Thursday, April 25, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Westchester's Jenkins asks HUD for time on housing deal to save $7.4M
Westchester Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins / Joe Larese/The Journal News
With less than a week to go before U.S. housing officials say they’ll yank $7.4 million in grants from Westchester County, Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins is pleading for a month-long extension to meet the federal requirements for keeping the money.
Jenkins, D-Yonkers, announced Friday that he sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development asking it to give the county until May 25 to comply with a 2009 fair housing settlement.
HUD withheld 2011 and 2012 Community Development Block Grants after declaring that the county hadn’t adequately analyzed obstacles to fair housing, a provision of the 2009 settlement between the county and HUD. It recently notified the county that the 2011 money would be lost for good if the county did not submit a satisfactory zoning analysis and a plan for legislation prohibiting income
discrimination in housing by April 25.
discrimination in housing by April 25.
Jenkins said Friday that a court-appointed monitor of the settlement wasn’t expected to complete his own analysis of whether any zoning in Westchester excludes blacks or Hispanics until mid-May — and that the county should be given time to review those findings before submitting its own analysis to HUD.
The board chairman also said an extension would give Republican County Executive Rob Astorino the time he needs to send legislators the so-called “source-of-income” legislation required under the settlement.
Jenkins’ request comes three days after Astorino and the board sent HUD a letter urging it to let the state dole out the community development money on the county’s behalf — an arrangement similar to one already sought by HUD for disaster relief funds earmarked for Westchester’s municipalities.
Astorino’s chief-of-staff, George Oros, said Friday there is no need for an extension if HUD “would simply
adopt the proposal” to have the state handle the community development funds.
adopt the proposal” to have the state handle the community development funds.
A HUD spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment
.
.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Westchester Loses Again on Fair Housing
Westchester Loses Again on Fair Housing
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Published: April 15, 2013
More than three years have passed since Westchester County signed a landmark consent decree to settle a fair-housing lawsuit — years the county and County Executive Rob Astorino have spent shirking their obligations, challenging the deal in court, and losing. It lost again on April 5, when the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a district judge’s ruling that the county was in violation of terms of the court order.
The background: In 2009, the county was facing crippling fines for having taken tens of millions of federal housing dollars while falsely claiming it had complied with fair-housing mandates. In settling the case, the county agreed to build hundreds of affordable units, analyze how exclusionary zoning and other obstacles blocked fair housing, and take steps to overcome them. The county executive was also supposed to promote a law to forbid landlords from discriminating against tenants who use government vouchers to pay rent.
Mr. Astorino, who won election later that year, set the county on its defiant path. In 2010, when legislators passed the bill protecting tenants, he vetoed it, then tried to argue that the county had met its obligation to promote the law. The courts have ruled otherwise. You can’t veto a bill, they said, and “promote” it at the same time.
Mr. Astorino says the county is building some of the units it agreed to. But the court order demands more than just tucking apartments into the county’s nooks and crannies. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has warned that unless the county offers a plan to meet its obligations by April 25, it will lose $7.4 million in grants for housing and other projects. Mr. Astorino responded by accusing the department of “extortion” and threatening to sue for the money.
These theatrics may play well on talk radio, but they could cost Westchester dearly — not just in dollars lost for housing and services for the poor, plus additional fines. Die-hard resistance to civil-rights laws didn’t work out for the South half-a-century ago, and it won’t work now
.
.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Corruption 'casts shadow' on New York
Corruption 'casts shadow' on New York
ALBANY — After last week’s bribery scandals, Albany’s corrupt culture seems to be alive and well, prosecutors said.
“Once again, we have members of the Legislature allegedly acting as mercenaries,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Thursday. “Once again, we are forced to consider how pervasive corruption is in New York government.”
Former Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, was charged Tuesday with trying to bribe Republican officials to win him to the GOP nomination for New York City mayor. Two days later, Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, D-Bronx, was arrested for allegedly accepting $22,000 in bribes to push legislation to help the local developers of an adult-day-care facility.
