Back and Forth: Ed Towns by Chris Bragg - City Hall News

Read original...

Rep. Ed Towns has been popping up in a lot of Google alerts lately. His son, Assembly Member Darryl Towns, just took a job in the Cuomo administration. His daughter is running to replace her brother. And the congressman wants to run for his son’s old district leader spot. All the while, the Dilans—Sen. Martin Dilan and his son, Council Member Erik Dilan—are angling to get those seats in their corner. Meanwhile, Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries’ advisors have been making noise about Jeffries running for Congress against Towns. In an interview, Towns talked about his daughter’s political prospects, his training regimen for 2012 and one of his top legislative priorities: building more women’s bathrooms.



What follows is an edited transcript.


City Hall: Why run for district leader after three decades in Congress?
Ed Towns: That little corner around there, we’ve sort of been the district leader of it for quite some time between me and Darryl, and, of course, Darryl is moving on, so I thought maybe I would just come back and help because that corner is sort of at the end of the borough and sometimes it’s forgotten. That’s basically the reason for it.

CH: Council Member Erik Dilan, who wants to run for district leader also, has argued that a younger person should be in the position. What do you make of that?
ET: I think what the party needs is an experienced, stable hand. I think that’s very much what it needs, more than ever. I think that’s part of our problem today, not having a stable situation in our political organization. I’m concerned with the fact that people running for national office in the most populated Democratic county in the nation and people will run for national office and never come to Brooklyn. So I think that we need to have folks that need to be able to stop this from occurring. Can you imagine one of the most populated counties in the nation, that people run for national office and never come here? I’ve been around a little longer and have more contacts and ties around the nation than most people. I also think we need to bring the county organization together and I feel I can be helpful in that regard.

CH: The Dilans have also said your son’s Assembly seat should now be filled by a Hispanic and are running Council Member Dilan’s chief of staff Rafael Espinal. Do you buy into that logic?
ET: I don’t have a problem with that—my daughter’s Hispanic. She’s from the Dominican Republic. She’s adopted. She’s been with us since she was six weeks old. So those kinds of arguments should be eliminated. It’s not something that I make a case of, but when people make statements like that, I have to respond.

CH: The Dilans say they will be in control of who gets the Democratic nomination for both the district leader and Assembly seat. Do you agree with that?
ET: I think that’s logical, but that doesn’t stop us from running. You can go out and create a line and it’s a special election, there have been a lot of situations where people in a special election have won. Charlie Johnson ran up in the Bronx in a special election and won. Bobby Garcia ran for Congress in a special election on the Liberal Party line and won. When there’s nothing there but that race, the Democratic line is one you would always like to have, and I think you make your life a lot easier if you do have it. That does not stop us from going out and running. The name Towns is known in the district.

CH: Have you thought a name for the ballot line? The Towns line?
ET: Save Our Children? There’s a lot of things that can be used. Rent’s Too Damn High and the Gas Too? [Laughs.]


CH: Are you planning on running for re-election to Congress in 2012?
ET: Oh, I’m running. I feel good, I feel good. I know some people have mentioned my age, but I’ll take on whoever’s mentioning my age. If they want to have a track race, I’ll race with them on foot, I’ll take that. And I really mean that, whoever it is. You just tell them I’m prepared to give them a foot race, a contest to see how many hours we can go in a day. Whatever.

CH: You’re in training?
ET: Oh yeah. I enjoy what I’m doing. It’s hard to beat somebody who enjoys what they’re doing.

CH: Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries is looking at running for your seat. Does that worry you?
ET: That’s one of the weaknesses of democracy—that people are able to run against me. But no, no, I have no problem with that. If people are eager, that’s it. But would I be worried? Absolutely not. I mean, really. I’ve represented this district 29 years. And I’m prepared to take on whoever or whatever. And I’m the kind of guy who’s had a lot of races throughout the years.

CH: Jeffries is seen as an up-and-comer though…
ET: I think he has a lot of potential. And I personally like him. But I understand how politics go. That doesn’t stop him from being eager or wanting to take my place or thinking I should retire when I don’t want to.

CH: Charles Barron is also talking about running, what do you think about that?
ET: The more the merrier. If you hear of anybody else, tell them, ‘Come on.’

CH: Was it difficult losing your spot chairing the House Oversight Committee, and then your spot as ranking member?
ET: No, no. All my advisors and all my immediate staff felt that I should get back to Energy and Commerce. Because when you’re the ranking member on the Oversight Committee, you really have no say. Being on the Energy and Commerce committee is one of the most prestigious committees in the United States Congress. Fifty-five percent of all legislation in the House goes through that committee.

CH: What issues are you working on right now?
ET: We’re still looking at the student athletes’ right to know, in terms of the college and universities reporting college graduation rates with athletes. Because what had happened in many instances is that you have young people who sign up with a university and have no chance of graduating. In fact, some schools have gone 10 or 20 years without graduating an athlete. So making sure athletes or anyone advising them have the information that anyone advising them knows, that in the letter offering them a scholarship to the university, they have to put that information in. We’re working on a bill called bathroom parity, which is very important. That’s making sure any building funded with government dollars has an a comparable amount of bathrooms for women. You see women standing in long lines to go to the ladies room and we need to correct that. In the old days, women didn’t go to sporting events and things like that, so therefore, they didn’t provide for them. Up until a few months ago they didn’t even have a bathroom for women on the floor of the House of Representatives. So we’re looking at issues like that that are very, very important.

Dilan v. Towns Tensions Escalate As Deidra Towns Declares For Assembly by Chris Bragg - City Hall News

Read original...

Deidra Towns, the adopted sister of outgoing Assembly Member Darryl Towns, is set to run for her brother’s seat, she confirmed in an interview on Monday.

“Yes, I am intending to run when the seat becomes available,” she said.
The move is certain to heighten tensions between the Towns family—led by Rep. Edolphus Towns and his son, Darryl—and the Dilan family, led by State Sen. Martin Malave Dilan and Council Member Erik Martin Dilan.

The two families had been in negotiations about whom would get the Democratic notification to replace Darryl Towns, both in his district leader position and in his Assembly seat.

Nearly every candidate in the discussions is either a family member or has close ties to one of the two central Brooklyn dynasties.

Other possible candidates include Janitza Luna Dilan, Erik Martin Dilan’s wife, as well as Council Member Dilan’s chief of staff, Rafael Espinal. And the race for the Assembly seat is not the only contest pitting the two families against each other. Ed Towns is running for his son’s old district leader spot—but Erik Dilan is also interested, if he does not run for Assembly.

Darryl Towns had originally been supportive of the idea of Erik Dilan running to replace him in the Assembly.
Sen. Martin Dilan expressed dismay at Deidra Towns’ decision to run for the Assembly seat, saying this represented a breakdown in the negotiations between the two families.

“The congressman is in discussions with us in respect to a district leader position and independent of that, it seems he wants his daughter to be an Assembly member, his son to be a commissioner,” Dilan said. “This appears to leave no room for anyone else to grow.”

The Dilan family ostensibly controls the county committee process that will ultimately determine who gets the Democratic nomination for the Assembly seat, so Deidra Towns will likely have to petition on the ballot and run as an independent candidate.

But Deidra Towns would likely pull back if Erik Dilan runs for the seat, which would allow the Towns faction to put up a candidate for his Council seat.

Council Member Dilan is said by multiple sources to be likely to ultimately take a pass and allow his wife or his chief of staff to run.

Martin Dilan said Monday afternoon that a decision would likely be made Monday evening about who would run from the Dilan faction. He did not return subsequent phone calls seeking comment.

Many insiders see Espinal as the favorite since Janitza Luna Dilan has two young children and is said to be reluctant to go to Albany.

In an interview, Ed Towns somewhat jokingly suggested two possible names for the independent line that his daughter will run on: Save Our Children or the Rent’s Too Damn High, and the Gas Too.

Towns disputed the idea put forward by the Dilans that a Hispanic aligned with the Dilans should be elected to represent a district with a growing Hispanic population.

After all, Towns noted, his daughter is actually Hispanic—she was born in the Dominican Republic and adopted by Towns at six weeks old.

