Jay Varma: Scamdemic Wizard

"Dr." Jay Varma had orgies and dance raves on molly while advising Mayor de Blasio to shut the whole city down causing millions of New Yorkers to lose their jobs and then crafting the vaccine mandates that led to thousands of New Yorkers losing their jobs. And he did it for the power and the glory and from this video, for the p--sy. This lowlife belongs in prison but for now we'll take him getting humiliated while dining al fresco

Bill de Blasio DEP office staffer currently working under Mayor Adams indicted for bank fraud

 
QNS

A Forest Hills man was arrested by FBI agents on Thursday morning for participating in a multi-million dollar bank fraud scheme while he was a high-ranking official in the administration of former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Tommy Lin, 41, was charged in a superseding indictment along with two co-defendants for defrauding financial institutions which resulted in the theft of over $10 million while serving as the Director of Constituent Services in the Community Affairs Unit.

Beginning in 2018, Lin participated in a scheme with his co-defendants Zhong Shi Gao and Fei Jiang, and others to steal millions of dollars by causing transfers of funds between accounts they controlled, then falsely and fraudulently reporting that the transfers were unauthorized, which induced the financial institutions to credit them the amount of the transfers, according to the indictment. The scheme was responsible for over $10 million in actual losses to nearly a dozen banks.

“Tommy Lin allegedly participated in a complex bank fraud scheme while also serving as a Director in the New York City Mayor’s Office and Senior Advisor to the NYPD’s Asian Advisory Council,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. “Leveraging his connections to law enforcement, he allegedly leaked personal identifying information to members of the scheme, ran background checks for them and even arranged for federal immigration authorities to arrest an individual in exchange for $20,000 in cash.”

Lin allegedly accepted that $20,000 bribe in cash in exchange for arranging for a Deportation Officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest a disgruntled accountholder who had previously participated in the scheme, according to the indictment.

“To facilitate this conspiracy, Lin allegedly assisted members of the scheme in running background checks and accepted a significant cash bribe to arrange the arrest of a slighted account holder by immigration authorities,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge James Smith said. “Those in municipal offices are expected to conduct themselves with rectitude and obedience to the law, not engage in the purposeful manipulation of our economic infrastructure.”

Lin is charged with one count of bank fraud conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison; one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison; and one count of aggravated identity theft which carries a mandatory sentence of two years in prison to be served consecutively to any other sentence imposed.

Blaze destroys notorious riverfront restaurant where The Blaz took bribes

LIC Post 

A fire tore through a well-known shuttered waterfront restaurant in Long Island City early Tuesday, Oct. 10.

The blaze broke out at 4-01 44th Dr. — the site of a dilapidated former restaurant called Waters Edge that sits atop a barge — and the FDNY responded to the scene after receiving a 911 call at around 6:45 a.m. an FDNY spokesperson said.

Video footage posted online shows smoke billowing up from the two-story building while flames can be seen through the large windows facing 44^th Drive on the second floor, above the lobby area.

Around 60 firefighters from 12 units responded to the scene and brought the blaze under control just after 7:30 a.m., the FDNY said. At least two tower ladder trucks were put into operation, the footage shows.

The Queens/LIC Post arrived on the scene minutes after the fire had been extinguished. Several of the lobby windows facing 44^th Drive were smashed as well as windows facing the East River. The lobby area had extensive fire damage.

It is unclear what sparked the blaze, with the FDNY spokesperson saying the cause of the fire is under investigation. However, one firefighter at the location told the Queens/LIC Post that the abandoned restaurant was being used by homeless people, and they may have started the fire by accident.

There were no reported injuries.

 The abandoned restaurant, which first opened in 1980, has been closed for years and has a storied life having once stood as one of Long Island City’s most preeminent dining destinations with a spectacular view of midtown Manhattan.

It hosted countless weddings, birthday bashes and political fundraisers — including scandal-hit dinners for former mayor Bill de Blasio – and in April, the Queens/LIC Post reported that the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) planned to demolish the structure once it received the necessary funds. DCAS said it would take eight months to destroy the structure after the funds are received.

In 2008, restaurateur and philanthropist Harendra Singh and his Singh Hospitality Group acquired the premises.

But by the early 2010s, Singh began getting into financial difficulty and was reported to have owed the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in back rent on the Water’s Edge barge lease.

