Melinda Katz sworn in as Queens District Attorney

Elected officials and their donors doing business with the city exploit campaign finance loophole.

NY Daily News

A glaring loophole in New York’s campaign finance rules allows people doing business with the city to steer thousands to candidates for office despite limits on how much they can personally donate.

The glitch means lobbyists, developers and others who stand to profit from government action can curry favor with current and future decision-makers — and skirt donation limits ― by bundling donations from their wealthy pals and sending them to candidates for city office.

Twelve people who have city business, prohibiting them from giving more than a few hundred bucks themselves, have already bundled $112,405 in donations for 2021 candidates, an analysis by The Daily News found.

Anyone considered to be doing business with the city — like lobbyists and those with municipal contracts — can’t give more than $400 to any one candidate for mayor, public advocate and comptroller. They’re barred from giving over $320 to candidates for borough president and $250 for pols running for City Council.

Yet that doesn’t stop them from bundling hundreds of fat checks.

"Some donors circumvent NYC's doing business contribution limits by bundling contributions from others, which can result in more influence than giving contributions directly,” said Alex Camarda, a senior policy adviser at good-government group Reinvent Albany.

So far, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. leads 2021 candidates in bundled cash from the conflicted donors, collecting $49,700 from two people with city business as of July 11, the end of the most recent filing period.

He’s followed by Councilman Rafael Salamanca, Jr., with $14,525 from bundlers with city business, 
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams with $12,040, and Comptroller Scott Stringer with $10,800.

 The amount of bundled cash from those with municipal business is likely to skyrocket in the next two years before the 2021 election, when term limits open 41 of the city’s 59 elected positions that more than 500 candidates are expected to run for.

During the last wide-open election in 2013, a whopping $1.7 million was bundled and given to candidates for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president and city council from 93 people doing business with the city at the time, according to a Daily News analysis of campaign filings.

Another $875,098 was bundled by 70 people with city business during the 2017 election, The News found.

Speaker is full of herself, among other things

From the Observer:

The speaker of the New York City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito, has an unusual strategy for solving city problems. When she came upon a broken Walk-Don’t Walk sign, she didn’t call 311 to report it. Nor did she shoot an email to the Department of Transportation’s chief to convey the importance of fixing this particular safety device—perhaps more quickly than normal. Instead, Mark-Viverito tweeted about it.

Surprisingly, a staffer at DOT saw Mark-Viverito’s tweet. But this on-top-of-it staffer almost immediately responded in kind—via Twitter—and informed the speaker that the most effective way to get fast action was to call the 311 hotline.

Mark-Viverito responded in full huff: “whaaaat???” she tweeted. “This a joke? Or an auto response? Or maybe even an intern? Not a response for an elected.”

Unfortunately, Mark-Viverito made it all about her: you don’t know who I am? Is an “elected” a new protected class? Is her sense of self-importance so out of control?

If Mark-Viverito had called 311 or emailed the DOT commissioner and not gotten results, a tweet would certainly have been appropriate. But we’d like to suggest to Mark-Viverito that a public servant—yes, that is the more appropriate word for an “elected”—is here to serve, not to huff or berate. And that includes disparaging interns.

How Queens electeds handled the snow debacle

Well folks, this is what represents you.

Koslowitz thinks there's 20 feet of snow.
Crowley can't form a grammatically correct sentence.
Dromm is too upset about the cancellation of a gay pride event than the fact that his district got hit the hardest.
Van Bramer wants you to know that he didn't miss brunch.
Vallone managed to turn his constituents' grief into a commercial for himself.
The rest of them can't seem to agree on whether the response by the city was fantastic or sucked ass.

Can confirm its still snowing. Check on neighbors. We just dug one of mine out as his door fully snow-blocked #Jonas pic.twitter.com/dTxSZbEcHn

— Sen. Mike Gianaris (@SenGianaris) January 23, 2016

.@MikeSimanowitz, I and other Queens electeds are on conf call with @NYCSanitation expressing outrage right now. https://t.co/wa5iDRtdie

— Rory Lancman (@RoryLancman) January 24, 2016

Too many streets still buried. Can't imagine what we would be dealing with if storm hit in the middle of the week. #blizzard2016

— Michael Simanowitz (@MikeSimanowitz) January 24, 2016

Great job in clearing our streets @NYCSanitation. pic.twitter.com/U4S9z2AdiO

— Donovan Richards (@DRichards13) January 24, 2016

Snow removal operations in #SEQueens r better than we've seen in past storms. There are 900 @NYCSanitation vehicles dedicated to #Queens.

