NY: Whitewash and Coverup Captial

Inspector: Gov. Spitzer pick for state's utility watchdog needed leash
The New York Daily News
BY JOE MAHONEY - DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF - Friday, February 15th 2008

ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer's initial pick to run the state's utility watchdog meddled in the agency while still a lobbyist for an energy firm - even offering plum jobs to friendly regulators, the state inspector general found Thursday.

The lobbyist, Angela Sparks Beddoe, also threatened the jobs of Public Service Commission staffers who took regulatory actions she disagreed with and offered raises to other officials who fed her information about PSC business, Inspector General Kristine Hamann said.

Beddoe withdrew her candidacy to be Spitzer's PSC chairwoman after a whistleblower reported the questionable meetings she held with PSC staffers while she was working for Energy East, a firm with numerous matters before the agency, Hamann said in a 130-page report.

The inspector general, however, was unable to substantiate PSC Commissioner Cheryl Buley's claims that since-departed Spitzer energy adviser Steven Mitnick threatened her job and tried to influence her vote in a probe of the 2006 Con Ed blackout in Queens. Hamann did say Mitnick "mismanaged" his attempts to get Buley to quit.

Republicans said the IG's report did not go far enough. Senate GOP Leader Joe Bruno's spokesman, John McArdle, dismissed it as "a whitewash and a coverup for intimidation."

Spitzer spokesman Errol Cockfield said the administration was "pleased" the Mitnick controversy was "resolved." He had no comment on the PSC staffers who had contact with Beddoe, which faces further scrutiny by ethics watchdogs. Because Beddoe was never a state employee, the inspector general said she did not violate the Public Officers Law.

But Eleanor Stein, a PSC in-house judge who met with Beddoe about a possible promotion while she was handling matters important to Energy East, could face ethics charges, officials said.

jmahoney@nydailynews.com