Tick Tock, Mayor Jennings, Tick, Tock...

Ala. mayor accused of taking Rolex, other bribes
Ala. mayor accused of accepting Rolex, other bribes for steering millions to crony's business  

By JAY REEVES, Associated Press

Last updated: 10:15 a.m., Sunday, October 18, 2009

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Mayor Larry Langford, who could be tossed out of office and go to prison if convicted of federal bribery charges, recently offered some advice to a new Birmingham City Council member.

"The illusion of power is the most dangerous drug on the planet," Langford said. "A little bit of power -- nothing intoxicates like it."

Last week's comment may sound a lot like the government's opening argument against Langford, 61, the most recent in a long line of prominent names in the state Democratic Party to face corruption charges. Jury selection begins Monday.

Prosecutors claim a greedy, power-drunk Langford accepted bribes totaling some $235,000 -- a chunk of it for upscale clothes and jewelry -- while serving as president of the Jefferson County Commission before he was elected mayor. In exchange, they say, Langford steered $7.1 million in bond business to a political crony's investment banking firm.

Those bond deals and others turned sour during the credit crunch and brought on a financial crisis that has pushed Alabama's most populous county to the brink of filing what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. The current commissioners have repeatedly extended credit agreements as they struggle to pay back $3.9 billion.

Charged with multiple felony counts of bribery, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and tax violations, Langford automatically would be removed from office if convicted of even one count.

Defense attorney Michael Rasmussen laughed at the possibility of a guilty plea, saying Langford "maintains he is innocent and expects to get a fair trial."

The government's key witnesses will likely be two former Democratic Party leaders indicted with Langford last year.

Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount, a former Alabama Democratic Party chairman, pleaded guilty in August to paying bribes to Langford, who is accused of accepting gifts including a Rolex watch, cash and loan payoffs at luxury clothing stores.

Lobbyist Al LaPierre, a former executive director of the state Democratic Party, pleaded guilty to being a middleman in the scheme.

Langford, also a Democrat, has argued that what the government calls bribes really were gifts between old friends. He says the charges were brought by a Republican prosecutor as part of a GOP plan to target him and other Alabama Democrats.

His argument is similar to that of former Gov. Don Siegelman, another Democrat convicted of bribery and other federal corruption charges in 2006.

A widespread probe of financial wrongdoing in the state's two-year college system also led to the downfall of its chancellor, Roy Johnson. He was once a powerful Democrat in the Alabama House who admitted getting some $1 million in kickbacks for himself, family and friends. He now awaits sentencing.

The executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party, Jim Spearman, agrees that Republican prosecutors seem to go after Democrats with special zest. But Blount and LaPierre haven't been associated with the party for years, he said.

"Democrat or Republican, I don't think anyone has a lock on ethics. You see all degrees of problems on all sides, and we need to clean it up," Spearman said.

Nearly two dozen people already have been convicted or pleaded guilty in an investigation of Jefferson County's tangled finances, including four other commissioners.

The trial, expected to last about two weeks, will be held 55 miles west of Birmingham in Tuscaloosa because of pretrial publicity.

Langford served as president of the county commission from 2002 through 2006, giving up his seat to run for mayor in 2007. The former television news reporter and beer company promoter, with his fashionable clothes and wide smile, won in a landslide.

He has launched numerous projects to pave streets and clean up neighborhoods during 22 months as mayor, but he is also known for seemingly Quixotic, off-the-wall ideas, including a bid to lure the Olympics to Birmingham in 2020. Critics often call Langford "Mayor LaLa."

When he was commission president, the county made a series of risky financial deals known as bond swaps with Blount's firm, Blount Parrish and Co. Inc. Blount said in his plea agreement that he bribed Langford to make the deals, which brought $7.1 million to Blount's company.

Blount also admitted bribing another former commissioner, Mary Buckelew, with luxury gifts. Buckelew, a Republican, also pleaded guilty to lying to grand jurors and is expected to testify against Langford.

A former judge not involved in the case said Langford must attack the credibility of witnesses, including Blount and LaPierre, both of whom could receive lighter sentences for their cooperation.

"Everybody has a motive if you're Langford, has a reason, not to tell the truth," said former U.S. Magistrate Judge John Carroll, now dean of the law school at Samford University in suburban Birmingham.

Title of Presentation: Creating Caring School Communities.

Date: Thursday, October 8, 2009

Time: Noon to 1:30 pm

Place: The Pastoral Center, 40 N. Main Avenue, Albany, NY 12203

The presentation is free and open to the public. Emotional intelligence and peaceful behavior are learned at an early age in a variety of settings - including our schools. Come to learn and share about practices that teach the whole child. Call 518-453-6797 to learn more about this program and others in our vital series of presentations on restorative justice

This presentation will offer a continuum of both proactive and reactive methods that  assist schools in creating  a respectful, meaningful environment within the classroom and beyond.  The experiences of  other schools will be shared.  Please join us for a 90 minute interactive session at the Pasroral Center located at 40 N. Main Ave., Albany,NY. Feel free to bring lunch, beverages are provided.

To win this election we need to reach those additional voters and that is going to take money. I am asking you to donate to my campaign. With your help, we can change the city of Albany. I look forward to serving you as the next mayor of Albany.

The tightening of the credit markets in the wake of the U.S. financial crisis prompted the hospital to put the expansion on hold until the borrowing environment improves.

