http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=207729

Elections official returns after deal

Albany-- Pataki reinstates Carol Berman to commissioner's post after legislators settle issues

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau

First published: Tuesday, January 13, 2004

After eight months of stop-and-go negotiations, state Democratic and Republican leaders have agreed to reappoint Democrat Carol Berman to the state Board of Elections.

Berman's two-year term as a commissioner expired in May, but Republican Gov. George Pataki refused to reinstate her to the $25,000-a-year, part time post. That left the four-member body, usually evenly split with two Democrats and two Republicans, in GOP hands.

Pataki fills board slots on recommendations by leaders of the two major parties. He has never explained why he would not reappoint Berman, who first was tapped as a commissioner by former Democratic Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.

Board of Elections Deputy Executive Director Peter Kosinski confirmed Berman received her reappointment papers from the governor on Friday. Under state Election Law, Berman, the board's vice chairwoman when her term expired, is now chair, replacing Republican Neil Kelleher, who has moved to the vice chair post.

Sources from both the Republican and Democratic parties said Berman's reappointment was the result of a deal between state Democratic Party Chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell and his Republican counterpart, Alexander "Sandy" Treadwell.

Farrell refused to negotiate on releasing $66 million in federal funds for voting system reform unless Berman was reappointed, the sources said. The money was received by the state last year, but Democratic and Republican legislators couldn't agree on how to spend it, so it is being held by the state comptroller.

In turn, sources said, Farrell agreed that Kosinski, a Republican, can permanently fill the Board of Elections' executive director job, empty since Democrat Thomas Wilkey retired.

Sources say that Stanley Zalen, a Democrat and the board's in-house counsel, will likely succeed Kosinski as deputy executive director.

Wilkey's departure touched off a fight between Democrats and Republicans that has continued as they struggle to agree on how best to meet the requirements of

the federal Help America Vote Act. The act, passed after the 2000 election problems, makes millions of dollars available to states in an effort to avoid that scenario again.

Democrats believe Wilkey, widely respected for expertise on elections and voting, left in part because he was passed over to lead the HAVA task force. Pataki chose Kosinski instead. Democrats, plus good-government and disability rights activists, say the task force was stacked with Republicans and drafted an inadequate plan to overhaul the voting system.

All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2004, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.

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