DE BLASIO
DILEMMA: Both Rivington Nursing Home Deed Change and LICH
Hospital converting to luxury apartments...Both Under Fed Investigation .
. . Both Involve Lobbyist Capalino
The announcement
comes as Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara is
investigating the hospital’s sale to Fortis as part of his wide-ranging
probe into de Blasio’s fundraising practices. Formerhospital de Blasio vowed to save during his mayoral campaign likely slated forluxury apartments (NYDN) A former hospital Mayor de Blasio vowed to save
during his 2013 campaign for City Hall is likely to become luxury housing, the
latest in a long series of disappointments for City Hall on the site.
Why
is the Brooklyn Democratic Boss Seddio Hiring the Criminal Law Firm of
Morvillo to Defend Himself in the Judge Jacobson Lawsuit?
LICH hospital that helped get Bill deBlasio elected when he got arrested as an election prop goes luxury condo in mayoral bait switch on dumbass voters. Affordable Housing nixed. Brooklyn Boss Seddio Made Money in Turning A Hospital Into Luxury Buildings
Why is Seddio Still the Brooklyn Boss After He Helped Closed Down A Hospital to Build Luxury Housing?
In disappointing turn for de Blasio, Long Island College Hospital will not include affordable housing (Politico) The land owner, Fortis Property Group, said it will not seek permission to rezone the site of Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Without a rezoning, which requires several layers of city approval, Fortis is free to build market-rate condos without any price-controlled housing for lower-income residents. (Politico)
More on Closing Long Island College Hospital
LICH hospital that helped get Bill deBlasio elected when he got arrested as an election prop goes luxury condo in mayoral bait switch on dumbass voters. Affordable Housing nixed. Brooklyn Boss Seddio Made Money in Turning A Hospital Into Luxury Buildings
In disappointing turn for de Blasio, Long Island College Hospital will not include affordable housing (Politico) The land owner, Fortis Property Group, said it will not seek permission to rezone the site of Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Without a rezoning, which requires several layers of city approval, Fortis is free to build market-rate condos without any price-controlled housing for lower-income residents. (Politico)
Building As-of-Right
Redevelopment is the Most Profitable for the Developer
Former hospital will be turned into
luxury high-rise (NYP) A former Brooklyn hospital that Mayor de Blasio
unsuccessfully fought to keep open and then suggested be converted to
affordable housing is now going to be turned into a luxury high-rise — another
policy black eye for Hizzoner. Fortis
Property Group, which owns the Long Island College Hospital site in Cobble
Hill, announced Friday it will not seek a compromise rezoning — as de Blasio
had hoped — so it can move forward with more profitable market-rate condos in
529,000 square feet of space. Longtime neighborhood activist Roy Sloane
responded: “I consider this a catastrophe for the Cobble Hill Historic
District.”
Besides Picking Judges Brooklyn Boss Seddio Now Picks Law Assistants With Banking Foreclose Backgrounds Why? Hint Judge Jacobson Law Firm
Seddio Hires A Well Known Criminal Defense Lawyer Is He Worried About His Firms Role in Closing LICH or the Foreclosures?
MORVILLO ABRAMOWITZ GRAND IASON & ANELLO P. C. The firm is the first port of call for many corporations and individuals on their most sensitive and high-profile White Collar Defense, Securities Enforcement, Regulatory & Government Investigations, and Civil Litigation matters.
Update on Judge Jacobson's Lawsuit ORDER: Plaintiff's October 13, 2016 letter motion [15] on consent of Defendants to adjourn the pre-motion conference currently scheduled for November 8, 2016 is hereby GRANTED. The November 8, 2016 pre-motion conference is hereby ADJOURNED to December 14, 2016, at 4:30 p.m. in Courtroom 4H North. Ordered by Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall on 10/14/2016. (Zdanys, Joanna)
Is de Blasio Meeting With NYT's Sulzberger to Respond to Expected Fed Indictments Connected to Rivington Nursing Home Deed Change and Closing of LICH?
Sgt. Paul Tuozzollo, RIP: Slain while
keeping New Yorkers safe (NYP) Even as violent crime in New
York continues falling to record lows, the toll of NYPD officers slain in the
line of duty continues to rise. Late Friday, Sgt. Paul Tuozzollo of the 43rd
Precinct in The Bronx became the fifth city cop in less than two years to lose
his life while serving the people of New York. * New York Police on Alert After Warning of Terror
Attack Before Election (NYP) An F.B.I. bulletin said that Al
Qaeda might be planning attacks for Monday, but an official said there was
skepticism about the credibility of the information.
Remember the 126,000 Missing Registration in Brooklyn
Months
after thousands of voters were wrongfully removed from the rolls, some
New York City officials said they have lingering concerns about the
Board of Elections and will closely watch its performance on Election
Day, The Wall Street Journal report. * Dem Elections chief,Trump agree: Fraud is rife (The Villager) BY TIM GAY | Look out for
buses filled with people wearing burkas on Election Day.
A Bunch of Idiots In NY Which Suppresses Voting by Having No Early Voting, 3 Primaries to Lower Voter Turnout are Suing for Ballot Selfies
Sorry, no ballot selfies in New York on Election Day (NYP) *
A Manhattan federal judge ruled that New York’s ban on “ballot selfies”
may remain in place on Election Day, noting that an 11th-hour change in
protocol may cause problems at polling sites, the Times Union reports.
Ballot selfies would be a ‘nightmare’: lawyer (NYP) Leo Glickman, who represents the trio of plaintiffs, asked Judge P. Kevin Castel to issue a court order blocking the Board of Elections and other officials from enforcing the state statue, saying it would have no effect on Election Day operations.
Voter's Protest: New York's Decreasing Voter Turnout
How the Media Destroyed Itself and Committed Treason in their Corrupt Coverage of the 2016 Campaign
How the Media Destroyed Itself and Committed Treason in their Corrupt Coverage of the 2016 Campaign
Biggest loser of 2016 presidential election? The media (Baltimore Sun)
No Rat Deal Yet in NYPD Gun for Sale Guy
Alex
“Shaya” Lichtenstein, who was charged in a $1 million scheme to
illegally obtain pistol permits from the NYPD, failed to reach a plea
deal and is now trying to suppress statements he made to authorities, the Post reports.
Shocking de Blasio's and His Donors Who are Under Federal Investigation for Giving $ in 2014 Not Giving in 2016 But His Lobbyists Secret Agent Berlin Rosen is Involved in Both
Some donors who contributed heavily to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2014 effort to flip the state Senate are now working to help the GOP retain control of the chamber, while others have stayed away from the races, The New York Times reports. * De Blasio steered clear of Senate races because of investigation (NYP) Mayor de Blasio said Friday that he didn’t get involved in state Senate races this year because his previous effort in 2014 remains under scrutiny by investigators. Federal and state investigators are examining whether de Blasio and some of his top aides participated in an illegal fund-raising scheme two years ago aimed at electing Democrats to the state Senate. Federal and state investigators are examining whether de Blasio and some of his top aides participated in an illegal fund-raising scheme two years ago aimed at electing Democrats to the state Senate. De Blasio aides allegedly advised unions and wealthy supporters to write large checks to the Ulster and Putnam County Democratic committees, which in turn funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the campaigns of three Democrats in tight races.
The Street Car Dear Daily News is Not About the Routing It About Gentrifying Just Like Ratner's Stadium Push Out All the Affordable Apartments in Prospect Heights
Klein IDC Goes to the Highest Senate Bidder
State
Senate Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeff Klein signaled his
group’s allegiance is up for grabs, but Sen. Mike Gianaris expressed
optimism that the Democrats could lure back the IDC and control the
chamber, The Wall Street Journal reports.
5% Increase in Traffic Deaths This Year de Blasio's Vision Zero Plan Flops No Effect
5% Increase in Traffic Deaths This Year de Blasio's Vision Zero Plan Flops No Effect
De Blasio’sVision Zero plan backfires as traffic death stats are up
(NYP) Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan to cut pedestrian deaths has
veered dramatically off course, advocates and families of crash victims
charged Thursday at City Hall. Safe streets supporters rallied after an
unlicensed van driver last week fatally struck an 8-month-old baby
in his stroller in Queens. And contrary to the goal to cut traffic
deaths eventually to zero, deaths so far this year are up 5%, to 195.
The City is Trying to Cover Its Ass As Feds Ready Charges Against PACs That the CFB Has Allowed
The New York City Council plans to consider legislation aimed at regulating political nonprofits, a move that comes months after Mayor Bill de Blasio disbanded his nonprofit amid criticism from ethics groups, The Wall Street Journal writes. * The New York City Council may finally be moving to fix some of the worst problems in the city’s campaign finance laws, which were revealed in the 2013 elections, but are including changes that would benefit individual council members, The New York Times reports. * The bundling of campaign contributions by elected officials for fellow candidates in New York City is not new or unusual, but it raises questions about an unexplored area of campaign finance law, the Gotham Gazette writes.
Citizens United PACS and the Consultant Lobbyists Who Control Them Have Destroyed the City's Campaign Finance System
The 2013 primaries and general elections for mayor and City Council were swamped with nearly $13 million
in what was, in essence, unmarked cash from secretive groups, operating
as technically “independent” organizations that were exercising their
right to free speech. They were attack dogs operating on behalf of
specific candidates. In other forays, lobbyists and others in the
influence business were able to get $1.2 million in city matching funds
by bundling contributions. Back in 2006, the Council
contemplated not matching “bundled” contributions, but passed on it.
Three years ago, the city’s Campaign Finance Board proposed changes that
would exclude the bundled money of lobbyists from being matched. The
change was supported by the mayor. The Council, inexplicably, has sat on
the legislation, but is now getting ready to take action, Council
officials said. It is also prepared to curtail the fund-raising of
groups like Campaign for One New York,
an organization associated with Mayor Bill de Blasio that accepted
contributions up to $350,000. The campaign board said that since the
group was involved in advocating the mayor’s legislative agenda, its
fund-raising was not a violation of the city’s campaign law. But the
chairwoman of the board, Rose Gill Hearn, said that “more than 95
percent of the funds it received would have been prohibited under the
laws that apply to candidates for office — including contributions from
corporations, limited liability companies and people doing business with
the city.”
The City's Matching Fund Program Was Stated After Mayor Koch's CitySorce Scandal Where he Gave Control of the Parking Violations Bureau to the Bronx and Queens Machines
That CFB law rewarded candidates who collected many small donations over those who got big ones. The first $175 of a contribution is matched at a rate of $6 in public money for each $1 donated. An individual may give up to $4,950, but only the first $175 is matched. That is a way to spread financial power to people of moderate means.
The City's Matching Fund Program Was Stated After Mayor Koch's CitySorce Scandal Where he Gave Control of the Parking Violations Bureau to the Bronx and Queens Machines
That CFB law rewarded candidates who collected many small donations over those who got big ones. The first $175 of a contribution is matched at a rate of $6 in public money for each $1 donated. An individual may give up to $4,950, but only the first $175 is matched. That is a way to spread financial power to people of moderate means.
Airbnb and Hotel Big Money Cutting Out Public Ties to de Blasio
Airbnb gets political after Cuomo’s crackdown (NYP) A state Senate race in the Hudson Valley has turned into a costly war between Airbnb and its powerful real-estate and hotel-union opponents. Opponents of the home-sharing Web site are coming to the rescue of a Republican senator who is been bombarded by a $457,000 ad and mail campaign by Airbnb. Sue Serino was one of the 56 senators from both parties who voted for a law that fines hosts as much as $7,500 for advertising illegal short-term rentals in New York City. Only six senators dissented. One of the Airbnb mailings even tied Serino to the Hoosick Falls water contamination crisis. But the surprise attack galvanized powerful left-leaning labor unions that supported the anti-Airbnb legislation to defend Serino and blast her Democratic opponent, Terry Gipson. The Hotel Trades Council and its parent union, Unite Here, have pumped $300,000 into an independent super PAC run by the Real Estate Board of New York called Jobs for New York, sources said. “Airbnb at its core is a community of hosts — and that community in the Hudson Valley is deeply concerned about environmental issues and what their elected officials are doing to ensure that their natural resources are protected.,” said Damien LaVera, spokesman for Airbnb’s Stronger Neighborhoods super PAC.There are other odd political subplots in the race. Strategists on both sides have ties to Mayor de Blasio, who wants to see Democrats take over the state Senate. Berlin Rosen, de Blasio’s chief political consultant, was paid by Airbnb to launch the attacks against Serino. Unite Here, which is defending Serino. was once run by de Blasio’s cousin, John Wilhelm. Airbnb foes celebrate win after Gov. Cuomo signs home-sharing bill, orders company to drop lawsuit blocking legislation (NYDN)
Public Relations Bill Jokes About Dressing Up As Helicopter Pilot . . . He May Has to Dress Up In the New Orange Soon?
The Real Question is How Near are We to A Mayoral Race . . . Will the Mayor Be Forced to Resign if He or Any of His Team Arrested?
Stringer Faults Mayor de Blasio Again as 2017 Race Nears (NYT) Scott
M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, issued a second straight
D-plus for agencies citywide in his third annual report on procurement
with minority-owned businesses.*
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s interest in running against
de Blasio continues to become more evident, and was on full display when
he delivered his annual report on city agencies, grading them a D-plus
citywide, the Times writes.
Federal Rat Rechnitz in $3000 Seat at World Series Could Soon Take Down Pay to Play de Blasio
Mayor's Budget
de Blasio Using PAC Lobbyists Consultants To Get Around the Elections Law and Control Elections and the Press
de Blasio Using PAC Lobbyists Consultants To Get Around the Elections Law and Control Elections and the Press
Federal Rat Rechnitz in $3000 Seat at World Series Could Soon Take Down Pay to Play de Blasio
Shady witness in NYPD corruption probe spotted at World Series (NYP) The feds’ key witness in the NYPD corruption scandal was
living it up at the World Series — where a TV camera caught him rooting
for the Cleveland Indians in a prime seat behind home plate at Wrigley
Field Sunday night. Crooked real-estate developer Jona Rechnitz was
wearing an Indians cap and was linked arm-in-arm with a fellow Cleveland
fan as they hoped in vain for victory against the Chicago Cubs.
Rechnitz pleaded guilty to bribing high-ranking cops and the former
head of the correction-officers union and agreed to testify against
them. His good fortune left some cops fuming.* Shomrim
leader in NYPD corruption probe says he’s a drunk (NYP)
How Pay to Play Inside Seabrook's Union Led to A Loss of $20 Million in Pension Funds
Prison guards were scared to question union’s risky investments (NYP) Members
of the city prison guards’ union lost $20 million of their hard-earned
money to a troubled and risky hedge fund because their leaders were
afraid that if they spoke up they would be exiled to work on dreaded
Rikers Island, a new lawsuit charges. Leaders of the Corrections
Officers Benevolent Association, representing 9,000 jail guards,
“provided no meaningful check” on ex-President Norman Seabrook,
according to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Monday.
qThat’s because Seabrook, union president since 1995, stood between them
and significant job perks, like avoiding violent Rikers Island jails,
according to the lawsuit. *
A new lawsuit charges that members of the New York City prison guards’
union lost $20 million to a troubled and risky hedge fund because their
leaders were afraid that if they spoke up they would be exiled to work
on Rikers Island, the Post writes.
Daily News Asks the Brooklyn DA to Stop the Political Prosecution of John O'Hara
Clear John O’Hara after two decades of political prosecution in Brooklyn (NYDN Ed) It
was exactly 20 years ago, also days before a presidential election,
when Brooklyn lawyer and political gadfly John O’Hara was indicted on
felony charges by Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes. O’Hara
surrendered and was fingerprinted and photographed. The offense: voting
from the wrong address. Not double voting. Not voting from a fake
address, or under a false name. But voting from one residence instead of
another. It was a set-up. O’Hara had run candidates against the
Democratic bosses, and the bosses hit back. Hard. Hynes ended up trying
O’Hara three times, the only case he tried three times during his
24-year tenure. In 1999, O’Hara was convicted on seven counts. Joining
Susan B. Anthony as the only two New Yorkers ever to be convicted of
illegal voting, he was fined $20,000, sentenced to 1,500 hours of
community service and disbarred, losing his livelihood. In 2009, when
his sentence was complete and the courts returned O’Hara’s law license,
the accompanying report stated: “Mr. O’Hara, accurately it appears,
claims that the machine went gunning for him.” It looked like right
would prevail at long last when Ken Thompson, who had pledged to finally
get justice for O’Hara, ousted Hynes. Thompson set up a Conviction
Review Unit, which has gone on to correct several miscarriages under
Hynes. O’Hara filed a petition with the unit, seeking exoneration. That
was in Jan. 2015, nearly two years ago. The assistant DA running the
unit, Mark Hale, a Hynes holdover, has done nothing but stall. Thompson
died last month, leaving Eric Gonzalez, another Hynes man, as acting
district attorney. Gonzalez’ duty is to honor Thompson’s promise,
correct Hynes’ miscarriage — and give O’Hara back his good name.
Daily News Asks the Brooklyn DA to Stop the Political Prosecution of John O'Hara
de Blasio Has No Strategy on the Homeless Crisis . . . Panic in City Hall . . . NY Post Fire the Commissioner
De Blasio’s homeless ‘strategy’ isn’t a strategy at all (NYP
Ed) It’s increasingly plain that Team de Blasio’s “strategy” on
homelessness amounts to . . . panic. Sunday’s Post broke the news of a
new de facto conversion of a hotel into a shelter on Madison Avenue, the
72-room MAve Hotel. Neighbors see a whole cluster of shelters opening
up, since the 12-story Latham Hotel around the corner on East 28th
Street is already a shelter, while the 416-unit Prince George Hotel next
door provides low-income housing for ex-homeless. The city’s spending
hundreds of thousands a month to house homeless in the MAve. Ironically,
another part of city government last year sued the principal owner,
Salim “Solly” Assa, for allegedly operating an illegal hotel on West
55th. After vowing to end the use of hotels as shelters, Mayor de
Blasio instead has tripled the number of homeless in hotels this
year. Meanwhile, City Hall is apparently trying to put homeless at the
head of the line for some affordable-housing units. Crain’s reports that
Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Vicki Been has been
calling developers who built affordable units under the state 421-a
program to bully them into going along. Under new rules the city issued
recently, 421-a units reserved as “community preference” are now to go
to homeless who once lived in that community. (The city says taxpayers
will help pay the rent if needed.) Landlords are sure to sue to stop
the bait-and-switch: They never signed up to run shelters, and their
regular tenants — in both market-rate and affordable units — would be
furious to have a homeless population thrust into their
buildings. Lilliam Barrios-Paoli told NY1 Noticias last
week that the mayor and homeless czar Steve Banks “don’t have a
long-term plan.” For decades a key city-government leader on
homelessness, Barrios-Paoli left Team de Blasio last year amid rumors
that she was furious at being ignored. We’ve long warned that the city
won’t turn the corner on homelessness as long as de Blasio insists on
leaving Banks in charge. Let’s hope the mayor will finally see the light
when his latest desperation measures fail.New
York City is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month housing
homeless families in the NoMad hotel, but simultaneously suing the
property’s owner for operating illegal and dangerous rentals, the Post reports. * Builders That Got Tax Breaks Must Set Aside Some
Units for Homeless, City Says (NYT) Moving
to reduce the number of New Yorkers in shelters, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
administration is requiring developers that got 421-a subsidies to give some
units to homeless people.* Hotel taking in homeless people is a fire
safety disaster (NYP) A Madison Avenue hotel the city uses to house
homeless families is flouting the city’s fire laws. Some rooms lack required sprinklers, there
are no fire safety directors, and a lobby fire exit has been bolted shut,
according to a source familiar with the hotel at 27th Street and Madison
Avenue.
Agent of the City Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Under Fed Investigation for Using Campaign for 1NY to Launder Senate Campaign Funds in 2014 is Working For Senate Campaigns Again Funded by Airbnb
De Blasio’s homeless ‘strategy’ isn’t a strategy at all (NYP
Ed) It’s increasingly plain that Team de Blasio’s “strategy” on
homelessness amounts to . . . panic. Sunday’s Post broke the news of a
new de facto conversion of a hotel into a shelter on Madison Avenue, the
72-room MAve Hotel. Neighbors see a whole cluster of shelters opening
up, since the 12-story Latham Hotel around the corner on East 28th
Street is already a shelter, while the 416-unit Prince George Hotel next
door provides low-income housing for ex-homeless. The city’s spending
hundreds of thousands a month to house homeless in the MAve. Ironically,
another part of city government last year sued the principal owner,
Salim “Solly” Assa, for allegedly operating an illegal hotel on West
55th. After vowing to end the use of hotels as shelters, Mayor de
Blasio instead has tripled the number of homeless in hotels this
year. Meanwhile, City Hall is apparently trying to put homeless at the
head of the line for some affordable-housing units. Crain’s reports that
Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Vicki Been has been
calling developers who built affordable units under the state 421-a
program to bully them into going along. Under new rules the city issued
recently, 421-a units reserved as “community preference” are now to go
to homeless who once lived in that community. (The city says taxpayers
will help pay the rent if needed.) Landlords are sure to sue to stop
the bait-and-switch: They never signed up to run shelters, and their
regular tenants — in both market-rate and affordable units — would be
furious to have a homeless population thrust into their
buildings. Lilliam Barrios-Paoli told NY1 Noticias last
week that the mayor and homeless czar Steve Banks “don’t have a
long-term plan.” For decades a key city-government leader on
homelessness, Barrios-Paoli left Team de Blasio last year amid rumors
that she was furious at being ignored. We’ve long warned that the city
won’t turn the corner on homelessness as long as de Blasio insists on
leaving Banks in charge. Let’s hope the mayor will finally see the light
when his latest desperation measures fail.New
York City is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month housing
homeless families in the NoMad hotel, but simultaneously suing the
property’s owner for operating illegal and dangerous rentals, the Post reports. * Builders That Got Tax Breaks Must Set Aside Some
Units for Homeless, City Says (NYT) Moving
to reduce the number of New Yorkers in shelters, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
administration is requiring developers that got 421-a subsidies to give some
units to homeless people.* Hotel taking in homeless people is a fire
safety disaster (NYP) A Madison Avenue hotel the city uses to house
homeless families is flouting the city’s fire laws. Some rooms lack required sprinklers, there
are no fire safety directors, and a lobby fire exit has been bolted shut,
according to a source familiar with the hotel at 27th Street and Madison
Avenue.
Agent of the City Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Under Fed Investigation for Using Campaign for 1NY to Launder Senate Campaign Funds in 2014 is Working For Senate Campaigns Again Funded by Airbnb
De Blasio not involved in state Senate races, but firm of 'agent of thecity' is (NYDN) Here
is an expanded version of the second item from my "Albany Insider"
column from Monday's editions: Mayor de Blasio has said he is not
getting involved in this year’s state Senate elections, but the firm of
one of his “agents of the city” is. A Super PAC created by Airbnb has so
far paid BerlinRosen, whose co-founder is de Blasio confidante Jonathan
Rosen, nearly $1 million for ads and mailers opposing Sen. Sue Serino
(R-Dutchess County) and supporting Sen. George Latimer (D-Westchester)
and James Gaughran, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Carl Marcellino
(R-Nassau County). Here is an expanded version of the second item from
my "Albany Insider" column from Monday's editions: Mayor de Blasio has
said he is not getting involved in this year’s state Senate elections,
but the firm of one of his “agents of the city” is. A Super PAC created
by Airbnb has so far paid BerlinRosen, whose co-founder is de Blasio
confidante Jonathan Rosen, nearly $1 million for ads and mailers
opposing Sen. Sue Serino (R-Dutchess County) and supporting Sen. George
Latimer (D-Westchester) and James Gaughran, who is challenging incumbent
Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Nassau County).
Big Money Covers Their Bet On Both Sides in the Fight to Control the State Senate
Some
companies, unions and trade groups are hedging their bets ahead of the
Nov. 8 election that will determine which party controls the state
Senate and contributing large amounts across Democratic and GOP lines, The Buffalo News reports. * Tycoons pump $13Minto super PACs to shape New York State legislative races (NYDN)
A group of 17 wealthy donors has poured more than $13.4 million into
four GOP-leaning super PACs in a bid to influence this year’s state
legislative races, a new report claims. The report from the activist
group Hedge Clippers showed that the bulk of the money - about $10.6
million - went to New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, a super PAC created
by the pro-charter school group StudentsFirstNY. Three other education
reform PACs were also recipients of donations from the group of 17, the
report found. Hedge Clippers’ report comes as a super PAC created by the
state teacher’s union, Fund For Great Public Schools, has spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few weeks to boost
Democratic efforts to take control of the state Senate.
City Spending Money Like A Drunken Sailor As Tax Revenues Fall
Greener eyeshades: Fiscalclouds on the de Blasio horizon (NYDN
Ed) Is the free-spending, hiring-happy de Blasio administration ready
for a potential economic downturn? A couple of admittedly small clouds
on the horizon force a reality check. City Council analysts noted a
decline in tax revenues between April and August — down 0.9% from the
same period last year. Meanwhile, September unemployment jumped up to
5.8% — up from 5.2% that month a year ago — even as the share of the
population in the labor force fell. Still, it’s the job of city budget
wonks to gird obsessively for the bad times even when the good are
rolling. That’s not happening nearly enough. Instead of being on notice
to demonstrate efficiency, agencies have been encouraged to spend. The
city’s hiring is surging to an anticipated target of 323,000 by next
summer — well above the pre-recession record set in 2008. As the
Citizens Budget Commission noted earlier this year, the de Blasio
Citywide Savings Program for is a paltry 0.6% of city-funded spending.* Nicole Gelinas writes in the Post that
Wall Street’s first increase in profit in four years is not flooding
the city’s coffers with cash, and it may not be enough to counteract the
de Blasio administration’s uptick in spending.
Only A Federal Arrests Will Get the Lead Out of NYCHA Apartments
Time to lead on lead: Nomore NYCHA excuses (NYDN
Ed) For years, the New York City Housing Authority has dodged its
obligation to protect its smallest tenants from toxic lead paint,
slipping through a loophole in safety rules. No more, if the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development keeps up its nerve with a
plan to force NYCHA and other housing authorities to prevent kids’
poisoning. As the Daily News revealed earlier this year, since 2010 city
health officials have identified at least 202 children living in NYCHA
apartments with dangerously elevated levels of lead in their blood —
poisoning associated with potentially irreversible damage to developing
brains. NYCHA Chair Shola Olatoye has until the end of Halloween to tell
the federal government what she thinks of the looming lead-poisoning
crackdown. Her bag is all out of tricks.
New
York City is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month housing
homeless families in the NoMad hotel, but simultaneously suing the
property’s owner for operating illegal and dangerous rentals, the Post reports.
The Schumer "You Call This A Campaign" Gets Almost Real for One Debate
During
a Sunday debate, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, and his GOP
challenger, Wendy Long, often appeared to be waging a proxy war for each
party’s presidential nominee and their records, The New York Times reports.
* Schumer is so confident he’ll be re-elected that he has steered $8
million from his campaign coffers to shore up other Democrats, a tactic
that may help him become the next Senate majority leader, the Post reports.
