Showing posts with label Patrick Gaspard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Patrick Gaspard. Show all posts

Monday, July 21, 2014

US Ambassador to South Africa meddling in New York politics -- again

Patrick Gaspard is back to his old political tricks, with more possible violations of the Hatch Act

The unrelenting political activities of a U.S. State Department ambassador to prop up the Democratic Party's political machine in New York

America's ambassador to the nation of South Africa, Patrick Gaspard, is once again engaging is political activities that some critics say may violate a federal law that prohibits such involvement by federal government employees.

Ambassador Gaspard has been engaged in behind-the-scenes political machinations to support the candidacy of Michael Blake, who is campaigning to seek the New York State Assembly seat vacated by Eric Stevenson after he was convicted of bribery in January, The New York Post reports, adding that, Mr. Blake is a "protégé" of Mr. Gaspard.

The federal Hatch Act aims to limit the ability of U.S. politicians to use federal employees for activities of political parties. This reform stemmed from allegations that Democratic Party officials exploited government employees for political gain during the New Deal, but the electioneering regulation restricts federal employees, with few exceptions, from all political parties from engaging in political activities.

This isn't the first time that Ambassador Gaspard has flouted Hatch Act regulations. Today's article in The New York Post mentions that prior to reportedly lobbying the healthcare union SEIU 1199 into endorsing Mr. Blake, Ambassador Gaspard was engaged in political activities in support of the reelection campaign for Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY).

Prior to that, a New York Republican Party political operative, E. O'Brien Murray, lodged a Hatch Act complaint with the State Department, accusing Ambassador Gaspard, a former top White House aide and the former top political operative with SEIU 1199, of violating restrictions on political activities by getting involved last year in Bill de Blasio's mayoral campaign. Ambassador Gaspard appeared to further flout the Hatch Act by reportedly lobbying in favor of City Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito's selection as the new Council speaker. All of Ambassador Gaspard's electioneering activities were conducted while serving as an ambassador under the U.S. State Department.

How many times will prosecutors, intent on cleaning up corruption in New York politics, keep allowing Ambassador Gaspard a green light to exploit his office, position of influence, and federal resources accorded to him in relation to his position in the U.S. State Department, if any, for electioneering activities to benefit Democratic Party candidates for public office ?

RELATED


State assembly candidate Michael Blake’s ‘ragged’ efforts for ‘hope and change’ (The New York Post)

GOP Operative Files Hatch Act Complaint Against U.S. Ambassador Patrick Gaspard (The New York Daily News)

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Political Machinations Cloud Campaign Finance Board's Decision-Making

PUBLISHED : TUES, 18 MAR 2014, 11:49 AM
UPDATED : MON, 21 APR 2014, 05:38 PM

With John Liu's lawsuit against New York City over conflicted city campaign finance regulators, this makes three federal referrals of elections violations, forcing Mayor de Blasio to lawyer-up, recruit special inside election counsel.

After a wave of federal complaints that have been lodged over electioneering violations in last year's municipal elections, Mayor Bill de Blasio has hired a special legal advisor specializing in election law.

  1. GOP consultant E. O'Brien Murray argued to the State Department that Patrick Gaspard, a former top White House aide with a deep history in Gotham politics, violated the federal Hatch Act by getting involved in Mayor de Blasio's campaign -- and City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito's subsequent election as speaker -- while representing the U.S. in South Africa. (GOP Operative Files Hatch Act Complaint Against U.S. Ambassador Patrick Gaspard * The New York Daily News)
  2. Louis Flores, a local political gadfly who ran a blog and wrote a book criticizing Christine Quinn, has filed a complaint with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s criminal division against Scott Levenson and The Advance Group consulting firm, which came under deep scrutiny during the mayoral campaign. (Federal Complaint Filed Against The Advance Group for Election Work * Politicker)
  3. Former New York City Comptroller and failed mayoral candidate John Liu has filed a federal lawsuit against the city and its Campaign Finance Board. He says the board unfairly crippled his campaign by denying him matching funds in last year's race for mayor. (Ex-NYC mayor hopeful sues Campaign Finance Board * AP/The San Francisco Chronicle)

The federal complaints filed by Mr. Flores and Mr. Liu allege that the Campaign Finance Board is not sufficiently independent of political motivations to independently conduct investigations and to render fair and just decisions. Since Mayor de Blasio and City Council Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and/or their political operatives, are entangled in some of these federal complaints, it should come as no surprise that Mayor de Blasio is now maneuvering to use his public office to defend himself against allegations of wrong-doing that took place during the electioneering of last year's municipal elections.

