Will taxpayers be held hostage to the CityTime money pit for years to come?
Defense giant SAIC, the main contractor on the scandal-plagued $700 million timekeeping and payroll project, failed to provide city officials with so much vital information about the system's design that no one else can operate or maintain it.
That's the astonishing conclusion of a new study of CityTime by accounting firm KPMG.
The knowledge transfer that is standard in private industry for such huge information technology purchases did not occur with SAIC, the report concluded.
"The lack of formal knowledge transfer planning and documentation increases the risk that the City will continue to be reliant on vendor support of the application," KPMG said in a 62-page report it handed to city officials on Jan. 11.
More than 10 years after CityTime was launched, it "is not only overdue, overpriced and wrought with allegations of fraud, but today we learned that it doesn't even come with a user manual," city Controller John Liu said in statement.
Mayor Bloomberg agreed to commission the KPMG study in September to win Liu's approval for extending until June the deadline for SAIC to finish rolling out CityTime to the full target population of 165,000 city workers.
The city Office of Payroll Administration is jointly run by the controller and the mayor, so the vote of both men is needed for any new contract.
"All deficiencies caused by the vendor [should be] cured at no additional cost to taxpayers," Liu insisted yesterday.
It is absurd, however, that a private company created timekeeping and payroll system for public workers that only it can operate.
Federal prosecutors recently subpoenaed SAIC's own records as part of their continuing probe of the project.
Now we learn that for $700 million, the city got a system it can't operate itself.
Bloomberg would never allow an outside vendor to exercise such unprecedented control over the computer systems of his own company.
So why does he accept it for the payroll system of New York City workers?
Michael Halberian’s spirit remains in the mansion where he grew up. The walls are lined with his books; his dog, Blackie, plays in the yard.
The 25-room Astoria home still welcomes visitors, now greeted by John Halberian, 52, who moved from upstate New York to take care of the building after his father’s death.
Like Michael Halberian, John Halberian is friendly and easygoing. He invited me in for tea before grabbing a can of tuna to feed to a street cat who stopped by the property — something his father surely would have done.
However, the most important similarity between father and son is their shared desire to see the looming granite structure, so loved by their family, transferred into the right hands — preferably the community’s.
...all he wants is to fulfill his father’s last wish — to see the mansion put into the right hands.
When Michael Halberian died, he was attempting to sell his beloved home for $2.5 million, $4.5 for the total property.
He was meeting regularly with Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Astoria) to figure out how the property might be used by the community and most importantly, paid for. Vallone had written a letter to Mayor Bloomberg regarding the property and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe visited, but its fate remains up in the air.
Jack Halberian was to have met with Vallone on Thursday to continue the discussion.
“It seems to me with all the billionaires in New York City, there should just be someone out there who could buy it and give it to the city, and for something like that, the price is negotiable because it would mean so much to my sister and I to fulfill my father’s dream,” John Halberian said.
One-third of New York City's private hospitals could lose their life support and shut down if Gov. Cuomo goes through with his vow to cut between $2 billion and $3 billion from the state's massive Medicaid program, The Post has learned.
"There are 10 to 12 hospitals that are teetering on the edge [statewide]," said Stephen Berger, a member of Cuomo's Medicaid redesign team, who previously headed a state hospital restructuring panel.
"How many of them are really necessary? How many can be saved? How many can be merged? That's what we have to ask," added Berger.
"Given the amount of money we are spending, we ought to be putting together a much more efficient health-care system with better patient care."
Many of the hospitals teetering on the brink of financial collapse are located in the city's poorer neighborhoods and serve a high number of patients covered by Medicaid, the public insurance program for the needy.
Hospitals considered to be in the fiscal intensive care unit include Brookdale, Kingsbrook, Wyckoff, Interfaith and Brooklyn in Brooklyn, Jamaica and Peninsula in Queens and many institutions in The Bronx including Westchester Square.
So we lost St. John's and Mary Immaculate and were told to go to Wyckoff and Jamaica. I wonder where they will tell us to go when they close those 2?
A reddish-colored coyote has moved into Queens, and like most city singletons, it's looking for a mate.
The majestic creature was recently photographed among the gravestones of Calvary Cemetery in Woodside.
