Albany County District Attorney David Soares/
ALBANY — Leaving aside whether it was legal, the decision by David Soares to use grant money to give himself a $22,308 bonus is a terrible look. It's indefensible, really.
The state Division of Criminal Justice Services money was given in part to boost staff retention and morale amid apparently heavier workloads due to criminal justice reforms. Soares could and should have used every last bit of the state Aid to Prosecution grant to reward his employees or boost the ongoing fight against violent crime in Albany.
Instead, Soares decided to give a significant chunk of money himself, even though he was already the county's highest-paid elected official.
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What was he thinking?
As my colleague Steve Hughes reported, the bonus was called out in a report by an outside law firm. Albany County Comptroller Susan Rizzo is asking the state comptroller and the attorney general to review what the report considers the dubious legality of Soares' move, including potential Taylor Law violations. This story, then, is only just beginning.
In a statement, Soares spokesman Darrell Camp said the money was used "to minimize turnover, fill nine vacant assistant district attorney positions and improve the overall morale of our dedicated team members." It also improved Soares' overall morale, we can assume, but Camp didn't explain why Soares considered himself deserving of extra money.
The DA himself didn't offer convincing explanations in Friday appearances on radio stations WGDJ and WAMC, but he did say that all this is essentially an election-year hit. He insisted he'd done nothing improper.
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Certainly, Soares has irritated no small portion of the county's Democratic establishment.
Progressives don't like Soares' criticisms of bail reform and his insistence that it and other changes are to blame for elevated crime rates. Soares' relationship with Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple Sr. and Executive Dan McCoy has also been strained, and Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan notably hired Soares' 2020 primary challenger soon after the election.
So yes, there are people around who won't mind seeing Soares embarrassed — which is why he should have avoided giving them something with which to whack him. The bonus is ample ammunition, hardly trivial.
"Giving oneself a non-disclosed $20,000-plus raise out of grant money with no transparency is outright wrong," said Colonie Republican Paul Burgdorf, who sits on the county Legislature's Audit and Finance committee.
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It's impossible to disagree, especially since other district attorneys around the state haven't used the grant money similarly. Soares also used a separate grant program to give himself a $1,562 bonus. Oh my.
Of course, Soares is not the only elected official around to raise his or her own pay. McCoy's most recent budget boosted his own $181,000 salary by nearly $20,000, and Apple, Rizzo and members of the county Legislature also received handsome raises.
Say what you will about those hikes, but they were accomplished through votes and the expected channels. The same can't be said of Soares' boost. That one, he gave to himself with little apparent oversight, a move that, according to the report, appears to violate state law.
Granted, Soares' road to a pay hike is somewhat complicated. His base pay of $202,800 is set by the state and tied to the salary given to county court judges, oddly enough. He might have seen the salary hikes handed to others in the county and figured a bonus was justifiable.
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It wasn't. Soares knew what he'd be paid and the overall deal when he sought the job. First elected in 2004, he's again running for reelection.
Will the controversy over the bonus impact that reelection bid? Probably not.
At the moment, Soares doesn't have a Democratic or Republican challenger and time is short for one to emerge. Moreover, a politician who can find a receptive audience at Paul Vandenburgh's conservative WDGJ and liberal public radio station WAMC won't be defeated anytime soon.
Progressives might not like Soares' take on criminal justice reforms, but they are dwarfed by more moderate Albany County voters, concentrated in towns such as Colonie and Guilderland, who consider the DA a voice of reason amid Albany's homicide spike — and like that he's standing up to what amounts to Democratic Party orthodoxy in New York.
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That doesn't mean the bonus won't be a hit to Soares' reputation. Indefensible. That's the word.
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