Mark-Viverito pushed for zoning change for donor

From the NY Times:

If she becomes, as appears likely, the next speaker of the New York City Council, Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito of East Harlem has vowed to listen to all groups, treat everyone fairly and be a paragon of transparency.

Yet some community leaders contend that she displayed few of those traits when she rammed through an unexpected, last-minute zoning change supported by her staunch ally, the 1199 S.E.I.U. health care workers union.

The dispute centered on a bid by Jewish Home Lifecare, a nonprofit operator of nursing homes in the region, to demolish existing buildings on its 106th Street campus and replace them with two new structures — a new nursing home and a residential tower.

Proceeds from the tower would have let the nonprofit, then known as Jewish Home and Hospital, upgrade its aging facilities and care for a clientele that is mostly elderly minorities on Medicaid.

But no one — not the community, not Ms. Mark-Viverito or other officials — knew about Jewish Home’s plan until late in the planning process.

As it turned out, the community had long been wrestling with a major rezoning of the Upper West Side, from 97th Street to 110th Street, spurred by a desire to restrict the heights of new buildings after two 38-story towers sprouted along Broadway.

For more than two years, residents and officials sparred over height restrictions and other zoning details before coming to a consensus in mid-2007. The plan was approved 38-0 by Community Board 7.

But then, after residents learned about the Jewish Home proposal, Ms. Mark-Viverito surprised them by, in many people’s view, strongly advocating the project.

“I was blindsided,” said Sheldon J. Fine, who was chairman of Community Board 7 at the time. “Her focus was not a conciliatory one.”

In an interview, Ms. Mark-Viverito vigorously defended her role in the process, saying she had wanted to hammer out a compromise.

Before 2007, very few, if any, trustees or people affiliated with Jewish Home donated to her City Council campaign. But after she injected herself in the dispute, she received more than $8,300 from people associated with Jewish Home — more than 10 percent of her $81,000 fund-raising total for the 2009 election. She also reported just one bundler of donations, a Jewish Home trustee, according to Campaign Finance Board records.

“I never do anything with the expectation that I’m going to get any contributions,” Ms. Mark-Viverito said. “My goal is to listen to all sides and figure out what would be in the best of interests of the community."

Mr. Geto said that Ms. Mark-Viverito had solicited the 2009 contributions, and that he had advised the nursing home to give, “because she’s been constructive.”

Ah, tweeding.