ALBANY – The disgraced father-in-law of one of Gov. Pataki’s top political advisers filed a bombshell federal lawsuit yesterday, accusing Pataki and two key aides of attempted bid-rigging, cronyism and using the public payroll to hire campaign workers.
Former state Bridge Authority Chairman John Gaffney, who resigned from his $137,700-a-year job last fall after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of defrauding the state, filed the civil-rights action.
He claims that he was repeatedly forced by longtime Pataki patronage chief Thomas Doherty and Pataki Chief of Staff John Cahill to engage in improper and illegal conduct during his five years on the job.
Gaffney’s daughter, Sarah, was once a top Pataki press aide, and her husband, Kieran Mahoney, is one of the governor’s top political strategists, as well as the chief strategist for Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Jeanine Pirro.
Gaffney claims in the suit that Doherty – whose secret, patronage-connected telephone calls were the focus of the explosive “Pataki tapes” disclosed by The Post last month – directed him in 1998 to “nullify” a $30 million resurfacing contract for the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge.
Doherty allegedly made the move because the low bidder, a non-union firm, “had contributed nothing financially to Pataki.”
Gaffney said he was pressured to award the contract instead to a “union company” that bid $35 million but “had made generous campaign contributions to Pataki.”
But Gaffney said he “refused that bid-rigging order,” and the non-union contractor was allowed to complete the work.
Gaffney’s lawyer, Jonathan Lovett, identified the winning firm as Cianbro of Pittsfield, Maine, and the “union” firm as C.B. Slutzky Inc.
The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Doherty now works for Mahoney’s lobbying and public-relations firm, Mercury Public Affairs.
Gaffney claims Doherty overruled him in 2002, insisting that a Bridge Authority public-relations person be assigned to Pataki’s re-election campaign headquarters in Poughkeepsie, while staying on the state payroll.
The person was not identified in the suit.
Gaffney claims he was “coerced” and “manipulated” into resigning – partly through a vindictive investigation by the Pataki-controlled Inspector General’s Office.
He says he was also pressured into pleading guilty to wrongly billing the state for trips to Florida and Texas to visit his family.
Pataki spokesman David Catalfamo called the charges “nothing more than the delusional rantings of a convicted criminal and admitted thief who stole from taxpayers to fund his personal expenses.
He added, “We’re confident the courts will see this frivolous lawsuit for what it is – a desperate attempt by a dishonest man to further enrich himself at the expense of taxpayers.”
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Burning his bridges
Excerpts from the suit by disgraced ex-Bridge Authority boss Richard Gaffney (right), who charges that the Pataki administration used contracts and public payroll to reward allies.
* In or about the Fall of 1997 a member of Pataki’s staff (with Pataki’s authorization) ordered Plaintiff to terminate four of the Authority’s senior staff members because of their political affiliation so that their job positions could be given to Republicans for political patronage-related reasons.
* Plaintiff’s refusal infuriated Defendants, who hadpromised union leaders that the resurfacingcontract would be awarded to a “union” company.
* Plaintiff was simply to ignore the appointee, who was not expected to perform any work for the Authority, andpretend the Deputy Executive Director “isn’t here.”