Assemblyman Hevesi demands accountability from city's homeless provider non-profit groups

NY Daily News

 A Queens lawmaker wants the state comptroller to take a look at the books of the city’s top homeless shelter providers.

Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi is asking Thomas DiNapoli to audit 12 nonprofits responsible for housing and helping homeless New Yorkers and probe whether taxpayer money is being spent efficiently as homelessness rates continue to climb.

Hevesi, the chair of his chamber’s social services committee, said he’s witnessed a multitude of problems plaguing shelters in recent years, including exorbitant salaries for top executives and facilities with major safety and maintenance concerns.

“While some providers use all of their resources appropriately and provide exemplary services, it is also clear that many providers are failing to achieve their mission. In fact, the overall average length of shelter stays has increased, as has the rate of clients subsequently returning after leaving,” the Democrat wrote to the comptroller in a letter obtained by the Daily News.

In January, Coalition for the Homeless found that a record number of people — nearly 64,000 — were living in city shelters. The total has fluctuated since, but as of September, there were 62,391 homeless, including 14,962 families with 22,083 children, according to the advocacy group.

More than 114,000 students in city public and charter schools — one out of every ten — was homeless during the 2018-2019 school year, according to a survey released last month by the education nonprofit Advocates for Children.

As the number of people relying on city shelters has grown, so too has the amount of issues at the facilities, Hevesi said.

“There are several providers whose services strip the dignity of their clients and put clients in dangerous situations and that shouldn’t be occurring with these huge sums of taxpayer money that we’re putting into this industry,” the lawmaker told The News.

Hevesi's son is pissing off Mario's son regarding donations from his sister's homeless shelter provider

NY Daily News

  A Queens assemblyman is accusing Gov. Cuomo of turning a blind eye to the state’s growing homeless problem while deep-pocketed donors linked to shelters with state and city contracts fill his campaign coffers with cash.

Cuomo has raked in more than three-quarters of a million dollars in donations over the past decade from contributors with ties to the shelter system, according to Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens).

Board members associated with various homeless shelters have gifted the governor $322,972.50, while donors associated with Help USA, a shelter service provider founded by the governor and chaired by his sister, Maria Cuomo Cole, have ponied up $451,285 in donations.

“Andrew Cuomo is profiting from the growth in homelessness," Hevesi told the Daily News. "He has taken three-quarters of a million dollars from people who have a financial interest in having more people become homeless.”

Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi, pointing out that the sum is less than 1% of the $118 million raised by his boss in recent years, said Hevesi’s criticisms are nothing more than the smoldering remnants of a grudge against the governor for locking up his father, former state comptroller Alan Hevesi, over a pension fund scandal more than a decade ago.

“As the governor always says, anyone who can be influenced by a single dollar has no place in government and that is as true now as it was the day when Attorney General Cuomo busted Hevesi’s father for selling the pension fund to the highest bidder," Azzopardi said. “The assemblyman’s conspiracy theories are sad, his family vendetta is pathetic and he should be doing better by his constituents.”

Hevesi countered that his only concern is the steady increase in the number of people, especially children, struggling with homelessness under Cuomo’s watch.

Each year, about 250,000 New Yorkers find themselves faced with the prospect of spending a night in a shelter at some point. The majority, three out of five, are school-aged children, according to the Assembly Committee on Social Services, which Hevesi helms.Since 2011, the number of school-age kids experiencing homelessness in the Empire State has increased 69% to 152,839 students.

DOT is at it again

From the Queens Tribune:

Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) and Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) are calling on the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) not to follow through on plans to expand loading zones on Austin Street’s busy commercial strip.

Hevesi and Koslowitz said that they are attempting to facilitate a dialogue among the DOT and the Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce and local business merchants, who say that the expansion of the zones would limit parking for their customers.

The DOT has proposed a variety of changes to Austin Street, including new 60-foot loading zones that would provide 36 spaces with 30-minute limits for trucks. The zones could be utilized from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Monday through Friday.

Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., there would be eight loading zones providing 24 spaces, while three loading zones with nine spaces would be available between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

“If the businesses that these loading zones are intended to help are against them, then what is the point of this proposal?” Hevesi said. “Unless the DOT provides some reasonable explanation, then this remains an unnecessary solution in search of a problem.”

In a statement, a DOT spokeswoman said that the aim of the initiative is to establish curbside regulations that help to ease congestion and promote safety.

Hevesi bill seen as a slap at Cuomo

From the Daily News:

In what some see as a direct shot at the governor, a bill moving through the state Legislature would give state Controller Thomas DiNapoli the power to more aggressively go after fraud, waste and abuse in state agencies.

The bill requiring agencies and public authorities to provide the controller's office a treasure trove of electronic data that can be quickly analyzed is sponsored by Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens).

Hevesi’s father, Alan, is a former state controller who went to prison as a result of a massive pension fund pay-to-play investigation headed by Cuomo, who at the time was state attorney general.

Andrew Hevesi denied his bill, which passed the Assembly unanimously last week, is an attempt at some form of payback.

Andy Hevesi's bright idea to reduce homelessness

From the Daily News:

The new head of the Assembly Social Services Committee is developing a package designed to address the rising homelessness crisis in the city, the Daily News has learned.

“We have the worst homeless crisis since the Great Depression,” said Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi, the Queens Democrat appointed this past week as chair of the Social Services Committee by new Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

Hevesi wants to increase public assistance housing allowances, some of which haven’t gone up since 2003.

“By increasing the allowance, you’re keeping people in their homes and out of the shelter system,” he said. “You’re also helping those in the system get out.”

Ultimately, he added, it would be cheaper than housing people in shelters.

There’s also a need for better coordination among dozens of programs designed to help keep people out of the shelter system. Too many gaps exist that result in people heading back into homelessness, Hevesi said.

He’s also calling for creation of a reinvestment fund where money saved from every shelter bed closed would be put back into supportive housing programs.

How about closing the loophole that allows everyone in the world to show up at DHS and seek shelter? Residency requirements seem to work in other states.

Posturing over pavilion

From The Forum:

Borough advocates have been pushing for preservation at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park since the city secured funding to restore the New York State Pavilion, which stands within it.

In the latest chapter of ongoing efforts to beautify the northeast Queens park, state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) announced he helped secure $250,000 along with the city Parks Department to renovate two baseball fields there, officials said. Hevesi and Parks acquired the money through a Community Capital Assistance grant and said it will help install new backstops and fencing, re-grade the infield and add grass turf in the center to prevent flooding.

[Not the Pavilion]

Hevesi’s announcement came just days after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo rolled out more than $5 million in awards to 14 different historic spots that suffered damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 – one of them being the New York State Pavilion.

Cuomo allotted $127,000 of that money to the city Parks Department to help pay for a conditions assessment of damages to the pavilion’s cable roof structure.

[Wow! $127,000! That's like 1/10 of 1% of what's needed to restore it.]

This month, the New York Mets baseball club also announced it would be donating part of Friday’s home game ticket sales towards the People for the Pavilion advocacy group to help preserve the pavilion in celebration of the 50th and 75th anniversaries of the World’s Fair. In a statement, the team reflected on the historic site and how extra funding was needed to help keep it standing.

The team is playing like shit. I bet that was a huge haul of dough! And the Mets just noticed that the Pavilion needed help after being in the same park with it since 1964?

If anyone thinks these efforts are serious, there's a bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell you.

What Queens lawmakers don't do in Albany

From the Times Ledger:

State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) was absent in Albany more than all his colleagues in the chamber, except for Sen. Adriano Espaillat (D-Washington Heights), who was mounting an unsuccessful bid for Congress.

But Smith was among the Senate’s top 10 drafters of resolutions adopted by both houses, the New York Public Interest Research Group’s review of the 2014 state legislative session found.