DCAS was threatening to terminate the lease and Singh had also failed to pay for renovations to the pier where the barge was docked, which the agency said were required by his lease, according to THE CITY.

Singh held two fundraising events for Bill de Blasio at Waters Edge in the hope of currying favor with city hall: one in 2011 when de Blasio was still public advocate; and the second in October 2013 shortly after he beat former city Comptroller Bill Thompson in a runoff before taking the general election.

De Blasio’s campaign did not pay for the events until it forked out a check for $2,613.01 after the city’s Campaign Finance Board began auditing the campaign. Until that moment, the events were essentially an illegal free gift from Singh to de Blasio that the mayor’s campaign had failed to disclose to the public as required, according to THE CITY.

When he got into office, De Blasio instructed one of his top aides to step in with regard to resolving Singh’s lease. But before the matter could be sorted out Singh was arrested in September 2015 on federal corruption charges in Nassau County unrelated to the Water’s Edge restaurant.

 

Caption Chirlane McCray and her husband

 

Yes I know I should have used this today instead of the Post story post but it's worth it because this will probably be the last picture we see of these two in the limelight. (Until de Blasio gets called to testify for his role in the pandemic extortion scam and surveillance censorship he pulled with Dave Chokshi, Mitch Katz and Ted Long).

These two can't even stand to kiss each other.

Bill and Chirlie aren't thriving together anymore

AMNY

 

Ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, are separating, the pair announced during a lengthy interview with The New York Times that was published Wednesday.

De Blasio, who occupied Gracie Mansion between 2014 and 2021, and McCray told the Paper of Record that after nearly 30 years of marriage they are splitting up and will start dating other people. The pair, however, said they won’t be getting a divorce and will continue to occupy the same Park Slope row house where they raised their two children, both of whom are now in their twenties.

The couple’s interracial status — de Blasio is white and McCray is Black — played a role in him winning the 2013 mayoral primary that brought him to City Hall, many political observers say.

During their interview with the Gray Lady, de Blasio and McCray said they decided to separate about two months ago after having a heart-to-heart conversation that revealed their marriage no longer resembled what it used to be.

“You can feel when things are off and you don’t want to live that way,” de Blasio told the Times.

McCray said she’s looking to have more “fun” with the new arrangement, seeking a relationship with someone who isn’t a public figure.

“I just want to have fun,” McCray said. “There’s a certain weight that goes with being with Mr. Mayor.”

They made clear that de Blasio’s eight years as mayor put a heavy strain on their marriage, given the intensive 24/7 schedule that comes with occupying the city’s top job.

“Everything was this overwhelming schedule, this sort of series of tasks,” de Blasio said. “And that kind of took away a little bit of our soul.”

De Blasio’s tenure as mayor was also marked by years of blistering press coverage, a failed long-shot presidential bid and a torrent of criticism over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck during his second to last year in office. The couple said that the pandemic, in particular, hindered their ability to plan their lives after the end of de Blasio’s mayoralty.

McCray, who ran a controversial mental health program within her husband’s administration known as Thrive NYC, said that his ill-fated 2020 presidential campaign also damaged their relationship.

“I thought it was a distraction,” McCray said. In response, De Blasio conceded his wife was right: “kind of true, point for Chirlane.”

 

Glendale warehouse homeless shelter continues to be a pit of despair and violence

 

CBS New York 

 The rough conditions inside a Queens congregate men's shelter with about 180 residents have sparked a city investigation.

It comes after a 27-year-old man experiencing homelessness became a whistleblower, sharing photos, videos and his personal ordeal exclusively with CBS2's Dave Carlin.

"I never saw myself in a position like this, ever a day in my life, no," said the man, who wished to remain anonymous.

He moved to New York from Texas a year ago, landed a job in hospitality working fancy events, but the very opposite of that is where he's been sleeping.

"I make about $27 an hour with that company alone," the man said.

"And it's still too hard to find a place?" Carlin asked

"Yep," the man said.

So, he is experiencing homelessness, surrounded by apparent squalor, drug use and violence inside Glendale's Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center with a population of more than 180 men.

He started taking videos and photos of what goes on inside after being harassed and attacked.

"I do identify as queer," the man said. "I was assaulted multiple times. The police came out, they said it wasn't really their issue, it's something that has to be dealt with internally." 

He says he can confirm what many neighbors are claiming about crime spilling out of the shelter and into the community. 

