Stunted

Over the weekend, five of the Democratic party candidates for NYC Mayor spent the night in public housing in Harlem at the request of Al Sharpton. They included Christine Quinn, Bill DelBlasio, Anthony Weiner, Bill Thomspon, and John Liu.

Democratic candidates Christine Quinn, Anthony Weiner, Bill de Blasio, William Thompson Jr. and John Liu spend 12 hours with a host family at the Lincoln Center Houses, located on East 135th Street Between 5th Avenue and Lennox Avenue.

The candidates slept on sofas, air mattresses and sleeping bags in the apartments, some of which were without air conditioning on one of the hottest days of the year.

On Sunday, Christine Quinn discussed the conditions of the apartment she spent the night with the NY Post.

“The apartment I stayed in had a bathroom that was covered with black mold,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “It was the worst I’ve ever seen. When the city of New York is the landlord, this is unacceptable.”

Quinn was one of five Democratic candidates for mayor who accepted a challenge from the Rev. Al Sharpton to spend a night in a public-housing complex.

The candidates say they wanted to highlight condition in city-run public housing. About 3,100 residents live in the East Harlem project.

All emerged from the overnight stay with claims that all would fight to improve the conditions.

I'm sorry, but I can't believe any of them when they say that they would work to improve conditions.

You see, all of them have been in a position to not only understand the conditions, but to actually fix them.

Christine Quinn is the current Speaker of the New York City Council. As such, she can hold hearings, address budgetary concerns, and demand changes at the New York City Housing Authority which oversees public housing in the City.

Bill Thomspon and John Liu are the former and current City Comptroller, respectively. As such, both could investigate the Housing Authority for mismanagement of city resources, failures to enact reforms on spending, and demand changes in how the Housing Authority operates.

Then, there's Bill DelBlasio, who's the City Advocate. In that position, he's able to gather and collect complaint data about public housing and demand change.

Finally, there's former Congressman Anthony Weiner who could have addressed the matter while in Congress and sought more funding or reforms in the Housing Authority to get local politicians to demand improvements and change.

All five share the failed opportunities to fix the Housing Authority and poor housing conditions while they were in their current positions. Now that all five are seeking the mayorality, they are willing to say or do anything to get the votes of those living in the projects.

None are deserving.

All failed to do what needed to be done when they had the chance to act, but since votes are on the line, all are speaking out about the deplorable conditions. Anyone who spent any time in these projects would have known this - anyone who spoke or responded to constituent letters would have heard the horror stories.

What we had was a photo op that will be quickly forgotten once the votes are counted. That's not how it should be, but there it is.

Homeless Shelter Policy In NYC Hits Asinine Levels; Hearings Match

The NYC City Council held a hearing yesterday over a homeless shelter policy change that was going to require a homeless person prove that they had no where else to go in order to gain admission to a shelter. How asinine is it to have that kind of policy, though the administrators claimed that with so many people seeking shelter they have to turn away those who really need assistance and that they lack the funds to make sufficient sheltering possible. And the City Council, which has to balance competing funding needs - can't find the money to fund the programs, but will hammer away at the officials putting forth a policy justified because they lack the funding to do otherwise:

Ten years ago, when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office, the homeless population stood at less than 25,000. In 2004, when the homeless population stood at 38,000, he promised to cut the number by two-thirds. This week, the Coalition for the Homeless put out a new report, with an eye-catcher: the homeless population stands at 41,204.

Seth Diamond, the commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services, showed up on Wednesday at a City Council meeting to testify about the changes in eligibility. He read his testimony as if working his way through the agate in a bond offering, his voice a dead-on-arrival monotone.

Herewith, a Diamond sampler: “State administrative Directive 94 ADM-20 states in pertinent part and I quote ...”

The homeless, he noted, can “explore their options.” If there is “a situation,” there will be “discussions.”

It is, he noted, “incumbent upon us to assist those seeking shelter services to avoid entering the shelter system.”

A George Orwell shudder to the side, it’s not hard to sympathize with those officials who care for homeless people. Theirs is a Sisyphean task, as they are given too little money and tasked with sheltering too many of the poor in a city that grows more expensive by the hour.

Press on one policy lever or another, and something always seems to go tilt.

Money is perpetually tight. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration cut $50 million from a New York City housing program for homeless families. City officials refuse to make up the difference, and thousands of families face eviction.

The shelter system undoubtedly looks and smells better than it did years back. And Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo have pumped many millions of dollars into creating supportive housing for homeless people who are mentally ill, which is the only sure means of reducing shelter numbers.

The City Council can be its own punch line. But Wednesday was one of those days when, in its inchoate anger and frustration and lack of politesse, the council members became a rarely heard collective voice of New York.

How can anyone prove that they have no where else to go?

You can't. It's a policy designed to try and exclude people from the shelter system, and it creates all kinds of perverse incentives to exclude individuals from shelters.

This comes as the need for shelters is greater than ever and the same preening City Council members can't find the funds to make the shelter system work.

Boston Mayor Bans Sugared Beverage Sales on City Property

Boston Mayor Tom Menino is taking a page out of NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the other nanny staters by canning sales of soda on city property.

Mayor Tom Menino issued an executive order to ban the sale of sugary drinks on Boston city property on Thursday.

The mayor’s office said Menino is issuing this order because of the link between sugary drinks and rising obesity rates and health care costs. The order sets science-based standards for what’s considered a healthy beverage and what can be sold or served on City property, according to a city press release.

