Cuomo decision allows Claire to rezone Flushing waterfront

From QNS:

A 62-acre portion of land on the Flushing waterfront may soon see substantial redevelopment after receiving a special designation from the state.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) designation for an area of land in the western area of downtown Flushing, bounded to the north by Northern Boulevard, to the east by Prince Street, to the south by Roosevelt Avenue and to the west by Flushing Creek and the Van Wyck Expressway.

The Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation (FWCLDC) presented the application for the BOA, which is described as a vacant, underdeveloped and/or polluted area where, under the program, economic environmental conditions are examined and redevelopment opportunities are identified in an attempt to attract public and public investment.

The designation opens up several benefits for future developers, including support from state municipalities and a potential for tax credits.

“I thank our entire board for its support during this process and now look forward to the next phase which will include a formal ULURP application to implement the zoning recommendations included in our nomination study,” said Claire Shulman, president and CEO of the Flushing Willets Point Corona LDC said in a letter to the LDC’s board. “The LDC thanks the Department of City Planning for its stellar work on our nomination study and environmental assessment report. Our staff at the LDC also deserve thanks for their hard work in overseeing and ensuring completion of this critical phase of our work. The LDC will apply for funding for the next phase of our work (implementation) as soon as it becomes available from the state.”

Homeless not-for-profit's math doesn't add up

From the Daily News:

A nonprofit that has become a major homeless shelter provider in a short time frame is being audited by the city — less than a year after it scored $407 million in contracts.

Childrens Community Services lassoed two mega-contracts with the Department of Homeless Services last June to operate hotel shelters in four boroughs and charge as much as $270 a night to house a family in a room.

The city inked the deals even though the nonprofit only started four years ago and its most recent tax filing showed it was $6 million in the red.

One contract was for three years and $360 million to house homeless families. The other was for $47.7 million to house single adults.

When the Daily News inquired about the nonprofit's debts and murky financials, Homeless Services said it planned to procure an independent accounting firm to review Childrens Community Services and pare down the number of shelters the nonprofit operates.

A new form of tweeeding

From NY1:

The City Council is poised to make changes to the city's campaign finance system, including regulating nonprofit groups started by elected officials. But the Council is also preparing to consider legislation that some advocates say only benefits the lawmakers themselves. NY1's Courtney Gross filed the following report.

The City Council is already looking ahead to next year's municipal election.

Late Thursday, it released details of 14 bills to overhaul the city's campaign finance system.

One prohibits large donations from people who do business with the city to nonprofit groups founded by elected officials.

It is a clear reprimand of the mayor's now-defunct group, The Campaign for One New York, which raised thousands of dollars from people who had city contracts. The group is now the subject of a federal investigation.

"The Campaign For One New York obviously raised concerns for a lot of us, but it was operating within the law. So we want to correct the law," said City Councilman Daniel Garodnick of Manhattan.

The other bills change how the city's Campaign Finance Board oversees elections and how elected officials themselves can spend campaign cash.

"I think what we have is a package of really sensible legislation," said City Councilman Brad Lander of Brooklyn.

For instance, one bill would allow elected officials to spend campaign money on "expenditures to facilitate, support or otherwise assist in the execution or performance of the duties of public office."

"That lets you use those resources for public purposes like food at community planning and public meetings," Lander said.

Advocates have questioned whether this opens the door to more freewheeling spending reminiscent of Albany.

Glass box for Flushing non-profit

From Curbed:

Housing non-profit Asian Americans for Equality are set to open a large new community and entrepreneurship center in Flushing, Queens that will be located at the corner of College Point Boulevard and 39th Avenue. The seven-story structure will span 90,000 square feet and is being designed in collaboration between JCJ Architecture and Leong Leong.

Plans so far call for an outdoor plaza on the ground floor that will connect to a 5,000-square-foot public market. The second floor will be configured in such a way that it can be used for a variety of events, meetings, exhibitions, and performances. This floor also comes with a large terrace. The third floor will house a business incubator that will provide the neighborhood’s businesses a co-working space, and an area to collaborate. Floors five through seven will offer additional office space.

The architects have also designed a three-story staircase that starts at the base of the structure. This creates a seating area for the market on the ground floor, and on the second and third floor, it can be used for events, performances, and screenings.

