Showing posts with label ethics violations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ethics violations. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Jo Hamilton, ex-official involved in St. Vincent's Hospital condo conversion, fined for ethics violations

Jo Hamilton was on the take

Jo Hamilton, former member of Manhattan Community Board 2, which rubber-stamped and fast-tracked the demolition and luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital, was on the take.

From the Demand a Hospital listserv :

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: Demand A Hospital
To: Demand A Hospital
Subject: Jo Hamilton was on the take
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 04:41:25 -0500

Dear All :

For a decade, Jo Hamilton was receiving free gifts from an entity that had business before Community Board 2. Please read the following reports :

    (i)    http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/community-board-member-fined-free-soho-house-membership-blog-entry-1.2022053

    (ii)    http://nypost.com/2014/11/25/board-member-fined-10k-over-free-soho-house-membership/

    (iii)    http://gothamist.com/2014/11/24/soho_house_2.php

    (iv)    http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20141124/meatpacking-district/community-board-2-member-fined-for-accepting-free-soho-house-membership

    (v)    http://www.scribd.com/doc/248068157/COIB-Disposition-CB

How many other members of Community Board 2 were on the take ?

What did the former chairs of CB2 and the former subcommittee chairs know about Jo Hamilton being on the take -- and when did they know it ?

How many lobbyists paid for entertainment, meals, and other gifts for members of CB2 that were never reported or may have crossed the line to be inappropriate or illegal ?

Never give up.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Tell Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals. Call 311 for the mayor and 1 (518) 474-8390 for the governor.

You can also tweet your concerns to : @BilldeBlasio -and- @NYGovCuomo

Saturday, June 7, 2014

More questions about Melissa Mark-Viverito's campaign finances and her lobbyists

Undeclared campaign finance expenses tied to a fundraising trip to Chicago and the growing role of Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito's campaign consultants increases concerns that Speaker Mark-Viverito may be further flouting campaign finance regulations and ethics rules.

Melissa Mark-Viverito photo melissa_mark-viverito_3_zpscc49b72b.jpg

Five months into her Council speakership, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito continues to be dogged by questions about her campaign finances and her compliance with city ethics rules.

The latest campaign finance issue centers around a fundraising trip Speaker Mark-Viverito made to Chicago in the time leading up to last year's municipal elections. Although the trip included fundraising activities, Speaker Mark-Viverito's campaign committee neither incurred nor declared any expenses for that trip. If her campaign committee benefited from in-kind contributions from others, those contributions must be declared, according to campaign finance regulations. In a press report in The Wall Street Journal about this latest campaign finance question, it was shown that Speaker Mark-Viverito's trip was paid for by the Participatory Budgeting Project. But a review of her contribution records available online with the city's campaign finance regulatory authority, the names of Speaker Mark-Viverito's contributors do not include the Participatory Budgeting Project, not even in an in-kind capacity.

The campaign consulting firm, Pitta Bishiop Del Giorno, which managed Speaker Mark-Viverito's City Council reelection and speakership campaigns last year, has seen its influence increase in city government since last year's municipal elections. Pitta Bishop Del Giorno has even begun to lobby Speaker Mark-Viverito, a worrisome sign to good government reform activists, who fret about the growing corruptive role of money and lobbyists in the conduct of government business.

The on-going questions about how Speaker Mark-Viverito and her lobbyists managed her campaign finances, and the growing role of those lobbyists in the conduct of the city's business, raise concerns as to whether her management style leans toward a predisposition of flouting compliance with campaign finance and ethics rules. Last year, Speaker Mark-Viverito accepted unpaid and undeclared campaign consulting services from a controversial lobbying firm that has since become the subject of possible federal and municipal corruption investigations, according to several press reports. In respect of those free campaign consultant services, provided by The Advance Group, Speaker Mark-Viverito's campaign committee never declared the fair market value of the intensive lobbying efforts involved in the heated speakership campaign as in-kind contributions, either.

Public servants are prohibited from accepting valuable gifts from firms that intend to do business with the city, and lobbyists, in turn, are prohibited from giving those gifts, according to an analysis of city ethics rules by The New York Daily News.

But Speaker Mark-Viverito is not alone in stirring controversy with her close alliance with the lobbying firm of Pitta Bishop Del Giorno.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's office has released records of his meetings with lobbyists during the first three months of his term in office, and those records show that he met with Vincent Pitta, a name partner in the lobbying firm of Pitta Bishop Del Giorno that is closely allied with the mayor and with Council Speaker Mark-Viverito.

A press report about Mayor de Blasio's early meetings with lobbyists make no mention of lobbying meetings with James Capalino, a shady real estate lobbyist, who supported the mayor's successful political campaign last year. Mr. Capalino was one of the top lobbyists, who orchestrated a corrupting million-dollar, lobbyist-fuled fundraiser for the mayor's campaign last year at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Mr. Capalino also worked as a real estate lobbyist on the controversial conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital into a billion-dollar luxury condo and townhouse complex in the West Village. Activists shilling for Mayor de Blasio claimed that he was going to offer the voters a clean break from the lobbyist-enabler that was his main rival in last year's mayoral race, former Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Former Speaker Quinn had a reputation for working closely with lobbyists and campaign donors, including having meetings with former donors to discuss legislative proposals. But judging by how both the mayor and his new Council speaker have incorporated their lobbyists into the conduct of city business, there may be no detectable difference at all in the way Mayor de Blasio runs the city from how former Council Speaker Quinn would have administered the city.

Another controversial, politically-connected firm that was left out of early disclosures of the mayor's meetings with lobbyists was Berlin Rosen. Berlin Rosen was installed by Mayor de Blasio to run his outside lobbying effort to campaign for a universal pre-kinder program in New York City. Berlin Rosen was also placed in charge with assisting with the media communication of the controversial coalition of police reform groups known as Communities United for Police Reform, or CPR. Ever since Mayor de Blasio appointed William Bratton as police commissioner, the mayor has needed to have loyalists control the messaging for police reform groups, in order to demobilize calls for radical reforms to city's law enforcement agencies. It's unclear why the mayor failed to classify his administration's meeting with Berlin Rosen as not rising to the level of lobbying, when that's exactly Berlin Rosen's role.

Separately, The Wall Street Journal's report included an update from the city's campaign finance regulatory authority, namely, that the Campaign Finance Board had not yet completed its campaign audit for former Council Speaker Quinn's unsuccessful mayoral campaign.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Jimmy Van Bramer Queens Public Library Corruption Backlash

Last week, New York City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) was interviewed by NY1 concerning his new appointment as Majority Leader for the City Council.

In the interview, the new Majority Leader bragged that he worked for 11 years for the Queens Public Library as a community organizer, adding that he "really, really believes in good government." In the interview, Councilmember Van Bramer added that he cared about libraries, noting that he considered cultural services "dear" to his heart and to the heart of Queens.

However, muckraking journalist Juan Gonzalez published a scathing report in The New York Daily News on Monday, detailing how the library's president Thomas Galante was paid more than $390,000.00 and wasted $140,000.00 to renovate his offices at the Central Library. Meanwhile, the library president cut nearly 130 library jobs over the past five years.

When Councilmember Van Bramer learned about the scandal at the Queens Public Library, he figuratively hit the roof, telling The New York Daily News on Tuesday that, "It hurts the library in so many ways to have this happen, which just infuriates me," adding, "We need to ask the tough questions and get the answers about the nature of this spending."

The New York Daily New report noted that the City Council planned to hold a hearing into the Queens Public Library's financial scandal.

But by Wednesday, Councilmember Van Bramer had triggered controversy in his own right over his demand for controlling the City Council hearing. Some of his fellow councilmembers from Queens "questioned whether his ties to the Queens Library would compromise his ability to conduct a hearing on the library's finances," The New York Daily New reported. Mr. Van Bramer used to work for the Queens Public Library president.

“Who are you to question my integrity ?” the new Majority Leader reportedly shouted at Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) after she raised concerns about the Majority Leader's objectivity. “How dare you ?" Councilmember Van Bramer demanded before he accused Councilwoman Crowley of bieng out of line. "You’re out of place and out of order,” he said.

If Councilmember Van Bramer is allowed to conduct the City Council's investigation into the Queens Public Library's finance scandal, he will join the new Council speaker in a murky new world of conflicts of interest in the City Council.

In the time leading up to her selection as Council speaker, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito created controversy herself over the possibility that she had violated city ethics rules after Councilmember Mark-Viverito had accepted free campaign lobbying services from The Advance Group.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The Growing, Corruptive Role of Money and Lobbyists In NYC Politics Contravenes Progressive Values

The lobbyists, big businesses, and special interests that game the broken political system do not want reforms of campaign finance law.

The 2013 municipal elections in New York City were the first time that Citizens United brought the corruptive use of Super PAC money into local elections here, and the top lobbying firms, which double as campaign consultants, used the scourge of independent expenditures as a backdoor to funnel millions of dollars through Super PAC's. This corruptive use of money has never been fully investigated, excepting for a series of articles in Crain's about the shady double-dipping by one lobbying firm, The Advance Group. (Scott Levenson NY-CLASS ABQ WFP Timeline to Benefit Bill de Blasio ?) The serious questions into The Advance group's shady dealings will go uninvestigated, because the city's Campaign Finance Board now answers to the mayor and the Council speaker, who have close ties to The Advance Group. The shady embrace of Super PAC's in New York City politics is joined in murky darkness by the shameless role of lobbyists in determining leadership posts in the new de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration.

NYC Council Speaker Race Campaign Finance Controversies (2013)

The corruptive role of money and lobbyists continues to erode away at transparency and democracy in New York City municipal politics, or whatever is left of it.

New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito raised more than $100,000 after her election, and spent nearly $80,000 on consultants and donations to other political groups in her bid to become Speaker. (Mark-Viverito spent big on speaker race * Crain’s) One of the city’s biggest lobbyists, Vito Pitta, quietly assisted Ms. Mark-Viverito in her campaign for City Council speaker -- putting him in a prime position with his clients now that she has been selected. (Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito Got Help From Top Lobbying Firm * The New York Daily News)

Prior to the backroom deals that selected Melisa Mark-Viverito as the new Council speaker, she had accepted unpaid assistance from The Advance Group, a prominent lobbying firm headed by Scott Levenson, the news Web site Politicker reported. (The Advance Group Helping Melissa Mark-Viverito in Speaker’s Race * Politicker) After controversy erupted over Ms. Mark-Viverito's receipt of unpaid assistance from The Advance Group (City Council Speaker candidate Melissa Mark-Viverito may have violated city ethics rules * The New York Daily News), Ms. Mark-Viverito deceptively announced that she fired the The Advance Group. (Melissa Mark-Viverito Drops Advance Group for Speaker Bid * Politicker) However, Jonathan Yedin, an operative with The Advance Group, has been working in Brooklyn Democratic Party politics for more than a decade and belongs to Frank Seddio’s political club. Mr. Yedin was a crucial player in brokering the backroom deal with Mr. Seddio to give Ms. Mark-Viverito the win in her bid to become the next Council speaker, sources said. (Inside Melissa Mark-Viverito’s Road to Victory * Politicker) But The Advance Group was never paid for their work, according to New York State Board of Elections campaign finance disclosure records, raising the specter anew that Ms. Mark-Viverito was in violation of prohibitions on publicly-elected officials from accepting a “valuable gift” from a firm that intends to do business with the city, according to an analysis by The New York Daily News of the City Charter regulations, which include prohibitions on lobbyists from giving valuable gifts to publicly-elected officials.

"Under city election rules, Ms. Mark-Viverito was not allowed to spend money from her 2013 campaign account for the speaker race. She was also not allowed to spend money from a 'transition committee' meant to pay only for inauguration activities. And she was likewise not allowed to yet set up a new 2017 campaign committee with the city Campaign Finance Board. ¶ Instead, on Nov. 5, she set up a 2017 campaign committee for an as-to-be-determined city office, according to the state Board of Elections, and then spent on the speaker race," reported Crain's.

When will good government groups and the media finally admit that the impotent New York City Campaign Finance Board turns it head away from the way campaign consultants and lobbyists have made Swiss cheese of campaign finance regulations ?

To add insult to injury, several lobbyists, who helped Ms. Mark-Viverito in her successful bid to become Council Speaker, are now aiding her in deciding committee assignments and who the Council should hire. (Lobbyists aid Mark-Viverito transition * Crain's)

Alison Hirsh, the political director of the building service workers union 32BJ, Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander, the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, and Jon Del Giorno, a founding member of the lobbying firm Pitta Bishop Del Giorno and Giblin, are exerting behind-the-scenes influence in backroom meetings to determine the makeup of the Council leadership positions that will report to Speaker Mark-Viverito. Left unmentioned was Scott Levenson, whose lobbying firm, The Advance Group, kept working behind-the-scenes for Ms. Mark-Viverito, in spite of some press reports that his firm had been fired. A controversial political operative, Mr. Levenson gave contradictory statements to the press last year about his campaign consulting work to defeat LGBT political candidates.

Mayor Bill de Blasio established the political culture of allowing lobbyists to have a say in how the municipal government would work since his election. Mayor de Blasio named "Carl Weisbrod, a registered lobbyist, as co-chair of the mayor's transition committee," Crain's reported.

The role of lobbyists, big business, and special interests will likely continue unchecked by good government groups, co-opted reformers, and the lazy media when Mayor de Blasio and several of his top administration officials are expected to attend the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual gala. (Mayor de Blasio to party with real estate * Crain's)

"In addition to the mayor, Police Commissioner William Bratton is expected to attend, along with other top de Blasio appointees, including Tony Shorris, de Blasio's first deputy mayor; Emma Wolf, the director of intergovernmental affairs; and Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for housing and economic development. Kyle Kimball, president of the Economic Development Corp., who Mr. de Blasio recently renamed to that position, is also likely to be at the event, sources said. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer will likely attend as well," Crain's reported.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Escalating Corruptive Influence of Money in NYC Politics, But No Public Advocacy (Updated)

On the same day when Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson was convicted on federal corruption charges of trading his office for money come new reports that public officials flout campaign finance and ethics regulations. The question everybody keeps asking : where are the good government groups and the public advocate ?

Susan-Lerner-Tish-James-Government-Watchogs-Asleep-At-The-Switch photo Susan-Lerner-Tish-James_zps0be2be4d.jpg

Common Cause/NY, a "good government" group dedicated to fighting the "excessive influence of money on government policy and elections" is silent on the campaign finance questions engulfing Mayor Bill de Blasio, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and Councilmember Margaret Chin

Susan Lerner, who heads Common Cause/NY, has been missing in action (MIA) as the press increasingly report serious questions about the political fundraising and electioneering payments in the recent past municipal election cycle.

Some of Mayor de Blasio's campaign contributors exploited loopholes, allowing them to make donations that were double or triple the legal limit, The New York Daily News reported. Last week, muckraking reporter Jill Colvin of Politicker reported that many of Mayor de Blasio's transition campaign donors have business before the city, creating a potential conflict of interest.

During her controversial post-election campaigning for the Council speakership, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito openly flouted campaign finance and city ethics regulations. Indeed, her primary speakership campaign consulting firm, The Advance Group, had triggered its own campaign finance investigation. Further, both the mayor and the Council speaker both benefitted from their relationship to Scott Levenson, the head of The Advance Group, even though he was tied to fundraising controversy when he administered a $1 million Super PAC. Left unexplained is how Speaker Mark-Viverito, a leader of the Council's Progressive Caucus, can reconcile her close association with The Advance Group in spite of its scandalous anti-LGBT campaign work.

Another member of the Progressive Caucus is Councilmember Margaret Chin, who exploited campaign finance laws to pay some campaign workers bonuses in contravention to regulations.

Though all these, and other violations of campaign finance and city ethics regulations are playing out publicly in the press, not once has Ms. Lerner challenged the new city officials.

Public Advocate Tish James, who is a publicly-elected government watchdog, is also eerily silent, even though she promised to hold the de Blasio administration accountable to ethics.

Joining Ms. Lerner in MIA status is the city's public advocate, Tish James. Both share similar motivations to bring transparency and accountability to government, but both are asleep at the switch.

We most recently heard from Ms. Lerner, when she was opposing Speaker Mark-Viverito's challenger, Councilmember Daniel Garodnick. Perhaps Ms. Lerner only plays favorites ?

As for the new public advocate, at a debate last September she said that although she supported Mayor de Blasio, she would remain an independent watchdog. But what explains why Ms. James has been silent on all these campaign finance and ethics violations ?

The problem of the outsized influence of money and lobbyists in politics is, of course, larger than just the corruption it introduces into municipal elections. The corruptive influence of money has been shown to exist on the state level with Assemblyman Stevenson's conviction, and on the federal level, too, with, for example, the arrest of Diana Durand on election fraud charges for "using straw donors to exceed campaign contribution limits" to Rep. Michael Grimm’s 2010 campaign, The New York Post reported.

The questionable role of an Obama administration official, leading to a complaint of ethics violations.

Patrick Gaspard, the United States Ambassador to South Africa, allegedly violated federal law, according to a report in The New York Post. The law forbids government workers from "engaging in partisan activity by promoting pal Bill de Blasio’s mayoral campaign, an ethics complaint claims," The NYPost reported, adding, "The complaint, filed by Republican activist O’Brien Murray, cited media reports that Gaspard, President Obama’s former political director, helped pull strings from South Africa to aid de Blasio’s campaign." The report also includes references to actions taken by Mr. Gaspard to electioneer the successful speakership campaign of Mayor de Blasio's chief Council ally, Ms. Mark-Viverito. See, also, Patrick Gaspard, ambassador to South Africa, helped de Blasio campaign: Joe Lhota aide : Republican operative O’Brien Murray complains that the envoy violated the Hatch Act, a 1939 law that bans most government officials from partisan political activity (The New York Daily News)

The complaint against Mr. Gaspard will be reviewed by federal authorites. "Complaints about possible violations of the Hatch Act are handled by the federal Office of Special Counsel," The New York Daily News reported. It's uncertain how truly independent the Office of Special Counsel will be in reviewing allegations of wrongdoing against Mr. Gaspard, who is the former White House political director. Locally, the complaints about violations of municipal campaign finance and ethics violations may prove to invoke conflicts of interests. A major concern raised about the illicit campaign finance activities of Mayor de Blasio, Speaker Mark-Viverito, and Councilmember Chin is that the mayor and the speaker both oversee the Campaign Finance Board, the municipal body responsible for investigating allegations of campaign corruption. Separately, the mayor himself oversees the Department of Investigation, the city agency that would investigate allegations of ethics violations. The Conflicts of Interests Board also answers to the mayor. The way the government is set up, there is no way for city officials to hold the mayor, the Council speaker, and other councilmembers accountable if good government groups and the public advocate abdicate their government watchdog role, which appears to be what they have already decided to do.

That only leaves the press and possibly federal corruption prosecutors to keep City Hall and City Council accountable.

Monday, January 6, 2014

The Losing New York City Council Speaker Candidate Is Less Corrupt Than The Winner

About 36 hours remain before the next class of New York City Councilmembers file into City Hall to vote for the next Council speaker. Supporters for both candidates are freaking out. I just got flamed on Facebook by an animal rights activist. I get it. People want their candidate to win ; consequently, they mistakenly think that by attacking me they will help their candidate win -- as if I have that much influence, as if I ever did ? I just want to point out that I'm in this for reform. It doesn't matter who wins anymore, it never did. The Council speaker race is all about how desperate the candidates can get to out broker the sleaziest backroom deals to win. The political coverage so far in this year's speaker race has exceeded the scrutiny former Council Speaker Christine Quinn got in 2005. By that measurement, we've already won, because some of the true extent of backroom dealing has been described by a couple of bloggers and a handful of mainstream media reporters. Meanwhile, some activists still contact me with questions about where the corruption exists ? After a series of YouTube videos, blog postings, links to other blogs and other news reports, tweets, and newsletters, all this information is available on Google. Now, let's see which Council speaker candidate dares to go for bust. Word is that every corrupt favour is being called in from every political hack in town. The fight has stopped being one to win, but a race to the bottom, because, technically, the winner only wins after putting together the most corrupt backroom deals to round up support. The winner readily risks flouting campaign finance laws and ethics regulations. If the desperation to win reaches new highs, let's hope that whatever remaining scrutiny on the Council speaker race will report that escalated corruption. Only in the Council speaker race will the candidate that comes in second actually be the one that is less corrupt than the winner.