Brendan J. Lyons reports for the Times Union that Albany County Comptroller Michael Conners said Nov. 25 that his office has been blocked from interviewing 15 county employees in his investigation of county Executive Daniel McCoy's 2015 re-election campaign. Conners is investigating allegations that county workers on the government payroll were assisting McCoy's political campaign. Unnamed "whistleblowers" have told Conners of a systemic practice of county employees doing campaign work during regular business hours. McCoy's administration temporarily blocked Conners' auditors from accessing the county's time and attendance database last year. McCoy would not speak with a reporter about the allegations from Conners. His spokesperson, Mary Rozak, said “Mr. Conners’ assertions today are a continuation of claims he has previously asserted but failed to substantiate because they remain baseless.” John Liguori, an assistant county attorney, said they would not allow the interviews because Conners had declined to confirm "under what authority/parameters the interviews were to be conducted. ... Without such information, the Department of Law recommended that the employees not confirm the interviews as scheduled.” Conners said that their office "has routinely proved beyond a shadow of doubt that we are entitled to this information and to the cooperation of employees for interviews to complete our audit. The administration knows they have something to hide and hope to run out the clock of my term of office." Conners' sixth, and last, term ends in December. Read more about this story in the Times Union.