City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will pay a $7,000 fine for breaking city laws on taking gifts from lobbyists, under a settlement with the Conflicts of Interest Board released Wednesday.
Mark-Viverito admitted she ran afoul of conflicts of interest rules by taking free help from Scott Levenson and his consulting firm the Advance Group when she was running for speaker two years ago.
Levenson, a registered lobbyist, and two staffers spent months pitching in on Mark-Viverito’s bid for the top job — attending “kitchen cabinet” meetings to prepare her for debates with other speaker candidates and networking events.
They also redesigned a flyer for a reception hosted in her honor at the Somos el Futuro conference in Puerto Rico, and spent $1,796.44 to have 3,000 copies of it printed at a FedEx office.
Mark-Viverito, an East Harlem rep who became speaker in January 2014, was never billed for the work.
City rules bar public officials from taking gifts worth more than $50 from people who do business with the city. And lobbyists are barred from giving any gifts to pols.
43 comments:
$7,000- just the cost of doing business. Does anyone think this fine is going to deter anything? The violation happened two years ago!
Pure whore.
This behavior is suppose to be beneath supposed liberals. And she has the audacity to admit her malfeasance. Get the fuck out Missy.
She doesn't have to write a personal check; she can pay it from her campaign funds.
Preeeeeeeet!
She broke the rules. Get her out.
The Somos El Futuro flyers were printed at a Fed Ex office instead of a unionized print shop! MMV is a hypocrite. No se puede!
The phony Conflicts of Interest Board should be indicted for corruption.
I'd gladly take a 7,000 slap on the wrist fine for taking millions under the table.
Melissa only got caught for the chump change that was found in her pocket.
Did anyone check if she had any Zurich accounts? Yeah....right!
I'll bet a lot of these staunch board members have been smeared with lobbyists cash.
So long as we have an increasing pool of dumber than dumb voters, we are all being buggered!
AND THIS IS WHY PEOPLE DISLIKE & DON’T TRUST MOST POLITICIANS
It is the never ending travesty of corrupt, inept, useless and morally bankrupt elected officials that serve no one except themselves. Again City Council Speaker and political whore Melissa Mark-Viverito is up to her dirty tricks as usual. And this bitch and the clowns on city council want a fucking raise.
More taxation without representation.
Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, most are a notch below child molesters and NYC Dems are the fucking worst.
A weak slap on the wrist for this counterfeit Libtard, as she effortlessly continues to lie, cheat and steal---easier than she breathes (as her pal, Bill protects and excuses her egregious misconduct), just like everyone else in power at City Hall, Albany, the White House, the Pentagon, the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department, the Supreme Court, etc. (see the pattern here)?
Now, if it were anyone else in the rank and file, there would be instant dismissal and livelihood destruction---just like a recent Sanitation worker, who accepted a $20 tip for helping someone, forcing that worker to resign; and two other Sanitation workers who shared a $10 tip, forcing them into early retirement! Both petty offenses with draconian outcomes---just like extreme government tyranny dictates.
Hence, the entire system of local, regional and national government jurisdictions themselves now devalue all honesty itself---just in time for political revolution to prevail (currently in stage one progress)!
She will be around for many years and will break many laws and could care less, go back to sleep little people your words are annoying.
Hey QC,please do a follow up on the Bayside Slasher,seems it was planned and or gang related,he's has promised more slashings,this nut needs to be cought.
These politicians don't see this as breaking the rules/law. They only notice when they are caught.
The real problem is how they pocket funds, take donations, and pay back with political favors.
The cost of doing business.
She's such a low life fraud! She does absolutely nothing!
She and councilman Richie Torres are one in the same.
There should be a warning Crappie before posting this scarecrow's picture on the site.
Not recommended before breakfast!
>spent $1,796.44 to have 3,000 copies of it printed at a FedEx office.
That's an absurd price. Did they get ripped off, or was there some sort of kickback involved?
She also had a tax problem when she was going for the Speaker position. It seems that she "forgot" to pay taxes on rental income and didn't mention it on her political ethics disclosure form.
Also Ms. Income Equality really never had worry abut income since her Doctor father left her and her family about $7 million when he croaked and she, talk about nerve, bought her Harlem house with a no-interest loan from Housing Preservation and Development.
For someone who complains about Republican economic polices she mirrors them quite well and she knows how to gin the system.
We were better off with Bloomberg.
At least NYC was getting a boost instead of De Blasio and this bitch's move to turn NYC back to the ghetto 1970s.
