Campaign donations from developers come under fire

By Paul Kirby, Freeman staff Daily Freeman February 10, 2006

KINGSTON - A city resident wants the Common Council to consider a law banning any elected city officeholder or candidate from accepting campaign donations from developers seeking permission to build in Kingston.
Lowell Thing, who is active with the citizens group Friends of the Kingston Waterfront, also has asked the council to ban contributions from city employees to political campaigns and to limit individual donations to any single candidate to $250.
Thing offered his proposal a few days after a published report showed Mayor James Sottile, a Democrat, had legally accepted campaign contributions from two developers proposing large-scale housing and commercial projects in the city.
Sottile said this week that he Thing simply is "trying to embarrass me" with his proposal. The mayor said Thing probably is making his pitch out of spite because he is against what the developers are proposing, while Sottile has been a strong supporter the projects.
"Mr. Thing has decided to make this personal," Sottile said. "The last time I checked, this was America, where people had the right to participate in the election process. ... I have broken no laws."
Thing countered that he did not mention the mayor's name in his proposal and, in fact, does not believe Sottile would do anything special for the developers - AVR Acquisition Corp. of Yonkers and The Teicher Organization of New Jersey - in exchange for the contributions.
According to campaign statements, Teicher and a company affiliated with AVR donated a total of $375 to the mayor's campaign on a fund-raising Hudson River boat cruise last July. The mayor is likely to sponsor a similar cruise this summer.
AVR wants to build a 2,200-unit housing development called The Landing at Kingston and Ulster along the city's Hudson River waterfront. Teicher has proposed constructing a 12-story, 214-unit condominium building at the current site of the Uptown Kingston parking garage.
Thing said there is an "appearance" problem with donations like the ones Sottile received. Eliminating them, he said, would serve to foster, in the public's mind, more integrity in the city's planning review process.
"It seems to me that the public would have more confidence in local officeholders if we had appropriate safeguards against undue influence from people or businesses seeking cooperation or permits from the city," Thing wrote in his request to the Common Council. "As you are well aware, state and federal level officeholders today are presently required to raise a great deal of money from various lobbies in order to run for office."
"It's a national problem and (an) embarrassment," said Thing, who spoke about his proposal at a Common Council meeting Tuesday night. "Let's solve it at a local level, at least."
Council President James Noble, a Democrat who has campaigned as Sottile's running mate and benefited from the cruise fund-raiser, said he has forwarded Thing's recommendation to the council's Finance/Economic Development Committee for review. But Noble said it appears Thing and supporters of his resolution want to hold local officials to higher standard than those in Congress and the state Legislature.
"Why should we be treated different than everyone else?" he asked.
Alderman Leonard Walker, D-Ward 3, agreed with Thing's proposal. "You can't serve two masters," he said.
While Walker said he does not think Sottile has done anything wrong, he should give the money back to the developers. "It would be a very good gesture and set a tone that the mayor's office is not for sale," he said.
Council Minority Leader Richard Cahill Jr., R-Ward 6, who raised the issue of campaign finance reform at a GOP caucus this week, said Thing's proposal should be taken seriously. He said he thinks it possible to implement at least that portion of the law that would outlaw contributions to current office holders, but he did not think it was proper to limit contributions from city employees.
Cahill, an attorney, said he was researching the matter to determine if the council would be prohibited by law from adopting such a measure.
"I think there should be restrictions just because it looks bad," Cahill said.
Majority Leader Bill Reynolds, D-Ward 7, said Sottile's support of the proposed development is rooted in his conviction that the projects will greatly benefit the city. To suggest anything different, he said, is to attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the development efforts.
"There will always be people who are unhappy with what you are doing no matter what you say or do," Reynolds said

.©Daily Freeman 2006

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