It's probably a yearling born last spring who got kicked out of his parents' home in December to make room for a new crop of cubs, said wildlife expert Paul Curtis, of Cornell University.
Now it's on the hunt for a partner to start a family of its own. The mostly carnivorous creatures are no threat to humans unless they're have rabies, but keep an eye on your pet dogs, Curtis warned.
Sanitation officials reminded New Yorkers to shovel their sidewalks following the worst of the Dec. 26 snowstorm, but many Maspeth sidewalks in front of city property remained covered with a treacherous layer of ice even before the latest bout of winter weather this week, a civic leader said.
“In the middle of Maspeth, there are railroad areas that the city never shovels,” said Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association. The sidewalks in question run along railroad tracks or under city-owned overpasses and in front of city parks.
“If it was us, the mayor would give us fines, but this is his property,” he said.
Holden said that as of Monday the stretches of sidewalk along both sides of 57th Avenue between 74th and 83rd streets — which abuts the Long Island Expressway and a railway track — had not been shoveled, forcing some students of IS 73, at 70-02 54th Ave., and PS 58, at 72-50 Grand Ave., to walk in the street.
And the longer the city waits, the harder the sidewalks become to shovel, Holden said. The snow melts and freezes again, which tempers it to a hard, crusty shell.
And after the city’s response to the second snowstorm Jan. 11, Holden said some of the city’s strongest should have picked up a shovel.
“I found it ironic that they are doing it overkill with these plows now that they are scraping the blacktop,” he said. “Why don’t they put a couple of guys on the city sidewalk?”
The fire started in the basement, where the building’s super lives, and caused heavy smoke throughout the building, officials said.
Deputy Chief Charles Clark said the fire was roaring when firefighters arrived.
“When we pulled up, we had heavy smoke in the street. People out on the balconies, we had heavy fire condition in the basement,” Clark said.
Witness Pedro Pagon said firefighters rescued people from balconies with portable ladders and others rushed to the basement to rescue the super.
“The super lives in the basement and he was burned. His shoulders were also burned. They were screaming,” he said.
Officials rushed the super to Cornell Medical Center’s burn unit in critical condition. Meanwhile, six civilians and five firefighters suffered from smoke inhalation.
The super, who was in critical condition at a Manhattan hospital, lived in the basement with his family, tenants said.
Let's see, was the super supposed to be sleeping in the basement with his family? Based on the C of O, the answer is no. In fact, based on the C of O, there is no basement, but a cellar. There also are supposed to be doctors' offices on the 1st floor, but do not appear to be any.
And the drum beats on...I predict no one will mention this in their news reports.
A pair of millstones long embedded in a Long Island City sidewalk may soon grind their way into primetime.
An Astoria historian is in talks with the PBS show "History Detectives" to reveal the origins of the artifacts, whose removal from Queens Plaza last year sparked spats about their future.
"How can people ultimately decide their fate if we don't have all the information in front of us?" asked Bob Singleton of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.
An associate producer for the show - in which experts research historic objects - said she wants to work with Singleton but is waiting for more details on the 10-inch-thick millstones.
Once part of a 1657 grist mill in Dutch Kills, the millstones are believed to have been cemented into the sidewalk in the 1920s. They were disinterred last year during construction on Queens Plaza.
Debates soon raged between civic leaders who want the stones on outdoor view and others who believe they belong in a museum, protected from the elements.
The objects are now on display at the Queens Library's 21st St. branch in Long Isalnd City, where they are slated to stay until spring 2012. The city then plans to re-embed them into the sidewalk or put them on a pedestal nearby.
At the heart of the argument is whether the aging millstones can withstand harsh weather - or if putting them indoors would limit public access too much.
Singleton hopes the PBS show could determine whether the millstones were made in the Catskills, as master miller Ted Hazen told the Daily News.
That's an interesting way to display historical objects. I'm sure City Planning and EDC will do an even more stellar job when they are dumped in the middle of Queens Plaza.
On Tuesday, manhole fires in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx prompted evacuations of nearby homes.
