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Free Calls to Albany Take Their Toll
by Jim Dwyer- New York Daily News
A FEW MORNINGS BACK, Charles Juntikka was at work in his law office in midtown when he received an urgent call from Bell Atlantic.
Juntikka, as it happens, was arranging many phone calls to the government in Albany about a proposed law that he and other citizens care about.
Now, you might think that his making phone calls to Albany was perfectly okay with the phone company, which, after all, is in the business of selling phone calls.
You might think that, but you would be wrong.
These phone calls greatly displeased Albany, where politicians combine the essence of old Soviet-style-central-committee operations with the free-wheeling antics of a Nevada brothel where anything is for sale, legally.
Therefore, unhappy with phone calls, the Albany pols sicced the phone company on him.
After the third call from Bell Atlantic ordering him to stop, Juntikka set up a tape on his phone.
"I just received a call from the speaker's office again," said the woman from Bell Atlantic.
"But isn't that where the calls are supposed to be going?" asked Juntikka.
"They're not authorizing it," said the phone company woman.
Many, many people are under the impression that you do not need "authorization" to call, write or petition any branch of government.
But Jantikka's efforts ticked off the staffs of two powerful state politicians Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the state Assembly, and Joseph Bruno, the majority leader in the state Senate.
As a result, the corporate security departments of both Bell Atlantic and AT&T descended on Juntikka for what appears to have been a totally legal maneuver.
Juntikka is a bankruptcy lawyer who, on the side from his law practice, carries on a crusade against the big campaign money that pollutes the state Legislature, and is backing a bill to limit the gifts lobbyists can give to politicians.
Last summer, he gave a group of student interns at his law firm the project of mailing 20,000 postcards to voters across the state. They were urged to support bills being offered by Gov. Pataki and Sen. Nancy Hoffman, a Republican from Rochester, that would ban so- called gifts to politicians and restrict campaign contributions.
On the postcards, Juntikka listed toll-free numbers that he had rented from AT&T. The toll-free calls came to his office on W. 57th St. He then set up his phones to automatically forward the calls to the offices of various politicians.
In this way, people could speak their minds on these issues, and the total expense of the calls under $5,000 was picked up by Juntikka.
The tactic worked. Calls flooded into the Legislature. On Sept. 29, Juntikka was contacted by a deputy counsel to Silver.
"My question was, did you feel it was legal if people can't do their jobs if their phones are being inundated with calls about something that has nothing to do with their work?" asked Randy Bluth.
"I think it is legal," said Juntikka.
Contacted yesterday, Bluth said he was shocked by Juntikka's ability to send these calls along, and was shocked that no one could stop him. "I couldn't believe they [the phone company] couldn't flip a switch somewhere to make this practice stop," said Bluth. He was not trying to bully Juntikka, said Bluth just trying to protect staff members who were besieged by the calls.
"The calls were going to a staff analyst who was not set up to handle them," said Bluth. "I tried to give him another number, where people could express their views, without being a nuisance. His purpose was to disrupt. He said he wouldn't change it unless Speaker Silver called him."
Juntikka insists that the phone numbers his cards listed were the exact ones he was given by the Assembly.
On Oct. 5, Juntikka taped a conference call he received from the security departments of Bell Atlantic, AT&T and Bob Majkut, the telecommunications director for the state Senate.
"The complaint was that they are receiving an inordinate number of calls coming into senators, and into the governor's office," Majkut says on the tape. "There is also a leaflet around in Albany stating we're having these 888 numbers on it, telling the people to call these numbers to register votes . . ."
Yesterday, Majkut said he was merely looking out for Juntikka's interest, in case someone was abusing his 888 numbers. That's what the phone company says, too: The Bell Atlantic security department only contacted Juntikka in case hundreds of calls from his phone were being accidentally forwarded to Albany.
"A customer sometimes doesn't realize they are annoying somebody," said Mark Marchand, a Bell Atlantic spokesman.
TO JUNTIKKA, the whole episode is just the sickening swap of power by the state and Bell Atlantic. The phone company, after all, is lobbying the state for deregulation. The state has now sent Bell Atlantic to hassle Juntikka for his campaign against the very sorts of relationships that Bell enjoys with Albany politicians.
"The whole thing gives me vertigo," said Juntikka.
"He's an odd fellow, is the nicest way for me to put it," said Bluth.
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Archive of Print Stories on S4R
NY Times Story
Students Put Pressure on Legislators by Winnie Hu
Teen People
NY Daily News
NY Daily News
Albany Times Union
NY Newsday
The Troy Record
GANNET NEWS SERVICE
Albany Times Union
The Legislative Gazette
NY Times Story
The Daily Gazette of Schenectady
Rochester Chronicle
Albany Times Union
Other Articles On Corruption
NY Observer
Troy Record
Hon. Sheldon Silver
Sen. Joe Bruno
Sen. Bruno’s Flawed Gift Ban Bill Loopholes |
