As the recession takes its toll on the world, yeshiva parents are left wondering how they are going to pay the skyrocketing prices of yeshiva tuition. Many parents are starting to wonder out loud if public school is the only option. Parents are starting to tiol with the idea of charter schools. Here is an article dealing with the Jewish orthodox community and the idea of sending their children to charter schools.
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Yeshiva Elementary School, a fervently Orthodox institution in Miami Beach, Fla., with about 450 students, was in dire straits in late 2008. It was behind on payroll, in significant debt and facing financial collapse.
So its administration contemplated taking what would have been a revolutionary step: splitting the school for grades K-8 into two distinct institutions — one for religious studies, one for secular studies. Like most Jewish day schools, Yeshiva Elementary had a dual curriculum encompassing both spheres of study.
Under the proposed plan, secular subjects would be taught in a publicly funded charter school that would be open to students of all religious backgrounds. Jewish studies would be taught later in the day at an off-site, private supplementary school.
In tough times, the plan could reduce overall operating costs passed on to the parents by hundreds of thousands of dollars, and school officials said that a respected rabbinic authority had granted them a heter, or religious exemption, to pursue the charter school option. But when the administration brought the proposal to its parent body, the idea triggered vehement objections — and opponents, who were urged on by at least one local synagogue, lined up several prominent rabbis to speak out against the idea.
The opponents “had a meeting and came up with a ruling that it should not be done,” said one school official who did not wish to be identified. “We are not planning to go against the gedolei yisroel,” or leading sages.
Though the plan was shot down, the very fact that an institution like Yeshiva Elementary — a school on the far right of the religious spectrum — would even consider such an option underscores the scope and urgency of the financial challenges facing the Orthodox world as it attempts to maintain its decades-old commitment to universal day school education. And it also reflects the growing willingness of some parents and school officials to consider more affordable alternatives.
For several years some have pushed charter schools, which receive government funds but are exempt from many regulations, as an alternative for Jewish children outside the Orthodox world. The Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School, for example, generated headlines and debate when it opened in 2007 in Hollywood, Fla., pledging to teach Hebrew and Jewish history and culture, but not religion. In New York, a group backed by philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and others recently gained approval to open a charter school in Brooklyn and now plans to seek approval to open similar schools elsewhere.
But charter schools have long been a tough sell for those, especially in Orthodox circles, who are wary of sending their children to school with non-Jewish children or too many Jewish children from irreligious households. And there is the issue of the curriculum: Many Orthodox parents and educators do not see Hebrew language studies as a satisfactory alternative to Jewish and biblical instruction.
So even though the Ben Gamla school offers supplementary Jewish studies outside of its state-sponsored course load, many Orthodox families in the area have never seen it as an alternative to day schools.
“No one wants in dealing with the tuition crisis to water down Jewish education,” Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the dean of the Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future in Manhattan, told JTA. “But you are finding for the first time a whole bunch of organizations across denominational lines in the Jewish community all focused on this.”
Indeed, JESNA and the Lippman Kanfer Institute recently published a 47-page study on how day schools could cut costs. The survey, which was developed in conjunction with a number of organizations and institutions, including Yeshiva University, also suggested several alternatives to day schools — among them charter schools.
Rabbi Saul Zucker, the director of the Orthodox Union’s Department of Day School and Educational Services, was set to spend the first few days in March in Florida consulting with some of the founders of the Ben Gamla school to see if there was a way to adapt the model to better serve the Orthodox.
In some areas, an increasing number of Orthodox parents are openly advocating for some way to integrate their students into the public school system.
In late February, several hundred parents attended a meeting in Englewood, N.J., to discuss creating a Hebrew immersion program within the town’s public school system that could open as soon as the 2009-10 school year. And in the Five Towns of Long Island, N.Y., a heavily Jewish area, Orthodox parents are mulling the creation of a supplementary school system, according to Marvin Schick, the senior consultant to the Avi Chai Foundation, which has spent millions of dollars helping to seed and expand day schools.
But such ideas are still likely to be a tough sell in the Orthodox community, especially on the furthest right edge of the spectrum — as evidenced by the quick kibosh put on the Yeshiva Elementary proposal.
From the beginning, the haredi establishment has given charter schools the resounding thumbs down.
“We are not pro-charter schools. They are not replacements for a yeshiva education, and anyone who can imagine they could be are fooling themselves,” the spokesman for the fervently Orthodox group Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Avi Shafran, told JTA. “There is no end around the fact that Jewish education is a Jewish education and that can only happen in a Jewish institution with a Jewish curriculum. And because our nation does not permit religious instruction in public schools, there is no way to avoid the need that Jewish parents have for yeshivas.”
Agudath Israel, rather, is advocating that the Jewish community see day school and yeshiva education as a communal responsibility and that philanthropists large and small step up to help make it more affordable. In addition, Agudah has been a fierce proponent of school vouchers, with the hopes of providing new streams of revenue that could be used to reduce tuition costs.