— I. Daneek Miller (@IDaneekMiller) January 24, 2016

The #snow can't stop us from breakfast @auberginecafe! Issues w/the storm? Let me know. I am in touch w/the admin. pic.twitter.com/il3f72bRf2

— Jimmy Van Bramer (@JimmyVanBramer) January 23, 2016

Hope you're staying safe during this blizzard weekend! Thank you for reading the week in review. https://t.co/7XsNvtqod4

— Paul Vallone (@PaulVallone) January 24, 2016

Recall power to the people

From the Daily News:

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers will be pushing legislation to give the public the power to recall elected officials, a move that could give voters a new way to clean up scandal-scarred Albany.

“It’s important that voters have a right to recall elected officials if they’re unhappy with their performances,” said Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda (D-Bronx), who is sponsoring the bill in the Assembly.

Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) has his own recall bill, and has been working with Sepulveda to come to agreement on joint legislation.

Sepulveda’s measure, which was still being fine-tuned over the weekend, would allow voters to petition to recall state and local officials as well as judges.

Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia permit the recall of state officials, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

At least 29 states have provisions for recall elections in local jurisdictions.

Make legal corruption illegal

From the NY Post:

Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos broke the law, but when it comes to politicians, New York’s got a far bigger problem: corruption that’s perfectly legal.

“I seen my opportunities, and I took ’em.” Tammany boss George Washington Plunkitt used that famous, comically frank excuse to explain the “honest graft” that made him rich. Indeed, he took pride in his corruption, because he distinguished it from “dishonest graft.”

In 1870, Plunkitt held four offices — assemblyman, alderman, police magistrate and county supervisor — and pulled down three salaries. His “honest graft,” was based on his ability to “see an opportunity” — say, buying up land where, unknown to the public, a park would later be built, then selling it at a handsome profit.

Silver and Skelos committed flat-out crimes. But what about the “honest graft,” the kind of corruption that takes a toll on millions who don’t even realize it — all while breaking no laws? It’s as fetid as the “dishonest” kind. New York’s pols trade legislative favors, steer contracts, set wages and grant tax breaks.

But democracy itself encourages quid pro quo deals — many that are perfectly legal, and others that may not be, but that are hard to prove otherwise. Prosecutors are lucky indeed to find evidence as clear-cut as in the Skelos and Silver cases.

A candidate, for instance, might promise pay hikes for public workers or tax breaks for select groups, knowing he’ll get their political support. That’s totally legal. A businessman might buy ads hawking a candidate who vows to build roads. That’s OK, too, even if the roads provide a particular benefit to the man’s trucking business.

It boils down to this: Power corrupts, as the saying goes. So limit an official’s power, and you can probably limit a good deal of corruption.

There’s more: Steps to end the lifetime tenures of incumbents would help. And, of course, an engaged electorate is crucial.

Putain de merde!

Can you find the elected official in this picture taken at a vigil for the Paris bombing victims?

Stumped? Click here for the answer.

You might as well bribe

From the Daily News:

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. on Sunday slammed toothless laws that make it tough for state prosecutors to go after corrupt New York politicians.

They are “out of touch with the reality” compared with other states that make it easier to go after crooked officials, he said on John Catsimatidis’ radio show on AM 970.

“It’s more difficult in New York State to prosecute a politician or the briber for bribery than it is to prosecute a sports promoter for bribery,” he said. “We sort of have a carveout in New York State for political bribery, which makes it, I think, simply out of touch with the reality of statutes around the country.”

I'm sure the lawmakers will get right on correcting this.

