Ethical Cultural Fieldston School Addition to School

   Pictured above is the Ethical Cultural Fieldston School lower school where the school wants to expand the fourth floor (the fenced in area on the roof) for additional classroom space. 

   Representatives of the school came to last Thursday's Community Board 8 Land Use Committee meeting to inform the community board how the school is going to expand the Lower School Building roof for more classroom space.

    The Community Board was told the construction was as of right, and that it would take about three days for steel to be hoisted by a crane from flatbed trucks on Greystone Avenue to the roof of the building. The board was also told that the school has no other way to get the steel up to the roof, and has already met with neighbors to discuss what the parking situation might be. Neighbors have been offered an equal amount of parking spaces lost in a school parking lot. 

    I wanted to know how the large trucks would get to the construction site. I was told from Broadway up Manhattan College Parkway to Greystone Avenue, but then another person from the school said that the large trucks would come up the Riverdale Avenue hill to Greystone Avenue. 

    As you will see in the photos below that the school has other problems with the retaining wall which spans around most of the school.

Above - The retaining wall on Greystone Avenue not far from the lower school shows cracks, and discoloration as well as plant growth in the wall.

Below is a photo of the retaining wall at the corner of Riverdale Avenue and West 238th Street. The cracks here in the wall are so huge that a temporary barrier had to be put up last year.

It appears that the concrete barriers have shifted to create a hazardous condition where people walking by can be hurt by the bulging concrete at the corner of Riverdale Avenue and West 238th Street.

Motel Homeless Shelter Discussed at CB 8 Land Use Meeting

     On the agenda of the June 9th Community Board 8 Land Use Committee meeting was an item titled 'Human Resources Administration - Placement of housing facility for homeless persons at Van Cortlandt Motel 6393 Broadway.

      Matt Borden the Assistant Commissioner of Governmental Relations, and Louis Molina the Senior Advisor for the Department of Homeless addressed the Community Board 8 Land Use Committee, State Senator Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Councilman Andrew Cohen, and the almost 100 people in the audience of the meeting on the status of the Van Cortlandt Motel homeless shelter. 

    It seems that as many as three people are placed in a motel room with little supervision. The only way the community found out about this new homeless shelter was because there was an incident with one of the people the city placed in the motel. Even the 50th Police Precinct was never notified that a homeless shelter was placed at the motel. There were many questions thrown at the two city representatives, and one woman complained that the quality of life is deteriorating even more on Broadway.

     State Senator Jeff Klein spoke for a while saying this was the third time that a homeless shelter had popped up in his district. He said that while the senate passed legislation that he wrote to have community boards be notified of new homeless shelter sites the legislation died in the state assembly. Klein said that he was going to draft new legislation that would address the issue, ad be able to satisfy those in the assembly who voted against the first bill. The conclusion was that Councilman Cohen said that the  commissioner of Homeless told him that the site would be reviewed by September, and that it should be gone by then.  

Representatives for the city address the audience. Also in the photo seated is Community Board 8 Land Use Chair Charles Moerdler (left), and Community Board 8 Chairman Daniel Padernacht (right).

State Senator Jeff Klein responds to what he heard from the city representatives who look on from the side. Also in the photo seated is Community Board 8 District Manager Patricia Manning (far right).

As they are always ready to serve their communities are Councilman Andrew Cohen, State Senator Jeff Klein, and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney - $54 Million Settlement Against Salix Pharmaceuticals For Using “Speaker Programs” As Mechanism To Pay Illegal Kickbacks To Doctors To Prescribe Salix Products

Salix Admits to Paying Doctors to Serve as “Speakers” at Programs that Were Primarily Social in Nature and Where the “Speakers” Spent Little or No Time Discussing the Relevant Salix Product

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Scott J. Lampert, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General’s New York Region (“HHS-OIG”), and Diego Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today a $54 million settlement in a civil fraud lawsuit against SALIX PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. (“SALIX”), a specialty pharmaceutical company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, that sells products used to treat various gastroenterology conditions.  The settlement resolves claims that SALIX violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act by using its “speaker programs” as a mechanism to pay kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe SALIX drugs and medical devices that were reimbursed by federal health care programs.  Specifically, the United States’ Complaint-in-Intervention alleges that SALIX held sham speaker programs, frequently at high-end restaurants, where doctors were paid substantial honoraria purportedly to educate other doctors about a Salix product, but in reality spent little or no time discussing the product.  The settlement will also resolve numerous state law civil fraud claims.