"A lot of drug dealing happening around the area, people doing sexual activity over by the school right behind the shelter, and I've seen this all first hand," the man said. "I did my due diligence in finding my local city councilman and I reached out to him."

On Wednesday, Councilman Robert Holden made sure the young man was reassigned elsewhere to a hotel room.

"He's talented. We want to help him. He did a service to everyone in New York City, showing the conditions of the shelters," Holden said. "Get him an apartment, that's my goal, to get him an apartment."

"I know that something good will end up coming out of this," the man said.

Something good, according to Holden, is the city shutting down the Cooper Center.

"The mayor is looking at it. So is [New York City Department of Homeless Services] Commissioner [Gary] Jenkins," Holden said.

"This is supposed to be a working men's shelter, but time and time again, we have people that have severe mental illness ... that really don't fit with what the shelter was for," Glendale resident Dawn Scala said.

Holden favors facilities with smaller groups of residents so their needs can be handled more effectively.

"It's a de Blasio leftover. We need to change it ... I don't believe that we should put 200 men in one location," Holden said.

Judge finds vaccine mandate illegitimate and orders restitution against the city

#BREAKING Judge Rules Vaccine Mandate INVALID for NYC PBA Members pic.twitter.com/JrSlJAcJWa

— NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) September 23, 2022

The party's over for the Blaz

 

Politico 

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio is done running.

In a Tuesday tweet, the Park Slope resident — who represented the neighborhood on the City Council and served as the city public advocate before moving into Gracie Mansion — announced he was dropping out of a crowded congressional race to represent Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.

The move, he noted, also marked his end in electoral politics. De Blasio ran for president in 2019 and more recently toyed with a run for governor before launching a bid for the 10th Congressional District, an open seat created this year in the state’s chaotic redistricting process.

“It’s clear the people of #NY10 are looking for another option and I respect that,” de Blasio tweeted. “Time for me to leave electoral politics and focus on other ways to serve. I am really grateful for all the people I met, the stories I heard and the many good souls who helped out.”

Campaign adviser Neal Kwatra said in an interview that while the former mayor received great feedback while interacting with voters, public polls and internal research showed a narrow path for de Blasio to win.

“There was a cognitive dissonance with what we were seeing on the campaign trail and in the streets and what we were finding in the research,” he said.

De Blasio ended his eighth-year tenure in City Hall with low polling numbers, especially among the type of white liberals in brownstone Brooklyn that represent a key voting bloc within the 10th District.

The former mayor raised nearly $500,000 during his short-lived congressional run — with many former staffers chipping in — and as of the end of June had spent just over $60,000, leaving him sitting on a serious pot of cash. The former mayor and some of the past campaign committees he is associated with have outstanding tabs, though it was unclear if he could use any of the federal contributions to pay off those bills.

Ferry barely good fare hike

THE CITY 

The base fare of the New York City Ferry will go up to $4 a ride — with new discounts for seniors and Fair Fare program participants — as the city tries to make its program financially “sustainable,” officials said. 

The hike and new pricing structure comes as the city’s Economic Development Corporation had begun pumping more tax-payer money each year into the system, which launched in 2017 under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The tack change also comes a week after Comptroller Brad Lander released an audit — spurred in part on THE CITY’s reporting — that found the system spent almost double the amount it originally said on subsidies to keep it afloat.

Under the new price system, set to launch Sept. 12, the base fare of $2.75 will go up to $4.

New Yorkers over the age of 65, those with disabilities, and participants in the Fair Fares program — which offers half-priced rides within the MTA system for low-income commuters — will get a discounted price of $1.35 per ticket, officials announced. 

Public housing residents within a mile of a ferry dock will also get two free boat rides a month.

“Getting around New York City shouldn’t feel like you’re running a 5K. Wherever you live in the five boroughs, we want you to have choices, and our vision for the NYC Ferry helps provide New Yorkers with those choices,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the announcement near the Astoria dock on Thursday. 

He said his administration’s “Ferry Forward” plan would be “built on the three pillars of equity, accessibility, and fiscal sustainability.” 

The $4 base fare will “offset the cost of everyday New Yorkers who need to take the system,” Adams said. 

There will also be discounted 10-pack rides at $27.50 to retain regular commuters who ride the ferry the most.

Finally, but there's still one thing they overlooked, the free Hornblower shuttle buses that the NYC Ferry provides. How about another fare for those? 

