Albany Ethics-A Double Negative
Albany politics seems to forever be a race to the bottom. Here’s something you may not have read about that furthers that view.
It recently came to light that NY Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has been having an affair with a union lobbyist, probably since November. (The explanations on the timeline do not always make sense.) Heastie’s reaction to the affair being exposed is that it is none of the public’s business that he was having an affair with someone lobbying his office for money and laws. Heastie seems to believe that NY City politicians, like him, would never let their personal lives interfere with their political lives.
This is the tangled web as best we can unweave it.
The Greater New York Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET) seeks to promote the use of unionized labor on New York construction projects and enlist public support for those workers’ wages. The labor arm of LECET is the Mason Tenders’ District Council. They deal with matters that regularly come before the NY Assembly.
LECET is what is lovingly called a lobbyist.
State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has reportedly been in a romantic relationship since last November with Rebecca Lamorte, according to the outlet NY Focus. Lamorte is one of four LECET officials listed as lobbyists for the organization in a disclosure covering January and February. The organization reported lobbying various Assembly members and state Senators on a handful of bills over those two months, ranging from budget bills to a new prevailing wage requirement.
Following the New York Focus article on March 14, when questioned about his relationship with a lobbyist, Heastie replied: “I am never - again let me make that clear - addressing my personal life.” (That’s called no comment, you are hitting too close to home.)
Obviously, a sexual affair between the NY State Assembly Speaker and someone who is lobbying the Assembly raises some ethical questions, but not in Heastie’s opinion.
On January 8th, Lamorte met with Heastie’s senior staff concerning LECET’s top priority bill to promote the use of union labor at major State University of New York construction projects, according to a LECET spokesperson.
Sometime after the January 8th meeting, Lamorte told her boss, LECET Executive Director Dean Angelakos, about the relationship with Heastie. At that point, LECET’s compliance attorney, David Grandeau, advised that Lamorte should not lobby the Assembly, and Angelakos barred Lamorte from doing so.
Per NY Focus, Grandeau said in mid March that Lamorte made LECET “aware” that she was “seeing the speaker” within the last 30 to 45 days, which could include sometime after January 8th, if you stretch it.
According to a March 11th letter drafted by the Assembly majority’s Counsel and sent to the Assembly majority, and obtained by New York Focus, the attorney confirmed that Heastie adopted a recusal policy in November which bars him from meeting with or making decisions about organizations linked to LECET*. The letter stated that Senior staff would “advance a consensus decision” to Heastie concerning “any matters specific or unique to such organizations.”
The dates are confusing. According to Heastie’s attorney, Heastie recused himself for dealing with LECET in November but Lamorte did not tell her LECET boss about the affair until later January. Between November and January, wouldn’t someone in LECET be curious if Heastie had recused himself?
Going forward, and in the lowest traditions of Albany politics, Heastie’s staff would know about the affair with Lamorte but that would not affect their recommendations to Heastie about Lamorte’s lobbying efforts. Albany is far above such butt kissing by political staff?
When word leaked about the NY Focus investigation. Angelakos authorized compliance attorney Grandeau to confirm the romantic relationship to New York Focus. Grandeau added that having seen “what I guess they’re calling a recusal” letter from Heastie, he advised the union “that [Lamorte] not lobby the Assembly.”
This public announcement reportedly made Heastie unhappy. ( Ya think!)
Since 2014, the Mason Tenders union’s political action committee has donated more than $120,000 to Heastie’s campaign or political action committee, including $23,000 last year.
In February, Michael McGuire, director of Mason Tenders’ District Council Political Action Committee made a $5,000 donation while attending a fundraiser for Heastie’s political action committee. He said that, at the time “I was not yet aware of the recusal policy.” (A LECET official was not aware in February of a policy in affect since November [or January?] Certainly, when they accepted the donation in February, Heastie and his staff were aware of the recusal policy which was supposed to be in place since November.)
The day before the news about the affair broke, March 13th, Heastie called a top official within LECET’s labor arm to return the $5,000 campaign donation.
Lamorte later sought a reversal of the policy based on the March 11th letter. Grandeau responded that Lamorte should remain barred from lobbying the Assembly.
However, a spokesperson for the LECET has told New York Focus that Lamorte can resume lobbying the Assembly — including Heastie’s staff — but not the Speaker himself. (Try not to laugh – or cry.)
Mike Hellstrom, co-chair of the Greater New York LECET, confirmed that Lamorte will remain their lobbyist in Albany. “Protocols are in place and being followed so that she can continue her work for us. People in public service can do their jobs ethically while keeping their personal lives private.” (Of course they can. No need for ethics regulations in the NY Legislature.) Hellstrom’s statement mirrors what Heastie told reporters: “My life will never be in conflict with my job.”
Hellstrom also said that Dean Angelakos offered his resignation as executive director of LECET and we accepted it.
With Lamorte allowed to resume lobbying the Assembly, New York Focus asked LECET’s compliance attorney, Grandeau, for comment about LECET’s new leadership rejecting his advice. Two days later, Grandeau told New York Focus that he had resigned as LECET’s outside ethics counsel.
“I was not fired,” Grandeau said. “…it was my decision, not theirs.”
According to a LECET spokesperson, the group’s current leadership has been displeased with Grandeau over his role in disclosing Lamorte’s relationship and other matters related to the group’s lobbying filings.
In summary,
Heastie and Lamorte can continue their affair.
The union head who banned her from lobbying the Assembly is gone.
The union’s compliance attorney who recommended banning Lamorte from lobbying the Assembly is gone.
Life in Albany continues as usual
So, Heastie and his staff are above the ethical issues that plague the rest of the world. As testimony to that, in 2021, the husband of Heastie's Chief of Staff was sentenced to 76 months in prison and ordered to pay $136,000 to the Internal Revenue Service for his earlier guilty plea to cocaine trafficking and tax evasion charges. Brooks-Dennis apparently enjoyed a lavish / opulent lifestyle and never questioned where the money came from?
*The March 11th letter:
March 11, 2024
To Whom It May Concern:
In response to the request for confirmation regarding the Speaker’s recusal from matters relating to the Mason Tenders’ District Council of Greater New York, including laborers locals 66, 78, 79 and 108, and/or the Greater New York LECET Fund, please be advised that the following directive was communicated to relevant senior staff in November 2023 and remains in effect until further notice:
- the Speaker will not personally attend meetings with the aforementioned organizations; and,
- senior staff will come to and advance a consensus decision to the Speaker for any matters specific or unique to such organizations.
Rebecca Mudie, Esq.
Counsel to the Majority THE ASSEMBLY STATE OF NEW YORK ALBANY
Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions regarding this directive as you implement your own internal protocols, and to the extent I am able to, I will happily provide additional information.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Mudie, Esq.
Counsel to the Majority THE ASSEMBLY STATE OF NEW YORK ALBANY
