Original Article

In the months after Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno was indicted on federal corruption charges, the city awarded $8 million in contracts to a consulting firm the disgraced GOP kingpin headed.
The firm, CMA Consulting Services, received five contracts from the city Human Resources Administration and one from the Department of Consumer Affairs between February and November of 2009, city records show.

The HRA contracts were awarded despite a warning by the city Department of Investigation to the agency that Bruno was facing criminal charges.

"A caution profile exists in VENDEX [the city's contractor records] regarding Joseph Bruno," DOI wrote on July 21 to Lawrence Fiffer, the contracts manager at HRA. The Daily News recently obtained a copy of that memo.

Two of the largest awards CMA received last year for computer consulting - $1.1 million and $5.2 million - came from HRA, which registered them with the city controller's office on Nov. 19, smack in the middle of Bruno's much-publicized trial.

Three weeks later, in December, an Albany jury convicted the 80-year-old Bruno of two felony counts of "theft of honest services" for using his Senate post to collect more than $3 million in fees for other consulting companies he owned. Bruno resigned from CMA the next day.

He is to be sentenced on March 31 and faces up 20 years in prison.

Bruno took a job running CMA - formerly known as Currier McCabe & Associaties - in July 2008.

That was immediately after his resignation from the Senate and as the long-running federal probe of his activities was drawing to a close.

Even though he was listed as CEO of the computer firm, Bruno "had no involvement with any of CMA's government contracts," company spokesman Kris Thompson said yesterday.

CMA's founder and chairperson is Kay Stafford. She is a longtime friend of Bruno's and is the widow of Ron Stafford, another powerful Republican who chaired the Senate Finance Committee until his death in 2005.

Stafford was a constant presence at Bruno's side during his trial and has often accompanied him to social events in recent years.

Her firm has become a powerhouse in the computer consulting business over the past 20 years, largely through its contracts with state government. The firm's business with New York City has grown steadily during the Bloomberg era - largely with HRA and the Financial Information Services Agency (FISA).

Its latest $5.2 million HRA contract, Thompson said, was to help the city manage Medicaid and public assistance databases.

City officials defended their awarding of the six contracts.

CMA was among several contractors that submitted sealed proposals, agency spokeswoman Barbara Brancaccio said.

"The firm was selected based on the merits of their proposal and their longstanding record of successful performance with HRA," Brancaccio said.

"While the city was aware of the caution concerning a CMA principal, HRA determined that in light of that successful track record, it was appropriate to award this contract."