If you have high expectations and are not making at least a quarter of a million dollars a year, then maybe you should consider making your mark in another city.
Sorry young folks. Thems the hardass facts of life. NYC has become unaffordable.
Not like when I was young.
The rules are too restrictive and pointless, they just make people think of new ways to get around them. Who cares if some lobbyist photocopies for her? All I want is disclosure. Then I judge right from wrong on my own. Let people support whoever they want to.
A pathetic excuse for a public servant. She disgusts me. I still remember her going in front of the city council chanting "I can't breathe" during the Eric Garner controversy. That was a shameless PR stunt that backfired on her. She should just resign and take DumBlasio along with her. I've had enough of these hypocrites.
Which one's her lazy eyeball: the left or the right?
She needs to be fired and arrested for accepting unlawful gratuities.
"Who cares if some lobbyist photocopies for her?" ...I do. There are no such thing as "favors" in politics, everything is on a quid pro quo basis. Wake up.
As a councilmember, she would refuse to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance. She had said because she wanted Puerto Rico to be granted independence.
If she got the job because she had lobbists push for her election, she should not be able to keep the job.
That would be like one of us stealing $1,000, but when we got caught and returned $200, we would be able to keep the rest.
And she supports freeing a terrorist who was involved with plots to blow up the city. I believe his name is Rivera?
...Anonymous said...
...``If she got the job because she had lobbists push for her election, she should not be able to keep the job.``
Correct. It is obvious that, in this latest example of political and campaign corruption, the Dishonorable Council Speaker is keeping ill-gotten gains from the illegal lobbying that got her the speakership, and these ill-gotten gains are the position of the speakership itself. She should be forced to disgorge the speakership position, because it was acquired with illegality. Anytime illegality is a method to acquire anything, the acquisition itself becomes illegal and void. Because there's no way that Melissa Mark-Vivierto could have been selected as speaker but not for ignoring the Lobbyist Gift Law, her actions are material to the lawfulness of the speakership selection. Ladies and Gentlemen, this means that we currently have a City Council that is being run by a person illegally occupying the speakership position.
Pandora's box has been opened. It's only downhill from here on !!
If your not PR Shut Up,MMV does not represent you,go away.
Wake up .......
I am awake. All I need is disclosure. Read the post again, use your mind, and keep your advice to yourself.
She doesn't represent anyone, Anonymous, except her own self serving enrichment, as she demonstrates how intensely unqualified she is for the handpicked, council speaker position that is nothing more than a glorified clerk, at the SOLE discretion of her pal Bill, and his brazen whimsy!
Frankly, the city council speaker should have been abolished decades ago, along with the entire, part-time, vastly overpaid city council members themselves (all of whom practice 'selective' and 'occasional' representation), in between the stress of lunch and a manicure!
Hence, a real public servant must always represent his or her entire constituency without exception, and certainly not divided along the lines of ethnicity, selectivity and preferential treatment.
But, since she is a 'protected' politician, she obviously doesn't live by the rules---she makes up her own! Meanwhile, the poor slobs at the Sanitation Department endeavor to accept a few dollars of appreciation from grateful citizens whom they have helped, and BAM!---immediate termination and/or abrupt retirement arrangements slap them in the nut sack---over complete nonsense, no less---while Melissa and Bill travel the world in all taxpayer-funded style, with impunity!
Given the inexcusable transgressions of Mark-Viverito, she should be terminated immediately (on top of heavy fines that should be gauged according to all misconduct), then instantly banished from a lifetime of public service. Period!
But, this is the bizarr-o world of Mr. Bill, where a former Al Sharpton publicist gets to be hired (at top salary), regardless of serious and dangerous conflicts of interest, and a first lady (who is not a publicly elected official), is afforded the unjustified luxury of two glorified clerks at her disposal, to the tune of $350,000---and, the public be duped, bilked, scammed and damned.
And, coming soon to a borough near you---debtor's prison!
You did it again Richard. All I can point out now is Missy, with the all the moolah she saved from her puny fine, really get some collagen for those creepy thin lips.
And also after her pointless spending for a position that is appointed not elected, the speaker should be decided by the voters. And now that Madam Wilhelm as self-appointed herself a position in city hall, maybe the role of mayor's wife should also.
Charlane fancies herself to be synonymous with Michelle Obama I bet. Beware this woman, guarantee she will run for mayor next for the same reason as Hillary running for President because she has "experience" in the machinations of government.
Just because they both happened to be married to elected officials.
