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Paterson feared 'out of control' state police unit
Friday, May 2, 2008
The Associated Press

ALBANY — Gov. David Paterson said today he admitted past marital affairs in part because he feared an “out-of-control” element in the state police that he says was investigating politicians.
The Democrat, who took office in March after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer amid a prostitution scandal, had already called for an investigation into lawmakers’ claims that a state police unit was keeping tabs on elected officials.
At that time, though, he wouldn’t say if he believed there was such a unit and the state police union said it doubted the unit existed.
But Paterson said today he knew it was operating and it prompted his extraordinary revelations that he had affairs with women years ago when his marriage was in trouble. He has since reconciled with his wife.
There was no immediate comment from state police.
“I’ll tell you something,” Paterson said during today’s installment of a series of radio interviews statewide. “That was a very serious problem and that is being investigated right now.”
He said he wouldn’t go into details of the case because it’s being investigated.
“But I will say this,” Paterson told WFAN-AM. “That was also on my mind when I made my own personal revelations. There was obviously an element in the police force and it wasn’t Republican or Democrat, it was just out of control people who had power that were clearly monitoring a lot of the elected officials and I was kind of afraid of leaks of inaccurate information about something and that was another thing that pushed me to speak.”
On April 1, Paterson asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate the claims.
State police spokesman Lt. Glenn Miner said today state police would cooperate fully.
Spitzer’s administration was dogged by a scandal in which top aides instructed to state police to compile — and in some cases, recreate — records tracking the travels of Spitzer’s chief political rival.

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Ex-trooper named in state police probe fired by NYPA
05/23/2008
By: Web Staff

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The man at the center of allegations that a rogue unit in the state police was acting on political interests of past governors has been fired as inspector general of the New York Power Authority.

NYPA spokesperson Christine Pritchard said Daniel Wiese, the former head of the security details for governors George Pataki and Eliot Spitzer, was fired as of the end of the business day on Friday. She said there would be no further comment.

The news came as a shock to Wiese, who earlier this week wrote a letter to NYPA declaring his innocence and suggesting that he might take legal action against the Authority for placing him on administrative leave.


Wiese fired by NYPA
The man at the center of allegations that a rogue unit in the state police was acting on political interests of past governors has been fired as inspector general of the New York Power Authority.
     
Wiese had been suspended since Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began an investigation. Cuomo has since said Wiese's computer and e-mail were scrubbed just as the probe was made public. Wiese has denied that he erased any files and said he knew of no rogue state police operation.

In a statement sent to Capital Tonight, Wiese said, "I have not received official notice from NYPA of my termination. If true, I'm certainly disappointed. As I stated in my letter to the NYPA board, I feel that I have been treated unfairly based on unsubstantiated accusations. In the coming days, I will review my legal rights and options with my attorney."

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CAPITOL
PBA leader defends officers
No ‘rogue’ troopers, says De Federicis
BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter

    “The members of this agency have gone through a terrible few years,” said the president of the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association on Thursday.
    Daniel M. De Federicis was referring to several troopers killed in the line of duty, as well as the May 15 suicide of former Inspector Gary Berwick, who had led former Gov. George Pataki’s security detail. On Friday, another former state police employee, forensic scientist Garry Veeder, committed suicide. Last month, a state police lieutenant, Joseph Banish, killed himself in Colonie.
    De Federicis bristled at the negative news reports, rumors and official investigations that seem to have tarnished the image of state police in the minds of many people, including powerful politicians.
    “We the agency and we the members are being wronged,” is the first thing he said sitting down to be interviewed in his downtown Albany office, overlooking St. Peter’s Church, and the theme he kept coming back to.
    “There is no rogue unit,” De Federicis said, referring to media reports that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation is trying to find and expose such a unit within state police. “ ... It’s wrong. It’s tragic. It’s a travesty, what’s been done to this agency and the people in this agency,” De Federicis said.
    De Federicis did concede two areas of legitimate concern, and the possibility of Cuomo’s investigators exposing one or two more. One is the scandal he doesn’t like being called “Troopergate,” involving former Gov. Eliot Spitzer using the former state police acting superintendent, Preston Felton, to target a political rival, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, RBrunswick.
    The other involves a 2005 domestic incident at the Clifton Park home of then-U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, whose then wife called police to report that he was “knocking her around,” according to a state police blotter review. In that case, De Federicis said, “There was a false document” apparently prepared by someone within the state police, giving a sanitized, noninformative account of the incident.
    Whatever the motivation for this, it wound up hurting Sweeney, because when the real state police report was leaked to three newspapers a few days before the 2006 election, Sweeney disputed its veracity, apparently because all he had seen previously was the false document De Federicis referred to. Sweeney, a Republican running in a heavily Republican district, lost the election to Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.
    The Sweeney case was cited earlier this month by Gov. David Paterson as one of the reasons why he asked Cuomo to conduct his investigation of state police. According to De Federicis, state police investigated the leak of the Sweeney report, but apparently not the creation of the false document.
    State police spokesman Lt. Glenn Miner declined to comment on the Sweeney case, noting it will likely be a subject of Cuomo’s investigation. He also declined to respond to reports in the New York Post that Berwick’s suicide note referred to the Cuomo investigation.
    De Federicis said the Post’s reporting has been irresponsible, and “It got legs. It got out of hand,” prompting Paterson’s call for Cuomo to investigate. Paterson cited incidents of troopers pulling over politicians’ cars, but De Federicis said he has seen no evidence of wrongdoing in that. The governor also cited the case of a state senator, Dale Volker, RDepew, who had said he thought state police had followed him, but presented no evidence to substantiate it.
    Nor has De Federicis seen any evidence of Berwick having done anything wrong. “This has put incredible pressure on people who have done nothing wrong,” he said.
    Wayne Bennett, Felton’s predecessor as state police commissioner who is now the city of Schenectady’s public safety commissioner, said he had “no indication” that Berwick “was involved in any wrongdoing. Nor would I expect that of him.” But the circumstances of his death have raised suspicions in people’s minds, Bennett said, as have the other negative reports about the agency, and he supports the Cuomo investigation getting to the bottom of any allegations and clearing them up.
    “There are all these unanswered questions and they need to be answered,” Bennett said.
    De Federicis said he also wants to see a thorough investigation completed by Cuomo to clear the air.
    Bennett, like De Federicis, said he did not believe there was any rogue unit in the police force, and hadn’t seen evidence there was anything wrong with the reported traffic stops of politicians. “I wouldn’t put a lot of importance on that,” he said.
    Pataki also has denied the existence of any rogue unit, and gave the eulogy at Berwick’s funeral.
    Paterson has said that his startling personal revelations, immediately upon becoming governor in March, of past marital infidelities, were prompted in part by his concerns over “out of control” state police officials, and what they might do with negative information about him.
    Paterson’s press secretary, Errol Cockfield, declined to discuss the state police last week, citing the ongoing Cuomo investigation. The governor, however, is scheduled to make a public appearance on Tuesday morning at a state police promotion ceremony in Albany.
    One influential and controversial former state police official, Daniel Wiese, was fired Friday from his job heading security at the New York Power Authority. Wiese, who had close ties both to Pataki and Spitzer, has been engaged in an ongoing dispute with the Power Authority and Cuomo, denying the latter’s implication that he deleted computer fi les to thwart investigators.
    Wiese also said: “I am not aware of the existence of the alleged ‘rogue element’ in the state police currently under investigation. I have no knowledge of such an ‘element.’ Furthermore, I do not believe that any such unit or element ever existed within the state police any time during my association with the organization.”
    Bruno spoke at a memorial service Wednesday on Empire State Plaza, paying tribute and giving thanks to the officers who gave their lives — along with some lighter remarks about the rain holding off. He greeted family members of David Brinkerhoff, the state trooper killed in 2007 by friendly fi re.
    Asked later about the investigation and the ongoing turmoil surrounding the agency, Bruno said a few members of the state police may have done “things that are not appropriate. That’s the way things are generally.”
    After the ceremony, state police Superintendent Harry Corbitt spoke to reporters as he walked in the rain across the Plaza to the Capitol,
    “I’m very saddened” about Berwick’s death, Corbitt said. Asked about morale, he said; “When one of our members is down, we’re all down.”
    Corbitt said an internal report on the governor’s security detail has been completed. That report apparently deals with Spitzer’s assignation with a prostitute in Washington on Feb. 13, that led to his resignation in March. De Federicis said it is ridiculous to blame the security detail for obeying Spitzer’s orders, or to expect them to have investigated whether the governor was patronizing a prostitute.
    Gillibrand could not be reached for comment Friday, and her spokeswoman, Rachel McEneny, declined to comment on whether the congresswoman believes her campaign leaked the Sweeney police report. Howard Wolfson, who worked on the Gillibrand race and is now a top aide to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, did not return a call for comment. Sweeney and his lawyer, E. Stewart Jones, could not be reached for comment, either. Nor did the attorney general’s press office respond to phone calls Thursday and Friday, and Sen. Volker could not be reached.     