De Blasio not involved in state Senate races, but firm of 'agent of thecity' is (NYDN) Here
is an expanded version of the second item from my "Albany Insider"
column from Monday's editions: Mayor de Blasio has said he is not
getting involved in this year’s state Senate elections, but the firm of
one of his “agents of the city” is. A Super PAC created by Airbnb has so
far paid BerlinRosen, whose co-founder is de Blasio confidante Jonathan
Rosen, nearly $1 million for ads and mailers opposing Sen. Sue Serino
(R-Dutchess County) and supporting Sen. George Latimer (D-Westchester)
and James Gaughran, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Carl Marcellino
(R-Nassau County). Here is an expanded version of the second item from
my "Albany Insider" column from Monday's editions: Mayor de Blasio has
said he is not getting involved in this year’s state Senate elections,
but the firm of one of his “agents of the city” is. A Super PAC created
by Airbnb has so far paid BerlinRosen, whose co-founder is de Blasio
confidante Jonathan Rosen, nearly $1 million for ads and mailers
opposing Sen. Sue Serino (R-Dutchess County) and supporting Sen. George
Latimer (D-Westchester) and James Gaughran, who is challenging incumbent
Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Nassau County).
Some companies, unions and trade groups are hedging their bets ahead of the Nov. 8 election that will determine which party controls the state Senate and contributing large amounts across Democratic and GOP lines, The Buffalo News reports. * Tycoons pump $13Minto super PACs to shape New York State legislative races (NYDN) A group of 17 wealthy donors has poured more than $13.4 million into four GOP-leaning super PACs in a bid to influence this year’s state legislative races, a new report claims. The report from the activist group Hedge Clippers showed that the bulk of the money - about $10.6 million - went to New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, a super PAC created by the pro-charter school group StudentsFirstNY. Three other education reform PACs were also recipients of donations from the group of 17, the report found. Hedge Clippers’ report comes as a super PAC created by the state teacher’s union, Fund For Great Public Schools, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few weeks to boost Democratic efforts to take control of the state Senate.
City Spending Money Like A Drunken Sailor As Tax Revenues Fall
Greener eyeshades: Fiscalclouds on the de Blasio horizon (NYDN Ed) Is the free-spending, hiring-happy de Blasio administration ready for a potential economic downturn? A couple of admittedly small clouds on the horizon force a reality check. City Council analysts noted a decline in tax revenues between April and August — down 0.9% from the same period last year. Meanwhile, September unemployment jumped up to 5.8% — up from 5.2% that month a year ago — even as the share of the population in the labor force fell. Still, it’s the job of city budget wonks to gird obsessively for the bad times even when the good are rolling. That’s not happening nearly enough. Instead of being on notice to demonstrate efficiency, agencies have been encouraged to spend. The city’s hiring is surging to an anticipated target of 323,000 by next summer — well above the pre-recession record set in 2008. As the Citizens Budget Commission noted earlier this year, the de Blasio Citywide Savings Program for is a paltry 0.6% of city-funded spending.* Nicole Gelinas writes in the Post that Wall Street’s first increase in profit in four years is not flooding the city’s coffers with cash, and it may not be enough to counteract the de Blasio administration’s uptick in spending.
Only A Federal Arrests Will Get the Lead Out of NYCHA Apartments
Time to lead on lead: Nomore NYCHA excuses (NYDN
Ed) For years, the New York City Housing Authority has dodged its
obligation to protect its smallest tenants from toxic lead paint,
slipping through a loophole in safety rules. No more, if the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development keeps up its nerve with a
plan to force NYCHA and other housing authorities to prevent kids’
poisoning. As the Daily News revealed earlier this year, since 2010 city
health officials have identified at least 202 children living in NYCHA
apartments with dangerously elevated levels of lead in their blood —
poisoning associated with potentially irreversible damage to developing
brains. NYCHA Chair Shola Olatoye has until the end of Halloween to tell
the federal government what she thinks of the looming lead-poisoning
crackdown. Her bag is all out of tricks.
New
York City is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month housing
homeless families in the NoMad hotel, but simultaneously suing the
property’s owner for operating illegal and dangerous rentals, the Post reports.
The Schumer "You Call This A Campaign" Gets Almost Real for One Debate
During a Sunday debate, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, and his GOP challenger, Wendy Long, often appeared to be waging a proxy war for each party’s presidential nominee and their records, The New York Times reports. * Schumer is so confident he’ll be re-elected that he has steered $8 million from his campaign coffers to shore up other Democrats, a tactic that may help him become the next Senate majority leader, the Post reports.
What Does Bharara Know About Weiner's Emails As the FBI is in Crisis
Investigators from Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office slapped Weiner with a subpoena for his cell phone in September after it was revealed that he had allegedly sexted with a 15-year-old North Carolina girl. (Daily News) * STASI: Weiner MayDecide Winner... @lindastasi
Fredric U. Dicker @fud31 "The reality is that Mr. Comey’s Clinton probe has been a kid-glove exercise all along." A Fine FBI-Clinton Mess
Former Deputy Mayor Barrious-Paoli de Blasio Took Eye Off the Ball HOMELESS
Former deputy mayor rips de Blasio's handle on homelessness in the city (NYDN)
Ex-Deputy Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli blasted her old boss Mayor de
Blasio for not having a long-term vision to deal with homelessness — and
said she left the administration because she didn’t like the way it was
handling the issue. The former nun, who was well-respected among
advocates for the poor, said there is too much “immediatism” in the
administration when it comes to homelessness. “They are not seeing the
long term and they don't have a long-term plan,” she said in an
interview on NY1 Noticias in Spanish. Barrios-Paoli, who had been the
deputy mayor in charge of homelessness, stepped down last year citing
“personal reasons.” “I thought that the best thing for me was to
leave,” she said. Asked if she liked working with de Blasio, she added,
“There were some difficulties.” She chuckled when asked to elaborate,
then declined to say more. Meanwhile,
city Controller Scott Stringer demanded that de Blasio immediately
address what he termed “potentially dangerous conditions” at city
homeless shelters. In a letter to the heads of the homeless, health and
child welfare agencies, Stringer cites his finding that 82% of child
care workers at shelters didn’
t have criminal history checks. * Woman Who Once Ran Mayor's Homeless Initiatives Criticizes Mayor's Response to Homeless Crisis (NY1) * Coney Island A “Dumping Ground For Homeless Shelters” LocalsComplain In Protest to Proposed Shelter (Bensonhurt Bean)
t have criminal history checks. * Woman Who Once Ran Mayor's Homeless Initiatives Criticizes Mayor's Response to Homeless Crisis (NY1) * Coney Island A “Dumping Ground For Homeless Shelters” LocalsComplain In Protest to Proposed Shelter (Bensonhurt Bean)
Even de Blasio's Church-Based Solution to Homeless Problem Has Failed De Blasio’s church-based homeless solution fails to gain traction (NYP) Not
even divine intervention could help Mayor de Blasio with the homeless
crisis. More than a year after the mayor used the pending visit of Pope
Francis in a plan to create small homeless shelters at faith-based
facilities, the program has produced just 72 of the promised 500 beds,
The Post has learned. The Archdiocese of New York opened its first site
under the program, with a capacity of 44 beds, only in August, after
committing last year to 150, church officials say. While nine
faith-based groups initially signed up for contracts under the
initiative, known as “Opening Doors,” all but one have since jumped
ship, according to a source familiar with the program. “Knowing how
individual churches and synagogues operate — which are mostly
volunteer-led — they don’t really have the resources to commit to be a
full-service shelter,” said one source.
Update on Buffalo Billions Corruption
"Gov. Corruptocrat’s SolarCity boondoggle...where did the Buffalo Billion go?'' "Gov. Corruptocrat’s SolarCity boondoggle...where did the BuffaloBillion go?''
Update on Buffalo Billions Corruption
"Gov. Corruptocrat’s SolarCity boondoggle...where did the Buffalo Billion go?'' "Gov. Corruptocrat’s SolarCity boondoggle...where did the BuffaloBillion go?''
ACS Team de Blasio Took Eye Off the Ball ADMINISTRATION OF CHILDREN SERVICES
Another sign Team de Blasio took its eyes off ball at ACS
(NYP Ed) Call it another fire Team de Blasio was slow to put out: An
Independent Budget Office report this week flagged rising troubles at
the Administration for Children’s Services over the first two years of
the mayor’s time in office — right in the runup to the death of little
Zymere Perkins. Long-term, the report has better news: The city met the
goals set 10 years ago by the Bloomberg team in the wake of the 2006
death of Nixzmary Brown to increase the ACS investigative staff and
lower caseloads. But caseloads and caseworker resignations both began
rising in the first two de Blasio years. City Hall says it has turned
things around since — and, indeed, the IBO study only covers through
June. Even then, the average caseload had risen only to 10.6, below the
target of 12. But it’s still not clear that citywide numbers mean
everything’s up to snuff in every borough: A Bronx ACS worker argued
otherwise in Friday’s Post. And the IBO says The Bronx usually has
higher caseloads.
Remembering Maggi Peyton Peyton, a New York political aide for more than forty years, died this week at the age of 82
Maggi
Peyton, for more than 40 years the very model of the quintessential and
indispensable behind-the-scenes New York City political aide, died at
her Manhattan home on Wednesday, October 26, after a long illness. She
was 82 years old. One of the closest of all the campaign staffers who
helped advance the political fortunes (and manage the dispiriting
defeats) of the late feminist icon Bella Abzug through many hard-fought
state, city, and local election campaigns in the 1970s, Ms. Peyton was
serving at her death as Director of Arts & Culture in the office
of Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. Remarkably, Ms. Brewer
is the fourth Borough President for whom Ms. Peyton worked over the
course of some 35 years in city service, undoubtedly a New York City
record for political appointees. She had also served under former
Borough President Andrew Stein—working also as a special assistant when
he served as President of the New York City Council from 1986 through
1993—and more recently for Borough Presidents C. Virginia Fields and
Scott M. Stringer, for each of whom she worked for eight years. Ms.
Peyton specialized for these Manhattan officials in community relations,
staff management, the efforts to build community boards, and funding
for both public and private cultural organizations. Ms. Peyton, a
onetime ballet dancer and founding member of the Manhattan Women’s
Political Caucus, originally set out to create a consulting firm to
manage political campaigns and produce campaign literature. Her
earliest collaborators were young West Side Democratic insurgents
Richard Morris, later an advisor to Bill Clinton, and Richard N.
Gottfried, now the longest-serving member of the New York State
Assembly. Instead she went to work in 1975 for Congresswoman Bella S.
Abzug’s unprecedented campaign for the U. S. Senate, tirelessly
accompanying Bella over the next two years to all of the state’s 62
counties, and to innumerable late-night and weekend meetings, debates,
and campaign rallies. After Ms. Abzug narrowly lost the 1976 Democratic
primary, Ms. Peyton played the same role—that of chief personal aide to
the candidate— in the intensely fought but similarly unsuccessful Abzug
for Mayor campaign of 1977. She also worked informally for Ms. Abzug
in her failed races for the East Side Congressional seat vacated by
Mayor Ed Koch on the Upper East Side in 1978, and in a Congressional
comeback bid from her onetime Westchester community in 1982. Ms. Peyton
also worked closely through the years with former New York State
Lieutenant Governor Mary Anne Krupsak and former Carter White House
official Margaret (Midge) Costanza. In most of the campaigns she helped
manage, Ms. Peyton was a key part of history-making efforts, promoting
the first woman to run for the U. S. Senate from New York, the first to
seek the mayoralty, and the first to serve in the state’s second-highest
office. Famously tight-lipped about her bosses, politically
sophisticated, intensely loyal, unflappably calm, and a brilliant vote
counter in tight elections across the state, Ms. Peyton was also active
in the West Side political club Community Free Democrats, and as
president of the tenants’ association at Park West Village, her longtime
residence. In recent years, Ms. Peyton had been leading a battle to
prevent or limit the size of a nursing home tower proposed for a small
parking lot in front of her home at 784 Columbus Avenue. She was also a
founding and long-serving member of the board of the Bella Abzug
Leadership Institute (BALI), an organization specializing in training
and empowering middle school-to-college-age girls from around the
country, created by the late congresswoman’s daughter Liz. At her
death, Ms. Peyton was serving as BALI Treasurer. Born in Nashua, New
Hampshire, in 1934, Maggi Peyton attended Boston University and earned
her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Boston Conservatory. She was
married to the late J. Randolph Peyton, a singer who performed at the
New York City Opera, with the Alvin Ailey Chorus, and at Town Hall,
among other venues. She is survived by her two sons, J. Randolph
Peyton, Jr., and Sean Michael Peyton, along with Sean’s wife, Cheryl,
and two grandchildren, Avalon and Cassidy. Ms. Peyton was predeceased
by her daughter Allegra. A wake will be held Friday, October 28th, from
4pm to 8pm at Frank Campbell’s Funeral Home. Funeral and burial will
be private in Nashua, NH. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a
special fund in her honor at the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute, 105
Duane Street, #21C, NY NY 10007. This article was written
by Maggi Peyton’s longtime friend and co-worker, Harold Holzer, and a
collection of coworkers and friends of Peyton.
Is the The CFB is Ground Zero of the Federal Corruption Investigation? We Will Know Soon
CFB Cover-Up: Cannot Produce A Final Audit Because of PACs and Straw Donors As Commissioner Quits
Will de Blasio Pick A New Head of CFB to Shut Down an Investigation Of Himself and Use It to Hurt His Opponent
Will Mayor de Blasio leash the city’s campaign-finance watchdog?
(NYP) Rose Gill Hearn, who chairs the Campaign Finance Board, has
resigned, effective Dec. 31. So Mayor de Blasio gets to fill the seat —
when the board is still in the process of auditing his 2013 campaign,
even as his 2017 re-election campaign is gearing up. Now, the CFB has a
lot of power: It shifted the course of the 2013 mayoral race when it
shut down public funds for John Liu, de Blasio’s rival for left-wing
votes, over problems in Liu’s 2009 run to become city comptroller. We’ve
expressed our worries over the CFB’s independence before: The board’s
five members serve staggered five-year terms; the mayor and City Council
speaker each appoint two members who must be enrolled in different
parties. But enrollment doesn’t speak to actual loyalties — which means
that, over time, the board can be stacked. And now de Blasio will de
facto choose the next board chair in consultation with his ally, Speaker
Melissa Mark-Viverito. His lone appointment so far is Nancy Zauderer — a
registered Working Families Party voter who heads the CUNY faculty
union, the Professional Staff Congress. On Zauderer’s watch, the PSC
gave $5,000 to NYC Is Not For Sale — an outfit notable for spending over
$1.1 million to defeat Christine Quinn, de Blasio’s rival during the
2013 primaries. The CFB later fined the group $7,040 for failing to
report $70,000 in expenditures. Going back to 1999, the PSC has given
$108,400 to the WFP, which is also closely allied with the mayor. Also
of note: Last July, in a probe of the mayor’s relationship with his pet
nonprofit, The Campaign For One NY, the CFB let him skate. But federal
and state prosecutors are now on the case. So: Where is the board
headed? Its past chairs, such as Fr. Joseph O’Hare and Fritz Schwarz,
Jr. — each with long public careers working on behalf of New Yorkers —
were highly regarded as smart and independent. Bloomberg appointee Gill
Hearn had served as his Department of Investigation commissioner — and
even before taking that job had “the patina of absolute integrity,”
according to veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. After all,
she’d been a deputy chief in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern
District. In contrast, de Blasio appointed his campaign treasurer Mark
Peters to the DOI post. In other words, he prefers “watchdogs” of proven
loyalty.
It Takes A Crook to Know One Hank Baby51 Taking Taking the 5th in A Bid Rigging Investigation Lobbyists Sheinkopf Calls CFB's Hearn "Patina of Absolute Integrity" Fleeing Before the Feds Come Down on Campaign for 1NY She Helped Cover Up
“No matter what he does, he can’t win here,” said veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “Rose has the patina of absolute integrity. At a time when he’s under investigation, he’s going to name the replacement for an investigator. It doesn’t look good.”
Campaign Finance Board chief to resign (NYP) Rose Gill Hearn was appointed board chair by Mayor Bloomberg in December 2013, just days before de Blasio took office. In a written statement, she said her “increasingly heavy work schedule no longer permits me to devote the time warranted” for the board. A former federal prosecutor, Gill Hearn works full-time as a principal at Bloomberg Associates, a consulting firm founded by the former mayor. While her departure — effective on Dec. 31 — opens the door for de Blasio to appoint his own figurehead to the board, it also puts him in a delicate position. The Campaign Finance Board is still in the process of auditing de Blasio’s 2013 campaign. US Attorney Preet Bharara is also examining whether government favors were traded for donations to the mayor’s campaign and non-profits.* Independent expenditure committees have spent $5.42 million in this year’s state Senate general elections and supported candidates from both major parties at similar rates, with education groups dominating the spending, Politico New York reports. * Independent expenditure committees have spent $5.42 million in this year’s state Senate general elections and supported candidates from both major parties at similar rates, with education groups dominating the spending, Politico New York reports.
NYP's Gartland You Left Out Lobbyists Sheinkopf Record
Sheinkopf took the 5th when asked questions by the NY former state Inspector General Joseph Fisch about the AEG scandal
A Tale of Two CFBs: Albanese vs Campaign PAC NYCLASS, UFT'sUnited for the Future
Councilman Rubin Will Arrested Two and A Half Years Ago STILL NO TRIAL Wants Inmates to Vote
Councilman Rubin Will Arrested Two and A Half Years Ago STILL NO TRIAL Wants Inmates to Vote
Councilman facing theft charges sponsors bill allowing inmates absentee ballots (NYP) A legislator facing charges for allegedly stealing money from a nonprofit
sponsored a bill that passed the City Council Thursday requiring the
jail system to provide absentee-voting ballots to inmates awaiting
trial. Wills himself could be one of them. He’s accused of swiping
$33,000 from a nonprofit and of filing bogus financial-disclosure
reports. The councilman, who has served since 2011, insists he didn’t
commit any crimes.***Ruben Wills, Queens city councilman, busted in corruptioninvestigation (NYDN, 5/8/2014) *
City Council members sang what’s known as the black national anthem
following the Pledge of Allegiance – part of an ongoing protest against
racial injustice and police brutality that has also seen some pols
refuse to stand for the pledge, the Daily News reports.
NYCHA Wastes Sandy Repair Funds On Consultants, Hotels and Limos
NYCHA Wastes Sandy Repair Funds On Consultants, Hotels and Limos
Council Blast Mayor for Wasting Sandy Funds Where Was the Council Oversight When the Funds Were Being Wasted?
Mayor
de Blasioadmits he can't fulfill promise to complete construction on
thousands of homesravaged by Hurricane Sandy before end of year (NYDN) * Lawmakers blast de Blasio officials over botched Sandy project (NYP)
“I honestly don’t know how you can sit here with a straight face after
blowing billions of dollars and ask the City Council for more money when
you can’t even meet your own deadlines,” Councilman Eric Ulrich
(R-Queens) told a panel of administration officials at a City Hall
hearing. “We’re talking about people who use
their positions of trust as elected officials to guarantee that a
certain result occurred, corruptly, in exchange for thiRobin Levine, a
spokeswoman for Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, slammed the
administration for trying to shift the $500 million without properly
notifying the council, which approves the city budget each year.ngs of
value.” * de
Blasioadmits he can't fulfill promise to complete construction on
thousands of homesravaged by Hurricane Sandy before end of year (NYDN) Mayor admits homes damaged by Sandy won't be rebuilt by end of 2016 as promised * *
State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott released a report saying
the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities was saddled with
“systemic mismanagement” that failed to stop caregivers from stealing
from the disabled, the Times Union reports. * De Blasio’s $500 million Sandy-rebuilding fiasco (NYP) * What Bill didn’t build: De Blasio admits the post-Sandy promises fall short(NYDN Ed)
Sandy Rebuild Fund Broke Repairs Will Not Finished by End of the Year As the Mayor Promised
Anna Sanders @AnnaESanders De
Blasio has now criticized both the previous administration for current
Build it Back delays, as well as homeowners who program helps.
As True News Reported Yesterday the NYP The Mayor's New "Safe Space" Weekly Interviews is Fishy Attempt to Spin the News
Gearing Up for Re-Election de Blasio Weekly on NY1: Spin City? What About Equal Time for His Opponents and None Supporters? What About U. S. Attorney Bharara Investigation of the Mayor?
Why Does the Press Not Hold de Blasio's Feet to the Fire Like They Have Past Mayors? Instead Print His Press Release Spin
Justice Dept.Shakes Up Inquiry Into Eric Garner Chokehold Case(NYT)
Albany Pay Raise Update
The Daily News criticizes Albany lawmakers for attempting to postpone the legislative pay raise decision until after the election and writes that if lawmakers want a raise, they should pass real ethics reform and publically make the case for the raise.
Albany Pay Raise Update
The Daily News criticizes Albany lawmakers for attempting to postpone the legislative pay raise decision until after the election and writes that if lawmakers want a raise, they should pass real ethics reform and publically make the case for the raise.
Dear Daily News: the UFT Which Broke the Law With It PAC United for the Future is In the Bag for De Blasio in 2017
Michael
Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said he
doesn’t believe de Blasio gets the credit he deserves, although he
stopped short of saying the UFT would endorse him for reelection, the Daily News reports. * Teachers union leader backs up de Blasio despite leader of Transport Workers Union blasting the mayor (NYDN)
Arrest Soon: Washington FBI Vs NY FBI
NYC BOE Commissioner Subpoenaed by State BOE On His Claims of Voter Fraud
Elections official subpoenaed after his claims of voter fraud (NYP) tate investigators have questioned the Manhattan Democratic representative on the city’s Board of Elections, who was caught on a secret video
claiming Mayor de Blasio’s municipal ID program was contributing to
“all kinds of fraud.” The state Board of Elections investigative unit
subpoenaed Manhattan Commissioner Al Schulkin to explain his bombshell
comments, recorded by an undercover muckraker for the conservative
Project Veritas. In the video, Schulkin also talks about people in
minority neighborhoods being bused to different polling sites, while
questioning where “thousands of absentee ballots” originated. “It’s
absurd. There is a lot of fraud. Not just voter fraud, all kinds of
fraud … This is why I get more conservative as I get older,” Schulkin
said on the videotape. Shulkin was interviewed Tuesday by state
investigators, sources said. He could not be reached for comment. But
sources familiar with the subpoena said the commissioner was not happy
about being summoned and grilled. Mayor de Blasio has called for
Schulkin’s resignation, saying he was spreading falsehoods about the
city’s ID program.
BOE Manhattan Democrat Commissioner Says ID Programs Opens Up Voting Fruad
The
Manhattan Democratic representative on the New York City Board of
Elections was caught on a secret video slamming Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
municipal ID program as contributing to “all kinds of fraud,” including
voter fraud, the Post writes. “He
gave out ID cards, de Blasio. That’s in lieu of a driver’s license, but
you can use it for anything,” Commissioner Alan Schulkin said in the
undercover video recorded by a muckraker for conservative nonprofit
Project Veritas. “But they didn’t vet people to see who they really
are. Anybody can go in there and say, ‘I am Joe Smith, I want an ID
card,’ ” he said in the bombshell tape. “It’s absurd. There is a lot of
fraud. Not just voter fraud, all kinds of fraud . . . This is why I get
more conservative as I get older.” Schulkin didn’t hold back to the
undercover journalist, who identified herself as a political consultant
at a United Federation of Teachers holiday party on Dec. 16. Not
realizing he was being recorded, he broke with his own party’s position
that voter-ID requirements hurt the poor and minorities. Schulkin said
he backed the IDs to prevent rampant fraud. “The law says you can’t ask
for anything. Which they really should be able to do,” Schulkin said,
according to a copy of the video and transcript provided to The Post.
“I believe they should be able to do it,” he added. The videographer
asked point blank, “You think they should have voter ID in New York?”
Schulkin responded, “Voters? Yeah, they should ask for your ID. I think
there is a lot of voter fraud.” UPDATE "he should really step down” — @BilldeBlasio re: @BOENYC commissioner who spoke about voter fraud & @IDNYC, via @BrianLehrer
Update Assemblyman demands elections official resign for linking minorities to voter fraud (NYP) Bronx Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda said Schulkin said the comments make Schulkin unfit to be a Democratic representative on the elections board. “His comments about alleged voter fraud coming from Black, Latino Asian and Muslim communities reeks of racism and is factually incorrect,” said Sepulveda. Schulkin was appointed in 2014 with the support of Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito, and Manhattan Council members Corey Johnson, Margaret Chin, Mark Levine, and Ydanis Rodriguez, sources said. Manhattan Democratic Party leader Keith Wright supported another candidate, but lost out in the power struggle with the Council leadership , sources said. Mark Viverito issued a terse statement saying Schulkin’s comments are “uninformed opinions have no basis in fact.” A City Hall official said Schulkin is not likely to be reappointed when his term is up at year’s end. Schulkin addressed the controversy during a Board of Elections Committee meeting on Tuesday. He said he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body and claimed his secretly recorded videotaped comments were taken out of context.
Arrest Soon: Washington FBI Vs NY FBI
Justice Department to charge cop in death of Eric Garner
(NYP) “It’s going to happen sooner than later,” the source said of an
indictment. “Washington wants to indict him.” Federal investigators in
Brooklyn were replaced by DC counterparts
because of their reluctance to bring charges, the source said. The New
York feds are privately seething. They accused their Beltway colleagues
of trying to “make an example out of Pantaleo”
at any cost, said one source familiar with the case. “We already … came
to a conclusion which they didn’t like. It’s truly disgraceful what
they’re doing,” the source said.* Justice Dept. eyes a political prosecution in Garner case
(NYP) * The Justice Department replacing the team investigating the
death of Eric Garner was the strongest signal yet that federal officials
would seek an indictment, but it also pushed the long-stalled inquiry
into uncharted legal waters, The New York Times reports.
* The NYPD sergeant who fatally shot emotionally disturbed Bronx woman
Deborah Danner last week may have been in a position where he could have
retreated when she attacked him with a baseball bat, the Journal reports.
Justice Department Sitting On Garner Chokehold Case Shakes Up Inquiry
Justice Dept. Shakes Up Inquiry Into Eric Garner Chokehold Case (NYT) The
agency replaced its team after a dispute over whether to bring civil
rights charges against the New York police officer who used a fatal
chokehold on Mr. Garner in 2014. The U.S. Justice Department has
replaced the New York team of agents and lawyers investigating the death
of Eric Garner, which could jump-start the stalled case and put the
government back on track to seeking criminal charges * Eric Garner chokehold case given over to new investigating team at Justice Department (NYDN) * Re-upping... Lawyer for cop in #EricGarner case warns DOJ staff change could be grounds for "selective prosecution" argument
Another BP Who Thinks He Has Power Inside the NYPD
Another BP Who Thinks He Has Power Inside the NYPD
Community leader boasted about snagging favor from future top cop (NYP)
A Borough Park community leader bragged on a taped phone call how he
pulled some strings to get future top cop James O’Neill to transfer a
friendly lieutenant back to the neighborhood, The Post has learned.
Community Board 12 Chairman Yidel Perlstein wanted Michael Andreano
returned to Borough Park’s 66th Precinct from the 60th in Brighton
Beach, where the cop had been shipped following his promotion.
