Assemblyman Blake Voted for 421-a Which A
Developer Client of his New Lobbying Firm Needs to Build Luxury Towers
Against the Community Wishes
Bronx Lawmaker Joining National PR Consulting Firm (bronxchronicle) South Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake Joins Hilltop Public Solutions The
political establishment in the Bronx and Albany is agog at journalist
Mike Allen’s POLITICO Playbook item reporting that South Bronx
Assemblyman Michael Blake is joining Hilltop Public Solutions. * Bronx pol announces side job on same day as Skelos conviction (NYP)
Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake announced Friday that he’s taking a job
as a political consultant — without leaving office. The first-term
Democrat’s hiring at Hilltop Public Solutions comes amid calls for a ban
on such outside income following the convictions of ex-Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver and ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. The
state Legislative Ethics Commission approved the job, concluding that
it would not conflict with his legislative duties. Michael Benjamin, who
preceded Blake in the same Assembly seat from 2003 to 2010, criticized
the arrangement. “This isn’t appropriate given the climate we’re in,” he
said. “Not everything that is legal is appropriate for a sitting
lawmaker.”
@unitedNYblogs -Oh great, a lawmaker converting tax$ into Blake$$! Preet, Preet where art thou? Blake wants a SDNY's crooked moron award!
Lobbyist Assemblyman Blake Company Works For A 421-a Developer Who Used the Mayor's 1NY PAC to Fight the Community
.Fortis Hires Hyers Hilltop Firm With de Blasio Connections for LICHSite Proposal Community Opposes Fortis Mega Development Which Hired Hyers Struggle Over Controversial LICH Development Rocks CobbleHill Neighborhood Association 1.Hilltop's Hyers: de
Blasio Campaign Manager Who Uses Candidate Fake Arrest to Protest
A Closing Hospital As A Prop 2. Once the Hospital is Closed Hilltop's Hyers: Who
Works for the Mayor Slush Fund PAC One NY Uses It to Tell the Community
That the Band Aid ER the Developer Agreed to Build is As Good As the
Closed Hospital 3. Hilltop's Hyers: Sell A Large Development to Replace te Closed to A Community Who Opposes It
Alarm raised about ‘dark money’ in de Blasio’s LICH -Fortis letter (Brooklyn Eagle) The
backlash continues against a letter sent out by a de Blasio lobbying
group supporting the sale of Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital
(LICH) to a developer. The controversial June 26 letter touts the
“stand-alone ER” that will be replacing the historic hospital. Although
it was signed by Carroll Gardens’ resident Gary Reilly, the letter was
mailed from the headquarters of de Blasio lobbyists operating under the
name “The Campaign for One New York.” In the letter, Reilly says, “I was
asked by Mayor de Blasio to share my views on what [the sale of LICH]
means for families in Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights,
Boerum Hill, Downtown Brooklyn and Red Hook.” The outcome, Reilly
writes, “. . . is a lot better than we had reason to think one year
ago.”
With SUNY selling the hospital complex to developer Fortis
Property Group, “We will have a freestanding, high quality emergency
room, with up to 20 observational beds.” The letter has evoked a storm
of criticism from residents of these neighborhoods who fought for more
than a year to save the hospital, and who supported de Blasio in his
campaign for mayor largely based on his promise to save LICH. That
promise was seemingly forgotten after the election, however. In its
statement, the BHA disputes the letter’s claim that a “stand-alone ER”
could replace the 156-year-old hospital. After consulting area doctors,
BHA found that patients with serious conditions would have to be
transported to other hospitals to be treated. “When seconds count,
we’ll be out of luck,” their statement reads. BHA lists some of the
conditions that will not be able to be treated at the Fortis ER,
including, “acute heart attack or cardiac arrest, acute stroke, most
pediatric emergencies, massive gastrointestinal bleed, pulmonary
embolism, appendicitis, overwhelming infection leading to acute shock,
high-risk pregnancy with bleeding, or other major traumas, including car
accidents.” (See full letter below this article.)
