Nassau and NYC nepotism? No kidding!
Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, left, and NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca, AP
In the context of national politics with control of the House of Representatives at stake, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito’s reportedly placing an ex-girlfriend and the daughter of his longtime fiancee on his congressional payroll proved to be a bad idea.
In the context of Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead, however, straight-up patronage in public staff hiring is so ingrained in the GOP’s successful machine culture, it can go unnoticed.
The part-time jobs D’Esposito filled are not Civil Service positions. For time immemorial in America, awarding jobs and contracts have cemented local party organizations — Democratic and Republican.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Sapraicone’s daughter had been D’Esposito’s scheduler, as Newsday reported. Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder’s wife is one of the congressman’s part-time employees. One of D'Esposito's former paid interns is the son of Hempstead Town Receiver of Taxes Jeanine Driscoll.
Well, that’s the way they roll in Nassau and in the Town of Hempstead. These news items tempt us toward the old cynical quip: "Who are they gonna hire, their enemies?"
The immediate question is whether D’Esposito’s payroll choices swing voters to Democratic opponent Laura Gillen or perhaps cause them to refrain from filling in that part of the ballot in the 4th Congressional District. Nobody can say who will care at this point.
Across the country these days, partisan polarization seems to define standards of conduct downward. Many seem to believe that shunning your enrolled party’s nominee in a general election, based on some ethical objection, risks surrendering to "them" — the "enemy" in the other party.
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, presumably due to his last name, got a lucrative post on the board of a Ukraine energy company. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has a private equity firm that received $2 billion from the Saudi government after he left the White House.
Those who screamed for years about Hunter were silent on Jared — and vice versa.
In New York City, the administration of Democratic Mayor Eric Adams is besieged by multiple criminal investigations, culminating in his federal indictment Wednesday. The fire, police and buildings departments came under hard scrutiny at the highest levels.
There has been so much frenzy, investigation and speculation since Adams took office in 2022 that it’s easy to forget one of Adams’ earliest controversies centered on nepotism. His younger brother, a retired police sergeant, was to be hired as a deputy police commissioner to advise on the mayor’s security.
Like many other Adams appointments, it did not work out. Experts said it ran afoul of the city’s antinepotism law. Adams reduced the duties from deputy-commissioner level but made Bernard Adams a $210,000 per year "executive director" of mayoral security. Several months ago, the mayor’s younger brother turned up with a gig at a new nonprofit called Angels Helpers NYC.
Other sets of siblings have drawn scrutiny at City Hall. Edward Caban recently departed as commissioner of the NYPD while under federal investigation. Soon after, it was revealed that a Brooklyn juice bar owner claimed Caban’s twin brother James and a City Hall official shook him down for payments to keep police from harassing him. Ex-Commissioner Caban hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing.
Call it the spoils system, cronyism, favoritism, or nepotism. It's always been with us, and in government, it can cause big backlash if not used judiciously.
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.