The policy applies to cafeterias, vending machines, concession stands, and beverages served at meetings, City-run programs, and events where food is purchased with City dollars.

Back in 2004, Menino banned soda and junk food from being sold in public school vending machines, and now he’s taking his battle city-wide.

I can't wait until the next city budget comes through and the loss of revenue requires either spending cuts or tax hikes to cover the lost revenue from contracts that enable beverage makers to sell soda on city property.

Moreover, there's a question as to just how far this policy extends - does this mean that vendors will be unable to sell soda on city streets or roadways from vending carts or trucks?

To be clear, this is what Menino intends:

City buildings and departments have a six-month grace period before they’ll be required to phase out the sale of so-called “red” beverages, or those loaded with sugar, such as non-diet sodas, pre-sweetened ice teas, refrigerated coffee drinks, energy drinks, juice drinks with added sugar and sports drinks. The order allows for the sale of “yellow” beverages such as diet sodas, diet iced teas, 100 percent juices, low-calorie sports drinks, low-sugar sweetened beverages, sweetened soymilk and flavored, sweetened milk. “Green” beverages, such as bottled water, flavored and unflavored seltzer water, low-fat milk, and unsweetened soymilk can continue to be sold. The promotion of “red” beverages on City property through sponsorship agreements with City departments, including banners and advertising panels on vending machines, will be prohibited.

Pretty much, unless you're selling bottled water or diet soda, you're going to have to find another source of revenue if you're one of those vendors.

Obesity didn't start with soda and sugared beverages. It got a whole lot worse as people chose to live a sedentary lifestyle where they don't exercise or take care of themselves, all while supersizing their food intake by choice and ignoring proper portion control to manage their weight.

Now, Menino is going to harm small businesses, including distributors, bottlers, and vendors who sell these beverages to a public that wants them because he thinks that soda is the root of the obesity epidemic.

Just as a New York City Councilman entered a bill to eliminate the sales of toys with Happy Meals yesterday turned out to be a poster child for obesity himself (and whose wife complained about his eating habits), that's nanny-staters for you.

Nobody seems to like City Councilman's Leroy Comrie's proposed Happy Meal regulations. On Tuesday when Comrie announced the proposed law—which aims to set "nutrition standards for distributing incentive items aimed at children,"—he acknowledged that, weighing in at 335 pounds himself, he was hardly a model of healthy eating (in fact that was part of his point). So no surprise that both the Post (Councilman, Heal Thyself) and the News (City Councilman Leroy Comrie's bill to ban toys in Happy Meals with over 500 calories is fat-headed) today ran editorials decrying the plan as a dud from a self-hating, publicity-hungry tub of lard. And not happy to stop there, the Post went to the next level and got Comrie's weight-watching, yoga-doing wife Marcia on the record to complain about her rotund husband's eating habits.

In the Councilman's case, he chose to eat unhealthy food options - and his weight (and wife) suffered for it.

When presented with healthy options, he not only took them, but ate up whatever else he could find. You can't simply excuse that because there are only fast food options available. Even fast food restaurants have healthier food options - but Comrie chose to ignore them and ate what he wanted. That's on him.

The same goes with soda. There's nothing wrong with soda, if you have a healthy lifestyle and live by a simply motto - moderation.

New York City Following Up On Daily News Investigation Into Pols Getting Affordable Housing

New York City is following up on revelations first reported by the NY Daily News about how numerous politicians were able to obtain affordable housing without meeting program requirements. They're taking a much closer look at a Brooklyn Democrat, City Councilmember Erik Dilan and how he was able to get an apartment in a unit where the income cap is $114,000. Dilan and his wife make more than $160,000.

Dilan (D-Brooklyn) got a city-backed apartment available only to families making $114,000 or less while he and his wife were making $160,000.

The developer was a Dilan campaign donor.

"We take our regulatory agreements very seriously, and we are reviewing the exact set of circumstances and will follow up appropriately," said Eric Bederman, a spokesman for the city Housing Preservation and Development Department.

On Monday, the Daily News reported Dilan had moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn in 2008 when the income cap was $114,000 for a family.

At that time, he and his wife collectively earned about $160,000 a year, including his Council salary, records show.

After The News began looking at this arrangement, the Housing Preservation and Development Department asked the developer, Sergio Benitez, for paperwork verifying Dilan's income at the time he signed the lease. He was unable to provide any, officials say.

One has to wonder just how closely the administrators of the affordable housing program are looking at the applicants to see whether they meet the requirements.

Bear in mind that there is a constant hue and cry about the lack of affordable housing in New York. One has to wonder just how many people who are taking advantage of the affordable housing program are actually entitled to do so, which squeezes out the applicants who are truly in need and meet the program requirements.

It also shows that the lack of affordable housing needs to be addressed with not only building more affordable housing (that meets various program requirements, like Section 8, Mitchell Lama, etc.) but housing that is above the affordable housing program income limits because an insufficient supply is what is driving prices higher for everyone. Increase the supply, and the price will moderate and potentially fall from their current levels. Note too that the NYC metro area has largely avoided the massive real estate collapses seen elsewhere because demand remains tight as new housing stock is limited due to a lack of space.

Some real estate projects have stalled, and there's a push to convert those projects into affordable housing.

Increasing the supply will greatly increase the options for renters and prospective homeowners, and can serve to reduce rents at a time when many are opting for rents over homeownership due to difficulties in obtaining mortgages and uncertainties about employment.

