NY1 report exposes BerlinRosen's conflicts of interest with the de Blasio administration

Who is Jonathan Rosen ?

NY1 broadcast journalist Grace Rauh pulled back the curtain on the unregistered lobbying firm, BerlinRosen The unregistered lobbying firm BerlinRosen has access to material, nonpublic, inside information about the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio. One of the firm's name partners, Jonathan Rosen, for example, attended 20 private meetings with Mayor de Blasio in 2014. That insider access allows the firm to exploit advantages for its roster of consulting clients, including some of the city's largest real estate developers.

RELATED NY1 report exposes BerlinRosen's conflicts of interest with the de Blasio administration (Progress Queens) Who is Jonathan Rosen? The Most Powerful Man in Politics – Outside City Hall (NY1) de Blasio's lobbying group, the Campaign for One New York, finally drawing heavier scrutiny from mainstream media (NYC : News & Analysis)

Married to a sleazy political consultant, Errol Louis uses NY1 to protect all political consultants

Errol Louis had a titty attack last night after Brooklyn 52nd Assembly District candidate Doug Biviano exposed BerlinRosen as corrupt

Luckily, there is no rotunda in the NY1 studio, so Errol Louis stopped short of threatening to throw Doug Biviano over the railing woah @errollouis just threatened to throw Assembly candidate @dougbiviano off @InsideCityHall if he tried to read a prepared statement. — Andrew J. Hawkins (@andyjayhawk) August 25, 2014 NEW YORK CITY VOTERS were treated to a rare display last night on NY1's Inside City Hall. Reminiscent of a scene from The Wizard of Oz, Brooklyn 52nd Assembly District candidate Doug Biviano pulled back the curtain on the corrupting roles of lobbyists and big money in our broken election system. The counterfeit wizard, who was pushing the buttons and flipping the switches, turned out to be none other than Inside City Hall host, Errol Louis ! First of all, Mr. Biviano had to overcome a biased objection from Mr. Louis to earn a spot on the Brooklyn 52nd Assembly District debate. Having done that, it was plainly apparent to anyone viewing last night's Inside City Hall that Mr. Louis was out to put Mr. Biviano's head on a stick. Mr. Louis opened the debate by grilling Mr. Biviano about no activity filings with the state campaign finance regulatory authority, the Board of Elections. Mr. Biviano explained that he had about $1,000 in expenses in his outsider campaign, and that he began his campaign during the petitioning process, which had to be obvious to Mr. Louis. Mr. Biviano then began to explain why it was important to him to be on Inside City Hall : to expose the corruption that is at the root cause of voters' loss of power in their own government. At this point, Mr. Biviano appeared to be reading from prepared remarks, and Mr. Louis threw a hissy fit right out in the news studio. It was only about 90 seconds into the debate segment when Mr. Louis screeched to Mr. Biviano : "I'll turn off the mic, and I'll send you home." Mr. Louis, who reads from a teleprompter on his news program, objected to Mr. Biviano reading from prepared remarks. How ridiculous is that ?! As the host of the most-watched local politics roundtable program, Mr. Louis is supposed to be an impartial host. It is unknown why Mr. Louis was set out to intimidate Mr. Biviano. Some political bloggers speculated last night that the climate of hostility created by Mr. Louis was intended to silence Mr. Biviano's criticisms of the duplicitous role of campaign consultants, who double as lobbyists. Mr. Louis' wife, Juanita Scarlett, is a political consultant for Park Strategies, LLC, the lobbying and consulting firm of former Republican Senator Alfonse D'Amato. Prior to that, Ms. Scarlett was a pro-gentrification hack for the Empire State Development Corporation, who pushed the community-crushing Atlantic Yards project like a drug dealer pushes crack. Shamelessly, Mr. Louis regularly books Mr. D'Amato as a political commentator in