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Ex-Councilman Halloran Guilty On All Five Counts
Jul 29th - 2:24 pm
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A jury today found ex-Queens Councilman Dan Halloran guilty on all five counts of the corruption charges he faced stemming in part from his role in a bribery scheme to sell the GOP line in the 2013 NYC mayoral primary.
US Attorney Preet Bharara issued the following statement:
“With today’s verdict of guilty reached by an impartial and independent jury, the clean-up of corruption in New York continues in courtrooms. As the jury unanimously found, Daniel Halloran played a key role in two distinct political corruption schemes: first, for $20,000, Halloran was willing and able to serve as a go-between to deliver bribes to political party officials, and second he also took nearly $25,000 in cash and illegal campaign contributions to steer $80,000 in City Council money to other bribe payers.”
“Dan Halloran was the lone defendant in the trial that just ended in his conviction, but he is unfortunately not alone in a crowded field of New York officials who are willing to sell out their offices for self-enrichment.”
“This Office will continue the vigorous prosecution of political corruption to secure for the people of New York – regardless of party affiliation – what they deserve: the honest labors of their elected representatives. And we will continue to partner with the FBI, whose outstanding investigative work in this case was instrumental to achieving a just result.”
Halloran, a Republican, was charged with taking more than $20,000 in payoffs from two undercover FBI operatives posing as corrupt developers in exchange for agreeing to funnel public cash to them and to help bribe Republican NYC county leaders to allow Democratic Sen. Malcolm Smith, also of Queens, to run Row B in the party’s mayoral primary.
(That race was eventually won by former MTA Chairman Joe Lhota, who lost the general election in a landslide to the winner of the Democratic primary, current NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio).
Testifying in his own defense, Halloran admitted taking the cash, but said he considered the money payment for consulting services and never procured any public funds for the real estate developers/FBI agents.
Originally, Halloran and Smith were once co-defendants, along with former Queens GOP official Vince Tabone. But attorneys for Smith and Tabone opted to accept a mistrial due to a procedural error having to do with Yiddish phone recordings, while Halloran’s attorney decided to proceed as scheduled.
Smith and Tabone will be re-tried in January, and today’s verdict perhaps is not the best omen for them. In the meantime, Smith is seeking re-election, though he has been cast out from both the Democratic Senate conference (which he once led) and the IDC.
Cuomo Provides Soft Landing For Ex-Bloomberg Aides, Queens Councilman
Mar 13th - 1:52 pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is again providing a professional home for former Bloomberg administration aides and an ex-NYC Councilman who was term limited out of office last year and lost his bid for another elected post.
The governor announced four new hires this afternoon, one of which is his fellow Queens native Peter Vallone Jr., who served as on the NYC Council from 2002 to 2013 and chaired the Public Safety Committee. Vallone, a member of a dynastic political family, lost the Democratic primary for Queens borough president last fall to his one-time Council colleague, Melinda Katz.
In his new post with the Cuomo administration, Vallone will serve as a special assistant assigned to the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. It’s not clear how long this new gig will last for Vallone, who has made no secret of his desire to one day return to public office – preferably to the Queens DA’s job.
Cuomo also hired two former Bloombeg administration staffers: Kevin Kelly, who had served as deputy commissioner of NYC Business under the former mayor, will be COO of New York State Homes and Community Renewal; and Jamal Othman, who was chief of staff in the New York City Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs will now be deputy director of the state Division of Veterans’ Affairs.
Also, Nora Yates, who was an Empire State Fellow in the executive chamber, has been hired as deputy director of the Community, Opportunity & Reinvestment (“CORe”) initiative, which Cuomo launched in his 2013 State of the State address.
Salaries for these new hires were not immediately available.
This is hardly the first time Cuomo has hired former NYC Council members or former Bloomberg staffers. The most recent addition came in January, when Cuomo named former Councilman Jim Gennaro, also of Queens, to a new position at the DEC.