Towns said he believes his daughter could pull out an uphill victory. The family has very high name recognition in the district and several independent candidates have won past special elections.
He reiterated that he was fine with Erik Martin Dilan running for the Assembly seat, but would oppose any other Dilan-backed candidate.

Bill Thompson Opens Campaign Office in Cypress Hills - 2009-10-10

Click here to view these pictures larger

East New York's City Line Park Opens After Revamp by Gayle Dewees - NY Daily News

Read original...

On hand for the ribbon-cutting at newly-renovated City Line Park are Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe (second from r.), Councilman Erik Martin Dilan and other officials and kids.

More than $1.6 million in renovations now adorn City Line Park in East New York, thanks to City Councilman Erik Martin Dilan (D-East New York) and Mayor Bloomberg. Last week's ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and District Manager Walter Campbell of Community Board 5.

The playground, bounded by Atlantic and Fountain Aves., now has new play equipment, a spray shower, swings, handball and basketball courts, benches and a drinking fountain, plus newly planted trees, and landscaping designed by landscape architect Staci Tull.

The work was done by J.R. Contracting, under the supervision of Rohan Mendis, Parks' resident engineer.

Dilan also said that a $2.5 million allocation of funds toward greening the ballfield at City Line Park has been added to the mix.

City Line Park was originally the site for the Ridgewood Pumping Station, used to bring water from the Ridgewood Reservoir in Queens to Brooklyn, back in 1886. After the Croton Reservoir became the city's main water source, the land was transferred to the Parks Department.

Full House For Favre by Elizabeth Benjamin - The Daily Politics - NY Daily News

Read original...

Commissioners and assistant commissioners and press secretaries and about a zillion other folks found some excuse to be in City Hall at 9 a.m. on an otherwise boring August Friday, reports DN City Hall Bureau Chief Adam Lisberg.

Why? A protest? Contentious bill that needed voting down? High-level closed-door meeting?

Nope. Even the occasion was even more important than any of that: The newest member of the Jets, Brett Favre, was in the house to receive an official welcome from Mayor Bloomberg.

Bloomberg generously allowed the four City Council members who showed up - Joseph Addabbo, Erik Martin Dilan, Michael McMahon and Larry Seabrook - to stand behind Favre, Jets owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Tannenbaum during the Blue Room press conference.

"You guys don't normally come here," Bloomberg said, looking over his shoulder at the Council members.

As the event ended and Bloomberg walked out, the councilmen swarmed Favre, all jockeying for a chance to shake his hand. Seabrook handed him a football to sign.

"Paid for it myself," a beaming Seabrook said.

He was less forthcoming when asked by Lisberg if he planned to keep the signed ball or sell it on eBay.

"Uh-oh," the councilman said. "Uh-oh."

Asked again....He again didn't answer.

Et Tu, Bloomy? Mike Bares Own Slush Fund by David Seifman and Tom Topousis - New York Post

Read original...


Five weeks into a federal probe of City Council slush funds, Mayor Bloomberg revealed yesterday that he kept his own secret taxpayer-funded cash stash - and used it to reward favored lawmakers.

The mayor's $4.5 million slush fund had never before been made public - and some council members said they weren't even aware of it.

After being doled out to selected lawmakers, the money was passed along to dozens of nonprofit groups supported by legislators - including at least one with a checkered history.

The largest chunk, $1.9 million, went to Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), one of the mayor's most ardent supporters.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who has publicly praised Bloomberg as the greatest mayor in city history, received $900,000 to help fund two popular concert series.

Councilman Erik Dilan (D-Brooklyn) won $100,000, including $60,000 for the North Brooklyn Community Council, which has come under question because it is run by his wife.

That was on top of the $187,000 he delivered to the group through the council over the past three years.

"They recognized that the North Brooklyn Community Council has done great things over the year," said Dilan spokesman Woody Pascal.

"There was no quid pro quo," Pascal added.

One source said seven out of the eight council members who received funds endorsed Bloomberg for re-election in 2005. Only Helen Sears of Queens did not.

Bloomberg's slush funds were channeled through various city agencies to 45 groups and weren't listed on the document released each year by the council that delineates how some $50 million in discretionary spending is allocated.

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the city Department of Investigation are investigating the council's use of slush funds - first revealed by The Post to be hidden under the names of nonexistent sham organizations.

In a memo to Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler conceded the process lacks transparency and "can create a mistaken impression that the Mayor's Office is funding its own 'member items.' This should be rectified."

In the future, Skyler said, the groups receiving the mayor's funds would be made public along with the council sponsors when the budget is adopted each June.

Bloomberg aides wouldn't reveal whether special grants had been made in prior years and said they are reviewing them.

The practice dates back at least to the Giuliani administration.

"I always believed it started as a way for the then-mayor to help the minority [Republican] delegation members," said Councilman James Oddo (R-Staten Island).

A spokesman for Markowitz said the borough president never requested the funds, but they had instead been sought by a nonprofit organization.

Investigation of Council Said to Grow By Ray Rivera and William K. Rashbaum- New York Times

Read original...

The federal inquiry into how City Council members spend the discretionary money they control appears to be expanding, and city investigators have begun questioning workers at a variety of nonprofit organizations that received money, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Several of the nonprofit groups whose activities are being reviewed by federal prosecutors and lawyers for the city’s Department of Investigation are those financed by Councilman Larry B. Seabrook, a veteran Bronx legislator.

In recent weeks, news reports have focused attention on several nonprofit groups to which Mr. Seabrook directed funds, including the Bronx African American Chamber of Commerce, which for years was located across the hall from Mr. Seabrook’s office on White Plains Road.

The group has since moved, but recently the Mayor’s Office of Contracts froze $912,244 in funds for the group while the investigation proceeds.

Mr. Seabrook could not be reached for comment. Representatives from the Bronx African American group and others that received funds from Mr. Seabrook could not be reached for comment Tuesday night, and it was unclear exactly which organizations investigators were concentrating on.

The inquiries are part of an investigation that has led to charges against two Council aides who were accused of embezzling at least $145,000 in city funds that Councilman Kendall Stewart directed to a nonprofit agency run by his chief of staff.

Mr. Stewart has not been charged and has denied any knowledge of any misappropriation of money.

The investigation has focused intense scrutiny on the way the Council handles money appropriated for use by local community groups that aid the city in the delivery of social services to young, old and poor residents.

In recent weeks, Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn has announced steps to tighten oversight of the money after it was disclosed that her office, and those of her predecessors, had set aside money for years in the name of fictional organizations to be distributed later outside the normal budgetary process to favored groups.

On Tuesday, the Council released hundreds of pages of forms asking members to disclose any potential conflicts of interest they saw in the groups to which they, or the Council as a whole, had hoped to channel funds in the last budget cycle.

About a dozen members disclosed that they or their staff members had some tie to groups receiving money, according to the documents, which were released as a result of a Freedom of Information request filed by The New York Times and other news agencies.

Councilwoman Diana Reyna of Brooklyn, for example, said she had directed money to the Los Sures Senior Citizens Center, which is run by her mother-in-law and received $39,500 in the current budget, at least part of that directly from Ms. Reyna’s discretionary funds. She also disclosed that she had directed funds to the Striking Viking Story Pirates, a group that provides after-school activities and of which her sister-in-law is a founding member.

Several council members said they were concerned that in disclosing their ties to established, reputable groups that had made good use of city money, they would be lumped in with members who have financed groups whose programs and monetary controls are being questioned.

Ms. Reyna said in an interview that she properly disclosed the relationships and that she gave the money because she believed in the groups. The senior center had regularly received Council money before she became a council member, and is only one of about a dozen in her district she helps, she said.

“If my mother-in-law was not the director of the senior center, I would still be helping it,” she said.

On his form, Councilman Erik Martin Dilan disclosed that his wife runs a nonprofit agency, the North Brooklyn Community Council, to which he has directed $187,500 in discretionary funds since 2005.

Mr. Dilan’s chief of staff, Woody Pascal, defended the allocation, saying Mr. Dilan announced in the Council chamber that he was directing funds to a group headed by his wife. “They’ve had great impact on the lives of the residents of Bushwick,” he said, noting that the group runs an after-school athletic league and provides legal services for immigrant families and busing for the elderly.

