NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli Audit Recommends Strengthening Enforcement of Veteran Housing Preferences

New DHCR Commissioner Towns Supports Recommendations

Mitchell-Lama housing companies in New York City failed to provide disabled war veterans with priority consideration for housing as required by state law, according to an audit released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli at a news conference today. DiNapoli was joined by Darryl Towns, Commissioner of New York State Homes and Community Renewal (NYSHCR).


“By law, disabled veterans are supposed to be given a preference to Mitchell-Lama housing,” DiNapoli said. “What has happened is just unacceptable. These vets have made unimaginable sacrifices for our nation; they should get every benefit they’re entitled to when they come home.


“So many New Yorkers are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. NYSHCR has to make and enforce immediate changes to ensure these men and women – and their families – aren’t turned away from the housing that they deserve and the law says they should have. Commissioner Towns has only been on the job a short while, but he’s already stepping up to implement our recommendations and protect veterans’ rights.”


Commissioner Towns said: “NYS Homes and Community Renewal is dedicated to increasing transparency and accountability in our programs and procedures. The audit released today indicated that practices that occurred in this agency under previous administrations did not adequately relay information about housing preferences to some disabled veterans on housing waiting lists. Actions that our administration has already initiated, and steps that we have since developed with the Comptroller’s office, will fix this problem.”


According to the law sponsored by Towns, a former assemblyman, housing companies must provide disabled veterans with a preference in admission to Mitchell-Lama housing developments. In advance of that law’s enactment, NYSHCR issued a memorandum in 2007 instructing housing companies on how they should implement the law. Since then, NYSHCR has required housing companies to revise their tenant selection procedures, marketing advertisements, outreach letters, and apartment applications to give disabled veterans, and their families, priority consideration for available housing.


In addition, the housing companies were to notify existing waiting list applicants of this new priority.


The audit covered the period November 2007 to September 2010. The law was subsequently expanded to include all wartime veterans and their spouses.


Auditors examined 18 housing facilities in the New York City area. Among the findings:

• Of eight developments required to have a tenant selection plan, three had not updated their plans to include a veteran preference.
• Of six that had placed advertisements for vacancies, five did not mention the veteran preference, even though NYSHCR approved the ads.
• Eight of the 17 developments that had open waiting lists had not updated their applications to include the veteran preference.
• NYSHCR reviewed tenant selection plans and prepared reports on 14 of the developments. These reports failed to mention deficiencies at 13 of those developments that DiNapoli’s auditors later discovered.

DiNapoli recommended that NYSHCR:

• Train Housing Management Representatives to properly review housing company compliance with applicable laws and division guidance; and
• Increase monitoring of housing company compliance with applicable laws and division guidance.

DHCR generally agreed with DiNapoli’s findings and indicated they would take corrective action.


The full audit can be read at: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093011/10s42.pdf.

Currently, there are 175 DHCR-supervised Mitchell-Lama developments in New York State, with approximately 73,000 units. There are approximately 695,000 wartime veterans who are residents of New York State, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

Anthony Como Must Pay $13,000 Back to NYC CFB by Chris Bragg - City Hall News

STATEMENT RE ANTHONY COMO'S ABUSE OF CAMPAIGN CASH FROM ERIC BLANKENBAKER, DSCC SPOKESPERSON

The recent Campaign Finance Board decision fining Anthony Como $12,484 for violating campaign finance law is yet another example of this career politician's utter disregard for the law and New York' s overburdened taxpayers. Anthony Como only announced his candidacy for the State Senate after losing out on two patronage jobs; one with the Board of Elections and one as a commissioner of NYC Housing Authority.

The people of Queens deserve better than an opportunistic, unemployed politician as their State Senator. New Yorkers need a State Senator who cares about them, abides by the law and is truly interested in improving our schools, lowering taxes and creating jobs. Anthony Como has shown once again that he does not meet those criteria.

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Former New York City Council Member Anthony Como, a Republican who is running for State Senate in Queens against Joe Addabbo, must return nearly $13,000 in unspent and misspent funds to the New York City Campaign Finance Board, according to a July 22 audit released by the CFB.

The charges stem from his losing 2008 general election Council loss to Elizabeth Crowley. The repayment includes $6,800 that was spent impermissibly on phone and copy machine contracts for his campaign office that spanned well beyond Election Day, repayments of unspent campaign funds, and $100 spent on a newspaper ad for the Holy Child Jesus Team Drama Club that the CFB deemed not campaign related. The campaign was also assessed $500 in penalties.

Como, an attorney, and his Council campaign treasurer, Laura Schreiner, are personally liable to pay off the nearly $13,000 balance, which the Board must receive by August 25, according to the audit.

