During his first 24 hours as the state’s new top executive, Gov. David Paterson took the oath of office, addressed a joint session of the Legislature, signed five bills and publicly announced previous infidelities in his marriage to New York’s first lady Michelle Paige Paterson.

David Paterson began his governorship with enthusiasm. He expressed a jubilant mood at his inauguration and was passing legislation by the evening.

However, Paterson’s first week as governor took a downturn when he appeared before the Albany press corps to announce he had affairs with “a number of women” since 1999 and that his spouse had also been unfaithful.

In a turbulent press conference in the Capitol last Tuesday, Paterson said, “This is one of the issues I just want to get straight with New York citizens so that they know who their governor is and that their governor takes this office seriously.”

Paterson, standing at a podium next to his wife, admitted he had affairs with several women, including one who is still on the state payroll.

He said he was not the woman’s supervisor or manager at the time of their affair, and that she worked in a separate agency.

He declined to reveal the name or position of the employee.

However, Paterson said he might have inherited her as an employee from former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whose involvement in a prostitution ring let to his resignation, which went into effect last Monday at noon. Paterson said his wife knows about the employees, and they are allowing the woman to make the decision to continue to work in Paterson’s administration or not.

Paterson said he never used campaign funds to pay for his encounters with the women he was having affairs with and promised to make records of his spending of campaign funds available to the public.

The governor said the affairs resulted from jealousy over his wife, “but it was not her fault.”

Both Patersons said they sought counseling in order to avoid a divorce, which they said might have negatively affected their children. Their daughter, Ashley Paterson, had already seen her mother go through the process, as this is Mrs. Paterson’s second marriage.

Less than 24 hours before being barraged by the press about his affairs, Paterson had received the roaring cheers and applause of state leaders and dignitaries as he was sworn into office in the Assembly chamber by New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye.

The crowd was in high spirits before the ceremony started. People chatted enthusiastically and laughter could be heard above the conversations.

After he repeated his oath, the first thing Paterson did as he stood at the podium, along with saying “thank you,” was laugh. The crowd chanted his name, “David,” along with their clapping.

Paterson focused much of his inaugural address on education, unemployment and his desire to “move forward.”

“I have a vision for New York,” he said, “it is a New York where achievement is corralled only from hard work, where doors are always open, and where anyone can achieve no matter where they live.”

“It’s Monday and there’s work to be done,” Paterson said, “there’s a budget that needs to be passed and we will pass it, we need a plan to put New Yorkers back to work and we will provide it. We have to battle the obstacle of doubt and uncertainty and we shall overcome it.”

“And I think you all know that I know a little bit about finding … ways through the dark,” said Paterson, who became not only the state’s first African-American governor, but its first legally blind one as well. “I have confronted the prejudice of race and challenged the issues of my own disability.”

Paterson also gave a little of his own background in his speech.

He referred to Harlem as his current home. “This is where I learned love for family and appreciation for community,” he said.

“I stand willing and able to lead this state to a brighter future and a better tomorrow,” he said, “let me reintroduce myself: I am David Paterson, and I am the governor of New York state.”

At the beginning of his speech, Paterson thanked the distinguished guests in the audience and joked with some of them, enhancing the cheerful atmosphere in the room.

When he thanked Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R,C,I-Brunswick, Paterson said, “the other day, we had lunch and [Bruno] said, ‘listen, some evening, if you feel like it, you should come out to the ranch and have dinner with me.’ I’ll go,” Paterson quipped, “but I’m going to take my taster with me.”

Paterson thanked Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and said he has forgiven Cuomo for shooting him with a water gun a few years ago.

When he recognized George E. Pataki in the crowd, Paterson thanked him for attending the ceremony despite his ongoing recovery from two operations the former governor underwent in February.

“The governor’s looking very well, and he’s getting a lot better,” joked Paterson, making a self-effacing job about his blindness.

In addition, Paterson welcomed U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-Chappaqua, and Charles Schumer, D-Brooklyn, who, he said, “of course, rose from Brooklyn.”

Paterson was born in Brooklyn May 20, 1952, to Portia and Basil Paterson. The senior Paterson was the first African-American vice chairman of the National Democratic Party and the first to be New York’s secretary of state in 1979.

After Clinton sat down, a member of the crowd yelled her name, Hillary. Some of the crowd cheered for her, and when the noise started to subside, someone yelled, equally enthusiastically, the first name of her opponent in the ongoing presidential primaries, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

As the laughter and cheering dwindled, Paterson continued with his acknowledgements, expressing his love for the members of his family.

Later on Monday, state leaders commended the new governor for getting down to work on his first day in the governor’s office. Paterson signed five bills into law soon after his inauguration.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D,WF-Manhattan, said the “swearing-in of Gov. David Paterson is a historic moment in our state’s history.”

“Gov. Paterson’s rich legislative history is evident in the wide range of bills he is signing into law,” he said.

In addition, Bruno said, “By taking the oath of office as New York’s 55th governor and by swiftly signing these bills into law, Gov. Paterson is ensuring that we move this state forward.”

One bill (S.6406/A.9360 sponsored by Senate Cities Committee Chairman Serphin Maltese, R,C-Middle Village, Queens, and Assembly Labor Committee Chairwoman Susan V. John, D-Rochester, pertains to the safety of workers on train tracks in New York City. The bill would add the Department of Labor, which oversees safety standards for employees, to the New York City Track Safety Task force.

Another bill signed into law by Paterson (S.6490/A.9429) also involves the state’s workforce, and amends the state’s labor laws to provide leave time for workers who wish to donate blood. The new law, which also provides employers with more options regarding blood drives in the workplace, was sponsored by Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee Chairman Michael F. Nozollio, R-Fayette, and Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard N. Gottfried, D,WF, Manhattan.

Another piece of legislation Paterson signed last Monday (A.9464/S.6552) addresses the lack of representation by cancer survivors on the New York Health Research Science Board, a division of the Department of Health. The law, which was sponsored by Steve Englebright, D-Setauket, a member of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, and Senate Health Committee Chairmen Kemp Hannon, R,C,I-Garden City, allows the governor to appoint a breast cancer and a prostate or testicular cancer survivor to the board.

Senate bill S.6779 and Assembly bill 9387-A, were also signed into law by the new governor, and they restore income eligibility caps for those wishing to be employed by New York Green Thumb Environmental Beautification Inc., a nonprofit organization that offers part-time employment to eligible senior citizens through its Green Thumb Program. The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Joseph Robach, R,C,I-Rochester, chair of the Civil Service and Pensions Committee, and Assembly Governmental Operations Committee Chairwoman RoAnn M. Destito, D-Rome, and ensures that “only truly needy seniors are eligible for employment,” according to an announcement by the governor’s office.

The last law signed by Paterson last Monday allows tax exemptions that are granted to local development corporation overseeing the construction of a new court facility in Niagara Falls to be similar to the exemptions granted to corporations responsible for similar projects. The bill (S.6447/A.9466) was sponsored by Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee Chairman George Maziarz, R,C-Newfane, and Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Lewiston.

The signing of these bills was part of Paterson’s day-one promise to keep New York “moving forward.”