Daily News Finds NYC Politicians Routinely Flout Tax Law and Affordable Housing Rules

Should it be a surprise that Charles Rangel was hardly alone when he flouted tax laws and affordable housing rules? It turns out that the problem is hardly an extreme example. In fact, politicians are flouting the rules at seemingly every opportunity, and several may not be living in the districts they claim to represent:

One got city-backed affordable housing, though he and his wife were at least $40,000 over the income limit.

Another got a subsidized co-op, then bought a $90,000 brownstone.

Yet another ignored city inspectors investigating if he had an illegally converted apartment.

All these practices surfaced in a three-month Daily News investigation, based on a review of thousands of pages of records regarding judgments, liens, tax history, property ownership, building-code violations and financial disclosure.

Government reform advocates were floored by The News' findings.

"I'm just stunned," said Citizens Union executive director Dick Dadey. "It's troubling that so many Council members who are sworn to uphold the law are in fact in trouble with the law or have skirted the law."

TAX BREAKS

Councilmen Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn), Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx), Peter Koo (R-Queens) and Matthieu Eugene (D-Brooklyn) all got tax breaks by claiming to live somewhere outside their council districts.

Council members must live in their district, but these four claim homes they own elsewhere as "primary residences." That entitles them to School Tax Relief (STAR), which trims hundreds of dollars off their property taxes.

I believe that a completely and hopelessly complex tax policy has so totally screwed up priorities and the need to secure tax credits and breaks to make home ownership seem affordable is driving at least some of this.

However, there is no excuse for ignorance of the law, or for the affordable home programs. Either you are qualified to obtain affordable housing breaks, or you aren't. These politicians have not only taken advantage of the affordable housing breaks, but they've deprived other worthy and qualified persons from obtaining that limited housing stock.

New York Set To Extend Smoking Ban To Beaches, Sidewalks, and Parks

Locations where smokers can light up in New York without fear of being fined continues decreasing. The City Council overwhelmingly passed a bill that would prohibit smoking in parks, beaches, boardwalks, and other public areas. It awaits Mayor Bloomberg's signature and would take effect 90 days thereafter:

By a 36-to-12 vote, the Council passed the most significant expansion of antismoking laws since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg pushed to prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars in 2002.

The Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, said the ban was an affirmation of the rights of nonsmokers. “Their health and their lives should not be negatively impacted because other people have decided to smoke,” Ms. Quinn said at a news conference.

Opponents of the bill spoke strongly against it; several members derided it as an overly broad law that would infringe on individual liberties.

“We’re moving towards a totalitarian society if in fact we’re going to have those kinds of restrictions on New Yorkers,” said Councilman Robert Jackson of Manhattan, who described himself as a marathon runner and nonsmoker.

Others said the ban would set a dangerous precedent. Councilman Daniel J. Halloran III of Queens said, “Once we pass this, we will next be banning smoking on sidewalks, and then in the cars of people who are driving minors and then in the homes.”

A compromise that would establish designated smoking areas outdoors was scuttled by Council leaders in favor of an all-out ban. The bill will become law 90 days after Mr. Bloomberg signs it, which he is expected to do this month.

“This summer, New Yorkers who go to our parks and beaches for some fresh air and fun will be able to breathe even cleaner air and sit on a beach not littered with cigarette butts,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement. Enforcement of the law will fall to the Department of Parks and Recreation, which can impose $50 fines.

Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer of Manhattan, a longtime advocate for stricter antismoking laws, said increasing revenue for the city was not the goal.

“I’m not interested in arrests; I’m not interested in revenue,” she said. “I’m just interested in public health.”

The limitations are sure to rankle civil libertarians and those who think that the nanny state is once again going too far.

I have a more substantive criticism of the ban.

How will it affect the city's revenues? Brewer's lackadasical approach to revenues shows that she fails to grasp the repercussions of her vote on city revenues.

If the city (and New York State) rely on tobacco products taxes to help balance the budget, how exactly is banning smoking going to affect those tobacco tax revenues. It isn't going to increase revenues, that's for sure.

It's going to adversely affect the revenues, which means that the programs funded by tobacco tax revenues will be adversely affected. That means that revenues will need to come from somewhere else, or tobacco products taxes will need to be raised even more.

The New York Times reported last year that the state tax hike on cigarettes and tobacco products was expected to raise $440 million in revenue to fund health care programs, including subsidies for AIDS drugs, money for tobacco cessation programs and $71.6 million for the state cancer research center in Buffalo.

If smokers are not lighting up - and they're not purchasing as many packs of cigarettes, then the revenues are going to fall short of what's necessary to fund those programs. The state and city cynically need smokers to balance the budget, so passing bills that reduce where smokers can continue to light up will affect the state's bottom line.

And when the revenues don't meet expectations, watch for more cigarette tax hikes to cover the shortfalls.

Misplaced NYC Infrastructure Priorities

Which is more important? Renaming the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and 59th Street Bridge to honor former Governor Hugh Carey and Mayor Ed Koch respectively, or finding funding to improve the Brooklyn Queens Expressway trench between Atlantic Avenue and the Battery Tunnel?

Well, it looks like the renaming is likely, while the BQE enhancement lacks the funding (starting at $10 million). The state legislature and City Council will have to vote to approve the naming changes, and if history is any guide, the cost to switch signs for each crossing will run around $4 million each (that's what the cost to rename the Triborough Bridge as the RFK Memorial Bridge).

The city and state are hoping to get private donations to cover the cost. Really?

