Paterson asks top staff for resignation letters
March 20, 2008
Gov. David Paterson has asked for resignation letters from all of his top staff members and state-agency commissioners, Press Secretary Errol Cockfield said Wednesday.
“This is a typical step in the transition from one administration to another,” he said.
Cockfield said the step doesn’t necessarily mean that Paterson, who took office on Monday, plans wholesale changes. But he said having the letters gives him the flexibility to replace key policy makers if he decides to.
The move is somewhat unexpected, though, since Paterson was part of the administration of Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace Monday.After Spitzer announced last Wednesday that he planned to quit, there were only a handful of resignations announced: Richard Baum, secretary to the governor and his top aide, and senior adviser Lloyd Constantine said they were leaving. They were the two officials with the closest personal ties to the deposed governor.
At the agency level, Pat Foye, co-chair of the Empire State Development Corp., the state’s main economic-development agency, announced he was quitting. Then Wednesday Preston Felton, the acting State Police Superintendent who had been bucking for the job full-time, announced he plans to retire.
Felton was implicated in last summer’s Troopergate scandal, when State Police officers tried to gather damaging information on the travels of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
Charles O’Byrne, who was Paterson’s chief of staff when he was lieutenant governor, will replace Baum as secretary to the governor. Paterson has announced no other appointments to top posts.
Source: The Ithaca Journal
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