Long Island has a sordid tradition of political scandals that includes sewer contract corruption, police misconduct and allegations of bribery.
Gordon Hailwood, a sewer contract manager for Thames Water, said if it had not been discovered in time, raw sewage could have started to spurt out of manholes across the whole of Kingston.
Stretching nearly the length of the the state, a corruption investigation involving municipal sewer contracts led to its fourth guilty plea today, by Camden's former public utilities director.
After her lover, Carl Capasso, who in recent years had been awarded $150 million worth of city sewer contracts, several of which are still in effect--went off last month to serve 4 years in federal prison for tax evasion, a"Post"cartoon showed the glum figure of the Mayor beside a huge, dark building labelled"NYC Prison".
Before that, they ran a sewer-contracting business.
In exchange, prosecutors said, the official helped secure $6.4 million in sewer repair contracts for United Gunite.
One sewer-repair contract, said a US district judge, "reeked of politics and political influence, and, quite possibly, of political corruption".
In exchange, the prosecutors said, the official agreed to use his influence to help secure a total of $6.4 million in sewer repair contracts for United Gunite in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
Daley's nephew Robert Vanecko in the past signed millions of dollars' worth of city-related development and service contracts, and in 2004 Daley's son Patrick was discovered to have a small piece of a sewer-inspection contract with the city.
He employs six sewers but contracts "everything else out," he said.
With the bag — full of budget reports, sewer projections and municipal contracts — tossed in the back of his Jeep, he began an hourlong drive to his hometown for a City Council meeting.