Stevenson was undone because Assemblyman Nelson Castro, D-Bronx, agreed four years ago to serve as an informant after he was busted for perjury. Castro wore a wiretap, and Stevenson was heard boasting of how he could use his influence to help the developers, according to the criminal complaint.
“That type of behavior is disgusting. It’s not fit for an elected official. It’s not fit for anybody,” said Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, D-New City. “It’s so incredibly blatant; it casts a shadow on our entire system.”
More state senators have been arrested over the past six years — 12 of them — than lost a general election: only nine.
The brazenness of the cases has renewed calls for ethics and campaign-finance reforms in Albany.
“We have to make the consequences more serious and painful for those who violate the public trust and exhibit such abhorrent behavior,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale.
“Once again, we have members of the Legislature allegedly acting as mercenaries,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Thursday. “Once again, we are forced to consider how pervasive corruption is in New York government.”
Former Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, was charged Tuesday with trying to bribe Republican officials to win him to the GOP nomination for New York City mayor. Two days later, Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, D-Bronx, was arrested for allegedly accepting $22,000 in bribes to push legislation to help the local developers of an adult-day-care facility.
Stevenson was undone because Assemblyman Nelson Castro, D-Bronx, agreed four years ago to serve as an informant after he was busted for perjury. Castro wore a wiretap, and Stevenson was heard boasting of how he could use his influence to help the developers, according to the criminal complaint.
“That type of behavior is disgusting. It’s not fit for an elected official. It’s not fit for anybody,” said Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, D-New City. “It’s so incredibly blatant; it casts a shadow on our entire system.”
More state senators have been arrested over the past six years — 12 of them — than lost a general election: only nine.
The brazenness of the cases has renewed calls for ethics and campaign-finance reforms in Albany.
“We have to make the consequences more serious and painful for those who violate the public trust and exhibit such abhorrent behavior,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Westchester affordable housing: Appeals court ruling against county puts $7.4M in aid at risk
Westchester affordable housing: Appeals court ruling against county puts $7.4M in aid at risk
Photo credit: Rory Glaeseman | Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino speaks with residents in Somers about his efforts and dealings with the federal government over affordable housing in the county. (Feb. 27, 2013)
In the decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the judges said that they would not allow the county "to shirk its voluntarily agreed to obligations, made less than four years ago," a reference to Westchester's landmark court settlement with federal officials regarding access to affordable housing.Westchester is running afoul of a key point in the court-mandated agreement to build affordable housing, according to a ruling Friday morning from a federal appeals court, which puts at risk $7.4 million in federal aid that was earmarked for the county.
The federal government has been pushing the county to create what is known as source-of-income legislation that requires landlords to not discriminate against prospective tenants based on how they would pay rent. Such a law would require landlords to accept tenants who pay their rents using sources such as Social Security benefits or any form of state or federal public assistance, including Section 8 vouchers.
In its ruling, the court chastised Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino for his June 2010 decision to veto a source-of-income bill that came across his desk. The ruling also brushed off Astorino's argument that passing the legislation would have negatively affected the sovereignty of municipalities to govern themselves in a county that supports home rule.
"The County Executive remains free to veto the legislation, but if he does so, the County will be in breach of the consent decree and must live with the consequences of that choice," the judges warned in their decision.
COUNTY POLS PUT BLAME ON ONE ANOTHER
In response to the ruling, Astorino said in a statement that his opposition to a source-of-income legislation is the broad scope of such a law.
"My objection has been turning this worthwhile voluntary program into a mandatory one that would compel every owner of a house or apartment to do business with the federal government . . . upon a tenant's presentation of a Section 8 voucher," Astorino said. "I also felt that the source-of-income legislation would be detrimental to the housing settlement because it would act as a disincentive for developers to build affordable housing."
The Republican county executive added that last August, he asked for the bill to be reintroduced and that has not been done, so "the matter is now in the hands of the Board of Legislators."
Catherine Borgia (D-Ossining), who is chairwoman of the Legislature's Government Operations Committee, countered that the board never acted on Astorino's request because "it seemed like a foolish exercise for us to reintroduce legislation that he already vetoed."
