Mario's Son Governor Cuomo has resigned

 

That's all folks. 

Cuomo's top moll resigns

NY Daily News  

  Gov. Cuomo’s top aside Melissa DeRosa stepped down Sunday as the governor faces potential criminal charges and calls for his own resignation over sexual harassment allegations.

The defection of DeRosa, who served in the most powerful unelected position in state government, is a major blow to Cuomo as he prepares to likely be impeached by the state Assembly.

In a statement first reported on Twitter, DeRosa said the past two years have been “emotionally and mentally trying.”

“I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such talented and committed colleagues on behalf of our state,” she added.

DeRosa is mentioned repeatedly in the damning report released last week by Attorney General Letitia James detailing sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo made by 11 women, mostly much younger staffers.

Investigators working for James’ office found DeRosa spearheaded the effort to discredit Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to go public with misconduct claims against the the governor.

Actually, Lindsey Boylan was not the first woman to go public against Mario's son...

 

Although the relentless coverage of Cuomo's sexual harassment scandal is good, 3 years ago a woman actually tried to warn reporters right to their faces and also Cuomo of sexual harassment and corruption happening in the Albany state house#CuomosGottaGo https://t.co/QIdpqus4gb

— This is JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) August 9, 2021

Council hearing turns into shitshow

From DNA Info:

In an attempt to make up for the loss of nursing home beds at Rivington House, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday announced plans to build an affordable senior housing and health care facility in a city-owned building under the Manhattan Bridge.

First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris dropped the news while testifying before the City Council during an oversight hearing on the administration's controversial decision to lift two deed restrictions on Rivington House nursing home for HIV/AIDS patients — a decision that allowed the home to be hawked to a luxury condo developer for $72 million. The mayor's office later made a formal announcement of the plan.

But though Shorris claimed the new facility — a building operated by the Department of Environmental Protection at 30 Pike St. — will replace the "bulk of what was lost in Rivington House," the mayor's office has only said the home will provide housing for more than 100 seniors, while Rivington held 219 beds.\

From the Observer:

It was a fitting ending for a City Council hearing that was, at its heart, about failures to communicate: another miscommunication.

After two-and-a-half hours of questioning Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris about the city’s decision to lift a deed restriction on Rivington House, which paved the way for the AIDS hospice to be sold for profit to luxury condo developers, his testimony ended with the City Council accusing the mayor’s office of misleading them about Shorris’ schedule.

“The administration misled the Council and the Speakers Office into believing that First Deputy Mayor Shorris’ availability for the hearing this morning would be limited because of events related to the U.S Conference of Mayors in Oklahoma City. This turned out to be false,” Eric Koch, a spokesman for Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. “At a hearing which focused on government honesty and transparency this is particularly shocking and unacceptable.”

The miscommunication today played out in “real-time,” as City Councilman Ben Kallos, the chairman of the committee on governmental operations put it, when, during the hearing, he asked Shorris why he had to leave—”for the record.”

“I have appointments scheduled,” Shorris responded.

Gianaris aide involved in de Blasio scandal

From Sunnyside Post:

A representative of State Sen. Michael Gianaris’ office has been caught up in the campaign finance investigation that has embroiled the de Blasio administration.

Matt Lerch, an Astoria resident who represents Gianaris at community board meetings and local events, took on the role of being the campaign manager to reelect State Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk in 2014, one of the three Democrats that de Blasio’s fundraising team backed to put the State Senate in the hands of the Democrats.

The State Board of Elections presented a campaign e-mail sent by Lerch as a key piece of evidence supporting its allegation that de Blasio’s fundraising team, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee—headed by Gianaris — and two County Democrat committees were acting in concert to skirt campaign finance rules to get big contributions into the hands of the three must-win Senate candidates.

This e-mail was sent to Hayes Clement, the treasurer of the Ulster County Democrat Committee, asking about funds from a donor.

“Hayes, I am just following up…Has the check for $60K cleared? Below is our banking info, we need the 60 transferred over ASAP please,” Lerch wrote.

The e-mail was sent by Lerch on Oct. 16, 2014.

State campaign finance records show that the Ulster County Democratic Committee received a $60,000 contribution from the New York State Nurses Association on Oct. 14.

