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Monday, June 11, 2018
Kicking off Pride by Celebrating SAGE’s 40 Fierce Years
Governor Cuomo Says 'Enough is Enough'
This morning on the steps of the Evander Childs Campus Governor Andrew Cuomo along with his Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, Congressman Eliot Engel, O\Public Advocate Letitia James, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., State Senator Jamaal Bailey, Councilman Andy King, and students from the Evander Child Campus called for the 'Red Flag Bill' to be passed in Albany by the state legislators.
The Red Flag Bill would allow parents of mentally disturbed children who are legally in possession of a gun to call for a judge to have their child mentally evaluated so the gun(s) can be taken away from the child. The bill would also allow teachers, nurses, and other school staff to also call for a judge to have a child be evaluated in certain cases of violent behavior.
The governor repeated 'Enough is Enough' as the slogan to pass this bill to try to prevent shootings by students in schools and elsewhere. Several of the elected officials spoke similar to what the governor said 'Enough is Enough', when it comes to school violence.
During the speeches there were comments such as the 5.5 percent unemployment the Bronx is now experiencing, down from a high of fourteen percent when Bronx BP Diaz took office. BP Diaz spoke of the money and development that has come into the Bronx since he came into office. There were swipes at the current president Donald Trump or 45 as he was referred to.
Governor Cuomo may have said it best when he said "Change happens when people demand change, then the politicians listen." photos are below.
Above - Governor Cuomo addresses the crowd of reporters gathered.
Below - Public Advocate James.
Above - Governor Cuomo answers a question from a reporter.
Below - Councilman Andy King departs from the bus that brought the governor and others to the announcement.
Cynthia Nixon Condemns JCOPE's Finding on Sam Hoyt
In Cuomo's Albany, there is a different set of rules for the Governor's friends than for the rest of New Yorkers
Over the weekend, the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) found the Governor's top economic development appointee, Sam Hoyt, innocent of sexual harassment allegations against him. JCOPE is infamously weak. It was founded by the Governor and its members are appointed by him and other partisan legislators. Before Cuomo appointed him, Hoyt had been barred from interacting with the the state legislature's internship program because of inappropriate behavior. Once appointed, Hoyt was, unshockingly, accused of sexual harassment by a state employee.
"JCOPE's decision is doubly devastating because it shows how little concern the Governor has for ethics violations and for victims of sexual harassment," said Cynthia for New York campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt. "The Governor appointed someone with a history of sexual misconduct to a senior position in his administration. When that person was accused of harassment again, he was sent to a board that is infamous for protecting Albany insiders rather than holding them accountable. As long as JCOPE is controlled by the Governor, it will have zero credibility to take on corruption or sexual harassment within his administration. Until we have a truly independent ethics body in Albany, there will be one set of rules for the Governor and his buddies, and a different set of rules and laws for everyone else."
The truly independent commission created by the Governor, the Moreland Commission, was dissolved by Cuomo when it began to investigate his office. Cynthia recently announced that she would reconvene the Moreland Commission on public corruption on day 1 as governor. With jury selection in the Buffalo Billion trial beginning this week, Cynthia's campaign released a new video to help bring New Yorkers up to date on Cuomo's extensive history of hypocrisy and corruption.
Full Transcript of Mayor de Blasio NYCHA Consent Agreement
There are 400,000 people who live in public housing in this city. 400,000 good New Yorkers who every day work hard to make ends meet, 400,000 who are part of the backbone of this City. And I have been in public service for decades and I’ve spent a lot of time with the people who live in public housing, listening to their concerns and needs, working with them to try to improve their reality.
I want to honor those people today with the actions we are taking because we have to take new and bold actions to address the challenges at NYCHA and we do it for them because they deserve safe and livable homes and they have for decades. The problems we’ll talk about today have very long and deep origins but I want the entire discussion to focus on the people and what we have to do to make their lives better in the years ahead.
This is a pivotal moment for those 400,000 New Yorkers. This is a pivotal moment for the future of public housing in New York City. We have reached a settlement with United States Attorney and this settlement will help to improve the safety and the quality of life for those 400,000 New Yorkers who live in public housing. It was not the easiest action to take, it was certainly not the traditional action to take in government, we did something very different here, and I made this decision because I believed it was the right thing to do.
