�Bruno blocks wetland shield - Senate leader�s opposition to widely supported bill that would extend protection to smaller areas raises questions of conflict of interest�

From the Albany Times-Union
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, July 3, 2005

ALBANY�For more than a year, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has blocked widely supported wetlands legislation that would limit development on luxury home sites his family�s business recently sold for more than $1.1 million.

A wide margin of senators�three-fourths of them by some lobbyist counts�were prepared to vote for the proposed law, called the Clean Water Protection/Flood Prevention Act, but Bruno refused to allow any full Senate vote.

The state Assembly passed the bill 115-28 on Feb. 2, 2005.

The act would have created basic state protection for small areas of wetlands�ranging in size from one to 12.4 acres�that the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 declared exempt from regulation by the federal Army Corps of Engineers.

Records obtained by the Times Union show a Bruno family investment, First Grafton Corp., has a history of resisting wetlands restrictions on a 625-acre development site in Grafton in eastern Rensselaer County.

In 1991, Bruno created a stir when his business mowed down forest and wetlands to create a road without any permits. In 1995, state officials warned that extending that road and building homes on at least six planned lots �will impact federally protected wetlands.�

In 2000, the Army Corps issued a stop work order when First Grafton began bulldozing and filling protected hemlock swampland to extend its road to accommodate the future home of Kenneth R. Bruno, the senator�s son.

Last July, with Ken Bruno acting as a real estate broker, First Grafton began quickly selling off its 14 remaining lots to five buyers, including one $800,000 sale in February of 10 lots and raw land to a Massachusetts developer, who promised to extend the site�s road another mile within a year.

The developer�s lots and road right of way are dotted with wetland areas of six acres or less that would be covered by the proposed legislation.

Bruno spokesman John McArdle scoffed at claims the senator purposefully killed the wetlands bill or that the senator�s interest in First Grafton Corp., which was placed in a blind trust, represented any conflict of interest.

�It�s outlandish to use First Grafton as an excuse,� McArdle said. �That argument doesn�t hold any water.�

Bruno has repeatedly said he opposes the wetlands plan because it is unfair to landowners who want to make their own decisions about what happens on their property. Nevertheless, environmentalists who work in the capital are outraged and outspoken.

�We did a survey of senators on how they would vote and we know we had more than sufficient votes,� said Bill Cooke of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. �What happened? Joe Bruno is what happened. Joe stopped the legislation.�

�Is his conduct criminal? I don�t know,� Cooke said. �Is it outrageous, unreasonable and bordering on the immoral? You bet. It�s a disservice to the voters in this state.�

The bill was sponsored by Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman Carl L. Marcellino, R-Syosset, and co-sponsored by 10 other senators, including two Republicans on Marcellino�s committee. Marcellino first introduced the bill in last year�s session. Lobbyists say 20 Democratic senators also asked to be co-sponsors.

The Senate Environmental Conservation Committee approved the bill 11-1.

Marcellino did not respond to requests for comment, nor did most of the bill�s sponsors or any other legislators contacted by the Times Union.

Sen. Frank Padavan, R-Queens, and the Senate vice president, is still committed to the legislation. �He�ll do whatever he has to do to keep it in focus,� Peter Potter, his spokesman, said.

Potter declined to say whether Padavan planned to press Bruno for the bill to be put to a vote next session.

Marcellino�s bill would give the Department of Environmental Conservation regulatory jurisdiction over 270,000 wetland areas around the state of between one and 12.4 acres. The Supreme Court�s 2001 decision left those areas without any oversight.

The legislative session closed again this year without a vote on Marcellino�s bill just as the Times Union published a June 23 report on First Grafton and Bruno�s perceived conflicts of interest.

The Senate majority leader was a 25-percent stockholder in the business, which was run by Bruno friend and lobbyist James Featherstonhaugh. Bruno transferred his stock to a so-called blind trust in 1992 to remove any direct financial interest that could have raised ethical conflict of interest issues under state law. Peter Bruno of Glens Falls, the senator�s brother, continued to own a one-eighth interest in First Grafton.

The company dissolved in May.

In a 1995 letter to Army Corps brass, First Grafton engineer Peter A. Chiefari urged federal officials to be swift in allowing the project to move forward after First Grafton was cited for building a 1.7-mile road over wetlands without a permit.

�The price range for the lots has been set at from $250,000 to $400,000 each,� wrote Chiefari, who did not return a call or e-mail for comment. �Failure to obtain a timely approval may result in serious financial harm to First Grafton with consequent liability.�

In April 2001, the Army Corps of Engineers lifted a stop work order prompted by further road construction after receiving a remediation plan. Two months later, Ken Bruno, then Rensselaer County�s district attorney, purchased a 10.8-acre lot near the end of the extended wetlands road for $44,000.

That summer, Ken Bruno received permission from the Rensselaer County Health Department to build his septic system without a county inspection, according to documents obtained by the Times Union.

The remainder of the development includes a total of 49 small wetlands areas covered under Marcellino�s bill.

�The fact Sen. Bruno was involved with an enterprise that violated federal wetlands laws helps explain why he�s working hard to stop a bill that would regulate destructive development on New York�s treasured wetlands,� said John Stouffer, who is the legislative director for the Sierra Club�s Atlantic chapter.

Wetlands serve as natural water filters, absorbing contaminants, as they protect water quality in streams, lakes and rivers, advocates explained. That�s critical for municipalities that rely on surface supplies of water, like New York City and Albany.

Bruno�s stance against the wetlands bill contrasts with his usual support for environmental legislation and issues.

In April, he joined Gov. George Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in signing a memorandum of understanding that makes $30 million available for local communities to develop strategies to clean up and reuse brownfields.

A supporter of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute�s new $20 million center for future energy systems, Bruno also took the lead in passing a tough anti-smoking law in 2003. In August 2000, he delivered a $400,000 state grant to Troy to renovate Riverfront Park and improve the view.

In 1998 he rolled out $6.6 million in pork barrel grants for historic preservation and environmental conservation around the Capital Region.

Bruno spokesman McArdle said detractors may as well blame First Grafton for all of what ails the Legislature, including its failure to restore the death penalty.

The Senate majority leader became more defensive this year after a May report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a downstate think tank, slapped him for �standing in the way of progress� as he continues to control what legislation sees the light of day.

Cooke, of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a Schoharie County farmer, said he and his colleagues persuaded tens of thousands of New Yorkers to ask their state senators to support the wetlands bill.

Cooke owns 14 acres and rents another 80 or so. He acknowledged the bill would prevent him from developing the majority of his property.

�I�m a conservative Republican, and I still recognize the need to protect it,� he said.

�This issue is not about Joe Bruno and Bill Cooke,� Cooke said. �It�s about our children and their children.�

�I understand about peoples� property rights, but that�s life. We regulate everything, including the fence height in between peoples� houses�and we can�t protect our wetlands? Come on. Is it public need? Or personal greed?�

Rob Moore, a lobbyist with Environmental Advocates, was another of many who urged state lawmakers to pass the wetlands legislation, which would require any development that encompasses a smaller wetland to obtain a DEC permit.

Moore agreed with his colleagues that Bruno�s refusal to allow votes on certain bills seems to follow a pattern directly related �to his reported personal and business interests.�

�The thumb was already put on this early,� he said. �It didn�t get a debate on the floor. That doesn�t happen in any other state.