How about skipping the naming rights and get the donations to improve the community life around the trench - new trees, screening, and pocket parks would help close the gap created when the highway was built below grade. It wouldn't be a perfect fix, but it would help lessen the effects of the highway on Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and Columbia Street Waterfront.

This once again exposes the misplaced priorities. Focus on improving the actual infrastructure than paying for name changes that people end up ignoring. Construction of the highway destroyed neighborhood life and the EDC efforts to reduce noise, congestion, and pollution effects on the neighborhood would help improve the situation.

It is far more worthwhile than renaming bridges and tunnels.

Community Board 1 Approves Cordoba House Proposal

29-1 with 10 abstentions. Four hours of debate and hearing. Community Board 1 approved the proposal that would build a community center and mosque several blocks from Ground Zero.

The 29-to-1 vote, with 10 abstentions, followed a four-hour back-and-forth between those who said the community center would be a monument to tolerance and those who believed it would be an affront to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The board’s vote was advisory — it did not have the power to scrap plans for a center — but it was seen as an important barometer of community sentiment.

Middle school students and rabbis were among the more than 100 people who testified at the hearing, which was held a short distance from ground zero. Some carried pictures of family members killed in the attacks; others brandished signs reading “Show respect for 9/11. No mosque!”

C. Lee Hanson, 77, whose son Peter was killed in the attacks, said he opposed the center not because he was intolerant, but because he believed that building a tribute to Islam so close to the World Trade Center would be insensitive.

“The pain never goes away,” Mr. Hanson said. “When I look over there and I see a mosque, it’s going to hurt. Build it someplace else.”

Jean Grillo, 65, a writer from TriBeCa, said shutting out any faith undermined American values. “What better place to teach tolerance than at the very area where hate tried to kill tolerance?” she said.

The proposed center, called the Cordoba House, would rise as many as 15 stories two blocks north of where the twin towers stood. It would include a prayer space, as well as a 500-seat performing arts center, a culinary school, a swimming pool, a restaurant and other amenities.

The group behind the project, the Cordoba Initiative, is seeking to make major structural changes to the five-story building at 45 Park Place, which was built in the late 1850s in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style.

Opponents to the plan included relatives of those murdered in the 9/11 attacks who spoke passionately about how the Muslim facilities were an affront and constant reminder of the ideology that drove the terrorists to commit mass murder and the worst terror attack in history.

The Community Board's approval is only one step in the process; it still needs to get City Council approval and the Landmarks Preservation Commission has to weigh in as well. However, the Community Board's approval carries weight and signifies that the local community seeks the development, which is a factor taken into consideration by the City Council in its deliberations.

UPDATE:
The bloviation by some opponents to the proposal includes the Drudge Report which touts a bogus headline that this proposal will include a mosque at Ground Zero.

The building in question is two blocks from Ground Zero. It isn't in Ground Zero as some opponents have charged.

This isn't the case of the International Freedom Center, which rightfully was canned because of the intention of the proponents to include viewpoints that were objectionable and outrageous - a multi-cultural mashup that made mincemeat of the 9/11 attacks and who actually carried out the attacks and their rationale.

The Center may not actually go ahead unless it gets all the financing sorted out, but the proposal is not something that is objectionable in its current form unless something actually objectionable comes out regarding its financing and sources (which to date has included the Rockefeller Bros Fund and Ford Foundation). Lower Manhattan needs the facilities being proposed - theater space, community space, etc., on par with what is offered at the 92nd Street Y or JCC, and it happens that it is an Islamic group providing the possible services.

Continuing Coverage of the Saga of Cordoba House

A new report indicates that the chair of the Community Board that has a say in the approval of the construction of a mosque just blocks from Ground Zero thinks that coverage has been distorted.

Days after Community Board (CB) 1’s Financial District Committee passed a unanimous resolution in favor of the Cordoba Institute moving to Lower Manhattan to build a community center with a mosque, local and national media outlets pounced on the story. Ro Sheffe, the committee chair, was disappointed, to say the least, with the coverage.

“There has been so much inaccuracy in so many of the media accounts of this proposal,” said Sheffe last Friday. “From what we were told at the meeting - what we were hearing was a secular community center with a mosque attached. Everything we heard obviously we liked. It was unanimous.”

Though the coverage has been exhaustive - from web-only news outlets to the New York Post, even an anti-Cordoba House Facebook group with 53,000 members already opposing the group - few elected officials have taken a stance on the issue, save for New York State Senator Daniel Squadron.

“Community religious and civic organizations have been a big part of the extraordinary resurgence of Lower Manhattan,” Squadron said Wednesday evening. “The Cordoba Initiative has been a part of that rebuilding, and a new community facility would contribute to Lower Manhattan’s role as a center for cultural diversity and tolerance.”

As of press time, this paper had reached out to a number of elected officials and only Squadron returned our calls.

Still, there are other reports that the financing is coming from foreign sources, in addition to those from the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Bros. Fund as I've previously reported

Then, there's the issue of landmarking status of the building in question.



A ruling on the landmark status might limit the alterations to the exterior, but may not stop the plans altogether. Often, the planners will be able to retain the exterior facade while altering the interiors. Then, there's the fact that the LPC has signed off on alterations to other historically significant buildings in the City, including the Edward Durell Stone designed building at 2 Columbus Circle that was known for its marble facing, although the LPC did end up killing a plan that would have saved St. Vincent's Hospital when they wanted to demolish and/or alter several buildings in Greenwich Village. Moreover, this building isn't actually landmarked, which means that the LPC would first have to designate it as a landmark, and the LPC declined to do so in the 1980s when the issue was first broached.