Nicki Salfer, a consultant on the Yeshiva Elementary project who also runs charter schools in Cleveland and Miami serving homebound, hospital-bound and special needs children from religious families, has seen firsthand the reluctance of the haredi community to consider charter schools.
Five years ago Salfter started Virtual Schoolhouse, her charter school in Cleveland, specifically to help Jewish special needs children, securing the cooperation of every local Jewish day school. The school, which now educates 500 students in total, once boasted 300 Jewish ones, but the figure has dropped to 100 because “a lot of the parents decided that they didn’t want their kids with non-Jewish kids,” she said.
“They are desperately afraid of something like this and losing control of the secular education, and being forced to teach evolution and sex ed, the standard stuff you learn in a public school,” she said.
Getting involved in the process at Yeshiva Elementary, she added, felt like she had “walked into a war zone.”
Though many parents supported the charter school initiative, other Yeshiva Elementary parents were so concerned that they immediately raised upwards of $100,000 to help the school become financially solvent, at least temporarily.
“They don’t understand that we do have control over the education” at charter schools, Salfer said. “We just have to follow state standards, as does any state school. They have this perspective and they are wrong, and it will take a long time to change that perspective.”
Monday, March 9, 2009
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New Survey Finds Anti-Semitic Attitudes Steady In Europe
A new survey of seven countries across Europe revealed that nearly half of the Europeans surveyed believe Jews are not loyal to their country and more than one-third believe they have “too much power” in business and finance.
The findings were released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in New York. The study, “Attitudes Toward Jews in Seven European Countries”, shows millions continue to believe the classical anti-Semitic canards that have persistently pursued Jews through the centuries.
Overall, 40% of Europeans in the countries polled believe that Jews have too much power in the business world, with more than half of Hungarian, Spanish and Polish respondents agreeing with that statement.
“This poll confirms that anti-Semitism remains alive and well in the minds of many Europeans,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL’s national director.
For More on the Poll The Yeshiva World
The findings were released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in New York. The study, “Attitudes Toward Jews in Seven European Countries”, shows millions continue to believe the classical anti-Semitic canards that have persistently pursued Jews through the centuries.
Overall, 40% of Europeans in the countries polled believe that Jews have too much power in the business world, with more than half of Hungarian, Spanish and Polish respondents agreeing with that statement.
“This poll confirms that anti-Semitism remains alive and well in the minds of many Europeans,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL’s national director.
For More on the Poll The Yeshiva World
City Hall, Albany, Washingtgon and the Middle East News
NYPD Cutbacks
COPS HANDCUFFED: DOWNTOWN TERROR FORCE ON HOLD *** Bloomberg cuts the cops *** NYC police scale back security plan for downtown *** NYPD Forced To Cut 2010 Police Class *** NYPD: Poor economy hurts Ground Zero staffing *** Kelly: NYPD to scrap 2010 rookie class, WTC patrol plans *** Police Stops on City Streets Rose Significantly Last Year *** Bloomberg to Lobby in D.C. for Stimulus Aid
Other NYC News
NYC, London vie for the bottom *** Wal-Mart cutting jobs, moving others to NYC *** City Council takes up livery cab passengers' bill of rights *** HIGH RISE IN HOUSING UNITS - housing stock increased by a record 67,792 units between 2005 and 2008, but the vacancy rate dropped from 3.09 to 2.88 percent *** Proposal aims to grow green spaces on city roofs *** MTA spellers way off-off Broadway *** EJ McMahon ponders New York's life without the old Wall Street.
Albany Wants to Tax You
'MILLIONAIRES' EVERYWHERE - NYP ED *** 'MILLIONAIRE TAX' STILL IN PLAY WITH PATERSON *** NYS Public Radio: Karen DeWitt: Governor Offers Conditional Support for Tax Hike (Business/Economy, Politics & Elections, State Government) *** Fair Share Tax Reform Gaining Momentum *** Gov waffles on tax hikes for wealthy *** New York Allots Another $2 Billion for Unemployment Benefits *** Paterson provides $2B to buoy jobless *** State Lawmakers Ponder Stimulus Fix *** On Utility Regulators, It's 'Same Old, Same Old' *** LOTTERY MAY BET ITS MARBLES ON THE MARKET *** Paterson proposal would invest Lotto prize pool in stock market *** As senator, Gillibrand shows no sign of a maverick - Newsday Ed *** Albany Times Union: Bruno trial slated for November (Law/Courts, Politics & Elections) *** State Senate Republicans say the 137 tax and fee increases in Paterson's budget proposal would cost a middle-class family $3,000 a year *** Acampora to PSC: Huh? Why would Paterson do that?.
