Dirty Dilan

From the Daily News:

Ex-City Councilman Erik Dilan was slapped with a $9000 fine for taking an affordable apartment for which he didn’t qualify from a crooked developer with business before the New York City Council.

Dilan’s sweet deal was first revealed by the Daily News in 2011, and the Conflicts of Interest Board launched a probe.

Dilan (D-Brooklyn) — now a state Assemblyman — broke city conflicts of interest law by failing to disclose his financial relationship with his landlord, developer Sergio Benitez, when he voted to approve three of Benitez’s projects before the City Council, the board found.

Then, he asked for and got a bigger apartment from Benitez — even though he made tens of thousands of dollars too much to legally qualify for it.

The two-bedroom apartment on Decatur St. in Bushwick that Dilan picked out in 2008 was restricted to families making less than $114,000 a year, but he was allowed to move in even though he and his wife made $174,205.

The conflicts board found Dilan was illegally using his position for personal gain.

Districting Commission makes withdrawal official

From NY1:

The city's districting commission, charged with redrawing the lines that make up the 51 City Council districts, voted to withdraw their original plan Tuesday and hold more public hearings before coming up with a new one. NY1's Zack Fink has the story.

The hastily called meeting came amid questions about whether the commission had the authority to withdraw the maps it had already submitted.

After receiving assurances from the the city's law department, the commission voted unanimously to take back its maps and hold a new round of public hearings.

But that wasn't all. The commission also voted for two changes to the maps.

One change addressed a controversy involving the embattled Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

After the maps had already been voted on by the commission, Lopez's ally, City Councilman Erik Dilan, requested that Lopez's home be moved to the neighboring 34th district where it would be easier for Lopez to run for City Council.

"My concern was that in voting on these several changes, which I don't disagree with, we leave the perception that that's all we are going to do," Padavan said.

Several organizations are seeking additional changes to the maps and their concerns were not addressed.

"I just wanted to make sure that it was understood that this plan isn't adopted because we just revised it," Ognibene said. "There still needs to be public hearings, this is not part of the adopted plan, and I wanted that clear."

The new round of public hearings are expected to take place in January.

N.B. The word unanimously is crossed out because Padavan actually abstained from voting.

Nydia calls for investigation of Vito's charity

From the NY Post:

Rivals of embattled Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez — who is enmeshed in a sex-harassment scandal and is on the ropes politically — are now taking aim at the $120 million social-services empire that has served as his power base.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez told The Post that it’s time for a “comprehensive investigation” of operations at the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, founded by Lopez in 1973 and funded by government grants he and his allies have helped secure ever since.

“You know, there are too many arms within the organization,” said Velasquez, a longtime Lopez critic who beat back his vigorous attempt to unseat her last June.

“I do believe that the services they provide are important. But the whole government structure, as well as the different arms — that should be evaluated by the city officials.”

Ridgewood Bushwick is one of the city’s largest social-service agencies, with programs from home care to senior centers to job training.

After the Department of Investigation reported in 2010 that its board was a rubber stamp with little idea what it was doing, city officials forced a reorganization at the top.

Four months ago, before the harassment charges against Lopez were made public, three Brooklyn City Council members close to him allocated $873,589 of their “member item” funds to the group. Leading the pack was Erik Dilan, who challenged Velasquez with Lopez’s backing.

Last year, the state delivered $845,806 in three discretionary grants.

Vito's trail of tweeding

From the Daily News:

Years before his political career imploded in a sexual harassment scandal, Brooklyn political boss Vito Lopez amassed power and loyalty by awarding supporters and their families with jobs, titles and with one of the most coveted perks in New York City: cheap housing.

Using his sway in the state Assembly, the Brooklyn Democratic Party and his influence over public agencies like the city Housing Authority, he hooked up friends, allies — and several elected officials.

Among the beneficiaries: City Councilwoman Diana Reyna who started her career in New York politics as a member of Lopez’s Assembly staff.