Perlstein, speaking in Yiddish, describes in the secretly recorded
conversation how he approached NYPD Assistant Chief Steven Powers at a
September 2015 breakfast meeting in Williamsburg and asked that Andreano
be moved. Perlstein claims that he offered Powers dinner at a local
kosher steakhouse to grease the wheels for the personnel move, with
Powers then talking to O’Neill, who was the NYPD’s chief of department
at the time and happened to be at the meeting. “I told Powers, ‘I will
take you out to The Loft for supper,’ ” Perlstein says on the
recording. “So I told Powers, go over to O’Neill, to tell him to make
an exception, to have Andreano back. So Powers and others went over to
O’Neill and made the request to O’Neill and O’Neill said, ‘No problem,
permission granted,’ with a big smile on his face.
NYC BOE Commissioner Subpoenaed by State BOE On His Claims of Voter Fraud
BOE Manhattan Democrat Commissioner Says ID Programs Opens Up Voting Fruad
Update Assemblyman demands elections official resign for linking minorities to voter fraud (NYP) Bronx Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda said Schulkin said the comments make Schulkin unfit to be a Democratic representative on the elections board. “His comments about alleged voter fraud coming from Black, Latino Asian and Muslim communities reeks of racism and is factually incorrect,” said Sepulveda. Schulkin was appointed in 2014 with the support of Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito, and Manhattan Council members Corey Johnson, Margaret Chin, Mark Levine, and Ydanis Rodriguez, sources said. Manhattan Democratic Party leader Keith Wright supported another candidate, but lost out in the power struggle with the Council leadership , sources said. Mark Viverito issued a terse statement saying Schulkin’s comments are “uninformed opinions have no basis in fact.” A City Hall official said Schulkin is not likely to be reappointed when his term is up at year’s end. Schulkin addressed the controversy during a Board of Elections Committee meeting on Tuesday. He said he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body and claimed his secretly recorded videotaped comments were taken out of context.
Another Lobbyist Capalino de Blasio Pay to Play Fake Bid Central Park Bathhouse Contract Has Cause A Lawsuit
De Blasio ethics stench hovers over Central Park boathouse (NYP) A
restaurateur who lost out on the concession to run the Loeb Boathouse
in Central Park — even though his offer was $19.5 million higher than
the winner — is now suing the city, charging that he lost out to a
bidder who should never have been involved in the process because he
donated to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York. Robert
Towers, who once ran the Bryant Park Grill, is suing the city to void
the contract awarded to longtime Loeb Boathouse operator Dean Poll. The
lakeside restaurant is among the city’s most popular wedding venues.
Towers says in his Manhattan civil suit that Poll should have been
disqualified from bidding for the 15-year concession, largely because he
donated $10,000 to the mayor’s nonprofit, which is now shuttering amid
an ethics probe, in what the state Board of Elections called a potential
conflict of interest. The Post could not find a record of Poll donating
to The Campaign for One New York, but he did give $10,000 to the New
York State Democratic Campaign Committee in October 2014. The State
Board of Elections said in a January document that Poll’s donation to
the committee may be a conflict of interest because it was made at the
mayor’s behest while Poll had business before the city. Under city laws
Poll “would not have been permitted to contribute more than $400…to the
mayor directly,” according to the Board of Elections. “Dean Poll’s
donation to Mayor de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York can be
characterized as one made to ‘pay-to-play’ to” continue running the
Central Park landmark. Poll’s hiring of James F. Capalino Associates, a
lobbying firm linked to de Blasio, coincided with the bid renewal
process in late 2015 and early 2016, the suit says. That retention was
prohibited by state law because Poll had a pending bid before the city
at the time, according to court papers.m The Parks Department used
“changed selection criteria” that “benefitted only Dean Poll” by
downplaying his history of labor violations and underreported revenue.
The Parks Department told Towers that Poll was the winning bidder even
though Poll only offered a minimum $19.2 million in fees over 15 years
to the city while Towers proposed $38.8 million.
Look for A Deal Between Cuomo and Lawmakers to Raise Pay and Pass Another Weak Ethics Bill
Gov.
Andrew Cuomo said his first priority when lawmakers return to Albany in
January will be to pass additional ethics reforms, particularly ones
limiting the outside income of state lawmakers,the Times Union reports.While New Yorkers Have Stop Voting Helped By Its Repressive Voting Laws, Its Dead keep Voting
The Post after seeing the story last week of
an irate Queens woman, Michelle Dimino, who was getting absentee ballot
for her dead father, who died in 2012. Still, a city Department of
Investigations probe of the 2013 elections found that at least 63
ineligible voters were still in the voter registration books at polling
sites. DOI undercover probers were able to “cast a vote” in the names of
61 of the 63 ineligible voters — including 39 dead people, 14 convicted
felons, and eight non residents. The BOE declined to discuss its
procedures for purging dead voters. City Comptroller Scott Stringer said
the examples of dead voters on the rolls “ raise important flags” and
“are emblematic of the incompetence of the agency.” He’s currently
auditing the BOE.
A Bill That Will Never Pass Will Allow Recall of Pols After Felony Charges LOL
Bill would allow for recall of indicted politicians like Mangano (NYDN) After
being indicted on federal corruption charges last week, Nassau County
Executive Edward Mangano resisted immediate calls to resign by Nassau
County state Senate Republicans. But he may have had no choice if a bill
passed the Senate this year had become law. The bill would allow the
public to seek a recall election of elected officials—including county
executives—if they are indicted on felony charges related to their
public offices or convicted of a misdemeanor. * Cuomo
raised eyebrows at a fundraiser for state Senate Democrats in Manhattan
on Tuesday by saying he would oppose fellow Democrats who aren’t on
board with his socially progressive, fiscally conservative agenda, the Daily News reports.
GOP Running Against de Blasio in Effort to Remain in Control of the Senate
Republicans are bombarding voters in Nassau County and the Hudson Valley with TV ads and mailers linking Democratic candidates to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in an effort to hold onto their control of the state Senate, the Post reports. * GOP campaigns on unpopular de Blasio in battle for state Senate (NYP) Embattled Republicans are banking on an old foe — Mayor de Blasio — to help them in this year’s state Senate races. The local GOP is bombarding voters with TV ads and mailers linking Democratic candidates to Hizzoner in an all-out effort to hold onto their tenuous control of the chamber. In the final days of campaigning, de Blasio is expected be featured as a bogeyman in a half-dozen contested races in Nassau County, LI, and the Hudson Valley, GOP sources said. * Hedge fund billionaires, public school teachers, developers, hospitals and New York City landlords are the financial backbone of of the political action committees lined up to influence which party controls the state Senate, The Buffalo News reports. * The arrest of GOP Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has many Democratic leaders dreaming of a countywide sweep, particularly because their party has a slight voter registration advantage, the Times reports. * After never headlining a fundraiser for state Senate Democrats during his nearly six years as the state’s top Democrat, Cuomo has practically become a campaign carnival barker for their candidates, The New York Times reports.
GOP Running Against de Blasio in Effort to Remain in Control of the Senate
Republicans are bombarding voters in Nassau County and the Hudson Valley with TV ads and mailers linking Democratic candidates to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in an effort to hold onto their control of the state Senate, the Post reports. * GOP campaigns on unpopular de Blasio in battle for state Senate (NYP) Embattled Republicans are banking on an old foe — Mayor de Blasio — to help them in this year’s state Senate races. The local GOP is bombarding voters with TV ads and mailers linking Democratic candidates to Hizzoner in an all-out effort to hold onto their tenuous control of the chamber. In the final days of campaigning, de Blasio is expected be featured as a bogeyman in a half-dozen contested races in Nassau County, LI, and the Hudson Valley, GOP sources said. * Hedge fund billionaires, public school teachers, developers, hospitals and New York City landlords are the financial backbone of of the political action committees lined up to influence which party controls the state Senate, The Buffalo News reports. * The arrest of GOP Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has many Democratic leaders dreaming of a countywide sweep, particularly because their party has a slight voter registration advantage, the Times reports. * After never headlining a fundraiser for state Senate Democrats during his nearly six years as the state’s top Democrat, Cuomo has practically become a campaign carnival barker for their candidates, The New York Times reports.
Fredric U. Dicker @fud31 Senior
state Dem: "Cuomo's campaigning for Senate Dems on L.I. is really
campaigning from himself - to avoid a 2018 Schneiderman primary.''
With the IDC Strong Cuomo Covers His Ass With Democrats
Cuomo
is slated to headline a rally Monday on behalf of two Democratic state
Senate candidates in Nassau County, and sources said Cuomo is expected
to make more endorsements in contested state Senate races, the Daily News’ Kenneth Lovett reports.
Blasio Was Elected With Less Than 5% of New York City's Registered Voters
New
York's Falling Voter Participation Rate is A Canary in the Coal Mine
Warning for Our Failing City and Democracy 2013 Was the Lowest Turnout
Since Women Given Right to Vote in 1918 . .200,000 Votes Less Than
2009. Only 282,344 New Yorkers voted in the 2013 primary for de Blasio.
That is out of 3,222,468 registered democratic voters 8%, in what
everyone knows is the real election in NYC. If you look at
the 4,727,307 registered NYC voters then de Blasio became the mayor with
just 5% of the voters voting for him. de Blasio Was Elected Public
Advocate in 2009 With Just 4.4% of the Democrat Vote or Less than 1.7%
of the City's Residences In the 2005 primary runoff Comptroller
John Liu received 127,173 or just 4% of the registered Democrats in the
city (3,177,740) in the runoff. De Blasio did a little better with 138,
736, he got 4.4% of the city's democratic voters. John Liu was elected
with just 2.7% of all the city's registered voters casting their vote
for him. New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low * What In A Mandate? worry--50% drop in primary turnout since '89 * NYC voter turnout stinks: report(NYDN * New York Ranked 42 of 50 in
Voting Age Turnout 50.7% Mayor O’Dwyer election in 1941, which took
place one month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor received more
than a million more votes than de Blasio * Forty Years of Freefall in New York Voter Turnout (Gotham Gazette)
The Assembly Started A PAC This Year To Protect Their Incumbents, Both the Dems and GOP Senate Parties Have PAC to Protect Their Incumbents
Council Speaker Mark-Viverito Being Sued for Racial Discrimination
Cuomo did worse than de Blasio in New York City Cuomo Got 1.9 million votes —
about a million less than when he was first elected four years ago.
Also, Remington confirms tough gun laws led to its expansion out of
state. Just 18 percent of the state’s 10.8 million registered voters
actually voted for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who beat Republican Rob Astorino
by 13 points and he only got 743,679 votes in New York City, compared to
de Blasio’s 795,679 votes in 2013, the Daily News’ Ken Lovett reports: *Steve Cohen's words about de Blasio 'mandate' come back to haunt Gov. Cuomo * NY breaks lowest voter turnout record in governors race(NYP) New
York voters shattered a record in Tuesday’s elections — but no one’s
going to be bragging about it. This record is for the lowest turnout in
a New York gubernatorial election in the modern era. Only 3.7 million
people bothered to go to the polls — the fewest since the state Board of
Elections began keeping precise tallies in the 1970s. That means only
about one-third of the state’s 10.8 million active voters filled out
ballots to re-elect Gov. Cuomo.* Gov. Andrew Cuomo won re-election with what is probably the fewest number of votes of any New York governor since Franklin Roosevelt in 1930 * The Post’s Bob McManus notes that Cuomo racked up thefewest votes recorded by a winning gubernatorial candidate in New York since FDR in 1930, but that he still was in “the catbird seat” after the election * New York’s Miserable Voter Turnout Isn’t an Accident (NYT)Incompetent Albany politicians like the system just the way it is.
The Assembly Started A PAC This Year To Protect Their Incumbents, Both the Dems and GOP Senate Parties Have PAC to Protect Their Incumbents
Assembly Democrats plot to back incumbents in primaries (NYP) It’s
going to be almost impossible to unseat a Democratic legislator in the
state Assembly under a plan being hatched by Speaker Carl Heastie, The
Post has learned. Heastie intends...* A shift by the state Assembly
Democrats’ campaign arm could give the
chamber’s leadership greater sway by increasing its ability to assist
lawmakers facing difficult primary election challenges.* Assembly Democratic fund to help fight primary challenges (TU) * An
independent expenditure group recently set up by education reform
advocates associated with StudentsFirstNY has raised $1.75 million over
the past week to pour into New York’s November elections—and is likely
to help Senate Republicans, Crain’s reports: *Charter-schools group poised to aid Senate GOP
WFP & Lobbyists Campaign Consultants Have Caused the Walmartization of NY's Politics . . . Using the Wal-Mart Business Model to Win Campaigns and Drive Out the Competition
NYC
does not have a single Walmart because of the WFP and their friends in
the progressive movement protesting the company unfair business
practices. The protesters accuse Wal-mart of bulk purchasing and
corporate financing to sell merchandise at low costs in order to drive
competitors out of the market. WFP says the Wal-Mart's business model
pushes mom and pop business out of the market creating an economic
monopoly. It is now clear that less than a dozen lobbyists political
consultants has use the Wal-Mart unfair business model to take over NY's
politics by using unfair 2009 the WFP Data and Field model to give them
and their candidates a competitive advantages in campaigns. In 2013
after the Citizen United SC ruling these same lobbyists consultants used
PACs like NYCLASS, UFT's United for the Future and the Developers Jobs
for NY
Council Speaker Mark-Viverito Being Sued for Racial Discrimination
Mark-Viverito wanted to replace city manager with Spanish speaker: suit (NYP) A
black housing-project manager in The Bronx claims she was the victim of
a witch hunt because City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
demanded a Spanish speaker in the post. A fuming Viverito summoned
Allison Williams and others to a meeting last year, allegedly asking the
New York Housing Authority employee, “How are you handling your
Spanish- speaking residents at Mill Brook Houses?” When NYCHA
supervisors explained they use a bank of certified translators provided
by the authority, Viverito burst out, “That’s unacceptable!” while
slamming her hands on the desk, Williams charges in a new Manhattan
Federal Court lawsuit. The speaker “proceeded to state that she was very
unhappy with the management of the Mill Brook Houses, and wanted to
replace the current manager with a ‘Spanish manager,’ ” according to
court papers. Williams, who still runs the Mill Brook Houses, is suing
Viverito, the city, the NYCHA and others for creating a hostile work
environment, taking away her support staff and leaving her riddled with
anxiety. Williams is seeking unspecified damages. The city said it will
review the complaint. The NYCHA said it doesn’t assign managers “based
on ethnic or racial demographics of developments.”
Cuomo Signs Airbnb Bill Company Faces Up to $7500 Fine Airbnb Files Lawsuit Against Gov AG
Half of NYC’s Airbnb listings are illegal under new law (NYP)
Airbnb Sues OverNew Law Regulating New York Rentals (NYT)
While the Hotel Industry Push Cuomo to Sign the New Airbnb Law the Company Does the Most Damages In Gentrification Neighbors
Airbnb Attacks Brooklyn Gentrification Neighborhoods Increasing Tenant Push out Taking Affordable House Apts Off the Market
Airbnb blamed for rising housing costs in NYC - USA TODAY
NYP is Still Fighting for Airbnb Egged On By Mime Manhattan Institute
NYP is Still Fighting for Airbnb Egged On By Mime Manhattan Institute
Airbnb ruling proof NYC is unprepared for 21st century business (NYP) Jared Meyer, a Manhattan Institute fellow, writes in the Post that
the governor’s signing of an anti-Airbnb bill last week sends the
message that New York is closed for business, and argues that Airbnb
isn’t the culprit of a decades-long struggle with high rents.
In Exchange for Contracts Singh Paid for Mangano Trips Hired His Wife What Did He Do for de Blasio?
Ed Mangano will not resign, calls ‘pay-for-play’ charges nonsense (NYP) Nassau
County’s top elected official enjoyed free Caribbean vacations and a
Brookstone massage chair — while his wife raked in $450,000 for a
no-show job as a “food taster” — in a pay-for-play scheme, the feds said
Thursday. County Executive Ed Mangano was arrested Thursday morning
with his wife, Linda, and Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto. The
two pols allegedly raked in graft in exchange for doling out lucrative
contracts and underwriting $20 million in loans to local restaurateur
Harendra Singh. “This is not just, ‘I am your friend, let me do this
for you.’ This is, ‘In my capacity as county executive, as an executive
of the town of Oyster Bay, I am doing this in exchange for something
better,’ ” said US Attorney Robert Capers. Singh would ply Mangano and
his family with lavish trips and pricey gadgets while making sure
Venditto was squired around town in a limo and given a free party room
at his eateries, the feds and sources said. Singh also gave Linda
Mangano the no-show job at a restaurant in Queens, keeping her on the
payroll between April 2010 and August 2014, prosecutors said. In
exchange, Singh was given food contracts worth hundreds of thousands of
dollars and got the town of Oyster Bay to guarantee four loans he
received from a bank and a private financing company, the 13-count,
19-page indictment says. On Thursday, the feds raided Mangano’s home,
recovering a few of the items Singh allegedly gave the family in
exchange — including an ergonomic massage chair and a more than $7,000
watch. The charges against Mangano and Venditto include conspiracy to
commit federal program bribery and honest-services fraud. If convicted,
they face up to 20 years behind bars for each honest-services fraud
charge. The three were also charged with obstructing justice for
allegedly concocting false stories with Singh in to hide their
dealings. Mangano faces up to 20 years for an extortion charge.
Venditto and Linda Mangano face up to five years for making false
statements.* Once Again, a No-Show Job Plays a Role in a New YorkGraft Case (NYT)
Daily News, Newsday Demands Mangano Resign
Corrupt to the core: The sordid case of NassauCounty Executive Ed Mangano and Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto
(NYDN Ed) The documented bribery started just three months into
Mangano’s term, on April 9, 2010, when Linda Mangano got her first
paycheck for a nonexistent job from restaurateur Harendra Singh (who is
cooperating with the feds).She would wind up pocketing more than
$450,000 for work as a “food taster.” Besides the paychecks, Singh paid
for Mangano vacations from Niagara Falls to the Caribbean, a $7,304
wristwatch, a $3,000 massage chair, a $2,000 desk chair and even
hardwood flooring in the Manganos’ bedroom. In return, prosecutors
allege, Mangano and Venditto greased Singh with government-backed loan
guarantees from Town of Oyster Bay and food services contracts with the
county — including supplying bread and rolls to the county jail. As they
await trial and possible prison time, Mangano and Venditto, loyal cogs
in Boss Joe Mondello’s Nassau GOP machine, must resign — and give
government on Long Island a fighting chance to clean itself up.
Meantime, Mr. and Mrs. Mangano should be sure to enjoy their hardwood
floors. The floors where they could well be heading are made of cold
concrete. * Newsweek writes
that Mangano and Venditto should resign because they can’t fulfill
their duties as they contend with federal charges of corruption, which
Newsweek calls stunning “only in the pettiness of the gifts allegedly
taken.”
NYT See Mangano Arrest As A Way to Win A Democrat Majority in the Senate
Nassau County Executive’s Arrest Raises Democratic Hopes of State Senate Gains (NYT)
NYT See Mangano Arrest As A Way to Win A Democrat Majority in the Senate
Nassau County Executive’s Arrest Raises Democratic Hopes of State Senate Gains (NYT)
The Conflict of Interest Board Which OK deB Campaign for 1NY Slush Fund Under Fed Investigation OKs City Vehicles for Mayor's Personal Trips
Interlocking-Directorates of the Campaign for 1NY PAC Call for An Investigation
- The mayor appoints 50% of the Campaign Finance Board
- The Council Speaker appoints 50% of the Campaign Finance Board
- Team de Blasio elected Mark- Viverito Speaker
- The mayor appoints 50% of the Conflict of Interests Board
- The Council Speaker appoints
True News Connect the CFB, Singh and Mangano Stories to Conclude de Blasio's In Deep Trouble
The Feds Make A Case Against de Blaio
Two donors are now cooperating with the investigation, several people with knowledge of the inquiry said. Investigators recently secured the assistance of Harendra Singh, owner of Water’s Edge restaurant in Queens, who has been indicted on unrelated federal fraud and bribery charges. Mr. Singh had met with senior officials in City Hall about issues involving his restaurant, and was close to resolving them when he was arrested last year, two people with knowledge of the inquiry said. The second donor, Jonah Rechnitz, has pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges and has been providing information in the fund-raising inquiry and other cases, according to officials and court records. Information from Mr. Rechnitz, a real estate developer who sought the mayor’s help for his business, has led to unrelated charges against three senior police officials, a veteran municipal union leader and a financier.
More on Dark Pool Corrupt Consultant Who Will Have to Register As Lobbyists
Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund
The Feds Are Investigating de Blasio's Slush Fund Campaign for One NY Which Caused A Shadow Govt
New Yorkers Cannot Vote Early and 95% Don't Qualify For Absentee Ballots Have A Board of Election's Which Allow the Dead to Vote
Elections board won’t stop sending dead man’s family absentee ballots
(NYP) Queens resident Michelle Dimino has a simple request for the
city’s Board of Elections: Please remove my late dad from the voter
rolls. Dimino’s father, Anthony Baldomir, died on Oct. 4, 2012. But
according to the board’s records, he could vote in the Nov. 8
presidential election.
NYSTU Breaking the Election Law By Coordinating Its PAC and Political Operation
NYSTU Breaking the Election Law By Coordinating Its PAC and Political Operation
GOP head accuses state teachers’ union of violating election laws
(NYP) In a filing obtained by The Post, GOP chair Ed Cox charged that
NYSUT, the state’s largest teachers’ union, and its campaign arms have
exceeded contribution limits to state Senate Democrats and also share
staff, which violates the law. A new law that took effect in August
states that there must be a firewall of separation between PACS and
groups making independent expenditures. Yet the Fund for Great Public
Schools, which claims to be an independent political committee, has
connections to NYSUT’s PAC, known as VOTE-COPE, according to Cox. Andrew
Pallotta is listed as the treasurer of both the PAC and the Fund for
Great Public Schools, according to filings viewed by The Post. Both
groups also share the same address, 800 Troy-Schenectady Rd,. in Latham,
N.Y. outside Albany. Since Pallotta controls the PAC, he is barred
from deciding how the independent expenditure committee spends its money
and on whom. Cox said that both Pallotta and NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn
may be crossing the line. “The operational influence and control
exercised by Andrew Pallotta and Carl Korn and the capacity in which he
serves each entity strongly suggest the activities of the Fund for Great
Public Schools constitute `coordination’ under NYS election law,” Cox
said in the complaint. Korn has been quoted as speaking for all three
groups– the union, the PAC, and the independent expenditure group, Cox
pointed out. “The conduct of NYSUT, VOTE_COPE and the Fund for Great
Public Schools clearly amounts to coordination and runs afoul of Section
14-107 of the NYS election law,” Cox said.* Wal-Mart Heir Gives $500K To Education Reform Super PAC
(YNN) One of the heirs to retail giant Wal-Mart on Thursday gave
$500,000 to New Yorkers For A Balanced Albany, a group that is tied to
the education reform group StudentsFirstNY.
Loan was really a bribe, says Todd Howe, former Washington &A lbany lobbyist & longtime insider to Cuomo Former Cuomo lobbyist claims he doesn’t have to repay $85G to company suing him because it was bribe, not loan (NYDN) * Malatras Meticulous Moving from Cuomo's Office to Top Lobby Gig... (Gothamist) Jim Malatras, director of state operations for the Cuomo administration, has walled himself off from healthcare issues as he prepares to leave his post early next year to join the Healthcare Association of New York State as its new chief operating officer.
Update on Charter Schools
3,000 advocates gather to blast de Blasio at charter school rally (NYP) * De Blasio has a moral duty to support charter schools (NYP)
Cops Quitting Before Bronx's Danner Shooting
Lawmakers Make No Case For A Pay Raise
With
no lawmakers signing up to testify, pay raise hearing is canceled (TU)
Gov. Cuomo has said lawmakers should make the case if they want a raise
Seabrook Broke Union Out $20 Million
Seabrook Broke Union Out $20 Million
Hedge fund holding Norman Seabrook’s $20M investment is broke (NYP) The
embattled hedge fund holding a $20 million investment from the city’s
correction officers’ union has finally admitted that it’s broke. The
Platinum Partners’ Value Arbitrage fund filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy
protection in Manhattan bankruptcy court late Tuesday. The filing
represents the nail in the coffin for the $20 million the union invested
in Platinum, under the leadership of its ex-president Norman Seabrook.
“Norman Seabrook severely impacted his members by making these
frivolous investments that only benefited himself, and now the COBA is
out $20 million,” said Corrections Officers’ Benevolent Association
member William Valentin, who triggered a federal probe into Seabrook
with a lawsuit over the risky investment.
Homeless What is the Cause of the Historic Increase?
105,000 HOMELESS NYC STUDENTS...(NYP) * NYC homeless population reaches historically tragic number (NYP) The
number of homeless people in city shelters has exceeded 60,000 for the
first time in history, official data revealed Wednesday. There are now
60,017 individuals being put up by the city — 36,463 adults and 23,554
children — according to the Department of Homeless Services’ “daily
report” posted on its Web site.* 60,000-person question: At what point does Bill de Blasio reassess his failing approach tohomelessness?
(NYDN Ed) Seen through the mayor’s distorting ideological lens, the
fact that a record 60,017 men, women and children went to bed in city
homeless shelters Tuesday night shows both that New York wouldn’t dare
deprive those who seek living quarters a place in this city and
furthermore prevented even greater numbers from streaming in. He
implicitly rationalizes as inevitable a steady upward swell into
shelters, as escalating rents and a crush of population growth sets
whole swaths of low-income New York adrift, unable to afford housing.
Will de Blasio similarly stay the course if and when the number of
people living in homeless shelters — many merely hotel rooms without
kitchens — hits 70,000? 80,000? More? Coherence and consultation would
be far preferable to de Blasio’s mad scramble, which started with the
wrong assumption that shelters would shrink and then resorted to hotels
as a quick fix. But the goal should be to build fewer. The mayor must
accept, as agonizing as it is, that families living doubled up with
others will have to find, with the city’s help, solutions other than
shelter.
Cuomo vs DiNapoli
apoli for investing in hedge funds (NYP) New York state comptroller’s decision to stick with hedgefunds despite their poor returns has cost the Common Retirement Fund $3.8 billion in fees and underperformance, according to a critical report by the Department of Financial Services.(Bloomberg)* Report slams NYpension system's hedge fund investments. (Daily Beast)
Assembly Lawmakers Angry At Cuomo for Trying to Tie Ethics Reforms to Pay Raise
Cuomo Triangulation Demand Lawmakers Tie Ethics Reforms As the Buffalo Billion Criminal Investigations Gets to Door Steps
UPDATE: Politicians, don't spend your pay raise yet... (NYDN)
Cuomo The @BrooklynDA's office will remain in capable hands Chief Assistant District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.during this difficult time
NYP's Boss Lobbyists Arzt Fixing Election, Trying to Free Up PA for Bronx BP, If James Winds Up As Brooklyn DA
One Day After the Death of DA Thompson Push for PA Tish James to Replace and Ticket Shaping?
