Student reporters get sex predator teacher removed from school that the city kept on

 

NY Post

 Pupil Power!

Thanks to intrepid student journalists, an English teacher and coach at prestigious Townsend Harris HS in Queens was yanked from the school this week after it came to light that city investigators confirmed he had sex with a former female student.

Joseph Canzoneri, 53, allegedly brought the girl to an apartment where he plied her with wine and marijuana before they had intercourse and oral sex, the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools found.

The SCI recommended Canzoneri be fired, and the Department of Education tried to do so. But the girl refused to testify at a hearing, so the case was dropped and he was entitled to keep his job under New York tenure protections.

After more than a year in a rubber room, a space where accused teachers await the disciplinary process, he quietly returned to Townsend Harris at the start of the school year in September. The principal kept him out of classrooms in an office.

The scandal remained under wraps until three weeks ago, when someone leaked the case to teen journalists at the school’s student newspaper, The Classic.

Known for aggressive reporting, the paper has run a series of articles in the last year on six former students who claimed sexual contact with three Townsend Harris teachers — cases all kept secret at the time. The unnamed teachers no longer work at the school.  The editors have called for greater openness and training on educator sexual misconduct.

In light of this campaign, an anonymous “concerned parent” sent The Classic the bombshell SCI report on Canzoneri. The precocious journos spotted him in the building and on Wednesday filed a Freedom of Information Law request with SCI to authenticate the document. 

Suddenly the DOE took action. The same week — the agency would not say which day — officials shunted Canzoneri from Townsend Harris into a “central office” somewhere outside of the building. After making $135,000 last year, he remains on the payroll.

“It is past time for greater transparency about what has gone on at Townsend Harris and for the DOE and school administration to engage students and families in an open, honest conversation about the horrific allegations we have reported on,” editors-in-chief Ryan Eng, Julia Maciejak, and Jasmine Palma told The Post.

This school should send these kids to City Hall and trail the Blaz for the next month. 

Governor Kathy doesn't like to kiss and tell about government business

 

 Progress New York

 Twenty Government Agencies in New York are responsible for over 66 per cent. of appeals seeking the release of Government records, an analysis of New York State Committee on Open Government data has shown, with the New York Police Department behind the largest number of open records requests that triggered challenges.

Of 4,077 FOIL Appeals tracked on a spreadsheet maintained by the Committee on Open Government, the NYPD was responsible for at least 961 challenges filed by the makers of FOIL Requests. The New York State Dept. of Corrections and Community Supervision, the City of Rochester Law Department, Suffolk County, and the New York State Dept. of Health rounded up the top 5 Government Agencies triggering the most FOIL Appeals.

Combined, 20 Government Agencies in New York generated 2,731 challenges out of a total of 4,077 FOIL Appeals tracked on Committee on Open Government spreadsheet. The data was provided to Progress New York in response to a request filed under the State’s Freedom of Information Law, or FOIL.  Progress New York is seeking records about FOIL Appeals and their dispositions ; records about FOIL Appeals and determinations made thereon are required by law to be forwarded to the Committee on Open Government.

As has been widely-reported, Gov. Kathleen Hochul (D-NY) has promised that, “Transparency will be the hallmark of my administration,” she told talk show host Joseph Scarborough during an MSNBC interview.

Despite her promise, Government Agencies in New York refuse to explain their record of triggering so many FOIL Appeals.

The office of the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information at the NYPD did not answer a press inquiry about having been the target of so many disputes over their decision to deny or withhold access to Government records. Silence was also the response from officials with the New York City Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene and the New York City Dept. of Transportation, two of the top 20 Government Agencies triggering the most FOIL Appeals. In total, five New York City Agencies were amongst the top 20 Authorities that gave rise to the most challenges.

In 2015, the news Web site Gothamist reported that New York City Hall were “screening” open records requests that reflected on Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City). For this report, the press office supporting Mayor de Blasio did not answer an interview request.

The press office supporting Gov. Hochul, likewise, did not answer an interview request for this report.