Today, U.S. District Court Judge Denise L. Cote approved a settlement stipulation to resolve the Government’s claims against SALIX.  Under the settlement, SALIX is required to pay approximately $46.53 million to the United States and has made extensive admissions regarding its conduct.  Further, as part of the settlement, SALIX will pay approximately $7.47 million to resolve the state law civil fraud claims. 

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said:  “For years, Salix Pharmaceuticals unlawfully sought to increase prescriptions of its products by using its ‘speaker programs’ as a vehicle to pay kickbacks to doctors.  Through these ‘speaker programs,’ which were frequently nothing more than social gatherings with little or no educational component, Salix found a way to pay doctors money and treated them to fancy meals to push their drugs.  With today’s settlement, Salix has taken responsibility for its conduct and agreed to pay a significant financial penalty.  This action and settlement is part of our continuing effort to pursue health care providers who put their profits ahead of patient safety.” 

HHS-OIG Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert said: “When Salix Pharmaceuticals paid doctors large sums of money to speak at programs that were primarily social events, the goal was to induce the doctors to prescribe Salix products and enhance the company’s bottom line.  We will continue to investigate such illegal arrangements that undermine impartial medical judgment and place company interests above those of patients.”

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez said: “Salix used high priced meals at swanky restaurants to get doctors to push its products.  Whether those doctors actually prescribed those medications, the simple idea behind the pitch eats away at the faith patients have in their doctors to put their health and wellbeing above the interests of a corporation.  The FBI and our partners will do all that we can to keep these practices from doing more harm than good.”

As alleged in the Complaint-in-Intervention filed in Manhattan federal court:

During the period January 2009 through December 2013 (the “Covered Period”), many of SALIX’s speaker programs for Xifaxan, Apriso, Relistor, MoviPrep, OsmoPrep, Solesta, and Deflux (the “Covered Products”) were nothing more than social events at which SALIX wined and dined doctors to induce them to write prescriptions for these products.  These speaker programs included both in-person events (at which both the speaker and the attendees were present in person and the speaker was paid to provide an educational talk on a Covered Product to the attendees using a slide presentation), as well as pre-recorded events (at which a SALIX employee was supposed to use a laptop or other device to play for the attendees a pre-recorded video of a doctor delivering a slide presentation, and then call the paid speaker, who was to be available to answer any questions by telephone). 

The speaker programs, which were typically held in restaurants, were supposed to be educational in nature and the cost of the meal was supposed to be modest.  But in practice, SALIX held many speaker programs that were primarily social in nature, including events where it repeatedly invited the same doctors, who frequently were from the same practice or otherwise knew each other, to attend the same exact program on the same exact topic.  With respect to the pre-recorded programs – which SALIX personnel internally referred to as “doc-in-the-box programs” – the pre-recorded video frequently was not played or was intentionally played in a manner so it could be ignored.  SALIX also held many speaker programs at very expensive, high-end restaurants.

The doctors whom SALIX paid to be speakers and whom SALIX invited to its events were often the high prescribers of its products or were viewed as having the potential to be high prescribers.  Many of these doctors increased their prescription-writing for the Covered Products after becoming speakers and/or repeatedly attending sham speaker programs.  During the Covered Period, SALIX spent approximately $25 million on speaker payments and meals.

As part of the settlement, SALIX admitted, acknowledged, and accepted responsibility for the following conduct:

• Throughout the Covered Period, speaker programs were an important part of SALIX’s strategy for increasing sales of the Covered Products.SALIX conducted approximately 10,000 speaker programs for the Covered Products, including approximately 8,000 programs alone for Xifaxan, Apriso, and Relistor. 
• Speaker honoraria payments for a program ranged from $250 (for a doctor available on call to answer questions associated with a pre-recorded program) to $4,500 (for a doctor who spoke at an in-person program and had a specified level of experience and certain credentials).During the Covered Period, SALIX paid over 500 physicians honoraria for serving as speakers on the Covered Products, with dozens of physicians earning more than $50,000, and several earning more than $100,000. 
• Throughout the Covered Period, SALIX did not have effective mechanisms in place to monitor adequately its speaker programs to ensure compliance with internal policies. For example, there were no effective mechanisms in place to audit speaker programs and insufficient efforts were made to review data and other information on speaker programs to ensure compliance with the company’s internal policies.

