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Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Van Cortlandt Park Alliance - Jumping for June in the Park!
City Island Memorial Day Remembrance and Parade
It was a beautiful day to have a parade and Memorial Day remembrance to the 1.3 million United States soldiers who did not come home from the wars the country has fought in. Hundreds of people either marched or watched the City Island Parade that went from one end of City Island to the other, with three stops along the way to lay wreaths at Hawkins Park, The Pelham Cemetery, and Veterans Memorial Triangle ending at the Leonard H. Hawkins Post 156 on City Island Avenue for food and refreshments.
The four main branches of the armed forces were represented, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and others such as the Coast Guard, and Boy and Cub Scouts marched along with elected officials Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark, State Senator Nathalia Fernandez, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, City Councilwoman Marjorie Velazquez, Community Board members, Community leaders, and anyone who wanted to march to honor the veterans.
The bagpipes were loud and clear.
Reefs were placed in the Pelham Cemetery in honor of Memorial Day, as veterans look on.
Some future soldiers currently Boy Scouts also marched.
MAYOR ADAMS ANNOUNCES THREE APPOINTMENTS TO COMMISSION TO COMBAT POLICE CORRUPTION
New Appointees Include Jabbar Collins, Wrongfully Convicted Man and Accomplished Civil Rights Attorney
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced three appointments to the Commission to Combat Police Corruption (CCPC). The CCPC serves as an independent commission to monitor the anti-corruption activities of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Among the new appointees to the commission is Jabbar Collins, who spent 16 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder and is now an accomplished civil rights attorney. Mayor Adams additionally announced the appointment of Benjamin Rosenberg and Randall Jackson. These appointments underscore Mayor Adams’ continued commitment to promoting safety and justice for all New Yorkers.
“I wore a blue uniform and a bulletproof vest for 22 years to protect the people of this city, and I have also dedicated my life to fighting for more just and equitable policing practices,” said Mayor Adams. “These appointees are committed to ensuring all members of the NYPD, and the institution itself, are held to the highest to the highest ethical standards, and we thank them for answering the call to service.”
“As an independent commission, the CCPC has a vital role to play in ensuring the NYPD’s continuing compliance with anti-corruption measures,” said Chief Counsel to City Hall Brendan McGuire. “These appointees represent a broad spectrum of experience and viewpoints, and we are looking forward to the combined talent and expertise they will bring to this body.”
“Corruption in any form undermines the integrity of our entire justice system,” said Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III. “These new members bring a fresh perspective to the commission to determine how we not only root out corruption but prevent it. I thank these new appointees for their dedication to ensuring accountability in the NYPD and safeguarding the core principles of law enforcement.”
About Jabbar Collins
Jabbar Collins currently serves as president of Horizon Research Services, Limited. He is also a legal analyst at Dave Law, P.C. and a legal analyst for the Law Offices of Thomas Hoffman, P.C. Previously, Collins was a legal analyst for the Law Offices of Andrew Stenge, the Law Offices of David Shaines, and the Law Offices of Joel B. Rudin, P.C. Collins was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1994. In 2010, a federal judge vacated his conviction and released him from prison. Collins earned his associate’s degree from Dutchess Community College.
About Randall Jackson
Randall Jackson is a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. He was a partner at Boies Flexner LLP and the assistant United States attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York. Jackson received his B.A. from Morehouse College and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
About Benjamin Rosenberg
Benjamin Rosenberg is currently the general counsel for Dechert LLP, where
he is a partner. He also served as the general counsel for the District Attorney of New York from 2014 to 2016 and the chief trial counsel in the Office of the New York State Attorney General from 2007 to 2008. Rosenberg received his B.A. from Harvard College and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Former President And Former Financial Advisor Of Law Enforcement Union Convicted Of Defrauding Union’s Annuity Fund
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the conviction of KENNETH WYNDER Jr., a former New York State Trooper and the president of the Law Enforcement Employees Benevolent Association (“LEEBA”), a labor union for law enforcement officers employed by the City of New York (the “City”), and ANDREW BROWN, a/k/a “Drew Brown,” the former financial advisor for LEEBA, for defrauding union members by misappropriating money from LEEBA’s Annuity Fund. WYNDER was also convicted of personal income tax evasion and conspiring to evade federal taxes, including payroll taxes owed by LEEBA and its employees. Steven Whittick, LEEBA’s former treasurer and a former police officer for New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”), previously pled guilty to conspiring to commit tax evasion and making false statements to law enforcement. WYNDER and BROWN were convicted after a five-day jury trial before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel and are scheduled to be sentenced on October 18, 2023, by Judge Castel.
