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Apr 06
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Yearbook Protest Planned by Advocates By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and DON SINGLETON, Daily News Staff Writers

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments

Sunday, April 6, 1997

Civil rights advocates yesterday announced a protest rally over Police Department efforts to get high school yearbooks for use in identifying potential crime suspects.

Accompanied by parents and students, New York Civil Liberties Union officials said protesters will rally outside Police headquarters in lower Manhattan on April 27, then march to City Hall.

“Our phones have been ringing, and people have been stopping me in the street and saying, ‘We’re with you on this one, Civil Liberties,’ ” said Norman Siegel, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The protest was sparked by the Daily News’ disclosure that police bosses ordered detectives around the city to obtain copies of all high school yearbooks in their precincts.

Cops said they want the yearbooks because the photos in some cases could help identify suspects.

But the request drew criticism from parents, students and some public officials. Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew said the high schools won’t routinely hand over the yearbooks.

Instead, they will consider police requests on a case-by-case basis, Crew said.

Mayor Giuliani yesterday repeated his call for Crew and Police Commissioner Howard Safir to resolve their disagreement over the issue.

“I think that the best solution to this is that they try to work it out,” Giuliani said at a Little League baseball game in Brooklyn.

“There are legitimate interests and concerns on both sides.”

Apr 05
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Big Apple’s Falling For Millenni-Mania By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and DAVID L. LEWIS, Daily News Staff Writers

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments

nullSaturday, April 5, 1997

New York is getting ready to stage a millennium party for the ages.

We’re talking about a year-long celebration that’s intended to blow away competition from other cities vying to be ground zero for the millennium.

The big show will kick off with a Times Square New Year’s Eve bash unlike any other. The teeming throngs will be able to watch jumbo television screens showing a 24-hour live broadcast of scenes from each of the world’s 24 time zones.

At the Jacob Javits Convention Center, a small gathering of 40,000 people is planned, with music, performers, a gourmet dinner and, of course, fireworks over the Hudson River.

“This is the beginning of what I think will be one of the great, great New York celebrations as we lead up to the year 2000,” the city’s chief cheerleader, Mayor Giuliani, said yesterday. “It’s an opportunity for us to show off what has become really . . . the central part of the world.”

Seeking to draw more tourists than ever before, organizers will kick off a 1,000-day countdown to the millennium tomorrow in Times Square with musicians from more than 50 college and high school marching bands.

The countdown will lead to a year-long celebration that will begin when the ball drops at midnight Dec. 31, 1999, and end at midnight one year later.

A high point will be July 4 celebrations in the year 2000, featuring Op Sail 2000, billed as the world’s largest parade of tall ships, representing 50 countries and stretching for 10 miles.

The Javits party will take place on four stages, a total of 2 million square feet of dance floor with the hottest talents of the day entertaining the audience, said Steve Leber, chairman of the event, Celebration 2000.

The party will launch a week-long show of collectibles — everything from rare stamps to comic books, Leber said.

Officials could not say how much the festivities would cost or who would pay for them. But Giuliani guaranteed that returns to the city “conservatively will be 10, 15, 20 times the cost of it, probably a lot more than that.”

Giuliani yesterday named the New York City Convention and Visitors Bureau as the official Millennium Committee, to prepare and market the city as the world’s most sought-after destination to ring in the next thousand years.

The bureau has set up shop on the Internet (http://www.nycvisit.com) to receive applications for its millennium logo contest, which will select a design to promote events through the year 2001.

It also has set up the Millennium Club, in which — for a $20 fee — members will get the inside track on news and planning for millennium-related events.

Giuliani was asked if he had any fear the hoopla could bring more people to the city than it can hold.

“We’ll test the outer limits of it,” he said. “We’ll see how much New York City can take.”

Highlights of the Millennium Celebration

1,000-Day Countdown — The clock starts ticking at noon tomorrow with a Times Square performance of the Millennium Marching Band, 1,000 high school and college musicians. The 30-minute ceremony will feature Mayor Giuliani conducting “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Times Square 2000 — Starting at 7 a.m. on Dec. 31, 1999, giant television screens in Times Square will begin a 24-hour live broadcast of people and cultures from each of the world’s 24 times zones.

The Millennium Ball Drop — The traditional New Year’s Eve countdown in Times Square will take place Dec. 31, 1999, with special hoopla that’s still being planned.

Celebration 2000 — A New Year’s Eve extravaganza for 40,000 people at the Javits Convention Center, complete with music, performers, a gourmet dinner and fireworks over the Hudson River.

Op Sail 2000 — Billed as the world’s largest parade of tall ships — representing 50 nations and stretching for 10 miles — will fill New York Harbor from July 3 to 9, 2000. President Clinton will be on hand for the July 4 celebration.