• Throughout the Covered Period, numerous SALIX employees held speaker programs for the Covered Products that were primarily social in nature and/or otherwise did not comply with the company’s internal policies.For example, there were programs where: 
  • the designated speaker spent little or no time discussing the Covered Product; 
  • the required slide presentation was not shown in its entirety or not at all; 
  • doctors attended multiple programs on the same topic (at which the same slide presentation was supposed to have been shown) within a short period of time; 
  • the programs were held in the main dining rooms of restaurants or other locations that were not conducive to an educational program; 
  • the programs were held at high-end restaurants (such as Nobu and Le Bernardin in New York City), with per-person costs exceeding $200 and even $300;
  • the SALIX sales representative responsible for a program reported that certain physicians had attended the event even though they had not, in order to make the per-person cost of the event appear lower than it actually was;
  • attendees included individuals other than healthcare professionals with a legitimate interest in the scheduled topic, such as a physician’s spouse; and/or 
  • the programs were used as an opportunity to provide a physician’s practice (in some cases including administrative staff) with a meal or a happy hour. 
• Additionally, with respect to the pre-recorded speaker programs, there were numerous instances where:(1) the SALIX sales representative did not play the pre-recorded presentation; (2) the SALIX sales representative played the pre-recorded presentation but placed the laptop or other viewing device in a location where it could not readily be seen or at a volume at which it could not readily be heard; and/or (3) the designated approved speaker was not called at the end of the pre-recorded presentation but still received an honorarium payment. 

In connection with the filing of the lawsuit and settlement, the Government joined two private whistleblower lawsuits that had previously been filed under seal pursuant to the False Claims Act.

Former Pharmaceutical Company Employees Arrested For Participating In Fentanyl Kickback Scheme

Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives And Managers Paid Thousands Of Dollars To Doctors In Exchange For Prescribing Of Millions Of Dollars’ Worth Of Fentanyl

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Diego Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Scott Lampert, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General’s (“HHS-OIG”) New York Region, announced that JONATHAN ROPER, a former District Manager at a pharmaceutical company (“Pharma Company-1”), and FERNANDO SERRANO, a former sales representative at Pharma Company-1, were charged today with violating the Anti-Kickback Statute in connection with their participation in a scheme to pay doctors thousands of dollars to participate in sham educational programs in order to induce the doctors to prescribe millions of dollars’ worth of a fentanyl-based sublingual spray manufactured by Pharma Company-1 (the “Fentanyl Spray”).  ROPER was arrested this morning by FBI agents on Long Island, and SERRANO was arrested this morning by FBI agents in New Jersey.  They will be presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin N. Fox in Manhattan this afternoon.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Fentanyl is an incredibly dangerous and highly addictive drug that is finding its way into, and destroying, too many lives in our communities.  Because of its deadly power, its legitimate prescription faces significant and severe restrictions.  Yet, as alleged, former drug company employees Jonathan Roper and Fernando Serrano corruptly induced doctors to prescribe millions of dollars’ worth of Fentanyl through thousands of dollars in kickbacks disguised as phony educational programs.  As alleged, Roper and Serrano helped feed this devastating surge of opioid addictions by tapping into another age-old addiction, greed.”

FBI Assistant Director Diego Rodriguez said: “This case should be something the medical industry and the general public should pay close attention to because it’s one of the reasons we’re experiencing an epidemic of overdoses and deaths in this country.  Not only did the defendants in this case allegedly bully sales reps into pushing this highly addictive drug, they paid doctors to prescribe it to patients.  The more prescriptions written, the more money the doctors made.  Instead of seeing a way to help people who are dealing with extreme pain, they allegedly saw a huge payday that potentially put people’s lives in danger.”

HHS OIG Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert said: “We expect drug company representatives to be part of the prescription drug abuse solution – not part of the problem, as alleged in this case.  We will continue to investigate kickback arrangements, which can undermine impartial medical decision-making and worsen the overuse of opioids in this country.”

According to allegations in the Complaints unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:[1] 

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is classified as a Schedule II controlled substance and is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine as an analgesic.  Because of the risk of misuse, abuse, and addiction associated with prescription products like the Fentanyl Spray, only doctors who have enrolled in a mandated U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) program and completed necessary training are permitted to prescribe the Fentanyl Spray. 