The Blaz's expensive lies

 

THE CITY 

Last fall the city Department of Investigation released a damning report declaring that then-Mayor Bill de Blasio needed to reimburse the taxpayers $320,000 for the cost of bringing his NYPD detail along during his quixotic and ultimately failed quest for the White House.

At the time, the mayor questioned DOI’s findings, claimed there were “inaccuracies” in the report, and insisted he was simply following the advice of the NYPD. He also maintained he had “never received any contradictory guidance” on the use of the detail.

But a day before he announced his bid for the White House, he did receive explicit advice from the Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) informing him in no uncertain terms that he must pay back the city for the use of the detail on the campaign trail.

The clarity of this instruction is revealed in a May 15, 2019 letter obtained by THE CITY via the Freedom of Information Law, signed by then-COIB Chairperson Richard Briffault to de Blasio’s City Hall counsel, Kapil Longani.

Briffault’s advice on how to avoid violating city conflict rules is unambiguous:

“The City may pay for only the salary and/or overtime of the NYPD personnel on such a campaign trip,” Briffault wrote. “All other costs associated with such personal campaign travel — including but not limited to airfare, rental cars, overnight accommodations, meals and other reasonable incidental expenses — must not be borne by the City. Rather these costs must be paid for or reimbursed by the Mayor’s campaign committee.”

In explaining his decision to de Blasio, Briffault noted federal campaign finance rules would require a federal candidate to repay a government for the use of governmental resources as part of a campaign. De Blasio is currently one of more than a dozen candidates running for Congress in the 10th Congressional District.

Three years after receiving COIB’s letter, the former mayor has yet to pay a dime.

De Blasio did not respond to a voice message left by THE CITY early Thursday asking about the straightforward declaration from COIB and his decision to disregard it. Neal Kwatra, a spokesperson for his congressional campaign, followed up later in an email to say he’d need more time to research the issue before answering.

THE CITY

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature NYC Ferry took taxpayers for a pricey ride when city economic development officials underreported its costs by nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, City Comptroller Brad Lander said Wednesday.

Lander accused the city of “playing hide the ball” on ferry finances and criticized the economics and oversight of the watery transportation network, which launched under de Blasio in 2017 and promised heavily subsidized $2.75-per-ride trips from piers in all five boroughs.

The comptroller’s report says the Economic Development Corporation rang up $758 million in ferry-related costs from July 2015 through the end of last year — but only reported $534 million in expenses in its audited financial statements and other records.

“This is a very substantial financial underreporting and mismanagement,” Lander said while standing near Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan. “$250 million of underreporting raises a lot of questions and those questions should be asked.”

Auditors found that the city’s actual subsidy on each ferry trip rose to nearly double the $6.60-per-trip subsidy that the de Blasio administration originally projected. The city subsidy amounted to $12.88 for Fiscal Year 2021, according to the report, not the $8.59 that was originally reported.

“It is a premium service, like express buses and it is also a tourist commodity,” Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, told THE CITY. “We should be pricing the ferries accordingly and that should be able to reduce that subsidy.”

The comptroller’s report follows a series of stories in THE CITY about NYC Ferry, including one in January that revealed how de Blasio’s budget office supplied a $23.2 million infusion for the service before he left City Hall at the end of 2021 — after the service had previously been funded by the EDC.

“The ferry system was eating the EDC budget,” said Rein, whose nonprofit organization detailed in a 2019 report how subsidies for NYC Ferry are among the highest in the country for comparable ferry networks.

Lander’s report calls into question the purchase of new boats — something THE CITY flagged in April 2019 — as well as the $2.75 fare that de Blasio insisted on for the privately operated ferry trips. The price of an NYC Ferry trip is considerably lower than one on similar services in San Francisco and Boston.

On the San Francisco Bay Ferry, for example, fares are determined by three different zones, with the priciest zoned trip set at $11.25 for a paper ticket or $9.00 for rides paid for through mobile devices or the Clipper fare-payment system. 

De Blasio, in a statement through a spokesperson for his campaign for Congress, said he could not comment on Lander’s report because he had yet to fully review it.

Caption proud American Bill de Blasio

 Yeesh, look at that puss. The Blaz is clearly annoyed to be marching in this parade, which happened to take place during his farcical presidential campaign in Iowa. This is exactly what that 100-year-old veteran above was talking about.