“This email shows that representatives of Friends of Cecilia Tkaczyk were aware Ulster County Democrat Committee had received a check from NYSNA, knew those funds would be passed on…and previously had discussions about this matter,” according to the BOE’s findings.

Dromm co-sponsored dirtbag's program

From Progress Queens:

New York City Councilmember Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) was a co-sponsor of $300,000 in discretionary funding awarded to a sensitivity training program that was supported by Jona Rechnitz, one of two men reportedly the subject of a Federal corruption investigation tied to both the New York Police Department and the de Blasio administration.

Mr. Rechnitz’s support for the training program was revealed in a report published by The New York Post. Councilmember Dromm’s co-sponsoring of the funding was identified in the City Council’s Fiscal Year 2015 Schedule C, which details the awarding of discretionary funding.

According to the report in The New York Post, Mr. Rechnitz was introduced to municipal legislators during tours of the Museum of Tolerance New York, where the sensitivity training was reportedly held. The individual, who orchestrated the tours and introductions, was the lobbyist Michael Cohen.

It is not known if Councilmember Dromm took one of those tours or if he met with Mr. Rechnitz or Mr. Cohen.

Councilmember Dromm’s office did not answer several advance questions submitted to him via e-mail by Progress Queens, and a message left with his communications director, Michael Mallon, was not returned.

Former NYPD top brass in hot water

From DNA Info:

Former NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks received between $250,000 and $500,000 from a politically connected businessman at the center of a federal probe into a pay-for-favors scandal engulfing the NYPD and City Hall, DNAinfo New York has learned.

Jona Rechnitz — owner of the Manhattan-based real estate firm JSR Capital who also has ties to Mayor Bill de Blasio — made the "investments" payout to Banks in 2014 while Banks was serving as the highest-ranking uniformed officer in charge of the NYPD’s daily operations.

The money was reported by Banks on his “exit” financial disclosure form filed with the city’s Conflict of Interest Board on Nov. 30, 2014, a month after he abruptly quit the NYPD, turning down a promotion to First Deputy Commissioner.

Banks' attorney, Benjamin Brafman, declined comment for this story.

Banks was the first choice of first lady Chirlane McCray to succeed Ray Kelly as Police Commissioner over Bill Bratton, who got the job, sources said.

Flushing police scandal gets bigger

From DNA Info:

Nearly two dozen NYPD officers are under investigation as a result of the recent arrest of a lieutenant and a detective involved in a protection racket for karaoke clubs and bar owners in Flushing, DNAinfo New York has learned.

Two captains, three lieutenants, three sergeants, three detectives and 12 police officers are now under a cloud in the aftermath of a two-year investigation that ended in December with the arrest of Lt. Robert Sung and Detective Yatyu Yam of the 109th Precinct, according to confidential NYPD documents obtained by DNAinfo's “On the Inside.”

The internal records include the names, photos and possible violations of department or criminal regulations each of 23 officers may have committed, but provide few specifics.

Sources say some allegations come from Yam, 35, who was arrested by Internal Affairs Bureau investigators and prosecutors from the Queens District Attorney’s Office, and taken to a secret location in a hotel where he was debriefed over two days.

The strongest evidence, however, was captured on recordings and surveillance tapes that shows Sung and Yam convincing fellow officers not to raid the clubs they were protecting or to free customers being handcuffed for using drugs there.

Sources say that instead of listening to Sung and Yam, the officers should have notified IAB or their supervisors about possible corruption, as is required by NYPD policies.

Summarizing southeastern Queens corruption

From NY1:

State Senator Malcolm Smith starts his Saturday praying.

"God, let him go back into his elected official office," a preacher says.

Whether that will happen after next week's Democratic primary is unclear.

Smith faces a new bribery trial in January. The first one this summer ended abruptly in a mistrial.

"It has a profound impact on you. There is no question about it," Smith said. "I have never been involved with the law in any regard."

He is also staring down his toughest re-election fight yet, against a former City Councilman, Leroy Comrie.

Smith's indictment rattled the city's political world, but he is hardly the first elected official in southeast Queens to be slapped with handcuffs.

Former state Senator Shirley Huntley had the experience in 2012. Earlier this year, it was City Councilman Ruben Wills.

