Cuomo Said To Drop Probe Into Pedro Espada's Nepotism

After the son of Bronxchester scofflaw Senator Pedro Espada Jr. resigned from his specially-created $120,000 senate job yesterday, a source close to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo tells the Post the AG is satisfied with the resignation and will not pursue a probe into alleged violations of the state's nepotism laws. Funny how the son of three-term governor Mario Cuomo is reluctant to accuse anyone of nepotism. Meanwhile, Espada "amigo" Ruben Diaz Sr. called on Cuomo to investigate the entire Senate for nepotism and not single out poor misunderstood Espada.

It's also come to light that getting his son a job was, unsurprisingly, just one of many perks Espada demanded as incentive to end this summer's five week Senate stalemate. Espada also required bigger offices (and got them), a $150,000 Senate job for fellow coup architect Steve Pigeon (also granted), and control of the hiring of $1 million worth of Senate staff. Then he tried hiring his son directly, but was told that was illegal. So John Flateau, a top aide to Senate Democratic Conference leader John Sampson, hired Pedro G. for the newly-created position of deputy director of intergovernmental relations, which he apparently never bothered showing up for during his first week.

About Flateau: the Daily News has looked at the books and discovered that he's been double dipping public money. Sampson hired him in January as a $100-an-hour "part-time" employee, but he's also employed by CUNY's Medgar Evans College as a $102,982 a year public administration professor. Since January, he's pulled in $48,200 from the Senate and $63,200 from CUNY—the Senate income equates to 482 hours or 12 full 40-hour work weeks.

Oh, and Sampson has just named Flateau to be part of a three-person panel that will review every Senate Democrat central staff hiring and salary increase. Blair Horner, of the New York Public Interest Research Group, quips to the News, "[Flateau's] job should be the first one they review." And Sen. Neil Breslin (D-Albany) tells the Post, "This makes me more embarrassed and makes the Senate look even worse than it has already—and that's hard to imagine." Up in Albany, the Times Union editorial board is angrily calling on Senator Espada to resign, as well as Sampson. We're sure they'll do the right thing and step down at once.