All these incidents — only one of which involved an injury, minor — are part of an annual cycle as predictable as crocuses in March and mosquitoes in June: the surge in manhole fires as salty slush seeps down into the city’s maze of subterranean utility closets. There have been at least 19 such fires and explosions since New Year’s Day, according to Consolidated Edison and fire officials.
Salt laid down on wintry streets corrodes cables and makes them more susceptible to catching fire, said a Con Edison spokesman, Chris Olert. A smoldering cable can also release noxious gasses that can build to such intense pressure that the manhole cover pops off. Con Edison has redesigned many of its manhole covers to increase ventilation and to decrease the chance of such a frightening occurrence.
The fires happen more often in Manhattan and other areas where electrical wiring runs underground. In Staten Island and parts of Queens, many of the wires run aboveground, making them impervious to manhole fires but more vulnerable to high winds and storms.
Anyone who sustains an injury or has property damaged in a manhole fire can file a claim with Con Edison.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals last Friday officially relocated from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and set up operations inside the spacious Atlas Terminals in Glendale.
The national animal welfare organization has signed five-year leases with ATCO Advisory Services on two separate sites at the historical former manufacturing and warehousing property on Cooper Avenue at 80th Street. One space houses the ASPCA’s six mobile spay and neuter clinics and an office, while the other will be used as a veterinary facility, which it anticipates to open in April. Approximately 20 members and two full-time veterinarians will staff the two sites.
Neither the mobile facilities nor the clinic will take emergencies; both will provide free and low-cost spay and neuter surgeries. The ASPCA’s humane law enforcement operations will remain in Long Island City.
The selection of the next Queens County Clerk could set off a political scramble with a ripple effect throughout the borough.
Democratic Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer is reportedly being eyed to replace longtime clerk Gloria D'Amico, who died in December.
If Pheffer gets the post, it opens up a seat in a district where Republicans have made some gains in recent years.
In addition, Pheffer's possible appointment would take her out of the race for Queens borough president in 2013, narrowing the field for City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.
Vallone (D-Astoria) planned to run for borough president in 2009 before the extension of term limits allowed Helen Marshall to seek another four years. Queens County Democrats were prepared to give Pheffer their endorsement in the 2009 race.
"It is absolutely something I am seriously considering for 2013," Vallone said yesterday. He has amassed almost $1 million for a run and is also planning a March fund-raiser to add to his war chest.
And if you think that's bad, there's also the prospect of Mayor Liu.
A classic, turn-of-the-century Victorian house once graced 37 Liberty Ave. Not anymore.
The only thing standing on this site now is a wooden construction fence, with a sign announcing the construction of a two-family home "with many upgrades." It's a scenario that sadly repeats itself, on the East Shore and elsewhere on Staten Island.
For native Staten Islander Gail Heavey Aninowsky, now a resident of Matawan, N.J., the loss of the old house, which her grandfather, Henry Meise, purchased in 1910 from the Colebrook family, prompted personal reflection and a tide of remembrances.
"At a time when so many charming old homes are being torn down at the hands of hungry builders, I feel it is important to honor and remember what once was," she wrote to Advance, enclosing photographs of the shingle and clapboard house as it looked 90 years ago, in 1920, with its shuttered windows, gabled roof, stately corner turret, and stained-glass details.
Members of the New York City Council's Queens delegation arrived at Queensboro Hall Friday afternoon to get an earful from residents still steaming about the Dec. 26 blizzard that crippled the borough.
Many residents were also upset that despite the failure of the Department of Sanitation and the Mayor's office to coordinate a successful snow response, no executive or administrative presence was there to greet Queens residents.
Police were on a manhunt for a serial mugger in Queens. The mugging spree includes at least 10 attacks since the beginning of the year.
The most recent attack happened in Flushing, at an upscale, residential area just across the street from a park, reports CBS 2′s Kathryn Brown.
The locations of the attacks range from Forest Hills to Flushing, in primarily upscale neighborhoods, and the victims range in age from 22 to 62. All are women, and each was physically assaulted and mugged.
The feds have agreed to pay back the $145,000 that crooked ex-pol Brian McLaughlin scammed from his widowed mom.