The city’s conflict-of-interest rules generally do not bar elected officials from sending money to groups to which they have direct or indirect relationships.

Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo did not list any potential conflicts in her disclosure, though The Daily News reported last week that she directed funds to a group, the South Bronx Community Corporation, that employed her sister and a nephew. Ms. Arroyo has said her relatives were no longer employed by the group at the time the funds were received. She did not return phone calls seeking comment on Tuesday.

Council members were required to file the disclosures for the first time as a result of new regulations put in place by Ms. Quinn in what she has described as an effort to bring more transparency to the budget process. Prior to that, members were only required to state the potential conflict on the record during open Council meetings, said Maria Alvarado, a spokeswoman for the Council.

In some cases, council members listed potential conflicts when their relationships with the organizations were distant. Inez E. Dickens, a Manhattan Democrat, listed the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce on her form because, as a businesswoman, she had once been a member, her office staff said.

Ms. Quinn disclosed that her partner, Kim Catullo, is an unpaid board member of a group to which Ms. Quinn directs funds, the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which provides services to lesbian and gay youth. The group, which received about $327,000 this year, had been regularly supported by Ms. Quinn’s two predecessors as speaker, she said.

Some Council leaders support a proposal barring a member from financing groups if the groups pay the member or a relative. Ms. Quinn declined to say whether she would support such a proposal. She said, though, that she believes there is a difference in whether a member’s relative is employed by the group or is a volunteer.

"We don’t want to do something that inadvertently deters people from volunteerism in New York, because it’s not easy to get people to volunteer for nonprofit organizations," she said.

Russ Buettner contributed reporting.

Brooklyn Pol Put $187G of Your Dough Into Wife's Nonprofit by Robert Gearty, Benjamin Lesser and Greg B. Smith

Read original...

Brooklyn city councilman Erik Dilan has funneled more than $180,000 in taxpayer money into a small nonprofit run by his wife, the Daily News has learned.

Dilan (D-Brooklyn) was sole sponsor of "discretionary" city funds for the North Brooklyn Community Council, a nonprofit that started out organizing youth football and has expanded almost entirely with government money.

His wife, Jannitza Luna, has been executive director of the group since at least 2005, tax records show.

She was on Dilan's staff before she began running the nonprofit, and she is a district leader for the Brooklyn Democrats.

Jannitza Luna, district leader for the Brooklyn Democrats, was on husband Erik Dilan's staff before she started running North Brooklyn Community Council, whose office (above) is on Wilson Ave.

Each City Councilmember gets a pot of "discretionary" money to use for pet projects in their districts. Potential misuse of these funds is at the heart of an ongoing probe by the city Department of Investigation and the Manhattan U.S. attorney.

Two aides to City Councilman Kendall Stewart (D-Brooklyn) have been charged with embezzling $145,000 from a nonprofit supported with "discretionary" funds. Stewart has not been charged and denies wrongdoing.

The News also disclosed that City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx) sponsored $80,000 in member items for a Bronx nonprofit that employed her sister and a nephew.

In an interview with The News, Dilan said he disclosed the conflict to the City Council and that no one objected, although a letter sent to the Conflicts of Interest Board obscures details of the arrangement.

At least three times in the past three years, Dilan sponsored member items for the North Brooklyn Community Council totaling $187,500. The amounts grew each year, from $30,000 to $57,500 to $100,000.

He was engaged to Luna sometime in 2006 and they got married in March 2007, he said. During that time, she was listed on the group's tax forms as the only salaried employee.

On the latest tax form filed, 2006, she claims a salary of $45,000. The group also paid $34,658 to unnamed "consultants."

On Friday, at the group's small storefront office in Bushwick, a receptionist told a reporter she would give Luna his number. Luna did not return the call.

In its last filing, the group claimed it organized youth sports teams. In an interview, Dilan said the group, which first reported income in 2004, is now doing less sports and more of what he called "immigrant services."

Each year, at least 90% of its funds come from either city or state taxpayers. Brooklyn Democratic leader and Assemblyman Vito Lopez sponsored a $50,000 state "member item" for the group last year, records show.