Tainted campaign cash?

From the NY Post:

The bust of a carnival operator who was approached about turning government witness to save his skin from charges of bribing an elected official has sent other pols who took his campaign money scrambling.

As Lawrence Carr's two-count bribery case winds its way through Brooklyn court, some elected officials are debating whether to get rid of the contributions he gave them.

"I believe if his money is tainted, I would consider giving it to charity," said state Sen. Martin Dilan (D-Queens), who has received $5,000 from Carr and Carr's wife, Malinda, since 2002.

Carr was indicted in June for allegedly bribing an official, identified by sources as disgraced former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate.

Others who got Carr cash include former state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), $1,000; Councilwoman Helen Sears (D-Queens), $3,000; and Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-Queens), $2,500.

Sears won't retire gracefully

From the Queens Courier:

Former 25th District Councilmember Helen Sears was recently appointed Deputy City Clerk and will likely oversee a massive influx of same-sex marriages on July 24, the day the governor-approved bill goes into effect.

“This was a no brainer,” said City Clerk Michael McSweeny. “She’s very qualified for the position and has decades of service for the people of Queens.”

She began her political career when she was elected to serve as the Queens County Budget Negotiator, and later in the City Council in 2001 where she served two terms. Her new office will be in Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.

According to their website, City Clerk is one of the oldest offices in New York City government" fitting since Helen Sears is one of the oldest people in New York City government. 82-year old Sears was defeated by Daniel Dromm in 2009. Seems like the Queens Machine is making Borough Hall a retirement home for "Senior Tweeders".

Another double-dipper?

Council explains why Willets Point condemnation is wrong, part 2

Where are they all now? Monserrate, Gioia and Sears are no longer in office, but Leroy Comrie, James Sanders and Diana Reyna can do something about this.

The concerns expressed by Council members at the time about this were not incidental, but quite grave. The late Tom White referred to this as an "institutional issue" with implications for the Council's future retention of its power. We excerpt a few of these other prescient comments:

(1) Council Member Thomas White, Chairperson, Economic Development Committee – City Council Economic Development Committee and Land Use Committee Joint Hearing, November 29, 2007:

"After the ULURP procedure is completed, the plan is to issue a Request for Proposal to developers. … This process differs from the usual process in that the City will issue the Request for Proposal only after the ULURP procedure has been completed, as opposed to prior to the ULURP process. This can be seen by some as an encroachment of the Council Land Use authority granted as a result of the 1989 Charter Revision …"

"I think that it would be important for our colleagues, as well as the City, to understand that this is an institutional issue and not a specific issue related to who is for and who is against. The history and the Charter revision section on Land Use states in 1989 that the Supreme Court ruled that the Board of Estimate violated the one person one vote mandate. In response, the new Charter abolished the Board of Estimate and provided for the redrawing of the City Council district lines to increase minority participation on the Council. It also increased the number of members from 35 to 51. The Council was then granted full power over the municipal budget, as well as authority over zoning and Land Use and franchises. Under the 1990 Charter revision, the Council acquired the power to review Land Use issues and approve zoning changes, housing and urban renewal plans, and community development plans, and the disposition of City-owned property. This power gives the Council the most significant voice in the growth and development of the City."

(2) Council Member Melinda Katz, Chairperson, Land Use Committee – City Council Economic Development Committee and Land Use Committee Joint Hearing, November 29, 2007:

"Well, just so it's clear, my issue in the last hearing and this one is clearly that if we do the ULURP process first, it takes the New York City Council out of the process as we move forward. It historically is not done that way. Historically we do the RFP first, the developer is chosen, then you do the ULURP process, and the reason that the community and the Council and the community boards are normally involved in the process, is because we have to vote on it. And, so, what's happening now, and the fear that I have, is that as we move forward and we do the ULURP first, I'm not sure what mechanism will be in place to assure community involvement. And to assure that the project goes forward in a way that makes everyone satisfied."