DeBlasio acting more like Bloomberg every day

From DNA Info:

While Mayor Bill de Blasio was personally coaxing the city’s police union presidents to meet with him, his top aides were on the phones with lawmakers urging them to blast PBA President Patrick Lynch and other officers for turning their backs on the mayor following the assassinations of two of New York’s Finest, DNAinfo New York has learned.

As late as Monday afternoon — the same time de Blasio was speaking with police union leaders to set up Tuesday's détente to possibly mend their fractured relationship — the mayor’s government affairs honchos were privately cold-calling the city’s Democratic delegation of city and state elected officials, asking them to publicly criticize Lynch and those officers who dissed the mayor.

“City Hall wanted me to blast the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association for turning their backs on him,” a Big Apple legislator told “On The Inside.” “They called up Monday, said they were calling all of us, and that it was our obligation to stand up defending the mayor."

There was an expectation from City Hall that "because they were calling that we should do whatever they ask," the lawmaker said.

And it didn't stop there.

NYPD is the wrong target

Why Did the Protesters Go After the Cops When It Was Elected Officials That Control the Prosecutorial System That Let the Garner Chokehold Cops Go?

Pols Set-Up Cops: Blame Game

Community activist Tony Herbert who introduced a family member of officer Rafael Ramos, said it the best: elected officials are using the cops, turning the community against them. 

Herbert asked why are the elected officials forcing to the cops to raise money for the city? The relationship between the community and the police is strained, Herbert said, cops are forced to give out parking tickets, act as tax collectors for government. That creates tension between the community and cops. 

Herbert also has complained about why the cops are forced to deal with people who have mental problems, when it was the elected officials who have not properly dealt with that population. Police did not cause bad schools, high black unemployment, homelessness or the inequities of the criminal justice system that puts male blacks in jail at a much higher rate, elected officials did. 

In other words, he says, the pols use the cops. Yet they have to deal with the problems that are created by government failure. The pols have escaped any blame with the Grand Jury system which they control. It was the Grand Jury run by the Staten Island DA Donovan that failed to indict the cop who put the chokehold on Garner. Yet the words out of de Blasio, Sharpton and dozens of elected officials many, who have a say on how the state's prosecutorial system works, have all been directed to blame the cops.

Peace on Earth, goodwill to men.

Jamaica garbage situation getting serious attention

From the Queens Courier:

When Joe Moretti moved to Jamaica, Queens, back in November of 2010, New York City was about to experience one of the worst blizzards in its history. As more than a foot of snow covered the streets and sidewalks of his new neighborhood, Moretti was unable to see what really lay beneath. It wasn’t until the snow started melting months later when he saw that the piles of snow covered up piles of garbage.

“There was a vacant lot next to my building that always had a bunch of garbage all over the sidewalks around it and people would keep putting more. I started taking pictures and sending them to the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) and 3-1-1 because I wanted it cleaned up,” said Moretti, who has now been living in Jamaica for almost four years. “As I started walking all around Jamaica, I kept seeing more and more garbage, so more pictures and more reporting to the [DSNY].”

Moretti even took to YouTube, and posted music videos about it. While the videos garnered some media attention, Moretti wanted to get even more attention on the problem.

“I thought, ‘How can I crank this up some notches?’” Moretti said.

And that is when “Clean Up Jamaica Queens” was born. “Clean Up Jamaica Queens” is a blog Moretti started in 2013 to highlight the worst problems in the area: garbage strewn in to vacant lots, sidewalks and streets. He uses harsh language and writes in a tone that many might find offensive, but at the end of the day, he gets his point across.

“That has helped to bring attention to this major problem in Jamaica. Everyone is now talking about the garbage problem, whether they are offended by what I say or not. People are starting to do something. At the end of the day we all want the same thing: a cleaner, safer and better community, I just happen to do it in a loud and different way,” Moretti said.

He posts pictures that he takes around the neighborhood and writes a few choice words for some of Jamaica’s elected officials.

“Our leaders have been completely useless on this issue and have failed to do anything. They need to make sure that all the laws on the books such as littering, uncovered garbage cans and household garbage in public garbage cans are enforced,” he said. “People here feel they can do whatever they want because there are no consequences. It truly is the Wild Wild West of Queens.”