Washington
$3 trillion! _ Senate, Fed, Treasury attack crisis *** Geithner's big moment: a tough sell *** Bailout Plan: $2.5 Trillion and a Strong U.S. Hand *** Obama: "Wall Street I Think Is Hoping For An Easy Out... There Is No Easy Out" *** Obama's tough love rattles Wall Street *** FLYIN'-HEARTED: PREZ MEETS PRESS IN AIR *** Obama and the Press Play Wiffle Ball While Americans Strike Out? *** In Retrospect, Not Such A Bad Start For Obama - Ruth Marcus, Wash Post *** Our Clever President - Tony Blankley, Washington Times *** Congress Negotiations intensify on final stimulus plan ** Senate Begins Intense Negotiations *** Up Next for Bankers: A Flogging - Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times *** Bankers to appear before dubious Congress *** Bank Execs to Face House Panel Today *** Republican Strategy of Deny, Delay and Do Nothing - Paul Begala, CNN *** Obama Must Do More to Get GOP on Board - Steve Huntley, Chicago ST *** Now is No Time for Compromise - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post *** Congress Misreads Public Anger at Wall Street - Caroline Baum, Bloomberg *** 'UNCARING' SCHUMER TAKES HEAT ON SPENDING *** VIDEO: Schumer: The American People Don't Care About Pork Projects In Stimulus... *** Schumer wins some, loses some in stimulus package *** THE INFLUENCE GAME: Lawmakers in stimulus dilemma *** Public is Growing More Skeptical of Content in Bill - William McGurn, WSJ
Middle East
HILL'S CHILL PILL ON IRAN *** Clinton holds out hope for useful talks with Iran *** US grappling with Canada's exit from Afghanistan *** Israel Rivals Both Claim Win... Developing... *** Battle Is Close in Israeli Election *** Rivals Both Claim Victory in Israel *** One Region, Two States - Shimon Peres, Washington Post *** The Prime Minister's To-Do List - Amir Mizroch, Jerusalem Post *** Rage Grows as Global Crisis Worsens - Christopher Sultan, Der Spiegel *** Mugabe Foe Sworn in as Zimbabwe Prime Minister *** The Rise of Extremism in London.
COPS HANDCUFFED: DOWNTOWN TERROR FORCE ON HOLD *** Bloomberg cuts the cops *** NYC police scale back security plan for downtown *** NYPD Forced To Cut 2010 Police Class *** NYPD: Poor economy hurts Ground Zero staffing *** Kelly: NYPD to scrap 2010 rookie class, WTC patrol plans *** Police Stops on City Streets Rose Significantly Last Year *** Bloomberg to Lobby in D.C. for Stimulus Aid
Other NYC News
NYC, London vie for the bottom *** Wal-Mart cutting jobs, moving others to NYC *** City Council takes up livery cab passengers' bill of rights *** HIGH RISE IN HOUSING UNITS - housing stock increased by a record 67,792 units between 2005 and 2008, but the vacancy rate dropped from 3.09 to 2.88 percent *** Proposal aims to grow green spaces on city roofs *** MTA spellers way off-off Broadway *** EJ McMahon ponders New York's life without the old Wall Street.
Albany Wants to Tax You
'MILLIONAIRES' EVERYWHERE - NYP ED *** 'MILLIONAIRE TAX' STILL IN PLAY WITH PATERSON *** NYS Public Radio: Karen DeWitt: Governor Offers Conditional Support for Tax Hike (Business/Economy, Politics & Elections, State Government) *** Fair Share Tax Reform Gaining Momentum *** Gov waffles on tax hikes for wealthy *** New York Allots Another $2 Billion for Unemployment Benefits *** Paterson provides $2B to buoy jobless *** State Lawmakers Ponder Stimulus Fix *** On Utility Regulators, It's 'Same Old, Same Old' *** LOTTERY MAY BET ITS MARBLES ON THE MARKET *** Paterson proposal would invest Lotto prize pool in stock market *** As senator, Gillibrand shows no sign of a maverick - Newsday Ed *** Albany Times Union: Bruno trial slated for November (Law/Courts, Politics & Elections) *** State Senate Republicans say the 137 tax and fee increases in Paterson's budget proposal would cost a middle-class family $3,000 a year *** Acampora to PSC: Huh? Why would Paterson do that?.