Then, there's the craziness with the claim that the community center/mosque proposal is somehow at Ground Zero. It isn't. Even those who support the idea that the mosque be allowed to go forward don't get this. Somehow, the community center's proximity to Ground Zero is just too close to comfort for some, even as the mosque itself has operated just a bit further away without any problems for years. The mosque bought the property in question so as to expand its offerings to the entire Lower Manhattan community at a time when Lower Manhattan lacks those facilities, and it happens to include a mosque.

It's several blocks away, and while the building itself sustained damage from the attacks by falling debris (including parts of one of the aircraft hijacked in the attack), it is not included in the 16 acres that comprise Ground Zero or the future memorial or museum.

I've been ambivalent over whether this project should go forward; I know the building and that block has been blighted since the attack. The Community Board seems to have a good read on this - and that's including the opposition heard at their recent meetings.

Barron Dealing Nothing But Race Cards

Yesterday, the New York City Council voted on who would be the speaker for the Council. Christine Quinn won the reelection, but it was not without the detestable and despicable Charles Barron making a spectacle of himself in yet another attempt to make the issue about race. You see, Quinn is a white woman, while Barron is a black man. Barron brought in some of his lackeys to shout epitaphs and indignities on the proceedings.

The final vote was 48-1, with Barron voting for himself.

During a racially charged session, the City Council re-elected Christine Quinn as speaker Wednesday by a 48-to-1 vote over outspoken Councilman Charles Barron.

A small group of Barron supporters shouted "sell out" and "Uncle Tom" as every member present except Barron - who nominated himself without a second - unanimously voted to give Quinn another four-year term.

"We owe it to our children to stand up like men and women and say our time has come," said Barron, a former Black Panther and Brooklyn councilman since 2002.

The Council has a non-white majority for the first time, consisting of 27 members who are African-American, Latino or Asian and 24 who are white.

The Council clearly didn't want to rock the boat, and they clearly weren't going to support Barron's firebrand nonsense. Quinn has been as effective a speaker as the Council could hope for, and she was the first woman to hold the position (as well as first lesbian), so it's not like she was some kind of sellout. She's had to put up all manner of indignity, so this wasn't anything new.

Her politics were clearly acceptable to everyone in the chamber, except Barron.

Barron remains as he ever was - a despicable figure and demogogue who thinks only of himself and will name drop others in furtherance of his own agenda.

Where the Illegal Things Are

President Barack Obama finally waded into the ACORN mess and promptly delivered a mishmash of lies and obfuscations.

It isn't something he's followed closely? Why is that? The videos are shocking enough, but ACORN's response has been even more shocking in claiming that these were merely isolated cases and that fault rested with the duo who filmed the incidents. They got rolled by Andrew Breitbart, who pushed a video a day over the span of a week to show just how badly ACORN is operated nationwide. One video would have been dismissed. Two videos would have been a coincidence, but now that we're up to five separate locations filmed showing ACORN employees providing advice on how to break the law, and you can no longer simply ignore the evidence.

Law enforcement and attorney generals nationwide should be opening investigations and auditing the books and records of ACORN to see what kind of mess is truly going on there, but ACORN has powerful friends that are more than willing to look the other way. ACORN has a dual mission - providing homeowner assistance and political organizing.

The homeowner assistance program has been suspended because of the videos, and one has to wonder what they've been advising customers for years on end. Employees with a certain moral and ethical flexibility are more than willing to provide advice on how to engage in illicit conduct, and ACORN employment practices appear not to weed out those people who are willing to break the law or look the other way.

Government funds ACORN operations across the nation via pork (member items) and outright grants through Housing and Urban Development to provide homeowner assistance. All these programs and funding needs to be scrutinized because of the level of advice being offered.

Politicians that are willing to overlook this criminality ought to themselves be scrutinized for their willingness to continue funding organizations that do a grave disservice to the communities they claim to represent. After all, politicians provide member items (pork to ACORN), and ACORN and its affiliates, including the WFP support and organize on behalf of political candidates.

These are some of the ties that bind:

One of them is Bill de Blasio, the Brooklyn city councilman in a tough runoff election for Public Advocate against Mark Green.

In January, ACORN endorsed de Blasio, who spent nearly $43,000 in campaign funds to hire an ACORN affiliate, N.Y. Citizens Services Inc., for "field staff," "consulting" and "canvassing" leading up to last Tuesday's primary.

As a councilman, the Brooklyn Democrat sponsored or co-sponsored a total of $115,000 in taxpayer dollars for ACORN and an affiliate, the New York Agency for Community Affairs.

He was also endorsed by the Working Families Party, which ACORN helped create and shares office space with, after spending $67,740 to hire WFP's for-profit arm, Data and Field Services, for campaign consulting. He also got $33,000 as a "consultant" for a WFP affiliate.

That's just the most egregious case. There are others:

In the last three years, more than 20 Council members, state assemblymen and state senators sponsored nearly $1.75 million in taxpayer money for various ACORN groups in New York.

That raises conflict of interest questions for pols who also seek the group's endorsement.

Dick Dadey of the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens Union said the conflict was "more perceived than actual," but added it "doesn't look good" for ACORN's political committee to endorse pols when a related entity gets money "from those same officials."

In this election ACORN, endorsed de Blasio and dozens of council members, including controller hopeful John Liu, as well as many state legislators.