a reoccurring segment on Inside City Hall called, "The Consultants' Corner," where corrupt political consultants get to spiel talking points for their paid political clients disguised as news. Mr. Biviano is a political outsider, running for office, some say, to expose the corrupt network of lobbyists who double as campaign consultants. This double-dipping wrecks havoc on communities, and Mr. Biviano points to what happened at Long Island College Hospital as a prime example. LICH, as the hospital is known, was the centerpiece of a public relations stunt by one of Mr. Biviano's opponents in the primary race for the 52nd Assembly District seat, Peter Sikora. Mr. Sikora masterminded the public arrest of then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio last year in the lead up to the mayoral election. Mr. Sikora was also reportedly arrested in another demonstration to save LICH. Those publicity stunts, which Mr. Biviano claims were staged with the help of the lobbying firm BerlinRosen, were intended to fabricate an illusion that Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Sikora were fighting for the community, when, in reality, the arrests were just election-year machinations to score points with important voting blocks. Less than a year after the spate of civil disobedience arrests, all of these politicians did nothing as LICH closed under Mayor de Blasio's watch, triggering a wave of anger in Brooklyn. Yes, this was a win for transparency. Voters now better informed. @dougbiviano @andyjayhawk @errollouis @InsideCityHall @SalAlbaneseNYC — Louis Flores (@maslowsneeds) August 26, 2014 On Inside City Hall last night, after Mr. Louis prevented Mr. Biviano from reading his remarks about the corrupt role of BerlinRosen to exploit LICH as vehicle to win votes from communities across New York City impacted by a wave of hospital closings, the issue could not be ignored. The other candidate in the race, Jo Anne Simon, raised the issue of undeclared expenditures by outside groups that are being made in support of Mr. Sikora's campaign. Mr. Biviano later was able to raise the issue of a controversial mailer orchestrated by each of BerlinRosen, who are doubling as Mr. Sikora's campaign consultants, and Mayor de Blasio's nonprofit astroturf political arm, the duplicitous Campaign for One New York, to soften the blow of the LICH closing. These stealth activities, plus the controversial role of the scandal-plagued Working Families Party, are deceiving voters into wrongly supporting Mr. Sikora. @SalAlbaneseNYC And Journalists - what happen to Biviano 1st amendment right to free speech? -host threaten to cut the mike and shut debate — True News (@unitedNYblogs) August 26, 2014 Near the end of the debate on Inside City Hall, Mr. Biviano again raised the issue of the corrupt role of BerlinRosen in the campaign and in Brooklyn politics, but by that time, Mr. Louis had had enough, and he began speaking over Mr. Biviano. Mr. Louis then cued a commercial break, announcing the end of the debate. Ironically, the debate was followed by Mr. Louis' usual gathering of corrupt political lobbyists in the segment known as, "The Consultants' Corner." @andyjayhawk @errollouis @InsideCityHall @SalAlbaneseNYC @maslowsneeds After taping, Erroll shouted this is why I didn't want to invite you — Doug Biviano (@dougbiviano) August 26, 2014 Advocates for government reform commented on Twitter last night that unless voters see the true double-dealing connection between each of unethical lobbyists and exploitable campaign finance loopholes as the root cause of government dysfunction, elected officials and their political operatives, Mr. Louis and his wife included, will always keep defending the corrupt status quo. A partisan, pro-Simon post on last night's debate was published on the McBrooklyn blog. With the Democratic primary election set to take place on Tuesday, September 9, the next debate in the Brooklyn 52nd Assembly District race will take place Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. at Duryea Presbyterian Church.