So iritano would disband the legiative branch. Never thought his rants had much to do with representative government, he's just pissed the state won't write that check he thinks he's owed.
A janitor at the Pan Am shelter said : "Because there's no way that Melissa Mark-Vivierto could have been selected as speaker but not for ignoring the Lobbyist Gift Law, her actions are material to the lawfulness of the speakership selection."
Anonymous said : "I am awake. All I need is disclosure. Read the post again, use your mind, and keep your advice to yourself."
JQ LLC said : "...because she has 'experience' in the machinations of government."
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A few things escape my basic understanding about cause and effect.
Here we are, in the middle of a history-in-the-making moment, when Preet Bharara is confronting major political and campaign corruption up in Albany, and, somehow, corruption taking place just a few blocks from his Downtown office, namely City Hall, seemingly doesn't show up on his radar. (Or, for that matter, why Cy Vance is missing in action, again.)
Another thing is that we are in New York City. I know that there is a super-majority of Democrats in NYC, but it should be worrisome to everybody that, here we are, in NYC, where supposedly political liberals outnumber everybody else, and political and campaign corruption just keeps on taking place, routinely, every day, la-la-la-la-la, like it's very normal. I've done heard it said that liberals in NYC are at the vanguard of activism. We saw it when hundreds of thousands of people took over the East Side to protest the pending invasion of the Iraq War, we saw it with Occupy, we see it with people championing Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. Yet, when it comes to City Hall and City Council, there's a complete abandonment of those principles. Why is that ? What's going on ? Where is everybody ?
I e-mailed a link to one of the comments here to some people, including one of the 2013 mayoral candidates, who wrote back, noting that for politicians, their relationships with lobbyists are more important than their relationships with the grassroots. That was real talk ; too bad you won't read that in The New York Daily News or The New York Times. (I'm certain that some reform candidates have been this honest, but those quotes get filtered out by the big, corporate-owned media.)
I'm very interested in the legal argument made about the lawfulness of the speaker's election. What can be done about this -- from a legal stand-point ? Can an Article 78 petition be filed ? What can be done ? Speaker Mark-Viverito admitted to breaking the law when she made the settlement with the Conflicts of Interest Board. Surely that has to cast doubt on the legality of the speaker's election, like the commenter said -- if not from a criminal stand-point, than certainly from a civil stand-point. Any thoughts ?
George I think it's the left eye that's lazy.
Her head is turned toward the camera lens but the left eye is not. Yes her lips are very thin almost like a Spotted Sucker fish.
I wonder if Curtis Sliwa still thinks she's hot !
Anonymous, the reason why I don't comment on your tired loop of 'Attack And Retreat,' and 'Accuse And Evade' is because you are a coward and epic (sub)human failure, who continually insists on having your say (on a matter that you know nothing about), while revealing yourself to be a coward and online sociopth.
The topic once again here is Melissa Mark-Viverito, and not any vile trash talk that you keep foisting upon this thread, as you hold everyone hostage---and my educated supporters agree!
But, if you had any pretense of education (any level, above kindergarten!), instead of grinding ignorance and personal attacks of bitterness against me (and ONLY me), that so completely underscores your OCD-infected mind, as well as all OTHER obvious, obsessive loops that show MANY personal deficiencies, that instantly 'single you out' as the impotent, powerless loser that you are in life (and always have been), that likewise strangely compels you to keep revisiting your fixation over me on every single, unrelated thread (with the conditioning of Pavlov's dogs), and STILL hiding like a brainless coward, and the genetic mutation!
Now, I've seen this obsessive pattern many times before in serial rapists and wife beaters. So which one are you, then---or, maybe both?
Your words are as worthless as you yourself are (while hiding undercover, like all brainless cowards), as you redefine what it means to be an embarrassment to ALL primates!
JQ, I have said for many years that the city council speaker should be one of public election and referendum, and each time my letters were repeatedly ignored and not published in any of the New York City and Long Island papers that today pass for journalistic integrity, openness and transparency (where I have long ago lost all illusion with any pretense of journalistic standards).
Now, both city council speaker, and the entire city council itself should be abolished, because they are not public servants (only grinding, on-the-take politicians), who vote against the litany of interests of the duped, taxpaying constituents who pay their vastly overpaid, part-time salaries), as the system is now completely rigged for failure. Likewise, all borough presidents should be disbanded, because they are paper tigers (reactionaries), without any real heft.
