Collapse of the Social Safety Net in New York City

Queens' Peninsula Hospital Center set to close ; New York Downtown Hospital putting patients on stretchers in the hallway to accommodate unmanageable influx of emergency patients.

"Sources say the Far Rockaway, Queens, hospital will shutter after owing millions to vendors and falling behind on its union benefits funds payments; the closure would cost the area about 1,000 jobs," reported Crain's.

The Queens Crap blog published a post today, indicating that Peninsula Hospital Center had filed a 90-day closure plan, a requirement under the law that was violated when St. Vincent's Hospital closed on April 30, 2010. Meanwhile, the Real Deal blog reported that once the Peninsula Hospital Center closes, all healthcare emergencies are going to overwhelm St. Johns Episcopal Hospital, which will become the only healthcare facility servicing the distant Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway. Separately, the True News From Change NYC blog linked the collapse of Peninsula Hospital Center with political corruption and possible kickbacks.

Is our social safety net not too big to fail ?

Does nobody in City Council have any concern about the financial collapse of so many hospitals across all five New York City boroughs ?

Does Mayor Michael Bloomberg not care, either ?

Meanwhile, following the illegal closing of St. Vincent's Hospital last year, there reamins only one hospital south of 16th Street in Manhattan, New York Downtown Hospital, which The New York Post has reported as being ''overwhelmed,'' and is leading to an ''emergency-care crisis,'' the newspaper reports.

Quinn Slush Fund Report

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer Blasts Mayor's Race Opponent Chris Quinn

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer took an apparent swipe at his mayor's race opponent, calling for an end to pork spending by local lawmakers.

JULY 20, 2011 4:09 PM

Our Reuven Blau reports:

Stringer criticized City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the other 50 members for their $49 million in earmarks that neglects to reach the city's poorest neighborhoods.

"We have a system where some districts get a lot more than others and politics is the only reason," Stringer told reporters yesterday.

Quinn is an early frontrunner in the mayoral election with the largest war chest of more than $4 million. Yet one of her major challenges in her expected run is the so-called slush fund scandal that erupted in 2007.

-- Excerpted from the Daily Politics blog by Celeste Katz on The New York Daily News.

2011 07 Xx Christine Quinn Slush Fund Member Items Report

Real Estate Industry Asks Christine Quinn to End Rent Regulation in NYC

The Business Establishment wants Christine Quinn to be your next mayor, so that she can keep denying you each of paid sick leave, a living wage, and a full-service hospital that might save your life.

Real estate developers are feverishly working to appoint Christine Quinn to be the next mayor of New York City, so that Christine Quinn can end rent regulation and turn all apartments into market-rate rentals. Real estate executives are mainly impressed with how Speaker Quinn shut down St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, which Robert Moses was unable to demolish and ram through a cross-town highway decades ago.

For years now, Speaker Quinn has subjugated herself to the misogynistic male sexist domination of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been on a scorched earth campaign to destroy the social safety net by trying to close firehouses, shut down senior citizen centers, cut childcare, layoff teachers, pretend like votes don't go missing, build luxury condos on the hallowed ground of St. Vincent's Hospital, make money from government information, and end Progressive Era reforms, we are left to wonder. When will the focus of irresponsible real estate development at the expense of the middle class spark a voter backlash, that will lead to mass protests at the city's legislature, or a revolution of the likes that have been happening elsewhere ?

What will be the spark that will trigger mass protests in New York ?

Tony Simone to City : ''F#ck You''

City Council speaker Christine Quinn's director of community outreach Tony Simone tells New York City Voters : ''F#ck You!''

Monday, July 18th 2011, 4:00 AM
Bryan Smith for News

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's director of community outreach dropped a few F-bombs at a local fundraiser last week.

Christine Quinn needs to rein in her director of community outreach Tony Simone.

The City Council speaker's office has issued an apology after Simone reached out to protesters outside a Quinn fund-raiser last Monday by lobbing a few F-bombs their way.

Documentary maker Donny Moss tells us that the protest outside the Dream Downtown hotel, which drew close to 30 people, was one of several that he and others will organize "between now and the mayoral election," to urge voters to "look beyond" Quinn's "identity" as a gay politician "to her actual record."

Moss addresses the issue in a 10-minute YouTube film called "Christine Quinn: Behind The Smile," in which he outlines a number of instances where, he contends, Quinn has "betrayed the gay community behind the scenes since becoming speaker."