According to the Indictment, Superseding Indictment, the underlying complaints filed in this case, as well as other publicly available information, prior court filings, and evidence presented during the trial in Manhattan federal court:
Law Enforcement Employees Benevolent Association and the Annuity Fund
LEEBA is a labor union that has acted as the collective bargaining representative principally for law enforcement personnel at various City agencies and has entered into agreements on behalf of those law enforcement employees, including agreements for insurance and retirement benefits. The City agencies whose employees LEEBA represented included, at various times, DEP, the Department of Sanitation (“Sanitation”), and the Department of Transportation (“Transportation”).
The Annuity Fund is a LEEBA fund that received monthly contributions from the City for the benefit of LEEBA’s members and maintained separate accounts for each fund member. These accounts were functionally similar to employer-sponsored 401(k) retirement accounts. WYNDER was a Trustee of the Annuity Fund and signatory to agreements that governed the fund, and BROWN was a Plan Administrator and Financial Advisor of the Annuity Fund. Under the relevant agreements and plans, the money in the Annuity Fund could be used for no purpose other than funding individual members’ retirement accounts and defraying reasonable administrative expenses of the Annuity Fund itself.
WYNDER
WYNDER, a former New York State Trooper, is the founder and former President of LEEBA and a former member of LEEBA’s board of directors. WYNDER also formerly served as the Fund Administrator of the Annuity Fund and as a member of the board of trustees of the Annuity Fund, pursuant to which he owed a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the Annuity Fund and its account holders. WYNDER also was on the board of trustees of the LEEBA Welfare Fund (the “Welfare Fund,” and collectively with the Annuity Fund, the “LEEBA Funds”), which provided supplemental insurance benefits to its members. While occupying those positions, WYNDER centralized and controlled major decision-making authority for LEEBA and the LEEBA Funds, often acting without the proper approval of their respective boards of directors or trustees. WYNDER’s de facto dominance of LEEBA and the LEEBA Funds enabled him to make decisions in his own self-interest and contrary to the interests of the Annuity Fund and individual members.
BROWN
BROWN, the founder of a Westchester-based financial services company, is the former Benefits Administrator and insurance broker for LEEBA and the LEEBA Funds. As a LEEBA Annuity Fund Plan Administrator and Financial Advisor, BROWN helped manage the investments in the Annuity Fund, receiving a commission for his services, and had a responsibility to act in the best interest of LEEBA’s members.
WYNDER’s and BROWN’s Fraud Scheme
From at least in or about 2012 up to and including 2020, WYNDER and BROWN participated in a scheme to steal, embezzle, and misappropriate money from the Annuity Fund and individual members’ retirement accounts. Specifically, WYNDER and BROWN made hundreds of thousands of dollars of fraudulent transfers from the Annuity Fund to LEEBA’s operating account, which WYNDER controlled, and WYNDER regularly used the funds, once transferred from the Annuity Fund, to enrich himself at union members’ expense, including through unauthorized and excessive checks to himself and cash withdrawals for his own benefit and to pay insurance benefits for which BROWN received commissions. In addition, WYNDER caused the union to pay for various personal expenses such as the purchase of a Lexus automobile, travel expenses to Dallas to watch a Dallas Cowboys football game, and a sailing trip, all paid for by the union, and none of which were contemporaneously reported to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), as required.
To accomplish this fraudulent scheme, WYNDER and BROWN, acting in their capacity as the Annuity Fund’s Plan Administrators, repeatedly made false and misleading statements to a third-party retirement plan manager that served as the custodian for the Annuity Fund and the retirement accounts of individual union members, including through emails and faxes that WYNDER and BROWN used to withdraw increasingly large sums of money from the Annuity Fund, effectively causing such withdrawals to be made from the retirement accounts of individual members. From in or about 2014 through in or about 2019, WYNDER and BROWN caused the withdrawal of more than $500,000 from the individual retirement accounts that constitute the Annuity Fund, thereby wiping out the entire balance of certain members’ accounts. Without these improper withdrawals from the Annuity Fund, the LEEBA operating account would have been insolvent and would have had insufficient funds to pay for WYNDER’s excessive checks to himself and cash withdrawals and the personal expenses he caused to be charged to that account, as well as to pay for benefits for which BROWN made commissions as an insurance broker.