(3) Council Member Helen Sears – News conference statement, April 9, 2008:

"What we are being asked to do, is to bypass a very key part of the process; allow the certification of what they wish to do, and not do what we have to do to make that certification viable; to have it comply with the law; and move on to another step in the process. Now I ask you: Can any one of you give us a reason why the City Council should give up that major prerogative, which has a major effect on anything future in the development of the City? To give that up, which is a key part of the checks and balances of the government of the City of New York? Any one of you – Can you give me a reason, why? And none of you can, so as a result, you know why we are standing here today. Because when you begin to chip away at what those pieces are that weigh the scales of justice, you begin to chip away at what the rights are of everyone in the City of New York."

...the EDC end around Phase I gives the council the opportunity to undo the damage that was done in 2008. It should treat this de novo- from the beginning, as it were. But first an oversight hearing that brings in EDC to explain itself-its thinking and its plans. From there, a demand for a new SEQR review that sees this new phase of EDC's-along with the entire plan-with new eyes. It's not the same world in 2011 as it was when the council wrote the mayor that ill fated check, and there's no reason why it can't cancel it now-legitimately so-for insufficient funds. - Neighborhood Retail Alliance

Helen's major accounting mistake

From the NY Times:

It’s one thing, in the heat of a campaign, to overlook a taxi receipt buried in the back of a wallet. But how does an elected official who has run several six-figure campaigns in New York fail to include her campaign’s largest bill on expense reports filed at the time of her last race?

Eleven bills totaling $101,963 have come back to haunt Helen Sears, a thrice-elected councilwoman from Queens who was defeated in September by Daniel P. Dromm in a three-way Democratic primary.

Four of the bills, including the largest, went to pay Ms. Sears’s longtime political strategists at the Parkside Group. By law, those four bills should have been disclosed to regulators no later than one week after the Sept. 15 primary. But public records show they were not reported to the Campaign Finance Board until Jan. 15, months after Ms. Sears had left the race.

These previously unreported transactions, including four from the throes of last year’s campaign, surfaced in the campaign report that Helen Sears submitted to regulators in January.

Ms. Sears, who is 80, said she did not know why the bills were overlooked, and would have to look into the matter. "You’re asking me a question I can’t answer," she said, adding that her campaigns “have always been in compliance.”

Her son Todd, who was paid $18,400 by the campaign to serve as his mother’s treasurer and to handle compliance, was also puzzled. "As far as the Campaign Finance Board is concerned, I’m not in violation of anything," he said. He noted that the board’s preliminary audit did not cite the campaign for tardiness, though he and the board declined to release a copy of that audit.

Jackson Heights a cauldron of corruption....wow!

"As I write this, the Art Deco Eagle Cinema on 73rd Rd. in Jackson Heights is being gutted to make way for a Rite-Aid drug store. The so-called Jackson Heights Historic Assn and so-called Jackson Heights Beautification Group have been totally silent on this, basically because they don't seem to recognize the part of Jackson Heights that lies west of "Little India" on 74th St. "Little India" has been failing for years; attendance was off over 50 per cent before its closing, which was blamed on a Mumbai studio strike in an article in the Times over a year ago. But while that Times article suggested the Bollywood cinema would revive after being shuttered, it was already known to local pols that the drug-store chain had made its move.

These phony civic groups have their match in local politics. A traffic survey commissioned by the Queens DOT (which used a consulting firm--who paid? from where?) and whose public forums were heavily attended by two elected officials (Dromm, Peralta) and one appointed via backroom deal (Den Dekker) reached several conclusions—part of a "solution" to the intense traffic and environmental assault along 73rd Street and 37th Avenue, its epicenter being that dreadful intersection (which Environmental Defense once labeled "a canyon of death.")