Mr. Berger had once saved Mayor de Blasio's political career when the election lawyer kept Mr. de Blasio from getting kicked off the 2009 race for public advocate after an error was found on a Board of Elections submission. In his new post, Mr. Berger "will provide legal counsel to the mayor and staff at City Hall," according to City & State. Other than the growing number of federal elections complaints that may implicate his Council speaker and himself, it's not known what other reasons exist for Mayor de Blasio to need a taxpayer-paid election lawyer to advise him.

Typically, the Campaign Finance Board "audits suspect claims long after an election and then imposes financial penalties on rule breakers," the Editorial Board of The New York Daily News wrote. In John Liu's case, the Campaign Finance Board "moved beyond policing violations to imposing the death penalty on a mayoral campaign."

As the staff of the Campaign Finance Board and the mayor's legal counsel become more politicized, it should not come to such a surprise that the mayor would receive preferential treatment at the hands of the Campaign Finance Board that he oversees.

Among the complaints that Mr. Liu alleged in his complaint about the Campaign Finance Board, he noted that appointees to the Campaign Finance Board may follow the political agenda of those officials, who make the appointments. Mr. Liu further complained that two board members of the Campaign Finance Board had made campaign contributions to former Council Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign ; in spite of their expressed interests in support of Mr. Liu's political challenger, the two board members refused to recuse themselves from the decision by city campaign finance regulators to deny public matching dollars to Mr. Liu's mayoral campaign. The Campaign Finance Board is a conflicted institution with political motivations that can be reflected in its decision-making.

Days before the general election, E. O’Brien Murray, a political operative advising Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota filed a complaint with the Campaign Finance Board, alleging that Mr. de Blasio was coordinating his campaign with an anti-Quinn Super PAC, according to The New York Post. Because of the board members of the Campaign Finance Board answer to the mayor and to the Council speaker, it's not known how serious city campaign finance regulators will investigate the complaint. It was out of precisely this concern that Mr. Flores lodged his complaint against Mr. Levenson and The Advance Group with federal prosecutors, to be able to remove the investigation from the conflicted Campaign Finance Board. Mr. Flores has separately said that he believes that the city's Department of Investigations, headed by a loyal ally of Mayor de Blasio, is also insufficiently independent from City Hall and City Council, to be able to conduct investigations that may implicate city officials or their political operatives.

Complicating matters is that reform advocates want to impose on New York State the very New York City model of campaign finance regulations, including a form of a matching public dollar program, even though city campaign finance regulations have been shown to be so questionable that activists are filing complaints at the federal level in search of a truly fair and independent review of violations.

Documents show that former Utah Attorney General John Swallow sought to transform his office into a defender of payday loan companies that had helped bankroll his election. (A Campaign Inquiry in Utah Is the Watchdogs’ Worst Case * The New York Times) Former New York City Comptroller John Liu will announce a “federal challenge” to the Campaign Finance Board after he was denied public matching funds during last year’s mayoral race. (John Liu to Announce ‘Federal Challenge’ to Campaign Finance Board * Politicker)

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Healthcare As Bargaining Chips in New York City Politics // The Pelican Brief (Updated)

Getting Your Piece Of The Pie After It Gets Taken Away From Somebody Else

Charles-King-Stephen-Berger-Thomas-Farley photo Charles-King-Stephen-Berger-Thomas-Farley_zpsd00a6f5e.jpg

Housing Works CEO Charles King, left, agreed to going along with making $17 billion in healthcare cuts. Stephen Berger is a budget hatchet man, who leads a special subcommittee of neoliberal Gov. Andrew Cuomo's controversial Medicaid Redesign Team trying to close hospitals in Brooklyn. Thomas Farley, right, is the do-nothing city health commissioner responsible for continuing years of municipal policy that failed to keep community hospitals open or to finally develop a comprehensive, city-wide AIDS agenda.

