North Greenbush

The harassing texts from an anonymous phone number began the same day that restaurant owner Michael Moscatiello wrote a social media post accusing North Greenbush Supervisor Louis Desso of engaging in pay-to-play practices with local developers.

"Just keep desso out of your conversation, U r creating big problems for yourself," read one of the texts sent on Sept. 7, 2017. "U don't have the power to bring down a man as powerful. As lou," said another.

The texts, some laced with obscenities, also directed insults at Moscatiello's adult son. Moscatiello, who has operated his Italian restaurant in North Greenbush for 25 years, filed a report with State Police — but no arrests were ever made.

He believes the taunts came from one of Desso's supporters.

"This guy is a bully and he just kind of took over this town," Moscatiello said.

The friction between the two began after Moscatiello hosted a packed political fundraiser for Desso in 2015, and Moscatiello said Desso kept blowing him off about not paying the bill, which totaled more than $6,000. Desso claims that, despite the $1,000 limit in North Greenbush for in-kind contributions, Moscatiello agreed to waive the cost as a campaign gift. As questions began to mount about Desso's campaign disclosures, Moscatiello filed a complaint in small claims court to dissuade any speculation that he violated contribution limits. In January, a Rensselaer city court judge ruled the supervisor had to pay Moscatiello the maximum $5,000 award allowed in such cases.

The restaurateur said the incident is representative of the atmosphere in this Troy suburb ever since Desso, a former Town Board member, was elected supervisor in November 2015.

Desso, a self-described recovered alcoholic who has worked in the substance abuse field for the last three decades, has engaged in activities that have raised questions about his ethics and his relationship with developers. Since he was sworn in as supervisor in January 2016, Desso has requested the town assessor reduce his home's value and obtained approval from the Town Board to have a sewer line extended to his now subdivided property — which is also the future site of his son's home.

When the public tried to ask about the Moscatiello restaurant bill case at a Town Board meeting, Desso backed a decision to prohibit any comments on that subject.

In recent years, records show Desso's campaign account has taken in more money than almost any town leader in the Capital Region, much of it from developers with business before the town. They include David Mulinio, who has been actively developing projects along Route 4 and last month arranged for free fill to be dumped next to Desso's house to assist with the construction of a house for Desso's son, Jonathan, who is Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove's spokesman.

"He uses his position in government and influence to enrich himself," said town Democratic leader Charles B. Smith, one of Desso's most vocal critics. "Corruption has no party label."

But Desso said any questions about his integrity are only the result of Democrats who want to gain control of town government. He also suggested that he may be a target because he is Italian-American.

Desso said he does not request campaign money in exchange for favors and noted that he has done positive things for the town of 13,000 people, including lowering property taxes and receiving millions of dollars in grants for roadway and water-line improvements.

"People want to make stuff up and throw stuff at you," said Desso, 64. "You follow the law and you do what's right."

Many hats

Desso's political life has been touched by other controversies since he first tried to run for Town Board in 2005. In 2010, when he was both an elected Town Board member and a county legislator, a court ruling prohibited Rensselaer County officials from holding two elected seats simultaneously. Desso and the two other Rensselaer County legislators impacted by the ruling voted along with other Republicans to amend the county's laws to allow the practice to continue. Desso then got his Town Board seat back.

In 2013, while Desso still held both elected positions, he was also hired as Rensselaer County's new deputy commissioner of mental health — taking an $82,000-a-year position that hadn't existed in five years. The hire was notable because Desso was a Rensselaer County elected official and the civil service rules governing the educational requirements for the post were changed, allowing him to qualify for the position.

Desso had previously worked as an administrator at St. Peter's Addiction and Recovery Center, and county officials said Desso's new position was purely administrative and not clinical. He then resigned his job as county legislator, but stayed on in North Greenbush as a Town Board member.

In 2016, about four months after assuming his new role as supervisor, Desso applied to the North Greenbush assessor to have his home's $372,692 market value reduced. He said he had been meaning to do it for years, and had the same right as any town resident to contest his assessment. North Greenbush assessor John Harkin expressed his discomfort with handling it himself, so the case was forwarded to the neighboring assessment board in Brunswick. Desso's assessment was eventually reduced; the change resulted in an estimated 16 percent tax cut.

Other town officials who have been presented with requests from the supervisor have not always recused themselves from official decisions, according to a review of town meeting minutes. The Planning Board approved Desso's subdivision of his property on Stephen Drive in preparation for his son's home construction. The Town Board approved Desso's request to have a sewer line extension run to his property and that of a neighbor. The Zoning Board of Appeals last month approved a request to have the fill dumped on the site where Jon Desso's house will be constructed.

"It's tough in small towns," said North Greenbush Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Richard French. "If I recused myself every time someone I know was involved, I'd never hear cases."

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Desso said the town is not paying for his new sewer line, which he originally tried to get by petitioning his entire neighborhood. But the other residents did not want the extension to their homes.

J.R. Casale, owner of Casale Construction, is doing the work. In March, Casale was among nine people who went before the Town Board and praised Desso — at a time when the board had attempted to ban others from commenting on Moscatiello's small-claims case against Desso.

Casale said last week that he has known Desso his whole life but is going to bill him for the sewer work his company is doing, which Casale estimated will cost Desso about $10,000. "Everyone is looking at it like Louie got a favor, but no," Casale said. "I knew Louie since he was a kid, but he can't do nothing for me as supervisor."