NY Metro Area Political Scandal Watch

I'm sure this will come as a surprise, but the FBI has arrested a bunch of New Jersey mayors and other figures in a wide ranging corruption probe.

WNBC-TV in New York reported and showed images of the mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus being taken into FBI headquarters in Newark. The station also showed rabbis being taken into custody.

Radio station New Jersey 101.5 FM reports the sweeps are taking place in Hudson, Bergen, Monmouth and Ocean counties.

The stations say the probe centers on money-laundering and political bid rigging.

FBI spokeswoman Myrna Williams tells The Associated Press the arrests will go on till noon. She would not provide any more information.

Who else has been arrested? These guys:

A New Jersey assemblyman and the mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus were among public officials arrested this morning by FBI agents in a international money laundering and corruption probe that includes rabbis in the Syrian Jewish communities of Deal and Brooklyn.

Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean), Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, Secaucus Mayor Denis Elwell and Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega are among those who have been already been brought to the FBI building in Newark. Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini has also been arrested. A total of 30 people have been taken into custody, officials said.

The arrests come after two years of investigations that began with a probe into a money transfer scheme between Syrian Jews living in Deal, New Jersey and Brooklyn.

Curiously, only Pelt's political affiliation is mentioned in the Star Ledger, leaving us to wonder why he was singled out, and what the political affiliation was for all the other politicians nabbed in the probe.

The Bergen Record also notes political affiliations, but of only one person - again a Republican. Funny how that works.

Arrested were: Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega, Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Baldini, Jersey City Republican John Guarini, La Vern Webb-Washington, a Jersey City council candidate, Joseph Castagna, Jersey City's health officer, and Michael Manzo, a long-time veteran of the Jersey City fire department.

That's on the heels of still more problems for NY Assemblywoman Democrat Ann Margaret Carrozza, who has turned in a pitiful attendance record - she's been absent from session more than 50% of the time all while she's battling the fact that she doesn't live in the district she represents (and that's a problem found among several politicians at the state and local level in New York.

As for truancy, the New York City Council takes the cake. 20% of the Council doesn't show up regularly, and several show up less than 75% of the time.

UPDATE:
Jammie has much more on the developing scandal, including a photo of Gov. Corzine mugging for the cameras with Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano last week when Corzine was busy unveiling the new PATH train cars at Hoboken.

UPDATE:
Sentencing recommendations are in for former State Senator Wayne Bryant (a Democrat). Prosecutors want 8-10 years for his role in a low-show job at UMDNJ, which helped funnel money into the state's medical school.

Wayne Bryant, a once-powerful Democrat from Lawnside who served as chairman of the Senate budget committee, is set to be sentenced Friday. He was convicted last year of 12 corruption charges after a jury found he took a "low-show" job at a school in the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in exchange for bringing state money to the battered institution.

The jury also said he wrongly claimed pension credits for work performed by subordinate lawyers for the Gloucester County Board of Social Services.

Bryant didn't violate any laws by getting the pension credits, but prosecutors persuaded jurors that he broke the law by mailing in timesheets in which he claimed to do work that was really performed by others in his Cherry Hill law firm.

UPDATE:
Perp walk:

Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell led in handcuffs into FBI building

Thus far, these are the people who are under arrest and will be indicted as part of this investigation (and their political affiliations - many of which were omitted from early reports except for Republican Van Pelt - will add more names to this list as they become available):

1. Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell (D)
2. Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano (D)
3. Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez (D)
4. State Assemblyman Peter Van Pelt (R)
5. former State Assemblyman Lou Manzo (D)
   
6. Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega (D)
7. Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Baldini (D)
8. Jersey City council candidate Guy Catrillo
9. Jersey City council candidate La Vern Webb-Washington (D, but ran as independent)
   
10. Jersey City health officer Joseph Castagna
11. Hudson County Affirmative Action officer Edward Cheatam, also a Jersey City Housing Authority commissioner
12. Former Jersey City Councilman and former state Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith
13. Richard Greene, former aide to L. Harvey Smith
14. John Guarini, who ran for Congress (R)
15. Lou Manzo
    
16. Ron Manzo
17. Michael Manzo (ran as independent)
18. Political operative Joseph Cardwell
19. Political operative Jack Shaw
20. Former 32nd District Senate candidate Denis Jaslow
21. Richard Green who works in the accounting and purchasing department in Jersey City.
22. Mordchai Fish
23. Eliahu Ben Haim
24. Schmulik Cohen
25. Levi Deutsch
26. Yeshayahu Ehrental
27. Levi Izhak Rosenbaum
28. Edmond Nahum
29. Lavel Schwartz
30. Abraham Pollack
31. Naftoly Weber
32. Saul Kassin
33. Shimon Haber
34. Joseph Castagna
35. Maher A. Khalil
36. Moshe Altman
37. Charles Amon
38. Itzak Friedlander

The home of Joseph V. Doria Jr., commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs, and former mayor of Bayonne, was raided. He too is a Democrat.

Cammarano's indictment is now available online. He's being charged with 18 USC 1951 offenses, for accepting what appears to be $20,000 in bribes (four times apparently accepting or expecting to accept $5,000 in bribes) and extortion.

Van Pelt's indictment reads similarly. He's caught taking $10,000 in bribes and using his position to influence outcomes at different state agencies.

Various Jewish institutions in Deal were raided this morning:

Agents from the FBI, IRS and Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office raided schools and synagogues in Deal this morning. Boxes were removed from the Deal Yeshiva, on the corner of Brighton and Norwood avenues, is a prestigious religious school in town, as well as the Ohel Yaacob synagogue on Ocean Avenue in Deal.

