Driving malfeasance

 

 White Collar Fraud

Welcome to New York City’s most impressive disappearing act yet. Following our previous exposés of fiscal acrobatics and car service extravaganzas, we present something remarkable: $4.2 billion of taxpayer money that’s simply vanished from public view.

In what could be called innovative municipal recordkeeping, New York City has classified an astounding $4,201,873,479.51 under the vendor code “N/A (Privacy/Security)” in 2023. Of this impressive sum, $4,131,414,624.59 lists its purpose as “blank” – presumably because even “N/A” felt too specific. The remaining $70,458,854.92 gets the slightly more descriptive purpose of “N/A,” for those times when someone felt compelled to write something.

A sum of $4.2 billion is almost too massive to comprehend, let alone cover in a single post. So, let’s start small – with our borough presidents, whose modest contributions to this trend are particularly telling. After all, if routine expenses like office supplies and travel can be deemed too sensitive for public disclosure, what hope do we have of understanding the billions classified elsewhere? These smaller examples reveal a culture of opacity that has trickled down from the highest levels of city government to the most mundane of expenses.

 Borough President Antonio Reynoso leads with $135,827.35 in classified spending. His office’s signature move? Converting $124,515 into “Professional Services Other” – a category that explains nothing while saying something. They’ve also managed to make $5,388 worth of books disappear from public scrutiny.

 Vanessa Gibson’s office presents $30,680.41 in mysterious expenditures, including $13,618 in travel expenses to undisclosed locations. The destinations remain as mysterious as the purposes.

Under Donovan Richards Jr.’s watch, Queens contributes $13,345.20 in classified spending, featuring $9,100 in “Temporary Services.” The nature of these temporary services remains, appropriately, temporary.

 Mark Levine keeps it modest with $6,358.10 in classified expenses, including an intriguing -$3.50 credit. Even refunds, it seems, can be confidential.

These are the hypocrites who want to abolish parking mandates.

 

But these borough-level activities are merely a prelude to the city’s larger production. Consider $4.2 billion – enough to fund significant public works – simply marked as confidential. More impressively, they’ve managed to make the purposes disappear as well.

When the purpose of $4.1 billion of spending is classified as “blank,” it raises questions about the very nature of public disclosure. The remaining $70 million marked “N/A” almost seems quaint in comparison.

 

Big spendin' Blaz making the budget money rain

 

NY Post

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s final budget proposal is the biggest ever in city history, a $98.6 billion spending plan — bankrolled by a massive infusion of federal aid — that will finance $2.2 billion in new education expenditures alone, documents show.

The document, released Tuesday, clearly illustrates just how dramatically the Biden administration’s recent $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package has reshaped the Big Apple’s short-term fiscal picture in just three months — with projected spending set to grow by $10.4 billion in just one year and partially filling expected budget gaps in the coming years.

It also provides the first comprehensive accounting of the costs associated with many of de Blasio’s recently announced spending initiatives, many of which are coronavirus-related.

 

The flaw in the matching funds law

Queens Eagle 

After taking in more than $134,000 in public matching funds, Moumita Ahmed received about 15 percent of the vote and finished a distant second in a February special election for Council District 24. Earlier this month, she received another $52,569 in taxpayer cash as she runs in the June primary. 

In the process, Ahmed’s campaign has emerged as something of an avatar for opposition to the city’s current public matching funds system, which has so far poured $26,657,242 into candidates’ campaign accounts, with primary day still two months away.

“We really need to reevaluate the prudence of spending public funds at these rates for what I believe are vanity projects,” said political strategist Patrick Jenkins.

Jenkins specifically questioned candidates who receive matching funds and spend a significant amount of money on out-of-state consultants. Ahmed, for example, paid a South Carolina-based consulting firm more than $95,000 leading up to the special.

“There should be some kinds of procurement rules,” Jenkins said.