In 1997, while Reyna was working for Lopez, her sister, Melida Gonzalez, was selected through a lottery to buy a taxpayer-subsidized multi-family home in Bushwick for only $179,000. The house included a nice property tax break that will cut her bill nearly by 50% this year.

Other beneficiaries of Lopez’s power are Councilman Erik Dilan (D-Brooklyn) and his father, state Sen. Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn) who have funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to Ridgewood-Bushwick and received devoted political support from Lopez.

Lopez also combined his power as Democratic Party boss with his control of Ridgewood-Bushwick to help put favored judges on the bench in Brooklyn. One way he does that is through delegates who pick judicial candidates at party conventions. A News review found at least 11 delegates who were also employed by Ridgewood-Bushwick.

More pork doled out to favored council members

From the Daily News:

The heartiest eaters at the trough of City Council slush funds were named Tuesday in a good government group report which argues that the way the money's doled out gives the Council speaker too much sway over individual members.

Brooklyn Democrat Domenic Recchia, the powerful head of the council’s Finance Committee, was number one in FY 2012 with $12.1 million, according to Citizens Union.

Councilman Erik Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn) came in second with $11.3 million and Councilman Lew Fidler (D-Brooklyn) was third with $10.7 million.

The Council allocated $459 (fixed) million in discretionary funds in FY 2012. Members gave the money to non-profits and used it for capital expenditures on city property.

Citizen Union head Dick Dadey said the funds should be handed out “more objectively” and with “greater equity” and that politics should be taken out of the process.

“The City Council speaker and some of the other leaders have too much say in what gets distributed,” he said. “One could argue that that’s a way to keep the Council in line as you try and move a legislative agenda forward.”

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn pointed out in a statement that Council had already made changes to make its expense funds more transparent and was planning to do the same with capital funds.

From the NY Post:

A new analysis of how the City Council allocated more than $2 billion in discretionary funds between 2009 and 2012 has found a wide gulf between the haves and have-nots.

Dominic Recchia (D-Brooklyn), chairman of the powerful Finance Committee, was the biggest winner in the Citizens Union study, collecting $66.7 million to spend on capital projects and nonprofits of his choosing. Erik Dilan (D-Brooklyn), an ally of Brooklyn Democratic leader Vito Lopez, came in second with $37 million.

Dead last in 51st place were Dan Halloran (R-Queens) and his predecessor Tony Avella, now a state senator. Over the four-year period, they pulled in just $9.5 million for their constituents.

Avella, an outspoken critic of Council Speaker Christine Quinn, said the results should come as no surprise to anyone.

“Nothing is done by merit,” he said. “I was independent and took on the speaker.”

From the NY Post:

Council Speaker Christine Quinn is yanking Seabrook’s discretionary funds in the upcoming budget as the beleaguered Bronx politician gears up for a second federal trial on charges of extortion, money-laundering and fraud, The Post has learned.

“Council Member Seabrook and I have come to a mutual agreement that this year’s funding to his district will be determined by the Speaker’s Office and the Bronx delegation chair,” Quinn said in a prepared statement, reversing her position on the issue from several months ago.

“All allocations will undergo the appropriate review and vetting process, including by the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services and city agencies,” she said.
In February 2010, federal prosecutors alleged that from 2002 through 2009, Seabrook funneled more than $1 million in council member items — also known as pork — to nonprofits he controlled, with about half that money lining the pockets of his girlfriend and family members.

Tweeding involved in Wyckoff mess

From the NY Times:

In recent years, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn has often gone hat in hand to the city and state, lamenting cuts in government assistance and questioning whether officials truly understood the burden of running a nonprofit hospital in Bushwick, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

For much of that time, Wyckoff’s chief executive was driving to work in a Bentley Continental GT, a $160,000 automobile, and at one point, the hospital paid thousands of dollars to insure the vehicle, according to hospital records and interviews. When the chief executive lost his license after an accident, hospital security guards chauffeured him and his wife around the clock in a Cadillac Escalade or a Lincoln Town Car.