New Jersey and Corruption. Perfect Together Again.

UPDATE:
Moe Lane (and here) has more information on the political affiliations, which I've added into my full list.

UPDATE:
Here's another list of those arrested, including criminal complaints.

UPDATE:
Among those charged is Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, of Brooklyn. His alleged crimes are at odds with those of the others arrested today. He was indicted on crimes relating to the sale of a human kidney for a transplant, at a cost of $160,000 to the transplant recipient. Selling organs is illegal in the US.

UPDATE:
Joseph Doria, who was not indicted in today's law enforcement sweep, is stepping down as Gov. Corzine's Community Affairs Commissioner (forced seems more apt). His home was searched by the FBI and they took documents as part of their investigation.

NYC City Council Slush Fund Scandal Grows

Gather around folks and watch politicians scramble to save their necks, because this scandal is a doozy.

Authorities are poring over the spending of about a dozen city and state legislators to see if they followed the same shady path of former City Councilman Miguel Martinez, who has admitted stealing from taxpayers, sources said yesterday.

One veteran government staffer said some people are already steering clear of the suspect legislators, fearing that anything they say could wind up in the hands of swarming prosecutors.

"I've been told, 'Be careful who you talk to,' " confided the staffer.

He obtained a list of about a dozen elected officials that authorities are "looking at," he said.

Even some of those outside the government have become fretful about interacting with certain legislators.

Martinez's admission this week that he's a crook -- and has been one since taking office in 2002, stealing $106,000 -- was the unavoidable topic No. 1 at the annual council outing yesterday at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn.

"We were all saying the same thing. We all thought Martinez was a good guy," said one council member. "It turns out he's a thief, a common thief. We're all dumbfounded, frustrated and upset."

The council member said he found it ironic that during budget negotiations, Martinez consistently pressed to fund Legal Aid and legal services.

The investigation initiated with an examination of a group funded by City Councilman Kendall Stewart (D-Brooklyn) and taxpayer money that two of his aides steered toward a charity, which they used to misappropriate $145,000 in government funds.

The problem goes back to the porkbarrel projects and groups that obtain funds annually from the City and State as member items. It is far too easy for politicians to influence the outcomes of who receives those payments and the connections between the politicians and some of these nonprofit groups is too close for comfort.

In fact, one has to wonder whether some of these groups were created to benefit the politicians rather than the general public particularly since Albany legislators are considered part timers. That means that they get to hold positions outside their legislative duties.

Priorities in New York City

Which is more important? City Council staffers getting raises or NY Police Department raises? In a recession? Well, the police department is putting a hold in grade promotions, but the City Council, which sets the city's budget, is more than happy to provide raises to staffers.

Despite the city's dire fiscal situation, the City Council doled out 90 staff raises this year, with one aide getting a $20,000 increase even though his title did not change, The Post has found.

A review of council salaries from fiscal years 2008 and 2009 show 64 staffers got double-digit increases in pay. Kenneth Mitchell got a bump from $95,976 to $115,976 when he worked as chief of staff and general counsel to Councilman Michael McMahon (D-SI) Mitchell did not return calls

The Post does not provide the total amount of money involved from these raises, but it could have gone to the police officers deserving of promotions.

The police department is putting the promotion freeze in place as a cost cutting measure:

In the first three months of the year, just one cop has gotten a discretionary promotion -- compared to 180 in the same period last year, records show.

This affects all promotions up to the rank of chief that do not require passing a civil-service test. For example, when a detective third grade is promoted to second grade, the pay jumps from $80,000 to $92,000 a year. A promotion to first grade nets a $104,000 salary.

The moratorium also affects raises for sergeants and lieutenants on special assignments that pay more.

Sources say the discretionary promotions are on hold until the department's fiscal year ends in July. With the force thinning its ranks by 5,000 officers over the last six years, there's little room to slash jobs, so the NYPD has to find other cost-saving measures.

So, at a time when the NYPD is looking to cost cutting measures, the City Council is finding new ways to spend limited tax dollars.

Still, that isn't to say that the NYPD and the police union are completely without blame for the current budget crisis; union benefits have cost the City dearly over the years and the unions aren't particularly willing to give up those benefits, even when the City can ill-afford them.

These are also costs that the federal stimulus package wont entirely cover, and wont be available in coming years because the stimulus is a one-shot, and the City will have to come up with the money in coming years (at a time when it can't come up with the money now, nor can it make the necessary cuts to the city workforce and reduce spending).

Bloomberg Moves To Overturn Term Limits; Run For 3d Term

I was never a fan of term limits in the first place, since the idea of democratic voting put the ultimate term limit in the hands of voters - if you want to send a politician packing, you vote them out of office. However, voters decided twice that New York City politicians would be limited to two terms as Mayor and three terms in the City Council. This pleased few politicians since it meant that they would not have a lifetime job and would either have to give up politics or run for a higher office, often bumping into still other lifetime politicians at the state level, including Assemblymen or US Congressmen.

Now, Mayor Mike Bloomberg is agitating to dump the term limits law so he can run for a third term. He was hoping to circumvent the process that established the law in the first place - a municipal referendum that required voters to approve the change. He's since gotten the support of Ron Lauder, who helped bankroll the term limits referendum in the first place:

The Post first reported yesterday on the push for "Mike The III" in a story yesterday revealing that chief term-limits supporter Ron Lauder had decided to back another four years for Bloomberg and that the mayor had told aides he intended to go for it.

