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Monday, August 19, 2013
Rejection of two Candidates Claiming to be Independent Democrats
Westchester loses $7.4M in HUD grants over housing case
After giving Westchester one last chance to comply with its demands over a central element of a 2009 fair housing settlement, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said Friday it would take $7.4 million in grants to help low-income areas away from the county and send them to other communities.
Some of the 2011 Community Development Block Grant money
and other funds could go to Westchester’s big cities, which are funded separately from the county. But nonprofits and municipal projects in needy areas of Port Chester, Peekskill, Greenburgh and other municipalities will not get it. The grants from 2012 and 2013 also are being withheld but their fate won’t be decided until later. HUD officials have said if the 2011 money is not reallocated by Sept. 30 it will go back to the federal Treasury.
and other funds could go to Westchester’s big cities, which are funded separately from the county. But nonprofits and municipal projects in needy areas of Port Chester, Peekskill, Greenburgh and other municipalities will not get it. The grants from 2012 and 2013 also are being withheld but their fate won’t be decided until later. HUD officials have said if the 2011 money is not reallocated by Sept. 30 it will go back to the federal Treasury.
HUD officials laid the blame on the county for not complying with its civil rights obligations.
“HUD has tried to be a partner with the county, but the county is unwilling to comply with the terms of the settlement,” Deputy Secretary Maurice Jones said in a statement. “In choosing to disregard its civil rights and federal grantee obligations, county officials are depriving its citizens of funding for infrastructure improvements, programs for the youth and senior citizens.”
But Ned McCormack, a spokesman for County Executive Rob Astorino, said Westchester is in compliance and HUD is acting arbitrarily.
“It’s disappointing,” he said. “It’s clear that HUD is set on hurting some of Westchester’s neediest residents.”
The county had asked whether the state could take over the administration of the grants, as it did with Superstorm Sandy aid, but HUD said that was not legally allowed.
The grants were first held back and now will be reallocated because the county has not completed an analysis of impediments to fair housing, and particularly an analysis of zoning in Westchester communities, that HUD will accept. In giving the county a final chance to keep the money last week, HUD said the county had to agree to put language in the analysis acknowledging that zoning in some places may exclude potential residents based on race, national origin or family status.
The county refused and has been challenging the reallocation in federal court. After a judge dismissed its case this week, the county filed an appeal Friday.
County Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins, D-Yonkers, said HUD has given the county many chances to comply but Astorino has chosen not to. Now he’s worried what other money could be at stake, including the full liability from the original lawsuit if the county ends up back in court.
“It’s a $500 million liability that this kind of path is putting us on,” he said.
Monday, July 1, 2013
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 incomediscrimination 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
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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
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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.
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