Como’s Council re-election campaign’s most recent CFB disclosure, filed in January 2010, showed only $5,200 in his account. After an inquiry from City Hall, Como said he would double check whether he had enough money in the account to pay the $13,000 balance.

“I’ve been busy with the State Senate campaign, but I’m going to find out,” he said. “I believe the money should be in the account.”

Eric Friedman, a spokesman for the New York City Campaign Finance Board, said that Como would likely be allowed to pay off his remaining debt through his State Senate campaign’s account.

But there is not yet enough money there to pay off the balance either: according his July 15 filing, Como had raised $17,600, had spent $13,700, and had only $3,900 on hand.

Update 4:44 p.m.

John Conklin, a spokesman for the State Board of Elections, confirmed that Como could transfer money, if he so desires, from his State Senate account to pay off debt from his Council campaign.

Como Still No-Go On Commissioner Appointment by Chris Bragg and Sal Gentile - City Hall News

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NYCHA post fails to materialize for former Council member, despite promises

Back when Mayor Michael Bloomberg was meeting with Republican county leaders about running on the GOP ballot line in November, his administration offered Anthony Como, the former Council member and favorite of the Queens County Republican Party, a job in his administration as a commissioner with the New York City Housing Authority.

Yet five months later, Como has yet to assume the job or collect a paycheck. And some members of the Queens GOP, the county organization which had been the most skeptical of the mayor’s entreaties, are now seething that Bloomberg is once again not living up to promises made to them.

“I don’t think it was ever a sincere offer,” said one Queens Republican. “They’ll keep him dangling until the campaign season is over, so he doesn’t become an enemy. But that job is never materializing.”

Two sources in the Queens GOP who have spoken with Como say a lengthy vetting process has held up his appointment. They say they doubt whether he will ever actually be appointed to the coveted $172,311 a year post.

Reached by phone, Como disputed that anything irregular was occurring. He said he was confident his appointment was still on track, and that he was still in regular contact with top staffers in both the Bloomberg administration and the Bloomberg campaign.

“We’re still going back and forth,” Como said. “Nobody has said anything about me being turned down.”

Como accepted the job just weeks after the Queens GOP endorsed Bloomberg to run on the Republican line this November. One source said Bloomberg aides delayed the appointment process after news of Como’s hiring became public in May, in order to avoid the appearance of a quid pro quo.

At the time of the hiring, some saw the appointment as part of a deal worked out between the Queens GOP, Bloomberg and Tom Ognibene. Ognibene abandoned a potential run for mayor—easing Bloomberg’s efforts to win the Republican line—and is now running for the Council seat once held by Como.

(Ognibene held the seat himself until term limits forced him out in 2001; it was then held by Dennis Gallagher until he resigned as part of a plea deal on rape charges; Como won the seat in a June 2008 special election, but lost to Elizabeth Crowley in their rematch last November.)

One Queens GOP source also noted that the appointment was in the works long before the Queens GOP endorsed Bloomberg, as Como said he first discussed the possibility of taking a job in the Bloomberg administration with Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey after losing the seat last year.

Another reason for the delay seems to be that the Department of Investigations, which performs routine background checks on administration appointees, has been looking into several zoning violations committed by Como when he was renovating his home in Middle Village.

Administration officials questioned Como about the violations in an interview earlier this year, which has made him nervous that he may not get the job, according to another person who has spoken with him. They added that the final decision about Como’s appointment will likely come some time after Labor Day.

Some in NYCHA are apparently unaware that Como was actually still under consideration for the job. When contacted, NYCHA spokesman Howard Marder said he believed it had only been speculation in the first place that Como had been offered the commissioner post.

“That was just a rumor—and it’s not true,” Marder said.

When informed that the Department of Investigations had been looking into Como’s background and that he actually had been offered and accepted the job, Marder referred questions about Como to the Bloomberg administration's press office, which did not respond the inquiries about Como.

The Bloomberg campaign also did respond to a request for comment.

Como’s vetting process has already taken longer than that of current NYCHA commissioner Margarita López, which took only three months. López had several potentially more serious issues in her background stemming from her time on the City Council, including her role in procuring a $630,000 grant for a controversial Church of Scientology project.

But if Queens Republicans continue to despair that there remain too few party members in the administration, the delay in Como’s appointment has been cheered by at least one group that has often tangled with the administration: tenant activists.

“I think Como would be a disastrous choice for rent regulation,” said Michael McKee, treasurer of the Tenants Political Action Committee, adding that, as a NYCHA commissioner, Como would wield outsize influence at an agency “where three people make all the decisions.”

Photo: Fox 5 News