This photo is cropped from a campaign tweet of his. Funny how it doesn't show him marching with other people and this is the only picture of him his staffers can find of him waving old glory, which is why this looks so weird.

Hotel homeless shelter in Queens tied to agent of the city community affairs commissioner

  

THE CITY

For months on end last year, residents protesting a planned homeless shelter in Queens struggled to get somebody — anybody — at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s City Hall to hear their argument that enough was enough.

The neighborhoods of Queens Community Board 3 — covering East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and North Corona — already hosted four shelters, and several hotels within the district were temporarily housing homeless individuals during the pandemic.

Behind the scenes, LGA Hospitality LLC, the owners of the property, fought back, hiring a politically wired lobbyist firm, James Capalino Associates, to move the project along, obtain all required permits and roll over local resistance.

Today the shelter, located at 112-16 Astoria Boulevard near LaGuardia Airport, is scheduled to open soon, but local leaders are now hoping for a more sympathetic ear from de Blasio’s successor, Mayor Eric Adams. As Queens Community Board 3 Chairperson Frank Taylor put it, “We’re happy to have the new administration and we’re hopeful.”

There might be a problem with that.

The key portal to City Hall for neighborhood residents is the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit (CAU), the division within the Mayor’s Office that helps citizens and community boards navigate the city’s bureaucracy. CB3 worked with de Blasio’s CAU on the shelter issue and planned to do so with Adams’ team.

In January, however, Mayor Adams named as his new commissioner of CAU Fred Kreizman — one of the lobbyists who had been retained by the shelter builder, LGA Hospitality LLC, to seek support from City Hall.

“Wow,” Taylor said when told of Kreizman’s dual roles. “Anytime we’re going into these things, we’re apprehensive because of what has happened. We’ve not been listened to. The only thing we can do is that this administration, if that gentleman has that type of connection, what else can we do but fight? And let the community know why are Black and brown neighborhoods being overburdened with these shelters?”

de Blasio missed the cut again, Trump gets to run his golf course

 

NY Post

Donald Trump is back in the Bronx.

A state Supreme Court judge ruled Friday that the city did not have the right to cancel Trump’s contract to run the Ferry Point Golf Course. Mayor Bill de Blasio had nixed the deal after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, arguing that Trump would not be able to attract golf tournaments.

In her decision and order filed on Friday, Justice Debra James said there was nothing in the contract that required a tournament — only that the city would share in any proceeds. That means either Trump gets to continue to run the course, or the city needs to pay him to leave. Trump’s son Eric said they’ll stay.

“The judge didn’t buy their nonsense and this is a well-reasoned and appropriate decision and we look forward to running the best golf course for years to come,” Eric Trump said.

De Blasio tried to freeze Trump out of all city contracts. The Parks Department had reassigned Ferry Point to an out-of-state operator, Bobby Jones Links, causing Trump to file an Article 78 to appeal that city move. It’s unclear how much it will cost the city to cancel the Bobby Jones contract.

James granted a temporary restraining order last fall, allowing the organization to continue its operations, and has now sent the matter back to the Parks Department.

“De Blasio did this for his own political theater,” Eric Trump said. “He wasted tremendous amounts of time and city resources on his own vendetta. He is a disgrace to New York and everyone is glad he is gone.”

 

de Blasio's boondoggle ferry service is mostly used by the rich and White, as expected

 

AMNY 

 Riders of the heavily-subsidized NYC Ferry system became even wealthier and whiter during the pandemic, according to city statistics.

Annual surveys by the Economic Development Corporation — which oversees the waterborne transit system — show that in 2021 the average income of passengers jumped to six figures at $100,000-$149,999, compared to $75,000–$99,999 for both 2020 and 2019.

In a system long criticized for serving largely the well-off and white living along the Big Apple’s waterfront, a mere 32% of passengers identified as non-white or multiracial last year, declining slightly from 34% in 2020, and 36% in 2019.

The city questionnaire also found that more out-of-towners are coming back to the ferries, as tourism began recovering from a COVID slump in 2021.

Last year 88% of ferry riders were residents of the Five Boroughs, compared to an all-time high of 95% during 2020, and 86% in 2019.

EDC’s most recent report gathered data from 4,100 people in early October. The figures appear to have been published in December, according to its hyperlink address, but have not previously been reported. 

The chairperson of the City Council’s Transportation Committee lamented that the ferry system has continued to leave out needier New Yorkers, despite footing the bill for the service through their tax dollars. 