If he pulls it off, Bloomberg would become only the fourth mayor to serve three terms in the last century - following in the footsteps of Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Wagner and Ed Koch.

Bloomberg got a huge boost when Lauder - who bankrolled the 1993 voter initiative that imposed term limits - told The Post yesterday he endorsed temporarily extending the limits to 12 years from eight.

The changes, which would affect all citywide officeholders, borough president and City Council members, will be undertaken by a revision to the 15-year-old city law, not through a public referendum, sources said.

Sources said Bloomberg will announce tomorrow that he wants to run because of his concerns for the city's welfare amid the meltdown in the New York-dominated financial services industry.

Bloomberg is a former Wall Street trader and founder of the successful financial services firm in his name - and he has a vote of confidence from the city's business community.

Top off this scheme with the fact that it would only apply to those who are already in office, and not repeal the law entirely. In other words, he's basically hoping to write the law to exempt himself and the already seated City Council.

People briefed on the matter said Mr. Bloomberg, 66, would seek to change the law through legislation in the City Council. His staff is envisioning an unusual bill that would apply only to those currently in office, allowing them to serve three terms instead of two. A permanent change would require voter approval, these people said.

Mr. Bloomberg’s strategy carries significant political risk. Several polls, conducted over the last few months, show widespread support for keeping the law in place. City voters passed term limits by overwhelming margins in 1993, and reaffirmed their support in 1996.

“A backdoor deal undermines the will of New Yorkers,” said the New York City comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., who plans to run for mayor next year. “Democracy,” he added, “is bigger than any one person.”

The people who are supporting this plan are those who would most benefit from it - the politicians who are seated in the City Council and the Mayor. Some business interests also support the deal, likely because they have cultivated close relationships with those members of the Council and would have to begin anew once term limits send those members packing.

Bloomberg thinks that he's best suited to address the city's problems in the face of a financial crisis on Wall Street, but I beg to differ.

Bloomberg's first instinct is to raise taxes and fees, and has done little in the way of reducing the out of control spending by the City. He's consistently sought to impose massive new taxes such as the congestion pricing scheme, which he hoped to use to fund mass transit projects. While the idea of improving mass transit is a sound one, taxing those businesses and individuals who rely on vehicle traffic to enter the City would only further increase the costs of doing business and result in lower revenues on other taxes already imposed and do nothing but increase the costs of doing business in one of the most heavily taxed jurisdictions in the nation.

Raising taxes at a time when the City's financial sector is hurting is a recipe for disaster given that many of these businesses are looking at consolidation and would likely move elsewhere - to New Jersey for example - rather than stay in the City. The City would then have to provide still more financial incentives and tax breaks to these companies to stay, rather than lose those businesses that remain.

Bloomberg hopes to extend mayoral control over the education department, which is a good idea, but the teacher's union has clear ideas on how to wrestle control for themselves, which does nothing to actually improve student learning.

Rep. Anthony Weiner has already suggested that he would run for Mayor should Bloomberg get a chance to run again. Others suggesting that they are running include Gristede's supermarket owner John Castamatides, NYC Comptroller Bill Thompson, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Thompson and Quinn would be forced from office via term limits. Thompson is opposed to Bloomberg's plan to dump the term limits.

The Daily News' Juan Gonzales isn't a fan of Bloomberg's plans either, but Bloomberg has support of a majority of City Council members so that the passage of such a law is all but guaranteed. That's not much of a surprise given that 2/3 of the Council would be ousted on term limits in 2009.

NYC City Council Speaker Under Investigation

We could play name that party, but this is New York City we're talking about. It could only be a Democrat, or so the naysayers who don't like playing name that party like to assert.

In any event, Christine Quinn has pretty much established a slush fund to spread taxpayer dollars to those who do her bidding.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's office hid millions of taxpayer dollars by allocating grants to phantom organizations as a way of holding the funds to dole out political favors later - bogus bookkeeping that is the subject of city and federal probes, The Post has learned.

Among the dozens of fabricated groups that were slated to receive funds were the "Immigration Improvement Project of New York" ($300,000), the "Coalition for a Strong Special Education" ($400,000) and the "American Association of Concerned Veterans" ($422,763).

The total amount set aside in 2007 and 2008 for the fake organizations - which are each listed by name in the city budget after being inserted at the council's request - was $4.7 million. In the two years, 30 phantom groups were listed, council aides confirmed.

The money, in effect, became a slush fund for the speaker and was later used at Quinn's discretion to reward groups that were loyal to her and to fund favored council members' pet projects, sources told The Post.

The scheme gave "the speaker a stash of cash with which to thank or pay off politically important allies or cooperative council members," a source said.

Quinn insisted in an interview yesterday with The Post that all of the taxpayer funds were ultimately used for legitimate purposes.

The never-before-exposed practice of hiding the funds dates to 1988, council aides said last night.

That last part is likely the result of the Board of Estimate being eliminated as a governing body in the City because it was deemed unconstitutional as it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution under the 14th Amendment (one person, one vote).

Slush funds are a common way for political leaders to remain in power; the same process happens in Albany as well - as it is institutionalized as member items that are provided to the Speaker's office and doled out in the course of the budget bills. How Quinn operated her funds is at question here. She set up bogus entities to hold the money until such time as it was needed.

This was an end run around City, State, and possibly federal law.

One has to wonder just how many millions of dollars was siphoned off into Quinn's shenanigans.