"I know because of where I come from and the color I am, it doesn't usually work like that with you guys, but I am presumed innocent," Wills said in May.

It's a familiar line.

"I always continue to tell people of my innocence, and the more information that comes out, the more they realize," Smith said.

It's also a familiar subject: federal investigations into politicians' pockets.

"All of us, whoever we are, once you get elected, you're a target, and I think we realize that we are targets," said Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens.

It seems that focus is zeroed in on southeast Queens, with scandal after scandal slamming the same neighborhoods.

CityTime continues to haunt us

From Crains:

Investigators say poor oversight allowed a New York City payroll-technology project to spiral into a $700 million tangle of contractor fraud, budget overruns and delays.

A Department of Investigation report released Friday says the city lacked proper management safeguards to detect and prevent the problems with the CityTime project.

Its costs ballooned from about $70 million to $700 million. Authorities later concluded a key contractor hired and overpaid consultants through companies his associates owned.

Eight people have been convicted or pleaded guilty. The prime company on the project repaid the city more than $500 million.

NY Times exposes how ethically challenged Cuomo is

From the NY Times:

With Albany rocked by a seemingly endless barrage of scandals and arrests, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo set up a high-powered commission last summer to root out corruption in state politics. It was barely two months old when its investigators, hunting for violations of campaign-finance laws, issued a subpoena to a media-buying firm that had placed millions of dollars’ worth of advertisements for the New York State Democratic Party.

The investigators did not realize that the firm, Buying Time, also counted Mr. Cuomo among its clients, having bought the airtime for his campaign when he ran for governor in 2010.

Word that the subpoena had been served quickly reached Mr. Cuomo’s most senior aide, Lawrence S. Schwartz. He called one of the commission’s three co-chairs, William J. Fitzpatrick, the district attorney in Syracuse.

“This is wrong,” Mr. Schwartz said, according to Mr. Fitzpatrick, whose account was corroborated by three other people told about the call at the time. He said the firm worked for the governor, and issued a simple directive:

“Pull it back.”

The subpoena was swiftly withdrawn. The panel’s chief investigator explained why in an email to the two other co-chairs later that afternoon.

“They apparently produced ads for the governor,” she wrote.

The pulled-back subpoena was the most flagrant example of how the commission, established with great ceremony by Mr. Cuomo in July 2013, was hobbled almost from the outset by demands from the governor’s office.

While the governor now maintains he had every right to monitor and direct the work of a commission he had created, many commissioners and investigators saw the demands as politically motivated interference that hamstrung an undertaking that the governor had publicly vowed would be independent.

The commission developed a list of promising targets, including a lawmaker suspected of using campaign funds to support a girlfriend in another state and pay tanning-salon bills. The panel also highlighted activities that it saw as politically odious but perfectly legal, like exploiting a loophole to bundle enormous campaign contributions.

But a three-month examination by The New York Times found that the governor’s office deeply compromised the panel’s work, objecting whenever the commission focused on groups with ties to Mr. Cuomo or on issues that might reflect poorly on him.

Ultimately, Mr. Cuomo abruptly disbanded the commission halfway through what he had indicated would be an 18-month life. And now, as the Democratic governor seeks a second term in November, federal prosecutors are investigating the roles of Mr. Cuomo and his aides in the panel’s shutdown and are pursuing its unfinished business.

Before its demise, Mr. Cuomo’s aides repeatedly pressured the commission, many of whose members and staff thought they had been given a once-in-a-career chance at cleaning up Albany. As a result, the panel’s brief existence — and the writing and editing of its sole creation, a report of its preliminary findings — was marred by infighting, arguments and accusations. Things got so bad that investigators believed a Cuomo appointee was monitoring their communications without their knowledge. Resignations further crippled the commission. In the end, the governor got the Legislature to agree to a package of ethics reforms far less ambitious than those the commission had recommended — a result Mr. Cuomo hailed as proof of the panel’s success.

While some reports of tension between the governor’s office and the commission surfaced in the news media at the time, the examination by The Times provides the first full accounting of how extensively the governor’s aides involved themselves in the commission’s work and the level of disruption that this caused.

Read the whole thing. You'll fall off your chair.