New anti-corruption law doesn't go very far

From NY1:

In the final hours of the legislative session in June, lawmakers passed what they called "ethics reform." But some believe it's more notable for what wasn't included.

"The ethics bill is a major step forward," said Governor Andrew Cuomo. "Is it everything? No. Ethics, in many ways, is like other activities in life. It's an ongoing pursuit."

But critics say the legislation does little to pursue actual corruption. In the last year and a half, the leaders of both legislative houses were tried and convicted on federal corruption charges.

"The legislature and the governor missed a huge opportunity in responding to the outcry," said Dick Dadey of Citizens Union. "Ninety percent of New Yorkers wanted action on ethics reform that basically dealt with preventing corruption, and they did nothing."

"Certainly, Albany had a bad year in terms of trust. You have members of the legislature who were indicted, went to jail. So, they needed an ethics reform," Cuomo said.

The ethics reform requires more stringent separation between campaigns and independent expenditure groups that advocate for specific causes. It also appears to target nonprofit and good-government groups by forcing them disclose their donors.

Why Queens is being inundated with shelters

Hey all, this info came to me late last night. As you can see from the City's own chart above, Acacia Network, the "social service" organization that is responsible for the poorly run Verve Hotel in LIC and which is planning to open a shelter at the Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth, has so many problems and violations at its other shelters that the city is closing them down. "C" means closed and "P" means pending closure. So where to put all the homeless that Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx are responsible for? Why QUEENS, of course! That's the fair thing to do after all. Burden overtaxed working and middle class homeowners so that a charity with a long history of coming up short for both the city and its clients can continue to enrich themselves.

There is no huge increase in numbers of homeless, just fewer sites to place them. You'll notice the line highlighted in green is about an adult couples shelter that has 39 rooms. The city is claiming that if the Maspeth community can come up with an alternate site containing 35 rooms, then the Holiday Inn site will be tabled. Is this why? They need to replace a closed Manhattan shelter for adult couples?

An industrious fellow on the Maspeth 11378 Facebook page also did some digging and came up with a lot of information about this so called "charity" known as Acacia Network.

I suppose the Queens papers could have uncovered this, if they weren't so busy defending Liz Crowley and Marge Markey.

And the response from City Hall?

Charity with ties to shady pol investigated

From DNA Info:

City investigators have opened a probe into a Queens nonprofit that has ties to disgraced ex-state Sen. Shirley Huntley and other elected officials, sources said.

The city Department of Investigation began in May looking into the finances of the St. Albans nonprofit Clergy United for Community Empowerment and into its executive vice-president and CEO, the Rev. Ernestine Sanders, according to sources.

The nonprofit bills itself as providing health and mental health services to HIV individuals and their families.

The group, whose board members include influential clergy from Southeast Queens, also holds political sway and its endorsement is coveted by both candidates running for office and elected officials.

Councilman I. Daneek Miller, who represents St. Albans, directed $63,438 in discretionary funds to Clergy United in fiscal year 2016 to run domestic violence initiatives, records show. In all, the nonprofit received nearly $219,000 in discretionary funds from the City Council that year, records show.

Miller declined to comment on the investigation.

Huntley, when she was a state senator, also steered $75,000 in state funds to Clergy United between fiscal years 2007 and 2010, according to a Politico article in 2012.

Huntley pleaded guilty in 2013 to mail fraud charges for stealing $87,000 in taxpayer money that went to an educational nonprofit she founded. She served 10 months in federal prison.

It was that easy

From DNA Info:

Two former advisers to Mayor Bill de Blasio who left City Hall for a political consulting firm were granted permission to continue working with the mayor on behalf of his nonprofit, which is now under federal investigation, despite a one-year ban on doing so, DNAinfo New York has learned.

Rebecca Katz, a special adviser to de Blasio, left in April 2015 to work for Hilltop Public Solutions. Hayley Prim, a policy analyst for Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, left City Hall in March 2015, also to join Hilltop.

They received a June 10, 2015, Conflict of Interests Board waiver to work for the Campaign for One New York, de Blasio's nonprofit focused on promoting his political agenda, before the city's one-year prohibition expired.

Good government groups and political experts say the arrangement shows how easily paid consultants and advisers move in and out of de Blasio's City Hall.

Bayside Jewish Center to be bought by Korean services group

From the Queens Chronicle:

Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York Executive Director Linda Lee spoke to the Northwest Bayside Civic Association last Thursday about the group’s plans to purchase the Bayside Jewish Center.

“We have the only Meals on Wheels program that serves Korean food in all of New York City,” Lee said, telling those in attendance about KCS at the meeting, which was held at the Grace Presbyterian Church of New York in Bayside. The agency, which has offices in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, mainly provides programs for seniors, and mostly serves the Korean diaspora of New York City.

When Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) announced last May that the School Construction Authority planned to purchase the Jewish center, the congregation of which has largely dwindled in recent years, the plan was not greeted warmly. Citing the effect that the proposed eight-story school would have on parking, traffic, property value and other worries, many community members were livid. After a fight led by the civic and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), the SCA dropped the plans last November.

If KCS buys the building, according to Lee, it will use it from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. And most of the seniors served by the nonprofit, she added, use public transportation.

When a member of the civic asked Lee if KCS plans to build onto the building, the nonprofit executive director said that it was not likely. “In our conversations right now, that’s not on our radar,” she said, while not saying outright that the agency would agree never expand the structure. “I don’t think we would even make plans to do that because we would have to have a good reason for doing that.”

However, Lee said, the building would have to be brought up to compliance and its kitchen would have to be renovated. And because handicapped individuals are served by the nonprofit, other changes would have to be made to the inside of the building to make it easier for them to move through it.

DeBlasio's non-profit not doing as well

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio’s efforts to be the national voice of the left — which resulted in his aborted attempt to stage an Iowa presidential forum — cost his political non-profit close to $400,000, according to records released Friday night.

The Campaign for One New York, which de Blasio formed shortly after being elected, spent a whopping $383,537.84 on the “Progressive Agenda,” which lobbies D.C. on liberal issues.

Much of that went to consultants, including a hefty $215,000 payout to the firm AKPD, which was founded by de Blasio campaign guru John Del Cecato.

Del Cecato famously created the ad that starred Dante de Blasio and his afro in the 2013 City Hall race.

The Progressive Agenda tried and failed to persuade the 2016 presidential candidates to attend a forum on income inequality that it planned in Iowa.

No one wanted to come, so it was canceled.

One New York, which as a non-profit operates outside the city’s strict campaign finance laws, raised a total of $485,009.49 over the filing period that just ended.

That’s considerably less than the $1.5 million it raised in the previous six months filing period.

From Capital New York:

The decline in donors also comes after POLITICO New York and other news outlets reported that a significant percentage of donors to the fund gave money even as they also had other business before City Hall.

A review by POLITICO New York of the fund’s donors found 62 percent of the businesses or individuals who gave to the campaign between January 2015 and July of 2015 also had either business or labor contracts with the city, or were seeking approval for specific projects at the time that they donated.

And the tweeding continues...

From the Daily News:

The City Council doled out more than $50 million in taxpayer cash to favored nonprofits in a list of “member items” released Thursday.

The $52.6 million in discretionary cash — which Mayor de Blasio vowed to abolish, but quickly gave up and let the Council keep giving out — is part of the $78.5 billion budget set to be voted on Friday.

The biggest winner was the Hispanic Federation, which brought in $666,000 in grants, mostly from Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, as well as Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan). Next up was Catholic Charities, which took home $550,500.

Also in the top 10 was the sprawling nonprofit founded by disgraced ex-Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council. It got $324,400.

Nonprofit boozed it up and got reimbursed

From Crains:

A Queens nonprofit received more than $150,000 in reimbursements from the state Office of Mental Health for inappropriate expenses, including almost $11,000 for alcohol at a two-day executive and board retreat in Montauk, L.I.

From July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013, the Office of Mental Health paid PSCH $6.8 million to provide services and housing to people with mental illness. During that time, the Flushing nonprofit, whose initials stand for Promoting Specialized Care and Health, submitted $152,580 in expenses that were not in compliance with its contract terms, according to an audit conducted by the office of New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

An October 2012 retreat at the Montauk Yacht Club for board members and executive staff cost the nonprofit about $63,000. The state agency reimbursed PSCH for half those costs: OMH paid $10,723 for alcohol, $6,312 for dinner and $5,746 for rooms for an additional night's stay.

"The rules for conference costs are clear," Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement. "And lavish parties with alcohol, cruises and extra guests are not allowable. State agencies must make sure that contractors are reimbursed for legitimate expenses only."

About two-thirds of PSCH's $152,580 were costs that were "not actual, reasonable and necessary in the provision of contract services," the audit said. They included duplicate charges, and expenses that were incurred during a different period than the one in which PSCH was applying for reimbursement.

The auditors also found PSCH was reimbursed $22,901 for a staff picnic at Cunningham Park in Queens, where expenses included $14,955 for the picnic and $3,420 in gifts to staff, such as coolers, T-shirts, pens and umbrellas. Another $1,300 was spent on ice cream.

Queens cultural institutions getting less funding

From the Queens Chronicle:

Queens ranks last in per capita support from the Department of Cultural Affairs with just $3.27 spent per resident, according to a presentation by Katz’s staff at Monday’s meeting of the Borough Board, despite eight of 35 cultural institutions owned by the city located in Queens.

“Focus on that for a second,” Katz said. “I just want everyone to understand that it’s bad and it’s unfair. We are the number one destination of choice in 2015 and yet we spend $3 per person on our culture.”

Of the eight cultural institutions in Queens — the Queens Botanical Garden, the New York Hall of Science, the Queens Museum, Queens Theatre in the Park, the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, the Museum of the Moving Image, PS1 and Flushing Town Hall — the New York Hall of Science is provided the most city funding, $1,847,093, in the new budget, $18,696 more than last year.

However, six other institutions saw a decrease in funding in this year’s budget proposal, with PS1’s allocation remaining steady at $774,496.

The biggest proposed cutback is a $109,000 reduction in the Queens Museum’s city funding, which would decline from $921,135 to $812,135 this year.

Katz said colleagues such as Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer don’t have to make up for shortcomings in city cultural funding with monies from their own budget, and that she plans to negotiate as hard as she can for equality.

Koo pushing for expanded developer air rights

From Crains:

A group of City Council members sent Mayor Bill de Blasio a letter this week urging him to allow owners of landmarked nonprofits to sell a combined 25 million square feet of their air rights, which would then be used by developers in a few selected areas across the city to build taller buildings.

Democratic Councilmen Peter Koo of Queens and Ritchie Torres and Fernando Cabrera of the Bronx argued in the Feb. 24 letter that such a system would allow 180 landmarked nonprofit institutions to cash in on their full property values. Under current rules, those unused rights can be transferred only to sites close by.

"As you know, many religious and nonprofit institutions housed in individually designated landmarked structures struggle to maintain their buildings while providing services to further their mission," the letter stated. Mr. Koo is chair of the Committee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses and Mr. Torres is deputy leader of the council.

The trio used concepts and numbers contained in a proposal advanced by a group called Iconplans, which is led by former real estate broker and grocery store executive Lawrence Daitch, and real estate investor Michael Lipstein. The duo first floated their idea years ago, during the Bloomberg administration.

The tweeding never ends

From DNA Info:

In the past two years, two city councilwomen went to bat for nonprofits employing their family members, writing letters of support for the groups to city officials deciding on their proposals to develop public land, records show.

City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo and ex-city Councilwoman Diana Reyna each penned letters to officials at the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development backing affordable-housing proposals, records obtained by DNAinfo New York show.

Arroyo's June 14, 2013, missive supported a Bronx nonprofit that had hired her ex-convict nephew six months earlier, while Reyna's Aug. 27, 2012, note praised a proposal by a Brooklyn nonprofit where her mother-in-law worked as a director.

Pathways to hell

From the Daily News:

Since 2010, more than 1,300 eviction notices have gone out because Pathways [to Housing] — which serves 700 mentally ill clients — stopped paying rent for months at a time. Pathways’ contract with the state was recently canceled, and the state attorney general is now investigating where all that taxpayer money went.

In fact, Pathway clients have good reason to fear getting the knock.

The state Office of Mental Health, Pathways’ main source of funding, said on Friday that Pathways admits 52 clients have actually been evicted since 2010. Legal Aid Society lawyers trying to fight the evictions say 24 of those evictions have occurred since Jan. 1, 2013.

So I guess we'll need more homeless shelters then?