Word on the Street : Whereas Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn't have enough money to make good on unions' demands for retroactive backpay and raises, he's in a quandary about how to bring down the unions' demands, but still make them feel like he "appreciates" them.

Whereas Mayor de Blasio keeps being all talk about his "progressive reform agenda," he's rightly raising expectations amongst reform activists that he's actually going to deliver changes on major social, legal, and economic issues that went neglected for the last 20 years of Republican City Hall rule.

Now, therefore, the intersection of these two circumstances is creating a troubling development : There's talk amongst some political insiders that Mayor de Blasio may offer one union largely responsible for his electoral win with a lower contract in exchange for being given backroom access to selecting one of the city commissioners that would have some oversight of that union.

Isn't this how Wall Street games the system ? We already have Scott Stringer, a slimy career weasel, in charge of the Comptroller's Office. Knowing Stringer's situational ethics, he's no doubt ready to sell access and influence in exchange for campaign donations to make another campaign run for higher office the next time the situation presents itself. We say that this is wrong when it is done by the political right, or by the 1%. But what happens when it's done by the left ?

A sordid theory about how corruption spreads : dividing the community for expedient political gain, leaving everybody triangulated from criticising the corruption.

1199, formerly headed by Obama administration political operative Patrick Gaspard, is a close advisor to Mayor de Blasio. Judging by how Mr. Gaspard sold out on his union's dedication to healthcare advocacy by agreeing to the wave of Berger Commission hospital closings ordered by former Republican Gov. George Pataki and by Gov. Pataki's own political operative, Wall Street investment banker Stephen Berger, Mr. de Blasio is hoping to resurrect the evil playbook of corruption in the contract negotiations between City Hall and 1199.

Here's how.

Trading A Lower Labor Compensation Contract In Exchange For Naming The Next Health Commish

Corruption doesn't have to always be about breaking the law, it could be about corrupting the democratic process that should be at the start be advocating transparency and a fully public participation in all decisions in matters of the public's own governance, especially major decisions, like picking the next city health commissioner. This role is vital, and the fact that we've had Thomas Farley for the last four years, only shows the kind of damage that having an impotent health commission can cause : Mr. Farley has not done one thing to stop the lingering Berger Commission hospital closings, nor the next wave of hospital closings called for by neoliberal Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo under his own Berger-like apparatus, the Medicaid Redesign Team.

How bad would it really be if 1199 gets given the right to pick the next health commissioner in exchange for accepting a lower labor compensation contract from Mayor de Blasio ?

For one thing, how do we know that the political direction of 1199 will act independently in the best interests of the patients it cares for ? Or how about making sure that the political leadership of 1199 will make decisions independently in the best interests of its membership ? Under Mr. Gaspard, the union never challenged the Berger Commission hospital closings, and it even took a seat at the table for the Medicaid Redesign Team. George Gresham, the President of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, sits on the MRT panel.

As much as I am pro-labor and pro-letting labor get an inside track to making major political decisions, what troubles me is that 1199 is not independent. It was a major political supporter of the mayor, back when he was a no-hope candidate, so far distant from the front-runners that nobody took him seriously. In getting the chance to pick or vet the next health commissioner, can 1199, based on its track record, really and truly be counted on doing the right thing for the emergency room-full service hospital needing public ? Or is it going to make a deal that will catapult its current top crop of political directors into their next jobs, like, say, the next presidential campaign political consultant, White House political director, or ambassador to South Africa ?

Why is nobody asking why is Mayor de Blasio linking labor compensation contract negotiations with picking the next healthcare commissioner ? It's because Mayor de Blasio plans on being disingenuous in his union contract talks, and it matters naught to the mayor that he's going to divide the community by confusing discussions that should only be about backpay and raises with picking the next health commissioner. If the mayor cared about public input, he would automatically -- and without needing to subvert important agency picks as bargaining chips -- involve all stakeholders in his decision-making for the next health commissioner. That is to say, the public AND 1199 AND critical healthcare community groups should have a say in the next healthcare commissioner at the same time when the mayor should be having rigorous union contract talks with 1199. One has nothing to do with the other. But this kind of mentality, of offering two birds in the bush for one in the hand is what dishonest negotiations are all about. Rather than have 1199 say, "Yes, and …," you had the mayor saying, "No, but…."