Washington
$3 trillion! _ Senate, Fed, Treasury attack crisis *** Geithner's big moment: a tough sell *** Bailout Plan: $2.5 Trillion and a Strong U.S. Hand *** Obama: "Wall Street I Think Is Hoping For An Easy Out... There Is No Easy Out" *** Obama's tough love rattles Wall Street *** FLYIN'-HEARTED: PREZ MEETS PRESS IN AIR *** Obama and the Press Play Wiffle Ball While Americans Strike Out? *** In Retrospect, Not Such A Bad Start For Obama - Ruth Marcus, Wash Post *** Our Clever President - Tony Blankley, Washington Times *** Congress Negotiations intensify on final stimulus plan ** Senate Begins Intense Negotiations *** Up Next for Bankers: A Flogging - Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times *** Bankers to appear before dubious Congress *** Bank Execs to Face House Panel Today *** Republican Strategy of Deny, Delay and Do Nothing - Paul Begala, CNN *** Obama Must Do More to Get GOP on Board - Steve Huntley, Chicago ST *** Now is No Time for Compromise - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post *** Congress Misreads Public Anger at Wall Street - Caroline Baum, Bloomberg *** 'UNCARING' SCHUMER TAKES HEAT ON SPENDING *** VIDEO: Schumer: The American People Don't Care About Pork Projects In Stimulus... *** Schumer wins some, loses some in stimulus package *** THE INFLUENCE GAME: Lawmakers in stimulus dilemma *** Public is Growing More Skeptical of Content in Bill - William McGurn, WSJ
Middle East
HILL'S CHILL PILL ON IRAN *** Clinton holds out hope for useful talks with Iran *** US grappling with Canada's exit from Afghanistan *** Israel Rivals Both Claim Win... Developing... *** Battle Is Close in Israeli Election *** Rivals Both Claim Victory in Israel *** One Region, Two States - Shimon Peres, Washington Post *** The Prime Minister's To-Do List - Amir Mizroch, Jerusalem Post *** Rage Grows as Global Crisis Worsens - Christopher Sultan, Der Spiegel *** Mugabe Foe Sworn in as Zimbabwe Prime Minister *** The Rise of Extremism in London.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Lew Fidler Uses Council Pork to Help His Friends
Money that city councilmen receive for their discretionary use should be used within their districts either to promote small businesses, provide more benches for the elderly, more programs for children and should not be spent for self serving reasons as Mr. Fidler has been doing.
You would never know it from the media that Councilmember Lewis Fidler funds one of the city’s largest non-profit patronage operations in the city. Coming in with the third highest amount of member items in the council, with just over $700,000, Lewis Fidler, assistant majority leader and Chairman of the Youth Services Committee, said he is proud to be considered the third "biggest pig" in the council. The Councilman uses the city’s budget to provide jobs for his friends, campaign workers and to continue the illusion that a once-powerful club is still going strong.
Today’s reporters do not cover politics like Jimmy Breslin, Jack Newfield, Pete Hamill, Murray Kempton and other members of their hard-working greatest generation, who understood neighborhood politics and never quoted politicians like celebrities. Reporters of Newfield’s era understood that elected officials always had motives, and that truth could only be reported by analyzing their words and investigated their actions. Fidler is one of the most quoted councilmembers in the city’s newspapers and blogs on virtually every topic and issue, except for one: what he does with the member items money in his district.
Some people claim that the way the media covers Fidler shows a racial bias in its reporting of political corruption. By reading the dailies we know how Councilmembers Erik Martin Dilan and Leroy Comrie sent member items funds to nonprofits that hired their wives. Maria del Carmen Arroyo sent money to nonprofits that employed her sister and nephew. Darlene Mealy tired to find a nonprofit to hire her sister. Hiram Monserrate, Larry Seabrook and Kendall Stewart used nonprofit money to help in their campaigns.
What is never covered is a more complicated corruption in the white community where member item funds and campaign contributions go through interlocking nonprofits, lobbyists and special interests developers. Umbrella nonprofits like Fidler’s Millennium Developers are just the tip of the iceberg of corruption; Emily Giske of Bolton-St. Johns, Parkside’s Evan Stavisky, Jeff Plaut’s Global Strategy, George Artz, Yoswein, Geto & De Milly, and Knickerbocker SKD help campaigns more than Councilman Hiram Monserrate’s nonprofit Libre get a free ride from the media’s corruption coverage.
Putting racial motives aside, it is clear that the owners of the mainstream media control how and when it reports on political corruption. Not one word has been printed about the councilmember items slush fund scandal since all the major papers’ editorial boards came out for extending term limits. Earlier this year, for a few months, there was a story almost every day about the council’s member item’s “little tin box”.
Fidler’s Member Item-Funded Nonprofit Reelection Industry is a Widespread Practice
The late former Assemblyman Tony Genovese, who made the Thomas Jefferson democratic club into a powerhouse with the late county leader Meade Esposito, invented the scheme which uses member items and other government funds to build political power for their club in their district. They set up an umbrella nonprofit called New Perspectives that received and distributed government funds to most of the local nonprofits in their community. Genovese wanted all power to emanate from his club. His clubhouse hack pal Alan Weisberg ran Perspectives. Genovese’s Assemblyman Stanley Friedman was the last elected official in the city to open up a district office outside the Jefferson Club. In the days of Tammany Hall all elected officials operated their district office out of the clubhouse. Genovese and Esposito’s genius created the umbrella nonprofit funded by the government tied to the clubhouse to keep the
Thomas Jefferson Club powerful in an era in which most clubs were dying off.