Albany and New York City offered more corporate welfare to Amazon

Marketscreener


State officials offered Amazon.com Inc. almost a billion dollars more of incentives than was previously known to win its second-headquarters contest and were even prepared to pay part of some employees' salaries if the tech company developed a campus in New York.

Documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show the scope of what state and local officials initially put on the table as part of the 2017 HQ2 competition, in which more than 200 cities submitted bids to host a facility that Amazon said would house 50,000 jobs.

The company said in November 2018 that sites in Northern Virginia and the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens would split the new headquarters. New York state and city officials agreed to give $3 billion of incentives to the e-commerce giant to hire as many as 40,000 employees.
Facing opposition from some local elected officials, Amazon abandoned its plans for New York on Valentine's Day last year.

The Journal obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Law request to Empire State Development, the state's economic development authority.

The documents show that in its first formal bid to Amazon, in October 2017, the state offered to provide up to $2.5 billion of incentives to the company for a campus in New York. The offer also applied to sites that state and local leaders proposed in the Hudson Valley, Albany, Central New York, Buffalo, Rochester and on Long Island.

The state's initial offer included $1.4 billion of tax credits based on the number of employees hired and $1.1 billion of various grants. That was $800 million more than the ESD agreed to in a memorandum of understanding signed a year later: The state provided $1.2 billion of tax credits and $505 million to reimburse some construction costs. 

Before Long Island City was selected, different New York localities made site-specific incentive offers. Nassau County officials offered $2.2 billion in tax exemptions to build a facility at the Belmont Park.
On top of the state's final $1.7 billion package, New York City ultimately offered Amazon up to $1.3 billion of extra incentives through two programs open to any company.

Officials also presented alternative campus sites, including near the World Trade Center in lower
Manhattan, on the island's West Side near Penn Station and in downtown Brooklyn. The city proposed that Governors Island, a former Coast Guard base between Manhattan and Brooklyn, could serve as an "island retreat" for Amazon employees.

ESD initially proposed to spend $500 million to create a Center for Commercial Innovation near the selected site that would let Amazon partner with various colleges for research relevant to its business. The site would also subsidize job-training programs, according to the proposal, and the state pledged to pay 25% of certain graduates' first-year wages with Amazon to help it achieve workforce diversity.

Why were these emails kept under wraps for so long?

From the NY Times:

...in nearly 350 pages of emails obtained by The New York Times as part of a Freedom of Information request, it was clear that Mr. Howe had entree to the top levels of Mr. Cuomo’s administration — a period that included the years and months leading up to the news of the federal investigation.

The Cuomo administration had fought against releasing the emails for two years, spending more than $200,000 to hire outside counsel — Greenberg Traurig, a loyal Cuomo campaign donor — after The Times went to court seeking the documents. A state judge last year ruled against the administration, and ordered that the documents be released; the state appealed the ruling, but subsequently agreed to a settlement that allowed for the emails’ release.

The emails showed how Mr. Howe used his access to gain help for clients.

All about de Blasio

Lots of links about the mayor's malfeasance this morning:

EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio donor raised nearly $200G for political favors, prosecutors say - Daily News

Judge orders Mayor Bill de Blasio to release consultant emails - AM-NY

De Blasio Says He’ll Fight to Hide From the Public His Correspondence With a High-Powered Real Estate Consultant - Observer

Critics Slam De Blasio After He Refuses To Take Questions About Midtown Stabbing - CBS

Lawsuit filed over building switcheroo

From DNA Info:

A neighborhood coalition is suing to stop a “monstrous” 11-story building from rising above a church on its block, saying the city may have improperly approved the developer's plan to nearly double the project's height despite its own concerns.

After the French Evangelical Church on West 16th Street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, sold its air rights and an adjacent church building to Einhorn Development Group several years ago, the developer announced plans to construct an 11-story condominium above the house of worship.

