What's Cuomo hiding?

From the Daily News:

There’s one phrase Gov. Cuomo never hears: “You’ve got mail!”

Cuomo refuses to communicate with his staff by email, sources close to the governor revealed to the Daily News.

If aides can’t talk in person or by phone, they are told to use the BlackBerry PIN-to-PIN messaging system — a function that leaves no lasting trail because it bypasses data-saving email servers. It allows users to connect directly through their devices using Personal Identification Numbers.

Only members of Cuomo’s inner circle are told his PIN, sources say.

A message sent over a data server can always be recovered, even when deleted. Not so for PIN messages, which are gone forever once killed, a spokesman for BlackBerry operator Research In Motion said.

And while much of the back-and-forth communication between the governor and his aides is private, it could be subject to subpoena by ethics investigators, prosecutors and possibly members of the Legislature in the event of a probe.

“He told me directly to use the PIN and that was the way to do it,” said one former administration official.

Cuomo — who promised to have the most open and transparent administration in state history — did not tell the former official the reason to use PIN communication, but the message was clear, the source said.

“It doesn’t have a paper trail,” the official said. “If he gets a new phone, he gets a new PIN, even if he has the same phone number. Every phone has a specific PIN.”

Where does Flushing Commons stand?

From the Times Ledger:

On the heels of what appeared to be a fund-raising trip to Asia, the developers of Flushing Commons are back in Queens and in the process of inking contract deals for the $850 million downtown project.

Michael Meyer, president of TDC Development, attended meetings in cities including Hong Kong and Beijing in early March, e-mails obtained by TimesLedger Newspapers through the Freedom of Information Law show.

Meyer was upbeat, calling the tete-a-tetes “excellent,” but it was unclear exactly what was discussed, since details about the project were not released as part of the information request.

Meyer declined to comment at this stage in the project, but has said in previous interviews that Flushing Commons did not have enough funding to get a shovel in the ground.

A FOIL officer from the city Economic Development Corp. said the documents specifically related to the progress of Flushing Commons — which was approved in summer 2010 but never broke ground — were legally exempt because releasing them would affect a bidding process affiliated with the project.

The officer was not specific, but said the developers were currently negotiating new contract deals as part of the mega-project that is proposed to take the place of Municipal Lot 1 downtown...

But while Meyer was updating the EDC twice a month, community leaders who approved the project more than a year-and-a-half ago have been kept in the dark ever since.

Letter from Queens Civic Congress

Dear Councilmember--

This week you will vote on re-naming the Queensboro Bridge for former Mayor Ed Koch.

This is not about Ed Koch.

This is all about Queens.

And about how you feel about Queens and the people who live in Queens.

The bridge is Queens's bridge, not a plaything that will respond to any name it is called.

The Queensboro Bridge sums up Queens: hardworking, tough, practical and a little rough around the edges.

The Queens Civic Congress is an umbrella of more than 110 neighborhood based organizations representing residents of every part of Queens. QCC is the only borough wide civic group of its kind in New York City.

QCC urges you to vote for Queens. Vote to retain the current name of the Queensboro Bridge.

Go Queens!

Patricia Dolan
President
Queens Civc Congress
PO Box 670706
Flushing, NY 11367

Photo from Daily News

What's wrong with this autoreply?

From: Governor Cuomo [Governor.Cuomo@exec.ny.gov]
Date: February 9, 2011 10:46:09 AM EST
Subject: Thank you for your Correspondence

Thank you for your email. Feedback from New Yorkers and others is essential to my work as Governor, and it is important to me to know your views and issues of concern. Due to the volume of emails this office receives, it can take some time to provide a personal response to your correspondence. I want to assure you, however, that your email has been received, and will be read and shared with the appropriate members of my staff.

I encourage you to visit my website at http://www.ny.gov/governor/, and please feel free to contact my office again about this matter or any other.

Once again, thank you, and warmest regards.

Sincerely,

Governor David A. Paterson

What's City Hall hiding?

From the NY Post:

Political operative John Haggerty Jr. may stand accused of swiping $750,000 from Mayor Bloomberg, but that doesn't mean City Hall is ready to disclose any more details about him than it has to.

Responding to a Freedom of Information request filed by The Post seven months ago, the mayor's office last week provided just nine e-mail exchanges between Haggerty and mayoral aides in all of 2008 and 2009.

There were other e-mails that the mayor's refuses to release on the grounds of "personal privacy."

They're so private, in fact, officials won't even say how many e-mails are being withheld.

That's a stricter policy than was in force in 2007, when the mayor's former Albany lobbyist, Anthony (Skip) Piscitelli, was discovered to have violated ethics rules by contacting administration officials in 127 e-mails soon after he left while representing private clients.

Back then, the mayor's office declined to release 62 of the e-mails, claiming they weren't government-related. But at least they gave out the numbers.

The skimpy exchanges that were provided with Haggerty indicate he was close as could be to top mayoral aides.

Of course, that was before this year's stunning indictment, in which the Manhattan DA's Office charged Haggerty with stealing $750,000 in Bloomberg money that was meant for the Independence Party's Election Day poll-watching operations.