NYPIRG, a nonpartisan good government group, compiled an analysis of this year’s action in Albany. The report found lawmakers have sent fewer bills to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk than any state executive has received in the past century.

Smith was among seven senators who were absent and excused from at least 100 votes in 2014, NYPIRG’s report said.

Smith, who spent part of the session on trial in a federal corruption case, missed 808 votes. This put him directly behind Espaillat, an uptown Manhattan congressional hopeful who was not present during 891 votes.

Smith’s office said they believed his absences all occurred when he was in federal court and on trial for allegedly attempting to bribe his way onto the Republican line in the 2013 mayoral election.

In the Assembly, NYPIRG said four Queens lawmakers were among 18 who missed at least 150 votes, including Assembly members Aravella Simotas (D-Astoria) with 275 excuses or absences; Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) with 264; Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth) with 172; and William Scarborough (D-Jamaica) with 168.

No Queens lawmaker made NYPIRG’s lists of Assembly and Senate members who prime sponsored the most legislation that made it through their respective chamber — or both. A prime sponsor is the lawmaker who first backs a measure in his or her house.

But Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) was among 11 senators who prime sponsored at least 150 active bills in 2014, according to the report.

Avella, a member of the Independent Democratic Conference that had split from mainline Democrats and controlled the Senate with Republicans, was only able to get eight of these measures through both chambers, NYPIRG said.

Hevesi has bad news for Glendale; Crowley wants school next to chemical plant

Glendale is getting a homeless shelter and there's nothing anyone can do about it, so Hevesi says.



And Liz Crowley wants a school there instead. (Even though there's explosive material being housed next door.)

Hevesi caught looking the other way

From the Daily News:

A state assemblyman was secretly recorded saying that his leadership has refused to sign off on a potential probe into an agency designed to protect the developmentally disabled.

Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D—Queens), who chairs the chamber’s investigations committee, said Assembly Democratic leadership believes the Justice Center for the Protection of People With Special Needs touted by Gov. Cuomo is a fraud but isn’t prepared to investigate at this time.

“I didn’t like their response,” Hevesi is heard telling activist Michael Carey, who made the secret recording on May 7. “But the feedback I got was, ‘We want to do this--we don’t want to do this right now.’”

Carey, whose autistic son was suffocated as a state employee tried to restrain him, has claimed that the Justice Center is not referring most cases of abuse in state facilities to the proper authorities.

Hevesi on the recording tells Carey his leadership wants him to start a preliminary review by meeting with Justice Center officials.

“I’m not thrilled, but I don’t have a choice,” Hevesi said.

But when Carey asks why he won’t just supbonea documents, Hevesi said, “I’m not allowed to do that.”

When Carey asked if Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver blocked him, Hevesi responded: “He didn’t say that to me, but I know the leadership is not willing to do that.”

Why would someone do this to a street tree?

Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 18:56:24 -0400
Subject: Illegal Activity at Forest Hills Tree Pit

To The Parks Department, Councilmember Koslowitz, & Assemblyman Hevesi,

I would like to report a time-sensitive matter. A healthy mature tree's tree pit was illegally filled with cement, as the sidewalk was redesigned on the side of an apartment building in Forest Hills. The site is the west side of 68th Avenue between Queens Boulevard and Yellowstone Boulevard. A nearby address is 103-25 68th Avenue.

Constricting the trunk of the tree from its nutrients will likely cause the tree to die prematurely. Offenders need to pay a violation and be held responsible for restoring the tree pit and rescuing the tree.

I propose harsher penalties for causing damage to trees inclusive of arborcide. The offender should be required to finance at least 2 new trees and their planting either at the site or in close proximity.

Please respond as soon as you can, so we can solve this quality of life issue and formulate more effective solutions for an environmentally sustainable and aesthetically pleasing New York.

Sincerely,

(Name withheld)

Samaritan Village seems to be a shady charity

From the Forum:

The city’s Department of Homeless Services has reached out to various Queens officials with hopes of setting up a face-to-face meeting before making any final decisions on a controversial homeless shelter proposed in Glendale.

