to run for a third term. His critics say term limits changes should not be up to the council but should be decided by the voters.

-After warning AIG about using federal bailout money as rewards for executives, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has cautioned nine other banks about using government bailout payments as bonus money for executives, as it is illegal under state law.

In a letter sent to Bank of America Corp, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp, and Wells Fargo & Co, he also asked their boards to explain what mechanisms they have put in place to protect taxpayer money.

"Specifically, corporate expenditures and payments, made in the absence of fair consideration of undercapitalized firms, may well violate NY Debtor and Creditor Law 274, which deems such payments illegal fraudulent conveyances," Cuomo’s letter said.

-An Ithica, New York man is appealing his charge of convicted murder of New York state trooper Joseph Longobardo. Ralph Phillips allegedly killed Mr. Longobardo and injured two other troopers.

His attorneys are scheduled to appear in a state court in Rochester this morning to appeal his convictions. The 46-year-old Phillips claims he entered his guilty pleas only because he got bad advice from a court-appointed lawyer.

-Anger is rising in New York City over affordable housing and the laws surrounding it. Many advocates for affordable housing believe the laws that deal with housing issues in New York are not properly followed or implemented.

The group outside the DHCE [Department of Housing and Community Renewal] on Tuesday wants a review of a law that allows landlords to raise rent after basic repairs and renovations, as they say it is being abused. They also take issue with what they describe as increasing harassment from their landlords in an effort to get them out of rent-stabilized apartments, and then increase rent.

“A housing law with too many loopholes and too few protections, a steady decline in the number of affordable housing units available citywide, and now a devastated economy, are about to create the most disastrous environment for New York City tenants in recent memory,” said Michelle O’Brien, Campaign Director of the New York Home Coalition.

-Lawrence Lessig, a champion of fair use copyright laws, wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times entitled “Copyright and Politics Don’t Mix”. In the piece, Mr. Lessig cites mainstream media outlets who are requesting their copyrighted materials be pulled from political ads in what he deems to be censorship over political campaigns.

Last year, Fox News ordered John McCain to stop using a clip of himself at a Fox News-moderated debate. Last month, Warner Music Group demanded YouTube remove an amateur video attacking Barack Obama that included its music, while NBC asked the Obama campaign to pull an ad that included some NBC News video with Tom Brokaw and Keith Olbermann. No doubt, these corporations are simply trying to avoid controversy or embarrassment, but by claiming infringement, they are effectively censoring political speech.

Senator McCain has taken a lead in responding to this copyright extremism. In a letter addressed to YouTube last week, the McCain campaign rightly criticized the Web site’s decision to remove work that is “clearly privileged under the fair use doctrine” of copyright law and called upon YouTube to be more protective of political speech by conducting a more extensive review of material before it gets taken down.

-Term limit law issues keep rising up again and again. Former presidential candidate and New York senator Hillary Clinton has weighed in on the potential vote to extend term limits from eight years to 12.

The former first lady told NY1, "It is disturbing that voters voted twice, so I think that the City Council and the mayor have to first go through the hearings they’re holding and try to figure out what they will do."

"They have the legal authority to make the change… but I really am going to watch from the sidelines now because this is a very intense, local debate and the people of New York City should be heard," she added.

-The Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece by Jason L. Riley regarding the term limits and how he believes they shouldn’t be extended:

But the argument for extending the two-term limit for Mr. Bloomberg — a self-made billionaire who got his start on Wall Street — is that the city needs someone with his financial acumen to help weather the fallout from the banking crisis. The biggest problem with that argument is that Mr. Bloomberg hasn’t been very adept at managing the city’s finances, even though he’s had record revenues to work with.

There is something deeply undemocratic about legislatively overturning the will of the people without giving voters a say in the matter. And there’s something deeply disturbing about a local press corps that lets the political class get away with it.

-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced amendments to state law regarding recycling to offset operation expenses. The changes are to be implemented within the next 120 days.

New York State law requires all municipalities to separate recyclables from trash before collection and processing. This "source separation" is intended to decrease waste, save waste disposal costs and increase revenues from the sale of recycled materials, according to officials with Cuomo’s office.

-Members of congress are questioning the legality of the planned auction of several flight slots out of New York City’s three main airports. An investigation into the auction noted that the FAA does not have the authorization to sell the inbound and outbound flight plans.

"Your office has the statutory responsibility and duty to investigate potential unlawful behavior and report violations,” Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, and Representative James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, said in a letter to Inspector General Calvin Scovel.

The letter may add to pressure on the FAA to scrap the first auctions, planned for Jan. 12. Airlines yesterday asked an appeals court to halt the sales.