Loophole lets regent lobby vs. Jets plan

BY JOE MAHONEY
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

ALBANY - A member of the powerful state Board of Regents is also being paid as a lobbyist for Cablevision as it pushes to kill the Jets' stadium project, the Daily News has learned.

Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez, 54, is able to hold both positions because of loopholes in state ethics laws.

"It not only doesn't pass the smell test, it kind of stinks," said Richard Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a good-government group.

Not all portions of the state Public Officers' Law apply tomembers of the Board of Regents, which controls public school policy and enforces accreditation standards for colleges.

Regents must comply with financial disclosure and ethics guidelines - but there's no ban on lobbying, state Education Department spokesman Jonathan Berman said.

"Regent Cortes-Vasquez fully complies with all of these provisions," he said.

She is the first Regent ever to leap into the lucrative field of lobbying while serving on the panel, Berman said.

Cortes-Vasquez, former head of the Hispanic Federation and a one-time top aide to former Bronx Democratic Party chief Roberto Ramirez, did not return messages left at her office at Cablevision, where she is vice president for government affairs.

Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden, is locked in a fierce battle with the Jets and Mayor Bloomberg as it tries to block a proposed West Side stadium.

"This points to the need for clearer laws to prevent conflicts of interest," said Rachel Leon, executive director of the New York chapter of Common Cause.