Since that time, elected officials and consultants throughout the city have copied Genovese’s umbrella nonprofit model. Brooklyn Democratic Leader Vito Lopez, an early protégé of Genovese, funds the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Center as an umbrella-type nonprofit with millions of dollars in government patronage to his district. Bolton-St. Johns’ Emily Giske uses the High Line and the health care industry to build an umbrella for her team, including $50,000 to Speaker Quinn for her mayoral campaign from High Line supporters. The Parkside Group used their relationship with former Speaker Miller, former Queens Democratic leader Tom Manton and convicted felon Brian McLaughlin to pull in over $7 million in consulting fees from nonprofits receiving council funding. Former Thomas Jefferson Club leader Bruce Bender, now working for as chief lobbyist for Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner, helps fund Borough President Markowitz’s umbrella nonprofit Best of Brooklyn. Pedro Espada just defeated State Senator Efrain Gonzalez with the help of his nonprofit organization, Soundview Healthcare.
After Genovese’s death New Perspectives got in financial trouble, so Fidler and the other new stewards of the Jefferson Club simply closed it down and transferred Perspectives’ functions to a new nonprofit, Millennium Development. Paul Curiale, the husband of Fidler’s council aide Debbie Malone, runs Millennium Development. Both are heavily involved in the operation of the Thomas Jefferson Club and regularly collect signatures for candidates endorsed by Fidler’s club.
Another way Fidler controlled government money was to appoint Georgia Hamilton, the wife of his driver Daniel MacBride, to Neighborhood Advisory Board 18. The board distributed city and federal youth money in Fidler’s district. Fidler knows a lot about how funds are distributed through the Neighborhood Advisorary Board system as chairman of the Council’s Youth Services Committee. With the Councilman’s knowledge, Hamilton illegally continued to serve on the Advisory Board after she moved out of the community. Fidler said in a recent blog post that he received the most discretionary funding last year at $985,000, and snagged a considerable amount of capital too, because he chairs the Youth Services Committee, which oversees a lot of the programs in the city that would be eligible for these types of grants. "Which is also why I am able to put together a pot of properly vetted discretionary items,” said Fidler.
Fidler represents a boutique niche market lending company called LawCash. Fidler’s cousin was made V.P. of the company right after he graduated college. New York Supreme Court Justice Ira Warshawsky said that LawCash, which advances money to plaintiffs while their civil lawsuits are pending, charges high usurious rates. The judge blasted LawCash for making a high-interest loan to a poor African-American family. LawCash has charged 50% or more in interest for one of their loans. Fidler’s loan company operates like subprime mortgages in that they both take advantage of the uninformed poor. A representative of LawCash said his firm can charge such high rates because, unlike banks, its money is "advanced," not lent, to plaintiffs, and this is a high-risk investment. When elected officials use their position to make money and deliberately fail to protect the public by promoting weak laws and regulations, the people suffer. Wall Street called derivatives trading “barter” instead of an insurance policy to avoid government regulations. Now the federal government must bail out that $600 trillion dollar business. Many of the high level consultant firms in the city today call their services education to avoid lobbying regulations. They make secret deals between each other in a type of exclusive “Star Chamber” that runs campaigns, nonprofits, and healthcare institutions without any legal requirement to report their cooperation on city or state financial forms.
You would never know it from the media that Councilmember Lewis Fidler funds one of the city’s largest non-profit patronage operations in the city. Coming in with the third highest amount of member items in the council, with just over $700,000, Lewis Fidler, assistant majority leader and Chairman of the Youth Services Committee, said he is proud to be considered the third "biggest pig" in the council. The Councilman uses the city’s budget to provide jobs for his friends, campaign workers and to continue the illusion that a once-powerful club is still going strong.
Today’s reporters do not cover politics like Jimmy Breslin, Jack Newfield, Pete Hamill, Murray Kempton and other members of their hard-working greatest generation, who understood neighborhood politics and never quoted politicians like celebrities. Reporters of Newfield’s era understood that elected officials always had motives, and that truth could only be reported by analyzing their words and investigated their actions. Fidler is one of the most quoted councilmembers in the city’s newspapers and blogs on virtually every topic and issue, except for one: what he does with the member items money in his district.
Some people claim that the way the media covers Fidler shows a racial bias in its reporting of political corruption. By reading the dailies we know how Councilmembers Erik Martin Dilan and Leroy Comrie sent member items funds to nonprofits that hired their wives. Maria del Carmen Arroyo sent money to nonprofits that employed her sister and nephew. Darlene Mealy tired to find a nonprofit to hire her sister. Hiram Monserrate, Larry Seabrook and Kendall Stewart used nonprofit money to help in their campaigns.
What is never covered is a more complicated corruption in the white community where member item funds and campaign contributions go through interlocking nonprofits, lobbyists and special interests developers. Umbrella nonprofits like Fidler’s Millennium Developers are just the tip of the iceberg of corruption; Emily Giske of Bolton-St. Johns, Parkside’s Evan Stavisky, Jeff Plaut’s Global Strategy, George Artz, Yoswein, Geto & De Milly, and Knickerbocker SKD help campaigns more than Councilman Hiram Monserrate’s nonprofit Libre get a free ride from the media’s corruption coverage.