A neighborhood group called the Save 16th Street Committee has been fighting Einhorn’s plans ever since, said member Paul Groncki, president of the 100 West 16th Street Block Association, who lives in the six-story co-op next to the site.

On Friday, the committee filed a petition in Manhattan Supreme Court asking the city’s Department of Buildings to hand over documents they believe could prove Einhorn’s plans violate city statutes and codes, or show that the department improperly approved the project.

Einhorn had originally filed plans to construct a six-story building at the site, but added five additional stories to its plans by filing a “post-approval amendment” with the DOB, the committee’s petition says. The DOB issued a permit for the project this past October, records show, and construction started soon after.

In June 2015, the committee asked the DOB for copies of architectural plans, application forms and other documents related to the post-approval amendment, but wasn’t able to get them, according to the group’s filing.

The committee and its representatives have since submitted several Freedom of Information Law requests seeking those and other materials — none of which have yielded results, the petition says.

De Blasio releases emails after Preet meeting

From NY1:

Shortly after Mayor Bill de Blasio met with the U.S. Attorney's office Friday morning, City Hall released a trove of documents concerning communications between the de Blasio administration and outside advisors, known as the "Agents of the City." NY1's Bobby Cuza dug through the documents and filed the following report on what he found.

On what turned out to be a bad news day for the mayor, one where reporters were busy reporting on his meeting with federal investigators, City Hall decided it was a good time to dump some documents — about 1,600 pages in all, including correspondence between the mayor's team and a handful of outside advisors.

One email shows the mayor's team meeting at [Jonathan] Rosen's firm.

Another outside advisor, John del Cecato, is told in one email that the mayor "would like to start talking to you daily."

And a third agent of the city, Nick Baldick, told that the mayor wants to get in touch, wrote, "He usually calls my cell."

But it's del Cecato who seems closest to the inner circle. De Blasio himself tells his scheduler, "Chirlane and I need a call with him scheduled for this weekend."

And in many cases, including many emails from the mayor himself, huge portions are redacted to the point where multiple pages are completely blacked out.

Hefty bill for de Blasio defense

From the NY Times:

The bill for defending Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city officials in state and federal criminal investigations into fund-raising practices has grown, with six city contracts for outside law firms now totaling more than $11.6 million.

The contracts, filed with the city comptroller’s office and obtained by The New York Times through a request under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, provide the bare minimum of detail as to their purpose other than representing city employees in possible grand jury hearings related to what the Law Department calls, in its paperwork, the “John Doe Investigation.”

Taken together, the contracts contain a constellation of white-collar criminal defense and trial lawyers from law firms big and small, as well as the maximum they can bill in the city’s defense: Debevoise & Plimpton, $10 million; Carter Ledyard & Millburn, $750,000; Walden Macht & Haran, $350,000; Lankler Siffert & Wohl, $250,000; Cunningham Levy Muse, $200,000; and Paul B. Bergman, P.C., $99,000.

Lawyers from the firms, all of which declined to comment on the contracts, are tasked with preparing witnesses who may be subpoenaed or asked to give testimony to a grand jury. State and federal grand juries have begun hearing evidence from prosecutors, according to people familiar with the matter.

City Hall let lobbyist help run the place

From NY1:

Mayor Bill de Blasio's office has released hundreds of pages of emails between the mayor, his top aides and Jonathan Rosen, a key unofficial adviser who city officials declared to be an "Agent of the City." NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.

Jonathan Rosen's influence extends deep inside City Hall in ways more extensive than previously known.

New emails released by the mayor show Rosen is invited to major policy meetings and included in high-level internal discussions.

But while he may be treated like a top City Hall advisor, he is far from an official one. He runs an influential private consulting firm, BerlinRosen, with clients who have business before the city, including powerful real estate firms. And the state now considers some of the work he does to be lobbying.

But that did not stop City Hall from including Rosen in an August 2014 meeting about the mayor's affordable housing agenda. He was the only non-city employee to attend.

Rosen was also asked to come to Gracie Mansion to discuss the city's strategy in Albany.