“The communities that are in need, that are a part of transit deserts, and that have lower household incomes, those are not the communities, unfortunately, that have the pleasure of having a ferry system,” Queens Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers told amNewYork Metro. “We need to make sure that it’s not leaving out a community that could greatly benefit from the access and from it being subsidized, quite honestly.” 

The 2021 study notes that the higher incomes last year were “in line” with data the city collected in 2017 and early 2018, however that was before EDC expanded its ferry service area to more blue collar parts of the city like Soundview in the Bronx, which opened a landing in August 2018.

On that route, the majority of passengers make less than $100,000 a year and ridership has the largest share of people of color compared to other circuits — which is still less than half, according to graphics in the report.

de Blasio's boondoggle COVID hotel inmate shelter security contract deemed antiquated by elected officials

 

THE CITY

Since the start of the pandemic, 1,700 inmates released from city jails and state prisons have stayed in hotel rooms at taxpayers’ expense, including more than 200 who have been checked in for more than a year, according to new data obtained by THE CITY.

THE CITY previously reported on the dramatic expansion of the program run by Exodus Transitional Community, including at a Fresh Meadows, Queens, hotel where a former inmate alleged she was sexually assaulted by an Exodus employee. THE CITY also found that the security firm hired by Exodus operated without the required state license.

Now, Queens elected officials are demanding that Mayor Eric Adams pull the plug on Exodus, which has run the hotel-release program since 2020 and which recently scored a new $40 million deal.

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, Assemblymember Nily Rozic and Councilmember Linda Lee — all Democrats — wrote to Adams Monday demanding that he reevaluate the effort, which began in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID.

“It has been nearly two years now, COVID-19 rates are at the lowest they have been since last summer and these disturbing reports by THE CITY make it imperative that the contract be terminated immediately,” they wrote.

Last week, two years after the program started, there were still 800 former inmates staying in six hotels scattered across the city, and the mayor’s office could not say how much money has been spent to date on hotel rooms alone.

 peaking with THE CITY Tuesday, Rozic stated, “Our understanding is the housing situation was always intended to be temporary and always contingent on there being a pandemic. Because there’s no metric, they’ve been able to extend and extend no matter how many times we ask them to provide us with an end date.”

Rozic noted that “this state of emergency narrative is what the city hid behind for the hotel to be used,” and added: “We’re ending all sorts of other [pandemic-related] protocols and for one reason or another this one hasn’t ended.”

And though city officials said the hotel program would end once the state of emergency was over, Adams aims to keep it going, even as it’s no longer designated as pandemic related.

The Queens officials pointed to an August 2020 letter to them from Elizabeth Glazer, then-director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, who wrote, speaking of the Wyndham hotel in Fresh Meadows: “There are no future plans for use of this hotel beyond the COVID-19 response.”

THE CITY found that the initial COVID contract with the non-profit Exodus Transitional Community to run the program expired in December, but Mayor Eric Adams awarded a second contract in January as a way of “keeping 800 people from flooding the homeless system,” according to mayoral spokesperson Jonah Allon.

That decision contrasts with an effort that began nine months ago in the de Blasio administration to begin moving homeless shelter residents out of hotels where they’d been placed during the pandemic back into shelters as part of the effort to re-open the city.

This falls right in line with Adams keeping mask mandates for toddlers and allowing employers to extort their employees into getting vaccinated. But they are saying nothing about those systems that also abuse pandemic protocols.

de Blasio let security contract balloon at hotel shelter for inmates during the pandemic

THE CITY

In the early months of the COVID pandemic, as the virus spread like wildfire through New York City, the de Blasio administration began placing inmates released from Rikers and state prisons into hotels.

The point was to keep them safe — and to curb the spread of the virus. But did City Hall implement adequate safeguards to protect the released inmates from non-COVID dangers?

One former inmate THE CITY spoke to alleges she was sexually assaulted in August 2020, while staying at a hotel involved in the program, the Wyndham Hotel in Fresh Meadows. She is suing Exodus Transitional Community, the nonprofit group hired by the city to administer hotel placements.

When asked by THE CITY, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), which oversaw the project, could not definitively identify the firm that provided security at the Wyndham as a subcontractor to Exodus. At times, MOCJ and Exodus pointed to two different firms as the security provider in 2020.