Now, why the person who advises Danny Dromm and serves as a go-between to the "godfather" of Tammany Hall East, Congressman Joe Crowley — the person who brokered the Den Dekker backroom deal — would have known about the conclusions of this report IN JUNE is already curious, because it would indicate that politics, and not necessarily sound planning, influenced this report. That would not be unusual, as there was a 1998 and a 2007 report that already made practical recommendations that the then-local-Councilperson (Helen Sears, for one) buried, because a major source of her campaign financing came from the Jackson Heights Indian Merchants Association, which wanted to push back residential parking and replace all of it with meters to accommodate the EXTRA vehicular traffic they wanted to attract from the burbs to the bargainland of JH.

And they want to turn the street in front of the Rite-Aid Theater into a pedestrian mall. Aside from the discussion we could have about how destroying all the movie theaters in a neighborhood will come back to bite the community (and JH has capitulated on all but one, which is in its death throes) when they wind up as check cashing places and crap merchants once the retail-store accommodation turns sour. And it will--with a Duane Reade a block away and FIVE MOM-AND-POP pharmacies along 37th Avenue before you reach 75th St., you have to wonder why the self-proclaimed "progressive" Mr. Dromm signed on to this travesty. Den Dekker, who NO ONE VOTED FOR and who lives in Woodside, is also on board.

The results of the current study, due to be presented in Sept at CB 3 for a kangaroo-court vote, has been held back for many months now--why? Maura McCarthy of the Queens DOT is a functionary, a puppet, she's proven that by years of inactivity and ineffectiveness in this district, for sure. One can only surmise that the Dems game plan is to use it as a carrot before this fall's election to make sure that the "team" wins and Hiram Monserrate goes down in flames. But that 'carrot' feels more like a stick to all residents west of 74th St, who have nothing to do with Hiram and his issues and are being sacrificed in the pursuit of partisan politics. It will be brutal for the residents of 37th Avenue, where the commercial trade ends and it becomes all residential down to the massively botched repair and redirection of entrance/exit of the BQE. We're already buried in noise, exhaust, 24-hr commercial activity, and no enforcement of traffic or sanitation law. (I would go as far as to say that the traffic report protects some really bad actors, including Apna Bazar and Subzi Mandi, both registered in Middlesex County, New Jersey, but major contributors to the JH Indian Merchants Assn, who in turn are major contributors to local pols.

I was once told, with a shrug—by the same Dromm-Crowley Dem party apparatchik I mentioned above—that the noise and traffic and environmental assault of western Jackson Heights was "mostly a cultural issue." In that context, the forthcoming traffic study; the destruction of the Eagle Cinema to make way for yet another chain drug store; the laissez-faire attitude about some of the most awful instant-ghetto buildings that have gone up on 73rd St. (self-certified by scammers); the accommodation of EVEN MORE vehicular traffic on a street that already is clogged and jammed all day long (just ask the Elmhurst Hospital ambulance drivers who cannot get through on 37th Ave west of 73rd St. NOW); the lack of enforcement needed here (foot patrol for the 115th ends at 74th St.) all says one thing to me: "Don't worry Jake, it's Chinatown."

We need your help!!!" - anonymous

Photo from Lost City

Sears to GOP: Thanks, but no thanks

From the Daily News:

At 5:01 p.m. this afternoon - seven hours before the deadline for making such a decision - former Democratic Councilwoman Helen Sears filed a formal declination of the GOP line in the March 16 special election to fill Hiram Monserrate's vacant Senate seat, a city Board of Elections spokeswoman confirmed.

A Senate Republican source confirmed the ex-councilwoman called earlier today to inform the minority of her intention to decline the unanimous nod she had received from the Queens GOP last Friday.

Her decision was attributed by the Republicans in no small part to the fact that she had failed to land another line, namely that of the Independence Party.

Trying to win as a turncoat Democrat in a district that is roughly seven-to-one Democratic is hard enough. Doing so with just the GOP line is nearly impossible, even if Hiram Monserrate manages to get onto the ballot as an independent candidate.

The Senate Republicans are disappointed, but resigned. They knew Sears' candidacy was a long shot - at best.