Government watchdog groups have criticized Rosen's close ties to the mayor and argued he and other outside consultants are part of a shadow city government.

NYPD won't let public know where mayor goes in their aircraft

From DNA Info:

The NYPD has formally declined to provide any information about Mayor Bill de Blasio's use of helicopters, including the time a department chopper nearly crashed with the mayor aboard when it landed on Rikers Island or when the police flew him and his wife to a presidential debate on Long Island.

Brushing aside a Freedom of Information request by DNAinfo New York, the NYPD’s Legal Bureau claimed its FOIL Unit was “unable to locate responsive records" — although the department keeps meticulous logs on the NYPD Aviation Unit's daily use of its fleet of choppers.

NYPD lawyers went even further, asserting that, even if they could find the applicable records on when the mayor was aboard an NYPD chopper, the department would not turn them over, anyway.

“If such records existed, they would be exempt on the basis of Public Officers Law or Section 87(2)(e)(iv), as such information, if disclosed, would reveal non-routine techniques and procedures,” the NYPD claimed in a brief three-sentence response.

City and state experts on FOIL, however, say the NYPD is completely wrong — and officials “obviously” know where flight records are located, and turning them over would not disclose anything unusual about “techniques and procedures.”

Not exactly transparent

From NY1:

NY1 and the New York Post have sued the mayor over his refusal to turn over emails between top city officials, including himself, and Rosen.

In this case, though, the city did turn over some e-mails to NY1. But while we received 87 pages of e-mails in all, we learned that when the mayor had something to say, it was often blacked out.

When de Blasio sent a New York Times story about stagnant middle-class incomes to top city advisers, Del Cecato and his wife, Chirlane McCray, his note to the group was redacted.

It was the same with a New Yorker story about Hillary Clinton that he forwarded to his wife and Del Cecato. The mayor's message is blocked.

"These emails show how ridiculous it is to designate these consultants as agents of the city," said Dick Dadey of Citizens Union. "These emails, in particular, are benign. They are talking about political stories and news stories, and for them to be protecting the mayor's comments just shows how ridiculous this whole matter is.

De Blasio's handling of his emails have also raised complaints that he is failing to live up the transparency promises he made as a candidate for City Hall.

DeBlasio has no problem spending taxpayer dollars to hide info

From NY1:

Mayor Bill de Blasio says he is prepared to go to court to fight a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by NY1 and the New York Post.

The battle centers on the mayor’s refusal to release emails with five outside advisers known as "agents of the city."

Speaking on his radio program Friday morning, the mayor says he is doing everything above board.

"In the case of anyone who also happens to have clients, any specific request around the work they did for their clients, and if in any way that interacted with City Hall, that we would release right now. We have no problem with that. But not ongoing discussions where I'm seeking advice from a private adviser. That's something we believe was appropriate by the legal guidance that we received, and of course we'll defend that in court," de Blasio said.

Media takes de Blasio to court over withheld FOIL documents

From NY1:

Mayor de Blasio may have to go to court to defend City Hall's decision to withhold e-mails between the Mayor and his outside advisors, known as "agents of the city."

NY1 News and the New York Post filed suit against the mayor Thursday over the administration's refusal to release messages exchanged between de Blasio, his top aides, and an outside consultant, Jonathan Rosen.

Rosen is one of five outside advisors to de Blasio whom City Hall has given special status. His consulting firm represents many clients with business before the city.

Katz FOILed again!

From the Queens Chronicle:

A Whitestone resident and media producer is suing the Office of the Queens Borough President and the borough president herself, Melinda Katz, alleging repeated violations of the state’s Freedom of Information Law for failing to respond to his requests for information concerning records related to the Willets Point neighborhood.

Robert LoScalzo, who says he has been working on an independent documentary about the Willets Point area since 2007, says he requested records concerning meetings held by Katz on Jan. 29 and March 3 of this year to discuss the deteriorated streets in the area, a possible city Department of Transportation contract to repave the streets for $9.1 million, waste-hauling tractor-trailers that park in the neighborhood and the status of its redevelopment.