"We're still waiting for more favorable climate," (hospital spokesman Greg) McGarry said"

MORE NUCLEAR POWER FOR NEW YORK?

An Educational Forum with French Nuclear Expert YVES MARIGNAC

Thursday, September 17th (Today)

3:00 - 4:30 p.m.

Legislative Office Building, Room 711A

Albany, NY

What are the implications of building a new nuclear reactor at Nine Mile Point in Oswego, NY?  In this country, France is discussed as a model for nuclear energy.  Is this a model the U.S. should be pursuing?

International consultant on nuclear and energy issues, Yves Marignac is Executive Director of the energy-information agency WISE-Paris, which he joined in 1997 after four years shared between academic research in Paris-XI University, applied studies in the French nuclear institute CEA and a position at the nuclear company STMI.

Marignac has authored or contributed to many publications and studies on energy, nuclear and global environmental issues. In 1999-2000, he participated in the economic evaluation of the nuclear option commissioned by France's Prime Minister, which resulted in what became known as the Charpin-Dessus-Pellat report. He also contributed to the 2001 report to the European Parliament's Scientific and Technological Option Assessment Panel on reprocessing plant discharges.

In 2005-6, he was scientific and technical advisor to the commission preparing France's public debate on the new European Power Reactor.

Marignac is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) and is the Coordinator of the Pluralist Expertise Group (GEP) on uranium mining sites in Limousin commissioned by the French authorities.

AGENDA

Introductions

Opening Remarks:

Laura Haight, NYPIRG

Barbara Warren, CEC

Presentation:

Yves Marignac

As some of you know, we have been working since the fall of 2008 to implement the highly acclaimed and effective Harlem Children's Zone model in Albany.  We have had very positive and productive discussions with the Albany Public School District administration and board.  

On Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Rasuli Lewis, Program Director at the Harlem Children's Zone, will visit Albany at the invitation of the Family Education Alliance and the Albany School District.  Mr. Lewis will do two information/organizing sessions:

    Session One: 3:30 p.m. Hackett Middle School, Delaware Avenue.

    Session Two: 6:00 p.m. Giffen Elementary School, 274 South Pearl Street.

You are welcome to attend either or both sessions.  The first one is targeted to educators and other stakeholders who may become active partners in implementation.  The second session is targeted to the community at large.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like any additional information.

Best,

Barbara Smith
(518) 436-1279

More on the Harlem Children's Zone can be found here: http://www.hcz.org/

(Be sure to view the nation statistics ~ Harlem Successes in the flash presentation at the top of the page.)

But now we must move forward.

Perhaps we can encourage tourism to our decaying sections of this old city, but then again...

"Legislators in Albany County, N.Y., took the one of the last steps needed to increase a tax on hotel rooms from 3 percent to 6 percent.

The Democrat-controlled legislature Sept. 14 overwhelmingly approved a local law that would increase the tax as of November 1.

Albany County Executive Michael Breslin must hold a public hearing before signing the legislation, said Mary Duryea, spokeswoman. The hearing date hasn't been scheduled yet.

The hotel bed tax dropped from 6 percent to 3 percent last January after the law authorizing the tax expired. The tax would again be 6 percent when Breslin, as expected, signs the legislation.

The occupancy tax is collected by all hotels and motels in the county with at least 25 rooms.

Reauthorization of the tax was one of the items held up by the stalemate in the state Senate following a Republican coup in June. Democrats regained control of the Senate in mid-July.

The additional 3 percent tax on hotel guests will generate another $3 million for the county, for a total of $6 million in hotel tax revenue.

Of that, $1 million goes to the Albany Convention Center Authority, which is planning to build a $225 million to $240 million convention center downtown.

The Albany County Convention and Visitors Bureau gets $1 million.

The remaining $4 million goes to pay off the county's debt on the construction of the Times Union Center."

On September 2nd, the attorney, Jeffrey Jamison, an assistant corporation counsel who worked closely with former police Chief James Tuffey, initially denied removing any files from police headquarters - but then called back a TU reporter to try and clarify his statements, and referred further questions to the city's head corporation counsel, John Reilly.

Albany Corp. Counsel John Reilly confirmed that attorney Jamison had retrieved the investigative file last week from police headquarters. The files relate to an investigation by APD Chief Tuffey into the illicit purchase of machine guns by dozens of officers. Former APD Chief Tuffey initiated his probe more than three years ago after the Albany Times Union filed a Freedom of Information Law request seeking access to the gun records but was repeatedly refused and lengthy litigation ensued.

More than 50 machine guns were purchased in the 1990's by Albany police officers and at least two citizens, including a former prosecutor.  Many of the federally regulated weapons, which could only be possessed by a police force, were illegally resold between officers and at least two turned up in local gun stores.

The Albany Police Department machine gun scandal began to unravel in early 2006 when the city denied the Albany Times Union's request for the gun records. In its early denials the city claimed releasing the gun records could endanger the lives of officers because the guns were used to fight crime. In fact, the guns were never deployed by the department; there was no policy or training for their use; and many officers took the weapons, which they bought with their own cash, home as personal souvenirs.

It's unclear why the files were not secured by the internal affairs unit, which has its own office and evidence locker.

Read the whole story:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=841053&TextPage=1

Way past time for a new Police Chief, way past time for a new Mayor.

Get out and vote on Tuesday, Sept. 15th.

If people sit on their hands everyone in the City of Albany can get ready for four more years of City Hall corruption and political skullduggery.