Perhaps that's why Simone didn't have anything good to say when he encountered the protest at the Dream Downtown on Monday night where Quinn was having an $11-a-head fund-raiser for her 2013 mayoral campaign. (Quinn avoided her critics by using a back entrance to the hotel.)

According to Moss and another witness, Simone — who's a former Goldman Sachs portfolio analyst— approached the demonstrators, who were stationed on 16th St. between Eighth and Ninth Aves. outside of the hotel's entrance.

There, Simone asked one protester if Moss was present. Told that the filmmaker was indeed among the group, Simone responded: "Tell him to go f--- himself."

Moss says Simone then spotted longtime gay rights activist Allen Roskoff, and shouted "F--- you" at him before heading inside to the fund-raiser.

Roskoff, who's also been critical of Quinn, is president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club and co-author of the nation's first gay rights bill.

When we ran this story by Quinn's office, her communications director Jamie McShane told us Simone had gone to the fund-raiser "on his own time," where he was "repeatedly verbally abused by protesters. Tony lost his cool and should not have. He apologizes for his actions."

"That's a patent lie," replied Moss, who insisted "no one even recognized" Simone until he hurled his epithets.

"I didn't even say a word to him after he said I should go f--- myself," said Moss. He added that he and Roskoff were "mesmerized" by the city employee's behavior and said nothing.

Moss said he also didn't react when, he claimed, Simone approached him at another protest in summer 2009 and "shouted in my face, 'Loser!'

"I'm more interested in exposing Quinn's record than engaging with people who are invested in her success," he said.

Christine Quinn Trivia Quiz

Pop Quiz on Christine Quinn's Record as Do-Nothing City Council Speaker

Q. What has Christine Quinn done about giving us an APP to track the mayor's whereabouts during blizzards ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to save/restore a full service hospital with Level 1 Trauma Center to replace St. Vincent's ?

A. _________________

Q. What had Christine Quinn done to end the practice of using City Council slush funds to unduly exert influence over other councilmembers?

A. _________________

Q. What did Christine Quinn do to stop the controversial third term limits extension ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to pass paid sick leave in NYC ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to pass paid sick leave in NYC ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to stop NYU tearing down landmark structures in its reckless expansion through the Village ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to investigate $600 million CityTime fraud ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to save the scores of hospital closings all across the city in the past 10 years ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done for LGBT Civil Rights ?

A. _________________

Q. What did Christine Quinn do to stand up in 2005, back when Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the appeal of a landmark gay marriage ruling ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to investigate NYPD sexual orientation profiling at gay bookstores ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to investigate the illegal Gay Pride Raid at the Eagle ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to put pressure on federal legislators to repeal DOMA ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to put pressure on federal legislators to pass ENDA ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to support Bradley Manning ?

A. _________________

Q. What has Christine Quinn done to end de jure and de facto discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity ?

A. _________________

SAIC RICO Triple Damages

SAIC RICO Bloomberg Protest - Suzannah B. Troy Speech

Artist, blogger, and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy gave a speech today outside the New York City offices of SAIC to demand a RICO refund of triple damages against SAIC for their role in the organised crime that took place to rob taxpayers of over almost $1 billion in CityTime project costs.

Union representatives from Local 375 and DC 37, community activists, New York City taxpayers, and others gathered at 1250 Broadway in a demonstration against the technology company known as SAIC.

For years, newspaper and television reporters, bloggers, and whistle blowers have been reporting details of a massive taxpayer fraud perpetrated by New York City officials, by employees of SAIC and of another company known as Technodyne, and possibly by lobbyists in connection with the scandalous CityTime project.

The CityTime project began with an original budget of approximately $60 million, but has since ballooned to over $700 million.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has begun an investigation, but nobody yet knows how high this scandal, and other technology consultancy contract scandals, may go up the Bloomberg administration.

Stay tuned.

CityTime Protest Rally Today

Christine Quinn 4Q Nightmare

Christine Quinn's ''Dream'' Fundraiser Turns into ''Nightmare'' as Her Personal Assistant Screams the F-Bomb to St. Vincent's Protesters.

LGBTQ activists, Health care activists, government transparency activists, public official integrity activists, and animal rights activists held a flashmob protest outside City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's fundraiser at Dream nightclub Monday night in Chelsea.

