Bruno’s Suite Gives Glimpse of Big Perks
January 21, 2008
The majority leader of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, enjoyed thousands of dollars of discounts on a 3,500-square-foot, two-story penthouse suite at a Midtown Sheraton hotel only two months before a state authority linked to the senator selected the hotel chain’s parent company as the front-runner to operate a new luxury hotel in Albany.
During a September visit to the city, Mr. Bruno lodged in a 45th-floor duplex at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers that hotel employees say rents for $5,000 or $10,000 a night. A spokesman for the senator said the room was charged to the campaign committee of the state Senate Republicans, which he said spent between $900 and $1,000. The committee did not report the discount as an in-kind donation on its January 15 filing to the state Board of Elections.
A general manager at the hotel said a VIP club manager chose to upgrade Mr. Bruno, a frequent Sheraton customer, to the hotel’s penthouse suite from a regular suite. “That night, he probably was the top dog,” the general manager, Daniel King, told The New York Sun.
On November 30, the nine-member board of the Albany Convention Center Authority, which includes a member appointed by Mr. Bruno, voted to begin negotiations with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, of which Sheraton is a subsidiary, as operator of a 400-room hotel to be built in downtown Albany near the senate leader’s district.
The board’s decision to begin negotiations with Starwood rather than four other hotel operators came on the recommendation of a special authority task force led by the owner of Jack’s Oyster House in Albany. Mr. Bruno regularly dines at the upscale restaurant, which provides him a private back table, at the expense of his campaign account.
Source: NY Sun Read the full story here
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