Putting racial motives aside, it is clear that the owners of the mainstream media control how and when it reports on political corruption. Not one word has been printed about the councilmember items slush fund scandal since all the major papers’ editorial boards came out for extending term limits. Earlier this year, for a few months, there was a story almost every day about the council’s member item’s “little tin box”.
Fidler’s Member Item-Funded Nonprofit Reelection Industry is a Widespread Practice
The late former Assemblyman Tony Genovese, who made the Thomas Jefferson democratic club into a powerhouse with the late county leader Meade Esposito, invented the scheme which uses member items and other government funds to build political power for their club in their district. They set up an umbrella nonprofit called New Perspectives that received and distributed government funds to most of the local nonprofits in their community. Genovese wanted all power to emanate from his club. His clubhouse hack pal Alan Weisberg ran Perspectives. Genovese’s Assemblyman Stanley Friedman was the last elected official in the city to open up a district office outside the Jefferson Club. In the days of Tammany Hall all elected officials operated their district office out of the clubhouse. Genovese and Esposito’s genius created the umbrella nonprofit funded by the government tied to the clubhouse to keep the
Thomas Jefferson Club powerful in an era in which most clubs were dying off.
Since that time, elected officials and consultants throughout the city have copied Genovese’s umbrella nonprofit model. Brooklyn Democratic Leader Vito Lopez, an early protégé of Genovese, funds the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Center as an umbrella-type nonprofit with millions of dollars in government patronage to his district. Bolton-St. Johns’ Emily Giske uses the High Line and the health care industry to build an umbrella for her team, including $50,000 to Speaker Quinn for her mayoral campaign from High Line supporters. The Parkside Group used their relationship with former Speaker Miller, former Queens Democratic leader Tom Manton and convicted felon Brian McLaughlin to pull in over $7 million in consulting fees from nonprofits receiving council funding. Former Thomas Jefferson Club leader Bruce Bender, now working for as chief lobbyist for Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner, helps fund Borough President Markowitz’s umbrella nonprofit Best of Brooklyn. Pedro Espada just defeated State Senator Efrain Gonzalez with the help of his nonprofit organization, Soundview Healthcare.
Fidler and the Jefferson Club’s Nonprofit Patronage Networks
After Genovese’s death New Perspectives got in financial trouble, so Fidler and the other new stewards of the Jefferson Club simply closed it down and transferred Perspectives’ functions to a new nonprofit, Millennium Development. Paul Curiale, the husband of Fidler’s council aide Debbie Malone, runs Millennium Development. Both are heavily involved in the operation of the Thomas Jefferson Club and regularly collect signatures for candidates endorsed by Fidler’s club.
Another way Fidler controlled government money was to appoint Georgia Hamilton, the wife of his driver Daniel MacBride, to Neighborhood Advisory Board 18. The board distributed city and federal youth money in Fidler’s district. Fidler knows a lot about how funds are distributed through the Neighborhood Advisorary Board system as chairman of the Council’s Youth Services Committee. With the Councilman’s knowledge, Hamilton illegally continued to serve on the Advisory Board after she moved out of the community. Fidler said in a recent blog post that he received the most discretionary funding last year at $985,000, and snagged a considerable amount of capital too, because he chairs the Youth Services Committee, which oversees a lot of the programs in the city that would be eligible for these types of grants. "Which is also why I am able to put together a pot of properly vetted discretionary items,” said Fidler.
What the Press Did Not Report
As Chair of the Youth Services Committee, Fidler oversaw the funding of the Donna Reid Memorial Education Fund. Two staffers of Councilman Kendall Stewart, including his chief of staff Asquith Reid, were indicted by U.S. Attorney Garcia for skimming at least $145,000 from the Donna Reid fund, a charity that had received council funds. Fidler’s committee funded the Memorial Education Fund after the Department for the Aging rejected the group's application for city money in 2004 after noticing that its office address was identical to Asquith Reid's home address. Reid, like Fidler’s staffer Georgia Hamilton on Board 18, was a member of his Neighborhood Advisorary Board – Board 17 – which funded youth groups like Donna Reid in his community. Councilman Erik Martin Dilan’s North Brooklyn Community Council and Councilman Hiram Monserrate’s Libre are other nonprofits that have been funded with council funds dispensed by Fidler’s Youth Service Committee that have been written about in the press for their practice of hiring the councilmembers’ family members and helping in their reelection bids. Not one word has been written in the press about how the questionable funding was approved for these and other nonprofits by Fidler’s Youth Committee, which, by the way, he gets paid $10,000 extra a year for chairing.