Many LGBTQ activists and allies joined the emergency protest organised outside Speaker Quinn's fundraiser. Many LGBTQ activists said they believe that Speaker Quinn should have started fighting for marriage equality in 2005, back when Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the appeal of a landmark gay marriage ruling. In all her time in public office, Speaker Quinn has subjugated herself to the misogynist domination of Mayor Bloomberg.

Donny Moss, left, with Allen Roskoff, right -- officers of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club -- protesting outside tonight's fundraiser organised by Christine Quinn.

Still yet other protesters held up signs as a reminder to the U.S. Justice Department that nobody has yet to be indicted in Speaker Quinn's office for her role in the City Council slush fund scandal.

Community activists, who support the opening of a full-service hospital with Level 1 Trauma Center held up a banner, shaming Christine Quinn's ''do nothing'' record on saving St. Vincent's Hospital. The banner attracted hate speech from one of Speaker Quinn's highly-paid staff members, as indicated below :

Tony Simone, photographed right, a NYC official who is paid $113,000.00 in taxpayer money each year (plus opaque discretionary member item bonuses) and who reports directly to Speaker Quinn, left, told the St. Vincent's protesters, “F*ck you!” outside Speaker Quinn’s fundraising event at the ”Dream” nightclub in Chelsea.

Christine Quinn Têtu.com Article

Une lesbienne, future maire de New York?

Têtu.com wrote a French profile of Christine Quinn, in which the website mentions the Christine Quinn Sold Out blog.

Even in France, reporters question City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's close association with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the fact that she did nothing to stand up to the mayor when Mayor Bloomberg appealed the landmark 2005 marriage equality ruling written by Judge Doris Ling-Cohen.

Têtu.com specifically mentions this Gramercy Park protest we attended in mid-May.,

Imagine what I could do, if I did this full-time ... ?

Une lesbienne, future maire de New York?	A lesbian, future mayor of New York?
Par ALEXIS BUISSON	By ALEXIS BUISSON
Et si le prochain maire de New York était une lesbienne? La «speaker» ouvertement homo de la ville, Christine Quinn, est pressentie pour succéder à Michael Bloomberg en 2013.	And if the next mayor of New York was a lesbian? The openly gay "speaker" of the city, Christine Quinn, is tipped to succeed Michael Bloomberg in 2013.
Le malheur des uns fait le bonheur des autres. L'humiliante chute du chouchou des sondages pour la mairie de New York, l'élu démocrate du Queens Anthony Weiner, dans une rocambolesque affaire de «sexting» sur Twitter, a relancé la course pour le poste de maire. L'actuelle «speaker» de la ville, sorte de président du conseil municipal, Christine Quinn fait désormais figure de favorite. Si elle est élue en 2013, elle serait la première femme à occuper ce poste. La première lesbienne aussi.	The misfortune of one is the happiness of others. The humiliating fall of the darling of the polls for mayor of New York, Queens-elected Democrat Anthony Weiner, in an incredible case of "sexting" on Twitter, has raised the race for mayor. The current "speaker" of the city, a sort of chairman of the council, Christine Quinn is now a favorite figure. If elected in 2013, she would be the first woman to hold this position. The first lesbian, too.
Véritable pile électrique, la démocrate de 44 ans, descendante d'une rescapée irlandaise du naufrage du Titanic, est entrée dans la vie politique à 24 ans. Elle a participé en tant qu'assistante à l'élection de Tom Duane, premier conseiller municipal ouvertement gay de New York. Elle a ensuite servi comme directrice du New York Anti Violence Project, une association qui lutte contre la violence envers les LGBT.	Real electric battery, the Democrat, 44, descendant of an Irish survivor of the sinking of the Titanic, entered politics at age 24. She participated as an assistant to the election of Tom Duane, the first openly gay alderman of New York. She then served as director of the New York Anti Violence Project, an organization that fights violence against LGBT people.
Longtemps dans le placard En 1999, elle fait son entrée au conseil municipal de New York comme l'élue des bastions homos de Chelsea et de Greenwich Village. Pendant la campagne, ces adversaires, dont deux gays, l'accusent d'être hétérosexuelle pour la décrédibiliser! En vain. Elle devient «speaker» en 2006, soit le deuxième personnage politique de la ville derrière le maire.	Long in the closet In 1999 she entered the New York City Council, voted by the bastions of gay Chelsea and Greenwich Village. During the campaign, these opponents, including two gay, accused her of being heterosexual to discredit ! In vain. She became "speaker" in 2006, the second-highest political figure of the city behind the mayor.
Eduquée dans des écoles catholiques en dehors de New York, elle est longtemps restée dans le placard. Aujourd'hui, les droits des LGBT font partie de ses chevaux de bataille. Son combat du moment: la légalisation du mariage homo dans l'Etat de New York. Devant les législateurs d'Albany, la capitale de l'Etat, elle évoque régulièrement son union avec l'avocate d'affaire Kim Catullo pour pointer l'injustice de la situation actuelle.	Educated in Catholic schools outside of New York, she had long been in the closet. Today, LGBT rights are part of her war horses. Her struggle of the moment : the legalization of gay marriage in the State of New York. Before legislators in Albany, the state capital, she regularly refers to his union with the business lawyer Kim Catullo to point to the injustice of the current situation.
Embarquée par la police Aussi à l'aise dans les assemblées politiques que dans la rue, Quinn est de toutes les manifestations pro-homos de grande ampleur. Elle a même été embarquée par la police en marge de plusieurs défilés new-yorkais de la Saint Patrick, pour avoir tenté de s'infiltrer dans ces cortèges où gays et lesbiennes n'ont pas droit de cité.	Board by the police Equally at home in political assemblies in the street, Quinn is all pro-gay events of great magnitude. She has even been embedded by the police in conjunction with several parades in New York on St. Patrick, for trying to infiltrate these processions in which gays and lesbians have no place.
Malgré son engagement, Christine Quinn ne fait pas toujours l'unanimité chez les homos new-yorkais. Plusieurs groupes lui ont reproché son soutien en 2008 à une loi qui a notamment permis au maire Michael Bloomberg de se présenter pour un troisième mandat. Bloomberg était dans leur collimateur depuis février 2005. Il avait alors fait appel de la décision d'un juge de Manhattan stipulant que l'illégalité du mariage homo à New York violait la constitution de l'Etat. Une poignée de militants gays l'a bruyamment rappelé à la «Speaker» mi-mai, en manifestant en marge d'un événement de levée de fonds pour sa campagne. «Si Christine Quinn croyait vraiment dans les droits des LGBT, pourquoi a-t-elle récompensé Bloomberg d'un troisième mandat?» peut-on lire sur le blog Christine Quinn Sold Out, une plateforme anti-Quinn.	Despite her commitment, Christine Quinn is not always have unanimous support among gay New Yorkers. Several groups have criticized her support in 2008 to a law that enabled Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for a third term. Bloomberg was in their sights since February 2005. He then appealed the decision of a judge in Manhattan stating that the illegality of gay marriage in New York violated the state constitution. A handful of gay activists was loudly reminded the "Speaker" mid-May, demonstrating the sidelines of an event raising funds for his campaign. "If Christine Quinn really believed in the rights of LGBT people, why did she reward Bloomberg a third term?" Reads the blog Christine Quinn Sold Out, an anti-Quinn platform.
Si elle était élue, elle ne serait pas la première lesbienne à diriger une grande ville américaine. En 2009, Annise Parker a été élue à la mairie de Houston... au Texas (lire notre article). Tout est possible.	If elected, she would not be the first lesbian to head a major American city. In 2009, Annise Parker was elected mayor of Houston ... Texas (see our article). Anything is possible.

Quinn's Political Slush Fund Tricks

Christine Quinn Continues Her ''It Get's Bitter'' Slush Fund Retribution Campaign Against Progressive Liberal Democrats.

So, this morning's The New York Post finally gets to the bottom of what we have already reported on this blog, namely, that Speaker Christine Quinn's slush fund scandal isn't just about misappropriating taxpayer money for personal use, but also about using the secret member items as a way to reward political operatives like indicted political boss Vito Lopez and punishing progressive, liberal Democrats, like Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr.

Here is the text of The NY Post's latest editorial about the latest corruption developments in respect of Quinn's slush fund scandal, with our ''special'' editorial commentary following :

It was noted in this space last week how well Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez fares in City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s annual tax-dollar giveaway.

There have been developments.

Lopez, a state assemblyman and the subject of a federal corruption investigation, needed a front-end loader to haul away the so-called member-item cash lavished on him in the new city budget by Quinn — who used four pliant council members as cutouts.

But it turns out that Quinn took a fire ax to Queens Councilman Peter Vallone’s share of the boodle.

Vallone is a truly singular council member, in the sense that he has thus far managed to avoid attracting the attention of federal prosecutors, and it seems unlikely that he ever will.

But he irked Quinn by vocally opposing the renaming of the Queensboro Bridge in honor of former Mayor Ed Koch — so the speaker slashed his member-item take by 42%, or roughly $600,000.

Let’s be clear: Nobody should be getting member-item money.

These are lump-sum appropriations that corrupt the political process by giving incumbents cash to curry unfair favor with constituents; simultaneously, these cash goodies give bullying council bosses undue leverage over their underlings.

And Vallone — who apparently irritated Quinn and had his cash yanked as an example — proves the point.

Yet Quinn is cool with Lopez, who attracts the FBI like overripe pork attracts flies. Quinn channeled $4.4 million this year to his Brooklyn power base — the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council — through Brooklyn council members Domenic Recchia, Erik Dilan, Stephen Levin and Elizabeth Crowley.

While some $3.75 million is earmarked for alleged “capital construction,” the rest neatly covers salary and benefits for:

* Chris Fisher, Ridgewood executive director/Lopez campaign treasurer ($607,000).

* Angela Battaglia, Ridgewood’s housing director/Lopez girlfriend ($282,940).

(Quinn also managed to find $2 million for the United Federation of Teachers’ academically shaky charter school — but that’s a tale for another day.)

One final note: Quinn is many things — brash, personable, ambitious, maybe New York City’s next mayor.

But we’ve never thought her to be petty.

Until now.

Because she wasn’t content with punishing just Vallone for his temerity. She also took it out on the councilman’s father — former Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., arguably the last person to perform the office’s duties with decorum and dignity.

Cut from the budget was $6 million for a City University public-policy program named in his honor.

That’s the Vallones’ loss, to be sure.

But mostly it’s the city’s.

Christine Quinn should be ashamed.

Meanwhile, check out what other blogs are saying about this latest disgraceful turn about Speaker Quinn's slush fund scandal :

• Suzannah B. Troy : The NY Post Finally Figures Out Christine Quinn Petty, How about corrupt?
• True News From Change NYC : Quinn's Council Slush Fund Cover Up Into 4th Year, Its DOI Fault
• Queens Crap : Quinn cuts Vallone funding over bridge flap

The fact that former mayor Ed Koch is the reason that Speaker Quinn chose to lash out at Councilmember Vallone just goes to show you that there is a quid-pro-quo going on between Quinn's mayoral campaign, the Rudin Family, Ed Koch (Mayor Koch was hired to be the Rent-A-Hire-Spokesman for the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital ; For his astro-turfing work for the Rudin Family, Mayor Koch earned the distinction of being the ''Snooki'' of New York City Politics, a term specially created for Mayor Koch by political blogger and artist Suzannah B. Troy.) In exchange for lobbying for the luxury condo conversion on behalf of the Rudin Family, who are large contributors to Quinn's mayoral campaign, Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn rewarded Mayor Koch with the renaming of the Queensboro Bridge after him, even though Mayor Koch is a poor choice to honor as a closet LGBTQ leader in the city, especially given that Mayor Koch had a bad record of responding to the AIDS epidemic.

Op-Ed Bonus ! What a disgrace. How does Christine Quinn find hundreds of thousands of dollars for an indicted political slime ball, and millions in aggregate monies for member items, but she could not find $1 to save St. Vincent's Hospital in her very own city council district? This is sick and twisted. When are the over-taxed, over-fined, over-ticketed, over-tolled, over-run people of New York City going to wake up and vote Christine Quinn out of office? I realise that LGBTQ people want to rally around a leader, but damn, can't we pick one with a little bit of integrity? How about just a minimal standard of integrity? Is there a lowest common denominator of integrity we can demand out of LGBTQ leaders? How about a lowest expectations of integrity? If we scraped the bottom of Christine Quinn's diluted soup pan of weakened integrity broth, would we find any integrity sediment at all?

St. Vincent's Document Shredding

Bankruptcy Judge Cecelia Morris has let the management of St. Vincent's avoid Freedom of Information requests and has let the Rudin Family to gut St. Vincent's and is about to let the Family take a wrecking ball to it. Now, Judge Morris is going to let the Management and the Family destroy evidence.

Management of St. Vincent's Asks Bankruptcy Court to Approve Document Destruction, So That No Investigation Can Ever Determine Why the Hospital Closed Abruptly And Without Any Legally-Mandated Closure Plan.

No politician -- not CB2 Chair Brad Hoylman, not City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, or Senator Tom Duane -- is willing to do anything to prevent the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's. With the shredding trucks about to pull into the ambulance bays of St. Vincent's, the obstruction of justice will be complete : there may be no more hope to ever investigate the shady decisions that lead the hospital to close on April 30, 2010. It's exactly as Sarah Jessica Parker said : ''The community needs a hospital — and I think there’s been some clever obfuscation.''

1782-Motion Re Info Mgmt Services and Trust Ageement and Document Retention Plan

Yetta Kurland Delivers Petitions to Preserve St. Vincent's Facilities

Yetta Kurland - Presenting Petitions to Rudin Family to Block Condo Conversion of St. Vincent's

Community activist Yetta Kurland presented a stack of over 7,500 signatures on a petition to a representative of the Rudin development family. The petition demands that the Rudin Family must be blocked from undertaking a luxury condominium conversion of the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital.

In her presentation, Ms. Kurland explained the history of a prior deal that gave the Rudin Family use of a hardship exemption, but, which Ms. Kurland said, no longer applies.

As William Rudin salivates over the condo conversion deal, Jane Jacobs is turning in her grave. Meanwhile, Brad Hoylman is counting on the Rudin family to donate to his future political campaign the same way that the Rudin family has donated to Christine Quinn's mayoral campaign.

Yetta Kurland Calls for DOMA Repeal

Yetta Kurland issues public statement, calling for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act by 2012.

Yetta Kurland issued a statement before the commencement of the 2011 Heritage of Pride March (Gay Pride Parade) in New York City.

Role of Lobbyists in CityTime Fraud : What did SAIC and Technodyne want ?

Keeping in mind that Mayor Bloomberg is skilled at funneling campaign money in many ways that go undetected and undisclosed, a skill he shares with Speaker Quinn, who still maintains her shady City Council slush fund. These experts at funneling and slushing money around in opaque structures and technicalities are the ones, who never detected the massive $600 million CityTime Fraud. Really ?

During the 3 terms of the Bloomberg administration, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn kept approving each year's city budget, which included all the approvals and sign-offs on the CityTime cost over-runs.

During the Bloomberg-Quinn administration, lobbyists for the primary CityTime contractors, Scientific Applications International Corporation and Technodyne, kept teams of expensive lobbyists on their payroll to do exactly what ? Were lobbyists being paid to prevent any government agency to investigate the 2003 Richard Valcich letter ?

2003 02 19 Richard Valcich Letter SAIC CityTime Corruption Scandal

In 2003, Mr. Valcich was the Executive Director of the Office of Payroll Administration. In his 6 page letter to SAIC, Mr. Valcich questioned the motivations behind SAIC's poor performance on the CityTime contract ; SAIC kept dragging out deadlines and delivering product that Mr. Valcich described as "below acceptable standards."

As of the time of the writing of Mr. Valcich's letter, New York City had spent $35 million thus far on the doomed CityTime project. Current cost estimates put the price tag at over $700 million, of which $600 million has been described as "fraud."

During all this time, though, the principal outsourced companies working on CityTime were dispatching teams of lobbyists, to keep the cost over-runs being paid, and maybe for other motives.... The newsroom of WNYC, the public radio station, cannot pinpoint the exact role of the shady CityTime lobbyists.

"What prosecutors have yet to publicly discuss is the role played by former city officials from both the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations that acted as lobbyists on behalf of SAIC and subcontractors such as New Jersey-based Technodyne. ...

"The city's lobbying database shows a small army of former prominent city officials who did work for SAIC and Technodyne. Defense contractor SAIC has retained former City Comptroller Liz Holtzman, Peter Powers, who served as Mayor Giuliani's top deputy Mayor for operations, and Seth Kaye, who worked in both the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations. Technodyne's lobbyists include former Bloomberg Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Gino Menchini and Agostino Cangemi, who also held key posts in both administrations.

"National Strategies, the lobbying firm that employs Menchini and Cangemi, says the firm had no role in CityTime and discontinued working "on general business procurement" for Technodyne as soon as the criminal allegations surfaced. (Another Technodyne lobbyist of record, Sal Salamone, was director of the Mayor’s Office of Computer Planning and has worked for SAIC.)"

No journalism outlet has yet to report the extent of lobbying by other CityTime subcontractors, such as Spherion and Gartner. If the lobbyists were trying to thwart any investigation into the $600 million CityTime fraud, would those lobbying activities rise to the level of obstruction of justice ?

St. Vincent's Medical Malpractice

Eileen Dunn, R.N., tells residents of the Lower West Side of Manhattan that Mayor Michael Bloomberg put the ''knife to the chest'' of St. Vincent's Hospital, and that the mayor is responsible for blocking the restoration of a hospital to the Lower West Side.

Nurse Dunn also said that the municipal governments in Miami, Florida, and Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, either forbid ambulances from taking emergency patients to the kinds of first aid clinics that Lenox Hill plans to build at the O'Toole Building in the West Village, or forbid to license such first aid clinics altogether.

Too bad we can't count on Christine Quinn to do the right thing -- and fight for a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's.

Lenox Hill Hospital St. Vincent's Greed

Community Activist Yetta Kurland presented a stack of over 7,500 signatures on a petition to a representative of the Rudin development family. The petition demands that the Rudin Family must be blocked from undertaking a luxury condominium conversion of the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital. In her presentation, Ms. Kurland explained the history of a prior deal that gave the Rudin Family use of a hardship exemption, but, which Ms. Kurland said, no longer applies. As William Rudin salivates over the condo conversion deal, Jane Jacobs is turning in her grave.

Lenox Hill CB2 Meeting

Under the cover of darkness, over a holiday weekend, and in usual opaque fashion, Community Board 2 announced with very short notice a meeting for tomorrow that will keep pushing a first aid clinic to replace St. Vincent's Hospital.

In spite of the Lower West Side's united demand that North Shore-LIJ open a hospital to replace St. Vincent's, Community Board 2 keeps its head buried up the ass of the Rudin Family.

JOINT LANDMARKS & PUBLIC AESTHETICS & ST. VINCENT’S OMNIBUS : Tues., 7/5 @ 6:30 PM– NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Pl. Room 208 - 30 Seventh Avenue (O’Toole Building) - Application for façade changes and new entrances. For more information go to: http://bit.ly/iNUSWj

de Blasio CityTime Ethics Investigation

If the U.S. Attorney General won't appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the CityTime scandal, can we ask Public Advocate Bill De Blasio to launch an independent ethics investigation into the Bloomberg-Quinn administration ?

Michael Bloomberg, our control-queen mayor who is famous for fighting for more and more mayoral control over everything, including public education, is spinning the tall tale that he was never in control over the fraud being committed during the cost over-runs during the CityTime payroll system scandal.

"The fraud-riddled CityTime payroll system is being transferred to the city's control in the wake of indictments, guilty pleas and the public demand by Mayor Bloomberg that he wants $600 million back from the company in charge of the project.

"Rather than rely on contractors caught up in the corruption scandal to oversee the system, the city will assemble a team of roughly 70 technicians under its own control -- including many who worked for the companies now under investigation," reported The New York Post.

Just a week ago, Mayor Bloomberg was defending the hundred million dollars in cost over-runs in the CityTime project. (As if mayoral control hadn't yet been exposed to be a joke (take, for example, the Cathie Black appointment) Mayor Bloomberg is now trying to extend mayoral control from public education to the juvenile justice system.) And if that wasn't enough, now that Mayor Bloomberg claims that ''control'' over CityTime is being transferred to City Hall, one wonders who is the man behind the curtain, who is pulling all the levers, flipping all the switches, and turning all the dials ? Meanwhile, to no one's surprise, now that the CityTime milking project has gone bust, the Bloomberg administration is now on the prowl for another "new" payroll system.

"Buried in the agency's resolution was the surprising announcement that, come January, the city will seek new proposals for computerized payroll management," The Post report added.

During these three terms of Bloomberg mayoral control, he and Deputy Mayor Christine Quinn have complete and total control over the city budget, including approving appropriations of most, if not all, of the cost over-runs on the CityTime project. Will Mr. de Blasio do the right thing -- and launch an independent ethics investigation ? For more coverage, please visit the CityTime cover-up reporting by True News From Change.