Six Charged in $80M 'CityTime' Rip-Off By Bruce Golding and David Seifman - NYPOST.com

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Four consultants to the city's problem-plagued payroll system were busted today on charges of ripping off more than $80 million in an elaborate fraud and kickback scheme.

The wife and mother of alleged ringleader Mark Mazer -- who has been paid $4.4 million to help oversee the costly CityTime project -- were also accused of helping launder proceeds of the five-year flimflam.

According to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Mazer steered more than $76 million worth of bogus contracts to firms run by Dmitry Aronshtein, who is believed to be a relative, and Victor Natanzon.

Aronshtein and Natanzon then kicked back more than $24.5 million to a series of shell companies controlled by Mazer's wife, Svetlana, and his mother, Larisa Medzon, the complaint says.To cover up the fraud, the three of them, along with co-defendant Scott Berger, allegedly cooked up phony timesheets intended to justify the spending.

The Mazers allegedly used more than $3 million of their crooked cash to buy and renovate two homes, and also splurged on six late-model cars over the past two years.

Department of Investigations Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn -- whose office uncovered the massive scam -- called it a shame that "supposed experts hired and paid well to protect the city's interests were exposed as the fox guarding the hen house."

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara noted the irony of how "a project intended to prevent payroll waste, fraud, and abuse, was itself allegedly bilked in part by fraudulent timekeeping."

Mayor Bloomberg called it a "major fraud perpetrated on city taxpayers" over the past few years.

"As you know we have zero tolerance for any waste, fraud or abuse and there are no sacred cows in city government," he said.

Bloomberg said he directed Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith to take direct oversight of CityTime.

"We have no tolerance for this whatsoever," he said. "And you can rest assured that we will do everything possible to insure that we get that money back and that the perpetrators are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

City Councilman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn), one of the chief critics of the City Time contract, charged that the administration was asleep at the switch.

"I am shocked," she said. "Eighty million just disappeared and no one from the administration raised a question."

James pointed out that the stolen $80 million could have been used to prevent cuts to child care, senior services and firehouses.

She called on the MTA not to go forward with its $10 million contract with the main City Time consultant, SAIC.

James also said she's worried that other major city contractors aren't being scrutinized.

"This happened on the watch of the Bloomberg Administration," she said. "I am certain there are other consultant contracts that need to be monitored."

The chief official who should have paid closer attention is Joel Bondy, executive director of the Office of Payroll Administration, which was overseeing the contract.

Bonday had previously been employed by Spherion -- which happened to be the quality assurance consultant on the City Time project. Spherion already had the City Time contract before Bondy moved to the city payroll.

Bloomberg didn't answer a direct question about whether Bondy would still have his job when this is over, saying the investigation is continuing.

The City Time scandal provided ammunition for DC 37, the city's largest municipal union, to hammer home its claim that the city is wasting millions on private contractors at the expense of its members.

Callers to DC 37 hear a taped message saying: "Urge the city to cut private contractors, not city services."

City Comptroller John Liu called for an emergency meeting of the directors of the city Office of Payroll Administration.

"These charges will be another stain on the checkered history of the CityTime project. This further underscores the need to more closely monitor expensive outside consultant contracts," Liu said.

Earlier this year, Mayor Bloomberg called CityTime -- which is supposed to save money by consolidating and automating records of the hours clocked by city workers -- a "disaster."

The project was initially budgeted at $63 million when it was launched in 1998, but ballooning cost overruns have pushed its anticipated price tag to $722 million.

Meanwhile, only 35 percent of city workers are actually using it.

Mark Mazer, Aronshtein, Natazon and Berger each face 20 years in the slammer if convicted of wire fraud conspiracy.

In addition, everyone but Berger is charged with money laundering conspiracy, which also carries a maximum 20-year sentence.

All six defendants are expected in Manhattan federal court later today.

Bloomberg Backs Former GOP Foe Sen. Serph Maltese in Crucial Queens Senate Race - New York Post

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Mayor Bloomberg is backing former political foe Republican Queens Sen. Serph Maltese in his tough re-election - a move that could soothe the senate GOP as it battles to hang onto its one-vote majority, The Post has learned.