The city has been mulling over a bid to open a 125-family temporary housing spot at 78-16 Cooper Ave. in the footprint of a former sewing mill and airplane part manufacturing warehouse for months. But a spokeswoman for the DHS said the agency would likely meet with Queens elected officials from the city, state and possibly federal levels by early April before acting any further on the issue, which has drawn harsh criticism from varying members of the western Queens community.

“We still want to have an open dialogue – leader to leader,” the spokeswoman said. “No definitive decisions have been made as of yet because we want to hear from the officials and have them at our office together.”

Those against the proposal penned a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio, as well as DHS Commissioner Gilbert Taylor, earlier this year expanding on their opposition.

“If one of the primary criteria for evaluating a particular proposal’s cost-effectiveness correlates to the ability of the facility’s residents to quickly transition to permanent housing, we fail to see how developing a program at a location that is not conveniently accessible to basic public resources needed for a family’s success can be classified in such a manner,” they wrote in the letter. “We hope that, as a new administration, you will look to address that particular problem by undertaking a comprehensive analysis of how all DHS operations have combined to create that very unfortunate increase in turnaround time for families in need.”

Hevesi also penned a letter to the same parties earlier this week requesting an indefinite suspension of contract negotiations between the non-profit Samaritan Village and the city to operate a transitional housing facility in Glendale. In that letter, the elected official said the organization was cited for financial irregularities in a state report.

According to the report, Samaritan Village submitted a proposal to DHS’s open RFP in August of 2013 to operate a 125 unit transitional housing facility. The proposal went before the mayor’s office of contract services and the operating costs were projected to exceed $27 million over the initial 5-year contract period.

“New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli recently released a report of a prior contract with the non-profit Samaritan Village,” Hevesi wrote in his letter. “The comptroller and his staff, while fulfilling their role as the state’s chief financial officer and fiscal regulator, identified nearly $1 million in spending of state and taxpayer funds by this organization that raise questions about Samaritan Village and its operations.”

Hevesi argued that in light of the developments, the city should suspend further consideration of new contracts with Samaritan Village until a deeper investigation and analysis is complete.

Old time tweeder tête-à-tête

From the Politicker:

A small group of Queens officials quietly schmoozed with disgraced ex-Comptroller Alan Hevesi last night, reuniting with him for a “welcome home” dinner after he was jailed for his role in a massive pay-to-play scandal.

Mr. Hevesi, a power broker who was close to the Queens County Democratic organization before he admitted to receiving $1 million in kickbacks while investing the state’s pension fund, dined with State Senator Toby Stavisky, Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz and former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman at a local diner in Rego Park.

Mr. Hevesi, reportedly nicknamed “Hevey D” by rapper Ja Rule in prison, served 20 months and was released on parole at the end of last year. “This was their welcome home dinner for him,” explained a well-placed source. “Just the four of them.”

When he entered Shalimar Diner, Mr. Hevesi, also a former assemblyman and city comptroller, was immediately recognized by a hostess, who led him to the rear of the dining area. There, the four pols nibbled on salmon, bread and soup, catching up and laughing loudly until lowering their voices in the middle of the meal–perhaps noticing a reporter sitting nearby.

While Mr. Hevesi has departed from the political scene, his legacy lingers in the borough. His son, Andrew, is an assemblyman representing his dad’s old district and a former protégé named Melinda Katz is likely to become the next borough president.

Reflecting on Ms. Katz’s victory in last month’s Democratic primary, Mr. Hevesi told Politicker, “It’s good stuff.”

Proposed Glendale shelter to house sex offenders

From the Daily News:

Convicted sex offenders could be among the inhabitants of a homeless shelter that’s being proposed in Glendale, and civic leaders have been even more fired up since they made that discovery last week.

The revelation came after Samaritan Village — the Queens-based group that wants to convert a vacant warehouse on Cooper Ave. into a 125-family shelter — outlined their plans in a letter to Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi.