The chief executive, Rajiv Garg, was not the only one who benefited from his ties with Wyckoff. One member of the hospital’s board obtained for the pharmacy that he owned the exclusive right to market prescription drugs to hospital patients. Another board member lent $2.4 million to the ailing Wyckoff at 12 percent interest, with the hospital required to put up several of its buildings as security.

Local politicians also joined in. Allies of United States Representative Edolphus Towns, Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez and Councilman Erik Martin Dilan have landed high-level positions at the hospital, despite questionable qualifications, further weakening its management. Mr. Dilan’s wife became the hospital’s director of public relations.

Many hospitals in downtrodden areas of New York City and across the state are faltering, raising concerns that a wave of closings will deprive poor people of badly needed care.

A three-month investigation by The New York Times into Wyckoff, based on dozens of interviews and an examination of internal documents, offers a sobering portrait of how one such hospital has been undermined by the very people entrusted to run it.

Tainted campaign cash?

From the NY Post:

The bust of a carnival operator who was approached about turning government witness to save his skin from charges of bribing an elected official has sent other pols who took his campaign money scrambling.

As Lawrence Carr's two-count bribery case winds its way through Brooklyn court, some elected officials are debating whether to get rid of the contributions he gave them.

"I believe if his money is tainted, I would consider giving it to charity," said state Sen. Martin Dilan (D-Queens), who has received $5,000 from Carr and Carr's wife, Malinda, since 2002.

Carr was indicted in June for allegedly bribing an official, identified by sources as disgraced former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate.

Others who got Carr cash include former state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), $1,000; Councilwoman Helen Sears (D-Queens), $3,000; and Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-Queens), $2,500.

Money that Quinn didn't cut...

From the NY Post:

Let’s be clear: Nobody should be getting member-item money.

These are lump-sum appropriations that corrupt the political process by giving incumbents cash to curry unfair favor with constituents; simultaneously, these cash goodies give bullying council bosses undue leverage over their underlings.

And Vallone — who apparently irritated Quinn and had his cash yanked as an example — proves the point.

Yet Quinn is cool with Lopez, who attracts the FBI like overripe pork attracts flies. Quinn channeled $4.4 million this year to his Brooklyn power base — the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council — through Brooklyn council members Domenic Recchia, Erik Dilan, Stephen Levin and Elizabeth Crowley.

While some $3.75 million is earmarked for alleged “capital construction,” the rest neatly covers salary and benefits for:

* Chris Fisher, Ridgewood executive director/Lopez campaign treasurer ($607,000).

* Angela Battaglia, Ridgewood’s housing director/Lopez girlfriend ($282,940).

(Quinn also managed to find $2 million for the United Federation of Teachers’ academically shaky charter school — but that’s a tale for another day.)

Council members bribe Lopez with pork

From the Daily News:

The taint of a federal investigation hasn't stopped City Council members from lavishing pork on the social-services empire founded by Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez.

The Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which was slapped with corruption probe subpoenas last fall, will be the second largest recipient of Council earmarks next year.

Documents released yesterday show Lopez's group is poised to pick up $607,000 from the Council's Brooklyn delegation - andmembers Erik Martin Dilan, Domenic Recchia, Elizabeth Crowley and Stephen Levin.

Ridgewood Bushwick is the subject of ongoing criminal probes by the FBI and the city's Department of Investigation. It has millions of dollars in city contracts - but may have difficulty collecting new Council money because of delays in filing needed documents with the state attorney general.

Ridgewood Reservoir a victim of tweeding

From the Forum West:

The first phase of the project recently began and includes new lighting, steps, benches and perimeter fences to improve safety and accessibility at the reservoir. Mark K. Morrison Associations of Manhattan was awarded the $7.7 million contract for that work, and is also in the process of creating three proposals for the future of the property’s three basins.

That $7.7 million has already been allocated and is not included in the $19.8 million remaining for Ridgewood Reservoir, according to Steve Fiedler, who is chairman of Community Board 5’s Parks Committee and opposes development of ballfields.

[Parks] noted that ballfields have been requested by community groups such as the East Brooklyn Congregations.

