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Embattled Assemblyman Too Busy For Government, But Not For Facebook Games!
By
Garth Johnston
Published Jul 28, 2011
Modified Jul 28, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Jul 28, 2011
Modified Jul 28, 2011
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Brooklyn Democrat State Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr. just can't catch a break. Not only has he been indicted (along with State Senator Carl Kruger) on bribery and corruption charges, which he denies, but it now turns out that he has the worst attendance record in the assembly (he was absent for 20 of the Assembly's 60 sessions this year). And worse? When he was doing his job it appears that he was more interested in playing CityVille on Facebook.
The Capitol newspaper in Albany went and compared Boyland's Facebook activity with Assembly records and found that while he sponsored zero bills and pulled in a $79,500 salary he was very busy governing... William's Town on Facebook:
On June 21, when the Assembly debated and voted on bills—including an extension of rent regulations—from 10:34 a.m. to 8:21 p.m., Boyland was tending to William’s Town.
At 5:44 p.m., William’s Town’s virtual police needed a feeding. On his Facebook wall, Boyland wrote he needed “donuts to fuel hungry cops.” The fuel was necessary, the post noted, “to apprehend the bandits.”
An hour earlier, he posted a request to Facebook friends to help upgrade the William’s Town Mall. He logged on to CityVille at least seven times that day, while the Assembly was still in session.
He missed the Assembly’s sessions on March 23 and 24, but appears to have spent the entire night between them playing CityVille, posting game updates seven times between midnight and 8 a.m.
Boyland joined the Assembly in a special election in 2003, a legislative body where his father and uncle had previously served (his sister, Tracy Boyland, is a former City Councilwoman). Nobody at his office will comment on the Assemblyman's online proclivities, but the Capitol did get some of his peers to rat him out (though it is worth noting there is no explicit rule against pols playing games when they should be working). “He was rarely there, and when he was, he often seemed distracted by his phone, and the leadership and their staff often had to remind him to press the button and vote,” one Assembly Democrat told the Albany paper. “He seemed often distracted by whatever was going on on his smartphone.”
Hmmm...maybe we should try this CityVille game out.
Tagged
cityville
state assembly
William Boyland Jr.
Garth Johnston
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