Reform. If there’s one word that Republican David A. Renzi would like potential voters to associate with his campaign, this would be it.

“I was very pleased to get the endorsement of the Syracuse Post Standard, which indicated that reform is the major issue in Albany and indicated that they view me as the candidate for real reform,” the Watertown attorney told reporters. “What we need in government is transparency and I’m the agent for that. I would say that Sen. (Darrel) Aubertine has not been.”

Mr. Renzi, however, is having issues of his own with transparency. He told a Gouverneur crowd Thursday that elected officials and candidates “are all required to disclose contracts and monetary issues, particularly ones we may be potentially voting on.”

Mr. Aubertine’s campaign asked him to meet his own challenge by releasing his contracts with the town of Pamelia, where he’s improperly accumulated service credits in the state retirement system for the past four years after being incorrectly designated as an employee. Mr. Renzi acknowledged in a June letter to the town that he should be designated as an independent contractor.

But Mr. Renzi said Monday that he does not have written contracts with the towns he represents and has never created documents, even internally, that detailed how many hours he worked on behalf of Pamelia, which has about 2,900 residents.

The Brown, Dierdorf & Renzi partner received exactly 120 days of service credit in the retirement system for providing counsel to Pamelia in both 2006-07 and 2007-08, despite lacking paperwork that validates that claim.

Lawrence C. Longway, Pamelia’s supervisor, was asked Monday how he knows Mr. Renzi worked 120 days for his town in each of those two years.

“I guess I don’t,” he said.

Mr. Renzi was asked how the town could verify that he worked 120 days, and not more or less.

“I guess my answer to that is the same way that government knows the state senator is working,” he said. “How do you know he’s there all those hours? The answer is: I’ve done the work I was paid for and done it in a fair way.”

There are 260 work days in a year, not including holidays. For Mr. Renzi to receive 120 days of service credit annually, he would have had to work on Pamelia’s business exclusively for one out of every 2.17 days he worked. A full day’s work, according to the state, is six or more hours.

Mr. Renzi was asked Monday if he worked one out of every two days on Pamelia’s business exclusively for two consecutive years.

“I think that depends on what’s happening,” he said. “We’ve had cases with lawsuits through there. We’ve had cases where I’ve done more in one week than another week. But certainly I’ve put in the work that I was paid for, absolutely.”

The state Rules & Regulations allow for a municipal employer to develop a “sample month” to determine service credits for an appointed employee, which Mr. Renzi was once considered.

In that case, the Town Council would establish a standard work day for the position and the number of days worked to be reported to the state retirement system. However, that was not done.

For their legal services, towns can either establish a town attorney’s office and appoint an individual or contract with a private-practice attorney using an hourly rate. In the first scenario, the town attorney would be required to take an oath of office and live in the municipality, unless that provision were waived. He would then be considered a public officer eligible for the retirement system.

There’s no indication Pamelia has met any of those requirements, although they appointed Mr. Renzi or his firm and set an annual salary for four consecutive years. The Watertown attorney said now that he’s asked Pamelia to remove him from the retirement system and categorize him as an independent contractor, he’ll be submitting his billable hours.

As for Mr. Renzi’s vow to reform, he released his “glossary of corruption” Monday to highlight what he would clean up if elected. Atop the list was his opponent, who has admitted violating the state Public Officers Law by hiring his sister. The list also included nine state legislators who have been charged with or convicted of taking bribes, billing the state for personal transportation, stealing from campaign coffers or unions or steering state contracts to friends.

Source: Watertown Daily Times