Sears to run as Republican in special election

From the Daily News:

Former Democratic Councilwoman Helen Sears was unanimously nominated by the Queens Republicans last night to carry the GOP banner in the March 16 special election for Hiram Monserrate's Senate seat, sources familiar with the proceedings confirmed.

The Independence and Conservative parties are expected to decide by the end of the day on whether they will also nominate Sears.

If they do, the name of the veteran Queens Democrat will appear on three ballot lines on election day, while Assemblyman Jose Peralta will likely have two: The Democratic and Working Families Party lines.

The wild card here is Monserrate, whose supporters are rushing to collect 3,000 signatures by midnight Monday in order to get him on the ballot as an independent candidate.

Actually, Monserrate is going to need to collect a lot more than the threshold number of signatures, given how worried the Democrats are at this point.

"Panic" was the word employed by a Senate source I spoke with early this morning. It's a safe bet the Democrats are going to employ every weapon in their considerable arsenal to try to block their expelled former colleague from getting on the ballot.

Why? If you thought the five-plus weeks of deadlock in the Senate last summer was tedious, consider five-plus MONTHS of deadlock, which is what Sears' election is likely to bring for the remainder of the 2010 legislative session.

Sears has had numerous conversations with the Senate Republicans, GOP sources confirm, and has agreed to conference with them if she wins. That means the chamber will be tied and neither side will have the majority.

City Council defies Bloomberg

From WNYC:

The City Council has rejected the Bloomberg administration's proposal to convert a former national guard armory in the Bronx into a shopping mall.

It was the first time, city council members said, that an economic development initiative spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg has failed in a full council vote.

Negotiations had centered on the issue of a living wage: whether retailers at the mall would be forced to pay $11.50 an hour or more. City council members supported the idea; Mayor Bloomberg opposed it.

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg said dictating wages would be meddling in the marketplace.

Members said negotiations broke down in the past few days. The vote was 45-to-1, with one abstention.

The 1 "yes" came from outgoing council member Helen Sears.

Jackson Heights asks Parks to use eminent domain

From the NY Times:

The loud chatter of playground games at Thomas J. Travers Park in Jackson Heights will quiet – at least a little — in the near future.

The popular Queens park, on 34th Avenue between 77th and 78th Streets, is undergoing renovations and parents say they’re worried they won’t have a place to take their children to play. The Jackson Heights neighborhood ranks almost last for lack of green space in New York City.

Plans for the $1.7 million overhaul — which is being financed through the discretionary budget of Councilwoman Helen Sears, a Democrat who recently lost her bid for re-election in a closely fought primary — show that work will be done mostly on the playground and sprinkler system. Parts of the park are damaged or worn beyond repair because it’s such a heavily used area, said Dorothy Lewandowski, the Queens parks commissioner.

“In a one-year period, they will have a beautiful new play space with brand-new play equipment,” Ms. Lewandowski said.

The start work order began on Sept. 9 and Ms. Lewandowski said she expected parts of Travers Park to close sometime this week or the next. The sports areas and smaller playground will remain open, she said.

The lack of green space in the neighborhood has prompted the Jackson Heights Green Alliance to push for the purchase of a nearby Toyota dealership through eminent domain to expand Travers Park.

Ms. Lewandowski said Jackson Heights was a difficult district because sections are overdeveloped and there’s a general lack of park space. But, there are no definitive prospects for another park.

“Currently, there’s nothing that’s firm,” she said. “There has been a large community interest in acquiring the Toyota dealership. Beyond that, unfortunately, not at this time.”

Daniel Dromm, who defeated Ms. Sears in the Democratic primary two weeks ago, has said he would be in favor of the use of eminent domain if it meant relieving some of the overcrowding park issues in the neighborhood.

Sorry, but acquiring parkland via eminent domain is against the Bloomberg doctrine because it fails to benefit developers.