Well-placed Brooklyn lawmakers want Letitia James as next DA (NYP) * Rest in peace, Ken Thompson (NYP Ed) * Changes mayoral math as in other potential mayoral challengers, eg, Diaz, opting to run for Public Advocate. Math: known/unknown variables * The people's prosecutor (NYDN Ed) * The Death of a Visionary Prosecutor (NYT Ed) In a short time, Ken Thompson made big and welcome changes in Brooklyn’s long-troubled district attorney’s office.* HakeemJeffries slams talk of successor to D.A. Thompson, says Gonzales should begiven chance (City and State) *Ken Thompson's trail-blazing career as first black Brooklyn DA was inspired by his mother's own pioneering character (NYDN) * Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson remembered as 'driven for justice' at wake as many turn out to mourn his death (NYDN) * Latin advocatesurge Gov. Cuomo to keep acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez on job instead ofappointing Letitia James (NYDN) * Brooklyncommunity fears DA Ken Thompson’s replacement won’t continue his mission tooverturn wrongful convictions (NYDN)
Senate GOP Candidates Use Corrupt Silver Ignore Corrupt Skelos Power Broker Klein
Disgraced Silver being used in campaign ads (NYDN)
One TV ad paid for by New Yorkers For Independent Action, a Super PAC
targeting candidates who oppose the creation of an education investment
tax credit, attacks incumbent Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner (D-Saratoga
County) for her ties to Silver. The ads, which hits Woerner for backing
Silver as speaker, concludes with pictures of the assemblywoman and
Silver and the tagline: “It’s hard to stand up for us when she’s
standing with them.” Meanwhile, Assemblyman James Tedisco, a Schenectady
Republican running for state Senate, has an ad highlighting a public
argument he had with Silver over taxes. The ad notes that Silver is gone
but Tedisco is still fighting for constituents. * Depending on the outcome of the elections in November, IDC Leader Jeff Klein could become the Senate’s ultimate power broker, especially as his independent caucus grows to an expected six members, the Buffalo News writes.
Daily News Thinks It is Important that Heastie Tweeted Picture With GOP Leader Undermines Senate Dems? Or Brotherhood of Corrupt Albany?
Heastie raises Dem eyebrows with tweet featuring GOP leader
(NYDN) Here is an expanded version of the fifth item from my "Albany
Insider" column from Monday: A picture tweeted out Saturday by Assembly
Democratic Speaker Carl Heastie featuring himself with Senate Republican
Majority Leader John Flanagan at a college football game has raised the
eyebrows of some Democrats. Heastie took the shot with Flanagan and
another lawmaker at the Stony Brook University homecoming game in
Suffolk County. Heastie is a graduate of the school, which is in
Flanagan’s district. "So while the Democrats have the best chance to
take the Senate in years and The governor is raising money to support a
Democratic majority, the speaker broadcasts that he's palling around
with Flanagan,” said one state Democratic Party insider. “It's a
terrible signal that undermines the entire effort."
de Blasio Budget Busting Hiring Spree
de Blasio Budget Busting Hiring Spree
Bill de Blasio'sbudget-busting hiring spree
(NYDN) Since de Blasio took office, the city payroll has soared from
297,148 to 313,092 workers, with a target of 323,000 by next summer,
representing a rate of growth that matches or exceeds the pace of
private sector job creation. The hiring spurt is unsustainable,
excessive and dangerous. At the same time, de Blasio has boosted the
payroll without engaging in the constant belt-tightening that brought
efficiencies under former Mayor Bloomberg. The consequence is that the
mayor too often relies on new hiring to launch new programs or, he
hopes, improve service delivery. Twelve city agencies are forecast to
add more than 300 full-time and full-time-equivalent positions by next
summer. Those include the Administration for Children’s Services (which
already benefited from more caseworker hires a year ago), Department of
Sanitation, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the
Department of Buildings. As night follows day, the budget will rise —
now and into the future in terms of increased pension, health care and
other obligations. “Every hire is $100,000 a year, in cost of
compensation,” notes Carol Kellermann of the Citizens Budget
Commission. Since taking office, de Blasio has enjoyed good economic
times and increasing revenue. When the music stops, watch out.
de Blasio Sees Failing Schools As Pay to Play Cash Cows for Consultants
Feds Probe Stock Market Insider Trading in Team Cuomo Award of Casino Licensing
Slumlord Contributes to de Blasio and Campaign for One NY And Gets City Hall to Pass Tax Breaks for Billion Dollar Astoria Cove Project
Shomurm Leader Ready to Rat On NYPD Brass and Who Knows Who Else
Shomrim leader looks for plea deal in NYPD corruption probe (NYP) A Brooklyn Shomrim patrol leader accused of paying NYPD cops cash bribes in order to expedite gun permits
is in talks with feds over a plea deal, lawyers said Friday. Manhattan
federal court Judge Sidney Stein gave prosecutors and the defense three
weeks to hammer out a possible agreement for Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein,
who was busted in April for paying cops as much as $1 million to keep
the scheme going. “We have been in continuous discussions about the
resolution of the case,” said Assistant US Attorney Russell Capone.
Lichtenstein, 44, who appeared in court looking tired and wearing a
black suit, is charged with bribery and conspiracy for charging his
customers — members of his Orthodox Jewish community — as much as
$18,000 per gun license. Stein gave defense lawyer Richard Finkel until
Nov. 3 to file pretrial motions, which will go forward if no resolution
is reached. Lichtenstein’s shady business unraveled after a cop in the
NYPD’s License Division admitted he and another supervisor took payments
they called “lunch money” to process the permits. Lichtenstein was
secretly recorded bragging about securing 150 gun licenses through NYPD
connections, court papers said. He offered a whistle-blowing cop $6,000
to keep the illicit scheme going and calculated that another 150 permits
would be worth $900,000 in bribe money, the papers said. The criminal
complaint said Lichtenstein hung around the License Division “on a near
daily basis” beginning in 2014. A handful of complicit cops were booted
from the division but have not been criminally charged. Lichtenstein
has been out on $500,000 bail and is charged with bribery and
conspiracy. His arrest coincided with a sweeping probe by feds into
allegations of NYPD brass accepting bribes from businessmen Jona
Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg.
de Blasio Wants New Law to Unblock Release of Police Disciplinary Action
De Blasio Calls for Change in Law That Blocks Release of Police Disciplinary Actions (NYT) Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to alter a statute that has been an obstacle to sharing information on police misconduct.* De Blasio’s Police Reform Pledges May Burden His Re-election Bid (NYT) Bill de Blasio, caught between his soaring rhetoric as a candidate and the realities of being New York City’s mayor, is disappointing many who supported him.
de Blasio Wants New Law to Unblock Release of Police Disciplinary Action
De Blasio Calls for Change in Law That Blocks Release of Police Disciplinary Actions (NYT) Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to alter a statute that has been an obstacle to sharing information on police misconduct.* De Blasio’s Police Reform Pledges May Burden His Re-election Bid (NYT) Bill de Blasio, caught between his soaring rhetoric as a candidate and the realities of being New York City’s mayor, is disappointing many who supported him.
In the Name of Social Engineering de Blasio Attacks NY's Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods are rising up against de Blasio (NYP) de
Blasio has learned the hard way that people — even New York City
liberals — have their own opinions about how they want to live.
Neighborhood after neighborhood has rebelled against de Blasio’s
heavy-handed social engineering. In August, the people of Upper
Manhattan forced City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, a progressive and
strident de Blasio ally, to reject the first major rezoning under the
city’s new mandatory inclusionary housing policy. MIH was a citywide
revision of land-use rules allowing developers to build taller
residential buildings with greater density if they also include
subsidized apartments for lower- and middle-income New Yorkers. The
development in question, called Sherman Plaza, at the corner of Broadway
and Sherman Avenue around 196th Street, would turn an old Packard
dealership into a 15-story apartment tower. Up to 50 percent of the
units would be subsidized. The proposed “upzoning” infuriated the local
community, which saw it as an effort to gentrify the mixed Latino and
white neighborhood with luxury housing. Pressure built until
Rodriguez, who voted for MIH as a citywide policy a few months before,
nixed the Sherman Plaza proposal as not in the “best interests” of the
neighborhood. A similar scenario played out in Sunnyside, Queens, where
progressive council Majority Leader Jimmy van Bramer rejected a proposed
development to build more than 200 affordable units. Like his colleague
Rodriguez, he supports the widespread development of affordable housing
throughout the city — in theory. But his constituents, reliant on a
perennially crowded subway line and feeling that their neighborhood is
already changing too quickly, opposed the Phipps project and brought
pressure on van Bramer to reject it. On the Upper West Side, the
beating heart of traditional New York City liberalism, a near-riot broke
out last month over plans to redistrict elementary-school zones to
promote racial and socio-economic diversity. Racial “segregation” in the
public schools has become the latest “root cause” of inequality in New
York, and the city is pushing community districts to agree to boundary
changes in order to dilute the concentration of white students in
certain schools. Of the entire public-school
student population of 1.1 million, however, fewer than 15 percent are
white, and these students are clustered geographically in particular
areas. If racial diversity is meant to solve the problem of racial
inequality, it isn’t clear that there are enough white students to make
much of a difference. Thinking big is in progressives’ DNA. In the
words of de Blasio, progressive proposals must be “transformative,”
“historic,” “transcendent.” But as long as the mayor and his progressive
allies continue to force their grand vision on an unwilling populace,
they can expect to face local revolts from a notoriously and proudly
insubordinate city.
4 Child Care Workers Suspended On Their Handing of 6 Year Old Zymere
Sampson Finally Going to Jail? Keep Putting It Off is There A Rat Deal?
Albany Leader With Long Record of Covering Up Sexual Harrassment Attacks? Trump on the Bus
JCOPE is A Joke: Outside Income Law Rarely Enforce Ignored Mostly
From the conviction of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to the recent federal charges against former top Cuomo administration official Joe Percoco, the issue of state officials' outside jobs — and the potential for graft created — has sparked calls for reform. But there is already law on the books that would shine substantial sunlight on such arrangements. Yet it doesn't appear to be enforced very well. The law, passed in 2011 as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's first ethics reform bill, requires lobbyists or their clients who pay a state employee more than $1,000 in a year to submit a form detailing the exact amount every six months. It also requires a description of the nature of the state employee's outside work. Since the law was passed, only 24 lobbying clients and 11 lobbyists have submitted paperwork detailing the hiring of state officials, according to the website of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the state's lobbying watchdog agency. The law was passed in the wake of the 2009 trial of ex-Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, in which federal prosecutors charged the Brunswick Republican with using his position to enrich himself through a business he operated on the side. He was convicted on two federal charges, which were later overturned because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision. In a second trial, he was acquitted.Disclosure law for outside income often ignored, rarely enforced (TU) State officials take side jobs, but their employers fail to tell JCOPE about it
de Blasio Camapign Aide Hilltop Hyers Lobbyists Capalino Under Fed Investigation for CONY Money Washing for Senate Campaign Now As Airbnb Lobbyists Has 10 Million PAC to Shape the Senate
de Blasio Campaign Manager Bill Hires' Hilltop Helps Run the OneNY PAC
1. Hires: de Blasio Campaign Manager Who Uses Candidate Fake Arrest to Protest A Closing Hospital As A Prop
2.
Once the Hospital is Closed Hires Who Works for the Mayor Slush Fund
PAC One NY Uses It to Tell the Community That the Band Aid ER the
Developer Agreed to Build is As Good As the Closed Hospital
3. Hires: Sell A Large Development to Replace te Closed to A Community Who Opposes It
4. Is de Blasio Using His 2013 Campaign Account to Pay Hires to Supplement His Pay the Director of His One NY PAC?
Tuesday de Blasio Still Boycotting Press, Hiring Campaign Workers, Clinton
De Blasio still avoiding most media outlets after tantrum (NYP) —
skipping the usual press gaggles before ending the march by granting
exclusive interviews to just two media outlets. There, he met reporters
from NBC and NY1. It was later revealed that de Blasio also spoke to
two Italian media outlets during the parade — but no one else. A
spokesman said the mayor decided against giving all reporters access to
avoid a “crazy scrum.” WORKERS Now Hiring: Under de Blasio, New York’s Government Grows to Record Level (NYT)
The growth in full-time staffing has worried some budget experts, who
fear a lack of fiscal discipline at City Hall, and greater pension
obligations down the road.* De Blasio Says16,000 New City Employees Is ‘Best Money Spent’ (NYO)
de Blasio on Clinton Leaked email shows de Blasio criticized Clinton during debate (NYP) * Latest Podesta Emails Reveal a Servile de Blasio Eager to Please Clinton Campaign (NYO)* WikiLeaks Emails Show Mayor de Blasio Venting at and Appealing to Clinton Campaign (NYT) The
release of a second batch of John D. Podesta’s emails shows Bill de
Blasio urging the campaign to engage left-wing Democrats.* The
second leak of Hillary Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta’s emails
shows New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was determined to offer himself
as a Clinton cheerleader pushing the campaign to engage the Democratic
Party’s left wing, The New York Times reports. * Leaked Emails Between de Blasio and Clinton Campaign Show a Complicated Relationship of Candidate and Former Confidante
(NY1) For days, hacked emails to and from Hillary Clinton's campaign
chairman, John Podesta, have been dripping out on the Wikileaks website —
among other things, the emails are giving us some insight into the
relationship between the Clinton campaign and Mayor de Blasio, who
publicly played coy about endorsing her for six months * Two @HillaryClinton campaign aides referred mockingly to @BilldeBlasio in internal emails as a "terrorist" * WikiLeaks Emails Show Mayor de Blasio Venting at and Appealing to Clinton Campaign (NYT) * .@HillaryClinton aides mocked'terrorist' @BilldeBlasio's public flirtation with @BernieSanders * Mayor says "heat of battle"caused Clinton camp to call him a "terrorist" for delayingendorsement: (DNAINFO)
Feds unseal charges against Cuomo cronies in bribery scandal (NYP) The city has dropped its plan to fully convert a Holiday Inn Express into a homeless shelter, citing "local opposition"
that includes numerous protests from neighbors. The hotel near Maurice
Avenue and the Long Island Expressway had been eyed as a full shelter by
the city and its owner, Harsh Patel, for months.* Maspeth HolidayInn won't be turned into full shelter due to 'local opposition' but will househomeless men (WPIX)
More Blame on ACS for Zymere Death
Sal Albanese @SalAlbaneseNYC Wiki
emails show HRC campaign treating DEB like a nuisance 2 humor &
his silly "forum" as an event they had no intention of participating in
Under Press of Causing A Racial Divide de Blasio Limits Plans for Maspeth Hotel to 30 Homeless Men Protests Continue
More Blame on ACS for Zymere Death
Daily News Blames Liberal Everyone Welcomed Homeless Policy Not Gentrification Push Out For Increase Homeless Numbers
Bill’s blame game on the homeless crisis (NYDN Ed) Deluded by righteousness and presuming the lowest motives among critics, Mayor de Blasio is unforgivably casting constituents as heartless racists in a drama of his own making. He needs to spend more time reckoning with his role in exacerbating record homelessness . The mayor’s Department of Homeless Services on Monday beat a retreat from a Maspeth, Queens, Holiday Inn it had intended to convert to shelter, after infuriated neighbors protested for weeks, including on the Brooklyn stoop of city homelessness czar Steve Banks. Still, says the city, it will continue to rent rooms in the hotel “for working adults.” The Maspeth revolt activated protests in Bellerose, where 40 homeless families lived in hotel rooms paid for by the city, with nowhere to squeeze into an overflowing shelter system now at population 59,928 and rising. Of those, as many as 6,000 live in hotels, a number rapidly rising. But dare to question the hotels, byproducts of well-intentioned policy gone amok, and heaven help your sinister soul. On Tuesday, the mayor called supplying shelter “a citywide moral and legal responsibility.” That followed a pair of manipulative internet videos — with the mayor’s name on them — shaming shelter opponents as harboring hate toward mostly black hotel residents. In one, a soundbite from the crowd rings “White lives matter.” Queens residents’ concerns about their new neighbors may be overwrought. But the worse offense is to impose on city neighborhoods ills that have metastasized because of a mayor’s own failed theories of social engineering.
True News Wags the NYP On de Blasio Turning Against Maspeth by A Video that Paints the Community as Racist
City Hall is oblivious and shows no interest in local input (NYP) So
now when you fight City Hall, you can expect to be smeared by
taxpayer-funded propaganda films casting you as heartless,
children-hating villains. Two videos on City Hall’s Web site target a
group of Queens residents and officials who demonstrated outside a
homeless shelter to protest the way Team de Blasio is running roughshod
over their neighborhood. One shows city officials ushering homeless
children from the Bellerose shelter on a field trip as protesters rally
outside. The other features a black mother and her infant — and scenes
from the demonstration to a soundtrack of someone saying “white lives
matter” over and over. The blatant message: Anyone upset about a shelter
being jammed into their neighborhood with zero local input is just a
racist. “I’ve never seen an administration go to that length to try and
justify a failed policy. That was to me a sign of desperation,” says
state Sen. Joe Addabbo (D-Queens). In fact, the city’s efforts to ram
through shelter sitings have met with backlash in all kinds of
neighborhoods. Time and again, the mayor’s people meet local officials’
initial inquiries with earnest denials. Hiding behind regulations meant
to protect the privacy of its clients, the Department of Homeless
Services misleads elected leaders about its plans until it’s too late to
stop them. Queens electeds, fed up with being stonewalled by DHS, have
taken to checking the Buildings Department Web site to learn if local
motels are being used as shelters. City Hall shows no interest in
treating local officials as partners. Multiple Queens leaders say Team
de Blasio not only fails to solicit local input, it’s oblivious to what
it does hear from the community. Instead, it plainly prefers to damn the
dissenters as bigots. We suppose that’s easier than rethinking the
policies that have homelessness surging. Yet smug ideological lectures
from City Hall can only further polarize the citizenry. That might be an
effective short-term political tactic, but it’s no way to govern
successfully in the long run.
Pols Frighten By the Markey Loss Because She Ignored Homeless Shelter March and Protest
de Blasio Using More Homeless Hotels Despite Pledge to Use Less
Number of homeless living in hotels doubles in two months (NYP) The
number of homeless housed in hotels by the city has soared 50 percent
in just two months – from 3,990 in July to 6,000 this month, The Post
has learned. The surge comes despite a pledge by Mayor de Blasio in February to
“utilize hotels less and less and, as quickly as possible, to stop
using hotels,” following the murder of a homeless woman and her two kids
in a Staten Island hotel. There were 2,656 homeless people in hotels at
the time, with an average room cost of $161 per night.
Team de Blasio Crazy Ties to Get His Puppet Council to Boycott the Post With Him
City pol claims de Blasio urged council to stonewall The Post (NYP) Mayor
de Blasio’s top lieutenants ordered City Council members not to speak
to The Post months ago — even issuing a thinly veiled threat to at least
one lawmaker if he failed to toe the line, the pol told The Post. “You
shouldn’t be talking to The Post when they’re criticizing the mayor,”
de Blasio aide Jon Paul Lupo warned, according to the council member,
well before Lupo’s tantrum-tossing boss dismissed the paper as a
“right-wing rag’’ last week, taking heat from both sides of the
political aisle. “We remember who our friends are, and we
remember who kicks us when we’re down,’’ Lupo said, according to the
Democratic council member he targeted. The source said mayoral aide
Emma Wolfe also issued similar, though “less direct,’’ warnings about
talking to The Post. “Anytime a council member is quoted [in The Post] —
even when and especially when they’re right — they’re going to get a
call from the Mayor’s Office,” the council source said.
Scared Pols Want Bharara Too Do Their Job of Bring Down de Blasio True News Wags WSJ On Federal Investigation Will Shape the Mayor's Race
Investigations Will Shape New York Mayoral Race (WSJ) How they unfold is likely to determine whether Bill de Blasio faces a difficult race or skates to a second term de Blasio
didn’t come to New York City Hall last Tuesday and instead spent the
day at Gracie Mansion, talking with campaign consultants and government
aides, eating pizza and plotting his 2017 re-election campaign,
according to people familiar with the matter. At the campaign kickoff
retreat, Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, was in an upbeat mood as the team
outlined a fundraising strategy, planned a campaign message focused on
shoring up his base of support and scrutinized possible opponents,
these people said. The group, sitting around a table downstairs,
also discussed the state and federal investigations into Mr. de Blasio’s
administration and fundraising activities, these people said. They
examined how the investigations could affect potential challengers and a race that the mayor’s allies believe shouldn’t be difficult to win, they said. Several people who received subpoenas in connection with the investigations were at the summit, these people said. Investigators are looking at whether the mayor exchanged government actions for donations, people familiar with the matter have said. No one has been accused of wrongdoing, and the mayor has said he and his allies abided by all laws.
The way in which these investigations unfold is likely to play a
significant role in whether Mr. de Blasio faces a difficult race or
skates to a second term, the mayor’s allies and potential rivals have
said.
Post's McManus: de Blasio Crazy Attacks on Reporter are About the Federal Investigation, Not His Paper
Mayor de Blasio’s rant at The Post is good for a laugh (NYP) So
New York City has a mayor with feet almost as big as his mouth, a
fellow who can’t quite figure out how to get to work on time or what to
do when he arrives, whose poll numbers have been underwater since
roughly two weeks after he took office — and who’s now having a rant at
The New York Post. And I agree that the paper has much for which to
answer; name one that doesn’t. But the New York Post hasn’t been under
federal, state and local criminal investigation for the past two-plus
years, either — which, ahem, is more than can be said of Bill de
Blasio. Which certainly could explain why Hizzoner’s been so testy
lately; US Attorney Preet Bharara just dropped the hammer on the Cuomo
administration, and maybe the mayor figures he’s next. And for sure it
could account for his exasperation with The Post — which regularly hauls
out the big type to report on his endless adventures with Bharara,
state investigators and the Manhattan district attorney. Plus bums in
the streets, chaos in the schools and rip-offs of New York’s sorely
pressed taxpayers. He hired an advocate, not an expert, to run the
city’s social services. No surprise that Grand Central Terminal is once
again up to its scuppers in vagrants and worse. He padded the topmost
echelon of his administration with fellow Service Employees
International Union/1199 alumni. No surprise, then, that 1199 is a
vector in at least two de Blasio administration scandals — the Rivington
House nursing home deed transfer and the Long Island College Hospital
land conversion.
Corruption Mayoral Politics Stringer Talks to Consultants Too Much Needs to Too Do What He Things is Right
Stringer Stuck In Status Quo Time Warp
Punches That Don't Land
Will Need An Assist From Bharara to Become Mayor
What Does ScottStringer Stand For? (Village
Voice) Scott Stringer, the city comptroller, is strongly considering
running for mayor. He remains in the drawn-out, time-honored posture of
playing coy, which means getting a lot of ink — like a recent spread in the New York Times —
for thinking about doing something. One of the more enjoyable parts of
being a semi-high profile politician is existing in this state of
unvarnished potentiality. You feel important. You dream. Stringer sees
all of this and thinks he’s the guy to pluck the mayor’s low-hanging
fruit. I’ve covered Stringer for about four years now and I’ve been
chastised by his minders, sometimes rightfully so, for underrating him.
I’ve called him “nebbishy”. He is not Kochian and we know politics
remains an image game. Bloomberg was short in stature but had money.
Stringer—who looks exactly like someone you’d imagine managing
multibillion dollar pension funds—has a lifetime of Democratic
ladder-climbing. He’s living the dream of ambitious New York pols
everywhere, methodically office-hopping from the Assembly to the
Manhattan Borough President’s office to Comptroller. Much easier said
than done, to his credit. Any oddsmaking over Stringer’s chances must
account for how difficult it is to dethrone an incumbent. Unless an
indictment is handed down, de Blasio will have a stranglehold on the
African-American voters who determine the course of New York primaries,
and the support of the labor unions that matter. Gadflies like the
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, stacked with non-New York City
residents, and the Transport Workers Union, no longer a political power,
can’t unmake a mayor. Stringer’s bigger problem, as outlined by Nicole Gelinas today, is
what his campaign will really be about. De Blasio critics think crying
corruption will be enough but it won’t be. A candidate needs a
compelling, soundbite-ready vision to advance to primary voters, and as
of October 2016, Stringer is lacking. His pitch to the city is something
akin to Hillary Clinton’s: a beefing up of the status quo. Stringer
wants to improve de Blasio’s housing plan and triple the city’s earned
income tax credit. Admirable, sure, but not a reason to abandon the
incumbent, who’s advancing a liberal vision as quickly as democracy and
bureaucracy will allow. What is Stringer’s organizing philosophy, his ideology? How would you explain his candidacy to your friends?
Team de Blasio Crazy Ties to Get His Puppet Council to Boycott the Post With Him
De
Blasio’s top lieutenants ordered City Council members not to speak to
the Post months ago, even issuing a thinly veiled threat to at least one
lawmaker, if he failed to toe the line for the administration
Scared Pols Want Bharara Too Do Their Job of Bring Down de Blasio True News Wags WSJ On Federal Investigation Will Shape the Mayor's Race
Will de Blasio Make Corruption History by Being the First Mayor Indicted?
And
so it goes. Covering the de Blasio administration is like throwing
darts at a wall covered with party balloons: Just about every toss,
something’s going to pop. There’s the police-corruption scandal; the
campaign-donation probe; the not-for-profit solicitation outrage; and
just now The Post reports that de Blasio has stocked his personal staff
with 264 taxpayer-funded “special advisers” — that is, operatives who
shortly will peel off and kick-start his 2017 re-election campaign. Your
cost: $18.7 million a year. (How many child-welfare case workers might
that buy?) Now, The Post didn’t discover all of this. But it did its
share — and it didn’t stint on the drama along the way. This is very
much in a New York newspaper tradition that stretches back to the 1734
criminal libel trial of John Peter Zenger and his New York Weekly
Journal — another “rag” that delighted in vexing pompous, sometimes
duplicitous politicians. Zenger beat the rap, of course, establishing
the basis for the First Amendment to the US Constitution and setting a
precedent that most New York politicians have respected ever since:
Newspapers have a right to publish just about anything they damned well
please. Even when they are, in Bill de Blasio’s view, an “ideological
apparatus” that constitutes “a very negative presence in our city.”
de Blasio Running the City Out of His Lawyers Office
de Blasio Running the City Out of His Lawyers Office
Mr.
de Blasio has spent considerable time lately at the Midtown law offices
of Barry Berke, who is representing the mayor in the investigations. He
has sometimes even done other business from there. The campaign’s
fundraising strategy—to solicit low-dollar contributions—was created, in
part, because of the investigations. The campaign is trying to show it
has deep, community support and wants to be careful not to be seen as too close to lobbyists.
Post's
McManus Reports That de Blasio Lost With Less Than 20% of New Yorkers
Voting But Does Not Explain Why Voting Numbers Shrinking
Or
maybe not so bewildering. Bill de Blasio esteems himself to a degree
not remotely commensurate with his accomplishments. He viewed his
election as a personal affirmation, and as a rocketship ride to national
prominence. But in fact it merely reflected the non-participation ethic
that informs New York politics these days. That is, winning 70 percent
of the vote in an election where scarcely 20 percent of the electorate
turns out is not a mandate, it is a starting point. A wiser mayor would
have understood this, and set about building a base.