RELATED NY1 Online : Democratic Candidates in Brooklyn Assembly District Debate on NY1 (Inside City Hall) Working Families Party has yet to disclose spending on campaign for Brooklyn state Assembly seat (The New York Daily News) Peter Sikora credited with coming up with election year stunt to get arrested to save LICH (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle) Alarm raised about ‘dark money’ in de Blasio’s LICH - Fortis letter (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle) Bill de Blasio Used LICH as a Political Prop, Angry Ex-Supporters Say (DNAinfo) de Blasio-allied group defends LICH luxury condo conversion deal to brownstone Brooklyn (Capital New York) Using political entities, operatives close to mayor exploit campaign finance regulations through ''pattern'' of activities (NYC : News & Analysis)

Peter Sikora running away from failed LICH promises, de Blasio exploitation cover-up

Peter Sikora, Bill de Blasio, and lobbying firm BerlinRosen each using LICH for political expediency

BerlinRosen is the corrupt lobbying firm working behind the scenes for each of Sikora, de Blasio, and the Campaign for One New York astroturf group Candidate Peter Sikora, who is running for the New York State Assembly seat of retiring Assemblywoman Joan Millman, is hiding from voters angry over the controversial closure of Long Island College Hospital -- contrary to a lot of lip service by politicians, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and Mr. Sikora himself. One of Mr. Sikora's opponents in the Democratic Party's primary for the Assembly seat, Doug Biviano, posted a press release on his campaign Web site, drawing attention to the candidates "not holding debates." Mr. Biviano charges that Mr. Sikora's campaign consultants, BerlinRosen, have been acting behind-the-scenes to do damage control for Mayor de Blasio and Mr. Sikora over the luxury condo conversion plan for LICH. The firm BerlinRosen works as Mayor de Blasio's media spokesmen, and BerlinRosen also manages the mayor's nonprofit political arm, the Campaign for One New York, which mailed a deceptive flyer meant to invoke the stature of the Carroll Garden Association with misleading information, trying to sell Brooklyn residents on the benefits of the luxury condo conversion of LICH. "Those institutions who claim to serve and protect our community are allowing the lobbyist and consultant spin doctors working on my opponents' campaigns to keep the community uninformed enough to believe the lies in their special interests funded campaign flyers. Shame on them," Mr. Biviano said in the press release. Earlier this year, Councilman Stephen Levin credited Mr. Sikora with coming up with the publicity stunt to get arrested in front of cameras to try to keep LICH open. “At the time, the candidate who was third in the polls, candidate Bill de Blasio, said, ‘That’s a really good idea,’ ” Councilmember Stephen Levin told The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Contrary to the lip service by Mayor de Blasio and Mr. Sikora, LICH closed without either Mayor de Blasio or Mr. Sikora being held publicly accountable for having exploited LICH for their own selfish interests. As the date of the Democratic Party primary nears, the voters in the state's 52nd Assembly District, which includes some of the Brooklyn neighborhoods formerly served by LICH, will have to confront the harsh truth : why is Mr. Sikora running away from campaign debates with his opponents ? What is it about each of Mr. Sikora's record on LICH and the controversial role of BerlinRosen that he is trying to hide ?

RELATED Peter Sikora credited with coming up with election year stunt to get arrested to save LICH (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle) Alarm raised about ‘dark money’ in de Blasio’s LICH - Fortis letter (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle) de Blasio-allied group defends LICH luxury condo conversion deal to brownstone Brooklyn (Capital New York) Using political entities, operatives close to mayor exploit campaign finance regulations through ''pattern'' of activities (NYC : News & Analysis)

When Cuomo closed the Moreland Commission, he was hoping to shut down all efforts to investigate political corruption

PUBLISHED : FRI, 18 JUL 2014, 08:27 PM
UPDATED : SUN, 20 JUL 2014, 01:45 PM

The Governor's interference with the Moreland Commission's efforting to combat corruption has prompted federal prosecutors to seek grand jury testimony in an inquiry into Gov. Andrew Cuomo's closure of the Moreland Commission Ever since the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) agreed to close the Moreland Commission as part of an unseemly budget negotiation with corrupt state lawmakers at the end of March, the sordid gossip amongst political bloggers has been whether any prosecutors would dare investigate whether allegations that Gov. Cuomo interfered with the Moreland Commission's investigations would rise to the level of obstruction of justice. When it was reported that members of the Moreland Commission were contemplating issuing subpoenas to real estate developers, including the Extell Corporation, which had made contributions to Gov. Cuomo's campaign committee account, the Cuomo administration was said to have become involved in managing those subpoenas. To the consternation of the control-obsesses Cuomo administration, the Moreland Commission was reported to have issued a subpoena to the corrupt state Democratic Party, that subpoena was later downsized and redirected under the specter of possible influence by the Cuomo administration, according to political bloggers. Finally, when the Moreland Commission dared to poke around in how the state's corrupt legislators earn outside income, that is when the state legislature brokered a backroom deal with the Cuomo administration to finally shut down the politically dangerous Moreland Commission, triggering a backlash that portrayed Gov. Cuomo as being a power-hungry megalomaniac. At one point, Gov. Cuomo publicly declared that he controlled the independent functions of the Moreland Commission in a Gollum-like "My Precious" tirade, saying, "The Moreland Commission was my commission," adding, “It’s my commission. My subpoena power, my Moreland Commission. I can appoint it, I can disband it. I appoint you, I can un-appoint you tomorrow. So, interference ? It's my commission. I can’t ‘interfere’ with it, because it is mine.” At each turn, whenever the Moreland Commission's investigations into political or campaign corruption threatened to splish-splash onto Cuomo administration officials, the governor or his staff appeared to be protecting their own political interests as they overlapped with the investigations by the Moreland Commission. Political bloggers wondered whether the Cuomo administration was trying to protect wealthy campaign contributors from the possibility of investigation or having the activities of wealthy campaign contributions come under review by Moreland Commission investigators. Actions reportedly by Cuomo administration officials or political operatives loyal to the Cuomo administration to downsize, redirect, or otherwise alter the investigative work by the Moreland Commission cast questions over the independence needed by investigative bodies, such as the Moreland Commission, conducting politically-unpopular but wholly-necessary criminal investigations into government and campaign corruption in New York state. That the Cuomo administration appeared to be heading off the possibility of investigations -- before the Moreland Commission could announce actual investigations or substantiated suspicions of wrong-doing -- created a sense of unease amongst political bloggers, because political bloggers wondered what activities were the Cuomo administration trying to conceal or hide from investigators. The culture of pay-to-play : Billionaire real estate development corporations make big money campaign donations, and then developers receive tax breaks, insider access to politicians During the period of time when the mainstream media was reporting that the Moreland Commission might investigate the culture of pay-to-play between campaign contributions made by wealthy real estate developers and the development of government policies that favored these developers, political bloggers cheered at the prospect that finally state investigators would look into corrupt real estate developers and their lobbyists. One of those lobbyists is the one-man power house, George Arzt. Mr. Arzt is a political adviser, lobbyist, spokesman, public relations consultant, and a very generous campaign contributor. Over the years, it is said that he made over $90,000 in traceable campaign contributions to various politicians in New York State. Critics of Mr. Arzt assert that Mr. Arzt buys access to top politicians with these sizable campaign contributions, and that that, plus his campaign consulting work and lobbying work, help to give his real estate developer clients an unfair advantage in gaming government policy for his clients. In this culture, where the right amount of campaign contributions, lobbying retainers, or the exchange of other funds, can give real estate developers an inside track to getting planning approvals for zone-busting real estate projects or tax breaks for billion-dollar skyscrapers, is what leads to so much corruption in government. The corrupt pay-to-play culture plays out like this : Mr. Arzt was a consultant for Extell Corporation, the developer of the billionaire luxury condo skyscraper on West 57th Street. Extell Corporation made sizable campaign contributions to Gov. Cuomo just before Gov. Cuomo signed into law multi-millions in tax breaks for Extell. All this money changing hands, and the local prosecutor for Manhattan, Cy Vance, abdicates his responsibility to investigate for bribes and corruption, leaving this matter for the Moreland Commission to investigate, except Gov. Cuomo shut the Moreland Commission down before any investigation could get off the ground. Last summer, Mr. Arzt was quoted by the mainstream media as an impartial observer during last year's mayoral race. However, political bloggers discovered that he had been part of a group of politicos having weekly meetings, strategizing how to install former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn as Michael Bloomberg's successor. Closing the loop on Mr. Arzt is that he was a campaign manager for former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes' doomed reelection campaign. Questions of public ethics violations and even possible embezzlement were raised when it was discovered that former D.A. Hynes had been using an official slush fund of money proceeds from seized cash from drug deals gone bad to pay for another campaign advisor, Mortimer Matz. While Mr. Arzt wasn't implicated in that campaign controversy, when D.A. Hynes used proceeds from seized criminal activities from the office accounts of the Brooklyn District Attorney's office to pay Mr. Matz millions for his consulting services, by some estimates, that left more money in D.A. Hynes campaign committee accounts to pay other campaign consultants. Besides Mr. Arzt, another consultant who worked for D.A. Hynes and was paid through D.A. Hynes' campaign committee account was the lobbying firm, The Advance Group. All corrupt legislative deals passed through Albany are marked with the same fingerprints. Whenever corrupt big business interests and their lobbyists need legislative help, the go-to-man is New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Several sources, who were involved in the tax break for wealthy real estate developers, including Extell Corporation, told The New York Daily News that Speaker Silver was the "creator of the lucrative tax relief." Over the years, Speaker Silver has been involved in so many corruption controversies that he has learned how to survive investigations into corruption by facilitating the corruption of other politicians. In the case of the tax breaks for wealthy developers, if Speaker Silver was ever fully challenged in a criminal corruption investigation, he could possibly expose the role of Gov. Cuomo's apparent pay-to-play deal to sign the tax breaks into law in exchange for large campaign contributions from the real estate developers, which stood to benefit from the tax law amendment. Many government reform activists and political bloggers estimate that Speaker Silver has been involved in so many self-serving or insider-serving deals that, if he were fully investigated by prosecutors, a take-down of Speaker Silver could potentially implicate over three-quarters of the entire state legislature. Indeed, one outcome of the low-level prosecution of former State Senator Shirley Huntley was her revelation that she would see “bags of cash" brought into the State Senate building. From whom was all that and other money coming from ? Who, in a leadership position, having received that money, got to divide that money up ? None of these, and other activities, ever get investigated by state law enforcement, whether that be the local district attorneys, who roll up to the state attorney general, or, as witnessed by the fate of investigative corruption panels under the Cuomo administration, by the Moreland Commission. Corrupt officials and political operatives have learned to game the weak-willed district attorneys and timid attorney general. Politicians and lobbyist know that the corruption in New York state runs so deep that, collectively, the size of some investigations would involve the prosecution of significant political or government individuals, which may pose special problems for the local prosecutor, making federal prosecutors, like U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the only hope that political bloggers and government reform activists have at overhauling the corrupt political system running local and state governments across New York. It was Mr. Bharara's office, which issued a subpoena this week, seeking grand jury testimony from the assistant to the former executive director of the now shuttered Moreland Commission. Mr. Bharara took possession of the investigation files and correspondence of the former commissioners serving on the Moreland Commission, along with other records, to try to reconstruct the activities and involvements of various elected officials, lobbyists, and other political operatives. To complete his due diligence and review of all these potential criminal investigations, Mr. Bharara's office recently recruited the help of super lawyer Daniel Stein, a former top prosecutor with years of corruption prosecution experience, giving political bloggers hope that we are about to witness a once-in-a-century renewal of government integrity.

RELATED Is Gov. Andrew Cuomo under investigation for obstruction of justice ? (The New York Times)

de Blasio's lobbying group, the Campaign for One New York, finally drawing heavier scrutiny from mainstream media

Was the mayor's ''nonprofit'' lobbying group, the Campaign for One New York, designed to be the political arm of City Hall, even before the new mayor was sworn in ?

501(c)(4) Nonprofit Group That Appears To Be Coordinating Political Activities For de Blasio Spent $1.7 Million In First Half Of 2014 The lobbying group formerly known as UPKNYC, largely responsible for pushing the mayor's policy of expanding pre-kinder to more New Yorkers (but which notably stopped short of being truly universal), transformed itself into a blank-check nonprofit group that now serves as the political arm of City Hall. The group, rebranded as the Campaign for One New York, has raised nearly $2 million to coordinate political activities outside City Hall in advancing Mayor Bill de Blasio's political agenda. Within six or seven weeks into Mayor de Blasio's new administration, the press began to raise questions about the shift of lobbyists and political operatives from the mayor's former campaign to the new nonprofit group. Shortly thereafter, political bloggers noticed the pattern of cycling political activities through various structures, which are sometimes just sufficiently distant from the new mayor -- and sometimes not. The nonprofit group was organized in December, even before the new mayor was sworn in, in anticipation of needing a well-funded astroturf group to keep activists and lobbyists alike occupied with the mayor's agenda. Some good government groups raise questions about government ethics in how the mayor fundraises for his political nonprofit. For example, the pro-business publication, Crain's New York Business, published a report showing that before the mayor signed a favorable labor contract with the municipal teachers' union, the national teachers' union made a sizable contribution to the mayor's political nonprofit. Is the mayor selling official acts in exchange for political donations to the Campaign for New York ? At least two of the largest donors to the Campaign for One New York were donors to the Anybody But Quinn effort last year, which acted to help elect Mayor de Blasio by defeating former Council Speaker Christine Quinn's mayoral campaign. Those donors were the businesswoman Wendy Neu and the union UNITE HERE!, according to an analysis of donation records performed by The New York Times. The union UNITE HERE! was once led by Mayor de Blasio's cousin, John Wilhelm. A third donor, Edison Properties, was formerly headed by Steve Nislick, who founded the animal rights group NY-CLASS, another nonprofit that was behind the Super PAC that, unbeknownst to voters, was acting to help elect Mayor de Blasio. The Super PAC was advised by the lobbying firm, The Advance Group. The same pattern of lobbyists and donors showing up over and over again across different 501(c)(4) groups and Super PAC's raises the question at to whether political activities are being coordinated between the mayor's supporters. Political operatives at 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East funneled $250,000 in contributions to the mayor's lobbying group, even though the mayor turned his back on his campaign promise to save LICH. One of the most controversial interactions between the mayor's lobbying group and New York voters has been the role of Long Island College Hospital, or LICH, as the Brooklyn hospital was known. The mayor appealed to voters to elect him as mayor after he made a series of campaign promises that would, in effect, turn the page to the 1% enabling Bloomberg-Quinn administration. In his promises to break with the Bloomberg-Quinn policies, then candidate de Blasio promised to fight for "hospitals, not condos" and he pledged to end the stop-and-frisk era. The role of lobbyists connected to the Campaign for One New York figure prominently in how the mayor has betrayed those promises central to his successful mayoral campaign. Political operatives from the large healthcare union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, drove the union to contribute $250,000 to the nonprofit acting as the mayor's political arm even as the mayor was turning his back on the slow-motion shuttering of LICH. Helping to deflect the mayor's refusal to save LICH were operatives from the lobbying firm, Berlin Rosen. The PR spin doctor Dan Levitan handles issues for Mayor de Blasio where Berlin Rosen must score political points in the face of de Blasio administration failures, and Mr. Levitan was tasked with justifying the mayor's refusal to save LICH. The work Mr. Levitan did included overseeing the mailing of controversial printed literature that praised Mayor de Blasio. The closure of LICH has triggered a resounding backlash in Brooklyn, the supposed center of Mayor de Blasio's political support, proving that the Campaign for One New York isn't necessarily doing advocacy work to benefit the community so much as it's also doing damage control as the mayor sells out to big money real estate developers, as the case with the LICH closure has proved. Berlin Rosen operative Dan Levitan sends deceptive mailers to Brooklyn residents, justifying the mayor's betrayal of the campaign promise to save Long Island College Hospital. He is also the spokesman for the police reform umbrella group, Communities United for Police Reform. Besides confusing voters to deflect blame away from Mayor de Blasio, Mr. Levitan also oversees communication from the largest umbrella group of police reform organizations in New York City, Communities United for Police Reform, or CPR, as the umbrella group is known. Mr. Levitan stops-and-frisks all reform communication from these groups to subjugate the community's demands for police reform to the mayor's need to appease Big Businesses, who demand that Police Commissioner Bill Bratton enforce a "broken windows theory" of policing, to jail the poor, people of color, and other troublesome minorities as part of real estate developers' campaign to further gentrify New York City to support higher and higher, forever escalating real estate prices. Even though the mayor campaigned on a promise to end policing tactics that unconstitutionally targeted minorities, the mayor installs lobbyists and de Blasiobots to block reforms, turning a deaf ear to demands from minority communities that the New York Police Department be reformed. The mayor's lobbyists, campaign consultants, and Big Money donors turn to 501(c)(3) charity groups, 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups, Super PAC's, campaign committee accounts, and possibly even political party committee accounts to fund coordinated political activities. A few weeks ago, the mayor's close political ally, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, authorized the distribution of about $50 million in taxpayer monies to some of the city's largest charity groups. For years, these budget allocations have been being made under allegations of political favoritism, and this year was no different. Politically-connected groups, like the Hispanic Federation, received outsized distributions from the speaker's slush fund. The Hispanic Federation is a project of a political insider, who has worked as a chief campaign consultant to the Council speaker, according to NPQ, the journal of the Nonprofit Information Networking Association. City grants to the Hispanic Federation comprise over 30 per cent. of the annual budget of the nonprofit, according to some statistics, and the Hispanic Federation pays the Council speaker's campaign consultant for his lobbying work out of its annual budget. Having lobbyists get paid through a pass-through entity helps keep politically-motivated budget allocations funneling in a circuitous pattern. When the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration isn't funneling money to politically-connected 501(c)(3) groups, like the Hispanic Federation, they use 501(c)(4) groups, like the Campaign For One New York, to coordinate their political activities, or funding for CPR member groups to block police reforms. As a fallback, the mayor opened his 2017 reelection campaign committee account just weeks into his first mayoral term. Campaign committee accounts are subject to caps and higher scrutiny ; therefore, the most minimal but most visible expenses get charged back to campaign committee accounts. For example, approximately $10,000 that Mr. de Blasio spent on the annual Inner Circle charity show was charged back to his reelection campaign committee account, The Wall Street Journal reported. For her part, Council Speaker Mark-Viverito updated her own 2017 campaign committee account, a phantom account for which nobody knows its true purpose, since the Council speaker is term limited in the City Council, and she has said that she will not run for mayor against her political patron. Her updated filing with the state's campaign finance regulatory authority, the state Board of Elections, still shows no expenditure to The Advance Group, in spite of its pivotal role in selecting Councilmember Mark-Viverito as this year's new Council speaker. No word yet on whether any party committee accounts of the Democratic Party or the Working Families Party have had to make any disclosures of politically-motivated expenditures that tie back to the coordinated political activities of the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration.

RELATED Campaign For One New York Lobbying Group Adopts de Blasio’s Agenda (The New York Times) Lobbying Group Aiding de Blasio Spent $1.7 Million in First Half of 2014 (The New York Times) Alarm raised about ‘‘dark money’’ behind de Blasio’s LICH - Fortis letter (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle) The Campaign for One New York has received a total of $1.7 million in less than seven months - and about three-quarters of that, $1.2 million, came from just five donors (The New York Daily News) Campaign for One New York Raised Nearly $1.8 Million to Coordinate Political Activities In Support of de Blasio's Agenda (The Wall Street Journal)

NYTimes Editorial Board bemoans corruption as Brooklyn Beep Eric Adams cleared to funnel money through shady nonprofit

PUBLISHED : SUN, 06 JUL 2014, 02:10 PM
UPDATED : MON, 07 JUL 2014, 09:30 AM

Adams' shady nonprofit, the One Brooklyn Fund, is set to pattern itself after the mayor's own shady nonprofit, the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City

Across New York State, many corrupt politicians get indicted for misusing monies from nonprofits for illegal personal or political activities

Before he was elected Brooklyn Borough President, former State Sen. Eric Adams endorsed the failed reelection bid of ex-Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes. Brooklyn Beep Adams now wants to use a nonprofit charity to serve as his political arm in Brooklyn nonprofit circles. In its house editorial yesterday, the board of editors that oversee the Opinion pages of The New York Times reminded its readers that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has failed to make good on his campaign promise to clean up the corruption in Albany. The editors point to the sad statistic that 26 state legislators have left office due to political scandal. But the editorial overlooks the role that funneling donations or tax dollars through nonprofit groups plays in the corruption charges against several notable politicians. Despite this, the editors of The New York Times see no need to worry that more and more politicians are creating nonprofit groups that operate as the political arms of politicians. The One Brooklyn Fund, a nonprofit that Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is running out of his own office, had not yet received approval from the city's corrupt Conflicts of Interest Board before Brooklyn Beep Adams began soliciting donations for his controversial nonprofit with admitted political motivations. Another violation, failing to register the nonprofit with the New York Department of State, came to the fore after The New York Post reported that the city’s Department of Investigation was probing Mr. Adams' new nonprofit. Two of the directors of the controversial One Brooklyn Fund have previously run afoul of ethics regulations, and one of the directors has become the target of journalism investigations over her role in using still yet another nonprofit group to fund an 11-day vacation to China for Mr. Adams and Diana Reyna, a top female deputy, The New York Post reported. Whenever Brooklyn Beep Adams appears at public forums, Ms. Reyna is at his close side, clutching her pearls. Ms. Reyna, a former City Councilmember from Brooklyn, had previously served as chief of staff to embattled Brooklyn political boss Vito Lopez, who, himself, is a former New York State Assemblyman. The objective of the One Brooklyn Fund is to provide or support public services to the residents of Brooklyn, not too dissimilar to the objective of a larger fund overseen by the mayor's wife. The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, which facilitates innovative public-private partnerships throughout NYC. It is headed by First Lady Chirlane McCray, and its goals are to support the mayor's political ambitions. Parallel to the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City is The Campaign for One New York, the group formerly known as UPKNYC, the 501(c)(4) not-for-profit organization that the mayor has used to funnel money into his political agenda, ranging from paying for a million-dollar political TV ad featuring the First Lady and deceptive astroturf mailers supporting the closure of Long Island College Hospital. Now that First Lady McCray has benefitted from the million-dollar TV ad blitz to fluff her name recognition at the expense of a nonprofit, she has reportedly began shopping around a political memoir, with political bloggers gossiping that she is seeking a seven-figure book deal. At every turn, the repeated pattern of political activities involving charity nonprofit organizations is that politicians use these tax-free vehicles for personal gain -- whether for 11-day trips to China or to build up one's name recognition -- not for public service, contrary to the very purpose of nonprofit objectives. First Lady Chirlane McCray picked gentrification king developer Bruce Ratner to serve on the board of the Mayor's Fund to Advance NYC, which is Mayor Bill de Blasio's political arm in the charity world. State Sen. Malcolm Smith faces corruption charges involving the possible use of City Council nonprofit slush funds allocated to Councilmember Dan Halloran to buy the GOP nomination for Sen. Smith's doomed mayoral campaign. After former State Sen. Shirley Huntley was sentenced to jail for allegedly misusing tax money funneled to a nonprofit organization, her former Chief of Staff, who is not a New York City Councilmember, Ruben Wills, faces his own investigation into the possible misuse of nonprofit for personal gain. State Sen. Jose Peralta has also been being scrutinized over $500,000 directed to a nonprofit he helped to organize. After nonprofit don William Rapfogel was arrested, it was revealed that there was a scheme to use tax money funneled through the Metropolitan Council to pass through inflated insurance premiums as a way to fund illegal straw donations to political candidates. On the day when the Metropolitan Council-straw donations scam was announced, former Council Speaker Christine Quinn's doomed mayoral campaign immediately announced that they were returning $25,000 in tainted donations. Since the New York City mayoral race of last year, political bloggers and government reform activists have continued to demonstrate how the corruptive role of money and lobbyists in politics work to move shady campaign financing from official campaign committees, to Super PAC's, to political party committee accounts, to 501(c)(3) nonprofit groups, to 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups, etc. -- through any entity that can act as a "pass through" for illegal personal or political gain. Whenever a nonprofit appears in the political landscape around elected officials, the lobbyists, campaign consultants, other political operatives, and the elected officials themselves aim to exploit that nonprofit for short-term political gain at every point possible instead of serving the greater public good. One of the largest sources of tainted nonprofit funding in New York City is the annual Council Speaker's slush fund. There is a long history of corruption tied to the misuse of this nonprofit funding source. Former New York City Councilmembers Hiram Monserrate, Larry Seabrook, and Miguel Martinez were convicted for their role in the slush fund scandal and political aides to former Councilmember Kendall Stewart also pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the nonprofit funding-related scandal. Continuing former Council Speaker Quinn's pattern of funding nonprofit groups that do the speaker's bidding, the new Council speaker, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito has allocated over $830,000 to a nonprofit group tied to one of her chief campaign consultants. And the City Council, under Speaker Mark-Viverito, has allocated over $7 million from this slush fund to nonprofit groups, including VOCAL-New York, that are deliberately deescalating political pressure for police reforms in exchange for receiving City Council funding. If the editors of The New York Times are serious about reforming the broken political system, then they should mount a public campaign that ends the misuse of nonprofit organizations for personal and political gain. And this proposed campaign should begin with investigating why the city's ethics board can continue to clear politicians to operate nonprofit groups in parallel to their political offices. If voters reviewed the list of corrupt politicians, who have had to leave office due to criminal charges involving nonprofit funding, there is never any accountability for the big name politicians, who control the large pools of slush funds that enable this kind of nonprofit corruption. It's as if the big-name corrupt politicians know that cases consisting of violations of local or state law and involving the possible prosecution of significant political or government individuals pose special problems for the local prosecutor. If voters are to take The New York Times seriously, then the editors must address this paradox, too -- not just bemoan the on-going corruption by elected officials.

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