Curran: The Simplest Way To Avoid "Quid Pro Quo"? Use "Just Say No" Instead

When Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on federal corruption and bribery charges, many of the common defenses or explanations offered by current or former politicians included something along the lines of, “This sort of stuff is offered to us all the time.” Yet Adams is now under indictment, which raises the question of how innocuous even the littlest perks really are. Former Nassau County Executive Laura Curran can relate to people making offers to her when she was in government. Speaking on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program, she said the simplest way to avoid the appearance of quid pro quo was to “just say no” to everything, no matter how innocuous it seemed.

“You have to really say no, because people will try to offer you all kinds of things,” Curran told Riedel and Larry Mendte, sitting in for Berman. “I had to be very vigilant, you know. Even just for getting coffee with someone, I’d have to be very careful about paying for my fair share, or picking up the check or whatever it is, or you pay this time, I pay next time, but make sure it’s even. That’s what people deserve. I mean, people pay taxes for the government to work for them. It’s not a business, it’s not a for-profit business. It’s not for your own self-worth and for your own pockets. It’s for the people, and that’s something I really emphasized and did.”

Curran didn’t let the “this is how things work” excuse fly, simply but emphatically stating, “And also to be so blasé about it, as if it’s just sort of, do [this] and it’s just [plane ticket] upgrades- I think you’ve got to worry about how this stuff looks to regular people who are paying your salary.”

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