- By Dan Veaner
- News
Print 
Pinney was willing to go on the record about the challenges that face him as both a business owner and elected official. "When I ran my campaign I stated I would no longer do contract work with the town through my business once I was elected," Pinney says. "Alex Cole Paving hasn't done any business with the town. However, my wife's business does. The Town still rents equipment and they are buying gravel from Genoa Sand and Gravel. As far as I know the Highway Department has been buying gravel out there for years."
Scott Pinney at his desk at Lansing Town Hall
The danger of conflicts of interest revolves around elected official-owned businesses doing business with the Town, command influence on other elected officials or town employees that affect contracts or transactions between the businesses and the Town. At the town politics level there are bound to be connections between businesses that are owned by or employ public officials, and the law is quite clear on what is permissible when there are. Newly elected officials are required to undergo training, including ethical training, and New York State law is clear on what can and can not be done when an elected official has business interests in his or her district. Pinney attended the training in January, just a week after he took office.
Pinney says that he does not own any shares of his wife's corporation, and aside from the influence and respect a husband and wife would naturally have, he has no direct influence on or business interest in those businesses. During our interview he called Tracy on the telephone to ask the name of her corporation because he didn't know it -- a humorous demonstration of his lack of involvement in the company.
He acknowledges that in a small town there is a danger for an elected official who also owns a business to be perceived as taking advantage of the relationship, which makes it all the more important to keep the playing field level for all businesses that deal with the Town. "You've got to be very ethical about it," Pinney says. "You've got to follow all the procurement policies. If you've got to have three bids or sealed bids you want to make sure you follow all the policies so it's a very open process."
Pinney owns and operates Alex Cole Paving, which specializes in business and residential resurfacing and repairs for driveways, parking lots, etc. The company has never done much business with the Town, but it employs some Highway Department employees part time. His wife Tracy owns Caitlyn Julia Enterprises, Inc., which includes Genoa Sand and Gravel and Eagle Rentals. The latter rents construction machinery. The Highway Department purchases gravel and rents equipment from those companies.
Highway Superintendent Jack French says the Town has done business with these companies for years. He says that better quality of gravel, price, and proximity to Town roadwork make Genoa Sand and Gravel more economical because of the cost of diesel and employee time when hauling the gravel. He notes that the gravel they buy from the company comes from the same vein the Town used to mine itself when that was financially feasible. "Some of the other gravel banks are sandier and have a lot more fines (sand and dust that reduces the gravel's ability to bind to the road) than Genoa has got," he says. "We've checked many of them. We've been hauling from there for at least ten years, long before Scott Pinney ever became involved in it."
Both Pinney and Highway Superintendent Jack French say that the Town and the Highway Department are virtually separate entities. French says that except for a few clearly defined town board responsibilities he is an independent elected official who makes all the decisions for his department. "It's all through he Highway Department," he says. "As far as the union negotiating for benefits, that has to go through the Town Board. They have to vote on what the benefits are and what wages they're going to be getting, things like that. But as far as the hours this place is open, the hours that they work, and the work they do, that is my call."
"As far as his department I'm not really his boss," Pinney says. "We're more like equals, because he is also an elected official. In his position at the Highway Department he is responsible for all the procurement they do. I'm not aware of why he buys things here or there. If it was a major contract like a water main or a sewer main, those bids would be sealed bids that the Town Board would award. I would recuse myself from those decisions. But other than large projects Jack French would be in charge of purchasing."
When French learned that Caitlyn Julia Enterprises, Inc. might purchase the gravel company he was concerned that he might not be able to purchase gravel that he considered the best deal for the town. "I checked with (Town Attorney) Guy Krogh when I heard that Tracy was thinking about buying the gravel bank," he says. "I hadn't even talked to Scott yet. I said, 'Is it still going to be OK for us to haul gravel out of that gravel bank?' Guy said, 'Absolutely, as long as you have the right documentation on why you are hauling it from there and the price is right. There should be no problem.' So I went with it."
The department follows those procedures carefully. Highway Clerk Joan Kobasa types the justification for each purchase on vouchers the department produces for each purchase. She showed the Star examples of vouchers documenting purchases from the Genoa company. The reasons for choosing Genoa Sand and Gravel listed are, "1) Genoa's gravel is good quality, 2) Has less fines, 3) It is one mile from the north end of town and within three to four miles of our job sites, 4) Other vendors are from nine to fourteen miles from the Highway Department building, plus an additional five to ten miles to get to the job site."
As for 'command influence' by Pinney over French or highway department employees, French states categorically that it doesn't happen. "None whatsoever," he says. "There never has been and there never will be. Not as long as I am Superintendent. We make sure that we get quotes from all over when it comes to renting or work to be done."
Pinney says he is careful to avoid exercising 'command influence.' When asked whether Tracy's purchase of Genoa Sand and Gravel may effect Wilcox he says, "Connie Wilcox is obviously a strong minded person who I don't think would be influenced by anybody. She is going to do what she thinks is the best thing."
Pinney also owns the former Egan's Market, part of Portland Point and other holdings around town. As a businessman he has had run-ins with the Town Planning Board and Planning Department that led to his campaign promise to make Lansing more friendly to businesses. He has certainly shaken things up in those areas, restructuring the Planning Department and proposing zoning and procedural changes. But he says that he works hard to keep those initiatives separate from issues that affect his own properties, such as Planning Board review of the skate park that will open in the former market building.
"I stay out of it," he says. "I certainly don't try to influence the planning department or the Planning Board on those kinds of decisions, and I have no right to try to influence anybody. I also feel that with the new zoning ordinance changes we are trying to accomplish that I was getting a lot of negative feedback (to the effect that) I was trying to do things that would benefit me personally. The way that was going I felt it was important to start the zoning ordinance committee. I kept myself off of that committee so there would be no misconception that I am trying to steer this committee in a certain direction."
French says that one reason to do business with Tracy Pinney is to support local business. But he says that is only his first choice if everything else falls into place -- high quality product, good pricing, and the distance gravel must be hauled. "The biggest thing with Scott being right here in town -- and it doesn't have to be Scott -- it could be anybody here in town," he says. "Because I think we should take care of our own, be it town, county, or state. And then look elsewhere. But I think we should be taking care of our own as long as the price is the same."
Business people who run for office are typically accused of mixing business with public service when people are not happy with with this thing or the other. Vice President Dick Cheney is notoriously linked with Haliburton, George Bush with oil interests. On the local level it is much harder to separate yourself from your livelihood. If that were required most voters worry that the quality of the candidate pool would be diminished.
Alex Cole Paving
"If you're a business owner and you are doing a lot of things in the town it makes it much harder to make it look like you're not influencing things to benefit yourself," Pinney says. "But we need people that are business professionals and understand that process. I think it's very important for people to understand that and get people to run who are from the business world."
And sometimes you can't win. Former Supervisor Steve Farkas was taken to task over the Drake Road water project because he owns some land there, even though the project was driven by a local landowner who wanted to develop there. But at that time Farkas was retired after a lifetime of working for the State, so he didn't face the challenges that Pinney does now.
Pinney says that running for and winning the Town Supervisor has even hurt his business to some extent, but at a level that is acceptable to him. "It's definitely hurt my business, because I spend a lot less time there," he says. "I'm not able to do the quantity of work that I used to be able to do. I've had to hire more people to try to make up some of the difference. But I am very satisfied with what I am doing with the Town so it's well worth it."
----
v4i32