But when reached by THE CITY, executives at these two firms denied that their companies were subcontracted to provide security at the Wyndham. Under law, firms that provide security at city shelters, including hotel placements for inmates, must be properly licensed.

When THE CITY requested documentation that the firm providing security at the hotels had a proper state security guard license, MOCJ provided a license that belongs to one of the firms that denies having anything to do with the ex-inmate placement program.

Records show the no-bid contract signed by the mayor’s office with Exodus to place inmates in hotels grew from $835,000 to $55 million in just 16 months. Under the arrangement with MOCJ, Exodus was not required to report to the city crisis incidents that occurred there, including violent ones like sexual assault.

The Adams administration recently awarded Exodus another $40 million contract for “emergency reentry hotel services” that runs through June under a no-bid process. Adams’ team did not respond to THE CITY’s question about the nature of the ongoing emergency.

Upon her release from Rikers Island in June 2020, Latoya Walker, 32, was placed into a Wyndham Hotel in Fresh Meadows, one of six hotels managed by Exodus as part of the inmate release program.

There, Walker alleges, she was sexually assaulted in her room by an Exodus employee who’d been assigned to her as a caseworker. The man was ultimately arrested on sex abuse and other charges. Although the Queens district attorney later dropped the case due to delays in bringing it to trial, Walker has since filed a civil suit against Exodus that is pending.

Walker claims that from the moment she brought in the police, Exodus resisted cooperating, delaying turning over a surveillance camera tape that she says helps corroborate her accusation.

After a detective in the special victims squad was assigned to investigate, Walker said, “Exodus wouldn’t give her the tape. They wouldn’t give her information on (the caseworker)’s employment,” she told THE CITY. “I felt like Exodus was just sticking together. Every time I brought it up as something that was bothering me, they started giving me the brush off.”

The Department of Homeless Services managed a similar effort to place shelter residents in hotels to stifle the spread of COVID-19. But DHS required all providers to report every “critical incident,” such as assaults, at the hotels where the homeless were placed. The inmate hotel program had no such requirement.

Exodus’ founder, Medina, refused to answer any of THE CITY’s questions, including whether he reported Walker’s allegations to MOCJ. The mayor’s office also declined to say whether they were aware of the incident, other than to say the hotel ex-inmate program had no incident reporting requirements.

The return of the agents of the city

Politico 

 Mayor Eric Adams has dispensed with a de Blasio-era policy to voluntarily disclose meetings top administration officials take with lobbyists — further obscuring an already-opaque system of outside influence over government actions.

Two City Hall attorneys alerted administration employees of the change in a March 1 memo laying out rules governing communication with lobbyists, a lucrative line of work that brought firms $104 million last year, according to a recent report from the city’s lobbying bureau. The top firm, Kasirer LLC, took in north of $15 million — nearly double the earnings of the second-place company, James F. Capalino & Associates, Inc.

The two-page memo, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, defines lobbying as “the attempt to influence certain government actions” and advises the staffers that they may be subject to this type of outreach.

The city lawyers go on to explain common motivations for lobbying — land use changes that impact multi-billion-dollar real estate deals, competitions to win city contracts, an effort to shape pending legislation.

“Mayor’s Office employees are not required to maintain or file any reports or documents in connection with their meetings with lobbyists,” the attorneys wrote, effectively undoing a discretionary policy former Mayor Bill de Blasio instituted to mandate routine disclosure of lobbying meetings. The former mayor, who had his own ethics problems during his tenure, demanded his deputy mayors and agency heads report their interactions with lobbyists and the information was made public through a city-run portal.

“It is nonetheless important to preserve communications with lobbyists,” the lawyers added. “You should not delete emails, texts, calendar entries, or voicemails related to lobbyist communications or meetings. As you engage in email and text communications with lobbyists, please remember that these communications may be disclosed in response to a FOIL request or a civil or criminal subpoena.”

Adams spokesperson Jonah Allon did not explain the reason for the change, instead providing a statement highlighting the new mayor’s commitment to ethics. Allon also declined to provide a list of lobbyists who have met with the mayor so far.

“Even before he took office, Mayor Adams made clear that everyone in his administration would be held to the highest ethical standards, and that is exactly the kind of administration he has run since day one,” Allon said.

