Pols have different views on illegal lobbying

From the Times Ledger:

The group Willets Point United...wondered if the AG could have done more and dissolved the groups or forced Shulman’s group to give back a $500,000 grant she used to influence city legislators to support the Willets Point project in 2008.

But on a larger scale, the group is calling for the dissolution of the entire Willets Point redevelopment project, since illegal lobbying was used to curry favor and aid in its passage, Willets Point United said.

State Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) was on the City Council when it voted in favor of the project. In light of Schneiderman’s ruling and other revelations surrounding the Willets Point project, he believes the Council should at least hold a public hearing to determine if the project needs to go back to the drawing board.

“There are a lot of pieces here,” he said. “Maybe that’s an issue for the City Council to at least have a hearing.”

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) was also in the Council at the time and voted in favor of the project. He supported Schneiderman’s investigation, but said the group did not have any influence over his decision at the time and that the project should not be derailed for that reason.

From Willets Point United:

Of course at the time Vallone was being lobbied by his father who represented the property owners and helped cut the sweetheart deals on the behalf of the group's heavy hitters-and as soon as that happened young Vallone was convinced. But what he is saying here is that it doesn't matter that in promoting the project EDC and the LDC broke the law - and this is from someone who wants to be the chief law enforcement officer of Queens?

And Vallone overlooks the fact that the Mets real estate arm Sterling Equities was a key stakeholder in the LDC - and came out of this holding $200 million worth of city property. We guess that in Peter Vallone's law enforcement world it's okay for someone to break the law and benefit handsomely - such is the state of good government in Queens if Vallone's view is representative.

Ain't it the truth?