Friday Night News Dump: Gov. Paterson's Chief of Staff Resigns

Charles O'Byrne, New York State Governor David Paterson's right hand man, resigned last night after O'Byrne admitted not paying income taxes for five years and totaling more than $300,000 in back taxes. The Times Union reports that O'Byrne was offering his resignation all through the week and was finally accepted yesterday. So, it would appear that Governor Paterson knows how to play the Friday night news dump, burying bad news where the media and public attention is least likely to focus.

O'Byrne was integral in putting together state budgets and conducting negotiations with the state legislature for Governor Paterson.

O'Byrne was set to begin new negotiations to move forward with Governor David Paterson's (D-NY) fiscal agenda in light of the sharp declines on Wall Street, which is a cash cow for the city and state. The New York Times reports:

But statements from Mr. O’Byrne’s lawyer that his tax delinquency was close to $300,000 and that he may have suffered from a syndrome that causes people to not file their taxes worked to intensify the furor, which seemed likely to disrupt Mr. Paterson’s focus on the legislative elections and the budget talks ahead.

“Members of an elected official’s staff should never distract from the work of the principal who they are privileged to serve,” Mr. O’Byrne wrote in his resignation letter, released Friday. “It is clear to me that my personal history has become a distraction to the work of your administration.”

The blow to Mr. Paterson is as intensely personal as it is political.

A highly educated former Jesuit priest, Mr. O’Byrne had an unusually close relationship with the governor, who was raised as a Roman Catholic. Asked to describe it, one person who knows both men said, simply, “Charles was his priest.”

The governor, who is legally blind, has been uniquely dependent on his staff, especially on Mr. O’Byrne, his confidant and alter ego. Mr. O’Byrne was constantly in contact with Mr. Paterson and always reverent, calling him “Governor” — never “David.”

Those who worked with the two men described Mr. O’Byrne as devoted to moving Mr. Paterson’s policies and desires through New York’s large and unwieldy executive branch and the Legislature.

“The guy is really hard working, very smart, loyal and devoted to his boss, and was really his partner in government,” said Kenneth Adams, the president of the Business Council of New York, a trade group that had warmly greeted Mr. Paterson’s recent calls for fiscal discipline. “The governor hasn’t lost a member of his staff, he’s lost his quarterback.”

It's that latter issue, that O'Byrne was the man on whom Paterson leaned heavily upon for advice and expertise that will harm the Governor's ability to get the job done going forward. Paterson must now scramble and find someone to fill the most crucial position on his staff.

In the interim, William Cunningham III, who is senior adviser to the governor and a longtime friend and colleague of his father, Basil Paterson, will be named Chief of Staff (also known as Secretary to the Governor). The Times Union provides that Cunningham is a "graduate of Williams College and Columbia University School of Law, Cunningham is a former assistant U.S. attorney and was a partner in several law firms. Basil Paterson and Cunningham worked together at the Long Island-based law firm Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein."