Photo Courtesy of NYC
Former Patrol Borough Queens South Commander and current NYPD Housing Chief James Secreto.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Two high-ranking City cops –
both of them former borough commanders – this week were slapped with fines by the Conflicts of Interest Board for receiving meals from disgraced former Queens Library President and CEO Thomas Galante.
NYPD Housing Chief James Secreto and Chief of Personnel Diana Pizzuti forked over the $1,500 penalty for their transgressions when they signed their dispositions.
Secreto admitted that during his tenure as commanding officer of Patrol Borough Queens South he “accepted gifts in the form of meals” from Galante on four separate occasions: at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse in Manhattan; Christo’s Steakhouse in Astoria; San Pietro restaurant in Manhattan; and Quality Meats restaurant in Manhattan.
Pizzuti, who was just promoted to head up Personnel from her post as commander of Patrol Borough Queens North, copped to welcoming three meals from Galante from December 2012 to November 2013: at Christo’s, San Pietro, and Quality Meats.
According to the dispositions, Secreto and Pizzuti, “although…unaware of it at the time,” acknowledged that, by accepting from Queens Library each of the meals, “provided to [them] solely due to their City position,” they violated the City Charter, which states: “No public servant shall use or attempt to use his or her position as a public servant to obtain any financial gain, contract, license, privilege, or other private or personal advantage, direct or indirect, for the public servant or any person or firm associated with the public servant.”
It was unclear if the officers have received any internal punishment from the department.
The violations were revealed in an audit of Galante’s Library expenses performed by City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who painted a picture of a disingenuous and reckless Queens Library under the ousted president and chief executive officer. Galante and other Library executives spent more than $300,000 on prohibited items such as extravagant meals, alcohol, Apple TVs, smokeless ashtrays, airline upgrades, and tickets to a Maroon 5 concert and Disneyland, all while claiming that the Library was running a deficit, according to Stringer’s report.
During Galante’s tenure, the Library charged nearly all of its operating expenses to its internal “City Fund” account, which was subject to oversight by the comptroller’s office. As a result, Stringer said, from Fiscal Year 2008 to FY 2013 the Library appeared to run deficits that ranged from $5.7 million to $6.9 million, enabling Galante to go before the City Council and plead for more funds.
In reality, the Library had anywhere from $17 to $27 million in unrestricted funds in its fines and fees, state and board designated funds over the same period. Stringer said that Library executives could have drawn upon these so-called hidden funds. Instead, they used the money in part to pay for a wide range of inappropriate expenses.