Judging by a series of recent loses by the Thomas Jefferson Club, Fidler’s funding of the nonprofit Millennium network is about the only thing keeping the councilman’s club from falling apart. Last year, the club lost its control over the Brooklyn Surrogate Court when its candidate Judge Shawndya Simpson lost to Judge Diana Johnson. Judge Johnson only lost by 200 votes in the club’s 59th district and won in the Assembly District where Fidler is District Leader (the 41st AD) two to one. The Club’s former Assemblyman and Surrogate Judge Frank Seddio was pressured into retirement, according to The Daily News, because of illegal contributions from his Assembly account to Fidler and other elected officials of the Jefferson Club when he was running for the surrogate judgeship. The club lost the other Surrogate position in 2005 when Judge Margarita Lopez Torres beat their candidate. In addition, the Jefferson Club only managed to get 11% for the candidate it backed in the 2005 Democratic Mayoral Primary, Gifford Miller. In the General Election that same year, Fernando Ferrer, the Jefferson Club’s endorsed candidate, only got 27% in its district. Moreover, in 2001, the club’s candidate in the Democratic Primary runoff, Mark Green, failed to carry the Jefferson Club’s district or Fidler’s District Leader district. Finally, in the primary that same year, the club’s City Councilman Herbert Berman lost the controller’s race to William Thompson.
Fidler’s smart enough to know his good relationship with reporters allows him to get away with almost anything
Fidler represents a boutique niche market lending company called LawCash. Fidler’s cousin was made V.P. of the company right after he graduated college. New York Supreme Court Justice Ira Warshawsky said that LawCash, which advances money to plaintiffs while their civil lawsuits are pending, charges high usurious rates. The judge blasted LawCash for making a high-interest loan to a poor African-American family. LawCash has charged 50% or more in interest for one of their loans. Fidler’s loan company operates like subprime mortgages in that they both take advantage of the uninformed poor. A representative of LawCash said his firm can charge such high rates because, unlike banks, its money is "advanced," not lent, to plaintiffs, and this is a high-risk investment. When elected officials use their position to make money and deliberately fail to protect the public by promoting weak laws and regulations, the people suffer. Wall Street called derivatives trading “barter” instead of an insurance policy to avoid government regulations. Now the federal government must bail out that $600 trillion dollar business. Many of the high level consultant firms in the city today call their services education to avoid lobbying regulations. They make secret deals between each other in a type of exclusive “Star Chamber” that runs campaigns, nonprofits, and healthcare institutions without any legal requirement to report their cooperation on city or state financial forms.
Fidler is the District Leader in the 41th Assembly District, which has a minority population of at least 65%. Not only is the Councilman not protecting his own voters from high-interest lending operations, he profits from one. Yet the press reports that Councilman Fidler is fighting predatory lending. If you Google Fidler on predatory lending you will find articles that quote him speaking out against subprime mortgage lending. Fidler supported Frank Seddio for Surrogate Judge. Right after Seddio left the Surrogate Court he advertised in local newspapers his services to get homeowners subprime mortgages in Canarsie as a mortgage lawyer.
According to Crain’s, Canarsie has the highest subprime default rate in the city. Fidler was also frequently quoted in the press how he was trying to reform Brooklyn’s corrupt judicial systems with a Blue Ribbon Commission, while he and his club backed every Norman machine judge, many of who were removed from the bench. Some went to jail.
What never gets printed in the press is how Fidler uses his control of nonprofit funding to eliminate political opposition in his community. When minority Assembly candidate H. R. Clark showed up to protest overdevelopment at a City Planning Commission’s local hearing in a building owned by a nonprofit funded with government funds, he was thrown out. According to neighborhood activist Mark Fertig, Fidler was under pressure by Assembly candidate H. R. Clark and community leaders since their meeting last year with mayoral candidate Tony Avella to downsize zoning in his district. To this day the area has not been downzoned. According to Fertig, all Fidler wanted to do is show the appearance of doing something while protecting his developer friends from downzoning.
Fidler has even figured out how to rip off the Campaign Finance Board (CFB) to make money for his friends when he runs for reelection. Fidler wrote a letter to the CFB in 2003 to qualify for full campaign finance funding after the CFB ruled he would only get 25% of the matching funds because he did not have a serious primary or general election challenger. All that is needed to quality for full funding is a letter from the elected official to the CFB saying they have a competitive primary. Fidler got $82,500 in 2003 in matching funds, the full allowable amount, and went on to get 87% of the vote in his so-called “competitive race.” He wrote the same letter to the CFB in his 2005 reelection bid and received full public funding in both a primary and general election he won overwhelmingly.
Besides using the government for political gain Fidler has not shown much loyalty to his supporters.
Fidler supported Ferrer for mayor in 2005, going back on the endorsement commitment he gave to Gifford Miller after the Speaker passed that year’s city budget, which contained Fidler’s pork requests for his district. Two-timing is something Fidler has always been known for. He supported Anthony Weiner for City Council against his own cousin, Michael Garson. When Weiner’s council seat became vacant in 1998 after he was elected to congress, Fidler supported Michael Nelson against Irma Kramer, despite the fact that Kramer was one of Fidler’s earliest supporters.
Sometimes Fidler’s double crosses are a work of art. At the same time Fidler’s committee was funding Councilman Stewart’s indicted aide’s nonprofit, according to Wellington Sharpe, Stewart’s 2005 Council opponent, Fidler was helping Sharpe with his ballot access. Sharpe was later knocked off the ballot after Stewart’s lawyer brought him into court and produced a mortgage prepared by Fidler that was supposed to turn over a house to Sharpe’s kids, but actually showed Sharpe as the primary resident of the house, which was outside of Stewart’s district.
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
- Thomas Jefferson
The false way Fidler is covered by the media, while he rips off government funds to accumulate power is just a warning sign of how the press is endangering the lives of New Yorkers. Our City and Republic are in jeopardy because today’s media has abandoned its role of informing the public, leaving the people powerless to defend themselves. What the press did not tell the public during the term limits debate was that the two-term restrictions were voted for by a public that was upset with the corruption in the Koch Administration in the 1980’s and the role that the City’s impossible-to-defeat incumbents played in allowing that corruption. Now even that small safeguard against incumbent protection in our society is gone. George Orwell would have to write a new chapter in 1984 to explain how 34 City Councilmembers under investigation for illegally using the member items slush fund were able to receive press coverage that basically said that extending their time in office would increase choice, democracy and improve our economy.
Without an informed public, elected officials act like organized crime mobsters, working against the voters’ needs for personal gain. They create government-funded umbrella-type nonprofit reelection organizations to stay in office. They also create a dysfunctional, unregulated government with no legal accountability to carry out their greedy friends’ scams to make money at the cost of the public good. Our city would be a lot better off if it listened to a few independent voices about the dangers of repealing the Glass-Spiegel Act, rather then constantly devoting their coverage to political celebrities and their meaningless news conferences.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Fidler to Constituents: Screw You!!!!
I believe that the mayor and city council are voted by the people and must represent the people and not serve their own agendas. We the people should be the only priority. What I have witnessed over the past few weeks by the mayor and the city council is anything but disgraceful. How public servants can say that they have the people's best interests at heart by extending term limits is beyond me, when after two voter referendums, we the people have said that two terms totaling eight years is what we want.
Many city councilmen have ignored the wishes of their constituents, the same people who voted them into office. In the 46th district where Lew Fidler is the councilman, many Marine Park residents are stating that he blatantly ignored the wishes of his constituents and they feel betrayed. Mr. Fidler claims that he is in favor of good government, but I do not believe that voting against what your constituents desire is the definition of what good government is. I believe what Mr. Fidler did is only self serving.
As first reported in the Kings Courier, by Michele De Meglio, Lew Fidler is facing a backlash from his constitutents. The article states that Fidler came under fire for his position on the controversial measure at last week’s Marine Park Civic Association meeting, held at P.S. 207 on Fillmore Avenue.“The fact that 600,000 people said we don’t want term limits doesn’t mean anything to you?” questioned Kimball Street resident Sean Toner.
“I represent 156,000 people,” Fidler countered. “I don’t govern by poll. I’m telling you what I feel and why I think this is the best policy for good government.”“Term limits are bad government,” Fidler added. “The speaker of our body is either a freshman or a lame duck.”
You will have an opportunity in the next election to vote for or against Mike Bloomberg or for or against Lew Fidler,” Fidler said. “You do have a choice. You’ll have a choice next November.”
But locals argued that Fidler will remain the Democratic Party’s candidate, thereby preventing a new candidate from being selected.“You’re a Democrat. No one’s going to vote for the other side. It’s a fixed election,” Toner asserted.“It’s self-serving,” Jennings said. “He wants to keep his job.”
One thing that Mr. Fidler is correct is that we, the people will have a choice, and that choice will be in September and not November. It would be foolish for anyone to overlook a primary election.
When your constituents speak to you Mr. Fidler, it is vital that you listen to them because they are ultimately the ones who you work for.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Board of Education Approves Hebrew Charter School in Sheepshead Bay
The New York City Department of Education approved the application for the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School. The application was submitted by journalist Sara Berman. For the people who are unaware of who Sara Berman is, her father is Michael Steinhardt. Mr. Steinhardt is a major benefactor of NYU's Steinhardt School of Education, founder of the New York Sun Newspaper and one of the founders of the Birthright Israel Program.
The the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School will open with 150 co-ed students in kindergarten and 1st grade, with plans to add a grade each year and grow to a total of 450 kids. The school would cover the core academic subjects, but be the first New York charter school to also offer Hebrew-language instruction. It would also teach about Jewish culture and history and modern Israeli society.
The school is hoping to be open by the fall of 2009 in district 22.
The the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School will open with 150 co-ed students in kindergarten and 1st grade, with plans to add a grade each year and grow to a total of 450 kids. The school would cover the core academic subjects, but be the first New York charter school to also offer Hebrew-language instruction. It would also teach about Jewish culture and history and modern Israeli society.
The school is hoping to be open by the fall of 2009 in district 22.
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