Tracking Patronage & Corruption in New York State Politics (BETA)

Posts tagged Patronage

Lopez Crony Pleads Guilty to Lying to the Feds

Nov 15, 2012 ~ Written by admin

The New York Daily News reports (more detailed New York Post story here) that Christiana Fisher, Lopez’ former campaign treasurer, has pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of filing false information in response to a subpoena from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney, which carries a maximum sentence of six months.

According to the Post story:  “[a]s part of her plea deal, Fisher agreed to forfeit nearly $171,000 that prosecutor Carrie Cohen said represented the amount of money she pocketed as a result of the falsified documents.  She also faces a potential fine of twice that amount.”

Fisher admitted to “recreating” missing documents at the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Center Council (which Lopez founded) “to justify hiking her salary to a jaw-dropping $607,024 in 2010. She claims she was working a 35-hour week.”  Nice work if you can get it.

Oh yeah, Fisher also approved massive raises for Lopez’s girlfriend,  Angela Battaglia, who is an executive at the non-profit.  Battaglia accompanied Fisher in Court today.  It’s too bad she and Lopez won’t be going to jail with Fisher as well.

 

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Vito’s Going to Win Reelection

Oct 30, 2012 ~ Written by admin

The New York Daily News reports how Vito “Gropez” Lopez is likely to win reelection to New York’s State Assembly because–as they so eloquently put it–the Assembly is an immense “incumbent-protection racket that protects the good and the bad from competition in a one-party town.”

The News explains that Lopez’s power derives from his control over the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, “a social services colossus that provides publicly-funded assistance in many forms to Lopez’s constituents, elderly and otherwise.”

Lopez claims that he has nothing to do with the Council (which is under investigation for fraud), but the Post has outlined his deep and continuing connections (and conflicts of interest) here.

One of the (many) fundamental ethical problems plaguing New York politics is that lawmakers are permitted to directly and indirectly control (and be on the payroll of) state- and federally-funded nonprofit organizations.

The conflicts of interest are so obvious that is unclear how the State permits the practice to continue.

Among other things, the aformentioned Post story reports that:

  • Lopez’s girlfriend, Angela Battaglia, is the organization’s No. 2 official, making $329,910 a year. His campaign treasurer, Christiana Fisher, is its executive director and has a $659,591 salary for working only 17½ hours per week.
  • Lopez was personally paid $57,600 as a consultant in a single year by Ridgewood Bushwick.

  • Lopez’s Bushwick Democratic Club operates out of a building owned by one of Ridgewood Bushwick’s three dozen subsidiaries, which claims on tax forms to operate the building to provide “respite services” for senior citizens.

  • Former Ridgewood Bushwick employees, including Richard Velasquez and Pam Fisher, have become Brooklyn judges with Lopez’s support.

  • As an assemblyman, Lopez has steered at least $335,000 in member items to Ridgewood Bushwick since 2009.

  •  Ridgewood Bushwick has built and manages hundreds of units of affordable housing, which Lopez helped fund with city and state subsidies using his influence as chair of the Assembly’s Housing Committee.

To recap, this so-called “nonprofit” is a state-funded cash and influence machine that permits Lopez to print money for his personal and political associates (as well as for himself).

Anyone see a problem here?

 

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New York Post Rants About Gropez-Buddy Judge Landicino

Oct 27, 2012 ~ Written by admin

The New York Post is not amused by the fact that Vito Lopez’s gift to New York — Brooklyn Judge Carl Landicino — will still be on the bench long after Lopez is gone.  That’s assuming, of course, that Lopez goes anywhere.

The Post is being unduly harsh on Judge Landicino.  He hasn’t been accused of being corrupt or even unqualified.  Quite to the contrary, it’s clear that Landicino is quite an expert on New York’s Byzantine election laws.  That’s saying something, folks.  Unfortunately, he learned the dark arts at the knee of the Sith Lord Lopez.  Perhaps now that he’s on the bench, he’ll see the light.  One can only hope.

 

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Never Heard of Stanley Schlein?

Oct 09, 2012 ~ Written by admin

“Power Broker.”  “Judge-Maker.”  Those are the words the New York Times use to describe Stanely Schlein in a recent article that raises questions about Schlein’s involvement in a real estate development deal in the Bronx.

According to the Times, 17 years ago Schlein told the City that he’d develop the site, and the City awarded him and his partners that right without any competitive bidding, much less any questions as to his qualifications as a developer.  In the intervening years, the City either turned away other developers or referred them to Schlein as the rights-owner with whom they’d have to negotiate.  Now, after all that time, Schlein stands to make an unspecified “bundle” as a real development company that partnered with him is about to break ground on the project.

So, who is Stanley Schlein?  Well, let’s just say that he’s one of those highly-connected insider-lawyers who make a handsome living by greasing the skids of NYC politics — i.e., lobbying and lawyering for NY Pols and those who need access to those Pols to get approval for City contracts.

How did he get so connected?  Easy, he made his name in Bronx politics as an election law lawyer who guided the party favorites onto ballots while making life extremely difficult for challengers on election law technicalities.  In other words, he helped get a lot of judges and politicians get and stay in elected office.  In turn, they awarded him with lots of patronage gigs (like court-appointed legal guardianships) and his clients with City contracts.

In July 2005, the New York Times ran this profile of Schlein, pointing out his myriad political connections to such NY luminaries as George Steinbrenner, Al Sharpton, Mayor Bloomberg, former Bronx Democratic Bosses Stanley Friedman and Patrick J. Cunningham, as well as former Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.

Mayor Koch first appointed Schlein to serve on the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, and every mayor up to Bloomberg reappointed him.  Then, the Times’ latest piece reports:

A few years back, the city Conflicts of Interest Board fined Mr. Schlein $15,000 for using his city office as a de facto law office, making more than 2,000 phone calls related to his private business. Mr. Schlein resigned in 2006.

Mr. Schlein also served as a court-appointed fiduciary, a lucrative billet open to loyal Democratic Party worthies. That too ended badly. In 2006, the Office of Court Administration barred him from taking new assignments, as he had apparently badly handled the finances of the infirm and the elderly.

Here a few other past articles for those interested in digging further:

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Vito Lopez’s Attack Dog Gets Supreme Court Nomination

Sep 05, 2012 Leave a Comment ~ Written by admin

Here is a 2011 article from The New York World about the New York Supreme Court nomination of Carl Landicino, Vito Lopez’s attorney for the Kings County Democratic Party responsible for suing “would-be challengers to the Brooklyn Democrats’ favored nominees for legislative and other elected seats.”

In other words, if you dared seek a Brooklyn democrat nomination outside of the normal backroom processes, Mr. Landicino would sue you to knock you off the ballot.

Why is he qualified to sit on the bench?  Pretty much because Vito Lopez says so.

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