Two prominent political figures from the area will testify in the ongoing federal corruption trial of former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
State Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, and Saratoga County Democratic Party Chairman Larry Bulman, both appear on the witness list for the trial, which is under way in Albany.
Both Little and Bulman were linked to the case in a story that appeared in the Times Union on Friday.
According to the paper, the union Bulman is president of, Local 773 of the Plumbers & Steamfitters, received $100,000 in grants approved by both Little and Bruno, R-Brunswick, for the 2006-07 budget year.
The union also received $294,000 in grants from Little's office in 2007-08, according to the newspaper.
The union previously was a client of the investment management firm that employed Bruno, according to the Times Union.
Bruno, who served as majority leader of the state Senate until his resignation in June 2008, is accused of doling out favors to clients who then invested in his employer's pension fund. He faces eight counts of corruption, including wire and mail fraud.
Reached for comment by The Post-Star on Friday, Bulman disputed any suggestion that the grants were improper.
Bulman said he only met with Little's office when trying to secure grants, which he said were used for work force development training in anticipation of a computer chip fabrication plant being built in Malta.
"There were a lot of leaps and a lot of things that were incorrect," Bulman said. "They talked about the grants being through Senator Bruno and Senator Little. All my meetings we had advocating for assistance for work force training were through Senator Little."
Bulman declined to comment further, and said he was due to testify in the trial next week.
In a statement sent by e-mail from Little spokesman Dan MacAntee, Little said her testimony will focus on the grants awarded to the union.
"I am being called as a witness to discuss grants that were awarded in my district for the pipefitters fund," Little said in the statement. "The union has a training center in the northern end of (Little's) Senate district. I will answer every question fully and truthfully when asked to testify."
According to the Associated Press, a former union official who testified in Bruno's trial on Thursday told prosecutors that in 1994 that Wright Investors Service wanted to manage his local's pension fund and didn't disclose he was being paid by the company.
Howard Bennett, president and a fund trustee for Local 294 in Albany, said he had known Bruno for years personally and as a lawmaker with a good record on labor issues. He contacted Bruno sometimes about union legislative concerns, both before and after Wright started managing millions of union dollars, he said.
Bennett, now retired, testified at Bruno's federal corruption trial.
"There was no quid pro quo there," Bennett said, when asked if he brought up with Bruno legislative actions he wanted in return for investing with Wright. Bruno never mentioned, and Bennett never asked, whether the senator was working on commission for the investment company, Bennett said.
"My intuition told me there was a relationship there," he said.
Bennett and the union president who followed him, John Bulgaro, testified about subsequent Teamster successes in Albany, including legislation to have companies instead of drivers ticketed for overweight trucks and obtaining training grants. They'd sought help from Bruno as well as other legislators for the law change, and from Bruno's office for finding state grants.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Posted in Local on Friday, November 6, 2009 5:40 pm Updated: 6:15 pm. | Tags: Joseph Bruno
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