Garodnick Concedes NYC Council Speaker Race To Mark-Viverito
Jan 8th - 12:59 pm
The NYC Council meeting at which a new speaker will be selected is underway and being streamed live here. But the outcome of that vote is already clear, as Councilman Dan Garodnick issued a last-minute statement conceding the race to his fellow Democrat, Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito.
This is an historic moment, as Mark-Viverito will be the first Latina to hold the speakership. She will succeed former Councilwoman Christine Quinn, who was the first woman and first openly gay speaker. Quinn was long the Democratic frontrunner in last year’s New York City mayor’s race, but she lost the September primary to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Mark-Viverito’s win is also a victory for de Blasio, who made it clear that she was his choice in the speaker contest. This drew criticism – including from the New York Times, which endorsed Garodnick – that perhaps Mark-Viverito would not be sufficiently independent from the new mayor.
It’s also a loss for several of the city’s Democratic county chairs – especially Rep. Joe Crowley, who heads the Queens organization. Crowley was reportedly working hard into the final hours of this race to put together the votes for Grodnick. But in the end, Garodnick’s allies could not overcome the early lead announced by Mark-Viverito, and the work she and her allies – most notably de Blasio – did to keep the 30 Council members who pledged their support to her in her camp.
Here’s Garodnick’s statement:
“Over a year ago, I offered myself as a candidate to be Speaker of the City Council because I believed I could offer progressive leadership and independence to a body to which I am deeply committed. In the intervening months, I have enjoyed spending time in the districts of many of my colleagues getting to know their concerns and their own visions for the future,” Garodnick said.
“Three weeks ago, I decided to remain a candidate notwithstanding long odds because I felt it was important that every Council Member be given a full opportunity to consider who they wanted to lead the body. Today that process comes to a conclusion, and in the spirit of strengthening the Council, which animated my candidacy from the start, I now formally concede to the next Speaker of the City Council – my colleague Melissa Mark-Viverito.”
“I look forward to working with Speaker Mark-Viverito and to helping her to ensure that we can deliver a sound and responsible government for all New Yorkers. She is a smart and committed public servant, and we have worked extremely well together in the past. I look forward to supporting her work as Speaker during the course of this term. I will do my part to resolve any rifts this process may have caused among our colleagues, and am here to take any steps necessary to help move forward together.
Cuomo Hires NYC Councilwoman
Sep 24th - 5:42 pm
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been on a bit of a hiring spree lately, finally getting around to replacing some of the holdovers from previous administrations. His latest hire is NYC Councilwoman Helen Foster, a Bronx Democrat who is about to be out of a job at the end of the year, thanks to term limits.
Cuomo announced today that he has tapped Foster to serve as commissioner of the State Division of Human Rights. Pending state Senate confirmation, she’ll be the acting commissioner. She’s replacing Galen Kirkland, a holdover from the Paterson administration.
Foster’s appointment needs to be confirmed by the state Senate, which means that barring any return to Albany by the Legislature, which is not expected at this point, she won’t offically be commissioner until January. She resigned from her Council seat effective today, according to the governor’s office.
Foster’s salary, which is set by statute, will be $109,800.
Foster was elected to the Council in 2001. She was the first African-American woman from the Bronx to be elected to a city office. She replaced her father, Wendell Foster, who became the first black person elected to city office from the Bronx in 1978. He held his seat until he was forced out by term limits.
During her time on the Council, Foster was perhaps best known (rather dubiously) for having the worst attendance record of all her colleagues. She missed 56 council meetings out of 142 she was scheduled to attend in Fiscal Year 2013, although most of those were committee meetings. Also, as of August, Foster hadn’t been the primary sponsor of a single bill passed into law since March 2010.
Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson won a seven-way Democratic primary to replace Foster earlier this month. Her victory maintains a traditionally “black seat” ni an increasingly Latino-dominated district.
Catullo on Quinn and Kids
Aug 21st - 3:59 pm
The firestorm over Maureen Dowd’s column today may revolve around Christine Quinn not having children — at least that is what Quinn’s supporters would like you to think.
But did Quinn and her wife Kim Catullo ever consider it?
Coincidentally, we spoke to Quinn’s wife about this on Saturday when we sat down with her for her first television interview.