Pharma Company-1’s Fentanyl Spray was approved by the FDA in or about January 2012, solely for the management of breakthrough pain in cancer patients who are already receiving and who are tolerant to opioid therapy for their underlying persistent pain.  The Fentanyl Spray is the only FDA-approved product that Pharma Company-1 currently has on the market.  Pharma Company-1 reported approximately $330 million in net revenue from the Fentanyl Spray in 2015. 

In order to market the Fentanyl Spray, Pharma Company-1 established a program purportedly to educate healthcare professionals about the Fentanyl Spray (the “Speaker Program”).  Doctors selected as speakers at these Speaker Programs by Pharma Company-1 (“Speakers”) were compensated for purportedly providing educational presentations to a peer-level audience of healthcare professionals using a preapproved PowerPoint presentation.  In reality, however, many of the Speaker Programs that ROPER and SERRANO organized and attended were predominantly social gatherings at high-end restaurants in Manhattan that involved no education regarding the Fentanyl Spray and no slide presentation at all.  Many of the Speaker Programs also lacked an appropriate audience of healthcare professionals.  In order to make these Speaker Programs appear legitimate, sign-in sheets for these Speaker Programs – including Speaker Programs organized by ROPER and SERRANO – were frequently forged by adding the names and signatures of doctors to sign-in sheets who had not, in fact, been present at the Speaker Program.  Repeat attendees were also commonplace at Speaker Programs organized by SERRANO.  In numerous instances, all of the attendees at Speaker Programs organized by SERRANO had previously attended Pharma Company-1 Speaker Programs.  Because all legitimate Speaker Programs required use of the same preapproved slide presentation, there was no educational purpose for healthcare professionals to attend Speaker Programs on a repeated basis.

While employed at Pharma Company-1, ROPER and SERRANO were each involved in organizing Speaker Programs for two Manhattan-based doctors (“Doctor-1” and “Doctor-2”), among other doctors.  Doctor-1 and Doctor-2 were frequently the purported Speakers at sham Speaker Programs that were social in nature and lacked an educational component.  Doctor-1 and Doctor-2 were highly compensated by Pharma Company-1 for acting as Speakers.  In 2014 alone, Doctor-1 and Doctor-2 received over $147,000 and $112,000, respectively, in Speaker Program fees.  During this same time period, Doctor-1 and Doctor-2 were also two of the largest prescribers of the Fentanyl Spray in the United States.  In 2014 alone, Doctor-1 and Doctor-2 prescribed, respectively, over $3 million and over $2 million worth of the Fentanyl Spray that was reimbursed by various private insurance companies, and over $1 million worth of the Fentanyl Spray that was reimbursed by Medicare.

It was well understood among Pharma Company-1 employees that doctors were selected as Speakers in order to induce these doctors to prescribe large quantities of the Fentanyl Spray, and ROPER explicitly instructed the sales force he supervised that this was the case.  For example, on or about May 6, 2014, ROPER sent an email to certain sales representatives in which he expressed displeasure that certain doctors who were Speakers were not prescribing sufficient quantities of the Fentanyl Spray:   

Where is the ROI [Return on Investment]??!!! All prescribers from this team that are on this list are [Pharma Company-1] speakers. We invest a lot of time, $, blood, sweat, and tears on “our guys” and help spreading the word on treating BTCP [breakthrough cancer pain]. We hire only the best of the best to be apart [sic] of our speaker bureau and dropping script counts is what we get in return?

This is a slap in the face to all of you and is a good indication as to why NONE of you are climbing in the rankings this quarter. DO NOT be afraid to set your expectations and make them crystal clear as to what they are before, during, and after HIRING these priviliged [sic] set of docs who are fortunate enough to be a part of the best speaker bureau in the market in the world of BTCP [breakthrough cancer pain]. Please handle this immediately as funding will not be given out to anymore [sic] “let downs” in the future. Thanks.                                                                                                                

ROPER decided which doctors would be allocated Speaker Programs in the sales territory that included New York City.  ROPER instructed one sales representative that a Speaker would receive fewer Speaker Programs in the future because ROPER was not pleased with the quantity of Fentanyl Spray prescriptions this doctor was writing.  ROPER informed the sales representative that he wanted to hit the doctor “in his pocket” in order to try to cause the doctor to start writing more Fentanyl Spray prescriptions.  ROPER also once instructed this same sales representative to offer cash to a medical professional in order to induce this medical professional to prescribe the Fentanyl Spray.            