In addition, throughout the duration of this scheme, WYNDER and BROWN repeatedly made and approved false and misleading statements to LEEBA’s members and prospective members about how they were purportedly using and protecting their retirement accounts and the LEEBA Annuity Fund. WYNDER further concealed the scheme by causing LEEBA to fail to timely file mandatory reports and financial disclosures with the City and public reports to the Annuity Fund’s members and by making false statements to the Annuity Fund’s auditors and accountants.
WYNDER’s Tax Evasion
From at least in or about 2015 through 2019 WYNDER participated in a conspiracy with LEEBA’s then-Treasurer, Steven Whittick, to cause LEEBA to make payments to WYNDER and Whittick, by check and in cash, and to conceal those payments from the IRS. WYNDER further conspired to ensure that such payments were made outside of LEEBA’s payroll processor. WYNDER then concealed these payments from the IRS — including off-the-books payments of more than $400,000 — in order to evade his own personal income taxes and to evade the payroll taxes that were owed by LEEBA and certain LEEBA employees.
WYNDER, 59, of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and BROWN, 55, of Putnam Valley, New York, were each convicted of one count of conspiracy of commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud, each of which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. WYNDER was also convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and four counts of tax evasion, each of which carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
On November 17, 2021, Whittick was sentenced to 28 months in prison for conspiring to commit tax evasion and making false statements and was ordered to pay $179,766.80 in restitution to the IRS.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards, and IRS-Criminal Investigations. Mr. Williams also thanked the New York City Comptroller’s Office and the New York City Department of Investigation for their assistance.
Governor Hochul Kicks Off Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act Listening Tour
First Stop Today in Buffalo for Statewide Series of In-Person and Virtual Listening Sessions
Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act was the Largest Environmental Ballot Measure Nationwide in 2022 and is the Largest Bond Act in New York State History
New York City and Virtual Listening Session Dates Announced
Governor Kathy Hochul today launched the educational listening tour for the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act in Buffalo. The educational listening tour is part of the State's commitment to a collaborative and transparent process in the delivery of Bond Act funds. The tour provides an opportunity for the public and potential funding applicants to learn more about the Bond Act, and for the community to weigh in on the draft eligibility guidelines being developed to identify potential projects. The Bond Act was the largest environmental measure on the ballot nationwide in 2022, and marks the largest Bond Act in New York history and first since 1996.
"The Environmental Bond Act is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fund projects across New York that will protect clean water, create good-paying jobs, protect our beautiful open spaces and promote environmental justice," Governor Hochul said. "This listening tour will connect communities with State agency experts to begin this collaborative and transparent process and lay the groundwork to deliver essential funding across the state."
The session featured presentations on the Bond Act and the opportunity for one-on-one discussion with representatives of New York State agencies and authorities.
The next stops on the listening tour include:
- Central New York: June 8, from 1 to 3 p.m., State University of New York Cortland, Corey Union Function Room
- NEW! Virtual Meetings: June 26, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and July 26, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- North Country: July 14, 1 to 3 p.m., North Country Community College, Sparks Athletic Complex Alumni Gymnasium
- Capital Region: July 20, 1 to 3 p.m., University at Albany, Campus Center Auditorium
- NEW! Brooklyn: August 9, 6 to 8 p.m. Brooklyn College
- Lower Hudson: August 15, 1 to 3 p.m., Westchester County Center, Little Theater
- NEW! Bronx: August 22, 6 to 8 p.m., La Central YMCA gymnasium
- Long Island: August 24, 1 to 3 p.m., Suffolk County Community College, Suffolk Credit Union Arena
To register for any of these sessions, visit www.ny.gov/bondact.
Overwhelmingly approved by voters last fall, the Bond Act prioritizes investments in environmental justice, climate change mitigation, shoreline restoration, flood resilience, water quality, open space land conservation, recreational resources and green jobs.
The landmark Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act is the largest environmental bond in state history and the first in New York since 1996. The Bond Act will make $4.2 billion available for environmental and community projects that also support job creation and a substantial investment in the Clean Green Schools initiative that will serve more than 1,000 under-resourced public schools. Recognizing that vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected by negative environmental and climate change impacts, 40 percent of Bond Act benefits will be directed toward disadvantaged communities.
Specifically, the Environmental Bond Act authorizes:
- $1.5 billion for climate change mitigation;
- $1.1 billion for restoration and flood risk reduction;
- $650 million for water quality improvement and resilient infrastructure;
- $650 million for open space land conservation and recreation; and
- $300 million for other projects not specifically allocated in the Act.