Other Examples of How Critical Healthcare and Social Services Decisions Get Made Half-Assed By "Community Leaders," With No Full Public Involvement or Accountability // The Hunger Games

This kind of offering one group a piece of pie only after having first withdrawn that same piece from somebody else is what happened when some large New York City community and non-profit organizations went along with the Medicaid Redesign Team's cuts to healthcare for the poor in exchange for a few coins for homeless housing programs. Again, you had community groups agree to Gov. Cuomo's draconian austerity plans of closing more hospitals in New York City and making other healthcare cuts valued at upwards of $17 billion, over time, and for giving the sleazy neoliberal governor political cover to make these cuts, groups like Housing Works and GMHC were made promises that Gov. Cuomo would make a few million dollars available to homeless housing programs. Groups like Housing Works and GMHC have the provision of healthcare for the poor and the disenfranchised as part of their mission, but look at how they agreed to actions that were in contravention to other healthcare groups, with similar missions. Indeed, one need not look any further than how St. Vincent's Hospital, a former comprehensive AIDS center, Level I Trauma Center, and full-service hospital with a large HIV/AIDS patient load, was shut down under the calls for hospital closings. Don't these groups see that we are shooting ourselves in the foot ? Why does having to close hospitals be linked with making money available for homeless care programs ? What does one have to do with another ? We should be fighting for a healthcare system that covers everybody at the same time when we are fighting for the full resources to provide shelter to people, who are homeless. But only politicians, who are interested in expedient political gains would try to subvert one important community issue to another, and community group leaders should not be going along with this kind of corruption.

Another example comes to mind when the head of one homeless LGBT youth program turned on the head of another, all because politicians divide us, make us fight, for the crumbs that they throw at us.

But there is hope. Some groups, like the Legal Aid Society, and bloggers can reframe the conversation about budget cuts, failed government responses to the major social, legal, and economic issues of our time. The Legal Aid Society recently sued the city over its abdication of responsibility for providing shelter to homeless youth. Rather than being a victim to the rigged budget negotiations, the Legal Aid Society decided to make a demand for the FULL resources to address the problem at the same time when all we get is lip service that we can count on a truly progressive reform agenda from the de Blasio administration. If the public were truly able to see that backroom political machinations of insiders, operatives, and lobbyists don't fully answer the social, legal, and economic problems of our time, then the public would know that one of the first reforms we need is to demand a fully transparent and accessible process on every major de Blasio administration pick, especially with regard to the selection of the next health commissioner.

What's going to happen when the full membership of 1199 learns that their leadership may already be agreeing to undercut their labor contract negotiations ?

And what other healthcare advocacy groups, let alone the public itself, should have a seat at the table of talks if the mayor is convening such an apparatus for picking the next health commissioner ? ACT UP comes readily to mind. Who else ?

Making Matters Worse Than Patrick Gaspard Is Stanley Brezenoff

James Capalino, left, with Stanley Brezenoff photo Jim-Capalino-and-Stanley-Brezenoff_zps2c414c71.jpg

James Capalino, the real estate lobbyist, left, with Continuum CEO Stanley Brezenoff. Capalino was a paid lobbyist for the Rudin Family in their controversial $1 billion luxury conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital into an exclusive condo complex. Brezenoff raided the trust fund of Long Island College Hospital in an effort to suck it dry of resources.

Mr. Brezenoff, the head of Beth Israel Medical Center, may be on the outs with Continuum, Beth Israel's parent holding company, following the takeover by Mt. Sinai Medical Center of Continuum's hospitals. Likely trying to make a transition back to head the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, a position he once head in the early 1980's, or possibly as the next health commissioner, Mr. Brezenoff has already wormed his way into an unpaid advisory capacity to the de Blasio administration's new First Deputy Mayor, Anthony Shorris. When he was head of HHC during the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York City, Mr. Brezenoff failed to get in front of the outbreak, treatment, and prevention of AIDS. He has a record of failure in respect of public health. Why would Mayor de Blasio pick him ? Let's examine the kind of political machinations that would go into a decision like this….