Bloomberg heaps praise on Maltese as "the best person to represent Queens and New York City....(he has) a long record of delivering," in a letter set to be sent to voters in the district, where the 20-year incumbent is facing a hard fight from Democratic City Councilman Joe Addabbo.

Maltese "has one of the finest records of any state senator in Albany," the letter says, adding that he "works tirelessly" on immigrant and other issues.

The move marks a turnaround move for Bloomberg, who Maltese crossedby backing the mayor's primary rival, Tom Ognibene, in his 2005re-election bid. His aides even privately tried - unsuccessfully - tocoax Addabbo to run against Maltese two years ago.

While he's said he'll back some Democrats this cycle, Bloomberg has been among the senate GOP's biggest backers, and has pledged privately to be "helpful" in their quest to keep the majority.

Bloomberg enjoys high approval ratings in the district, and is also expected to hit the stump in the 15th senate district with Maltese before election day, sources said.

The mayor has some legislative priorities in Albany that he needs help with - with retaining mayoral control of the school system at the top of the list.

This election year it's important to vote for "the best person, not straight down the party line," argues the registered independent Bloomberg in the letter, which begins "Dear fellow New Yorker."

Maltese has a "long record of delivering for the people of Queens and New York City," he says.

Beeps' Big Sis-Boom-Bucks by Angela Montefinise, Melissa Klein and Sally Goldenberg - New York Post

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One has three drivers, a speechwriter and a writer of proclamations - like the one presented to Ms. Full-Figured USA 2005.

Another has a "secretary to the assistant to the president" who makes $85,000 - on top of two other special assistants, two plain old assistants and a secretary.

And two have fleets of 11 cars.

The city's five borough presidents get tens of millions in taxpayer dollars for chauffeurs, staffs of up to about 80 and discretionary spending - all so they can meet a whirlwind schedule that includes ribbon-cuttings, graduation speeches, community meetings and honorary breakfasts, a Post investigation found.

Called "glorified cheerleaders" by critics, the presidents' roles have become questionable to the point that the Charter Revision Commission is expected to explore changing - or even abolishing - the five offices when it convenes this year, sources told The Post.

Former City Councilman Kenneth Fisher, who once ran for borough president, said, "They either have to be made stronger or weaker."

"A lot of them have struggled to figure out what it is they're supposed to be doing."

Gene Russianoff, of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said: "They can be very effective. They are a connection between the people and the government."

But there are plenty pointing to their existence as largely ineffective.

"Right now, in terms of governmental responsibility, they don't do much," said political scientist Doug Muzzio.

In The Bronx, 79 people worked for Beep Adolfo Carrion Jr. as of May, including two special assistants raking in $95,000 and $140,000, two regular assistants making $61,000 and $55,000, a secretary pulling down $99,000, and a "secretary to the assistant to the president" with an $85,000 salary, budget documents show.

Spokeswoman Anne Fenton said the secretaries perform work of a "confidential nature."

In Brooklyn, where Borough President Marty Markowitz topped all his counterparts with 84 staffers as of May, the office includes a $50,000-a-year speech writer and a person paid $45,000 a year to write proclamations and speeches.

"People in Brooklyn love Marty's proclamations," said Chief of Staff Carlo Scissura, noting that the office has issued thousands of the honorary documents.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall has a chauffeur making $63,000 a year. Stringer has two who get paid a total of $114,000. Markowitz has three. The chauffeurs are expected to do other jobs when not driving, according to the offices.

Marshall spokesman Dan Andrews said the chauffeur takes her to work-related events "so she can keep working on the road, avoid parking issues and so on."

In recent weeks, The Post observed Stringer's driver waiting for an hour and a half outside the Beep's Upper West Side home before he hopped into the Grand Marquis.

Later in the week, the same car was parked outside a Stringer fund-raiser for over an hour.

"That is inappropriate," said City Councilman Tony Avella. "The borough presidents should be using their own cars so they can see what real New Yorkers go through."

Stringer, who said he takes the subway when he can, insisted that he reimburses the city when he uses the car for political events.

