This too is Yonkers and Westchester
By Eric Schoen
New York State. Mount Vernon. Yonkers. When will our elected and appointed officials and their friends learn that they are not above the law and can’t just do anything they want to do? Why does it take a jury of their peers to rein them in? Let’s start in New York State.
Joe Percoco
I always love when I learn a new word or phrase. Low Show Job. Be honest. Had you ever heard that phrase before the trial of Joe Percoco? On Wednesday, Percoco, at one time the man closest to the Governor, the man who who was referred to as the Governor’s Brother was convicted of three felonies after taking $300,000 from companies doing business before the state.
Low Show Job, unlike a no show job is apparently where you show up for work occasionally versus never. What was the low show job in this pathetic scenario? A $90,000 a year job for Percoco’s wife to teach schoolchildren about energy.
Come on guys. You couldn’t come up with a more substantial job than that? Didn’t they think it would look funny giving Percoco’s wife a job for an upstate company when she resides with her family in Westchester?
As all this nonsense goes on, do we have anything on Ethics Reform from Albany. Nada. This trial proved that in Albany, it’s pay for play. You have a Governor who claims to be a ‘reformer’ while those closest to him enrich themselves with ‘low show jobs’ for family members.
Don’t kid yourself. This pay for play stuff goes on all around us. A couple of weeks ago the State Comptroller criticized a particular city for not even making an attempt to get bids on professional services contracts. Bids are technically not required. But hey, doesn’t it look funny when the same firm gets contracts to perform the same work for 30 years as the Comptroller pointed out.
Did the Comptroller or the Attorney General look to see that the firm that got the work made campaign donations in pretty much every election cycle (it’s all online for you to see) to the current elected official responsible for authorizing the work? And also to those before him/her. Or that a relative of the elected officials’ lobbying firm has been registered with New York State in Albany as a lobbyist for the firm getting the professional services contract?
I don’t want you to think that I am Christopher Columbus and my discoveries are as important as his were. In this day and age it’s all online. You push a couple of keys and it’s all there for you to see. Sometimes the transparency that our elected officials call for truly works.
Don’t think you can bring these issues to the attention of the Ethics Board. All the terms of its’ members have expired. So much for Ethics!
The Mayor of Mount Vernon
You are innocent until proven guilty by a jury of your peers. I know Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas and have chatted with him over the years. One day he told me that he enjoys my columns. I was glad to hear that someone appreciates my work.
This week Thomas got indicted, accused of stealing $12,000 from his political campaign and diverting more than $45,000 from his Inaugural Committee. Attorney General Schneiderman claimed Thomas used the funds as his ‘personal piggy bank.’
Payments were supposedly made for cars, rental payments, vacations in Mexico, a Channel Purse and a meal at the Bubba Gump restaurant in Manhattan.
The Bubba Gump expenditure particularly troubles me. The place is a tourist trap and reviews for it have been less than stellar. With so many good places for seafood in Mount Vernon and Westchester, Thomas chose Bubba Gump in Manhattan? Come on Richard, you should know better than that. You could have gotten a better meal for half the price close to home.
What was the Mayor thinking when he weaved this web of payments? Well, we will find out when the case works its way through the court system!
FOIL and the Yonkers Board of Education
On the other hand, the Yonkers Board of Education has good taste when it come to taxpayer Funded meals. We will get to that in a second.
My journalistic colleague, Colleen Wilson of the Journal News did a great job in the the annual Freedom of Information Project the paper has done for years in honor of Sunshine Week. This year Freedom of Information requests were made regarding School Board expenses.
The Yonkers Board of Education has the largest expenses, over $220,000. It is the 4th largest school district in the state of New York!
In a district cash strapped for money should the Board of Education be spending $240 for polo shirts for the Board of Education. Or $400 for an Apple IPad and AppleCare for the $15,000 School Board President? Is it legal for the Board to spend taxpayer dollars on Journal Ads for Charity Groups and tickets for their events. Is it legal for the district to pay trustees ticket fees for retirement dinners and other celebratory dinners using public funds? Only the Inspector General knows for sure.
Getting back to food, I compliment the good taste of the Board of Education on food for Board Meetings and Workshops. Louie and Johnnies, one of those who cater to the Board has excellent chicken scarpiello. Silvio’s pasta fagioli makes for a nice, warm meal on a chilly day. La Piñata Bakery makes the best Chocolate Mouse Cake in Town. Over 60 bills for food at these and other restaurants are listed. Mama Mia! Mangia!
I have no problems with food being served at meetings where trustees must come directly from work and don’t have time to stop home for dinner. Since the Board technically doesn’t meet during the summer months, 60/10= an average of 6 bills for food each month.
Interestingly bills for Claims Auditors and Internal Auditors were submitted to the Journal News as Board expenses. That makes the $220,000 fee make a little more sense. But why? If other districts included auditing expenses their expenses would be much higher. I can’t believe that the Board feels that having these fees as part of their budget gives them any more power than they currently have.
Where have all the flowers gone. Long time passing… When will they every learn? When will they ever learn?
Brief: Kudos to Yonkers Public Schools students participating in a ‘walk in’ at Press Time joining their peers throughout the country raising awareness of gun safety laws. And kudos to the Superintendent of Schools for making this a ‘walk in’ versus a walk out looking out for the best interests of students.
Makes me hark back to the 1970’s when a big fat kid named Eric Schoen led a student walkout at Yonkers High School over budget cuts. In retrospect, the issue today is much more important than the issue we tried to address walking out of school and marching to City Hall.
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM or WVOX.com and click on listen live.