I’ll talk about what this entails in a moment, but I think it is important also to talk about how we got here. This story goes back decades, I would mark it back to the election of 1980, and since that time progressively every level of government has failed the people who live in public housing in this city, it’s failed men, it’s failed women, it’s failed children. The federal government disinvested progressively over years but the City and the State government often turned their backs on public housing as well.
That status quo was broken at the time I entered this office and in too many ways it’s still broken. Even though my colleagues and I here did not create it, it is our job to fix it. And I want to be very clear when I ran for this office, I did not run for this office to continue a broken status quo. It will be my sacred mission to fix the reality in public housing and set the stage additional improvements in the years after I have completed my term in office.
I want to say the outset that this will be a long and tough battle. The ideas in the consent decree are the right ones but they also indicate a huge challenge ahead. It will take many years to undo that which has been broken. I want to be honest with my 400,000 fellow New Yorkers, you will see changes each year, you will see improvements each year, but to address the totality of the problems recognizing the consent decree will take a long time and a huge amount of resources.
Problems that were created over the course of decades are not solved in mere months or even just a few years in the real world, our job is to fix them more and more each year, and as best we can, and as fast as we can. Now historically and legally NYCHA of course has been its own entity chartered by the federal government, the State government. The City of New York was not obligated to fund NYCHA in any particular manner.
When this administration took office we made a very different decision than that of many of our predecessors, we decided it was important to provide additional and new funding to NYCHA from the very beginning, and the first preliminary budget of 2014 we ended the payments that NYCHA had had to make for many years for reasons that I find inexplicable, payment for police service that no similar institution would have had to cover. That money was turned back to NYCHA so to start addressing the repair backlog. A number of other choices were made over the years, previous to anything you see in the news, today’s consent decree. Those investments added up to $3.7 billion in new funding for NYCHA that this administration is committed in the last four years, not because we were obligated to do it, but because it was the moral and right thing to do because people needed the help and deserved it. That’s why I see the consent decree as an appropriate next step in that progression.
Now I want to be clear, I want to be straightforward, we can’t hold ourselves blameless either. This administration also has made mistakes. There are too many times that things happen on our watch that we didn’t know about, but that is still our responsibility. Inspections, of course, that were supposed to been done in terms of lead paint halted before we got here but I wish to the depths of my soul we had learned that immediately and we would’ve acted on it the moment we found out. We did not achieve that mission, when we did find out, we acted decisively, but I don’t want to hold any element of government blameless.
This administration, previous city administrations, state governments, or federal government, I think the honest reality is that everyone has been a part of this, and everyone has to now be part of the solution. And we can spend a whole lot of time talking about what went wrong in the past, we can revisit the past, and that’s important to do, but more important is to fix what’s broken. People live in public housing need action and they need it as quickly as possible and that’s where our focus will be.
We are very clear-eyed about the scale of the problem and I don’t want anyone to think that because I understand this will take years and years that that is indication of any lack of urgency. We feel tremendous urgency to address these problems but I never want to in any way suggest to the people who live in NYCHA something that is not true and is not going to happen. I want them to know that the work will happen every day, improvement will be real and constant, but again it will take years. People deserve the truth, it will take years to fix these underlying problems.
That said, there are reasons for some optimism because some things are working better and it’s important to note that as well. Repair times have come down in NYCHA over the last few years because the investment was there and that has affected real people’s lives. Crime has come down at NYCHA and again, I said I spent years talking to and working with NYCHA residents, crime was often the number one concern. Thank God, between there good efforts, the efforts of NYCHA, and of course the efforts of the NYPD, there has been a steady reduction in crime at NYCHA and I want to emphasize the NYPD deserves tremendous praise, but NYCHA was a big part of that work as well.
Fixing the physical realities that so often made it harder to start crime, providing more lighting, getting scaffolding down, a number of things that really made a difference, and the people of NYCHA, the resident patrols and the leaders and the activists who did so much. And I want to thank the NYCHA residents who are here, some many of whom have been part of the solution, who fought for safer developments, that is a success story that can give us some real heart as we move forward on these other challenges.