"I wish I could do it all on public transportation," he said. "But when I have 10 events a day, it's just impossible. The car is just necessary to a point . . . And how do you park in Manhattan?"

A recent day for Stringer included testimony at a land-use hearing, a TV interview, a meeting on the City Hall bike lane and a sit-down with the city's transportation commissioner.

Campaign finance records show Stringer reimbursed the city for $1,066 worth of "vehicle usage" and "campaign travel" expenses since 2007.

Stringer has three official cars, Marshall has four, Markowitz has seven and Carrion and Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro have 11 each. Molinaro has declined a driver and said he gave the $48,000 saved to keep a senior program open.

The presidents made $160,000 last year and controlled multi million-dollar budgets. City Council members, by comparison, make a base pay of $112,500 and have a base office budget of under $300,000.

This despite the fact that the borough presidents' role in government has been relegated to an almost entirely advisory position since 1989.

Until that year, borough presidents had seats on the powerful Board of Estimate and had a say in all land-use and budget issues. A City Charter revision abolished the board, and those powers are now divided between the City Council and the mayor.

In 2002, they lost their ability to appoint members of the Board of Education when the panel was disbanded and control of the school system transferred to the mayor.

The following year, the launch of the 311 hot line allowed New Yorkers to solve many problems without their borough president's help.

The number of constituent calls to the Bronx Borough President's Office dropped about 20 percent from 2002 to 2007.

The offices took another major hit this year when the pot of money they dole out to community groups was chopped by at least 87 percent in each borough.

The discretionary cash they are allotted has also been chipped away at, nose-diving by $1 million in Manhattan and Queens and more than $2 million in Brooklyn.

Marshall's staff has been reduced by half over the last seven years. Molinaro said his staff of 44 was a fraction of the 132 who worked for the office in 1990, when he was deputy borough president.

The new city budget will force 15 more people to be axed in The Bronx and nine positions to be cut in Brooklyn.

"It is making accomplishing our mandate in the charter very difficult," said Marshall's chief of staff, Alex Rosa.

That mandate includes appointing community-board members, issuing advisory opinions on land-use matters, making budget recommendations for the borough, and running a topographical office to produce official maps and dole out addresses for new buildings.

The presidents can also hold public hearings, and most convened between 15 to 25 in fiscal year 2008. Molinaro didn't have any, according to the office, because he leaves that job to the community boards.

"In their current role, I think you do away with the borough president's office tomorrow, and we would not miss them," said a longtime top aide to former Manhattan Beep C. Virginia Fields.

"They're just toothless tigers."

Additional reporting by Kathianne Boniello

angela.montefinise@nypost.com

Trash and Tombstone Litter Brooklynn Park by Rich Calder - New York Post

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The late Harry Sommerfield's body is buried in a Brooklyn cemetery - but his tombstone is among the many pieces of rubble illegally dumped in a Brooklyn park.

Read Part 1: Raiders Of The 'Lost' Parks

Read Part 2: City's Park 'Row'

Hidden deep within a weed-infested, garbage-strewn section of Dreier-Offerman Park in Coney Island, a Post reporter recently uncovered the discarded tombstone of the Manhattan underwear salesman who died 70 years ago.

Geoffrey Croft, president of the watchdog group New York City Park Advocates, said, "I've seen and heard stories about all sorts of things people dump in our parks, but a tombstone? That's a first."

The Bloomberg administration says parks are in better shape than they've been in over 40 years, but a Post investigation published Sunday found many neglected areas of parkland used as hideouts for rampant drug use, prostitution, homeless camps, and even "chop shops" to strip stolen cars.

Illegal dumping, however, is also among the biggest issues facing the parks system. The Post, while inspecting 70 parks over nine months, found many barren areas littered with items like abandoned cars and boats, construction debris, opened steel safes, some Vegas-style slot machines and Sommerfield's tombstone.

Sommerfield was buried two miles away from Dreier-Offerman at Washington Cemetery in Bensonhurst after dying in 1938, two months shy of his 61st birthday.

His desecrated gravestone was spotted near the Bay 44th Street section of the 77-acre park, covered in weeds between a broken police barricade and a rusted box spring.

