School district, the pension mess, and a donation
Electoral politics routinely meshes with public school management.
On Aug. 12 — just two weeks before Albert D'Agostino had his $106,700 pension revoked by the state — he was re-appointed as an attorney by one of the school districts that had improperly listed him as an employee.
On Sept. 12, the long-time Republican gave a $250 campaign contribution to a board member of that district, who is running on the Democratic line for state Assembly.
D’Agostino made the donation to John Pinto in the name of a realty firm he co-owns. Pinto, who is challenging Republican incumbent Tom McKevitt (above), is a registered Republican.
Neither he nor D’Agostino see an issue. “The Board of Education made the decision to rehire Mr. D’Agostino,” Pinto said. D’Agostino added he personally did not give the money to Pinto. “It was for two tickets to a fundraising event,” he said.
Eden Laikin
E-mail
Facebook
Digg
Delicious
Comments (3)
This all seems a little fishy to me. You guys couldn't dig anything else up?
A guy who is improperly receiving a pension for a school district he doesn't actually work for is giving political donations to one of the Board Members who voted to re-up his contract and there's nothing wrong here?
Neither gentlemen sees a conflict of interest here, nor an appearance of impropriety? Neither does Newsday?
"D'Agostino added he personally did not give the money to Pinto."
No, a realty firm at which he is a partner gave $250 to Friends for John Pinto. So, while D'Agostino didn't actually physically hand Pinto the money, he instructed his secretary to hand the check to Pinto's campaign treasurer.
That's called a difference without a distinction.
Albert D'Agostino, the same attorney that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo called a "double dipper" (www.dailypress.com/topic/ny-ensub145684956may14,0,4395279.story) for his "retoactive" public pension and lambasted the multiple school districts he was supposedly working for (newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-endag165845173sep16,0,6084542.story); the same attorney that NEWSDAY ran an article about on 8/28/08 citing that "The comptroller's office ordered D'Agostino to pay back $605,874.79" (www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lipens0827,0,6170927); the same attorney that NEWSDAY noted on 10/2/08 that "Nassau Comptroller Howard Weitzman has also moved to recoup an additional $103,669 in pension contributions the county paid on D'Agostino's behalf." (mobile.newsday.com/news.jsp?key=193560&rc=lo_ssn); that same attorney is now connected with an improper donation through a shell company to a former school board member that once-upon-a-time voted to renew his contract, and is now running against his own party on the Democratic ticket (look it up) for an Assembly seat in the 17th district? I for one am shocked, but not really. Pinto is nothing more than a political afterthought who is receiving campaign donations from a disgraced attorney that bilked the system for hundreds of thousands of dollars while he sat on a school boards for a school district that was fleeced. I cannot believe this story has been buried on this shabby NEWSDAY blog page
POLITICAL AFTERTHOUGHT
Have been around for 20 years, what have you ever done for your community.