“[City Department of Homeless Services] has both a mandate and obligation to provide shelter to any eligible homeless person or family, regardless or criminal background,” the group wrote to Hevesi, in response to a question as to whether the population would include felons and sexual deviants. “The Sex Offender Registration Act does not restrict where a sex offender may live.”

The proposed shelter has drawn unanimous opposition among the area’s elected officials and civic leaders — and the details left many of them aghast.

“This is frightening,” said Kathy Masi, of the Glendale Civic Association. “It’s walking distance within two schools.”

Samaritan Village said it would maintain 24-hour security, a 9 p.m. curfew and a strict no-visitors policy.

What happens when they miss curfew? They sleep in Atlas Park?

They want to build WHAT in Flushing Meadows?

Check this out from A Walk in the Park:

Queens Community Board 7's Parks Committee convened forty-eight hours after a lively full-board meeting where more than a dozen members of the public came out to testify in opposition to the USTA's controversial $ 500 million dollar plan to expand again into Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The Parks Committee expected the Parks Department and the USTA to come back with concrete financial numbers to be spent on "park improvements," in exchange for being allowed to build on almost an acre of parkland.

That did not happen.

Instead, officials spent a good portion of the night avoiding questions and answering in half-truths.

Board members brought up a host of issues - the loss of parkland, destruction of trees, increased traffic and pollution, high prices of playing at the National Tennis Center, and the city's lack of commitment to take care of the park among others. Despite repeated requests from the board the USTA has still refused to put its expansion presentation on-line for all to see.

Parks and USTA officials said they have already lined up State Assembly Member Jeffrion L. Aubry and State Senator Jose Peralta to introduce the alienation bill, which does not require park replacement. They did not identify the City Council member who will sponsor a Home Rule message that is also required.

"And yes, the Parks Department really need to do a better job of paying attention to the largest green space in the largest borough instead of spending so much damn attention to Central Park and Prospect Park," said Parks Chair Kim Ohanian closing the meeting. "And we are sick and tired of getting short changed. You guys treat us like crap and we're tired of it. Ok?" she continued.

"You spend very little money on this park. You have neglected it, you have treated it like garbage and it's not right.

You don't spend enough money to take care of it. You don't have enough help, and don't spend enough money and you don't treat it right.

There's no reason why the Fountain of the Planets looks the way that it does. You've neglected it, you've neglected a lot of that park and shame on you."

"Please be prepared have answers to the questions that were presented to you tonight."

We ask questions we deserve answers. We don't get them they don't get theirs."

The meeting was adjourned until the first week in March.

(When CB7 will vote yes anyway...)

From The Fairness Coalition:

2) Power Plant in the Park?
The plan calls for building a dirty diesel fuel power plant inside the park. Hidden inside the most recent DEIS report, the USTA seeks to build an 8 Megawatt, 20 foot high diesel-fueled power plant. Surrounding communities already suffer from air quality and asthma rates at epidemic levels. This power plant will emit a massive amount of air pollution into the park and surrounding communities. (page 11-17 DEIS Jan 2013)

So Hevesi, Koslowitz, Peralta and Aubry think a power plant inside Flushing Meadows is a great idea? How much payoff did these morons get from the USTA?

Cash for cleaner choo-choos

From the Daily News:

A Queens lawmaker is pushing the state to set aside money to alleviate the problem of train pollution that stretches across four counties.

Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi will call on the legislature to allocate $17 million to swap out the engines on ten of the Long Island Rail Road’s freight locomotives.

Rail has become the preferred method to hauling waste across Suffolk, Nassau, Queens and Brooklyn in the past few years, but that has resulted in increased pollution along the track lines, the lawmaker said.

Residents in the four counties “suffer from high levels of noxious gas emissions from these locomotives’ outdated technology,” Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) wrote in a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, to be delivered Monday.

The current fleet of trains are owned by the LIRR and leased to a private firm that operates them along the New York and Atlantic Railway.