This year’s council candidates are eligible for matching funds if they receive 75 contributions of between $10 and $1,000 from people who live in the districts they hope to represent. The first $175 of those qualifying contributions are eligible for an eight-to-one match, meaning a $10 contribution from a would-be constituent is worth $90. 

The program is intended to incentivize small-dollar contributions from everyday New Yorkers, rather than the wealthy or influential special interests.

But critics say some candidates are exploiting the program to raise their own profiles in quixotic quests for public office.

“For $52,569 this city can pay for a voucher to house a family of four for two years, Instead it’s doling out matching funds to candidates who get more Twitter likes then votes and claim there’s a conspiracy to stop them,” tweeted Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program after Ahmed shared news about her latest matching funds haul.

NY Post 

Candidate Shaun Donovan’s long-shot bid to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio next year got a financial shot in the arm Thursday when the Campaign Finance Board voted to award nearly $1.5 million in public matching funds after receiving sworn statements that a super PAC bankrolled by his dad was not coordinating with his campaign.

Last week, the CFB withheld matching funds to Donovan after saying it was investigating the relationship between the campaign and an independent group seeking to boost the former Bloomberg and Obama insider’s flagging bid for City Hall.

Campaigns are barred from coordinating with outside groups.

Donovan’s father, Michael Donovan, donated $2 million to the pro-Donovan New Start NYC Super Pac.

Donovan served as housing director to former Mayor Mike Bloomberg and later served in the Obama Administration, first as housing secretary and then as budget director.

The CFB said Thursday it had received sworn affidavits from both Shaun and Michael Donovan assuring that there was no coordination between the campaign and the independent expenditure group, which is nearly entirely bankrolled by the candidate’s dad to aid his campaign.

“After reviewing additional information, including statements from Shaun and Michael Donovan, the Board voted to approve a public funds payment to the New Yorkers for Donovan campaign today. The campaign will be subject to an ongoing, post-election audit, just like all campaigns in this election,”. said CFB chairman Frederick Schaffer.

 This is total chaos. It's asinine that this money is being used during a pandemic.

Violent anti-violence activist earned more city money than the mayor last year

 

NY Daily News

An embattled anti-violence advocate accused of threatening a neighbor with a Bloods gang attack was paid a whopping $282,990 salary using city money, documents reveal.

Shanduke McPhatter’s astonishing earnings for fiscal year 2019 exceeded Mayor de Blasio’s salary of $258,541.

City Hall ordered McPhatter to reduce his salary following an audit by the Mayor’s Office of 

Criminal Justice. McPhatter’s paycheck was slashed to $157,828 in July, a mayoral spokeswoman confirmed.

The advocate’s nonprofit, Gangtas Making Astronomical Community Changes, has a $2.3 million deal for a wide array of services in 2020 to reduce violence behind bars and on the streets. 
Documents and tax records indicate the vast majority of the group’s funding comes from the city. A 

 City Hall spokesman confirmed the entirety of McPhatter’s salary was paid by the city. The vast majority of G-MACC’s funding comes through city contracts, documents show.

“Many millions of taxpayer dollars are allocated to community based organizations across the city and the integrity of the process is paramount,” said Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). “I hope the city can come together with us in the Council to ensure this doesn’t happen in the future.”

McPhatter’s group, commonly known as G-MACC, has partnered with the city since 2014 on anti-violence initiatives. Its members have led conflict mediation at Rikers Island and juvenile detention facilities. G-MACC also ran a program called “Mackin’ to Be Elite” through the Education Department.

City Hall credits G-MACC for no shootings in a roughly six-block stretch of East Flatbush between May 2019 and January 2020 .

McPhatter’s salary steadily increased as G-MACC expanded its partnership with city agencies including the Department of Correction, Administration for Children’s Services and Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. He earned $85,000 in 2016 as the group’s CEO, according to filings with the Comptroller’s Office. That figure jumped to $115,585 in 2017 then $134,196 the following year before ballooning to $282,990, tax records show.