Chairman Boyle fights back
SYRACUSE -- The head of the State Liquor Authority, former Syracuse Deputy Police Chief Dan Boyle, is speaking out and pulling no punches in the wake of a high level shakeup. Boyle claimed that, "law abiding individuals...employees are being removed for no cause other than for political agendas."
At Wednesday's meeting of the Liquor Authority, Boyle ripped into his two fellow commissioners for forcing the resignations of two of his right hand men. On March 20th, the two commissioner, minus Chairman Boyle, held an emergency session to accept the forced resignations of the head of the Authority's enforcement division, Dan Malay and his assistant, Peter Person. Malay is accused of taking $29,000 in improper travel expenses.
On Friday, Boyle issued a scathing news release and talked exclusively with Action News. He defended the reputations of Malay and Person. "These individuals, combined, have over 64 years of law enforcement experience...unblemished."
The State Inspector General and the Comptroller found that even though Dan Malay was assigned to the Syracuse office, his home office would have been in Albany. Under State law, a State employee can not be reimbursed for commuting to and from his home office. Boyle says the comptroller has since determined Malay owes the taxpayers nothing. "He did nothing wrong, he didn't break any policies, rules or laws...he did nothing but his job."
That job, for the last three years, according to Boyle, was to work with him to get rid of corruption in the State Liquor Authority, especially downstate. Boyle feels the ousters of his top two assistants is fallout from his corruption probe. "Governor Pataki mandated that I clean up this agency of accusations of corruption... There are investigations going on. that's all I'm going to say."
Boyle is calling upon the State Attorney General to look into the manner in which Malay and Person were forced out of office.
Late Friday afternoon, the Liquor Authority issued a response to Boyle's comments.
"The State Liquor Authority will continue to focus our resources on our core mission; issuing licenses and ensuring licensees comply with the law. The SLA will not tolerate conduct or actions by employees that are not in the best interest of the state."