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In a statement sent to Capital Tonight, Wiese said, "I have not received official notice from NYPA of my termination. If true, I'm certainly disappointed. As I stated in my letter to the NYPA board, I feel that I have been treated unfairly based on unsubstantiated accusations. In the coming days, I will review my legal rights and options with my attorney."

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NYPA works with M/WBEs for maximum contracting opportunities

The power authority's annual purchasing exchange, now in its sixteenth year, is a good place to meet and greet. That's where NYPA and UCI first got together
  
  
NYPA's Debra White: $426 million+ in business with the M/WBE community.

New York Power Authority (NYPA, White Plains, NY) is the largest state-owned electric utility in the U.S. It operates under article 15A, a law governing all New York State's agencies and authorities.


And that, says Debra White, NYPA's manager of supplier diversity, makes the difference between the approach the authority takes to supplier diversity, and the approach sometimes taken by commercial businesses and industries. "It gives us a few more teeth in getting things done because we have state law on our side, as opposed to a 'best practice.'"
Yeah, I feel 'fair and balanced'

Sure, bringing in and supporting diverse suppliers is good business for both private industry and the power authority, and of course for the authority's larger vendors and contractors as well. "But sometimes it just helps to have the law behind us," White notes. "It gives us a little more clout with the prime contractors as well as our own purchasing people.
"We say, 'We're not asking you to do this because it's nice; we're telling you to do it because it's the law!' It doesn't give them a lot of outs.

OK-SNIFF SNIFF, I SMELL A RAT!!!!!

"We try to work with the M/WBEs to provide maximum contracting opportunities for them," White affirms. "To date we've contracted more than $426 million in business with the M/WBE community both directly and through subcontracts."

The purchasing exchange
You don't need to be located in New York State to do business with the NYPA. White has firms from across the country in her M/WBE directory. The authority's annual purchasing exchange is a good place for them all to get together.

This is the sixteenth year for the exchange, which NYPA sponsors each June at its White Plains office just north of New York City. An upstate venue is added every second year. The most recent upstate event was in Syracuse, NY this April.

The exchange is not just about contracting opportunities with NYPA. "We go the gamut of city, state, corporate and federal," White says. There are reps from other utilities like ConEd and Keyspan, the Port Authority, the Office of General Services, NYC agencies, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the NYC Department of Small Business Services, and from corporate firms like IBM, Colgate and Pepsi. "My counterparts at those organizations are there looking for opportunities with M/WBEs right along with us," White says.

The Empire State Economic Development Agency, which is the state's certifying body, is also part of the conference. "They're there providing information on state certification and how to go about getting it."

The exchange started as a one-time deal done in conjunction with the National Minority Business Council (www.nmbc.org). "When we saw how successful it was we just went on with the effort, and each year it continues to grow. It's evolved into something that the public sector, private firms and M/WBEs look forward to every year."

Winning by losing?
NYPA's contracting opportunities are listed on its website, http://www.nypa.gov, under "doing business with us," White explains. "We can direct likely vendors to the website where they can download current opportunities, supplier diversity information or general information about the power authority."

Both encouragement and learning by example can be important to a prospective supplier, White notes. "Sometimes not getting the contract can be a more valuable learning experience then getting it because you can learn where you went wrong.

"We try to make it a win/win even when they lose. We talk about the pricing, the proposal and the way the company markets itself. Sometimes they're just not ready to compete but they'll be better prepared for the next go-round and their odds of being successful can be significantly increased.

"All this is done by a staff of two, myself and Yves Rose Valbrun," White adds with a smile. "We're making it happen nonetheless."

The supplier diversity program is housed in NYPA's procurement business unit. "We have various facilities around the state that have their own purchasing departments, but the head of purchasing is in the White Plains office and I report directly to him. We work together, and we use the same NYPA supplier diversity policies and procedures here and at the facilities."

Doing business with UCI
UCI (Unique Computers Inc, Long Island City, NY), a sophisticated IT firm, has been working with NYPA for about three years. The first meeting occurred at one of the NYPA purchasing exchanges, White notes. "That's how we met Kalpana Patel, UCI's president. She's a valuable asset. At the time we were looking for an IT vendor with a specific skill set in SAP, and she was the perfect fit."

Launching the startup

Kalpana Patel, owner and president, at left, meets with some of her UCI team: Bansi Shah, Greg Levine, Gary Rado and Gautam Tooley.

