Suffolk official was being paid as consultant

Fired Suffolk Deputy Labor Commissioner Lawrence Cooley disclosed to the county executive's office in 2006 that he was paid $2,000 -a week and given a car as a "consultant" to a firm that later turned out to be a mob-connected company where he served as a front man.

The disclosure came late Friday in a six-page report reviewing Cooley's six years of work for Suffolk before he was fired in October after testifying with immunity at a federal trial about making payoffs. The payoffs went to carpenter union officials, who prosecutors said had ties to the Genovese crime family.

The $116,000 deputy commissioner had testified in trial that he got $85,000 to pay off debts, $2,000 a week and a leased car. In return, he allowed James Murray, owner of On Par Contracting, one of nine convicted in the case, to take over his financially troubled firm Commercial Drywall Inc.

In their report, Labor Commissioner Robert Dow and County Attorney Christine Malafi said Cooley disclosed the salary and car use in 2006, when responding to a county executive directive requiring management employees to disclose annually outside business interests. In the report, officials wrote, "No conflicts are shown in the filings by Mr. Cooley as the county did not do any business with any entity by the name of Commercial Drywall."

The report does not indicate whether anyone in the Levy administration ever questioned Cooley about details of his outside employment or the nature of the work, which yielded him nearly as much as his county salary.

Mark Smith, Levy spokesman, defended the report: "We wanted to make sure that our county operations were not compromised and it appears as if they were not." Smith added Cooley only told the administration the "new company was purchasing the ability to continue to use the existing company's name and goodwill."

But Suffolk County Comptroller Joseph Sawicki said he "found it troubling" that Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy "was not aware of one of his deputy commissioner's business conduct." He said that shows a need for the audit his office is doing of Cooley's work.

"A truly independent audit cannot be conducted by the Levy administration because, simply put, they are not independent," he said. Sawicki has subpoenaed records from the county ethics commission to see whether Cooley had reported the earnings in his financial disclosure forms, but is embroiled in a court battle to get the data.

The report also reviewed Cooley's files, time sheets, and computer files and found only a few minor errors. Investigators also interviewed officials of a half-dozen firms on county projects to see whether Cooley had acted improperly in enforcing wage compliance rules, but found "no illegal or suspicious activities."

During the federal trial, Cooley testified he served as a "figurehead" so Murray could keep millions of dollars in business because his own company was having "audits and problems." Later Cooley also got a $50,000 loan from Murray to pay for his legal expenses.