District 25 political cartoon

Council District 25 debate video

From BoroPolitics.com:

Throughout the hour-long Democratic Primary debate for City Council District 25, held at the Flushing Library last Thursday, incumbent Helen Sears faced a barrage of attacks from challengers Danny Dromm and Stanley Kalathara, who called her an ineffective legislator during her last eight years in office.

For more on Queens politics, visit the Queens Campaigner.

Dromm supporters waste their time protesting

From the Times Ledger:

Even after City Councilwoman Helen Sears (D-Jackson Heights) released a statement Friday denouncing anonymous attacks against her Democratic rival, Danny Dromm, Jackson Heights residents protested in front of her office Sunday claiming she refused to speak out against the smear campaign.

“Council member Sears strongly condemns this negative and anonymous type of campaigning,” campaign spokesman Erik Joerss said in a statement sent Friday to Gay City News, two days before the protest in front of Sears’ Jackson Heights office. “She is committed to focusing on the important issues facing the families of Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst and Rego Park.”

Joerss said the Sears campaign sent the statement Saturday, the day before the protest, to the Empire State Pride Agenda.

Dromm campaign spokesman Bryan Collinsworth said neither the organizers of the protest nor the campaign had seen Sears’ public denunciation of the attacks before the demonstration.

Dromm backers claimed Sears was the only candidate in the race for her Council seat who had not denounced the mailing as of Sunday even though she had repudiated the attacks Friday. The other contender, Stanley Kalathara, spoke out against it.

A couple of winners running in Council District 25

Winner #1: Helen Sears
In her almost eight years on the Council, she said she is most proud of opening a cancer clinic at Elmhurst Hospital Center and securing funding for a women's health clinic there.

But critics have accused the longtime Jackson Heights resident of ignoring the needs of immigrant constituents.

Sears rejected the criticism.

"The people that use the health services at Elmhurst Hospital are all immigrants," she said.

So no Americans utilize the services at Elmhurst Hospital Center? Since St. John's and Parkway closed, I'm sure many more do now. Didn't realize we had a hospital specifically dedicated to serve only immigrants and that only immigrants got cancer or needed women's health care. I feel much better about those tax hikes now.

NO THIRD TERM FOR YOU, GRANNY.

Winner #2: Danny Dromm
Dromm acknowledged he was arrested for prostitution in Levittown, L.I., when he was 16. But he denies he was ever a prostitute. He said he was making out with another man in a car when he was arrested in 1972. He told cops he was doing it for the money because he feared being outed as gay.

Yes! It's much better to have them think you are a gay prostitute than to have them think you are just gay...

Dromm pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was released. Then in 1988, he was arrested for drunken driving.

You sound like you'd fit right in at Crowley's Clubhouse.

Here's a NY1 interview that Dromm did about this issue.

Vendors protest against Helen Sears

From NY1:

A Queens councilwoman is being met with opposition over a plan to create vendor-free zones in Jackson Heights.

Rafael Samanez is with Vamos Unidos, who helped organize the rally. "When they say that vendors - a lot are immigrants - are dirty, that they bring rats, that's very anti-immigrant. That's very racist to say that."

The protesters say Councilwoman Helen Sears and other groups in Jackson Heights want to create vendor-free zones along 37th Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue, something they say will throw them out of business.

Elmhurst residents rally against homeless shelter

Linda Lam kicks off the rally against the Elmhurst homeless shelter.


Roe Daraio, president of COMET, speaks.


Jeff Gottlieb, representing State Senator Joe Addabbo, says the senator is with the residents.


Claude Pierre, a neighbor, speaks, tells Bloomberg and Katz, "Shame on you!"


Councilwoman Helen Sears' spokesperson, George Onuorah, addresses the crowd.


Vicky Morales representing Councilwoman Melinda Katz gets booed!


Democratic District Leader James Lisa says he will pressure elected officials on this issue.


Former Assemblyman Michael Cohen explains who the Queens Alliance is and why they shouldn't be opening a shelter anywhere.


Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley encourages the crowd to keep up the good work.


