Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Removing Hiram was quite costly

From the Daily News:

The state Senate paid a whopping $376,464 for legal help to expel Hiram Monserrate after he assaulted his girlfriend, the Daily News has learned.

That's the tab a Park Avenue law firm charged taxpayers last year to help lawmakers - who have dozens of in-house lawyers at their beck and call - to decide whether they had the authority to boot Monserrate for his crime.

"That's a lot of money to spend on a bad guy," quipped state Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn).

Golden, who was among the most vocal critics of Monserrate, said the Democrats who controlled the Senate at the time could have used one of their more than 150 in-house staff lawyers to do the work.

"That, in and of itself, is a crime," Golden, an ex-cop, said.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Taking care of friends cost money.

Anonymous said...

They should have let him serve out the term, the voters would have thrown him out in November either way, why waste money?

His crime was committed before he was even sworn in.

They are not even including the cost of the special election.

Anonymous said...

"They should have let him serve out the term, the voters would have thrown him out in November either way, why waste money?"

An unacceptable risk, the voters may NOT have voted him out. Queens Political history proves that Queens voters will vote in ANY incumbent.

Anonymous said...

"Removing Hiram was quite costly"

How much could an enema cost?

Anonymous said...

Here's the principle:

Never let an opportunity to move wealth from taxpayers to politically connected lawyers go to waste.

Anonymous said...

"Never let an opportunity to move wealth from taxpayers to politically connected lawyers go to waste."

Too bad that's true. And don't forget the costs associated with special elections to fill vacancies. Next time, maybe the voters will remove someone like him when they have a chance?

Anonymous said...

An unacceptable risk, the voters may NOT have voted him out. Queens Political history proves that Queens voters will vote in ANY incumbent.
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Good, then if they are so stupid and become a laughing stock they might wise up.

Ceiling on my head lady said...

Monserrate has done many wicked things that will never see the light, including attempting to use city police and department of aging personnel to attempt to declare two perfectly-sane neighbors of mine crazy so they could be evicted from a rent-controlled apartment.