Candidate Hull says he’ll shield whistle-blowers

PHOTOGRAPHER: Kathleen Moore

Mayoral candidate Roger Hull wants to make it easier for City Hall employees to report corruption and “irresponsible behavior.”

If he is elected mayor, he said in a press release Monday, he would tell all employees to come straight to him if their supervisor is involved or won’t take their complaints seriously.

Acting Mayor Gary McCarthy said he also has an open-door policy. City employees haven’t hesitated to report issues to him, he said.

“There have been some complaints. We dealt with them,” he said.

His experience as an investigator for the district attorney’s office has led him to feel confident that there’s no lack of government whistle blowers.

“I’ve been following up on these for 30 years. It isn’t much of a problem,” said McCarthy, a Democrat.

But Hull, who founded the Alliance Party and has been endorsed by the Republicans, said employees often can’t go to their direct supervisor to report corruption.

“The Steven Raucci case demonstrates that the immediate supervisor is often the problem, not the solution,” Hull said, referring to a case in which a Schenectady school district employee sexually harassed and threatened workers under his control.

“The Raucci case shows that frequently the chain of command is a stone wall. People in a position of authority tend to protect others in a position of authority,” Hull said. “If you can’t tell your supervisor, tell me, your supervisor’s supervisor.”

Hull acknowledged that his plan wouldn’t work if the mayor was committing a corrupt act, but said, “I’m trying to deal with things lower than the mayor. If the mayor’s doing something that’s corrupt or irresponsible, you have recourse through the legal system.”

Hull said he would investigate and resolve issues as soon as he learned of them, citing his experience at Union College. In his first year as president, a whistle-blower told him that an employee had been embezzling funds for seven years. An investigation led to that employee’s arrest and conviction, Hull said.

“It was because someone came to me with it,” he said.