Friends of Vito making a mint

From the NY Post:

Doing good deeds can make you rich -- especially when you're pals with Brooklyn Democratic boss and state Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

In one year, Lopez's girlfriend and his campaign treasurer made just shy of a million bucks between them from a taxpayer-funded social-service center in Bushwick, according to tax records.

Christiana Fisher -- the center's director and Lopez's campaign treasurer -- pulled down $659,591 in "base compensation" over a 12-month period in 2008 and 2009 for working only 17.5 hours a week at Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, according to the filings.

That's an eye-popping 182 percent more than the $234,234 she made just two years earlier.

Angela Battaglia -- Lopez's longtime girlfriend and the senior center's housing director -- got $329,910 in "compensation" over the same period -- 73 percent more than the $190,609 she made two years earlier.

Fisher and Battaglia made an additional $26,384 and $13,196, respectively, at other connected but unnamed nonprofits, according to the IRS forms.

Five years ago, both had annual salaries of about $120,000 at the center, which serves thousands of residents and has 2,000 employees.

The group is the hub of Lopez's political machine, providing him with volunteers -- it's closed on Election Day so employees can do get-out-the-vote campaigns -- according to a book by sociologist Nicole Marwell.

Lopez, 69, a longtime assemblyman who became the Brooklyn Democratic boss in 2005, founded the seniors group in 1976, when he was a young city social worker.

Around that time, he met Battaglia, 57, a then-young Fordham University grad who volunteered at his center.

Battaglia is also a salaried City Planning commissioner.

Fisher's sister once worked for the seniors group before becoming a judge. Battaglia's brother is also a judge.

Lopez no longer has any official tie to the senior citizens group. But he steers plenty of money to it -- $335,000 in member items since 2009.

In one recent year, the group got $15.9 million in taxpayer money from nearly two dozen state and city agencies -- on top of $43 million in city contracts for elderly home care.