Literally de Blasio 2.0

Bill de Blasio diverted FDNY building inspectors to montior vaccine mandate enforcement at restaurants with deadly results

 

NY Daily News

 A Bronx building that became a towering inferno in January, leaving 17 dead, was scheduled to be examined by an FDNY fire inspector several months beforehand — but it didn’t happen because the inspector was reassigned to conduct COVID restaurant inspections.

 The troubling account came from Oren Barzilay, president of the union that represents paramedics and fire inspectors who testified Wednesday at a hearing held by the City Council’s Fire and Emergency Management Committee.

“That building was scheduled to be inspected, but because they were sent to a task force, that building was not inspected,” he testified.

“It’s terrible,” he told the Daily News after his testimony. “I’m not blaming Eric Adams. I’m blaming the previous administration for not thinking it through.”

The Jan. 9 blaze at Twin Parks North West in the Bronx killed 17 people and left dozens more injured. The fire was caused by a faulty space heater that burst into flames and made worse by malfunctioning doors that were designed to close on their own. Because the doors failed to shut, the toxic smoke spread quickly through the 19-story building.

The blaze was the deadliest in the city since the Happy Land night club fire killed 87 people in 1990.

Barzilay told the Daily News an inspector was assigned to Twin Parks about a year before the fire took place to examine the building’s stand pipe system, which would supply it with water in the event of a fire. Barzilay noted that while inspectors wouldn’t have focused on inspecting doors, any problems they saw would have been flagged and addressed.

“If they had noticed anything else, they would have addressed the issue,” he said.

Barzilay also noted a Brooklyn building that was the site of an explosion recently was also slated to be inspected before the incident, but was not because inspectors were diverted to enforce vaccine mandates at city restaurants. Mayor Adams rolled back those requirements, known as the Key2NYC, on Monday.

Medicare disadvantage dismissed

NY Daily News

A Manhattan judge ruled Thursday that Mayor Adams’ administration cannot slap a financial penalty on retired municipal workers who opt out of the city’s controversial new Medicare plan, marking a major win for a group of retirees who fought the health insurance switch in court for months.

The effort by the administration to levy a $191 monthly fee on retirees who want to keep their current coverage instead of enrolling in the new Medicare Advantage Plan runs counter to longstanding local administrative law, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank wrote in a decision.

The law in question, Frank continued, requires the city to “pay the entire cost of health insurance coverage for city employees, city retirees and their dependents.” Any attempt to impose a premium or other cost for coverage is thereby illegal, he ruled.

“This court holds that this is the only reasonable way of interpreting this section,” the judge wrote.

Frank’s decision caps a heated court battle between the city and a group of retired city workers that began last year under former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.

In announcing the plan last fall, de Blasio’s administration presented Medicare Advantage as a fiscal boon that would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars every year because it is subsidized by the federal government at a higher rate. At the same time, the administration maintained the new plan would provide the city’s roughly 250,000 Medicare-aged retirees with health coverage that’s comparable to what they’re currently receiving.

But the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, a group of ex-cops, firefighters and other retired workers, sued over the move, charging that the new plan would result in inferior coverage, including by imposing complex new preauthorization rules for specific medical procedures.

After vowing on the campaign trail to make sure the new plan wouldn’t be a “bait and switch” for retired workers, Adams announced last month that he would move ahead with implementing it as envisioned by de Blasio, angering retirees who said he was going back on his promise by keeping the $191 penalty in place.

 

Adams sells out city retirees

NY Daily News 

Mayor Adams ordered his administration Sunday to move ahead with implementing a controversial new Medicare plan for retired city workers, angering some retirees who have for months contended it could water down their benefits.

The Medicare Advantage Plus plan, first unveiled by former Mayor Bill de Blasio last fall as a cost-saving alternative to the city’s current retiree coverage, will maintain “premium-free” insurance for the roughly 250,000 ex-municipal workers who stand to benefit, Adams said in a statement.

“That is why after a careful and thorough review by my administration, I am announcing my support for this plan,” he said. “I believe the new program will be in the best interest of retirees and the city’s taxpayers, who stand to save $600 million annually.”

At the same time, Adams said he feels for those retirees who have expressed fear that the new plan could curtail access to certain care.

“As a blue-collar mayor and someone who himself will collect municipal retiree benefits, I am sympathetic to those who have voiced concerns about how this plan will affect their coverage,” said Adams, a retired NYPD captain. “Our administration will continue to work to assuage these concerns before and after the plan is implemented.”