City Council Fails to Provide for Accountability in Brooklyn
After contacting NYC Council and Melissa Mark Vivierto, I made them a new banner. It was either that or “I contacted NYC Council and I wished I poked myself in the eye instead.”
The NY Post wrote this article about a not-for-profit that is being run out of Assemblywoman Pamela Harris’ home. Money is easy to explain because there has to be receipts so I was waiting to hear from Assemblywoman Pam Harris.
A week after the article came out, Harris and Treyger held a quiet meeting for some members of the media (it wasn’t shared on social media). I figured they waited so long because Harris had to get her accounting information together. At the press conference, Harris stated the not-for-profit is still at her home, but she is not collecting rent money. Harris said that her neighbor rents space to the Coney Island Generational Gap.
Then Harris threw up a smoke screen. And we all know where there is smoke – there’s fire.
While Harris was supposed to justify the spending of the not-for-profit, she appealed to people’s emotions and stated that her kids were questioning why their group was in the news. There was no reason to share that as Harris and Treyger could have easily explained to the kids that they messed up.
When a mistake happens like this in government, all elected representatives should be presenting their paperwork without constituents asking for it.
Councilman Mark Treyger should have stepped in and corrected the mistake by providing a detailed list of funding and cancelled checks on who received the money for rent and from the not-for-profit in Harris’ home. Treyger could have shown Harris’ neighbor received the money for rent/maintenance. BUT HE DIDN’T and he responded like a typical pol. Councilman Treyger accepted no responsibility for not handling his job properly and threw the blame away from himself:
Treyger is paid $145,000 to handle the money and now he wants other people to do the job. If he can’t account for less than $100,000 what is he doing in office?
Further, Mark Treyger was a teacher so he knows there are plenty of groups who could have used that money and when he saw that Harris’ successor was unable to take the reigns, he should have given the money to another group who could work with these teens.
If you look at the Coney Island Generation Gap’s activities online, it’s clear it was running events and being productive over the years through 2014. When the city’s funding drastically increased, it seems the group’s focus changed as well. In the Spring of 2015, Harris took 15 children and four adults on an eight day cruise to Jamaica, the Cayman Island and Mexico. As an educator, I think taking a group of teens who have never been out of NYC on an educational trip to Washington might have been beneficial. Providing the teens a cruise ticket sounds excessive to me. The group raised $6,500 through fundraising, but where did the rest of the money come from? (2015 tax return is not up yet).
In 2016, the Coney Island Generation Gap received this money from the city and money from Treyger is listed here as well
The 2017 budget has already been posted and Treyger has set aside $48,500 to the Coney Island Generation Gap again even though the address on the record was not changed (see below). Why is NYC Council allowing Mark Treyger to continue to fund a not-for-profit in the Assemblywoman’s home?
Most of the time we are all too busy to check into these things even though we know something isn’t right. And the people who are running NYC know that we are busy so they are hoping that we will ask and then just forget about it.
1. July 18th – I called the NYC Council and they transferred me to the NYC Finance Department. I left a detailed message for the admin and she didn’t call back.
2. Next I contacted NYC Council and Melissa Mark Vivierto on Twitter. Although my request was clear, the city council account responded with a link to buy time. I explained my request again. BTW, Melissa Mark Vivierto and NYC Council should have had this report ready to go as The NY Post covered this story on July 9th. The NYC Council Twitter site is busy retweeting Melissa Mark Vivierto and posting nonsense like this.
3. July 20th – I called back the City Council office and asked to speak to the head of the Finance Department. I got the admin and left my number. Strangely, the admin called me back and said her boss is looking into it. I asked if they had a report or receipts – she said no. I asked when would I hear back and the admin repeated that her boss is looking in to it. Now usually when you call and ask for help, they will say we will call you back tomorrow or by the end of the week. No not this office, they just play shoefly with people.
Why can’t the head of the Finance Department just pull the records? Either they don’t have any or they don’t want me to have them. It’s sad there are many employees working in this finance department and they can’t produce records.
Today, July 21st – I filled out a FOIL request. I didn’t even know this existed. I don’t think I will hear back as Scott Stringer is good friends with Mark Treyger. Melissa Mark Vivierto should be embarrassed of office she is heading. If a person asks NYC Council for documents, they should be willing to provide them.
The truth is out there – but NYC Council isn’t going to share it because SOMETHING JUST ISN’T RIGHT HERE.
Hugs,
marlene
Topics: Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Politics | 1 Comment »
July 21st, 2016 at 6:31 pm
And this is the reason people are voting for Trump. It’s people in NYC covering for people in NYC.