LoScalzo says he made his initial FOIL request on May 12 and an appeal on June 4, and didn’t receive a reply to either one.

State law requires one within five business days, and a lack of response is tantamount to a denial, according to the state Committee on Open Government, which monitors compliance with the FOIL and Open Meetings Law. The only recourse available is to sue an agency.

A copy of the lawsuit says it was filed on Aug. 12 in state Supreme Court in Queens.

Katz’s office said it has not been served with any suit and wouldn't comment on pending litigation if it had, but that it has responded to the FOIL request. The office did not respond to a question about when the response was sent, and as of press time, LoScalzo said he hadn’t received a response.

In a sharply worded press release, LoScalzo accused Katz of hypocrisy and duplicity with the public.

“Just before this past Fourth of July weekend, Melinda Katz sent an email to her list, quoting loftily from the Declaration of Independence and imploring everyone to read America’s founding documents and get acquainted with our hard-won rights,” the release said in part.

“Ironically, when those of us who know our rights attempt to exercise them at Borough President Katz’s office by requesting public records, those rights are denied.”

FOIL records reveal that Queens CB5 produces tiny number of homeless couples

Ah, the magic of Facebook. From it I found out that the civic organization COMET had the following exchange with Mayor de Blasio's people:

"I asked where these "homeless" couples are living now and was told they are in shelters around the city. The representative from Intergovernmental Affairs [Lincoln Restler] alleged that many of these couples formerly lived in addresses within Community Board 5 (Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Glendale, Woodside)."

Now if they're already sheltered, why do they need a different shelter?

Facebook also provided the following stats from a FOIL of DHS records done in 2014:

This 4-family house at 60-90 Flushing Avenue in Maspeth has been vacant for years. It's owned by the City of New York. If it were fixed up, all of CB5's homeless could be housed. But the city would rather leave it in this condition and shovel money to millionaire hotel developers while citing the "fairness" doctrine, which to a neoliberal means to take decent neighborhoods and knock them down a peg while gentrifying poor areas to benefit the 1%.

Paul Vallone is hiding something everything

A constituent of Paul Vallone FOILed his schedule from the last couple of years and found that he doesn't want you to know who he is meeting with most days.

DeBlasio: "Nothing to see here"

From NY1:

Critics accuse Mayor de Blasio of setting up a shadow government — comprised of consultants who are not paid by City Hall, but pocket cash from clients, many of whom have business before the city.

The arrangement has long drawn complaints but it is generating a new wave of condemnation, because City Hall is refusing to release emails the consultants exchanged with the mayor and his top aides.

"It's disappointing to see the mayor, whose whole persona in government is about doing it for the people and being transparent about it, and to be relying on a legal analysis from some lawyer about whether this consultant's communications are protected is ridiculous," said Dick Dadey with good government group, Citizens Union. "Just disclose."

More than a year ago, NY1 made an open-records request for emails between a top de Blasio consultant, Jonathan Rosen, and the Mayor and high-ranking administration officials.

The request was denied, even though emails between city officials and people outside government are presumed to be public. In a letter to NY1, a city lawyer referred to Rosen as a consultant to the Mayoralty. He argued the emails were protected by the same exemption that keeps us from seeing many of the e-mails the mayor sends to his City Hall staff only.

Council members spend more time with developers than constituents

If you don't read anything else this week, I suggest you read THIS.

And this is probably only the tip of the iceberg!

Data to be more readily available

From the Daily News:

The City Council passed a package of bills to help New Yorkers get ahold of city data online.

One piece of legislation will require plain language dictionaries on the city’s open data portal to explain tongue-twisting terms like “carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand.”

Another bill will require that when city agencies update their own websites, they also quickly add the information to the open data portal. And the city will have to preserve more data instead of erasing it when stats change.

Mr. Transparent puts his foot down

The mayor has changed his tune on how he deals with the press, but he's going to call the shots. (At least when he is in town.) Those FOIL requests will just have to wait.