$84,100 ends Bruno daughter job case - Times Union http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/State-settles-Susan-Bruno-no-...

$84,100 ends Bruno daughter job case

Complaint alleged Susan Bruno paid for no-show SUNY post
By Brendan J. Lyons
Updated 10:59 pm, Friday, May 22, 2015

Albany

A civil complaint that accused the former head of the Research Foundation of the state University
of New York of providing a no-show job to the daughter of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L.
Bruno was quietly settled Friday, more than two years after the case was filed.

The unusual settlement calls for the Research Foundation's insurance company to pay the
foundation $84,100, which was the equivalent of Susan M. Bruno's highest annual salary when she
worked there from 2003 until 2009.

The complaint was filed in August 2013 by state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, who
accused Bruno and John J. O'Connor, the former head of the Research Foundation, of submitting
false payment claims. Filed in state Supreme Court in Albany, the complaint alleged O'Connor and
Bruno certified she was working for the Research Foundation at times when she was working on
political campaigns and performing other tasks for her father, who resigned as senate majority
leader in 2008 during an FBI investigation of his business dealings.

Joseph Bruno was later acquitted of wrongdoing after two trials in U.S. District Court.

Karl J. Sleight, the attorney for O'Connor in the case, said the settlement was reached three days
after a former official with the state's Commission on Public Integrity was deposed. Sleight declined
to identify the person, but he characterized the deposition as a turning point in favor of his client.

"I think it was an extraordinarily sloppy investigation by folks who had hardened political views
rather than a dispassionate look at the situation," Sleight said. "We filed our discovery demands
and there was tens of thousands of emails of Susan Bruno's confirming that she was working. There
were glowing employee evaluations of her and there was not a scintilla of evidence that John
O'Connor did anything wrong."

Sleight added the most important aspect of the settlement was that O'Connor and Bruno "had to
agree not to sue the Commission on Public Integrity as part of this deal." (COPI was replaced by the
state Joint Commission on Public Ethics at the end of 2011.)

E. Stewart Jones, who represented Susan Bruno in the case, said she's moved on with her life. He
called the settlement a "business decision."

"We recognize that she paid a price for being Joe Bruno's daughter, but there were also benefits to
that as well," Jones said. "I don't think anyone believed for a moment that if Susan's last name were
'Smith' this ever would have happened."

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The civil complaint filed by Schneiderman's office targeted at least 47 monthly time-and-
attendance reports between 2005 and 2008; it did not have any criminal implications. Bruno and
O'Connor faced more than $1 million in damages, including $12,000 per incident and three times
the $165,000 in payments made to Bruno for the time she was paid while allegedly participating in
non-Research Foundation activities.

The complaint accused Bruno of rarely being at her downtown office on Broadway. Research
Foundation workers told the Times Union several years ago they often used Bruno's large office for
meetings because she was never there. But O'Connor said Bruno was allowed to work a flexible
schedule with his approval. Her qualifications for the job that was created just before she was hired
in May 2003 also was a subject of the allegations.

Bruno quit the Research Foundation after a series of stories in the Times Union about her job
duties, questionable credentials and FBI inquiries on her status.

The complaint by the Attorney General cited records saying direct email exchanges between
O'Connor and Bruno were sparse. In 2007, for instance, O'Connor emailed Bruno just once, to
discuss two dinners. In 2008, his lone email to her concerned preparations for the arrival of a
new chancellor.

"O'Connor rarely assigned any tasks to Bruno," the complaint said.

The complaint also said Susan Bruno was paid at times when she was on trips with her father to
New York City and Washington, D.C., or attended his annual Christmas party at The Desmond in
Colonie. Schneiderman's complaint also accused Bruno of being paid when she attended the
Saratoga Race Course with friends and family, waited for the installation of a new carpet for her
living room, and made phone calls for Republicans running for office in Troy.

Another incident cited in the complaint said that Susan Bruno allegedly failed to charge leave time
on Sept. 3, 2008, after she had to "drive my father, Kay Stafford and some other people to the
airport. ... They are going to the Republican Convention."

Stafford, the widow of former Republican Sen. Ron Stafford, R-Plattsburgh, hired Joseph Bruno as
chief executive of her company, CMA Consulting Services, in July 2008, after he resigned from
the Senate.

In all, Schneiderman's Public Integrity Bureau said $164,952 in state funds, which the Research
Foundation received from grant monies won by SUNY researchers, improperly went to Susan
Bruno. The complaint said O'Connor knew the documentation supporting the payments were false
and fraudulent because Bruno did not perform any services in return.

O'Connor resigned from his SUNY positions in June 2011 amid investigations of
Bruno's employment.

The Times Union found several discrepancies on the one-page resume Bruno provided the
Research Foundation around the time she was hired as an assistant director of foundation relations

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for legislation. The position required a "bachelor's degree or equivalent," according to a job
description provided by the Research Foundation. Bruno's resume, turned over to the Times Union
under a Freedom of Information Law request, stated she attended SUNY Cobleskill for "two full
years of college courses" and also holds an "NYS Real Estate License."

SUNY Cobleskill officials said their records showed that Bruno, now 54, was registered briefly as a
student for only three months from September 1980 to Nov. 13, 1980, in a flora-culture program.
Bruno did not complete the semester and never returned to the school, according to the college.

State records also showed no record of a professional real estate license for Susan Bruno at the time
the newspaper inquired about it more than six years ago.

blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @blyonswriter

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