Corruption Mayoral Politics Stringer Talks to Consultants Too Much Needs to Too Do What He Things is Right
“Stringer…prvtly told consultants...whether anyone is indicted has significant sway over whether heruns” (WSJ)
“It goes without saying that if de Blasio gets indicted, everyone is
going to run. The real political question is what if only staff gets
indicted, and then what staff?” said Bradley Tusk, a political
consultant and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s
2009 campaign manager, who is trying to find an opponent to unseat Mr.
de Blasio. He said opponents would be much harder to attract without
indictments. City Comptroller Scott Stringer, a Democrat, has privately
told consultants and others that whether anyone is indicted has
significant sway over whether he runs, people familiar with those
discussions said. Mr. Stringer has said he wants to be ready to announce
by the end of the year, but isn’t committed and is less likely to run
if no one is charged, they said. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.,
another Democrat, also has expressed an interest in running but remains
unsure if Mr. de Blasio is beatable, a person familiar with the matter
said, and believes his chance at being competitive hinges in part on the
investigations.
Stringer Stuck In Status Quo Time Warp
Punches That Don't Land
Will Need An Assist From Bharara to Become Mayor
*
A new poll from the Journal, NBC 4 New York and Marist shows that de
Blasio’s positive job-performance rating inched up to 40 percent, and he
holds a substantial lead in a crowded field of potential Democratic
rivals, the Journal reports.
Brooklyn DA Thompson Dies of Cancer RIP
After being absent from his office for nearly two months, Mr. Thompson, who took over the job in 2014, announced last week that he had Brooklyn district attorney says he has cancer (NYP) Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson is battling an “aggressive” form of cancer and has left the day-to-day operations of his office to his second-in-command. Thompson, 50, who took office in... * Ken Thompson, Brooklyn District Attorney, Says He Has Cancer and Will Take Leave
Bharara: Not a Problem That Can Be Solved by Prosecution the Media and Other Politicians Need Help Fight The Culture of Corruption in Albany
SHOCK POLL: 94% say Cuomo bears at least some responsibility for allegedcorruption...
Several lawmakers are calling for
broad reform of the State University system’s contract procurement
process, following charges against SUNY Polytechnic Institute president
Alain Kaloyeros for alleged bid rigging, Politico New York reports.
When is the Media Going to Cover Groups Fighting Gentrification Going After Airbnb?
Airbnb’s
illegal hotel purges slammed as ploy to throw off NYC regulators (NYDN)
Airbnb’s highly publicized purges of suspected illegal hotel listings
are a ploy to placate regulators and have done nothing to alleviate the
city’s serious housing crisis, elected officials, housing groups and
hundreds of tenants charge in a letter to the company. The letter, sent
Friday to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, raps the company for not sharing the
nixed listings with law enforcement and regulators. “One can only
conclude that your lack of cooperation . . . is nothing more than a
craven attempt by your company to generate sky-high profits at the
expense of our precious affordable housing,” the letter from the Share
Better coalition of pols and the New York Hotel Trades Council states.
Critics charge that the site is a platform for illegal hotel operators,
including greedy landlords who use rent-regulated units as hotel rooms
rather than residences for New Yorkers, which worsens the city’s
affordability crisis. The company, when reached for comment, dismissed
Share Better as a “front group for the big hotels.”
Even the NYT's Says de Blasio Media Attacks Are Ugly and the Opposite of Transparent Do They Know Something About the Federal Investigation?
Q. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor —
A. You can keep calling all you want. Go ahead.
Q. Are you going to call on me today? Hey, are you — ?
A. I’m calling on real media outlets.
This was an extreme reaction for a mayor who is already unusually aloof from the press. His predecessors, notably Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani, took questions nearly every day. Mr. de Blasio deigns to answer reporters’ “off topic” questions — those not related to his chosen issue of the day — generally once a week. The Post does not hide its anti-de Blasio feelings and is quick to ridicule. It can also be rather vulnerable to ridicule itself. But the article that set off Mr. de Blasio’s meltdown seemed straightforward, if pointed: It was about the hiring by the mayor’s office of 264 “special assistants,” outside the civil service, who looked to the paper like a “farm team” of political appointees. If Mr. de Blasio had specific complaints about the article’s veracity, he did not reveal them at the news conference. New York has a long tradition of outspoken mayors who have used and abused the media, who have belittled and ranted at reporters, while aides smirked and fawned. But the mayors have always talked. Mr. de Blasio says he is not playing that game, at least not with The Post. But it’s not just The Post — Mr. de Blasio got petulant when pressed by a reporter from Newsday for information about an inquiry into the Administration for Children’s Services and the death of a 6-year-old boy. “Come on — try and ask a real question,” he snapped. Then came this exchange with a Wall Street Journal reporter: Q. I’m just curious — taking questions once a week, and you know, insulting newspapers, media outlets — how do you think it’s helping you? How is it helping you? A. It doesn’t have to help. It doesn’t have to help. It’s the — well, I’m saying what I think is the truth. And by the way, I think the people share a lot of my view.
The Times Called de Blasio A Good Mayor: They Must Have Meant Good At Giving Their Developers Friends Whatever They Want
Daily News Albany Lawmakers Have Not Made the Case for A Pay Raise
de Blasio Paints the Post As Right Wing Exposes His 2017 Campaign Strategy to Gain Progressive and Liberal Votes
Together With his Black and Orthodox Jewish Base
The NY Post is Too Dumb to Understand That Team de Blasio by Calling Them Right Wing is Building A Progressive Vote to Get Re-Elected
Mayor de Blasio demands his own ‘safe space’ (NYP)
Mayor de Blasio is perfectly free to keep ducking Post reporters’
questions . . . as long as he wants to keep coming off like a peevish
toddler. A month ago, we wondered if de Blasio was cracking under
pressure when he took out after The Post and our City Hall bureau chief,
Yoav Gonen, at a press conference. On Thursday, he had another meltdown
— refusing to let Gonen even ask a question, saying that’s for “real
media outlets.” He
got snarky with other reporters, too, but saved his special venom for
The Post: “I[’ve] got no use for a right-wing rag that tries to attack
public servants.” By which he means he has no use for a newspaper that
asks (well, tries to ask) uncomfortable questions and exposes City Hall
outrages and incompetence. What set the mayor off this time was a Post
exposé of how he’s parked 264 political operatives on the public payroll
as “special assistants” — at a cost to the taxpayers of $18.7 million.
Dumb and Dumber: Dear NY Post deB is Not About Transparent He is About Building A Progressive Coalition on Your Back
Dear Bill NYP Attack is Not About Free Press It is Because You Cut Out Old Guard Lobbyists Like Arzt for the Berlin Rosen Generation
de Blasio Channels Spiro Agnew
Yet blaming the messenger is rarely a winning approach — particularly when the self-professed “most transparent mayor in history” is having so much trouble being remotely transparent
De Blasio thinks homeless crisis is a case of ‘fear-mongering’ (NYP) Mayor de Blasio on Monday ripped The Post’s coverage of the homelessness crisis — and touted an estimated drop in the vagrant population based on a single-day census conducted in sub-freezing temperatures.Yet blaming the messenger is rarely a winning approach — particularly when the self-professed “most transparent mayor in history” is having so much trouble being remotely transparent
de Blasio Went After Bloomberg Each Time A Child Died Because of Abuse
NYC Sheep Voters Who Don't Read Newspapers Do Not Even Know That de Blasio is Under Investigation or Do Not Care
De Blasio sees slight uptick in poll numbers despite probes (NYP) Despite
multiple investigations focused on his administration, voters are
feeling better about Mayor de Blasio these days, according to a poll
released Wednesday. De Blasio’s approval rating now stands at 40
percent, says the Wall Street Journal/NBC4 New York/Marist poll. That’s up from 35 percent in
the same poll in April. The poll also found that 50 percent of
registered voters think de Blasio deserves a second term — up from 43
percent who felt that way last November. In
a Democratic primary against possible challengers such as Comptroller
Scott Stringer, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Rep. Hakeem
Jeffries and former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, 42 percent of
voters said they would vote for the incumbent. De Blasio faces a
half-dozen investigations into his fund-raising, nonprofits and a
controversial nursing-home transaction. * de Blasio’s pollnumbers rise as half of New Yorkers say he should be reelected (NYDN)
Another ACS Failure As Child Dies Mayor Announces Same Reforms Which Will Not Get Done Again
Alert: More Reforms Will Come After the Next Child Dies
*
An array of New York City officials sat with Mayor Bill de Blasio in an
effort to figure out how the case of Zymere Perkins, the 6-year-old who
died as a result of domestic abuse, slipped through the cracks, but no
clear answer emerged, The New York Times writes.
*
An array of New York City officials sat with Mayor Bill de Blasio in an
effort to figure out how the case of Zymere Perkins, the 6-year-old who
died as a result of domestic abuse, slipped through the cracks, but no
clear answer emerged, The New York Times writes.
New JCOPE Subpoenas Fly At de Blasio's Campaign For One NY PAC As Federal and Manhattan DA Investigation Continues
Is JCOPE Moving Against de Blasio's Campaign for One NY Because the Feds are Ready to Pounce?
The
inquiry by the ethics panel, which has the authority to bring
administrative actions and seek fines, is separate from more than a
half-dozen federal and state criminal investigations that in recent
months have examined various aspects of the mayor’s political
fund-raising. One of those, being conducted by federal prosecutors in
Manhattan and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has also focused in
some measure on the Campaign for One New York, according to people
briefed on the matter.
de Blasio and Campaign for One NY Joined at the Hip for A Political Mission Create A Lobbyist Shadow Govt
Did the Conflict of Interest Board and Campaign Finance Board Both
Picked by the Mayor and Speaker, Protect Criminal Activity PACs Like
Campaign for One NY?
Former mayoral hopeful gets heated over campaign finances (NYP)
Former mayoral candidate Sal Albanese got into a shouting match
Thursday with a member of the Campaign Finance Board while appealing a
$10,000 fine for loaning his own 2013 campaign money that was never
repaid. The Brooklyn Democrat forgave the $155,000 loan, which the board
classified as a contribution that exceeded the $14,850 individual
limit. “I didn’t violate the spirit of the law. I’m actually a victim
of what’s become an inflexible bureaucracy that exists in a vacuum,” he
said. Clearly angry over those remarks, board member Richard Davis noted
Albanese signed a sworn statement promising not to break campaign
finance laws. “Do you think it’s meaningless that you signed a sworn
statement that you wouldn’t do what you’ve done? Do you think that
doesn’t count?” Davis asked. “Your kind of comment I find offensive and
erroneous and not consistent with the facts.” The board adjourned the
case until its next meeting Sept. 24.
Cuomo Caught Up in Bridgegate Astorino Calls for Both to Resign
Witness: Cuomo, Christie talked about making Bridgegate 'go away' * Cuomo orderedhalt to Bridgegate probe after talks with Christie, former Port Authorityexecutive says * Cuomo Implicated in Bridgegate Scandal Cover-Up (DNAINFO) * Cuomo helped Christie cover up Bridgegate: witness (NYP) * Cuomo ordered halt to Bridgegate probe after talks with Christie, former Port Authority executive says (NYDN)
True News Continues to Wag the Post Again
Yesterday the Post Led With Special Assistants Padding Yesterday After True News Wrote "de Blasio's Campaign Payroll" Today the Posts Headlines "de Blasio's Campaign Hacks"
Monday de Blasio's City Hall Campaign Payroll
Mayor
Bill de Blasio padded the city payroll with 264 “special assistants”
during the past fiscal year, a more than 140 percent increase over his
predecessor, which accounted for 40 percent of the entire Mayor’s Office
staff and cost taxpayers $18.7 million, the Post reports.
Campaign for One NY Under Federal Investigation Was Not the Only Pool of Money That de Blasio Used to High Operatives for His 2017 Re-Election Campaign
A
larger stable of political appointees as special assistants, who are
available to go through the revolving door of public service and
political-campaign service
ggg De Blasio padded City Hall with 264 ‘special assistants’ (NYP) de
Blasio padded the city payroll with 264 “special assistants” during the
past fiscal year — a more than 140 percent increase over his
predecessor, The Post has learned. The bloated band of vaguely titled
aides — accountable only to Hizzoner — accounted for 40 percent of the
entire Mayor’s Office staff and cost taxpayers $18.7 million, payroll
records show. City Hall insiders said de Blasio was using the
special-assistant gigs in part to take care of political operatives as
they bide their time waiting for the next campaign — a kind of publicly
funded farm system akin to the ones used by Major League Baseball
teams. “It’s usually given to one of our political guys as a way to
bring them on board in the administration without any problems — whether
or not they have the job requirements,” a de Blasio administration
source admitted. “Many have worked on [the mayor’s campaign], and this
job allows them to go back and forth, if needed, on the re-election
campaign or campaigns of allies.” The hires contributed to a surge in
payouts at City Hall, where the cost of de Blasio’s office was up more
than 21 percent since fiscal year 2013, the last one over which former
Mayor Michael Bloomberg had complete control. The fact that the jobs
aren’t covered by civil-service rules also gives the mayor the latitude
to dole out salaries and raises beyond the established ranges for
comparable positions. Last month, The Post revealed that de Blasio had
slashed the pay of more than a dozen aides held over from the Bloomberg
administration, while showering his own appointees with more than
$2 million in raises. At least 16 of the people de Blasio has hired as
special assistants worked on his 2013 mayoral bid, one of whom, Monica
Klein, is among two special assistants now on leave to work for Hillary
Clinton’s presidential campaign. One special assistant, Elana Leopold,
saw her annual salary skyrocket from $60,000 in 2014 to $85,749 in 2016
before resigning this year to become the finance director for de
Blasio’s 2017 re-election bid. The payroll records also show de Blasio
reassigned his longtime election lawyer, Henry Berger, from a
$187,583-a-year post as assistant corporation counsel to a job as
special assistant at the same rate of pay. One of his special
assistants, former campaign “high-dollar finance director” Hayley Prim,
resigned to join Hilltop Public Solutions, a p.r. firm implicated this
year in election-finance violations allegedly spearheaded by the mayor. *
How de Blasio's Flip Flop Attempt to Buy Off NYCHA Tenants Opposition to Luxury Housing Failed
de Blasio is Also Throwing Money At His Rivington Nursing Home Scandal to Make Up for the Close Facility
Health Care Facility to Replace About Half of RivingtonHouse Beds: Mayor (DNAINFO)
EDI @EDI_NYC 31m31 minutes ago Mayor @BilldeBlasio and @CM_MargaretChin using "Senior Housing" and "Affordable Housing" as catch phrases to cover-up scandal & incompetence
EDI @EDI_NYC 31m31 minutes ago Mayor @BilldeBlasio and @CM_MargaretChin using "Senior Housing" and "Affordable Housing" as catch phrases to cover-up scandal & incompetence
Sal Albanese @SalAlbaneseNYC Thank goodness NYC's economy is generating lots of tax revenue bc DEB is blowing through cash like a drunken sailor
Is Brooklyn Lost For Affordable Housing?
The last battle for Brooklyn, America's most unaffordableplace to buy a home
(Guardian) It might be too late for Williamsburg, Bushwick and Bed-Stuy
– but in Crown Heights, tenants have learned a few tricks to prevent
the social cleansing of their neighbourhood. Can they succeed where the
rest of Brooklyn failed?
Airbnb Bad Neighbors, Warehouses Apartments -- Rising Rents and Increasing Gentrification
Mayor Ignores Community Leaders Opposing His Zoning Plan
Affordable Housing, Low Wages Building, Rents
How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers
Low Turnout Elections Designed by Albany Spit 3 Primaries
Another Shockingly Low Turnout Election (Gotham Gazette) The
numbers are bad again, additional proof that New Yorkers don’t pay much
attention to local elections or make voting in them a priority. There
were several hotly contested state legislative party primary elections
on September 13, even a few for open seats, yet the best an individual
New York City-based Assembly or Senate district did was 20%
participation among active eligible voters. The
winner of this unglamorous prize was Assembly District 65, Sheldon
Silver’s old seat, where short-term incumbent Alice Cancel was defeated
in the Democratic primary by Yuh-Line Niou. Of 43,094 active eligible
Democrats in the Lower Manhattan district, 8,631 votes were cast, equal
to 20.03%. Niou was one of three challengers to unseat New York City incumbents this primary cycle. Another,
all the way Uptown in Inwood and nearby areas, saw long-term incumbent
Assemblymember Guillermo Linares defeated in the Democratic primary by
Carmen De La Rosa. There are 57,053 active eligible Democrats in AD72
and 8,317 voted (4,414 for De La Rosa), for 14.58% turnout. In
Queens’ AD30, long-time Assemblymember Margaret Markey lost to Brian
Barnwell in a Democratic primary that saw 7.94% turnout -- Barnwell won
the primary, and thus the seat, with 1,622 votes to Markey’s 921. There
are 32,162 active registered Democratic voters in the district.
Bharara: Yep. Too many PR people who spin and not nearly enough reporters who report.
Bharara: “I would encourage anyone who is in a position to fund investigative journalism to fund it. … It is money well spent."
Bharara
told the audience at the gala that he was perplexed as to why no one
asked him at the press conference where he announced the charges how his
office started the investigation in the first place. “That case got
started because journalists in Buffalo and elsewhere started to write
that there were shenanigans they believe that were going on with the
bidding of contracts in Buffalo,” Bharara said. “And you know what we
did? We started to investigate.” “A lot of the greatest work that
prosecutors and watchdogs do comes from the work that journalists do and
I would encourage anyone who’s able to fund investigative journalism to
spend money on it because it’s money well-spent and it’s good for the
cause,” he added.
@SquarePegDem Apr 22 Gary Tilzer (@unitedNYblogs) warned that BdB circle of friends, lobbyists & PACs were up to no good. Like #Cassandra, he was ignored.
Please Contribute to True News
FDNY Chief Kill By Illegal Gas Line After the City Crack Down
Police have discovered
a “deviation” in the gas line at the Bronx marijuana grow house that
exploded last week, killing Battalion Chief Michael J. Fahy.
NYPD Officer Who Shot Himself Was Wanted as "witness" in Corruption Probe
NYPD Officer WhoShot Himself May Have Been Trying To Avoid Testifying In Corruption Probe
(Gothamist) An off-duty cop who shot himself in the stomach on Friday
afternoon was recently told by the feds that he may be questioned as a
witness in an ongoing investigation of NYPD corruption—and may have shot himself to
avoid testifying against his former boss. Lieutenant Peter Salzone shot
himself several times in the stomach on Friday afternoon. According to the Daily News, the shooting occurred around 4 p.m. in his girlfriend's home in the Oakland Gardens section of Bayside. NYPD Officer Who Shot Himself Was Wanted as 'Witness' inCorruption Probe (DNAINFO) * NYPD officer may have shot self to dodge corruption trial (NYP)
As de Blasio Blames New Yorkers for Not Accepting Homeless Shelters Nobody is Demanding Answers Why Homeless are Increasing
New Yorkers fightcity’s efforts to house homeless in middle-class neighborhoods
(NYDN) The record high nearly 60,000 people living in the city’s
shelter system isn’t the only homeless crisis Mayor de Blasio is
battling. The mayor is also grappling with a mutiny from New Yorkers who
don’t want the exploding homeless population in their neighborhoods.
And those New Yorkers are increasingly mobilizing to stop the tide of
homeless in their residential, middle-class neighborhoods – with some
success. In the past month, three different Queens hotels appear to have
pulled out of deals to house the homeless because of community
opposition. In all three cases, the city refused to budge, so the locals
targeted the hotel owner Harshad Patel. It worked. After
they sent flowers to his home with the ominous note, “We’ll go out
there if you don’t want to meet us in Maspeth,” Patel told Maspeth
resident he would nix plans for a 110-bed facility at the Holiday Inn
there. He
also owns two hotels in Bellerose that also take in homeless, along
with regular guests, for emergency lodging when the shelters have no
room. Robert
Holden, a Maspeth community leader fighting the shelters, said their
successes have led to other neighborhood groups calling and asking for
advice to stop shelters, including Astoria and Rosedale in Queens, and
Sunset Park in Brooklyn. But Queens City Councilman Barry Grodenchik,
said the Bellerose protesters in his district had “legitimate gripes.”
When the hotel in his district first began accepting homeless people, he
heard few complaints, he said, but in recent weeks, as more and more
people were placed there, the chorus has grown. “It’s quality of life
issues,” he said, citing loud noise and panhandling. Meanwhile,
the mayor is trying to appeal to people’s hearts. On the day of the
Bellerose protest, Banks took children living in one of the protested
shelters to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan — and released a
heart-tugging video documenting the visit. The trip, Banks said, was to show, “a helping hand from adults, rather than the back of a hand.”
The Brooklyn Wars: How Big Banks Killed Our Neighborhoods
Across
the globe, the word “Brooklyn” has come to represent cutting-edge
cuisine, a vibrant music and literary culture, and the epitome of hip.
But most of the world doesn’t see the price that local residents pay as
their neighborhoods are swallowed by change. Masterful storyteller and
award-winning journalist Neil deMause turns a spotlight on how the New
Brooklyn came to be, who shaped it — and the winners and losers when
“urban renaissance” comes to town. “A
teeth-gnashing account of how the Big Money boys teamed up with City
Hall pols to grab everything from Coney Island’s Thunderbolt to
once–working class neighborhoods of downtown Brooklyn in the name of
progress.” —Tom Robbins, Investigative Journalist in Residence, CUNY
Graduate School of Journalism* “The Brooklyn Wars recovers the
great Brooklyn virtue of telling it like it is. Neil deMause writes with
the street-savvy common sense Brooklyn was known for before it became a
‘brand.’” —Paul Moses, author of An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story
of New York’s Irish and Italians “A great read, impeccably researched.
This is essential reading for anybody who witnessed the mind-blowing
transformation of Brooklyn over the past 20 years and hungers to
understand what actually happened.” —Kelly Anderson, director of My
Brooklyn
How Gentrification is Changing Neighborhoods
How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers
Airbnb Bad Neighbors, Warehouses Apartments -- Rising Rents and Increasing Gentrification
How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers
Airbnb Bad Neighbors, Warehouses Apartments -- Rising Rents and Increasing Gentrification
Daily News Cuomo's Plan for Penn Station Not Grand Meets Cash Reality
Well, he’s doing something: Cuomo's Penn Stationambitions meet cash reality (NYDN Ed) Proclaiming
that New York had to once again build big and great, Gov. Cuomo in
January announced that — ASAP —he would transform Penn Station into “a
modern, iconic gateway to New York” fit for the 21st century. He
pretended last week to keep his pledge with the resuscitation of
decade-old plans to build a train hall in the Farley Post Office across
the street. It’s a grand idea — and has been since Gov. Pataki selected
the same developers to do much the same work because, as owners of many
nearby properties, they have a viable financing scheme. They envision
building an enormous public space, topped by a one-acre glass skylight,
that would better accommodate Long Island Rail Road, NJTransit and
Amtrak passengers who are interested in coming and going at the Eighth
Ave. end of Penn Station. Without minimizing those virtues or the
benefits of putting the rest of Farley to use, the project lacks the
glory Cuomo advertised when he said Penn station “will be dramatically
renovated.” While Cuomo vows that better is still to come for Penn, the
immediate outcome explains why New York no longer builds big or great.
Because it ain’t got the money.
As Affordable Rents Dry Up and NYCHA Apts Decrease Homeless Numbers Increases
The
number of people sleeping in New York City shelters has increased by 18
percent since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office and reached nearly
60,000, raising questions about the effectiveness of current policies, The Wall Street Journal reports. *
In an ever-clearer attempt to dodge accountability for enabling a developer to make a bonanza on formerly city-owned real estate, First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris has played New Yorkers for fools — possibly including Mayor de Blasio. * The number of people sleeping in New York City shelters has increased by 18 percent since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office and reached nearly 60,000, raising questions about the effectiveness of current policies, The Wall Street Journal reports.
In an ever-clearer attempt to dodge accountability for enabling a developer to make a bonanza on formerly city-owned real estate, First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris has played New Yorkers for fools — possibly including Mayor de Blasio. * The number of people sleeping in New York City shelters has increased by 18 percent since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office and reached nearly 60,000, raising questions about the effectiveness of current policies, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Media Tells Us That Homelessness Increases But Protecting Developers Will Not Tell Us Why
The
number of people sleeping in New York City shelters has increased by 18
percent since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office and reached nearly
60,000, raising questions about the effectiveness of current policies, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Now the Entire State Budget is A Member Item Pay to Play Opportunity
State
leaders set aside $19 billion in “non-specific funds” in the latest
$155.6 billion budget, which the government watchdog group Citizens
Union said could be a source for corruption, the New York Post reports.
IDC's Klein Power Broker in A 2017 Cuomo Triangulation State Senate
Now That the IDC is a Lock Cuomo Does Fund Raiser for Senate Dems
A Fake News Blog Funded by Lobbyists Honors Bharara Going After Those Same Lobbyists
Manhattan U.S.Attorney Preet Bharara honored as ‘Newsmaker of the decade’ at City &State’s 10th Anniversary Gala
(NYDN) Preet Bharara went from serving indictments to being served
dinner. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney, named “Newsmaker of the decade,”
was the keynote speaker Tuesday at City & State’s 10th
Anniversary Gala that was filled with the city’s top political leaders.
The honor came just five days after he charged nine big wigs, including
Gov. Cuomo’s former aide and campaign manager, with shaking down upstate
companies seeking state contracts. The news magazine’s gala was held at
the swanky Vermilion on Lexington Ave.
Is Speaker Mark-Viverito A Racist?
Push to probeCouncil Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito for bias over claims of racial remarksr egarding NYCHA hiring
(NYDN) Mayor de Blasio's Human Rights Commission has been asked to
investigate allegations that City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
pressured NYCHA to replace a black development manager in the Bronx with
a “Spanish manager.” Community activist Tony Herbert announced Monday
he’d demanded probes from the commission, as well as the Manhattan U.S.
attorney’s office and city Department of Investigation. “What we don’t
need is someone creating dissension between African-Americans and
Hispanics in this day and age,” Herbert said.
Were Are the Council Hearing On NYCHA Repairs Sales of Land?
Were Are the Council Hearing On NYCHA Repairs Sales of Land?
As Hispanic Get Push Out of Williamsburg the NYP Calls A Councilman Protesters Gangsters Because They Protest A New Housing Development That Will Increase the Push Out of Their Community
@gblainnydn Given this was placed w Lovett, we can assume Cuomo's building a "stupid, not criminal" defense for his own indictment? LOVETT: Cuomo should have seen warning signs beforeauthorities began bribery probe into his staff(NYDN) * LOVETT: Gov and staff privately trashed reporters...
As New Yorkers Get Push Out of Their Communities With High Rents the Council Does Fluff Resolutions, Color Code Their Outfits to Make Themselves Look Better
Yes Gov Paterson Settles With SEC What About His Lobbing Work With Allure Rivington Group?
Paterson was paid consultant to firm that flipped nursing home (NYP, 4/10/16) Former Gov. David Paterson was a paid consultant to the Brooklyn company that sparked a scandalwhen it flipped the Rivington House nursing home for a $72 million profit,
The Post has learned. The former governor was “on call” for Allure
Group managing partner Joel Landau during talks for the takeover of a
second nursing home, a Brooklyn facility that is also being converted
into luxury housing, a source close to those negotiations told The Post.
That deal is under investigation by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Some Progressives Organize Against Cuomo
State Democrats want to drive Andrew Cuomo out of office (NYP) Disaffected Democrats furious with Gov. Cuomo after nine of his friends and donors were ensnared in a sprawling federal corruption scandal last
week say they plan to run him out of office. More than four dozen
progressive leaders met in Albany on Saturday to launch a statewide
organization aimed at moving the Democratic Party leftward and building
support for a candidate to oppose Cuomo in 2018. “Taking over the
Democratic Party and pushing Cuomo out the door is a major reason we are
pushing this forward today,” said attorney Arthur Schwartz, who
organized the powwow.
Tom Dadey @TomDadeyJr .@PreetBharara Describes Corruption in New York as systemic overlooks 'do nothing' District Attorneys * Who
Watchers the Watchman, Lobbyists, Grand Jury, AG -DAs Conflict of
Interests with the political machines and pols who elect them
NYPD Ticket Fixing Scandal Reporting Drip Drip Drip
de Blasio in Panic Mode Lashing Out At Every Question of His Decisions
de Blasio Barks At Press Again And Again to Avoid Answering Questions
De Blasio lashes out after getting questions he doesn’t like (NYP) America’s touchiest mayor doesn’t like to answer tough questions — and lately, he’s blaming the people who get paid to ask them. Mayor de Blasio this week lashed out at journalists from The Post and The New York Times asking him about issues he would rather not answer, at one point chiding a reporter to “stop wasting my time.” On Thursday, he went after The Post for asking why he pushed back a meeting with blind residentsaffected by the Chelsea terror explosion so he could work out in the gym and sip coffee with First Lady Chirlane McCray. “I’m quite aware of what you guys are up to, and again, you are a paper with a clear right-wing agenda,” he raged. “Let’s be real about it. You’re a propaganda rag.” He then tried to justify his leisurely morning by arguing that maintaining his physique is in New Yorkers’ best interests. De Blasio delays visit to Chelsea bombing site to work out Minutes earlier, he cut off a Times reporter for questioning his senior adviser and 2013 campaign-finance co-chairwoman Gabrielle Fialkoff about how shady donors were appointed to his transition committee. The donors, Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, are central figures in probes into de Blasio’s fund-raising. At de Blasio’s prompting, Fialkoff clammed up about the pair. A day earlier, the Times asked Hizzoner about a spike in crime over the last fiscal year..De Blasio, who frequently brags about the city’s falling crime rates, branded the reporter a “contrarian.”
Pro Developer Blaming the Victim - NYP, Daily News: Lies About the Cause of Increase in Homeless: Its' Gentrification Displacement Nothing to do with "Rights of Homeless"
NY Post: "The roots of the city’s homeless woes go back decades, to the mad decision to recognize a legal “right to shelter.” Advocacy groups — like the one where Banks spent most of his career — followed with endless lawsuits and other pressure to add to the “rights” of the homeless, and limit the city’s ability to use any form of “tough love."
Daily News: "At a time when decent, affordable housing is scarce, de Blasio’s uncompromising defense of a legal right to shelter for all — the life’s work of his welfare commissioner, Steve Banks — makes for a self-fulfilling crisis."
deB Banks is Clueless and A Incompetent Managers in An Administration That Has Sold Out to Developers
As deB Pushes Luxury Housing On Public Housing Land He Never Read His Report How Gentrification Hurts NYCHA Tenants
_How the Media Lost the Race for Mayor(City Limits)
DNAINFO Finds Another Pay to Play deB Contractor, Not Just About Rat Bags
DNAINFO Finds Another Pay to Play deB Contractor, Not Just About Rat Bags
Feds Probe De BlasioFundraiser Whose Engineering Firm Won Big Contracts (DNAINFO)
A top bundler for Mayor Bill de Blasio is under federal investigation
over his campaign fundraising and contracts the city awarded his
environmental engineering firm, DNAinfo New York has learned. Manhattan
federal prosecutors slapped Charles Hocking and his firm, Hazen and
Sawyer, with subpoenas earlier this summer as part of their wide-reaching probe into the mayor and possible pay-to-play schemes,
according to sources. Federal investigators have sought records
connected to Hocking's donations to de Blasio, communications that
Sawyer had with city personnel and contracts awarded to Hazen and
Sawyer, the sources said. Hocking, the president of Hazen and Sawyer,
raised more than $22,550 in campaign donations for de Blasio's 2013
mayoral run, campaign finance records show. The donations were all made
two days after de Blasio won the Democratic primary. Nearly all of the
46 donations Hocking bundled were from Hazen and Sawyer employees,
records show. Earlier in the 2013 election season, Hocking had raised
$20,700 in donations for mayoral contender Bill Thompson. After de
Blasio won the general election, Hocking raised an additional $30,350
for his transition team. The majority of the money again came from Hazen
and Sawyer employees, records show. Hazen and Sawyer, which specializes
in controlling water pollution, has been awarded hundreds of millions
of dollars in city contracts over the past three decades — and it has
continued to win lucrative gigs in the past three years, records show.
Not Only Are NYers Block from Early Voting Albany Does All It Can to Suppress Voter Turn-Out to Protect Incumbents
Even the Supreme Court Donnell's Decision Could Not Keep Sampson Out of Jail
Former State Overseer Ratner's Atlantic Yards No Accountability One Big Rip Off
How Bruce Ratner Wins Approval for his Projects
Dominican Take Over of Harlem Continues With Senate Win
Dominican Take Over of Harlem Continues With Senate Win
Espaillat's Win Another Blow to Harlem's Black PoliticalPower: Experts(DNAINFO)
"The truth is this is the official end of the Charlie Rangel era and
the beginning of the Dominican explosion," said one political operative
with clients in Harlem who asked not be named to protect working
relationships. Marisol Alcantara, the handpicked successor of state Sen.
Adriano Espaillat, who won the primary for Rangel's old seat, won a
tight race where she got 693 more votes than (Robert) Jackson, who was
in third place, and 572 more votes than second-place Micah Lasher, chief
of staff to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Robert Jackson was
backed by Rangel
The Most Transparent Mayor In History Is In Court Blocking Release Of His Involvement With His Shadow Govt Lobbyists
Another de Blasio Promise Broken Cannot Produce A Single Donor That Did Not Get Bag of Goodies From City Hall
Following news of an investigation into his fundraising efforts, de Blasio has failed to follow through on his Promise
to release examples of donors to his campaigns and causes who did not
receive benefits they had sought from city government, the Daily News writes.
Keep
your word, Bill and produce the list of donors who got nothing (NYDN)
“A stunning number of donors and supporters not only did not get things
they hoped they would get, they got a rejection of things they hoped
they would get,” de Blasio declared. Going still further, the mayor
pledged to release “in the coming weeks” examples of donors to his
campaigns and causes who did not receive the benefits they had sought
from city government. That was on May 18. Since then, nothing. At the
time, de Blasio was under pressure as the Daily News and others dredged
up example after example of fortune smiling on donors who sought city
actions to advance their business interests. A peddler of
rodent-repellent trash bags who had given $100,000 to the mayor’s
Campaign for One New York won a meeting with the mayor, a trial Parks
Department contract and, finally, a subcontract worth millions. A
lobbyist and a labor union, both generous de Blasio backers, had pressed
to eliminate deed restrictions on a Lower East Side nursing home
property — paving way for the buyer to score a $116 million luxury condo
deal. Harendra Singh, operator of Water’s Edge restaurant in Long
Island City under a city lease, had provided more than $20,000 to de
Blasio’s 2013 election campaign. Although
mayoral aides noted unspecified “vetting issue” and “r/flags,” Singh
ended up named both to the board of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York
City and to committee that unsuccessfully sought to lure the
Democratic convention to Brooklyn. Singh stayed on the fund board until
federal prosecutors charged him with Sandy aid fraud at the Queens
restaurant and bribery of officials in Nassau County. He has pleaded not
guilty. Now Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is reportedly
scrutinizing whether the mayor’s office attempted to intervene on
Singh’s behalf after a city audit found that he owed more than $1.7
million in rent and fees on Water’s Edge. Singh and many other donors
got the red carpet treatment from de Blasio and deputies. So, what was
that again about revealing those who didn’t? Could it be that listing
mayoral benefactors who were denied benefits would be as good as listing
those who got city goodies? Could it be that when prominent backers —
such as the yellow taxi industry and advocates for a ban on carriage
horses — did come away empty-handed it was at the hands of a City
Council that defied de Blasio’s pressure on the donors’ behalf? Could it
be that de Blasio has not a single example in which he disappointed a
major donor? You’re the one who promised, Mr. Mayor. Let’s have the list
— even if it is a blank sheet of paper.
Mayor's Broken Promise to Close A Homeless Hotel Also
Mayor's Broken Promise to Close A Homeless Hotel Also
Bronx officials fumeat de Blasio’s failure to remove homeless from motel (NYP)
The city is reneging on a promise to remove the homeless from a motel
in Riverdale where an accused bank robber had lived, angry Bronx
officials charged Tuesday. Homeless individuals were indeed moved out —
but they were replaced by homeless families. “This is the ultimate in
hypocrisy and lies and just a sign that this administration has no clue
on how to conduct a homeless policy,” fumed state Sen. Jeff Klein
(D-Bronx). The Post reported in May that 48-year-old motel/shelter
resident Paul Taylor was arrested in front of the Van Cortlandt Motel
and charged with two bank heists in February. Residents and local
officials said it was only then that they learned the motel had been
leased as a homeless facility. Weeks after the Post report, de Blasio
administration officials attended a community-board meeting and publicly
promised to remove the homeless by September. “The mayor has a plan to
discontinue that practice,” according to minutes from the June 9
Community Board 8 meeting. Lauren Gray, a spokesperson for the
Department of Homeless Services, said the city had hoped to empty the
motel but needs to keep using it because of “increasing” demand. * The
number of New Yorkers living in homeless shelters reached an all-time
high over the weekend, a bleak milestone that officials blame on a lack
of affordable housing and support services for the poor, the Daily News reports.
More about Lobbyists Mercury
de Blasio Using PAC Lobbyists Consultants To Get Around the Elections Law and Control Elections and the Press
Campaign LobbyistsControl A Secret Shadow Government
Lobbyists Red Horse
Lobbyists Hilltop
PoorDoor Lobbyists George Arzt
Bronx Lobbyists MirRam Group
Nepotism Head of Pension System Leaving
Bronx Lobbyists MirRam Group
Nepotism Head of Pension System Leaving
Pension-system head leaving amid probe into her hiring ex
(NYP) The head of the city’s largest pension system is leaving her
$219,771-a-year job amid an investigation into the hiring of her former
live-in girlfriend. Diane D’Alessandro, executive director of the New
York City Employees’ Retirement System, said she’ll retire effective
Dec. 31 from the agency that manages pension benefits for some 300,000
workers and retirees. She’s quitting nine months after hiring her
ex-domestic partner, Ellen Carton, as deputy director of human resources
with a $127,000 salary. D’Alessandro had previously awarded two
consulting contracts to a two-person Arizona firm joined by Carton, The
Post found. After the Post report, the city Department of Investigation
launched an ongoing probe.
A Mayor Whose Pro Developer$ Housing Policy Failed Homeless Policy, Dumps Shelters on Communities That Won't Vote for Him
As Shelter Population Surges, Housing for Disabled Comes Up Short (NYT)
Advocates
have been fighting for years for accommodations for people with
disabilities, and the shortcomings have become more pressing.
De Blasio BlamesMedia Coverage of Homeless For Surge in 311 Complaints (DNAINFO)
de Blasio said Thursday that heightened media coverage of the homeless
in recent weeks is fueling the surge in 311 complaints since he's taken
office. He said recent stories claiming an increase in the number of
homeless people on city streets are overstating the problem — but they
are having an impact on the public. "I think the media has put a lot of
attention on this issue lately, more than previously," he told
reporters during a press conference at Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx.
"I'm not sure if the attention that's been given is proportionate to
what's happening. I think it's caused people to be more and more
concerned."
The Post Ignores the Reason for Increase Homelessness
Fighting back against de Blasio’s hopeless homeless policies (NYP) You can too fight City Hall. Indeed, folks in Maspeth have halted Mayor de Blasio’s plans to open a 115-bed homeless shelter in their quiet residential neighborhood. Then, in last week’s Democratic primary, they ousted Assemblywoman Marge Markey over her feeble response on the issue. The mayor’s folks aimed to convert a Holiday Inn Express to a homeless shelter, set to open Oct. 1. Queens lawmakers and residents sued to block the move last month — and the furor prompted the motel’s co-owner to tweet that the deal is off. City Hall insists the plan will still go forward — because it needs somewhere to put the ever-rising homeless tide. And turning hotels into shelters is a key part of its answer. But, as we’ve said before, it’s all a hopeless task as long as Human Resources Commissioner Steven Banks — who spent decades suing the city to create new rights for the homeless — leads Team de Blasio’s response. The Post recently found that the number of homeless persons sheltered at hotels had risen 50 percent since February to nearly 4,000 — and to over 60,000 in city shelters. And The New York Times reported that families are again sleeping overnight at city intake offices — something Banks fought as a Legal Aid lawyer 20 years ago. There has been a veritable explosion in the street homeless population as well as homeless families in shelters. The vacancy rate at city shelters for families with children is less than 1 percent. Team de Blasio’s desperate response includes paying to send homeless to their families outside the city and providing rental subsidies to homeless families willing to relocate out of town. But that’s not stemming the tide. Without a coherent homeless-prevention strategy, and a serious “tough love” approach to those claiming to be homeless, the need for more places to warehouse people will keep growing — and angering communities. Maspeth won’t be the last neighborhood to fight City Hall to a draw — or oust unresponsive elected officials.*
Fighting back against de Blasio’s hopeless homeless policies (NYP) You can too fight City Hall. Indeed, folks in Maspeth have halted Mayor de Blasio’s plans to open a 115-bed homeless shelter in their quiet residential neighborhood. Then, in last week’s Democratic primary, they ousted Assemblywoman Marge Markey over her feeble response on the issue. The mayor’s folks aimed to convert a Holiday Inn Express to a homeless shelter, set to open Oct. 1. Queens lawmakers and residents sued to block the move last month — and the furor prompted the motel’s co-owner to tweet that the deal is off. City Hall insists the plan will still go forward — because it needs somewhere to put the ever-rising homeless tide. And turning hotels into shelters is a key part of its answer. But, as we’ve said before, it’s all a hopeless task as long as Human Resources Commissioner Steven Banks — who spent decades suing the city to create new rights for the homeless — leads Team de Blasio’s response. The Post recently found that the number of homeless persons sheltered at hotels had risen 50 percent since February to nearly 4,000 — and to over 60,000 in city shelters. And The New York Times reported that families are again sleeping overnight at city intake offices — something Banks fought as a Legal Aid lawyer 20 years ago. There has been a veritable explosion in the street homeless population as well as homeless families in shelters. The vacancy rate at city shelters for families with children is less than 1 percent. Team de Blasio’s desperate response includes paying to send homeless to their families outside the city and providing rental subsidies to homeless families willing to relocate out of town. But that’s not stemming the tide. Without a coherent homeless-prevention strategy, and a serious “tough love” approach to those claiming to be homeless, the need for more places to warehouse people will keep growing — and angering communities. Maspeth won’t be the last neighborhood to fight City Hall to a draw — or oust unresponsive elected officials.*
Maspeth brings shelter protest to Brooklyn; de Blasio upset (WPIX)
A Pol From An Era When Albany Leaders Where Challenged and Communities, Voters Come First Has Died
Frank J. Barbaro, Liberal New York Lawmaker, Dies at88 (NYT) Frank J. Barbaro, a former longshoreman and liberal state assemblyman from Brooklyn who was Edward I. Koch’s
chief challenger for re-election to a second term as mayor of New York,
died on Sept. 4 at his home in Watervliet, N.Y. He was 88. The cause
was congestive heart failure, his wife, Mary, who is known as Patty,
said. Mr.
Barbaro (pronounced BAR-ba-roe) was a liberal Democrat who won election
as a legislator 12 times. But he also shattered some of the lances he
wielded while championing sometimes quixotic causes during nearly 50
years as a candidate. He first ran, unsuccessfully, on an antiwar
platform for the Assembly in 1968; last spring, he was elected as a
Bernie Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention from
upstate New York. (He had moved to Watervliet, in Albany County, a
decade ago.) In between, he lost elections for Brooklyn borough
president, mayor and Congress. In the Legislature, Mr. Barbaro was a
fierce advocate for organized labor, tenants and minorities. He later
served for six years as a State Supreme Court justice. He attributed his
political radicalization to the Vietnam War. After leading neighborhood
rent strikes, he was elected in 1972 to the Assembly, where he was
chairman of the Labor Committee and served through 1996.
Are Their Now 8 Areas of Corruption the Feds Are Looking Into?
Probe Looks at Now-Closed Queens Restaurant Whose Owner HasTies to Mayor (WSJ)
Investigators examine if officials in mayor’s office tried to dissuade
city agency from pursuing inquiries into finances of Water’s Edge
restaurant. Federal authorities investigating possible corruption in New
York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration are looking into a
now-closed Queens restaurant that leased land from the city and whose
owner has political ties to the mayor, people familiar with the matter
said.
Trial date set for Long Island restaurateur Harendra Singh | Newsday
Are Their Now 8 Areas of Corruption the Feds Are Looking Into?
Trial date set for Long Island restaurateur Harendra Singh | Newsday
Federal
authorities investigating possible corruption in the de Blasio
administration are looking into a now-closed Queens restaurant that
leased land from the city and owner Harendra Singh, who has political ties to the mayor, The Wall Street Journal reports.
H. Singh and Eric Kumar in de Blasio's inauguration team - new york
Cyclists Dying Despite de Blasio's Vision Zero
Despite de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative, so far this year motorists have killed 17 cyclists, putting 2016 on the path to being one of the deadliest for bike riders in recent years, the Daily News reports.
H. Singh and Eric Kumar in de Blasio's inauguration team - new york
Trial date setfor restaurateur Singh via @Newsday - Singh needs to sing all truth - good bad & ugly.
Cyclists Dying Despite de Blasio's Vision Zero
Despite de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative, so far this year motorists have killed 17 cyclists, putting 2016 on the path to being one of the deadliest for bike riders in recent years, the Daily News reports.
IN INTERVIEW, BHARARA SAYS "PUTTING CORRUPT POLITICIANS IN JAIL MAY BE NECESSARY, BUT IT’S NOT SUFFICIENT"
C&S: What impact do you think your office has had onthe culture of Albany or the culture of politics?
PB: I
don’t know how much impact it’s had yet on culture. The first and most
important effect I think it’s had is it’s held people accountable, over a
dozen people accountable just in the state Legislature, approximately.
Just that alone I think is significant, and it sends a message to
everyone in the public that this kind of conduct is not going to be
tolerated. And people are paying attention and people are taking it
seriously. And people are not afraid to go after folks who have power
and have standing, and it doesn’t matter because no one is above the
law. And I think, eventually, that has an effect on the people and the
institutions that we’re looking at and investigating over time, and
people get the message, I think. Particularly, there are a lot of smart
people who are in politics and realize it’s not worth losing your
liberty over, it’s not worth losing your reputation over, to engage in
that conduct and conduct that they know is bad and unlawful. And I think
over time that causes the situation to get better. But we can’t do it
alone, and nobody here pretends that simply bringing a series of
prosecutions is enough. I often say putting corrupt politicians in jail
may be necessary, but it’s not sufficient.
Fed Rat Rechnitz: "I got the Mayor on Lock Down for OMB Top Job"
Vinny the Chin de Blasio Does Not Remember Rechnitz's Money or Hug
Silver Lower East Side Falls to the Asians
Yuh-Line Niou Defeats Sheldon Silver Ally in Primary for His Old Assembly Seat
(NYT) In one of several closely watched contests in New York, Ms. Niou
won a six-way Democratic race, defeating Alice Cancel, whom Mr. Silver,
the disgraced former speaker, had supported.* Disgraced ex-Speaker Sheldon Silver's chosen successor loses primary race to Yuh-Line Niou (NYDN) *
LES Democrats Make History, Select First Asian-American to Represent Chinatown in Albany
Estimate of turnout in yesterday's NYC Dem primary is 10%. Apathy rules & political class loves it!
LES Democrats Make History, Select First Asian-American to Represent Chinatown in Albany
First Hasidic Woman Elected As Brooklyn CivilCourt Judge (WCBS)
Vote Totals
Vote Totals
Ron Castorina defeated challenger Janine Materna with 68 percent of the vote.
Incumbent candidates won races for the State Senate, State Assembly and City Council.
The ex-pol touted a lifetime of public service during his campaign, without any mention of his arrest.
State Senator Martin Dilan defended his seat in the Sept. 13 primary, earning 55 percent of the vote.
Wright beat out challenger Karen Cherry in the 56th Assembly District race Tuesday.
Few voters show up to decide on key races (Riverdale Press)
State
Sen. Gustavo Rivera campaigned outside the Kingsbridge Heights School
(P.S. 86), before casting his vote. But few other voters showed up
during this week’s key races.
Cuomo IDC Rules Albany Now
Cuomo IDC Rules Albany Now
- SEN. JEFF KLEIN: SHE IS MINE...Alcantara Fundraising for IDC...
- * No matter which party controls the state Senate come January, there is an excellent chance state Sen. Jeff Klein, the leader of the Independent Democratic Conference, at the very least will wind up the chamber's co-president, the Daily News’ Ken Lovett writes.
De Blasio’s Nonprofit Must Comply With Ethics Panel’s Subpoena, Judge Says (NYT) A judge in Albany has ordered Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
political nonprofit to comply with a subpoena from a state ethics
panel, putting a damper on the mayor’s widening effort to prevent the
disclosure of certain communications that he deems privileged. The
decision by Justice Denise A. Hartman of State Supreme Court involved an
investigation by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics into whether the
nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, violated state regulations byfailing to register in 2015 as a lobbyist. The two parties argued their positions in court in July,
the first public court battle to emerge from various state and federal
investigations into the mayor’s fund-raising and political
activities, The ruling, issued last week but not received by the parties
until Monday, comes as Mr. de Blasio is also fighting in State Supreme
Court in Manhattan to keep emails and text messages between City Hall
and a small number of outside advisers — some of whom played central
roles in the political nonprofit before it closed down this year — from being disclosed to reporters. * Judge orders de Blasio nonprofit to turn over subpoenaed records (NYP) The nonprofit, which had taken in more than $4.4 million since January 2014 to promote the mayor’s agenda, had refused to fully comply with two subpoenas issued
by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics seeking documents, claiming
the panel was embarking on a fishing expedition. But Supreme Court
Justice Denise Hartman wrote Thursday, “The record before the court does
not indicate that the challenged subpoenas constitute harassment or
impermissible ‘fishing.’”The ruling means CONY, which disbanded in
March, must hand over reams of documents and communications — including
those between it and de Blasio — between 2014 to 2016. CONY lawyer
Laurence Laufer said he was reviewing the decision. He continued to
maintain that JCOPE — which has some members appointed by Gov. Cuomo, a
de Blasio enemy — was engaged in a “politicized” probe. The mayor said
that the administration disagrees with the judge’s decision and “we’re
exploring appellate options at this point.”
Manhattan Judicial Panel Blinks Supports Ling-Cohan
In an extraordinary reversal of a decision made by its own screening panel, the Manhattan Democratic Party will nominate Manhattan Judge Doris Ling-Cohan to be put on the ballot for re-election as a state Supreme Court justice this fall, the Post reports.
Judge wins re-election ballot battle after being barred @nypmetro - Manhattan v Brooklyn: Ct is a Bank & JSC Tellers
Transparency Bill Even Losing His Friends Brian and the Times
De Blasio Faces Mounting Pressure on Matters ofTransparency (NYT) For
about 10 minutes, the WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer hit Mr. de Blasio
with a barrage of questions about secrecy and transparency, pressing him
on his stance on police disciplinary records and his refusal to divulge
certain emails and texts with outside advisers. The questions came
after a lawsuit filed by organizations challenging the de Blasio
administration over its denial of access to those communications. The
radio exchange and the lawsuit, filed in state court on
Wednesday, marked the boiling over of months of simmering tension for
the mayor, a Democrat who championed transparency and police
accountability as a candidate and now finds himself accused of failing
to deliver on his promises. Exhibit A for critics is New York City’s Law
Department, which is fighting multiple court battles to maintain the
secrecy of city records of officers’ past misconduct and that of Mr. de
Blasio’s own communications with outside advisers. The
questions came after a lawsuit filed by organizations challenging the
de Blasio administration over its denial of access to those
communications. The radio exchange and the lawsuit, filed in state court on
Wednesday, marked the boiling over of months of simmering tension for
the mayor, a Democrat who championed transparency and police
accountability as a candidate and now finds himself accused of failing
to deliver on his promises. Exhibit A for critics is New York City’s Law
Department, which is fighting multiple court battles to maintain the
secrecy of city records of officers’ past misconduct and that of Mr. de
Blasio’s own communications with outside advisers. “On the police
records, I have a clear position that I want to see the state law
changed and I want us to be able to release those records,” Mr. de
Blasio told Mr. Lehrer, referring to a 1976 state law that protects police personnel records. The
issue emerged for Mr. de Blasio last month after the Police
Department’s decision to change a decades-old policy of posting certain
disciplinary information on a clipboard in its public information office
at Police Headquarters. The change, reported by The Daily News,
coincided with the filing by the Legal Aid Society of a Freedom of
Information Act request. “For the past two years it’s become
increasingly clear that the lack of accountability in police-involved
deaths and other abuses is germane to the public interest,” Cynthia
Conti-Cook, a staff attorney at Legal Aid, said. Erica Garner, Mr.
Garner’s daughter, put it more bluntly on Twitter on Thursday, accusing
the mayor in particularly curt language of caring about black lives only
in a sexual context. The mayor insisted that the city had no choice but
to defend the secrecy of the records until Albany acted to amend the
law. As for the key outside advisers, Mr. de Blasio said, “when some
individuals are very, very close advisers, that it is appropriate to
have a private relationship with them.” Officials at City Hall have
maintained for months that emails and texts with a select group of
outside advisers — including those whose firms have clients with
business before the city — can and should be kept from public view if
they contain advice for the mayor of the sort that his top city aides
would provide. (For emails to City Hall related to advisers’ clients,
officials have said those records would be turned over when
requested.)Mr. de Blasio’s position gained a kind of political infamy
when in May his then-counsel, Maya Wiley, deemed the advisers “agents of
the city.” Reporters have sought through Freedom of Information Act
requests to pry open those records; NY1 and The New York Post began
their court challenge this week.
The No Show Council With A 32% Raise
For the future of New York’s kids: Post endorsements in legislative primaries(NYP)
STATE SENATE SD-25 (Bed-Stuy/Crown Heights/Red Hook): Michael Cox is challenging (too-) long-term incumbent Velmanette Montgomery. A Crown Heights native who served in the Obama administration, Cox became a devoted fan of choice, charters and education reform while teaching in East New York. SD-31 (Washington Heights/Inwood/West Side): In a four-way race to succeed Sen. Adriano Espaillat, the best choice is Marisol Alcantara, who’s backed by Espaillat and by the pro-good-schools Independent Democratic Conference. SD-33 (West Bronx): City Councilman Fernando Cabrera poses a real threat to incumbent Gustavo Rivera. That’s why the Fund for Great Public Schools, a union front, funded mailers smearing the challenger. In fact, this firm advocate of the EITC and charter schools has built a strong record of delivering solutions for his constituents.
ASSEMBLYAD-6 (Bay Shore/Brentwood/Central Islip): In his challenge to incumbent Philip Ramos, Giovanni Mata has also been the target of dirty-tricks mailers claiming he’s the pawn of “immigrant-bashing Republicans.” Yet it’s Ramos who is standing in the way of hope for black and brown kids in this Long Island district — and Mata who demands that all children have access to good schools.] AD-33 (Queens Village/Cambria Heights/Hollis): In a crowded field looking to replace the late Barbara Clark, Roy Paul stands out. He made history at 19 as the youngest African-American ever elected to public office in the state. Now 30, he’s been solid on charters and school reform ever since winning that school-board race. AD-46 (Bay Ridge/Coney Island): Pamela Harris, the incumbent, faces questions about her shaky personal finances and a nonprofit headquartered at her home. We strongly urge a vote for challenger Kate Cucco, who rightly calls the education tax credit a “win-win piece of legislation.” Daily News Newell for Assembly(NYDN) Newell is highly informed, fully in touch with a district that is 43% Asian, 33% white, 16% Hispanic and 5% black, and promises unusual independence in Albany. A native of Taiwan, Yuh-Line Niou grew up in Washington state, where she served as a legislative aide, focusing on health care, and worked as an advocate against predatory lending. Niou has lived in the district for three years, is chief of staff to Flushing Assemblyman Ron Kim and is backed by the Queens Democratic machine. She says that she was motivated to run in part as Chinatown residents were seeking constituent services in Kim’s Queens office. Newell has the edge over Niou in knowledge both of the district and of the issues. He is in touch with grass-roots concerns about traffic, schools, affordable housing and sustainable neighborhoods. Seeking to represent an area flooded by traffic from the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, Newell backs congestion pricing to toll the spans and pour money into mass transit. * Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has largely stayed out of New York politics since leaving City Hall, is re-entering the scene with a Monday night fundraiser for former aide Micah Lasher’s Democratic state Senate bid, The Wall Street Journal reports. * Micah Lasher for state Senate (NYDN) * A senator for the Bronx: Pamela Hamilton-Johnson is thechoice (NYT)
NY1 and Post Go After de Blasio Secret Agent Lobbyists Berlin Rosen at Last the Times See Nothing
NY1 and the Post filed a joint lawsuit against Mayor Bill de Blasio over the city's refusal to release correspondence between the mayor and Jonathan Rosen, one of five “agents of the city” who the administration has shielded from public disclosure, Politico New York writes. * De Blasio Faces Mounting Pressure on Matters of Transparency (NYT)
de Blasio Fights A Neighborhood Over the Homeless He Created With the Help of His Developer Friends
The co-owner of a Queens Holiday Inn slated to become a homeless shelter said he wants out of the deal because community opposition is too much, but City Hall sources said the plan will go forward and the opening only delayed a few weeks, the Daily News writes.
Now That the Feds Look to Book Him the Media Discovers How Capalino and the Other Lobbyists Ran City Hall
The Wall Street Journal reported on those boasts in February, in a story on how the lobbying biz has soared since de Blasio took office. Now Politico has detailed how Capalino earned his pay, by looking at the e-mail trail between Capalino’s firm and City Hall for the first 16 months of the mayor’s term. Capalino and his staff exchanged messages with more than 120 administration officials — including every deputy mayor and nearly a dozen different agency heads. The lobbyists made a lot of requests for their clients — and look to have gotten action more often than not, even when the “ask” was at odds with the mayor’s progressive values. Of course, Capalino “earned” his access, having raised more than $45,000 for de Blasio’s 2013 campaign. Since then, he’s kicked in more cash to the mayor’s re-election bid, his nonprofit slush fund and even the private Gracie Mansion Conservancy He’s now the city’s top lobbyist, with his firm’s earnings up 172 percent since 2013. But he’s also tied into at least two different scandals, with his firm subpoenaed by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. That prompted de Blasio to disclose last week, “I do not have contact with [Capalino] anymore.” Then again, a mayoral spokesman calls that an “ethical decision” the mayor made for himself alone — leaving other city employees free to make “ethical judgments every day in a wide variety of interactions with the lobbying industry. That won’t change. Sounds an awful lot like a recipe for business as usual, as long as de Blasio’s fingerprints don’t show. Which would be par for the course for a mayor who pledged to drive special interests out of City Hall — but instead has welcomed them with open arms. * Sixteen months of emails between the de Blasio administration and Capalino + Company, one of the largest lobbying firms in New York City, show employees cajoling City Hall on behalf of his clients, often with favorable results, Politico New York reports. * * Reports detailing de Blasio’s close relationship with lobbyist James Capalino shows that while the mayor once pledged to drive special interests out of City Hall, he has instead welcomed them with open arms, the Post writes. * City revokes registration of billboard group run by de Blasio backer (NYP)
Machine Man George Arzt: Brooklyn Machine, Bronx Machine and Queens Machine Non Profit, Developers
More About Lobbyists Campaign Manager George Arzt
As the CFB Ignores PAC Corrdination With Consultants UFT's UF, NYCLASS, But Goes After A 25 Year Old
Authorities said Celia Dosamantes, a young Queens politico who ran for New York City Council in 2015, was arrested for faking donations to get 6-for-1 matching taxpayer funds for her losing campaign and received nearly $19,530 from the city, the Post writes.
SHADY SECRECY: Mayor de Blasio fighting to keep cop records from public in unprecedented blow to transparency (NYDN)
* The Times writes
that de Blasio needs to wake up and shut down the carnage of J’ouvert,
the overnight ritual of music, dancing, shootings and stabbings that
precedes each year’s West Indian American Day Parade, even if it means
facing angry constituents. * The Daily News criticizes
de Blasio’s attempts to keep from the public the disciplinary history
of the police officer who choked Eric Garner to death and argues the
mayor’s description of state law is wrong and imposes too much secrecy
on police discipline.* IF IT AIN'T BROKE: NYPD, outgoing Bill Bratton defend controversial 'broken windows' tactics after DOI critique(NYDN) * Damn liars and statistics: NYPD IG's broken broken-windows report(NYDN) * Irish, Puerto Rican Communities Outraged Following De Blasio’s Comparison To J’Ouvert Violence (WCBS) *
After the NYPD inspector general concluded this summer that cracking
down on minor offenses had no effect on reducing more serious crimes,
the department rolled out its own detailed report defending “broken
windows” policing, The Wall Street Journal reports. * The Daily News criticizes
the New York City inspector general’s report that found
quality-of-life policing to be a crime-reduction sham and stands by
peer-reviewed studies about the relationship between NYPD enforcement
and declining crime rates.*
New York law makes the disciplinary history of police officers
“confidential and not subject to inspection or review,” but that means
the taxpaying public has no right to know when those cops misbehave or
whether they have been disciplined, Newsday writes. * 'JUST
CAUSE YOU LOVE BLACK P---Y DOESN'T MEAN YOU LOVE BLACK LIVES': Erica
Garner blasts de Blasio for refusal to release discipline record of NYPD
officer whose chokehold led to father's death (NYDN) * Michael Bloomberg to host fund-raiser for ex-aide running for New York State Senate(NYDN) * Bratton’s blast back at the IG’s smear of the NYPD(NYP) *
In one of his last acts as New York City police commissioner, Bill
Bratton appeared with Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña to announce that
the 2015-16 school year was the safest on record for New York City’s
public schools, The New York Times reports.
* After it was revealed the officer who killed Eric Garner with a
chokehold boosted his salary with overtime pay, officials announced
overtime for cops accused of misconduct will have to be approved in
advance by the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed officer, the Daily News writes.'* Bill Bratton's Legacy Is Mixed as He Leaves NYPD, Police Observers Say (DNAINFO) Fans say his crime-fighting tactics set the standard, while critics say "Broken Windows" was toxic.
Deptuy Mayor Capalino Emailed 120 Administration Employees
LOBBYING DE BLASIO -- Emails show Capalino's reach in City Hall -- POLITICO New York's Dana Rubinstein, Sally Goldenberg, and Laura Nahmias: "When a construction company with a tarnished reputation sought a contract from Mayor Bill de Blasio's public housing authority, it got it. When City Hall seemed like it would delay, if not outright stymie, a prominent developer's plan for a so-called "poor door," the developer ultimately won the day - with some minor concessions. When an energy company wanted a show of support for a microgrid project in Brooklyn, it got that, too. All of these companies had one thing in common - they employed Capalino and Company, the lobbying firm whose founder and CEO Jim Capalino was such an ardent de Blasio supporter that he raised nearly $45,000 for his 2013 mayoral run and personally wielded a "Come Meet Bill" sign at a rally that year."
DURING THE FIRST 16 months of the de Blasio mayoralty, Capalino and his employees exchanged emails with more than 120 administration employees, including each of its deputy mayors and nearly a dozen individual agency heads. They offered praise. ("Kudos on Deputy Mayor Glen's excellent ABNY speech.") And they offered commiseration. When Capalino failed to secure de Blasio's attendance at a tribute to the late Ed Koch in April 2014, mayoral scheduler Lindsay Scola urged Capalino lobbyist Tom Gray to "Please keep me posted on any events in the future." "Will do," Gray replied. "In my opinion you have the hardest job in government (politics), I absolutely appreciate your level of communication." "Thank you, this means a lot," responded Scola. "I worked for bdb for 8 years," said Gray, referring to de Blasio. "I know some of ups and downs folks face over there well ;)" Gray was de Blasio's director of land use from 2009 to 2011, when the mayor was public advocate. He also worked for de Blasio from 2005 to 2009, when he was in the City Council. In another exchange, Ellyn Canfield Nealon, who handles special events for the mayor, was asked whether First Lady Chirlane McCray would attend several events. "I finally had my weekly FLONYC meeting this past week and pitched tour AND food bank meeting and they were amenable to both," she wrote to Gray on April 2, 2014. "Things move VERY slowly through that team but I will keep pushing that." READ MORE: http://politi.co/2cvqaqd* Mayor Bill de Blasio has added about 16,000 New York City workers http://on.wsj.com/2cKIpMF via
It is Follow the Leader in Albany
The typical state Senate Republican cast his or her votes on legislation the same way as Majority Leader John Flanagan 98.9 percent of the time in 2016, up from 98.4 percent agreement with Flanagan’s predecessor, Dean Skelos, in 2014, Politico New York reports. * Wherethe Assembly math stands, seven weeks before Election Day(PoliticoNY)
Charter Schools 10%
According to New York City Charter School Center statistics, for the first time in history the expanding charter school sector will serve roughly 106,600, or about 10 percent of all New York City school kids this year, and that number is growing, the Post reports. * DOE’s pricey ventures are overcrowding schools despite open seats: report (NYP) * A new report found overcrowding in New York City schools remains rampant even though there are more seats than enrolled students and the city Department of Education is focused on new building projects while empty classrooms collect dust, the Post reports.
Albany Pols Will Destroy Constitutional Convention Purpose
Candidates for state Legislature in the forthcoming local elections should sign a pledge promising to not seek a delegate position if voters approve a constitutional convention during their term, Hofstra University’s James Coll writes.
Trump Hits Cuomo On State Up NY TV Ads
While accepting the state Conservative Party’s endorsement, presidential nominee Donald Trump slammed the tens of millions of dollars in public funds Gov. Andrew Cuomo has spent on TV ads program promoting his Start-UP NY jobs program, the Post reports. * Despite the company’s financial problems, Cuomo defended SolarCity and said that its Buffalo factory, the centerpiece of his Buffalo Billion initiative, is part of a broader strategy focusing on the growth of the clean energy industry, The Buffalo News reports. * PolitiFact assesses Assemblyman Robin Schimminger’s claim that state officials reported an incorrect number of jobs created by companies participating in the Start-Up NY economic development program, and finds the lawmaker’s assertion to be “false.”
de Blasio Not the Lobbyists Cause the Corruption - He Let Them Run City Hall
In truth, the poison oozes from the mayor who invited the lobbyists and donors in to feed at his political profit.
Fed Law Suit On Elections Fixing in the Bronx
Bronx activists file suit begging judge to stop ‘rigged’ primary (NYDN) An underdog group of Bronx activists is asking a federal judge to cancel September's primary elections — claiming the local Democratic Party runs an elaborate scheme to cheat voters. In a theatrically written lawsuit — which quotes from The Federalist Papers and demands $5 billion in damages — eight plaintiffs allege that intervention from a judge is “the Bronx’s only hope of holding our first free and fair election in decades.” Among the plaintiffs in the suit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court, are several women who say party leaders nominated them without their knowledge to a local political body called the county committee which meets twice a year to endorse candidates. After missing meetings because they were unaware they were elected, their seats were filled by cronies loyal to the party leaders or simply left empty, court papers allege. “I knew nothing about this,” plaintiff Ilka Rios, 31, told the Daily News. “How can they use my name without my permission?” "We're prepared to defend the integrity of the Democratic Party, the voters who have made their voices heard, as well as the hardworking elected officials in this borough, against these scurrilous and ridiculous accusations," said spokesman George Arzt. Update Bronx primaries will be held despite claims of rigging: judge (NYP)A Manhattan federal judge said she will not halt the upcoming Bronx Democratic primaries amid new allegations of election rigging — but warned that she will order a do-over if the alarming claims bear out.“I have the power to order a new election and will do so if I find irreparable harm,” Judge Kimba Wood said at a court hearing Tuesday.
Lobbyists Stanley Schlein
Even Bertha Lewis With All Her Baggage is Over the Mayor
The New Dominican Machine
Mr.
Espaillat, a Democrat who is favored to win a congressional seat in
November, is trying to help two fellow Dominicans win state primaries.
de Blasio Secret Agent Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Bags $10,000
Firms hired by de Blasio earned at least $10M from campaign and non-profits (NYP) It pays to be an “agent of the city.” The political-consulting firms that helped Mayor de Blasio get elected in 2013 have hauled in at least $10.6 million from the mayor’s campaigns and charities over the past six years, a Post analysis of public records shows. BerlinRosen, which was co-founded by p.r. gurus Valerie Berlin and Jonathan Rosen in 2005, has expanded from five employees in 2007 to more than 100 today. The firm hooked up with de Blasio for his long-shot 2013 mayoral bid — and it apparently paid off. De Blasio’s campaign paid the firm $309,200 in consulting fees and to mail fliers to voters’ homes for his 2013 and 2017 mayoral bids, state campaign filings show.
And his Campaign for One New York charity paid BerlinRosen $530,413 to promote his universal pre-K and housing initiatives since 2014, the charity’s records show. The progressive p.r. firm has billed political candidates a total of $13.4 million since 2009, according to state campaign filings.
Federal and city investigators subpoenaed BerlinRosen for records regarding CONY expenses and coordinating with City Hall and Democratic candidates in the 2014 election cycle. Rosen told The Post he is “proud of our growth over the past 11 years into one of the country’s leading public relations, digital strategy and political consulting firms.” De Blasio has refused to release his e-mail communications with Rosen and other advisers, including AKPD media consultant John Del Cecato, and Hilltop Public Solutions political strategists Nicholas Baldick and Bill Hyers, naming them “agents of the city.” Those “agents” have also done well in recent years. Hilltop Public Solutions, a veritable revolving door of former de Blasio staffers, has taken $588,068 from the mayor’s campaign and another $362,732 from his nonprofit. And AKPD, which wrote an ad featuring de Blasio’s son, Dante, that helped the mayor win the primary, billed the mayor $7,603,765 for media buys and
his nonprofit another $1,346,420.
Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government
Silver Avoids Jail . . . Did Anyone Expect Him to Be Lock Up?
But Manhattan federal Judge Valerie Caproni, who presided over Silver’s trial, instead granted the Manhattan Democrat’s request that he remain free on bail.*
Instead, they had to track down where the proceeds from the sale went. They finally turned up a company that was created three weeks after Boyland was sentenced. That company, Solar Studios, was supposed to be producing a children's educational TV show. Its CEO, Andre Soleil, says Boyland loaned it $90,000 from the house sale, with the repayments set to pay off child support Boyland owed. Soleil says Boyland paid off the $155,000 he owed the state, although the state couldn't confirm that, citing privacy laws.* As for the $169,000 money judgment he owes the feds, documents filed May 6 by Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Robert Capers say he hasn't paid a dime. Capers has moved to garnish whatever money Boyland put into Solar Studios.
Critics Say Ethics Reform Bill Passed in Albany Does Little to Pursue Actual Corruption(NY1) * One day after signing his fourth ethics bill into law since taking office as governor, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is facing criticism from both sides, said there's still more work that's needed to be done, Time Warner Cable News reports.
In NY They Even Try to Clear Dead Corrupt Pol
The
lawyer for Thomas W. Libous, a former top New York State senator, has
moved to have his late client’s corruption conviction vacated based on
the doctrine known as abatement by death.
Bo Going After de at Least in A Newspaper Story
NYT Which is the Official Flack of the Developers Says What Happen to the Mom and Pop Stores
New York’s Disappearing Storefronts(NYT)
Sander Faces Machine Meeks Payback forAborted Run for Congress
Incumbent Sanders Faces Primary Challenger Who Has Backing of Queens County Democratic Organization (NY1)
Shady Nursing Home Partner Pulls Out of Bedford Armory Deal
The seller, the Allure Group, at the time was still working to get the city to lift deed restrictions governing the use of the property. “Guys, please make sure we do not discuss this deal with anyone on the outside right now,” Slate founder Matt Nussbaum wrote in an e-mail to 10 company officials in May 2015.“The seller is very concerned that the city and [the nursing-home] union will find out that he is in contract to sell at the price that we are buying it, which will directly
impact his ability to have the deed restriction removed,” the e-mail continued. “Once he has it removed, we can do whatever we want.”
Now Carmelo Anthony Drops Out of Bedford-Union Armory Development Deal
Carmelo Anthony Drops Support for Bedford-Union Armory Redevelopment | DNAInfo Reports The team behind the controversial Bedford-Union Armory redevelopment has lost its star player Following pressure from local activists, Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony has dropped all affiliation with the Crown Heights project, a representative of the athlete said Wednesday. But the move follows pressure from housing advocates (in the form of a rally, open letter and online petition)
calling for the basketball player to drop a plan that “will further
exacerbate the gentrification” of Crown Heights, the petition by New
York Communities for Change read. NYCC, working with the Crown Heights
Tenant Union and others, also called for the removal of developer Slate
Property Group from the project for their involvement with the
controversial sale and conversion of the Rivington House, a Lower East
Side nursing home, into luxury housing. Soon afterwards, Slate backed out of the redevelopment following
pressure from the mayor’s office, sources told DNAinfo New York.
“Carmelo is our hero,” said Bertha Lewis, the former CEO of NYCC when it
was known as ACORN, in a first report about Anthony’s decision in the New York Daily News.
Currently, the redevelopment project will continue with BFC Partners,
the real estate group chosen by the New York City Economic Development
Corp. to co-develop with Slate. But NYCC is pushing to start from square
one on the project.
Something About the Brooklyn DA's Office
Check, please, for the DA: Ken Thompson's big meal mistake (NYDN Ed) For
treating his security detail like gofers and for billing the
taxpayers for his meals, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson has
paid a hefty fine — and, more important, suffered a blow to his
reputation.Thompson took office in 2014 after leaving a private-sector
law firm at which, no doubt, underlings fetched expense-account meals.
He seems not to have realized those days were over.Worse, Thompson
seems to have bypassed reading city regulations governing official
conduct — while running an office in which no one stood up to say that
sending cops to pick up lunches and dinners was a no-no, that having
them lay out the money was a no-no and reimbursing them out of the
office budget was a no-no.In fining Thompson $15,000, the Conflicts of
Interest Board hit Thompson with a record sum against a DA. He will
also pay restitution. On the upside, the conflicts board applied a
measure of punishment to a top official, rather than just hammer those
lower down. In one case, the board forced a sanitation worker out of a
job for taking a Christmas tip. That may be a cautionary tale for
Thompson down the road.
Ken Thompson, Brooklyn District Attorney, Is Fined for Misusing Funds on Meals (NYT)
Ken Thompson, Brooklyn District Attorney, Is Fined for Misusing Funds on Meals (NYT)
Mr.
Thompson used police officers to get his meals and pay for them before
being reimbursed with office funds, said the Conflicts of Interest
Board, which levied a $15,000 penalty. * Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson must pay $15G fine for taxpayer-funded lunch and dinners totaling more than $5,000(NYDN) * Ken Thompson’s $15K fine may not be end of free meal drama (NYP) Brooklyn
District Attorney Ken Thompson refused to say Thursday whether he’d
been privately admonished for misconduct before getting blistered by
the city Conflicts of Interest Board — and it could spell trouble for
his law license if he was, an expert on legal ethics told The Post.* Investigator: Ken Thompson fired me because I’m former DA’s ally(NYP) * ‘Imperial Ken’ Thompson, the perk-crazed Brooklyn DA(NYP Ed) * Sister of 1986 hate attack victim sues Brooklyn DA for $15M, saying she was fired due to political ties(NYDN) *
According to a new $20 million lawsuit, a longtime investigator is
calling out Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson for firing her
because she’s a close ally of his predecessor and claims she was
demoted and replaced by someone who worked on his campaign, the Post writes. * Post exclusive sparked probe into Thompson’s free lunches(NYP)
New York Police Dept., Citing Law, Stops Sharing Personnel Data (NYT) Some criticized the department’s decision to shield information from journalists as a step away from transparency. *
Citing a clause in a 40-year-old law, the NYPD has suddenly decided to
keep records regarding the discipline of officers under lock and key —
and will no longer release the information to the public, the Daily News reports.* Mayor de Blasio has no problem with keeping cops’ disciplinary records sealed, but once blasted NYPD’s lack of transparency (NYDN) * Think again, commish about hiding NYPD personnel info(NYDN)
Chartock Yes Albany is Rigged and Losing Bharara Make Me Queasy
What Do You Do When Facing 7 Federal Investigations Leave Town
Crown Heights Developer Generated Gentrification is Replacing the the Community That Blew Up 25 Years Ago
That could save precious properties from bulldozers and greedy landlords. Costa, founder of Crown Heights South Association, has been aiming her outrage lately at the city's plans for a century-old former armory on Bedford Ave. The city has said it would let developers known as Bedford Courts take over the structure and build luxury units. Half of the approximately 300 units would be "affordable," and of those 99 would rent within the price range of a family of three that earns $85,400 a year. Just 67 apartments would be affordable to households earning less than $40,000. That's just another way of telling current Crown Heights residents to get the heck out of the neighborhood, Costa and others say. The median income for all households in Crown Heights South, where the armory is located, is under $42,000.
Where Do the People Go After They are Push Out of Their Homes by Gentrification?
Why is the AG Going After A Corrupt Charity First Exposed in 2010? Ruben Wills Del
Cook’s charity shut down in 2010 after The Post exposed its wasteful spending.
Bharara Send Silver to Jail Now
Preet Bharara wants Sheldon Silver to go straight to jail
(NYP) Convicted former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver should go
straight to jail, Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara argued in a letter
to a federal judge. The
filing late Wednesday by Bharara’s prosecutors cited an appeals court’s
action hours earlier in upholding the punishment to one of Silver’s
corrupt*
Convicted former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver should go straight to
jail, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara argued in a letter to a
federal judge citing an appeals court ruling in the case of former
Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, the Post reports.
Sheldon Silver's $80K Yearly Pension Could Be Up For Grabs By Feds(DNAINFO)
A new court ruling could stop corrupt New York politicians from keeping their pensions.
Sheldon Silver's $80K Yearly Pension Could Be Up For Grabs By Feds(DNAINFO)
A new court ruling could stop corrupt New York politicians from keeping their pensions.
Now the Gov Wants to Subsidized 421-A Workers to Push Gentrification?
De Blasio: Subsidized wages for construction workers are fine — if it doesn’t cost city
(NYP) Mayor de Blasio said he’s fine with the state subsidizing higher
wages for construction workers who build affordable housing in the five
boroughs – as long as it doesn’t impact the city’s bottom line. Asked
about a report in the New York Times
that Gov. Cuomo was considering reviving a suspended real estate tax
break program with a proposal that would see tens of millions of state
tax dollars going to ensuring union-level wages, de Blasio said “God
bless ’em.” “If that’s what the state thinks is the right thing to do
with state money, of course we can work with that,” he said at an
unrelated press conference on parks in The Bronx. “What’s not acceptable
to us is to add to the cost of the city’s affordable housing program,
which is already stretched very thin and trying to reach half a million
people.”* De Blasio cautiously supports affordable housing tax break for developers — as long as it doesn’t drive up costs(NYDN) * In Attempt to Convince Lawmakers to Vote for Affordable Housing Project, Mayor Appears to Anger Queens Councilman(NY1) * Allies of Bronx Borough President Wonder if Politics Played Role in Lack of Funding for Orchard Beach Pavilion Repairs(NY1)
At a time when New York desperately needs housing, affordable housing most of all, the governor has boosted the cost and put the taxpayer on the hook.
*
De Blasio, who has made creating more affordable housing a priority,
has faced fierce community opposition on specific projects, slowing his
plans to build more units as a larger push to keep New York affordable
for working class people, The Wall Street Journal writes * Critics rip Cuomo plan that combines tax and wage subsidies (NYDN)
* A proposal to revive the lucrative 421-a affordable housing tax
credit for developers by providing government wage subsidies for the
workers they hire is being blasted by business groups, nonprofit
providers and economic experts, the Daily News reports. * Cuomo wants the government to pay union workers higher wages (NYP) * Why Cuomo wants you to pay unions to build luxury housing (NYP)
What Andrew Cuomo did this month was like a parody of a
black-and-white 1940s movie about beefing kids in the alley. Bully No. 1
has a baseball bat: “Why I oughta smash your head in!” Bully No. 2 has
a knife: “I’m gonna slice you up good.” It’s a standoff, until along
comes Andrew, kindly and whistling, the grown-up, the soothing Bing
Crosby character. “What seems to be the trouble, boys?” says Bing Cuomo.
The two bullies explain themselves. “He owes me money!” “No, he owes
me money!” And that’s when you happen into the picture. Yes you, the
entirely innocent New York taxpayer, the random citizen who happens to
be walking by.
Cuomo Wants to Use Government Money to Revive Gentrification Causing 421-a
Cost of a good intention on 421-a fix (NYDN)
At the urging of construction unions, the governor smashed the renewal
of a property tax break, called 421-a, that is crucial to building
housing, including affordable units, in the city. By demanding a
so-called prevailing wage rate, Cuomo threw the economics entirely out
of whack. He prevailed on the state Legislature to bake into law an
unusual mandate for the Real Estate Board of New York, representing
developers, and the construction unions to work out wage rates both
could live with. Without such an agreement, the law fated 421-a to
die. The two sides failed to reach a deal, and no wonder: financing
higher wages on top of the affordable housing would bust the
developers’ tight budgets, rendering many projects unbuildable. To
break a months-long logjam, Cuomo now looks to dedicate potentially
tens of millions of dollars of state taxpayers’ money to achieve private
sector wage hikes that are acceptable to the unions.He pledges to kick
in $15 an hour on wages of up to $65 for workers on large rental
towers in Manhattan south of 96th St. and $50 on the booming
Brooklyn-Queens waterfront.At a time when New York desperately needs housing, affordable housing most of all, the governor has boosted the cost and put the taxpayer on the hook.
The Courts Took Away Corrupt Pols Pension Which Albany Would Not Do
Court’s ruling on corrupt NY pols’ pensions is long overdue (NYP) Corrupt New York pols who dream of retiring with fat, taxpayer-provided pensions just took a big hit in court. Score one for justice and common sense. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 2d US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that pensions of convicted lawmakers can be seized — even though the state Constitution prevents those egg nests from being “diminished or impaired.” US Attorney Preet Bharara has been targeting the retirement pay of legislators he’s convicted, rightly calling it a “galling injustice” that crooked pols continue to collect cushy pensions until “their dying day.” The two corrupt former legislative leaders, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, are in line for $80,000 and $96,000 respectively. But the judges said disgraced former Assemblyman Eric Stevenson must surrender the $22,000 he paid into the system because the state Constitution is “pre-empted” by federal law, which allows “forfeiture” of property derived from a crime “irrespective of any provision of State law.” In 2011, Albany stripped newly elected legislators of their pensions if convicted. But they couldn’t touch those already in office, like Silver and Skelos, because of the state Constitution. This year, after much kicking and screaming, the Legislature OK’d a constitutional amendment to allow the pensions of corrupt veteran pols to be seized retroactively. But it wouldn’t take effect for at least several years. Which makes the 2d Circuit’s ruling all that more important. Crooked pols have long rested easy knowing they had a taxpayer-funded cushion to fall back on if they got caught. That cushion was just yanked from under them.*
* A federal Court of Appeals ruled that disgraced former Assemblyman Eric Stevenson’s pension contributions are available to the feds as they seek to recoup $22,000 in ill-gotten gains, the Times Union reports.
An Amego Makes A Comeback
Disgraced former state senator Hiram Monserrate is looking to return to politics.*
de Blasio Limits the Press
de Blasio Limits the Press
De Blasio Imposes Limits On Reporters’ Questions At News Conferences (WCBS)*
* De Blasio appears to have imposed new limits on how many questions reporters can ask at his public news conferences, saying that a question and a follow-up is allowed but that if “everyone’s doing like three-part questions, it becomes a problem,” CBS reports.
de Blasio Runs A Political City Hall
Allies of Bronx Borough President Wonder if Politics Played Role in Lack of Funding for Orchard Beach Pavilion Repairs(NY1) *Mayor de Blasio fast-tracks renovation of Orchard Beach’s landmark bath house, thanks in part to Daily Newser(NYDN) * Let Orchard Beach bloom with a big investment by Mayor de Blasio(NYDN Ed) * PAY FOR MAY(OR): Cuomo is doling out big bucks in the Bronx, perhaps signaling he wants borough prez Ruben Diaz to start mayoral run (NYDN)
* De Blasio appears to have imposed new limits on how many questions reporters can ask at his public news conferences, saying that a question and a follow-up is allowed but that if “everyone’s doing like three-part questions, it becomes a problem,” CBS reports.
de Blasio Runs A Political City Hall
Allies of Bronx Borough President Wonder if Politics Played Role in Lack of Funding for Orchard Beach Pavilion Repairs(NY1) *Mayor de Blasio fast-tracks renovation of Orchard Beach’s landmark bath house, thanks in part to Daily Newser(NYDN) * Let Orchard Beach bloom with a big investment by Mayor de Blasio(NYDN Ed) * PAY FOR MAY(OR): Cuomo is doling out big bucks in the Bronx, perhaps signaling he wants borough prez Ruben Diaz to start mayoral run (NYDN)
1199 Close to the Mayor Pushed the Rivington Deed Lifting
Emails
and texts show 1199 SEIU helped a for-profit company build
relationships with the de Blasio administration as it persuaded the
city to modify deed restrictions on a nonprofit health facility in the
Lower East Side, The Wall Street Journal reports Newly Released Documents Underscore Influence of Health-Care Union (WSJ) *
While many New Yorkers are upset with the way de Blasio runs the city,
emails made public by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer show
that union bosses are the ones really calling the shots in City Hall, the Post writes.Smoking-gun evidence that union bosses run New York (NYP Ed) Many New Yorkers don’t like how Mayor de Blasio runs the city — but he’s not really the one calling the shots: Unions are. That became crystal clear from e-mails and documents City Comptroller Scott Stringer released this week linked to the city’s decision to lift deed restrictions from the Rivington House nursing home. When a top de Blasio staffer asked “how critical” the decision was, the reply from an aide, Sarah Samis, was telling: “Very critical b/c it involves 1199 jobs and they want this done,” said the e-mail, in a reference to the health-care workers union, 1199SEIU.
As New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration weighed whether to remove deed restrictions at a Manhattan nursing home—a
matter now under state and federal investigation—a top economic
development aide asked “how critical is this? “Very critical b/c it
involves 1199 jobs and they want this done,” wrote Sarah Samis, an aide
to First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris, in an email, referring to
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. Newly released emails, text
messages and other documents show 1199, the nation’s largest
health-care union and one of the most powerful in New York City, played
an integral role helping the Allure Group, a for-profit nursing care
provider, build relationships with Mr. de Blasio’s administration as
the firm successfully persuaded the city to modify the deed
restrictions on Rivington House. The deed change led Allure to sell
Rivington House, located on the Lower East Side, for what appears to be
a $72 million profit to developers who plan to build luxury housing, prompting several investigations.
The union wanted Allure to operate Rivington as a for-profit nursing
home, saving the jobs of some members, according to emails. The emails
and other documents, which were produced as part of the city comptroller’s investigation into the Rivington House
deed change, underscored the outsize influence 1199 has in Mr. de
Blasio’s administration and the degree to which city officials assess
the union’s interests when making policy decisions. The union was the
only major organized labor group to endorse Mr. de Blasio’s 2013 bid for
the Democratic mayoral nomination. The union was one of the two
largest contributors to the Campaign for One New York, a now-disbanded
political nonprofit supporting the mayor. The nonprofit received
$500,000 from 1199, records show. A number of Mr. de Blasio’s top
aides once worked for the union and one of his closest friends, Patrick
Gaspard, formerly served the union’s political director. “They are
very influential,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a
Manhattan Democrat who once worked there. “There has been a weakening
of the unions on the national level, but unions in New York remain
strong…and 1199 is among them.” The union has long held considerable
power in New York politics, with a member-mobilization operation and a
large political-action committee to contribute to candidates during
election years. Jennifer Cunningham, a former political director at the
union, is credited with helping resuscitate the political career of
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
after he lost his first bid for governor in 2002. The union helped
fund Mr. Cuomo’s publicity campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15 an
hour. The union strategized with Mr. de Blasio in connection with the
sale of Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn. The mayor initially promised to keep healthcare on the site but later backed a plan by Fortis Property Group,
a real-estate company, to develop it into high-rise towers with some
health-care services. Neighborhood activists tried to block Fortis
because other bidders were offering more health-care services. The
union received a subpoena in connection with a federal probe into the
closure of the hospital and the property’s sale, a person familiar with
the matter said. In the effort to lift the deed restrictions at
Rivington House, Joel Landau, an executive at the Allure Group, often
talked to 1199’s then-political director Kevin Finnegan, an ally of Mr.
de Blasio, in hopes of getting the union’s help to influence the city,
according to the emails and text messages. “Heard the mayor stood you
up today,” Mr. Landau wrote in a text to Mr. Finnegan. “He showed up
late as usual,” Mr. Finnegan replied. In one text from October 2014,
Mr. Landau praised Mr. Finnegan’s success advancing the union’s
interests in connection with the Brooklyn hospital sale. In a December
2014 email, Emma Wolfe, the mayor’s top political aide who once worked
for the union, wrote that officials at 1199 were upset and “urgently”
requesting that the city help Mr. Landau on Rivington House. A
September 2014 memo prepared by city aides on Rivington included a
chart comparing the interests of various stakeholders affected by the
deed change. The union was one of four groups represented in the chart.
Officials at the local community board on the Lower East Side also appeared aware of the sway that the union held with the mayor’s administration. The union is “very close” to the mayor and that is an “understatement,” wrote Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3, in an email. In an interview, Ms. Stetzer said the community board’s concern was transparency, and the community’s interests had been left out of the discussion. * Investigators have obtained the emails of Ross Offinger, a de Blasio fundraiser who connected him to wealthy donors but is now under scrutiny as part of a federal and state investigation examining the mayor’s fundraising activities, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Putting Students First is Always Printed on Pols Campaign Lit But Not A Reality Once Elected
Take the teachers union. It makes sure incompetent teachers can’t be fired and blocks kids from attending better-performing non-union charter schools. (Who can forget when City Council members actually read off a teachers-union cue card at a public hearing some years ago?) In Albany, Gov. Cuomo repeatedly bows to union demands — from holding up a tax credit needed for low- and middle-income housing to pushing his $15 minimum wage. The Legislature, too, takes orders from the unions. Just this week, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie asked Cuomo not to back a plan to let city charters use public funds for pre-K without city oversight. Why do pols cede power to the labor bosses? Because the bosses control big blocks of votes — and donate handsomely to the pols’ causes. De Blasio’s Campaign for One New York got $500,000 from 1199. Surely the union expected something in return.* De Blasio should rethink his city schools better test scores victory lap via@nypost * More happy talk on the city’s worst schools (NYP)
3.0 de Blasio Details of UFT Pact 5
CUNY SUNY
Federal Investigation Upstate Updates
Officials at the local community board on the Lower East Side also appeared aware of the sway that the union held with the mayor’s administration. The union is “very close” to the mayor and that is an “understatement,” wrote Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3, in an email. In an interview, Ms. Stetzer said the community board’s concern was transparency, and the community’s interests had been left out of the discussion. * Investigators have obtained the emails of Ross Offinger, a de Blasio fundraiser who connected him to wealthy donors but is now under scrutiny as part of a federal and state investigation examining the mayor’s fundraising activities, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Putting Students First is Always Printed on Pols Campaign Lit But Not A Reality Once Elected
Take the teachers union. It makes sure incompetent teachers can’t be fired and blocks kids from attending better-performing non-union charter schools. (Who can forget when City Council members actually read off a teachers-union cue card at a public hearing some years ago?) In Albany, Gov. Cuomo repeatedly bows to union demands — from holding up a tax credit needed for low- and middle-income housing to pushing his $15 minimum wage. The Legislature, too, takes orders from the unions. Just this week, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie asked Cuomo not to back a plan to let city charters use public funds for pre-K without city oversight. Why do pols cede power to the labor bosses? Because the bosses control big blocks of votes — and donate handsomely to the pols’ causes. De Blasio’s Campaign for One New York got $500,000 from 1199. Surely the union expected something in return.* De Blasio should rethink his city schools better test scores victory lap via
CUNY SUNY
Federal Investigation Upstate Updates
In
court filings, attorneys for G. Steven Pigeon, a Buffalo political
operative indicted on nine counts of bribery and extortion, argue the
case should be dismissed because evidence was illegally collected during
a 2015 raid on his home, The Buffalo News reports. *
COR Development, a firm reportedly at the center of a federal
investigation involving Cuomo development projects, is suing Todd Howe, a
former lobbyist who is part of the probe, over an $85,000 loan the
company says it made Howe, The Syracuse Post-Standard reports. * *
In the ongoing court battle over “pay to play” allegations by a
Cleveland developer, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is shaking up his legal
defense team, replacing one big name with another, apparently to avoid a
conflict of interest, The Buffalo News reports.
Espaillat's Chosen Successor Gets Backing That Reopens Old Political (DNAINFO)
WoundsFernando Ferrer backed Espaillat's chosen candidate after a personal history with opponent Micah Lasher.
Daily News Calls It Bizarro World That New Housing Causes Gentrification Displacement . . . The Paper Should Interview the Long Term Residents of Crown Heights About the Effects of New Construction
Yes in their backyards: Affordable housing now (NYDN) Construction of affordable housing faces doom in New York at the hands of the very City Council that cries how desperately needed it is. The vote confirmed that a key component of Mayor de Blasio’s drive to spur affordable housing is in deep trouble. While the plan is widely lauded, Council members balk at construction in their communities. The committee vote killed a project slated for Inwood, which is represented by Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, usually a loyal de Blasio ally. Rodriguez bowed to an uproar by constituents who are convinced — in a Bizarro World interpretation of the laws of supply and demand — that new apartments would hasten displacement of longtime tenants. By Council custom, fellow members defer to the desire of their local colleague. So, down went the development. Message received: Each Council member has veto power over new construction, rendering the entire Council captive to anti-development agitators while depriving places to live to New Yorkers hungry for housing.
Daily News Dump Gibson As Public Safety Chair for Dangerous Driving NYPD Cover-Up
Ticket outta there: Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson should fall from public safety chair (NYDN Ed) Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson let stand a report that she called a precinct commander to quash a ticket for dangerous driving — in string-pulling that demonstrates unfitness to continue as chair of the City Council Public Safety Committee. Officer Michele Hernandez says she pulled Gibson over after spotting her talking on the phone behind the wheel in 2014, a scant three months into Gibson’s term. Gibson faced a fine of up to $200 and five license points. But, unlike typical New Yorkers, she had the pull to dodge accountability, Hernandez revealed in a lawsuit that accuses the NYPD of retaliating against her for failing to meet summons quotas. The NYPD denies such quotas exist but has said nothing to dispute its officer’s account of the Gibson encounter. Hernandez says Gibson used the cellphone to call a precinct commander , sparking an order to nix the ticket. Gibson even put Hernandez on the phone with him to make sure she got the message. Asked for comment by The News, Gibson refused the chance to call the cop’s account false. She said that she “does not recall” any such incident, but “always takes very seriously and complies with all of our traffic laws.” Amnesia sets in with disclosure of a double dereliction. Dereliction one: Gibson anointed herself above the law by virtue of her position and special access to NYPD brass, demanding special treatment unavailable to her constituents. Dereliction two: Driving while speaking on a phone is not just a violation of state law; it is downright deadly, increasing fourfold the chances of a crash. Gibson well knew how deadly, because just two weeks prior to her NYPD run-in she had presided over a City Council hearing on Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan to reduce traffic fatalities. Her opening remarks spoke of safety’s urgency: “ We must do more to ensure that these horrific accidents no longer happen across our streets.” Family members of pedestrian crash victims then tearfully recounted their loved ones’ horrifying last moments. Said the uncle of a child mowed down by a cabbie: “There’s no moral difference between driving drunk and driving in an incompetent manner for another reason, whether you’re smoking pot, using a cell phone, road rage, impatience or turning into a crosswalk without looking.” Gibson might not recall that lacerating message, however. She had left the Council chambers. Now, she should leave her committee chair.
Cuomo Bites Back Hard
Gov.
Andrew Cuomo and his aides have developed a reputation for responding
with searing personal attacks when criticized by those who disagree with
his policies, which has left even political veterans jarred, The Wall Street Journal reports.
NYT Crime in the Parks Up Don't Worry . . .
The Times writes
that New Yorkers should not be worried about an analysis showing crime
has increased in parks, and that after years of increasing safety, New
Yorkers have rediscovered the ability to be shocked by crime, not
numbed by it. Spinning Education Numbers is the New Normal
The Post writes
that the New York City schools’ relaxed promotion policy has led to
thousands of students being moved up even when they should have passed
summer classes or repeated a grade.*
De Blasio should rethink his city schools better test scores victory lap (NYP Ed) Mayor de Blasio might want to rethink the wisdom of that victory lap he took after state-test scores showed slight improvements for the city’s public-schoolkids. Especially since Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa on Wednesday dumped a bucket of ice water on his boasts of “progress,” noting that scores this year couldn’t be compared to those from last year because the testing changed so markedly. “The whole idea that we put the asterisk there . . . is that we really didn’t want people taking a victory lap,” she said. Ouch.
De Blasio should rethink his city schools better test scores victory lap (NYP Ed) Mayor de Blasio might want to rethink the wisdom of that victory lap he took after state-test scores showed slight improvements for the city’s public-schoolkids. Especially since Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa on Wednesday dumped a bucket of ice water on his boasts of “progress,” noting that scores this year couldn’t be compared to those from last year because the testing changed so markedly. “The whole idea that we put the asterisk there . . . is that we really didn’t want people taking a victory lap,” she said. Ouch.
The NYP Blames the Homeless Not the Loss Of Hundreds of Thousands Affordable Housing to Gentrification and Airbnb
Stuck-in-the-past Bill de Blasio still thinks more housing will end homelessness (NYP) Like most left-wing Democrats, Mayor de Blasio remains hopelessly mired in the past, declaring — as he did again just last week — that “the solution to homelessness” is more housing. De Blasio touted new figures he says show the success of the city’s programs — including emergency rental assistance and curbing evictions — in moving the homeless to permanent housing. Except for one missing detail: There are now more homeless families living in city shelters than ever before. But the reasons for this are not always strictly economic. In some cases, the same kind of substance-abuse and mental illness that leads to street homelessness among single men are at play.Also, some families claim homelessness because they know by law they are guaranteed an automatic right to shelter and will be given preferred access to public housing.*
The New York City Planning Commission declined to impose a zoning plank requiring affordable housing on a boutique condo proposed in Manhattan, and the borough president filed a letter objecting, which will send the matter to the Council, the Times reports.
Developer Wants to Test Mayor's Inclusionary Zoning in Inwood, Councilman Opposes Project (NY1) * City
Council Votes Against Sherman Plaza Development in Inwood, Which Would
Have Been the First to Use New Affordable Housing Regulations (NY1) *
The
New York City Council voted against an apartment project in Inwood,
which would have been the first private development proposed under de
Blasio’s new zoning rules that require affordable units in any project
that needs city approval, the Daily News reports.
The Times Union writes
that most state lawmakers running for re-election would say they oppose
a massive pay hike for themselves, and if they get one, there’s nothing
they could do about it, but that’s not being entirely honest.
The Daily News writes
that the council’s vote against an Inwood project shows a key component
of de Blasio’s drive to spur affordable housing is in deep trouble, and
that the speaker should disabuse lawmakers of the idea that they have
veto power over new construction.
Sign A Petition to Stop Pay Raises to Lawmakers Until They Pass an Ethics Bill
Post reader starts petition to stop lawmakers’ 47 percent raise (NYP) A Post reader, spurred to action by a report about state lawmakers possibly getting a 47 percent raise, has started an online petition opposing the hike that has drawn more than 7,000 signatures in less than a week.
Pay Raises for His Staff to Keep Them From Walking? Keep Them Quiet?
De Blasio helps cronies but slashes pay for Bloomberg hires (NYP) *
Why City Hall staffers are getting big pay raises (NYP) The Mayor’s Office essentially admits the problem: The payouts are needed to “retain skilled staff,” it argues. But maybe the sums wouldn’t need to be as much if staffers better liked working for this administration.Start with the fact that Hizzoner is facing as many as seven different investigations into his team’s actions, including the Rivington nursing-home flap and his fund-raising for state Senate races. Then there are the reports of the mayor humiliating and upbraiding staffers at meetings and in “teachable moments.” And, of course, his ailing poll numbers and the (well-deserved) criticism of his mayoralty from so many voices (like ours). Refugees include Deputy Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, Press Secretary Karen Hinton and his short-lived social-media director. Environmental Commissioner Emily Lloyd, Sustainability Director Nilda Mesa and counsel Maya Wiley also gave notice.
de Blasio's Public School Report Card Grade F and Lying About Charter Success
Mayor de Blasio’s lame excuses for charter schools’ success (NYP) harters did better, de Blasio said, only because they focus on “test-prep.” He also (falsely) claimed charters have a “history” of “excluding” lower-performing kids. The mayor insisted his approach is outperforming charters in terms of “actually teaching kids.” And that union-run schools are “doing better” — despite their lower scores. (The proof? There isn’t any.) Note the hypocrisy: Even as he downplayed the value of test scores at charters, he emphasized it for district schools. The results “represent important progress” and “real improvements,” he said, noting an eight-point jump in the percentage of English-proficient kids at the districts, and a one-point uptick in math.
De Blasio fires back at Success Academy boss over school's rising test scores, claims they're based on ineffective 'prep-heavy' models (NYDN)
De Blasio's agreement with teachers and principals doesn't ax enough bad educators 'to help kids' (NYDN)
Letter to Cuomo Reveals State Senate’s Plan to Help Success Academy (NYT)
In the letter, John J. Flanagan, the Senate majority leader, urged the
governor to do something about the “regulatory burden imposed” by the
city’s universal pre-K program.
Fariña must tell judge why computer failed special-education students (NYP) D epartment of Education Chancellor Carmen Fariña will have to tell a judge why the city’s school system has failed special-education students, a new ruling says. Manhattan Judge Lynn Kotler ordered the special tribunal in response to a suit filed by Public Advocate Letitia James in February. James had found that a $130 million computer program that monitors the city’s 200,000 special-education students is “incapable of providing citywide data.” As a result, disabled students have missed out on services and the city has had to pay $38 million in overtime, according to James’ lawsuit. Fariña has resisted an inquiry into the $130 million program, known as the Special Education Student Information System, or SESIS.
Fariña must tell judge why computer failed special-education students (NYP) D epartment of Education Chancellor Carmen Fariña will have to tell a judge why the city’s school system has failed special-education students, a new ruling says. Manhattan Judge Lynn Kotler ordered the special tribunal in response to a suit filed by Public Advocate Letitia James in February. James had found that a $130 million computer program that monitors the city’s 200,000 special-education students is “incapable of providing citywide data.” As a result, disabled students have missed out on services and the city has had to pay $38 million in overtime, according to James’ lawsuit. Fariña has resisted an inquiry into the $130 million program, known as the Special Education Student Information System, or SESIS.
Schumer Hillary Not Clear on Political Corruption Fighter Bharara's Future
Chuck Schumer says Preet Bharara is doing a great job,but won’t reveal if he wants the prosecutor back under next President (NYDN) *
Time For Preet to Clear His Plate (Manhattan Institute) The multiplying investigations of the de Blasio administration need resolution.
Hillary Clinton won’t commit to reappointing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara (NYDN) b Clinton during an appearance before the Daily News Editorial Board on Saturday would not commit to re-appointing Bharara should she win "I will take all that into account if I'm lucky enough to be elected President," Clinton said when asked about Bharara's performance in cracking down on government corruption. "I obviously want the very best people to be U.S. attorneys," she said. "I want them to give no favor to anybody. If there are cases to be investigated and made, they should do it." But she quickly added that "I'm not going to comment on any particular personnel decision."
Time For Preet to Clear His Plate (Manhattan Institute) The multiplying investigations of the de Blasio administration need resolution.
Hillary Clinton won’t commit to reappointing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara (NYDN) b Clinton during an appearance before the Daily News Editorial Board on Saturday would not commit to re-appointing Bharara should she win "I will take all that into account if I'm lucky enough to be elected President," Clinton said when asked about Bharara's performance in cracking down on government corruption. "I obviously want the very best people to be U.S. attorneys," she said. "I want them to give no favor to anybody. If there are cases to be investigated and made, they should do it." But she quickly added that "I'm not going to comment on any particular personnel decision."
When Will the Media and Pols Blame Airbnb and Gentrification for Loss of Affordable Housing and Increase In Homelessness?
We Will Have to Wait for the Indictments to Find Out About the Real Deal to Close LICH
LICH: Everything you want to know (almost) about the deal toclose Long Island College Hospital (Brooklyn Eagle)
One Brooklyn PAC is Brooklyn BP Adams One NY Slush Fund
Feds probe Eric Adams’ non-profit over donor favor claims (NYP)A nonprofit created by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to advance his pet projects is being probed by both federal authorities and the city’s Department of Investigation, The Post has learned. The feds are scrutinizing the fund-raising of Adams’ One Brooklyn Fund, to see if it is being used to dish out pay-to-play favors, sources briefed on the matter said. One source said the investigation is “similar” to a probe by Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara into Mayor de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York nonprofit. Like CONY, One Brooklyn has solicited cash from entities under review by authorities and that have business before the city. The DOI is investigating whether Adams violated any city laws by routinely asking outside groups to cut checks directly to his nonprofit to rent space at Borough Hall, rather than have payments go into the city coffers, sources said. Those payments slip under the radar because city-affiliated organizations like One Brooklyn aren’t required to report donations and other types of revenue under $5,000 with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. Since its formation two years ago, One Brooklyn has reported $315,000 to $860,000 in donations, disclosure forms show. It has pulled in another $344,000 in City Council funds.
Brooklyn BP Lobbyists Capalino and Another Slush Fund PAC
 |
| Capalino Buying Silence |
As Airbnb Warehouse Apts Driving Up
Prices Media and Pols Support them
A bill that would make advertising short-term rentals illegal is the latest example of New York officials trying to strangle the “sharing economy” when it should be embraced, since these companies satisfy a demand, the Cato Institute’s Matthew Feeney writes in the Post.* Airbnb and the Battle of Suitcase Alley (NYT) In New York and other cities with steep housing costs, a longstanding objection to home-sharing sites is that some listings remove units from the residential market.
A New President Could End the Era of Bharara Corruption Fighting in NY
There's a reason Preet Bharara may feel pressure to finish politician investigations (NYDN)With time possibly running out on crusading U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's term, many in New York's political and legal circles are bracing for a frenzy of activity as his office works to finish up ongoing cases into the Cuomo and de Blasio administrations before the next President takes office. "When a U.S. Attorney is about to leave office, there's a lot of pressure on the assistants to finalize cases and indictments and bring them to fruition," former federal prosecutor Bradley Simon said. "In this case, he's concerned about his legacy and he's going to want all unfinished business completed." Simon said there's always a concern the next U.S. attorney may not place the same emphasis on particular cases. "The existing U.S. attorney doesn't want to take chances or see all their hard work going out the window," he said. "Once there is an indictment, a new US attorney can't go and pull it."
More SUNY Hospital Wasted $$$
Struggling hospital spends thousands on lavish travel, dinners(NYP) Struggling SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn allowed a top “restructuring” consultant to bill the state for $83,000 in lavish travel, lodging and dining expenses, a scathing audit by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli reveals. The expenditures included pricey rooms at the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side, a booze-infused “team dinner” at the Docks Oyster Bar in Midtown, and sticker-shock limo bills, the audit found. Baton Rouge, La.-based Pitts Management Associates was hired in 2011 to find ways to cut costs at the financially ailing state university-run hospital. But the consultants themselves were living large, with SUNY Downstate staffers approving eye-popping reimbursements for expenses, according to the audit of expenses from March through August 2014.
Skelos to Stay Out of Jail Until Appeal Ruling Thanks to SC's McDonnell Ruling
Not One Elected Officials Has Demanded That de Blasio Release Lobbyists "Agents of the City" Emails
Get the message, Bill? 'Agents of the city' emails must go public (NYDN) Mayor de Blasio can call his email buddies friends, he can call them advisers, he can call them Ishmael — but “agents of the city” exempt from public revelation of their correspondence, he can’t. So concludes Bob Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government and New York’s top authority on the Freedom of Information Law. Responding to a request for his opinion from lawyer Norman Siegel on behalf of the Village Voice, Freeman wrote Wednesday that de Blasio cannot “deny access to the communications” by claiming that unpaid outside advisers are the equivalent of City Hall aides. De Blasio’s former counsel concocted the “agents” fiction to block disclosure of emails to and from political consultants enmeshed in investigations of the mayor’s fundraising maneuvers. Which is why agents, going by the letters F-B-I, are rifling through City Hall emails and much more.