And, once again (ad nauseam), one of the many, indistinguishable Anonymous fools (above), who rejects my money saving plan to eliminate all politically motivated, profligate, wanton waste and mismanagement, regarding the council speaker and entire city council, is the same bitter misfit who ascribes my cost effective measure to a personal matter over whom he keeps stalking me, from thread to thread, that is not only false and irrelevant---but completely off topic.
So, I must be hitting a sensitive nerve (repeatedly), with the 'Anonymous' political henchman who commented here, in much the same way that Preet Bharara is knocking off these corrupt barnacles who continue to feed off the ship's hull with the force, strength and purpose of a New York State power scrub!
And, it won't be much longer before Preet starts a cleansing probe into City Hall, in much the same way that has successfully begun to obliterate decades of Albany corruption, where next up on the skewer is the last Albany king himsef, as his work is far, far from over.
Every knock is a boost!
Richard you are a beast !(And I mean that in a good way) Keep up the good work I like many other readers of this blog like to read your positions on the very sad state of affairs here in the New York political arena.
Thank you, Anonymous---I don't airbrush reality, and ALWAYS talk truth to power, while challenging ALL public and private authority---because, the public good must always outweigh the crushing weight of all private (and now, political and public) gain!
But, there are still a minority of other disturbed, Anonymous, cowardly voicers on this thread (and many other threads), who insist on foisting an 'Attack And Retreat' and 'Accuse And Evade' tactic upon me, as they continue to hold an advantage in knowing who I am, while I still don't know who these impotent, gutless slugs be (nor do I care)!
But, the true mark of cowardice is when ignorant fools lampoon someone publicly (over matters they know nothing about), while hiding behind the wizard's curtain, assured of their own identify protection, and creating a deeper disparity in their slimy wake!
I care about Queens County, Anonymous, which is starting to look like a massive, vacant, junkyard lot of political corruption, graft, greed, taxation without representation, and barely any social contract with the elected officials who keep the willful mantra alive that dictates a 'Delay, Deny And Hope That You Die' loop of failed public integrity and social justice, that is only getting worse by the hour!
All I can say is that the extreme 'Noise & Sight' pollution left behind by the former Donald Manes 'boys and girls club' that malingers in the air, like a foggy malaise, is slowly filtering out the political debris, and this fact upsets the anointed powers that be.
So, what's left, then, when the gig is finally up: Attack And Retreat, Accuse And Evade---the only action that they have successfully mastered, without ever doing the people's work, as their dereliction of public duty, and rescinded, sworn oath of office declarations remain unchallenged---and the public be damned!
Thank you for caring. As for the objectors to cost efficiency and progress, every knock is a boost!
Preet Bharara should go all the way to the top with his investigations. I don't necessary feel that Gov Cuomo is the root cause of all the corruption in this state but there are so many below him, in state legislature and probably in his cabinet who did not get to where they are now without greasing the wheels. God Speed and keep up the good work Preet !!
Regarding you statement, Anonymous, that suggests how you feel that Governor Cuomo is not the root cause of all corruption, is something that we will NOW never know, since he disbanded his own Moreland Commission, at the exact time that they were getting ready to launch an investigation into Cuomo himself.
And, with the latest news on January 11th, that there was not enough evidence to hold the governor accountable for his abrupt turnaround regarding the Moreland Commission's abrupt shutdown (after making a crooked, unimpressive, paper tiger deal with the Legislature to police their own misconduct, and to make sweeping reforms within a broken system---that, ironically and predictably is more broken now than ever before!), the fix is in, fellow New York State taxpayers---as the Teflon from within this entrenched administration of corruption just keeps betraying public trust (with impunity), by the hour.
But, what fair and reasonable leader would slam the brakes on any public watchdog agency of purported goodness and public interest, solely on the speculative strength of any "behind closed doors" deal brokering made with the SAME inept, intensely incompetent, untrustworthy, derelict, monstrously self serving legislature who created such massive corruption, graft and systemic greed in the first place? Where is the sunshine---the best and ONLY cleansing agent?
And, does anyone really trust any of these "investigations" that are never properly investigated to begin with??? There is always a loophole to "absolve" the crooked and guilty, as they continue to look the other way, which only helps to shield and protect all lying, cheating and stealing representatives (like Joe Bruno), in ways that devalue all honesty itself---and the public be damned!
So, please, Preet, We The People implore you to follow the power-and-money trail, and stay as focused as a bullet in flight---your bulls eye has always been within close range---and at the top of the Albany heap.
Because a fish never stinks from the tale---always the head!
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