MEMO PAINTS A PICTURE OF POWER.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: KIM MARTINEAU Staff writer

After CSEA, the state's largest public employee union, fired the Albany law firm of Roemer & Featherstonhaugh, James Roemer gave the union's new president detailed advice on how to do his job.

In a July 1988 memo, he advised union president and personal friend Joseph McDermott to fire CSEA's new lawyer, Marjorie Karowe. She was fired two months later.

At about the same time, the Civil Service Employees Association fired its longtime mail-order prescription drug provider and awarded the contract to Medco, the parent company of Medac, which claimed both Roemer and Featherstonhaugh as shareholders.

The memo …