The sizable crowd marched around the block chanting and carrying signs. They signed up new voters, circulated petitions and made arrangements for future events. And unlike the rest of Queens, these folks know exactly who to blame. Why the hatred toward Katz? From the Forum West:

This portion of Elmhurst is in the City Council district of Melinda Katz (D-Forest Hills), who was not at Monday’s meeting. A resident said she called Katz’s district office but was told by an aide that the effort is a lost cause since the project is allowed under the zoning. Instead, the aide suggested that the resident consider hiring an attorney, a solution she said was not acceptable.

FYI: Katz IS an attorney.

Katz is also one of the political bastards who did nothing while her constituents' hospital closed. Now they get a homeless shelter? That seems like a fair tradeoff. The residents promised to return the favor by not voting for either Bloomberg or Katz later this year.



Photos and videos by Christina Wilkinson

Sears vs. Jackson Heights vendors

From the Queens Gazette:

City Councilmember Helen Sears wants to make the quality of life for her fellow Jackson Heights residents as pleasant as possible. One way to achieve this goal, she says, is to create an area totally free of food vendors whose carts now crowd sidewalks and generally block access to streets.

Sears (D- Jackson Heights) says she is "fighting for the day when our neighbors can walk freely down streets free from pushcarts and refuse in a zone that will prevent vendors blocking streets and overcrowding sidewalks".

"If Mexico City can do this, so can we," the lawmaker declared, referring to the Vendor Free Zone that has been established in Mexico City's historic town center.

The veteran lawmaker and civic and political leader has the area picked out to create this unique zone. It runs from 72nd Street and 35th Avenue and south to Roosevelt Avenue then extends east to 82nd Street on the north side of 37th Avenue and 78th Street on the south side. The area is presently one of the busiest shopping areas in Jackson Heights.

Great moments in tweeding, part 1

From the Times Ledger:

[Helen] Sears, who is seeking a third term in office; Democratic District Leader Daniel Dromm; Con Edison spokesman Alfonso Quiroz; and Jackson Heights lawyer Stanley Kalathara all said they would focus on increasing English classes and employment opportunities for immigrant communities if they win in September.

There were few moments of tension during the evening. At one point, Dromm called on the other candidates to commit to not accepting any campaign contributions from real estate developers. None of the other candidates responded.

Sears: Term limits "a very small issue"

Filmed at the City Council Candidates Forum on 4/22/09 in Jackson Heights.

At the 1:44 mark, Helen Sears says that term limits is a 'very small issue' -- the audience laughs out loud at her. She is totally out of touch with the community.

Sears' window

"Helen Sears is so out of touch that she still has a Happy Hanukkah sign in her window on March 28th. The Jackson Heights Times wrote in Thursday's edition that she couldn't make up her mind about what office she was running for. Seems like she is so confused, she can't figure out what time it is." - anonymous

From Jackson Heights Times:

The race in District 25, which includes Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Woodside, was in limbo, although Democratic District Leader Daniel Dromm has raised $79,072. It was unclear if Dromm would even face incumbent Councilwoman Helen Sears (D−Jackson Heights), who is remaining coy over what seat she will seek in the upcoming election. Sears had raised $110,623 by March 15.

Third in the race is Con Edison spokesman Alfonso Quiroz, Sears’ former deputy chief of staff, who had raised $62,558 by March 15. Trailing Quiroz was Jackson Heights lawyer Stanley Kalathara, who had raised $29,632 by March 15.

Sabini vs. Sears in November?

Get ready, Jackson Heights. The already packed stable of candidates for the 25th Council District seat may soon get another distinguished contender.

Former state Sen. John Sabini, now chairman of the state Racing and Wagering Commission, is considering running for the Council seat he first occupied in 1989.

Sabini weighing run for City Council seat

If Sabini runs for the Council seat, he will face competition from sitting Councilwoman Helen Sears (D−Jackson Heights), who likely will run for a third term after Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s revision to the City Charter was approved by the Council in October.

Sears declined to comment on facing her predecessor in the Council.