From New York Newsday, 1/2/05:

Bloomberg's City Hall plagued by Giuliani foibles

The Department of Investigation's ongoing review of ex-Police
Commissioner Bernard Kerik's past actions marks only the latest in a
clear series of Giuliani-era fiascoes and scandals that have bloomed
retroactively during the Bloomberg years.

Three years into his term, Mayor Michael Bloomberg remains reluctant
to launch an open and potentially destructive feud with his
predecessor Rudolph Giuliani by condemning or even noting this cluster
of cases.

But even without linking them overtly, the names of the accused, the
suspected and the dismissed have piled up on Bloomberg's watch.

The names include Roberts, Russi, Gelormino, Carbonetti, Kerik,
Harding, Serra and Patrick -- all once men of stature and influence in
Giuliani circles.

Since taking office as investigation commissioner in early 2002,
former assistant U.S. Attorney Rose Gill Hearn has proven unabashed
about going after one-time Giuliani appointees.

For his part, Bloomberg simply says he keeps her office separate and
independent.

Working with federal officials, Hearn's office early on built an
embezzlement case, still pending, against Russell Harding using
documents that the prior administration at first denied existed.

A patronage appointee of Giuliani, Harding allegedly used the
resources of the Housing Development Corp., where he was president, to
fund a lavish lifestyle.

Last summer Giuliani's former housing commissioner and hospital system
chairman, Richard Roberts, pleaded guilty in the same case.

The DOI also took action that led to a perjury plea by Giuliani's
friend Louis Carbonetti, who ran a Business Improvement District in
Brooklyn.

City sources say his BID post was arranged through Giuliani's office.

It was in that role that Carbonetti, the father of current Giuliani
aide Anthony Carbonetti, ran afoul of the law involving a contractor
with whom the BID dealt.

More recently, Giuliani's former probation commissioner Raul Russi,
and former deputy probation commissioner Louis Gelormino, were
dismissed from part-time and full-time jobs, respectively, amid a DOI
probe into the early jail release of ex-Sen. Guy Velella.

Last month, amid the swirl of scandal around Kerik's implosion as
nominee for U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, the city agency released
a statement revealing he had not been required to file a detailed
background questionnaire for the job of police commissioner in 2000.

Bloomberg's DOI even slapped Kerik - after he left office -- for
having deployed police officers to research his book, fining him
$3,500.

Now Kerik's alleged use of his office as correction commissioner, to
set up meetings helping a big city contractor, has also drawn
scrutiny.

DOI continues prosecuting Anthony Serra, a former jails chief promoted
quickly under Kerik and his successor William Fraser.

At issue is Serra's alleged assignment of Correction Department
subordinates to his security business -- whose main client was the
state GOP.

So far this ad-hoc scrutiny of the Giuliani government after-the-fact
has been a news story devoid of official spin and narration, something
that simply gathers itself over time.

The DOI under Hearn has declined to offer broad comment on
Giuliani-era conduct.

Most times, the office cites public details of its cases and issues
stock assurances that it follows any roads that lead to detecting
corruption.

Perhaps more conspicuous is the public silence of Hearn's
Giuliani-picked predecessor Ed Kuriansky, whose city investigators
were told about Kerik's questionable involvement with the former
contractor, Interstate Industrial, in 2000.

"It is what it is," said a cryptic City Hall insider who insisted on
anonymity.

"And we'll see where it goes."

________________________________________________________

That's your phony "hero" Rudy they're talkin' about.

Harry

Bloomberg's City Hall plagued by Giuliani foibles