Maybe Mr. Brezenoff's new administration position is meant as a stick to 1199 that any role that the union may be offered to have in picking the next health commissioner may be the union's effort to block Mr. Brezenoff from a higher healthcare capacity with the de Blasio administration ? Mr. Brezenoff's controversial role in trying to raid LICH, for example, of its assets would scare -- and distract -- any reasonable union to want to block his return to any supervisory role in formulation government healthcare policy.

What a wicked web we weave …. Let's hope the union membership are smart enough to demand transparency from their political operatives, the same way the public and community groups should demand transparency from the de Blasio administration, the same way that the Legal Aid Society didn't accept a bullshit government response to the homeless youth issue of today. There is a way to get to the root of the social, legal, and economic problems we face : we just have to have the courage to not let our demands for a full solution be subverted by either slimy politicians in exchange for "insider access," like the current 1199-health commish trade off that is being discussed around town, or by failed community group leaders in exchange for political protection, like the "What's in it for me" Patrick Gaspard model that other non-profit organization leaders are adopting with greater frequency.

If everybody would just focus on the fact that we are all in this together -- that we are all involved in one struggle to make the city/world a better place -- we wouldn't let slimy politicians and their political enablers subvert our needs. The "Yes, and" model is one of faith : there are enough resources for everybody. If we accept the "No, but" model from politicians, we'll never find the answers we seek, and, worse, we'll sabotage other activists and groups trying to seek the answers for their own issues. We have to be in this together, for one another, if we want to make a difference.

Patrick Gaspard Lobbying for Melissa Mark-Viverito in Council Speaker Race

In desperation, Melissa Mark-Viverito's speakership campaign turns to Ambassador of South Africa for a lifeline. Is she unable to close the deals on her own speakership ?

Patrick Gaspard with Melissa Mark-Viverito photo Patrick-Gaspard-Melissa-Mark-Viverito_zps8e1061ef.jpg

Patrick Gaspard, one of the main political operatives from the Obama administration, is now pushing Melissa Mark-Viverito, like the Obama administration should be a guidepost for reform ? President Obama's political operatives are the people responsible for NSA-expanding, the messed-up Obamacare rolling-out, and drone-killing enabling. What does the new de Blasio administration think of the public, when the new mayor rolls out folks like Mr. Gaspard to be do backroom lobbying like this ?

Read more : "Sources tell NY1 that Patrick Gaspard, the current ambassador to South Africa and close friend of the mayor, was making calls pushing Mark-Viverito's candidacy last week." (NY1)

Furthermore, Mr. Gaspard comes with a complicated history of making controversial political deals. Under the first Berger Commission to close hospitals across New York State, Mr. Gaspard agreed to allowing Republican New York Gov. George Pataki to appointing Wall Street investment banker Stephen Berger to make the hospital closings, a decision that not only was in contravention to his union 1199's mission of securing healthcare for people, but that would also lead to the loss of jobs to his union's membership. What kind of backroom favor-trading or political deal-making did Mr. Gaspard agree to with Gov. Pataki and Mr. Berger to let the hospital closings take place ?

With this kind of situational, mixed-motivated leadership, what kind of credibility should progressive-minded City Councilmembers give Mr. Gaspard's lobbying ?

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Bill de Blasio never got back to me about his AIDS platform in August

Did Bill de Blasio exploit the LGBT community for votes, only to dump core community issues now that he's gotten elected ?

After mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio took advantage of a few LGBT celebrities to undermine Christine Quinn's LGBT base of support, it appears that Mr. de Blasio was all talk and no action.

After several attempts at getting a meeting with Mr. de Blasio, who will be sworn in as the next mayor of New York City in just two hours, word comes forth of a planned protest by ACT UP at the mayor-elect's public swearing-in ceremony, it seems that the mayor-elect has brushed off any sincerity about proposing a truly reform agenda to help end the decades of official municipal neglect on a core LGBT issue: ending the HIV/AIDS crisis.