In essence, she said they both felt they would not have enough time to dedicate to children — at least for now.
Here are Kim’s comments in full:
Question: “Would you ever think about kids?”
Kim Catullo: “You know, we have talked about it a lot. I mean it’s, not to get too personal, but when you lose a parent at the ages that we did, it makes you realize the significance of parenthood in a way that I don’t think most people get. And so for us, the decision was a monumental one. We’ve actually just never, we have always felt that we could never give the attention and the time that we believed was required. We have never said never. You know, but the timing just hasn’t worked out.”
Video is forthcoming.
watch video here >> (684670)
Battle Over Web Videos
Aug 21st - 2:57 pm
While the Bill de Blasio camp slammed Christine Quinn in a new web video highlighting her support for Ray Kelly (see Nick Reisman’s post below), the Quinn camp released a video and site of their own.
They are channeling Charles Dickens.
The new site, “A Tale of Two De Blasios,” promises to post an anti-de Blasio “tale” every weekday. By my count, that makes 14 before the Democratic primary.
The first “tale” rips de Blasio for suggesting in a 2005 speaker debate that term limits should be changed via legislation.
At the time, Baruch’s Doug Muzzio posed this question: should members of the City Council serve longer than the mayor? It’s an argument some have made for years given the mayor’s office has significantly more power than the City Council. Giving council members another term, some argue, would help balance that out.
This is the exchange in full, courtesy of Gotham Gazette, part of which is cut off in the Quinn video:
Bill deBlasio: I think next year after extensive public discussion, after extensive hearings, I think we should move forward with an additional four-year term through the legislative process. I think that’s so important because council members must work across mayoral terms. The charter, I think, has not provided the proper balance between the mayor and the council. I think that something we also have to work on, but certainly as we’ve experienced term limits we’ve learned that in practice it further saps some of the councils ability to play the role of a strong legislature and a strong check and balance, and that’s why I think adding an additional four year term would really create greater balance and allow members to gain additional expertise and strengthen their role.
Doug Muzzio: How should it be accomplished?
Bill deBlasio: Through legislation, after a full, public debate.
And for context, Quinn’s answer really wasn’t very different. See below:
Doug Muzzio: Christine?
Christine Quinn: I also oppose term limits for some of the reasons David mentioned and others. I think it doesn’t allow elected officials enough time to become experts on the issues we need to be experts on in the legislature. And also, it does overly empower the staff…at city hall. I think we should make changes to term limitations legislatively. It is an issue I would want to discuss immediately with my colleagues if I were elected speaker. I’m inclined to think 12 years is the right timeframe, but I’m not committed to that because I think it really is a decision we all have to come to collectively in the new city council.
If there are 14 more of these, I wonder what is coming next.
Weiner On Alternate-Side Parking, Bloomy Endorsement
Aug 6th - 4:51 pm
Highlighting another one of his “Keys to the City,” Anthony Weiner called for a 25% reduction in the number of alternate-side parking days during a news conference on the Upper East Side today.
Standing on the sidewalk on E. 68th Street, Weiner said four-times-a-week street cleaning is unnecessary, causing driver inconvenience, lost productivity, increased traffic and pollution.
“This gentleman,” he said, gesturing toward a man sitting in his car just a few feet way. “He can be off at work. He could be doing something more productive. Instead, he’s waiting for alternate-side to end. All along this street, and all around this neighborhood, it goes on. We don’t question it because we say hey, that’s the way New York is.”
“We never go back and say hey, can we do with a little less street cleaning or a little bit more.”
In fact, thanks to City Council legislation passed in 2011—and a city pilot program before that—neighborhoods in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan have had the number of alternate-side days reduced after meeting cleanliness targets. The latest reductions took place in parts of Inwood and Washington Heights earlier this summer.
Meanwhile, responding to Mayor Bloomberg’s speech earlier today warning that labor costs could drive the city to financial ruin, Weiner said no candidate has dealt with health-care costs as seriously as he has, adding:
“I think that the mayor, were he a Democrat, would vote for me in the primary, and I expect him to vote for me in the general.”