State agencies, local governments and partners will be able to access Environmental Bond Act funding over a multi-year process. An inter-agency working group is currently identifying needs for environmental funding across the state and developing program logistics for Bond Act implementation.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner and Climate Action Council Co-Chair Basil Seggos said, "DEC is excited to join Governor Hochul for today's opening listening session to help foster a better understanding of the opportunities provided by the historic Bond Act and hear from the public firsthand about projects of interest in their communities. We look forward to working with Governor Hochul and our agency partners to share information about the Bond Act across the state and lay the foundation for a successful implementation of this transformative effort."
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
ADAMS ADMINISTRATION, LABOR, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS, ADVOCATES UNITE BEHIND ALBANY HOUSING PUSH
Groups Warn Failure to Act Before End of Session Will Deepen Affordability, Migrant Crises
Senior officials from New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration today united with labor unions, civil rights leaders, and housing advocates to urge immediate legislative action in Albany to address New York’s dual housing affordability and migrant crises.
Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer and Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz were joined by members of 32BJ SEIU, Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York, and Laborers Local 79 as well as NAACP New York State Conference President Hazel Dukes and a coalition of elected officials — including New York State Senators Andrew Gounardes and Luis Sepúlveda as well as New York State Assemblymembers Alex Bores, Kenny Burgos, Brian Cunningham, Eddie Gibbs, Jenifer Rajkumar, and Tony Simone — to call for measures to be passed by the end of the current legislative session that will increase affordable housing production and allow for struggling New Yorkers and those in the city’s shelter system to find permanent housing.
Between the city’s different systems offering shelter to both long-time unhoused New Yorkers and asylum seekers, there are currently more than 95,000 individuals, including more than 45,000 who have come to New York over the last 13 months seeking asylum from other countries — a number that is only projected to keep growing. Yet, since the expiration of 421-a — the city’s main incentive program for building new affordable housing — in June 2022, New York City has seen a significant decline in new housing creation. New housing applications for the first four months of 2023 would produce just 3,365 total homes, less than half of the number seen in an average year. Rents in parts of the city have also exceeded pre-pandemic highs, further squeezing those at risk of eviction as housing supply dwindles.
“Our administration won a critical victory for affordable housing and working people with emergency rent relief for NYCHA residents in this year’s state budget — but there is so much more we can and must do to create the affordable housing New Yorkers so desperately need,” said Mayor Adams. “For the last several months and going back to last year, our administration has put forward serious plans to tackle the city’s severe housing shortage. In close partnership with Governor Hochul, our legislative partners, community and labor leaders, and advocates, we will continue to go to bat for working-class New Yorkers in Albany to make these commonsense changes and create much-needed affordable housing.”
“We are in a perfect storm of housing crises that threatens to devastate the people of our city and state unless immediate action is taken this year,” said Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer. “We cannot wait another year for legislators to come back to Albany. We must pass this common-sense agenda now so that we have the tools to build and prosper.”
“From new housing supply in core Manhattan to protecting tenants across all five boroughs, New York City has a robust legislative agenda on the table to tackle the housing crisis,” said Chief Housing Officer Katz. “We have just over a week left in Albany to bring these solutions home. Working with labor leaders, tenants, advocates, and elected officials, we must ensure that all New Yorkers have a safe and affordable place to live.”
The Adams administration laid out a clear agenda for action on housing this year, including tax incentives that would facilitate construction of new affordable housing, regulatory changes that would make it easier to convert unused office space to housing, and the elimination of a zoning cap that prevents the city from adding housing in midtown Manhattan. The production of more housing also complements the administration’s agenda to protect tenants, including increased funding to combat discrimination based on source of income, improving access to housing vouchers for individuals experiencing homelessness, and securing relief for thousands of New York City Housing Authority residents who fell behind in rent during the pandemic.
“We’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: We are in a housing crisis,” said Manny Pastreich, president, 32BJ SEIU. “Our state needs to take action now without any further delay. There can be no long-term solutions that don’t involve building more housing. This is a large-scale problem, but to begin to tackle it, we need to enact the policies that are right in front of us now. Extending the completion deadline for 421-a projects, converting empty commercial office buildings to residential housing, and raising the FAR cap are common-sense measures that our legislature should pass before this session is over.”
Bronx Chamber of Commerce - Building Wealth & Navigating Financial Literacy Reception
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