Kalpana Patel, owner and president of UCI, was born in India, where she earned a BS in management and an MS in personnel management from the University of Baroda. She came to the U.S. on a Rotary International scholarship in 1980, studying business and CS at Adelphi University (Garden City, NY). She graduated with an MBA in 1982.

Patel worked in the trading rooms of several Wall Street firms between 1982 and 1997. "Basically I was handling their foreign exchange and treasury operations. I was an executive directing and managing my group that helped the traders manage their risk and portfolios," she says. "I also dealt with their systems and evaluated new technology products."

In 1997 she was approached by a group of entrepreneurs to join them in the acquisition and management of an established IT firm. Patel welcomed the idea as an opportunity to work closer to home and spend more time looking after her son.

But the acquisition never materialized, and the other members of the group thought developing a startup business would take more time than they were able to spend. Patel decided to go ahead and launch UCI herself.

"After a while I got the hang of running the business. An entrepreneur has to be an accountant, lawyer, sales manager, human resource admin and general manager at the same time!" she says.

While working on Wall Street she met Gary Rado, a technical expert who handled complicated system integration projects. When UCI needed to add new technology solutions to its offerings, Rado joined UCI as its chief technology officer.

The company currently has about thirty employees.

Enterprise-level solutions
At first the startup worked mainly with Wall Street firms, using Patel's existing contacts. "They are still important clients," Patel says. "They are comfortable with our subject matter expertise and IT skills.

"But after 9/11 the financial market was tough. When we went to local supplier diversity events we recognized a huge potential in state and local government agencies.

"Over the past two years we've reengineered and refocused the organization, become very solution-driven, and aligned ourselves with major IT solution providers. Now we're involved in security areas like infrastructure virtualization, unified threat management and consolidation of IT infrastructures.

"We offer our clients a suite of products that work together and can solve their problems. These are the enterprise-level solutions that organizations need."

Certification opens the door
When Patel went to her first NYPA business exchange she was armed with SBA and WBE certifications from the City of New York, had applied for the SBA's 8a certification, and had done some work for the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). Now her firm has also received its WBENC certification.

The LIPA contract, "Gave us a head start with NYPA's technology needs," notes Gautam Tooley, director of business development. "We were also aware that NYPA is a small-business friendly agency, because we'd heard Ms White speak at several small business conferences."

UCI responded to an NYPA RFP for IT consulting services and was asked to demonstrate its ability to support NYPA's technology environment. "We presented our technical approach, capabilities and past performance with private and public sector clients, including LIPA. Our technical capability and our experience with a utility client helped us win the contract with NYPA," Tooley says.

UCI received 8a certification in 2001. That has helped the company win contracts with federal agencies like the U.S. Peace Corps and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and subcontract work from the IRS.

Work for NYPA and its colleagues
At NYPA, Patel's firm has been involved with multiple projects: an SAP upgrade, a time and attendance management system upgrade from VB to the .net framework, enhancement of NYPA's energy portal and Oracle Portal development. "The heterogeneous environment at NYPA helped us broaden our capabilities," Tooley notes.

Recently NYPA asked UCI to bid on developing an upgraded fuel management system involving fuel distribution all over New York State. "It's opening new doors for us within NYPA," Tooley says.

He notes that NYPA's experience, support and references have helped UCI win contracts with the Hudson River Park Trust, the Metropolitan Transit Authority and, most recently, a subcontract with global tax and audit firm KPMG for quality assurance services for the New York State Comptroller's office.

Needs and capabilities
Part of UCI's excellent relationship with NYPA, Rado says, stems from its periodic updating meetings with technical staff. "They tell us the kinds of things they might be looking at, and we tell them the kinds of things we're developing capabilities in."

A major new capability is VMWare which, Rado explains, "basically virtualizes an organization's technology infrastructure." At a meeting toward the end of 2005, Rado learned that NYPA was thinking about reengineering and redeveloping its disaster-recovery plan and building the platform on VMWare. UCI was quick to point out that it was already a VMWare partner and had a successful implementation with the Hudson River Park Trust. "The timing was great," Rado notes happily.

Mentoring and partnering
Patel is pleased with her company's mentor/protégé relationship with KPMG. "KPMG has mentored us by providing us opportunities to work with their New York State customers," Patel explains. And recently Lockheed Martin selected UCI as its WBE subcontractor under an MTA contract. Patel sees this relationship becoming a valuable one.

This is a time of growth and recognition for UCI. Diversity.com named UCI the fastest-growing business in New York State, World Business Forum Inc gave Patel a woman entrepreneur of the year award, and the National Association of Women Business Owners named her its top WBE of 2006.


"Teamwork is the key to our success," Patel says with pride.
D/C