Brooks Appoints Special Counsel for Robutrad; Dems Call for More ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks has enlisted the services of two outside lawyers to do an internal investigation into a compensation scandal at the county.

Brooks says the counsel will be offered unfettered access to records and personnel as they work to determine if there are other county employees caught up in the Robutrad scandal.

Brooks announced that lawyers Donald Chesworth and Eugene Welch have actually been working since March, but unveiled the probe Friday after the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) brought a criminal complaint against a former county employee Thursday. Robert Morone is accused of using laborers paid by the county to do work for private individuals, allowing those workers to take paid days off, and using the workers to conduct political activities for various players in Republican party politics.

The county executive, a Republican, says she holds public employees to a higher ethical standard, and wants to root out any wrongdoing.

"These individuals, specifically Bob Morone, shamelessly violated the public's trust by stealing from county taxpayers. That's a very serious violation and they should be brought to justice in a very swift and complete fashion."

Brooks says there are no other county employees accused of anything in the scandal that she knows of, and says that her willingness to hold a press event about the matter proves that she was not involved in or aware of Morone's misdeeds. She vowed that similar misuses of county funds wouldn't happen again on her watch, and that she'll work to have as much of the misspent money as possible returned to county coffers through civil actions.

On Thursday, a US District Attorney said the true amount stolen is impossible to detail since the fraud took place over several years, but that it could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Democratic response

Meanwhile, Democratic county legislators are calling for a separate round of inquiries. They want New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to investigate the county's management practices, and for the sheriff, also a Republican, to come before the county legislature's public safety committee to talk to members about his involvement in the investigation.

Democratic legislator Vincent Esposito says he finds it unlikely that the counsel, appointed by Brooks, is truly independent.

"I don't know those attorneys personally, I don't know if it's satisfying - I know what is unsatisfying: is that the county executive be the one to appoint anyone to look into her own administration. That defies all possibility of independence."

But Brooks argues the bipartisan nature of the team doing the internal investigation, and their law enforcement background, will make their work sound.

Democrats also want to convene an ethics panel to review the actions of county employees, and they want the member of the legislature that's mentioned in the FBI's complaint to reveal him or herself.

A spokesperson for the comptroller's office says in order to consider opening an audit, county Democrats would need to submit a request in writing. The caucus says it has a draft of a request but hasn't yet sent it.

The accusations

Part of the charge against Morone is that he abused his ability to hire workers from Robutrad (an organization of union tradesmen) for county work, and pushed laborers into making political contributions and volunteering for campaigns. Brooks says her campaign has given $8,000 to charity that it identified as coming from those accused in the Robutrad affair.

But the county executive wouldn't go so far as to say that all political activity by county workers is inappropriate. Brooks says many county employees get into government because they enjoy campaigning, but it's clear that Morone's activity was over the line.

Throughout her press event Friday, Brooks noted that the true victims of the scheme perpetrated by Morone are the taxpayers of Monroe County, and urged reporters not to "connect the dots that aren't connected." She says that other politicians and public officials mentioned in the criminal complaint from the FBI could have also been victimized by Morone.

The complaint mentions a Monroe County legislator, and county employee, and members of the Republican party who received favors or work from Morone. Brooks declined to name any of those individuals.

The lawyers

Chesworth and Welch's firm has previously been used by the county, to look into a scandal involving the Water Authority.

Deputy County Executive Dan DeLaus says other firms were vetted for the job, but that hiring Chesworth and Welch was a "no brainer." They'll be compensated between $150 to $250 an hour for their investigation, and Brooks says when it's over, they'll be retained to help reform any county policies that need tightening.

Brooks says the county is also responding to the fraud by setting up a whistle blower hotline so employees can call in and report suspected wrongdoing.

And the county's contract with Robutrad is being reviewed, and could be altered to prevent county employees from using Robutrad employees for private work.

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