Csaposs asks
Is Conners doing his job"



ALBANY COUNTY — The county comptroller is running on his record as his challenger’s campaign manager makes an issue of accessing his records.

Patricia Slavick, a Guilderland Town Board member, is challenging Michael Conners for comptroller in the Sept. 18 Democratic primary. Her campaign manager, the town’s development director, Donald Csaposs, wants to see Conners’s audits.
In a lengthy letter to the Enterprise editor this week, he complains about a delay in his request for information and writes, "My personal suspicion is that he doesn’t want to tell me what audits he’s performed because either he doesn’t do any or doesn’t do enough, and the taxpayers of Albany County deserve better."
"We decided we wanted to take a look at the quality of his audit work," Csaposs said yesterday. "The starting point is to find out what he has covered. The next thing is to look at how well has he done it."

Conners defended the work of his office, citing his audits of the Albany County Nursing Home and Albany County’s prescription drug plan, which revealed diversions and overcharges of millions of dollars. Connors also pointed to his office’s improvement of the hotel-motel tax auditing system, which resulted in additional revenue for Albany County.
Conners said that Slavick’s name was not on the requests sent to the county clerk’s office, but that her "handlers" were requesting the information.
He said one of the focuses of his 2007 campaign for re-election is leadership and that the comptroller has to be a "demonstrated leader" to earn the job.

He would not comment on the contents of Csaposs’s letter to The Enterprise, calling the letter "a personal attack" and saying it did not "dignify a response."
"I always run a clean campaign," Conners said.

Responding through The Enterprise, Csaposs said, "I guess if you’re not talking about anything, you’re running a clean campaign."

Csaposs said he filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the county clerk’s office in early July for lists of audits that Conners’s office has performed and the ones he scheduled for this year.

Daniel Hornick, of Albany County Executive Michael Breslin’s Office, who is also working on Slavick’s campaign, has filed FOIL requests with the county clerk, too.
"We just want to see if there was an audit plan available," Slavick said yesterday, when asked about Csaposs’s letter that was e-mailed The Enterprise on Friday. "We also FOILed for the audit procedural manuals."
"Audits," she said, "would determine if goals are being met."

Connors told The Enterprise that the comptroller’s office has conducted around 60 audits since 2004, but that his office also conducts hotel-motel audits and receives "between 50,000 and 60,000" claims each year.
"The requests will be completed in the order they were received," Conners said of the FOIL requests. Conners also said he is waiting on information from the county attorney’s office, but that his office has already gathered 1,600 pages of documents to respond to the requests.
"I was informed by the clerk’s office that on or before August 15, the comptroller will make a decision," Csaposs said about what information he will receive.
Saying the comptroller’s job is chief auditor and that he only wants a list of what audits are taking place, Csaposs said his request is not an "unreasonable thing."
According to the state’s Freedom of Information Law, an agency must acknowledge a FOIL request within five business days. However, the agency has another 20 days after acknowledgment to grant a reasonable request or give a written reason "for the inability to grant the request in 20 days" and must then give "a date"within a reasonable time."
Slavick describes the audit plans and relevant information as being "very important."
"If you visit other county websites, you’ll see audit information," Slavick said. "I’m not seeing an audit plan here."

Only a handful of upstate counties similar in size to Albany County — such as Broome and Dutchess counties — provide some on-line information regarding comptroller’s audits, but the type of information available varies by county. Albany County’s website does not provide any statistical audit information aside from testimonies and proposals.

Csaposs said the information he is asking for is important for legislators and other decision-making leaders around the county. Larger counties are more likely to have on-line information on audits, although many do not.
"You can bog a website down with too much detailed information, but not with a list of audits and maybe a small summary," Csaposs said. "Some information ought to be out there."