Michael Conners

Comptroller, Albany County

Could this happen here?


Before you dismiss the possibility of anything close to this happening in Albany County, remember a few things. A permissive culture that shields people from accountability exists here as well as in England. High unemployment among the young is a problem here as well. The disconnect between the have-nots and the societal protections we all enjoy is widening. Technology makes the amassing of a large number of people extremely easy.

A disturbing trend of an entitlement mentality and administrative ennui towards the management of the welfare programs was recently highlighted by our Albany County Department of Social Services(DSS) audits on shelter allowances, furniture purchases, food stamp criminals not being arrested after we report the crime to DSS and the lack of progress from a million dollar contract for IPRO to handle Medicaid Fraud for Albany County. These are just part of the symptoms of a tired, bored and ineffective leadership about fighting poverty in our County.

Just look at the IPRO contract kerfuffle that arose Monday night at the Albany County Legislature’s monthly meeting. The story was covered in Carol Demare’s story yesterday. Albany County decided to use an outside vendor to audit Medicaid claims rather than use the Department of Audit & Control in 2005 despite our efforts to get the County into the New York State Department of Health’s demonstration project on Welfare Fraud. I’m sure the County Executive can explain why but wouldn’t make more sense to use the elected chief fiscal officer who’s signature is required for the checks that pay those claims?

The permissive attitude displayed by DSS towards fraud and the obstructive behaviors we encountered in our audits costs you money but more importantly creates a climate of entitlement that does not hold people accountable. The Executive pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for a tool (data mining software from Salient Corporation) to search for outliers and make referrals to an outside vendor who made over a million dollars in fees to only turn over 59 referrals for investigation in 5 years!

Our audit of the shelter allowance payments for two years showed that we spent $1.2 million dollars on deposits and only received just over $7,000 back-from a vendor who voluntarily sent the money the money back- not because we had asked for it. Further, we could have gotten the money for any damages our recipients caused back from the recipient but choose not to do so. You can’t make this stuff up. Unbelievable. The waste is shameful but the programing of people to not respect property and to not be held accountable is sinful. The waste of human potential is enormous.

I’m sure that the Executive will have his folks spin this and the sterling Chairperson of the Legislature’s Social Services Committee, who is asleep at the wheel but knows how to milk the system pretty good herself, will rail against heartless people like me trying to hold the system and County accountable.

Think about it. You buy a high priced tool to find fraud and give it to an outside vendor who makes 59 referrals in 5 years (we made 60 in the shelter allowance audit alone) and that’s doing a good job? I’ve asked the Executive and the Legislature to make the Department of Audit & Control the designee of the acting Commissioner of Social Services for Medicaid audits yesterday. Watch the howling and wailing over the next several weeks.

God bless all here.

Categories: General
Michael Conners

10 Responses

  1. Billy The Kidd says:

    What do expect from a county run by Democrats !!!

  2. Ann says:

    No, not yet. For one thing, we’re not that small and one riot wouldn’t make such a difference. If/when we do riot, it would have to be a coordinated effort across many states. Plus only idiots pick on small private businesses; we would go after large firms like GM and mortgage companies so that we could hurt the big folks not the little ones just trying to make a living.

  3. kevin says:

    Mike: You don’t have the expertise to audit the County DSS. How often do you go out and use outside contrators to do the work that your department should be able to handle. So the choice is to give it to you and then have you ferret it out to some outside help or have the county go directly to an outside vendor. In my view the County is correct…eliminate the middle man, as well as the useless political grandstanding that would come from the minor stuff you would fine (after your outside expert found it). Do your job and sign the checks, and let the experts handle the heavy lifting.

  4. Billy The Kidd says:

    Only an idiot would attack a Corporation and think they are hurting it,or the big folks.The largest owners of the “LARGE FIRMS” are the pensions of teachers unions,and other public sector unions.So destroying these companies,would equal destroying yourself.That’s why your a Democrat,you don’t understand how things work.

  5. Josh says:

    Oh, good lord, Billy the Kidd, get a grip. Republican-run counties are just as corrupt, just as crony-driven, just as fiscally irresponsible as Democrat-run counties. In fact, I’d venture to guess that there’s more fiscal corruption in Republican-run counties, in general, because where Democrats are apt to forgive individual transgressions (to the tune of small amounts of dollars) because of their pro-individual philosophy, Republicans are apt to forgive corporate transgressions (to the tune of colossal amounts of dollars) because of their pro-business philosophy.

  6. yeahrightmike says:

    Well Mike, maybe social services is doing a lousy job because Wanda Willingham chairs the committee. I remind you that she was hand picked by Dan McCoy. Yet I notice you have never had anything negative to say about McCoy. The simple fact is he made a huge mistake and you should have publicly speaking up to get this reversed and help the taxpayers.

    So where were you years ago when this started? Why did you say NOTHING when McCoy made his pick???

  7. Ann says:

    Right let’s go get those retirees and double dippers. Or we could work towards changing the policies as is already being done.

    Political parties are a way of distratcing voters from the issues at hand. Both sides are wrong, both are right.

  8. Alice is back in the rabbit hole... says:

    Breaking a personal rule and using an Anonymous moniker…

    Mr. Connors (or anyone who visits) could you please explain this?:



    That says that Bank of America is stashing “$74 trillion dollars.” And the report the Bloomberg article cites says that “derivatives contracts held by insured U.S. commercial banks” are worth “$249 trillion.”

    But the ENTIRE WORLD ECONOMY GDP is worth only $59 trillion.

    How can Bank of America move futures that are worth 120% more than the world economy in a single day?

    And how can US banks back futures that are worth FOUR TIMES the WORLD’S GDP (and nearly 18x the US GDP)???

  9. Thanks for your posting on this weblog. From my experience, many times softening way up a photograph may possibly provide the photo shooter with a dose of an artsy flare. Many times however, the soft blur isn’t exactly what you had as the primary goal and can usually spoil an otherwise good photograph, especially if you intend on enlarging this.

  10. Michael Conners says:

    Great advice but I took the blog pictures with my cellphone. Some are terrific and some are fuzzy. Happy New Year and thanks for the helpfulness, God bless,