Dramatic Expansion Set by Spitzer In Advisers for New Administration

The governor-elect of New York, Eliot Spitzer, has expanded his transition team by more than 300 advisers, turning to a diverse group of corporate leaders, environmentalists, prosecutors, professors, union leaders, politicians, religious figures, and even a movie star, Edward Norton, to guide his new administration.

Sorted into more than a dozen policy committees, the group is expected to meet in private four times and deliver oral reports to Mr. Spitzer before he takes office January 1.

Mr. Spitzer described the decision to appoint such a large team of advisers as an ambitious attempt to soak up ideas that could shape the direction of his governorship. His policy director, Paul Francis, said the advisory structure chosen by Mr. Spitzer was similar to the one used by the transition team of Senator Corzine in 2005.

Whether it actually succeeds in influencing policy, the creation of the advisory committees is an early attempt by Mr. Spitzer to change a widely held perception that Albany is controlled by "three men in the room," the nickname for the triumvirate that includes the governor and the leaders of the Senate and Assembly. It seems the "Sheriff of Wall Street" is trying out a new image: the Sage of Albany.

Among the better-known names tapped by Mr. Spitzer include a former New York attorney general, Robert Abrams, who is co-chairman of the government reform committee; a former federal attorney who prosecuted international terrorism cases, Mary Jo White, who is advising Mr. Spitzer on homeland security, and Felix Rohatyn, a Clinton administration-era ambassador to France who is handling economic development.

Mr. Spitzer's energy and environment panel is especially full of divergent interests and political agendas.

Under the same advisory tent is the legislative director of the Sierra Club in Albany, the executive director of a trade association that represents major energy companies, the environmental director of the Business Council of New York State, and the head of Riverkeeper, an advocacy group that monitors the Hudson River.

His education panel includes the secretary of education for the Archdiocese of New York and a representative of the New York State United Teachers, the state teachers union. His health care panel includes the president of the 1199 SEIU health care workers union, Dennis Rivera, the head of the Greater New York Hospital Association, Kenneth Raske, and a former New York health insurance executive, Michael Stocker.

"The concept here … is not to put together individuals who are of like minds and thereby to produce a homogenized perspective that speaks with only one voice," Mr. Spitzer said. "It is in a way just the opposite, to bring together disparate views, individuals, groups who may disagree."

Most famous of all is Mr. Norton, the actor who is one of more than a dozen members of the housing committee.

Mr. Norton, who is a board member of Enterprise Community Partners, a group that supports low-income housing, contributed $15,000 to the governor-elect's campaign and has become something of an in-house celebrity for the Spitzer camp.

Mr. Norton was one of a number of people on the list who were also contributors to Mr. Spitzer's campaign, including the chairman and CEO of Lightyear Capital, Donald Marron, and the chairman of Carl Spielvogel Associates, Carl Spielvogel.

The group was apparently cobbled together in haste. Members of the group said Spitzer staff members first contacted them on Tuesday and provided them with sketchy information about their responsibilities.

"How much can you do in four meetings?" the legislative director for the New YorkPublic Interest Research Group, Blair Horner, one of 18 members of the government reform advisory committee, said.

Mr. Spitzer said it's possible that some members of the advisory team could join his administration.

Several of the advisors are registered lobbyists. A spokeswoman for the governor-elect, Christine Anderson, said the Spitzer team excluded "third party" lobbyists— also known as contract lobbyists — who are paid to lobby for more than one entity.

The ban does not apply to "non-third party" lobbyists, such as Mr. Horner, who lobby directly for their employer. Elected officials were also excluded from panels.

Mr. Spitzer yesterday also indicated that his administration would comply with a key demand made by 1199 SEIU, which has called on his administration to make sure that hospital employees who are laid off amid the planned shake-up of the health care industry are guaranteed new jobs.

The governor-elect said displaced employees could occupy jobs in the health sector that are vacated through regular attrition. "There is a natural attrition rate in that sector … that permits you to backfill those positions with those who are currently employed," he said.

The political director of 1199 SEIU, Jennifer Cunningham, said the union was "pleased that he shares our concern about keeping health care workers in the health care profession."

After the Thanksgiving weekend, Governor Pataki's New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities, led by Stephen Berger, is expected to release its final recommendations on overhauling the hospital industry. Mr. Spitzer raised the possibility that the commission's report would stop short of identifying hospitals for closure.

"I'm not sure there will be a closure list in the Berger commission report," Mr. Spitzer said. He has repeatedly said his administration would have to close some state hospitals as part of its plan to overhaul the health care industry and trim Medicaid spending.