ROPER, 37, of Commack, New York, and SERRANO, 30, of Manalapan, New Jersey, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and one count of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute.  Each of the two counts carries a maximum term of five years in prison.  The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.

The charges contained in the Complaints are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

AFTER COMPTROLLER STRINGER AUDIT, DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE CORRECTS TAX STATUS OF NEARLY 100 MIXED-USE BUILDINGS IN QUEENS

City will collect an additional $1.28 million in taxes over the next five years that can be used to support schools, build roads and affordable housing 

Similar audit in Brooklyn identified over $2 million in potential revenue

   New York City will bring in up to an additional $1.28 million in revenue over the next five years because of changes at the Department of Finance prompted by an audit released today by New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. The audit found nearly 100 mixed-use buildings in Queens that had been improperly assessed by the Department of Finance and taxed at an incorrect, lower rate.

Today’s findings follow a similar report from February which identified 197 misclassified mixed-use buildings in Brooklyn. Changes stemming from that audit will bring the City an additional $2.09 million in revenue over the next five years. Combined, the two audits identified an additional $3.37 million that will be collected through 2022.

“These two audits spurred immediate changes that will right a wrong and benefit our entire City,” Comptroller Stringer said. “To their credit, the Department of Finance took quick action after auditors identified misclassified buildings, and now the City stands to gain an additional $3.37 million in revenue over the coming years. That’s real money that can be used to build affordable housing, fix our streets, and support our schools.”

Properties in New York City are given one of four tax classes (Class 1 are one to three unit buildings, primarily used for residential purposes; Class 2 are all other residential properties; Class 3 are properties owned by utilities and special franchises; and Class 4 are all other properties not in Class 1, 2, or 3). This audit examined whether Class 1 mixed-use buildings in Queens were properly assessed and taxed by the Department of Finance as of May 2015.

Auditors identified 97 buildings that were misclassified as Tax Class 1 mixed-use buildings, and taxed at a lower rate than they should have been. DOF agreed that 78 properties should be taxed at 45 percent of market value, instead of the residential rate of six percent at which they had been taxed, and that 19 properties required additional interior inspection. In total, the Comptroller’s office estimated that after the changes are made, the City will bring in an additional $1.28 million in taxes over the next five years.

Auditors also found that 33 of the misclassified buildings in Queens had been inspected by DOF assessors within the last three years – raising questions about the agency’s training and inspection process.

The Department of Finance has already re-classified 78 of the properties, and agreed with all three of the audit’s recommendations, including that it should:

• Conduct an interior inspection of the 19 remaining properties identified in the audit as misclassified and ensure they receive the correct tax class;
• Make sure assessors are properly trained so they do not misclassify buildings; and
• Enhance its oversight and quality assurance to ensure buildings are properly inspected.

“The bottom line is that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes. The Department of Finance will now collect more revenue that will help to fund critical programs in our City. Going forward, this agency must strengthen its training and oversight to ensure properties in every borough are properly assessed, and the correct taxes are collected” Stringer said.

To read the full audit report, click here.

Bronx Veterans Day Parade Applications

Senator David Carluci Birthday Bash

New York City Council Member Andy King Calls for the Firing of DOE Educator Who Demeaned A Queens’ School Black Teachers

  NYC Council Member Andy King, an executive board member of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, is calling on his colleagues in government and the city Department of Education (DOE) to fire Minerva Zanca, formerly the principal at Pan American International High School, Queens, who reportedly harassed and demeaned the school's black teachers.

On Thursday, it was announced that federal prosecutors sued the DOE on civil rights violations for failing to stop Ms. Zanca’s actions.

“I’ve never heard of such unprofessional dialogue and behavior coming from a top educator. It’s time to take a stand against racism and bigotry and not allow it to go on in our schools,” said King, who sits on the Council’s Civil Rights and Education committees. “Without question, Ms. Zanca created an ugly culture of derogatory name calling and “my way or highway” actions and if you spoke up or didn’t agree she would retaliate. Ms. Zanca shouldn’t be allowed to supervise any staff or group of youngsters in the NYC education system. I put the onus on Schools Chancellor Farina and the DOE to terminate Ms. Zanca and do it now!”

Ms. Zanca  joined the DOE in 1988 and  retired as a principal in June 2015. She has been working as a part-time guidance counselor at Frederick Douglass Academy in Brooklyn.