Yet again, Niagara County finds itself connected to a political corruption probe, leaving many to ask: What makes Niagara County such a magnet for political corruption? In a state like New York, which has an iconic city once dominated by men as infamous as John Gotti, how does tiny little Niagara County even rate a notice, much less over and over again?

On the heels of the Joe Bruno guilty verdict, which relied on evidence of illegal campaign finance solicitations from Niagara County labor union leaders, comes the news that Sen. Pedro Espada’s (D-Bronx) criminal investigation for money theft has some strange connection to Gary Parenti’s dad’s office, located in the Town of Niagara.

Let’s be absolutely clear and mature in this discussion: When the veil over politics is lifted, it is not a pretty picture, even in the best of times. In the best of political successes strange things get done, morals are bent and people do things they probably wouldn’t want their mom to know about. That’s life; that’s how the world works. But we in Western New York pride ourselves on being better. We’re a community that thinks we’re different; we value our community and blue-collar roots. We were “family values” before family values became popular.

But that may all be a charade; a false front we put on to fool ourselves into feeling better about 50 years of economic decline, the highest combined tax base of any municipality in the entire nation and, apparently, our willingness to house and foster — in essence, give aid and comfort to — political corruption.

News reports coming out last weekend announced that G. Steven Pigeon, our own local hero political reformer, counsel to the state Senate Majority Leader, co-chair of Buffalo-Sabres-owner-but-Florida-resident Tom Golisano’s political action committee and Friend of Bill (as in Bill Clinton) was indeed some part of the overall investigation into the aforementioned Espada. While Pigeon apparently didn’t return any phone calls from the media, by mid-week he had hired a prominent Manhattan defense attorney to represent him and handle all inquiries. No indication of guilt whatsoever in today’s litigious world, but hey, not cheap either. Most working schleps would have to wait until charges were actually filed before bringing in the high-priced talent.

But it’s probably time for Pigeon to file the mother-of-all-slander lawsuits against his accusers or admit that mistakes have been made. Remember Mark Sacha, the fired assistant district attorney in Erie County who was investigating campaign violations? Here’s what Sasha said to Artvoice in September 2009 after his dismissal from the DA’s office:

“Our investigation revealed evidence of unregistered corporations, clandestine meetings, suspicious money transfers and phony explanations. The investigation revealed that Timothy Clark was involved in many of these events as an agent of the campaign. The prior district attorney basically told the Buffalo News that last year. What has not been said but is well known to District Attorney Sedita is that his friend, supporter and adviser, G. Steven Pigeon, working with Timothy Clark was also an agent of the Paul Clark campaign and was involved in a number of the transactions described in my memorandum of December 30, 2008.”

Ouch. Them’s fighting words in most situations.

But Pigeon is from Erie County. Why does Niagara County keep coming up lately? Why does it just seem easier to “conduct business” such as this in Niagara County as opposed to anywhere else in the state?

And anyone who has kids has to feel for Jerry Parenti, Gary’s father. The guy was probably blind-sided by calls from the media and caught completely off guard. His most prominent response of “you’ll have to ask Gary about all this” didn’t sound very authoritative — especially for an accountant. But the ultimate embarrassment was that he gave a phone number for his son, which apparently turned out to be a non-working number. He doesn’t even have a phone number for his son? I’m hoping that the reporter copied the number down wrong. It’s too sad to think that his son gave his own dad a bogus phone number.

I’m afraid I just don’t have any answers this week to this question of why Niagara County. It’s not the pollution; it’s not the obscene hazardous waste landfills that are still operating; it’s not the natural wonder of the Falls. It’s not the amazing fruit we grow.

If it’s not all that it’s got to be something else, because something is making Niagara County one of the most popular places to set up and operate a political corruption business.

Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reach via e-mail at aim1986@mac.com