Desso's political connection to others in construction and development, however, has raised questions.

Desso's campaign account has received $61,378 in contributions since 2015 — putting him near the top among incumbent town supervisors in the Capital Region. Colonie Supervisor Paula Mahan, a Democrat who oversees the largest town in the region, is a distant first in that category with $201,670 collected during the same period.

Still, Desso's fundraising is nearly triple what Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber has brought in — and Guilderland has three times the population of North Greenbush.

Friends with interests

The most sizable contributions to the Friends of Desso committee came from developers with business before the town, including $1,000 from Mulinio's limited liability company, 16 North Development; $1,000 from Cole's Collision; and two contributions of $1,500 each from Hodorowski Homes real estate broker John Mesko and his wife

Cole's Collision owner John Cole also gave former Rensselaer County Deputy Executive Chris Meyer $5,000 — Meyer's largest single contribution — in August, around the same time the county's industrial development agency voted to grant a 10-year payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement for a new Cole's Collision site on Route 4. Meyer was actively running a campaign for county executive at the time.

Robert Pasinella, executive director of Rensselaer County's IDA, said Cole put in his application for tax breaks in late 2016, well before the 2017 contributions were made. Cole couldn't be reached for comment.

"Whether it's John Cole or any other developer, we don't know the campaign contributions that come in, and it did not influence us," Pasinella said.

John Panichi, CEO of Benetech in North Greenbush, also gave Desso $1,000 last year. Panichi said he does not believe that Desso exchanges contributions for favors — only that Desso is committed to lowering taxes and bringing business to North Greenbush.

"I think if you look on balance with what he's done and what he's accomplished, we haven't had anyone who has accomplished so much in such a short period of time to make the town a better place," said Panichi, who is also chairman of the North Greenbush Industrial Development Agency.

Panichi acknowledged that Desso has a large amount of campaign cash. "I guess he feels he needs a war chest," he said. "It's a very large war chest given the size of our town. ... He's an all-in guy."

Desso touts his ability to make North Greenbush more accessible to incoming businesses. But his relationships with developers have overlapped with his personal finances.

At a town Planning Board meeting in June 2016, CapCom Federal Credit Union had applied to modify its drive-up and teller windows at its new branch on Route 4.

Desso spoke during the public comment period, saying the town had been waiting a long time for a tenant for that site and to "please not put any unnecessary obstacles in for this approval," according to minutes from the meeting.

About a year later, Desso obtained a $200,000 mortgage from CapCom — the seventh mortgage or home equity loan he has taken out on his residence since 1991. Last week, Desso said the refinancing he did with CapCom was the same that any individual would receive. A CapCom spokesperson said the bank does not comment on any information related to its customers.

"They're all refinances," Desso said. "Colleges and cars — I gave my kids too much."

Desso said during his first term as supervisor "I worked like a maniac," and said he privately asked Town Board members if they would vote to increase his $18,000-a-year supervisor salary to reflect a full-time job. But he said he dropped the subject when he got no support. In January of this year, Desso lost his county job after he opposed Steve McLaughlin's candidacy for county executive. McLaughlin, a Republican, won; Desso now works as a special assistant to the executive director of the nonprofit New York Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers.

Free dirt

As far as the fill Mulinio had brought to Desso's property a few weeks ago, Desso sees no ethical problems with the arrangement.

"I was asked if I wanted the dirt trucked out if it was free, and I said 'yeah.'" he said. "I haven't done anything wrong, and I've followed the letter of the law."

Last year, the Times Union reported the FBI had launched an investigation into the circumstances in which construction material — topsoil — was trucked from a Saratoga County developer's construction sites in Brunswick to the 1,200-acre dairy farm of town Supervisor Phil Herrington. No one has been charged or accused of wrongdoing in that investigation, which remains open.

Mulinio told the Times Union the dumping of fill next to Desso's property benefited the contractor, Evolution, that he was helping. Mulinio said the fill, which also went to about six other locations, came from Hudson Valley Community College, which is building a $14.5 million Center for Advanced Manufacturing Skills. HVCC spokesman Dennis Kennedy said there are loads of fill leaving campus regularly, and that its contractor, Bette and Cring, and its subcontractor, Evolution, are responsible for its disposal. If fill went to Desso's house it was "not at the direction of the college," Kennedy said.

Long associations

Mulinio and his business partner Frank Lanni followed an unusual path to becoming developers. As young men in 1992, they were sentenced to federal prison for conspiracy to sell cocaine, as part of a larger case that uncovered a drug ring in Troy. Mulinio, who has also had a lawn and landscaping business, has been developing property for the past decade.

Mulinio, who also runs the Field of Horrors in Brunswick during the Halloween season, has had other political battles in Rensselaer County. He sued the city of Troy in 2010 alleging his legitimate bids were being purposely passed over. In 2013, former Troy mayor and now Rensselaer County legislative employee Harry Tutunjian pursued harassment charges after he said Mulinio spit on him while Tutunjian was mayor.

The developer, however, said his drive is to solely improve his community — just as it is with his friend, Desso.

"Here's a man who completely turned the town around in a positive way," Mulinio said. "He has lowered taxes. He has brought in a positive surplus for the town. He has a passion for North Greenbush.

"This guy loves this town," he said, "and the people in it."

lstanforth@timesunion.com • 518-454-5697