Those train engines, Hevesi said, fall under the lowest possible U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions standard, Tier 0, which means they were manufactured at least two decades ago.

They'll take it, because they can

Back at Flushing Meadows again, the 2013 hotbed of activity.

Now we're taking a look at the USTA.

Here's what's there now, courtesy of Save FMCP:


and here's their proposal:

They want to build not one, but two stadiums - demolish and replace the one on the upper right and add one on the bottom left, killing a boatload of trees in the process. All because they claim that they can't be competitive with other countries. There haven't been any advances in the sport that require new facilities. I don't see how this makes them more competitive or why their alleged predicament should be a problem that Queens residents need to help them solve.

The US Open isn't going anywhere. This is just an attempt to get more free land at taxpayer expense.

And shame on you, Andy Hevesi.

Mad cash dash

From the NY Post:

State lawmakers are scrambling to rake in as much cash as possible before Gov. Cuomo’s overhaul of campaign laws is enacted.

Cuomo’s proposal would target Albany’s “pay-to-play” culture by limiting contributions fat cats and lobbyists can make to lawmakers.

And now politicians are acting like pigs running to the trough.

At least 17 lawmakers, including party leaders, have held or scheduled fund-raisers in the first weeks of the legislative session.

Backers of Cuomo’s reform plan say pols realize change is coming.

Democratic Queens Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi and Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos are hosting events Wednesday at Albany’s posh Fort Orange Club blocks from the Capitol.

Donors giving $500 at Hevesi’s breakfast are called “friends,” and those who give or collect $1,000 are “sponsors.”

Skelos is asking $1,000 a person for his evening soiree at the club.

Hevesi to be sprung from prison soon

From the Daily News:

Disgraced former state Controller Alan Hevesi will be out of prison for the holidays, the Daily News has learned.

A state Parole Board panel approved Hevesi’s second attempt at parole after a Wednesday hearing, a source familiar with the situation said.

Now known as inmate 11-R-1334, the 72-year-old Hevesi will be back home by Dec. 19.

The former pol was denied his first shot at parole last December by a 2-to-1 vote of a Parole Board panel. In keeping him locked up, the majority cited his “shallow” attempt at accepting blame.

Andrew Hevesi said his father this time accepted full responsibility during the hearing.

Hevesi said his father also took responsibility “for several life-long patterns that have hurt his family and friends that are unrelated to what happened in the controller’s office."

His crony, Hank Morris, was denied parole.

Hevesi questions convention center deal

From the Queens Chronicle:

Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Rego Park), like others, is waiting to see how Gov. Cuomo’s proposal to build the nation’s largest convention center in Queens will play out.

But speaking at a meeting of Community Board 5 on Jan. 11, Hevesi said he is troubled by the process Cuomo chose, limiting the development to Genting America, which operates the recently opened casino nearby at Aqueduct Race Track.

“The city doesn’t give out sole-bid contracts and the state doesn’t either, usually,” he said. “Why did we do it here? Why Genting? Did the governor get a deal?”

He also questions whether or not the governor did his homework before throwing the weight of his office behind a convention center as a panacea for state’s economic ills.

“Convention centers nationally are not making the money that they did a few years ago,” he said. “There’s been a drop-off.”

Cuomo’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.

And a poll says NYers don't want the thing, anyway.

Andy's bill has developers covered

From Forest Hills Patch:

Brownfields, the term used by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), are any real property where redevelopment could be complicated by the presence of potentially hazardous material. In other words, a brownfield property is a blighted abandoned zone in community. These properties, which are prevalent in New York City, constitute wasted space that can and should undergo transformative redevelopment for the benefit of our communities.

Currently, the New York City Brownfield Cleanup Program is able to provide liability protections for developers that comply with the shared city and state cleanup regulations through an existing Memorandum of Agreement with the DEC. However, the city can not provide full state liability release. I have introduced legislation that will allow the New York City Office of Environmental Remediation to provide full liability protections to developers in the program.