Not-for-profit did nothing for dough

From DNA Info:

The city is trying to get nearly $300,000 back from a Jamaica substance abuse center, which officials say may have misused the funds, according to court documents.

According to the complaint, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Aug. 8, New Spirit II signed a contract with the Department of Health in July 2008 and “received funding to deliver medically supervised outpatient services for the treatment of alcohol and chemical dependency between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009.”

After an audit was conducted in November 2011, the city demanded the nonprofit, on South Road and Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, return the $285,866, which the group failed to do, according to the document.

"This lawsuit is a routine action brought against an agency that failed to live up to its contract with the city," lawyer Alan Kleinman of the city's Law Department said in an email.

Kleinman declined to say where New Spirit II spent the money.

No one talked on Wills' wire

From the NY Post:

Indicted City Councilman Ruben Wills was trying to get the goods on fellow lawmakers — and get the heat off himself during a state probe of his shady nonprofit — by wearing a wire, The Post has learned.

Wills, who was arrested last week by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, was doing the secret recording at the behest of Schneiderman’s ­office, two sources said.

But Wills apparently failed to deliver.

“He was radioactive, and nobody would speak to him,” a lawmaker said. “Nobody would have anything to do with him.”

Schneiderman’s office began investigating Wills and his charity, New York 4 Life, in 2012 but took no action until last week.

“They’re mad at him for not getting the goods,” the source said.

Ridgewood-Bushwick charity suddenly okay again

From Capital New York:

After Bill de Blasio's mayoral campaign attacked an opponent for funding a troubled nonprofit connected to a tainted former assemblyman, de Blasio's administration is now giving millions of dollars in city business to that same organization.

Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which was founded by embattled ex-assemblyman Vito Lopez, received a $3.6 million, three-year contract beginning July 1 for providing an "innovative senior center," according to a notice published last week in the City Record and additional information provided to Capital by a city official.

As public advocate and a contender for mayor last year, de Blasio admonished City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for allowing taxpayer-backed money controlled by the council to fund Ridgewood Bushwick. He lobbed his criticisms in light of ethical charges Lopez was facing for sexually harassing several of his female staffers, as well as previous investigations by law-enforcement agencies for allegations of corruption and fraud at the nonprofit.

"It's ridiculous after all we've learned about Vito Lopez and the way he manipulated the system. I have no doubt in the world that Chris Quinn could have stopped it if she wanted to," de Blasio told the Daily News last year, after it was revealed that Ridgewood Bushwick received $421,964 in so-called member items.

At the time, Quinn, who lost her mayoral bid to de Blasio in September, had said she did not support the allocation but deferred to two local Brooklyn councilmen who requested the funding.

"People should be outraged," de Blasio said last year.

He even said New Yorkers "should demand this money not go to this organization."

Ridgewood Bushwick, a sprawling social-services empire that Lopez started in 1973, responded to a solicitation issued on Oct. 16, 2013, before de Blasio became mayor, to provide expanded services for senior citizens. City Hall sent notification to providers who won the awards on Jan. 14, two weeks after de Blasio took office.

An administration official noted that Ridgewood Bushwick, which won its current contract through a competitive bid, entered into a "corrective action plan" on Jan. 17, 2012 to address "business integrity issues" so it could continue offering services to the city.

Machine appointees save Galante

From the Daily News:

The nine Queens Library trustees who voted against placing President Tom Galante on leave put loyalty to the man over their duty to the institution.

They should be booted from office along with him.

Nine trustees came to their senses and voted to shelve Galante pending FBI and Department of Investigation probes. One trustee missed the vote. And the Galante 9 prevented the resolution from passing.

They severely damaged the library, run as it is by a nonprofit organization that is funded with city money and must have the trust of elected officials. That trust is now irreparably broken.

The mayor and Queens borough president appoint board members. Mayor de Blasio and BP Melinda Katz, who called for Galante’s ouster, must eliminate the nine as their terms come due.

First up for canning are George Stamatiades and William Jefferson, whose tenures expire at the end of the year. Katz should announce their replacements now.

The rest to be let go in time are Grace Lawrence, Leonard D’Amico, Joseph Ficalora, Stephen Van Anden, Patricia Flynn, Mary Ann Mattone and Terri Mangino. Of note, Mangino, who has been on the board since 1972, was hauled in from Florida to cast the vote that saved Galante.