Rikers Island guards in a lot of trouble

From NBC:

Investigators swept Rikers Island Monday, searching guards, inmate cells and offices as part of a probe of alleged drug and weapons smuggling by correction officers, officials said.

Some 75 locations throughout the facility were searched, according to the Department of Investigation and the Department of Correction.

In addition to possible smuggling, authorities said investigators are looking into allegations of assault and falsifying records.

DOI Commissioner Mark G. Peters and DOC Commissioner Joseph Ponte said in a joint statement that as many as 12 officers are expected to face charges.

Katz wants Galante to step down

From the Daily News:

Embattled Queens Library boss Thomas Galante should take a leave and stay out of circulation while the latest chapter of his spending and payment scandal plays out, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz said Monday.

Katz sent sharply worded letters to both Galante and the library’s board of trustees, calling for the board to formally suspend him at their meeting set for Thursday.

She said faith in library leadership has been dangerously undermined by recent revelations involving Galante, and the “thousands of children, adults and seniors” who rely on the $120 million-a-year Queens Library system are at risk.

“In order for the library to operate effectively and more importantly, to continue to receive taxpayer money, I believe it is best for the institution that you take a leave of absence effective immediately, and continuing until the various investigations and audits into the Library’s operations are resolved,” Katz wrote Galante in a letter obtained exclusively by The News.

“Given the current state of uncertainty and turmoil, I don’t believe you will be able to successfully lead the institution through this budget cycle, and the library will suffer, which is an outcome nobody wants,” she said.

The city Department of Investigation, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office are reviewing library records and conducting interviews as part of a possible criminal probe, The News previously reported.

Smith has 2 challengers for Senate primary

From the Politicker:

State Senator Malcolm Smith, a Democrat charged last year in a sprawling bribery scheme to land himself on the GOP ballot for mayor, looks like he will now be fending off at least two challengers if he seeks re-election this year.

Mr. Smith, is already facing attorney Munir Avery and will now also contend with Clyde Vanel, a former candidate for City Council and the State Assembly.

Mr. Vanel, like Mr. Avery, appears to be viable. He recently ran for an open City Council seat last year, finishing a strong second to the eventual winner, Daneek Miller. Mr. Vanel promised a “strong showing” in fund-raising numbers set to be released next week and said he was building coalitions within the district to win.

“The numbers show I have strong support in the neighborhood,” he explained. “It differentiates me from any one else in race.”

He just doesn't know when to quit

From NY1:

Charles Rangel was first elected to Congress the year the Beatles broke up. John Lindsay was mayor, and the nation's Environmental Protection Agency was born.

Now, Rangel said Thursday that he is seeking a 23rd term to help implement President Barack Obama's agenda.

"There's a lot of work that the president has started that we haven't had an opportunity to complete," he said.

If Rangel and the president see eye-to-eye on policy, they haven't always had the smoothest personal relationship. Obama once stated publicly that the dean of New York's congressional delegation should "end his career with dignity" when facing an ethics scandal. Privately, Obama has reportedly said much worse things.

"I don't have any problems with this president," Rangel said. "I have a problem with our economy. I've got a problem with the homeless, the jobless and the hopeless."

Two years ago, Rangel faced a primary challenge from state Senator Adriano Espaillat. The district became more Latino when it was redrawn in 2012. While Rangel won that race, it was close, with Espaillat not conceding for two weeks.

Espaillat is stopping just short of publicly saying he's running again.

That's some interesting logic

From the Daily News:

One of the worst frauds in New York history actually saved the “lucky” city money, Mayor Bloomberg boasted Friday.

Federal prosecutors have indicted 11 contractors and consultants in a $500 million rip-off involving the computerized CityTime payroll system.

But, since the U.S. attorney forced the main contractor, SAIC, to reimburse the city’s losses, taxpayers came out ahead, Bloomberg said.

“There was fraud,” Hizzoner conceded Friday on his weekly radio show,” but added, “We recovered most of the money ... that whole system cost us something like $100 million dollars and it should’ve been many times that.”

“We were lucky,” the mayor continued. “Because of the fraud, in the end, it turned out, that because of the recovery that we saved a lot of money.”

Weiner didn't stop being a perv after resigning

From WPIX:

It was just a matter of time before something surfaced, and today it did. A gossip website quotes a 22-year-old woman as claiming she had a six-month relationship with the disgraced former Congressman who is now running for Mayor. Weiner has warned that more texts and lewd pictures might surface, but the shocker is that the new action occurred after he resigned from Congress in 2011.

The website “The Dirty” contends communications between Weiner and the woman continued as recently as August of last year—well over a year after he left office.

Weiner has acknowledged the new revelations, saying that while some of the assertions are true, others are not. PIX11 will have a full report at 10. Meanwhile, two of his Democratic opponents, Bill DeBlasio and Sal Albanese have called on Weiner to withdraw from the campaign. De Blasio said simply, “Enough is enough.”

Another scandal-scarred pol trying to make a comeback

From the Daily News:

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has become the latest disgraced politician looking to make a comeback in city politics.

Spitzer is running for city controller, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told the Daily News.

Spitzer now joins Anthony Weiner, the former congressman who tweeted away his career, as pols seeking redemption from the constituents they betrayed.

Spitzer is creating a committee that will begin circulating nominating petitions Monday in the effort to collect enough signatures by Thursday's deadline.

His entrance into the race to succeed John Liu, who is running for mayor, would shine a bright spotlight on an otherwise sleepy race.

Until now, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has been the Democratic front-runner, racking up endorsements from the city teachers union, 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, and the influential Working Families Party.

But Spitzer, who fled the governor’s mansion in 2008 after revealing his taste for prostitutes, remains popular among the progressives who dominate city politics.

Dan's back

From the Daily News:

Embattled City Councilman Dan Halloran showed his face at the Council for the first time since he was hit with federal corruption charges nearly two months ago.

The Queens Republican showed up at City Hall for Wednesday’s meeting of the full Council, after skipping its last two meetings while battling charges he joined a scheme to buy Sen. Malcolm Smith a spot on the Republican mayoral ballot and offered Council member item cash in exchange for bribes.

“I’m here fulfilling my obligations,” Halloran said. “I’m here doing my job, the job I was elected to do.”

The more things change...

From Crains:

A Queens attorney who has been at the center of high-profile controversy in southeast Queens in planning to run for the New York City Council.

Joan Flowers, who has worked for Gov. David Paterson, Rep. Gregory Meeks and state Sen. Malcolm Smith, confirmed to The Insider that she is running for the council seat being vacated by term-limited Councilman Leroy Comrie. Ms. Flowers was at one point reportedly the target of a federal probe into the New Direction Local Development Corp., a charity founded by Mr. Smith and Mr. Meeks in 2000 that used the same address as Ms. Flowers' law office. No charges were filed.

A 2010 profile in the Post described Ms. Flowers as the "Zelig of Queens political scandal," though it also described her as "coerced into doing questionable things by her so-called friends because she's such a nice person." The race for Mr. Comrie's seat has so far attracted few other candidates.

Vito may be the king of all tweeders

From the Daily News:

As surely as the sun rises in the east, Vito Lopez has been boasting that he will cruise to a landslide reelection in November — despite being revealed as a serial perpetrator of sexual harassment.

And just as surely as the sun sets in the west, Lopez will be proven right as the residents of his Brooklyn state Assembly district cast ballots for him, as they have for decades.

Lopez is impervious to scandal, just the way former state Sen. Pedro Espada managed to keep his political career alive despite a litany of ethical breaches. Espada’s game ended when he was convicted of federal criminal charges. Nothing of that order has hit Lopez. In his case, the problem is not what is illegal but rather what is legal.

Like Espada, Lopez is a master at drawing on taxpayer money to bolster his political career, including being Democratic boss of Brooklyn before he quit last month. He remains the power behind the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a social services colossus that provides publicly-funded assistance in many forms to Lopez’s constituents, elderly and otherwise.

Until the sex harassment scandal, Lopez also served as chairman of the Assembly Housing Committee, a post in which he was able to bring residential units to the district — sparking the gratitude of the fortunate who got apartments.

He expected that gratitude to be repaid in votes, having long shown an insistence on loyalty combined with ruthlessness toward those who don’t return favors. Certainly, he is not shy about asking for thank-yous. His campaign account is overflowing with more than $1 million, even though voter registration in his district is 14-to-1 Democrats over Republicans.