Court papers filed yesterday say Manhattan federal prosecutors believe Ilene McLaughlin "will be able to establish by a preponderance of the evidence" that she didn't know the dough she loaned her wayward son would be forfeited as part of his corruption case.
The former Democratic assemblyman from Queens borrowed the money against his luxurious second home on Long Island's exclusive North Shore shortly before he was indicted in an epic, $3.1 million rip-off scheme.
McLaughlin is serving 10 years in the slammer for swindling taxpayers, political contributors, his former union and even his local Little League, from which he looted $95,000.
The City Council yesterday gave a break to Staten Islanders who are tired of oversized, out-of-character, parking-spot-stealing medical offices and day care centers sprouting up in their neighborhoods.
The Council approved new rules yesterday aimed at curbing the building of those facilities in residentially zoned areas here, and encouraging them to be built in commercial zones instead.
The legislation, which grew out of discussions between lawmakers, the Department of City Planning, Borough President James P. Molinaro and the Growth Management Task Force, passed the Council by a vote of 48-0.
All three of the Island's Council members, including Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore), voted in favor.
The measure unanimously passed the Land Use Committee earlier in the day.
Borough officials and residents have complained for years that the facilities, often added onto existing homes, are frequently expanded to the point that they dwarf and loom over the surrounding houses, destroying the character of neighborhoods.
Because the medical offices and day care centers were not required to provide on-site parking, visitors and employees often took up precious parking spots on surrounding streets, much to the chagrin of local residents.
There have also been safety concerns about children being dropped off and picked up in the street front of the day care centers.
Under the new regulations, new medical facilities in residential areas would be required to be on lots no smaller than 5,700 square feet. On-site parking must be provided, and owners will not be permitted to seek to have the parking requirement waived.
Day care centers would not be permitted on lots smaller than 10,000 square feet. Officials have said that this will cut down on the building of centers because lots of that size are scarce in residential neighborhoods.
Day care centers would also have to provide on-site parking for employees, and an on-site drop-off point for children.
I find it implausible that this is only a problem in Staten Island and not throughout the City.
Kingston Lounge visited North Brother Island and posted this photo essay. Hurry and look before some crazy plan to put luxury condos on it is dreamed up by Amanda Burden.
This is in Brooklyn, but could just as easily be anywhere in Queens. Courtesy of IMBY:
Here's my guess... Someone picked this house up at an estate sale under market with the big get rich quick idea of maxing out the FAR and flipping it... Pretty big mess for just an additional 515 sq. ft. of living space, no?
Why would this block be zoned R5B if not to encourage this type of eyesore?
This is the day when the City Council feasts on lulus. Members who stand securely in the good graces of Speaker Christine Quinn will get the first of two installments of the annual bonuses by which she rewards loyalty.
The Council justifies awarding the stipends - on top of the legally set salary of $112,500 - by depicting them as added compensation for committee work. Virtually everyone gets some such task, along with yearly payouts that range from $4,000 to $28,500. Most typical is a $10,000 boost.
Members of Congress, no matter how senior or how hefty their committee loads, get no added compensation. And for a very good reason. Legislators who are beholden to their leaders for big chunks of money will be far more likely to do as they are told rather than buck the bosses.
Quinn, who gets the biggest lulu, is foursquare behind the system. Others recognize its corrosive influence.
Before the 2009 election, the good-government group Citizens Union surveyed Council candidates. One inquiry read: "What is your position on eliminating or limiting stipends for committee chairs and leadership positions?"
Most of those who were elected backed dropping or reducing lulus. Some have lived up to their word. Daniel Garodnick of Manhattan, Ydanis Rodriguez of Manhattan and Brad Lander of Brooklyn are refusing the money. Good going.
Thirteen say they'll donate their lulus to charity: Gale Brewer and Rosie Mendez of Manhattan; Mathieu Eugene, David Greenfield, Letitia James, Steven Levin and Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn; Karen Koslowitz, Eric Ulrich, Jimmy Van Bramer and Ruben Wills of Queens; Debi Rose of Staten Island, and James Vacca of the Bronx.
Then there are the hypocrites who said they opposed lulus but are taking the money: Fernando Cabrera and Helen Foster of the Bronx; Margaret Chin of Manhattan; Daniel Dromm and Julissa Ferreras of Queens; Sara Gonzalez and Diana Reyna of Brooklyn.