"After today's ruling, I think it's really clear that the ball is back in the county executive's court," said Borgia, whose committee provides oversight on housing issues.
She added that it would be a "disaster" to lose the $7.4 million federal Community Development Block Grant Funds, which are used for infrastructure improvements in areas of Westchester with the highest numbers of low income residents.
HUD officials declined to comment.
HUD SETTLEMENT LED TO MULTIPLE DISPUTES
Last month, officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development threatened to withhold $7.4 million in aid unless Astorino complies with their interpretation of the county's settlement with the agency by April 25. By that deadline, HUD wants Astorino to present how he plans to advocate on behalf of source-of-income legislation and to supply an analysis of segregation in Westchester that offers solutions for addressing the issue.
The provision involving the housing subsidy isn't the only portion of the settlement that HUD and Astorino have disagreed on.
HUD also contends Astorino is legally obligated to take action against Westchester County communities that have exclusionary zoning -- for example, zoning codes that require large lots, which tend to make housing too expensive for working-class families. They want Astorino to agree to sue cities, towns and villages that won't cooperate in changing their zoning laws.
Astorino and his lieutenants tend not to dispute what is in the settlement. Rather, they say there aren't any Westchester communities with exclusionary zoning, so no action is warranted. The county has submitted documentation supporting that stance. HUD has rejected the documentation as misleading.
County officials have said that they are ahead of schedule in regard to a third part of the settlement: An agreement to facilitate construction of as many 750 affordable housing units in 31 mostly white communities by 2016. The county already has built 305 units, which is more than the settlement requires, at this point, Astorino's office contends.
Astorino won the county executive job four years ago in part by campaigning aggressively against the HUD settlement, which had been signed by incumbent Democrat Andy Spano in 2009.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Union may fight Mount Vernon over disciplining cop in brutality case
Sgt. Michael Marcucilli has been named in multiple brutality cases involving the Mount Vernon Police Department. / Facebook photo
MOUNT VERNON — The city police union would likely challenge any effort to discipline a sergeant who allegedly beat a 12-year-old with a baton because too much time has passed since the 2009 incident, a union lawyer said.
The city’s legal department said last week that with the recent conclusion of civil litigation against Sgt. Michael Marcucilli, police officials and outside labor counsel would review his conduct to determine whether disciplinary action was appropriate.
Although state civil service law mandates an 18-month window for bringing charges, Christopher Kurtz of Bond, Schoeneck & King, the city’s labor counsel, said police disciplinary matters in Mount Vernon are controlled by the city charter, which sets no time limit.
Kurtz said the city is relying on a 2001 appellate court decision that found the state law was not intended to supplant longstanding local laws on police discipline.
But lawyer Gordon Haesloop said the union’s position is that the state’s time limit should control, particularly because neither the city code nor the police collective-bargaining agreement includes a time limit. He acknowledged circumstances could exist to make delayed charges possible. But he would not speculate on those since no charges have been filed.
Federal civil juries have twice found that Marcucilli used excessive force after his 2006 promotion to sergeant. The Journal News revealed last week that the city has spent $937,000 on verdicts, settlements and legal fees to defend him in those and a third in which a man claimed Marcucilli did not intervene when he was beaten by officers.
On Jan. 12, 2007, Marcucilli allegedly threw retired Westchester County Detective Paul Weather against a wall during a Mount Vernon High School basketball game. A jury awarded Weather $315,000.
Marcucilli was also accused of using a baton to repeatedly hit 12-year-old Vanney Allen, who broke into A.B. Davis Middle School on Feb. 28, 2009. In that case, three fellow officers testified against Marcucilli and the jury awarded $500,000. But a settlement called for the city to pay $250,000 and Marcucilli $25,000.
According to court documents filed by Allen’s lawyer, the Mount Vernon police Internal Affairs Bureau substantiated the allegations against Marcucilli and recommended discipline. However, the chief of police never filed departmental charges and the District Attorney’s Office chose not to prosecute the sergeant.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)