NYCHA, the first day I took on this job, was near bankruptcy. The team at City Hall and the team at NYCHA turned that around, it is a financially solvent organization today that is the basis for all the other changes we need to make. These things happened, they signify the potential for real change in NYCHA, we’ve seen some change, a lot more has to come. Even in the area of lead where there have been so many mistakes, as of today every apartment that was mandated to inspected under Local Law 1 of this city, every apartment that was mandated for 2017 was inspected, remediation efforts have occurred in 90 percent of those apartments. I want to make very clear the remainder are in situations where residents have not granted access or it’s been for some reason or another difficult to schedule access. I want to be clear with everyone that any resident who has an apartment that requires remediation must give access to NYCHA for that work to be done, if they do not grant access we will use other means to gain access. I’m not going to have an apartment that has any lead present that is not remediated. We will use whatever means we need to address that situation.
Another very important development, and a very positive development, is the new leadership at NYCHA sitting beside me today. Stan Brezenoff has taken on the job as Chair, Stan has seen this city through some of its toughest times in the aftermath of the fiscal crisis, he is one of the people who helped lead New York City back, and as recently as last year, he helped to turn around a Health and Hospitals Corporation that was also teetering on bankruptcy and ensured the continuity of our public hospitals and clinics.
A herculean effort that has brought stability to Health + Hospitals – that turn around skill, that ability to make the tough choices, to right a complex organization is what Stan Brezenoff brings to the table and is proven over and over again. NYCHA is a city within a city, I want to emphasize this, 400,000 people. It is an extraordinary complex organization. The areas addressed in the consent decree are crucial but there are many, many other aspects of NYCHA, all of NYCHA must keep operating, it must keep improving. I mention public safety, the consent decree does not address public safety but every single day Stan and Vito and all of the people who work at NYCHA have to focus on public safety in addition to so many other areas who are depending on Stan’s leadership and it’s been proven time and time again.
Vito Mustaciuolo is a legend in city government for those who have seen his work up close, I’ve known him for a decade. He’s one of the most hands on managers I’ve ever met in all of my years in public service. He is legendary for challenging landlords all over New York City who are not providing their tenants with proper heat and hot water and repairs and making them fix those problems. He is strong and he is resolute and a man of extraordinary integrity. These leaders, I am convinced are the right people for this moment to take this situation and turn it around.
The consent decree gives us a mutual framework for action with the federal government. I’m sure there will be questions about why I decided to sign the city on to this. And again it was not the traditional act. But I felt that being in accord with the federal government was important, being on the same page – the City, NYCHA, HUD, U.S. Attorney, will a common vision of how we move forward was important to the future. We agreed to create a common game plan. We agreed to address serious issues that had to be addressed. We agreed for all that we had to do in the short term but we also agreed because it was the best path way to the future. The City commits $1 billion in capital funds over the next four years in addition to $200 million per year thereafter for as long as the consent decree continues. I think you all know by now there’s a five year minimum term to the consent decree.
Our hope of course is that given this extraordinary commitment by the City, that now the State of New York will come forward with the half billion dollars previously committed to NYCHA and provide that money so we can do additional good work to protect our residents. Also crucial is that the State authorize design-build authority for all the work at NYCHA to ensure that every effort undertaken whether it be on lead, or elevators, or heat, or any other matter be done as quickly as possible. I remind everyone that design-build in many cases, shaves a year off a major construction project. That should be made available for all NYCHA efforts. This agreement fosters a culture of compliance which clearly was not sufficient at NYCHA previously, formalizes a compliance office and a Chief Compliance Officer. This is about ensuring that everyone does their job and rooting out any misconduct which we will not tolerate. We know that there have been elements of the institutional culture at NYCHA that were simply broken. We have to systematically root them out.
Now I mentioned why it was important to come to a common understanding with the federal government. We believe that the City’s history with federal monitors had been a positives one. It’s important to say this. We have currently a federal monitor at the NYPD. The NYPD is acknowledged all over the country, all over the world as the greatest police organization there is and yet it has a federal monitor this very moment. That monitor has been a very constructive, positive force working with the NYPD. We have a federal monitor at the Department of Correction, also an example of a constructive, positive relationship that has yielded positive outcomes for all. I have seen with my own eyes that federal monitorships can work for everyone and we have faith that that will be the case here.