For the record, Foster insists she never filled out a questionnaire expressing opposition to lulus. Strange. Someone signed the name "Helen Diane Foster" to such a document. You can look it up on the Citizens Union website. Foster should check it out herself.
On Tuesday (1/18), Christine Quinn pushed a bill through the City Council that makes it illegal for NYers to tie up their dogs more than 3 hours. On its surface, this law sounds like a godsend for dogs because chaining is unspeakably cruel. But if you scratch the surface just a little bit, you'll see why the only one who truly benefits from this new law is Quinn herself.
If dogs are, in fact, chained to backyard fences in NYC, they won't benefit from this law because it is unenforceable, as Quinn admits during her press conference about the bill (above).
Because chaining is not a major problem in NYC compared to other forms of animal abuse, local animal rights activists have not made this issue a legislative priority. Instead, they have worked tirelessly for years on meaningful bills that would, in fact, reduce animal suffering in the City -- bills that Quinn has blocked in committee.
So, if the tethering law won't actually help animals and is not a legislative priority for the community, then why did Quinn push this bill through the Council at lightening speed?
Here's why: Quinn is actively campaigning to be NYC's next Mayor, and this bill does the following:
1. It gives unsuspecting NYers the impression that Quinn fights for those who are most vulnerable. Hundreds of thousands of NY voters must have seen Quinn's charade on the news and thought, "Thank god she's putting an end to this abuse." 2. It helps her fight criticism that she's blocked every animal protection bill introduced at City Hall since becoming Speaker. Check your mailboxes for one of her letters: "I love dogs; I listened to you; vote for me if you care about animals." 3. It potentially weakens the animal advocacy's campaign against her. Some advocates who aren't familiar with Quinn's modus operandi will "give her a chance" because they see this as a "first step" which could lead to other bills. This bill is not a first step; it is a political tactic that enables her to add animal legislation to her campaign resume and cross it off of her "to do" list. We've given her way too many chances already.
Quinn picked this particular animal bill to push through the Council because it's compelling on the surface, and it required her to expend no political capital. Why would anyone stand in the way of a bill in which no people or animals are affected in any way? But, at the end of the day, this bill is harmful because it makes the passage of other (meaningful) animal bills more difficult, as the City Council can only spend a finite amount of resources on animal-related legislation. Quinn squandered this opportunity on a bill that helps no one but her. It's so manipulative, deceitful and typical.
The only way Quinn is ever going to move the many meaningful animal bills that she has blocked in committee is if it becomes politically expedient for her to do so. That's where we come in. If you'd like to join a growing group of NYers from the animal rights, human rights, gay rights and good government communities in the campaign against Quinn, please send me an email. We'd love to have you. And please share this email with anyone who might be interested.
Sample of animal rights bills blocked by Christine Quinn:
She blocked the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages (CMs told me they couldn't touch that bill because, as one CM put it, it is a "signature issue" for Quinn.)
She blocked the pet store sprinkler bill, which, as I recall, had 45 sponsors in the City Council. That bill was introduced as a result of several pet store fires in which hundreds of animals were killed. I'm guessing she blocked that bill because her real estate donors didn't want to install sprinklers (or something like that).
She blocked the pets in housing bill, which would help alleviate the shelter overcrowding crisis. That bill would allow people who had pets who died to replace them, even if a building changed the rules to prohibit pets. The real estate industry is opposed to this bill because they are able to get rid of rent stabilized tenants who get a new pet.
She blocked the wild animals in circuses bill, which would prevent the use of elephants and other wild animals from performing in NYC. This bill is critical to the animal community because the elephants are beaten into submission with bullhooks, stored in boxcars and abused beyond words in order to get them to perform tricks.
As the League of Humane Voters put it in their 2009 report card, "The biggest obstacle to more humane laws in NYC is the inexplicable opposition by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn who has attacked virtually every effort in the Council to make life better for animals, despite claiming in letters to concerned citizens that she cares about animal welfare."
Italicized passages and many of the photos come from other websites. The links to these websites are provided within the posts.
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From the Daily News:
