From the Daily News:An 86-year-old woman with no business training was one of the people in charge of overseeing Brooklyn political boss Vito Lopez's multimillion dollar nonprofit empire.
And, retired senior Carmen Orlando says, she was paid $25 to go to meetings and sign documents she never read.
"They told me I had to sign the papers, so I signed," Orlando told the Daily News about her 17 years as a board member of the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council.
She never read the papers. She couldn't name the group's budget, or the city agencies that pay it, or the programs they offer.
She said the folks at the Stanhope Senior Center, where Orlando attended some of the many programs funded by Ridgewood Bushwick, asked her to attend meetings every few months in exchange for $25 cash each time - so she did.
"I just went to the meetings - no more - and signed the papers," said Orlando, who resigned a few months ago for health reasons.
And what did they discuss?
"I am 86 years old," she said. "Some things I forget."
The board's 81-year-old secretary Eileen Bowie claimed to know even less.
"I don't know anything about what you're talking about," she told The News.
Asked if she could name Ridgewood Bushwick's executive director, Bowie said, "No. And I don't want to know."
5 comments:
This guy makes Espada look like a saint.
This guy makes Espada look like a saint.
It's so Scorsese!
Is it any different than
giving seniors money one year,
cutting it the next,
making them come up to Albany to beg for it and to hear you blame Republicans,
then restoring it,
then coming back to the center for a photo op that the local press plasters all over the pages
while they call your reformist opponent a unqualified troublemaker.
This is more common than you think.
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