Crucial to the equation is the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. And important commitments are made in the consent decree. We can talk about some other things that aren’t in the consent decree but there are important commitments that are there. It’s clear in the consent decree that HUD will work with the City and NYCHA to review and expedite a number of waivers and elements of regulatory reform that could also help to speed up the work that NYCHA does to address underlying problems and support the residents. It’s clear in the consent decree that HUD will immediately lift any restrictions on funding to NYCHA so the flow on money can continue. It’s clear in the consent decree that HUD cannot reduce funding because of any new commitments made by the City. These are important steps. We want an atmosphere of collegiality with HUD and mutual purpose and I think this helps us to get there. I also think it paves the way for a future which I can begin to see the outlines of in which the federal government once again gets back to the important work of supporting affordable housing and public housing in this city and in this country. None of us can predict what’s going to happen in the upcoming election or the one after that but I do believe there are substantial signs of change coming. And I believe this consent decree creates a corporative environment that will help pave the way to that day when we look forward to receiving the kind of federal support we need to complete the missions outlined in the consent decree.
I want to be very clear that this process has been a really challenging one for everyone involved. We’ve had to review a lot of information that was downright painful. When I saw the federal complaint it made me angry as all hell to know that there were some people in NYCHA who withheld information, tried to deceive the federal government and NYCHA’s own leadership. It disgusted me. It’s unacceptable. We are going to review our leadership, Stan Brezenoff and Vito Mustaciuolo are going to review the complaint very carefully. I emphasize the complaint is a series of allegations and we will independently review them and if we find that any individuals who work for NYCHA did anything inappropriate there will be very serious consequences for them. They way forward involves recognizing the extent of the problems and being resolute in acting on them. In the end I believe this was the best way to achieve that goal. I believe in my heart this was the right thing to do and it sets us on a path forward for the 400,000 people who live in our public housing.
It’s very important to be able to say exactly what someone commits to you in life and our conversations with the U.S. Attorney there was a clear request and an unprecedented request – to provide funding for the long term, in two forms, one to continue our existing funding streams that we committed to before any discussion of the consent decree, we committed to in our own budget process. I believe that was the right thing to do for the people who live in public housing. When we took away that requirement for NYCHA to pay for police services, I never intended that to be temporary, I believe that needed to be a permanent change. We codified this in this legal agreement. That is binding on my successors and I think that is the right thing to do. I think it should be binding on my successors. We codify long term, additional capital spending commitments, also binding on whoever holds this seat after me and I think that is the right thing to do. I think there should have been binding commitments to the 400,000 people who live in NYCHA a long time ago. So I can certainly look all of them in the eye and say we have skin in the game, we’ve made our commitments, we are perfectly comfortable that they are legally binding because they deserve nothing less.
STATEMENT FROM MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO ON THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC HOUSING IN NEW YORK CITY
“Decades of divestment by the federal and state governments and decades of neglect by New York City government have pushed our public housing system to the brink. I didn’t run for mayor to continue that history. I ran to help turn it around.
“This morning I entered our City government into a contract with the United States Attorney that will aggressively address the infrastructure and accountability failures outlined in the Consent Decree. Our work with the federal government ensures not only the continuation of record-level investments by my administration, but also requires the next mayor to invest in NYCHA with that same dedication.
“By further acknowledging and providing solutions to a decades-old pattern of mismanagement, divestment and neglect, I am confident this settlement will be a turning point for our public housing system. By enshrining in City government my administration’s absolute commitment to never turning a blind eye to those in need, this agreement takes a dramatic step to fulfilling our obligation to more than 400,000 New Yorkers who call NYCHA home.”
BP DIAZ MARCHES IN ANNUAL NATIONAL PUERTO RICAN DAY PARADE
The borough president used the parade as an opportunity to Highlight federal inaction in the wake of Hurricane Maria
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. marched in the 61st Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade. The borough president used the parade as an opportunity to highlight the plight of the island of Puerto Rico in the wake of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Maria as well as continued inaction by the Trump administration and the federal government to help the island rebuild.