The Campaign for One New York is led by Bill Hyers, de Blasio’s
campaign manager. Its treasurer, Ross Offinger, is the mayor’s former
campaign finance director. De Blasio’s former campaign consultant
Stephanie Yazgi serves as its secretary. This means that the same team
that crafted de Blasio’s election campaign -- and his pre-election
message that closing LICH would plunge Brooklyn into a health crisis –
has created his post-election message that LICH’s sale and development
is good news. Hyers, who joined the powerful public affairs and
political consulting firm Hilltop Public Solutions in December, operates
out of its New York City office at 32 Court Street in Downtown
Brooklyn. The Campaign for One New York also operates out of 32 Court
Street. Dr. Arnold Licht, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at
LICH for 25 years, said in a letter addressed to Reilly, “I would hope
that you are medically naïve and thus led astray by your ‘experts.’ The
alternative is that you are simply a toady for the de Blasio camp and
the Mayor’s abandoning LICH to the big money real estate interests.
Perhaps you know what the Mayor will get himself arrested for in his
next campaign as LICH won’t be around for him to use next time.” Dr.
Toomas Sorra, a member of Concerned Physicians for LICH, told the
Brooklyn Eagle, “The Reilly letter seems to be a blatant attempt by
Mayor de Blasio to justify his desertion of LICH. The Fortis ER will not
provide the backup necessary for any acute emergency, whether that be
cardiac, major trauma, surgical, obstetrical or otherwise. If you have
suspected appendicitis, have vaginal bleeding and are 30 weeks pregnant,
have major rectal bleeding or any other similar problem, the message
is: Don't go to Fortis ER if you have anything serious!”
Media and Good Govt Groups Cover Up How Lobbyists Were at the Center Of Corruption In Both Silver and Skelos Convictions
Lobbyist Cites Unease Over Payments to Sheldon Silver (NYT)
The meeting at the State Capitol in Albany took place nearly four years
ago, but Richard Runes, a lobbyist who oversees government relations
for Glenwood Management, a major real estate developer in New York,
recalled his unease at what he had discussed with Sheldon Silver,
then the speaker of the Assembly. The two men had spoken about an
agreement between Mr. Silver and Glenwood, in which Mr. Silver received
undisclosed payments from a law firm to which Mr. Silver had allegedly
pushed Glenwood to refer some of its tax business. Mr. Runes, testifying
on Monday in Mr. Silver’s federal corruption trial in Manhattan, said
he felt “shock and surprise” at the news of the payments. Mr. Runes’s
testimony, which began on Friday, is part of the second prong of the
government’s case, in which prosecutors say Mr. Silver received about
$700,000 in illegal payments from the law firm Goldberg & Iryami
in return for having referred it certain tax business from Glenwood and
a second developer, the Witkoff Group.
For Months True News Has Been Reporting the Interlocking-Directorates of the Corrupt Shadow Govt That Controls NY
On Friday, another Glenwood lobbyist, Brian Meara, testified that while vacationing in Florida in 2011, he received a call from
Mr. Silver, who mentioned how he might need to file new forms
disclosing certain fees he had received. Mr. Meara said he was
“surprised and concerned” and called either Mr. Runes or Charles C.
Dorego, a Glenwood executive. Mr. Runes testified that he spoke with
Glenwood’s owner, Leonard Litwin, and Mr. Dorego. Yet Mr. Runes said he
remained “uncomfortable with the arrangement,” and did not discuss it
with anyone else. “It was too hot,” he said. Ultimately, Mr. Silver’s
fee-sharing arrangement was described in a side letter that the speaker
signed, but it was omitted from the retainer agreement between Glenwood
and the law firm. Mr. Runes, asked by the judge, Valerie E. Caproni,
what he thought was being accomplished by putting the agreement in a
separate letter, said he believed that retainer documents were filed
publicly, “whereas the side letter would not be.” * Albany lobbyist
Richard Rune said he felt uneasy over payments to then-Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver for referring tax business to a firm and for outlining
related terms outside of the main retainer, The New York Times reports:
et’s not mince words: Donald Trump is a bigot and a racist.