Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to Receive Award from UAlbany

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The University at Albany's Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy will host the 16th Annual John E. Burton Lecture and Distinguished Public Service Awards Ceremony on Thursday, May 17, at 4 p.m. in Milne Hall, Room 200, on the University's Downtown Campus, 135 Western Ave. The event honors outstanding contributions to public service in New York.

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will receive the College's highest award, the John E. Burton Medallion, and deliver the annual John E. Burton Lecture, which honors the former state budget director. For more information, contact Michelle Marto at 442-5253.

Spitzer has been Attorney General since 1999 and has stated as his priorities environmental protection, public safety, civil rights and consumer affairs. A clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Robert W. Sweet and then an associate at Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison, he served as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan from 1986-1992, rising to become chief of the Labor Racketeering Unit. There, he successfully prosecuted organized crime and political corruption cases. He later worked at the New York law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, and was a partner at Constantine & Partners. He is a 1981 graduate of Princeton University and a 1984 graduate of Harvard Law School.

The event will also honor four recipients of this year's Distinguished Public Service Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Public Service. Those receiving awards will be:

� James G. Natoli, Director of Operations for the Office of the Governor,

� Dennis Rivera, President of the 1199 SEIU, New York Health and Human Services Employees Union,

� Father Peter Young, the founder of Peter Young Housing, Industries, and Treatment,

� Carol Stone, the Director of the New York State Division of the Budget.

Each has dedicated his or her professional careers to making a difference in the delivery of services to all New Yorkers.

John E. Burton served as the director of the budget under Governor Thomas E. Dewey from 1943 to 1950. During his tenure, the New York State Thruway as a toll-financed project was realized, and the first comprehensive social welfare program was developed. In addition, Burton brought modernization to the New York State budget process. He also served as a key member of the special committee that recommended the creation of the state university system. He later chaired the committee creating the first public administration degree-granting program in Albany.

For more University at Albany information, visit our World Wide Web site at https://www.albany.edu.

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May 7, 2001

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