Levy releases financial disclosure forms

Suffolk Executive Steve Levy Monday released his county financial disclosure forms, which were heavily redacted and did not include some basic financial information regarding his wife's business, but did include her contracts with five hospitals.

The county form asks for specific dollar amounts for everything from bank accounts to outside income. It also asks for real estate information. On Levy's forms, dollar amounts and the location of a Florida condominium were redacted by the commission. Commission officials have said they allow officials to redact private information.

The release came on the eve of a meeting at which the county legislature is expected to approve a special counsel to investigate the actions of the Suffolk County Ethics Commission.

In the county forms, which require detailed financial information of both the county employee and spouse, Levy's wife, Colleen West, declined to report the accounts receivable of her court reporting firms, Enright Court Reporting and Enright Sten-Tel, which are based in Sayville. In an attachment, she wrote that reporting that information would be detrimental to her business.

West was not available for comment Monday. Her accountant, Richard Doyle of Smithtown, said in an e-mail that West did not disclose the information because they interpreted the request as for "personal, not corporate, receivables." He said West would be "happy to provide the corporate information as well if requested by the commission." The form makes no distinction between personal and corporate receivables.

Although Levy has maintained that he is not legally required to fill out the financial disclosure form required of roughly 650 county employees, he filed the county forms last month after District Attorney Thomas Spota issued subpoenas and some county legislators called for an investigation. Levy since 2006 had filed a state financial disclosure form, which is far less detailed and, unlike the county form, is not a sworn statement.

While insisting that his previous filings met all legal requirements, Levy said in a statement, "we nonetheless filed the local forms to quell allegations that we had something to hide."

Anton Borovina, an attorney who helped draft the county ethics code and also represents former Levy aide Paul Sabatino in an ongoing complaint before the ethics commission, said the reason West offered for not reporting her account receivables was "malarkey."

"That statute was intended to cover not only the official, but the spouse of the official," he said.

Newsday has previously reported that West's companies have received work from law firms and hospitals that have received millions in county business. Levy has said he is not required to disclose her work for county vendors or to list them.

On Sunday, Levy issued a news release in which he said the paper's reporting on the financial disclosure and his wife's business dealings were "disparaging, inaccurate and false." In response, Paul Fleishman, Newsday's vice president of public affairs, said, "We stand behind the accuracy and fairness of our news coverage."

Although the forms, obtained by Newsday under a Freedom of Information Act request, do not list all of West's clients that are also county vendors, they do disclose contracts her company has with five hospitals. One of the hospitals, Good Samaritan, has received about $54 million in county payments since 2006. She had no hospital contracts in 2004 and 2005, according to the forms. Levy took office in 2004.

County ethics code bars an official or spouse from benefiting directly or indirectly from any transaction that creates a conflict of interest. Levy has said West's work for county vendors is not a conflict. In an interview, he cited a 2005 Ethics Commission opinion that said she could do work for Stony Brook University Hospital provided that she did not draw attention to her relationship with Levy.

Late Monday, Levy spokesman Dan Aug said in a statement: "Not a single Suffolk legislator or legislator's spouse with a business listed clients on their 2009 disclosure forms - confirming that there is no place on the form where this information is requested." Aug told a reporter they obtained the information from people who received the forms on a Freedom of Information Act request.