Quinn and Thompson Tussle Over Northern Ireland Investment
Aug 6th - 4:34 pm
It’s no secret Christine Quinn has a soft spot for Ireland.
But when it comes to an investment there spearheaded by Bill Thompson, she is not as complimentary.
While announcing an appeal of the prevailing wage decision, Quinn was asked about today’s column by Michael Powell. Powell reports an investment in Northern Ireland by then-Comptroller Thompson tanked. Even though the investment was abandoned, a Thompson campaign contributor made out with a $250,000 fee.
Quinn said it raises “some important and troubling questions.” Here is the bulk of her remarks today:
“It’s an example of taxpayers’ money being lost and this loss of taxpayer money follows on the heels of the CityTime losses. And I think it’s yet another example of things at the comptroller’s office falling through the cracks, not being properly taken care of, when Bill Thompson was at the comptroller’s office. And I think that is a record that the voters need to look at.”
After her presser, the Thompson campaign released their own statement. Here it is:
“I am more than happy to talk about people’s records; I’m proud of mine. As Comptroller, I led efforts to increase the city pension funds by $20 billion. While I was doing that, Chris Quinn was using a corrupt slush fund to park taxpayer dollars in phony charities to buy political support and running the City Council budget in a way that rewarded her friends and punished those who disagreed with her.”
The Battle of the Bills Over Stop and Frisk
Jul 31st - 1:14 pm
Attempting to fire back at Bill de Blasio, Bill Thompson set out this morning to clarify his position on stop and frisk and the pending Community Safety Act.
Surrounded by clergy members, Thompson explained his position on stop and frisk as well as his recent speech on Trayvon Martin, saying they were ”heartfelt words.”
The typically cool-tempered mayoral candidate adamantly defended his position. He said it does not amount to pandering — something suggested by de Blasio.
Essentially, Thompson’s argument boiled down to this: He wants to “ban racial profiling,” but he also opposes the Community Safety Act.
First off, the Community Safety Act is comprised of two bills. One to appoint an independent inspector general to oversee the NYPD. The other allows New Yorkers to sue in state court for biased-based profiling.
So, you ask, how can a candidate oppose a bill to allow New Yorkers to sue over profiling, but say he wants to ban racial profiling altogether?
Needless to say, Thompson got a lot of questions this morning about this nuance. Here was his response:
Opposing the bill or not supporting the bill and saying I would end profiling how is that having your cake and eating it too? I beleive, as I said , I don’t need legislation to be able to move a police department in a different direction. A new police commissioner, which is something I am committed to, being a mayor who says I will not allow profiling in my department and take steps to make sure that that happens I don’t need legislation to do that.
Asked whether he would veto the bills if he were mayor, Thompson sidestepped the question.
His explanation: “If I were mayor, there wouldn’t be a need to have legislation, because you wouldn’t have seen the abuse and misuse of stop and frisk.”
Quinn To Halloran: Consider Resigning
May 1st - 4:53 pm
NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn doesn’t think scandal-scarred Councilman Dan Halloran’s decision not to seek re-election this fall goes far enough, and is urging the Queens Republican to consider giving up his seat altogether.
“I urge Council Member Halloran to think hard about whether he should go further and step down immediately,” the speaker and Democratic NYC mayoral frontrunner said in a statement released late this afternoon.
“The constituents of Dan Halloran’s district deserve to have a Council Member who is full time, 100 percent focused on representing them. Clearly, with the outrageously unacceptable allegations that are pending, both as they relate to the federal indictment and to recent allegations of sexual harassment, he is far from 100 percent focused on his constituents.”
Through a spokesperson, Halloran indicated earlier today that he has no intention of resigning.
Quinn’s tough talk is no surprise. She has been publicly lambasting Halloran for days now and ordered an ethics probe into his extramarital affairs with two young women – one a Council intern, the other his former deputy chief of staff.
But the speaker’s zero tolerance approach has not shielded her from criticism from her mayoral rivals, who have used Halloran’s corruption scandal to recall the slush fund mess that occurred on Quinn’s watch.