However, a study by the group Highland Park-Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance, which is pushing for the three basins to be preserved, showed that permits were issued for the existing ballfields for just a fraction of the available time during the past two years.

Fiedler questioned the motives of the East Brooklyn Congregations and doubts their claims that they cannot secure time at Highland Park’s existing fields. “His organization is pushing for fields at the top of basin three on eight acres, for what reason God only knows,” he said. “I hate to say that someone is lying for political gains, but the proof is in the pudding,” he added regarding the field usage.

From the Daily News:

East Brooklyn Congregations, an umbrella group of more than 30 Brooklyn churches and community groups, wants 8 acres of the 50-acre reservoir to be developed into two regulation-sized fields - one for soccer and football, the other for baseball.

"Everybody that we have talked to has said, 'If you want to give us anything in that reservoir, give us fields for active recreation," said Bishop David Benke, head of the Lutheran Church in the eastern region of the state.

Hmm...that's a very different attitude coming from the Reverend than 2 years ago... From the Times Newsweekly, July 5, 2007:

Recreation and education at the reservoir were the central themes of a renovation plan developed by a team consisting of Bishop David Benke, pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church of Cypress Hills, Roy Sawyer, community liaison for Assemblyman Towns and Sam and Ana Franqui of the Highlanders East New York United Front.

According to Bishop Benke, the team was focused on recreating Ridgewood Reservoir as an educational and passive recreation center for residents in Brooklyn and Queens. One main component of the plan, as he described to participants, would be the formation of an environmental center at the easternmost basin ideal for students who can venture to the park on field trips to study wildlife and plant growth in the chamber.

While reserving the middle basin as a man-made lake with fish, the bishop explained, the westernmost basin would be created into a botanical garden with greenhouses and a picnic area for students and parkgoers to gather. Benke also suggested that a new observation deck could be built in the southern section of the chamber to allow visitors to see sections of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Jamaica Bay from one of the highest points on Long Island.

So what the heck changed in the course of a few months? Here it is in one sentence:

When the city sells you lots o'land for $1 (upon which you construct vast quantities of Brooklyn Crap) and then they call in a favor, you do what they ask, otherwise, you might get cut off...

The real story goes like this: Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and Highland Park Administrator Debbie Kuha called Bishop Benke to the Overlook, gave him a debriefing and a presentation on a disc which contained the now-infamous "Secret Slide" and then told him to bring it back to his congregation and present it to them. (The preservation-minded had to settle for a leaked copy.) Then he was asked to follow up on this by showing up with kids in tow to demand sports fields at the city council oversight hearing held about the reservoir issue. Parks is notorious for orchestrating these dog-and-pony shows of false support for their unpopular initiatives in public forums. EBC has been at every public meeting since. This group has never even applied for a field permit at Highland Park.

When you bring up things like this, the argument then becomes that there are no "regulation-sized" fields at Highland (which seems to come as a surprise to the teams that do use them and say that they are). So if that is the case, then take the unused ballfields that are there currently and turn them into regulation-sized fields. Problem solved. Oh...hold on, Parks will tell you that the fields are used for many hours of pickup ball play and team practices which don't require permits. Which they might be able to get away with if there were actually people observed using the fields during "prime time" for ball play. Too bad there aren't.

After they run out of excuses, Parks then states that the money is only to be used inside the basins, even though their own press release states that the money is to be used to fix the infrastructure in Highland Park in order to make it a "destination park." So the fields must be built inside and the ones on the outside must remain in their present condition. Do you better understand this ridiculous waste of taxpayer money?

The "affordable housing" tweeders love the bishop and despite separation of church and state, they took it upon themselves to pass a resolution to support him after the leadership of his church sanctioned him. Now he is being used by Council Member Erik Martin Dilan to push for construction inside the basins.

Someone has been promised gigantic construction contracts out of this and the tweeders never anticipated that the opposition would be so overwhelming to what they want to do here. So they manufactured their own resistance movement.

As many have commented here, it's time to BRING IN THE FEDS!

More to come.