Focusing on the importance of bringing about change through voting, Borough President Diaz and his contingent wore black t-shirts highlighting the death of the more than 4,645 Puerto Ricans since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last year, as reported in a recent Harvard University study.
Borough President Diaz’s t-shirts urged parade goers to “Remember, Register, Resist,” and the borough president’s group handed out 1,000 voter registration cards to attendees along the parade route.
“The lack of support that the Trump Administration has shown to the people of Puerto Rico is either the worst case of incompetence by the Oval Office or intentional governmental malpractice. Either way, this is unacceptable,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “The National Puerto Rican Day Parade is supposed to be a lively celebration of culture and heritage but we are still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Maria, and we need to focus on what needs to be done so that island rebound. The Trump Administration has failed the island, forcing American citizens to live in third-world conditions.”
Borough President Diaz added, “We are not asking for special treatment for Puerto Rico. We are asking that the 3.5 million American citizens who call Puerto Rico home be treated with the same respect and dignity as residents in Texas and Florida received after dealing with a natural disaster.”
Saturday, June 9, 2018
BRONX MAN SENTENCED FOR AGGRAVATED CRUELTY TO ANIMALS FOR BRUTAL BEATING OF DOG; STRUCK CANINE IN FRONT OF GIRL
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been
sentenced to two years in prison for Aggravated Cruelty to Animals, the maximum sentence, for
the brutalization of a small dog.
District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant was ruthless in his actions against a
defenseless animal. Surveillance video captured this horror and now we have obtained the
maximum sentence for this heartless crime. We emphasize our continued dedication to
protecting vulnerable animals.”
District Attorney Clark said the defendant, George Reid, 38, of 2414 Belmont Avenue,
was sentenced to two years in prison by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary for
Aggravated Cruelty to Animals. Additionally, the defendant will not be allowed to own any
pets for the next 10 years and will enroll in the Animal Abuse Registry. He pleaded guilty on
May 18, 2018.
According to the investigation, on August 16, 2017 in his apartment building, the
defendant repeatedly attacked his dog, punching, kicking and slamming the animal to the
ground. At one point during the assault, the defendant held the small dog by the neck and
punched the canine in front of a young girl. The crime was captured on surveillance video and
the defendant was later seen taking out a garbage bag. The body of a small dog was observed
in the building’s garbage bin later that evening
DA Clark thanked the NYPD Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad, specifically
Detectives Kevin Connors and Charles Cadiz, as well as ASPCA veterinarian, Dr. Robert
Reisman.
BRONX MAN SENTENCED TO 16-22 YEARS IN PRISON FOR STABBING WOMAN AND TRYING TO BRIBE HER TO NOT TESTIFY AGAINST HIM
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a man has been sentenced
to 16 to 22 years in prison in the stabbing of a Bronx woman whom he later tried to bribe so she
would not testify truthfully against him.
District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant attacked the victim, causing serious injuries,
and when she was ready to serve as a witness against him he tried to corrupt the criminal
justice process by offering her money to lie to a grand jury. I applaud the victim for going
forward in the case, and now her assailant will serve time in prison for his crimes.”
District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Shakur Carrasquillo, 40, of 763 East 213th
Street, was sentenced today to 16 to 22 years in prison for Attempted Assault First Degree,
second-degree Assault, Bribery of a Witness, Perjury and Conspiracy by Bronx Supreme Court
Justice Robert Neary. Carrasquillo was convicted by a jury on March 19, 2018.
According to trial testimony, in August, 2015, the 26-year-old victim passed a gun to two
men who shot at the defendant on White Plains Road. The defendant chased the victim down
and stabbed her. Then, on February 20, 2016, on Holland Avenue, Carrasquillo and another
suspect got out of a car and stabbed the victim in her stomach and in her right ear. He was
arrested in that incident, and then had a relative offer her a total of $4,000 to lie about the
incident in the grand jury.
District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Detective Robert Konner of the 47th Precinct Squad
and Department of Correction Investigator and Liaison Scott Frank for their assistance in the
case.