Just go away, Mr. Morse
Shawn Morse may be a disgraced ex-mayor and an admitted felon on his way to a possible prison sentence, but that apparently won’t stop him from getting a more than $170,000 golden parachute, courtesy of the people of Cohoes.
Mr. Morse, it seems, is claiming a few unspecified injuries from his years of service as a firefighter, and even the surprisingly hazardous job of mayor. Now that his days of taking public paychecks and dipping illegally into campaign funds are over, he’s looking to cash in. And the Common Council is poised to accommodate him. Here’s a better idea: Just say no. Yes, Mr. Morse may well sue the city, which would present some legal fees and risk for the self-insured municipality. And it would mean the end of the provision that comes with this arrangement: that Mr. Morse not bother the city with any more (probably dubious) claims in exchange for the payout. We can appreciate the temptation to just pay him to go away.
Mr. Morse may or may not have any actual injuries worth that $170,000; the taxpayers who would foot this bill don’t get to know the details. The city has refused to release any claims he may have filed. The council, which said it had heard nothing of any claims until it met Tuesday night, discussed the matter behind closed doors.
The payment, according to people familiar with it, is to cover any injuries he may have sustained as a firefighter as well as an injury he claims to have suffered last year in City Hall. All that’s publicly known about that incident comes from Councilman Stephen Napier Jr., who saw Mr. Morse appear to lose his balance on the last step of the staircase near the mayor’s office.
That’s seemingly all the city has to go on other than Mr. Morse’s word — which only a fool would now vouch for.
We may not know how much damage Mr. Morse’s years of public service did to him, but we’re clear on his damage to the image of his office and the city, especially its police department.
His tenure was marred by multiple allegations of domestic abuse and public denials that strained credulity, including his insistence at one point that he wasn’t injured in a scrape with his wife despite photographic evidence to the contrary.
The Cohoes Police Department — which he ran by leaving the police
commissioner position vacant — mostly looked away from the allegations against him, to its shame. Cohoes police once arrested one of his critics over nothing more than a Facebook argument with a relative of Mr. Morse’s.
The charges that led to his felony plea stemmed from his theft of campaign funds for personal use. He’s on the hook to forfeit $12,250, in addition to any fine the court assesses when he’s sentenced Dec. 10. That case finally brought him down; hours after he pleaded guilty in August, the council voted to remove him from office, finally, after he had long ignored calls to resign from Democratic party leaders and even the governor.
And now he wants Cohoes to pay for the privilege of that service — on top of the public pension he’ll eventually get.
Talk about adding insult to injury, although given Mr. Morse’s abusive relationship with the truth, it may just be one final insult. The Common Council should say no thank you.