➔ RSVP : ACT UP Protests Bill de Blasio's Mayoral Inauguration

Below is the unanswered e-mail I sent to the de Blasio campaign. I was later told by supporters/enablers that I was too controversial of an activist for Mr. de Blasio to ever respond to my query.

Not enough attention has been paid to all of President Barack Obama's political operatives, who have had hand in the mayor elect's campaign and transition teams. The mayor elect's exploitation of the LGBT voting block resembles President Obama's corrupt playbook. Candidate Obama promised to pass comprehensive LGBT workplace protections, but has thus far refused to sign a presidential executive order. Former President Bill Clinton famously curried the LGBT vote, only to betray the LGBT community by passing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and enacting the military's discriminatory policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

When will the LGBT community wake up and stop getting exploited for cheap election year gimmicks ?

Begin forwarded message:


From: "LF (g-Male)"
Subject: Ed Koch and HIV/AIDS
Date: 1 août 2013 15:49:42 UTC-04:00
To: bill@billdeblasio.com, veday1945@aol.com
Cc: "LF (g-Male)"


Hi,

I saw on the Internet that Bill de Blasio praised former NYC Mayor Ed Koch as one of our "greatest mayor" :

http://politicker.com/2013/02/bill-de-blasio-is-a-little-sick-of-bloombergs-royal-reign/

I hope you know that Ed Koch is seen as a failed LGBT leader for having done nothing to stop the initial outbreak of HIV from becoming the AIDS pandemic we all now know. Because he was afraid to come out of the closet, he let thousands of people die, especially gay men. Former Mayor Koch refused to take bold action during the 1980's out of fear of being associated with gay issues. He was and still is seen as a self-hating, closeted gay man.

So, it seemed astounding that Mr. de Blasio would praise former Mayor Koch.

If Mr. de Blasio is going to try to court the LGBT vote, we hope to hear from him soon about details of his plans to step up HIV/AIDS prevention, improving access to prevention/treatment medication, and other steps that he plans to take as part of his HIV/AIDS plan.

I'm writing this note independently, but I plan to share it with a few activists. So, I plan to share your response with some of my activist friends, too.

Thanks,
-- Louis


Louis Flores
1 (646) 400-1168
lflores22@gmail.com

Bill de Blasio appoints AIDS criminal to advisory post

Bill de Blasio just appointed Stanley Brezenoff, who formerly ran the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) during the 1980's under the late Mayor Ed Koch, to be an unpaid advisor to the First Deputy Mayor. This is the same man, who did shit under Mayor Koch to fight AIDS.

Scott Levenson, who has close ties to Bill de Blasio, was paid to defeat several LGBT City Council Candidates

Sign our Change.org Petition : Bill de Blasio : Do not attend NYCLASS fundraiser to benefit Scott Levenson

WATCH : Will LGBT Groups Protest Scott Levenson for Anti-Gay Attack Ads ? (YouTube)

The Advance Group, which is providing unpaid consultants to Mark-Viverito, worked for the City Action Coalition PAC, which lists 'traditional marriage' as its platform and supported opponents of gay City Council candidates. (The New York Daily News) Did Scott Levenson sabotage LGBT civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland's political campaign ? (Scott Levenson : Biggest Loser Of The Week * NY Pop Culture & Politics)

E-mail me if you would like to plan a protest against Scott Levenson : louisflores (at) louisflores (dot) com

… the Advance Group's work on behalf of City Action Coalition-backed candidates conflicted with its work for two of its own council clients. And the outside work for the teachers union raises another potential conflict: the Advance Group not only produced mailers promoting Manhattan council candidate Yetta Kurland for the NYCLASS independent expenditure, but Strategic Consultants produced mailers touting her opponent, Corey Johnson, that were paid for by the teachers union. Mr. Johnson won the primary. (Teachers union paid $370K to fake consultant * Crain's Insider)

Why aren't the LGBT civil rights activists protesting against Scott Levenson and his "anti-gay agenda" ? And how can LGBT civil rights activists stay quiet while Ms. Mark-Viverito uses a political consulting operation that hires itself out to work against candidates specifically based on their identity ? This is discrimination and prejudice. How can Mr. Levenson and Ms. Mark-Viverito call themselves "progressives," yet enable bigotry ?