Is Van Bramer the most honest man in politics?

From the NY Post:

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer helped bust a businessman on a bribery charge, The Post has learned.

Mike Wolfert, who’s developing a massive indoor rock-climbing center in Queens, allegedly asked Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) to pull strings for him after he was slapped with a stop-work order for doing construction work without a permit.

But rather than accept Wolfert’s e-mail offer of “unconditional support” — including access to his company’s Facebook friends and free use of his facility for political events — Van Bramer blew the whistle, prompting a rapid-fire sting operation by the Department of Investigation that nabbed Wolfert within weeks, sources said.

Van Bramer’s actions stand in stark contrast to the allegations against a host of elected officials — including state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), Assemblyman Eric Stevenson (D-Bronx) and Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens) — charged recently in payoff schemes.

“We’re grateful that, at a time when some people are succumbing to corruption, this was reported to DOI,” DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said.

Have no fear. Although he won't take bribes, he still supports bad building projects because County tells him to.

DOI arrest numbers up

From the Queens Chronicle:

By definition, the city’s Department of Investigation tends to keep a low profile in its day-to-day operations.

So it was uncharacteristic last week when the department touted a record year for investigations and enforcement in the fiscal year ending June 30.

And DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn, now in her 10th year in the post, was in a mood to brag about her staff in a statement issued by her office.

“This fiscal year the DOI closed more cases, made more arrests and recovered more funds than last fiscal year, all of which is a testament to the tenacious work of DOI’s team of investigators, rooting out fraud, protecting taxpayer funds and ensuring that corruption is exposed and stopped,” Gill Hearn said.

The department arrested 806 individuals last year, up from 790 the year before and an increase of 195 percent since 2002, when DOI made 273 arrests. It also marked the fourth consecutive year that the department racked up a record number of arrests.

As for what the numbers and reported progress means to Queens residents and business owners, Bob Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, said any press release from a government agency needs to be treated with some skepticism.

“Let someone else tell me how well an agency is doing,” he said, citing his own decidedly mixed experiences with the DOI in the past. He said the normal citizen who reports suspicious activity can feel as if the deck is stacked against him.

“Do higher numbers mean they are doing their jobs better or that there is just more corruption?” Holden asked. “If they are doing their jobs — and this is their job, what they get paid to do, root out corruption — great. If arrests are up in record numbers, if they are out there encouraging and protecting whistleblowers, great.”

But Queens, he said, always seems to be ground zero for corruption in the city. He cited the recent finding of an investigation into the Willets Point development plan by the state attorney general that found local groups, including one headed by former Borough President Claire Shulman, engaged in illegal lobbying practices.

“This could just be the tip of the iceberg,” Holden said. “You can just look at those numbers in so many ways.”

Shit tit worker in deep crap

From the Brooklyn Eagle:

A Brooklyn sewage treatment worker with the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) was arrested this week on a charge of submitting a forged letter purportedly from his DEP supervisor to the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a Site Safety Manager’s license.

The letter falsely claimed the defendant had supervisory construction experience at DEP, according to the criminal complaint. The city’s Department of Investigation (DOI) opened an investigation after the Buildings Special Investigations Unit, a specialized unit that is supervised by DOI and includes staff from DOB, questioned the claims in the defendant’s letter. The office of New York County District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. is prosecuting the case.

Alvaro Mora, 44, of Woodside, Queens, has been charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, a class D felony, and offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, a class E felony. Upon conviction, a class D felony is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a class E felony by up to four years in prison.

DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said, “Fabricating experience is a foolish way to seek a city-issued license, especially where the fraud, if successful, would have compromised the safety of New Yorkers. This arrest is a stern reminder that individuals who flout the rules and willfully disregard construction safety will be held accountable.”

In March 2009, DOB denied Mora’s application for a Site Safety Manager’s license because he did not submit the required letters from his supervisors describing his construction experience. In May 2009, Mora resubmitted his application and asked for reconsideration for the license.