It calls Sommerfield a "beloved husband and father." It's been replaced at the cemetery with a larger stone within a family plot.

He was an underwear salesman, a lifelong New Yorker and son of German immigrants, according to his death certificate.

Cemetery workers said it's unclear whether the original stone - which apparently has been lying the park since it was replaced at least 30 years ago - was stolen, then dumped, or if a monument maker replacing it decided to save some bucks on trash fees by tossing the original in the park.

Attempts to reach family members who knew Sommerfield were unsuccessful, and cemetery workers said they had no contact information for the family or the maker of the second gravestone.

Dreier-Offerman is also filled with homeless camps and drug addicts, and parts of it include weeds more than 12 feet high. The park is also littered with tires, construction debris and rusted cars with license plates dating back more than 20 years.

Even a creek that runs through the park that is supposed to separate Coney Island from the rest of Brooklyn is waterless and filled with debris and cars.

Despite the blatant blight, the park should be seeing better days ahead. It is slated to undergo a $40 million makeover by 2011, city officials said.

Regarding illegal dumping in parks citywide, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said, "you might find an abandoned car in a park that was dumped 15 years ago, but it's quite obvious that the average city park is better than it was 15 years ago and much better than it was 30 years ago."

rich.calder@nypost.com

NY Post: Desperate City 'Out' To Rescue Sschools...by David Andreatta Education Reporter...

Facing a steady decline in student performance through the middle grades and pressure to combat that decline, the city is seeking an outside firm to help it devise a new "middle school strategy," The Post has learned.

The strategy would look at everything from "school design" to staff experience and per-pupil spending, to determine why students score lower on tests as they get older.

While 61.5 percent of city third-graders were proficient in reading and 75.3 percent proficient in math last year, the percentages fell to 36.6 and 38.9 percent by eighth grade. The pattern reflected a nationwide trend.

The school plan was outlined in a recently issued Department of Education document seeking firms interested in tackling the task, and obtained by The Post. Applications are due next week.

Among the objectives detailed in the document are:

* Understanding whether schools with different grade configurations - like K-8 or 6-12 or 6-8 - have different levels of decline.

* Determining if the slump is concentrated in specific socio-economic and geographic areas of the city.

* Identifying "over-achieving" and "under-achieving" middle schools and pinpointing differences between them.

The document's quiet release comes as a City Council-appointed task force on middle schools is devising its own recommendations to combat the crisis, suggestions the DOE has agreed to consider.

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Two Men Fall into Jamaica Bay - One Drowns...

NY Post: DROWNING IN JAMAICA BAY By C.J. SULLIVAN and JAMIE SCHRAM - April 23, 2007

A fishing trip shared by best friends turned tragic Saturday when their small craft overturned in Jamaica Bay and one drowned, police said yesterday.

The survivor, William Schulken, 37, of Valley Stream, L.I., grabbed onto a buoy during the 4 p.m. incident and was rescued by other boaters, police said.

But pal Charles Rosenberg, 37, of Hewlett went under. Police divers searched for Rosenberg in the area, about 400 yards from Canarsie Pier, cops said.

After pulling him out of the bay, police took him to a nearby U.S. Park Police craft where he went into cardiac arrest, authorities said. He was flown to Staten Island University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

NY Daily News: 2 L.I. pals fall in bay - 1 dies - Ernie Naspretto...

A fishing trip turned tragic for two Long Island childhood buddies when one of them drowned after they fell from their boat into Jamaica Bay, cops said.

Charles Rosenberg, 37, of Hewlett, was pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital on Saturday afternoon despite efforts to save him by the NYPD air and sea rescue unit and the U.S. Park Police, cops said.

Rosenberg and William Schulken, 37, of Valley Stream, were about 400 yards off the Canarsie Pier when they both fell into the water about 4 p.m., cops said.

Schulken was able to swim to a buoy and was rescued by a civilian boat, cops said. An NYPD diver grabbed Rosenberg and got him onto a Park Police boat, cops said.

After performing CPR on Rosenberg, cops transported him to the university hospital. There was no sign of foul play, and neither man had been drinking, cops said.