Apr 05
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Rudy Tarnishes Golden Parachute By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments

Saturday, April 5, 1997

Mayor Giuliani yesterday moved to limit the golden parachutes that enable top aides to bail out of government with hefty payouts — but he didn’t cut the cord entirely.

In an executive order, Giuliani amended a regulation that enabled top city officials to accumulate 228 days of unused sick leave and vacation time — and cash in that time when they leave office.

The crackdown came one month after the Daily News disclosed that Giuliani failed to limit the lucrative payouts even though he pledged reforms three years ago.

Under the April 1 executive order, top appointees will be allowed to accumulate vacation time amounting to no more than a half year’s pay.

Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said the administration should get credit for cutting back on a practice that has cost thousands of dollars. For example, First Deputy Mayor Peter Powers left government with $14,627 in accumulated leave after 21/2 years in office, The News reported last month.

“It’s appropriate to have these kinds of restrictions,” Mastro said of the cutback.

Asked why Giuliani continued to let top aides cash out with a half year of unused vacation pay — which in some cases could total nearly $70,000 — Mastro said, “You have to work a number of years to accumulate” that much leave time.

The change took effect Tuesday and won’t apply to appointees who recently stepped down, including Deputy Mayor Fran Reiter and welfare adviser Richard Schwartz.

Original Story Date: 040597

Mar 30
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Rudy: McCall Playing Politics By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

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Sunday, March 30, 1997

Mayor Giuliani snapped off a defiant reply to state Controller Carl McCall’s complaint that the city improperly blocked two state auditors from checking on city agencies: See you in court.

Stepping up a long-running political feud, Giuliani accused McCall of misusing the controller’s office by flooding city agencies with performance audits that far exceed McCall’s authority.

Giuliani vowed to fight a promised McCall legal challenge over the decision to stop the state auditors from analyzing records at city health and social services offices on Friday.

“We are happy to meet him in court,” Giuliani said, citing a 1977 state court ruling that he said restricts McCall’s office to financial audits. “The fact is he has no right under the Constitution of the state to do performance audits of the city.”

The Republican mayor, who is seeking reelection in November, charged that the Democratic controller had launched numerous audits in a bid to cost him votes at the polls.

“This isn’t looking at the books, the accounts and the records of the city,” Giuliani said. “These are audits to create negative, political audits that he’ll release in August, September and October.”

McCall fired back, insisting that his office was fulfilling its oversight role by auditing delivery of city services.

“The mayor has yet to deal with the substance of any audit,” said McCall. “He has not identified any particular audit that was inaccurate, or incomplete. All we get is the response that it’s political. And I say, ‘Where is the evidence?’ ”

McCall said his office would seek court subpoenas to get city records needed to complete the audits. The audits focus on the city’s screening of welfare applicants and handling of requests for birth and death certificates.

While gearing up for reelection, Giuliani has touted his success in shrinking the welfare rolls and speeding response to requests for copies of birth certificates.

He vowed to block McCall from conducting any further audits at least until after this year’s mayoral election.

“If he wants to subpoena records for these broad-based performance audits, we are happy to test our legal position in court,” Giuliani said.

Original Story Date: 033097

Mar 27
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29 Job Agencies Cited as Slackers By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

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nullThursday, March 27, 1997

Job-seeking New Yorkers are being ripped off by unscrupulous employment agencies that charge illegal fees, refuse to give refunds and violate other regulations, a new city investigation shows.

Six consumer investigators who went undercover and applied for jobs through 29 employment agencies this month uncovered violations of city rules at all but three of the firms.

In all, the investigators found 51 violations — like those that confronted Deirdre Archibald, a Brooklyn mother of two who said she got a runaround when she sought a job through a Queens employment agency in 1995. The investigation found:

Six of the 29 firms operated without required city licenses.

Nine companies illegally charged fees as high as $100 before placing the applicants in jobs. Fees may be charged only after placement.

Ten of the firms failed to post required signs indicating their license numbers, fee schedule and where dissatisfied clients can file complaints.

City consumer investigators padlocked two other Manhattan agencies — J & U Employment Agency and 8 Chatham Square Employment Agency — for continuing to operate without a license after being cited by investigators last year.

“It is really unconscionable and a disgrace that employment agencies throughout the city are luring the public in with false hopes of jobs and ripping them off,” said Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jose Maldonado.

If found guilty, the companies could face fines totaling $37,100.

Archibald, a Grenadian immigrant, said she found out about unscrupulous practices she went to the City Wide Employment Agency in Queens to seek a secretarial position. Her resume outlined her work experience in Grenada and New York.

Archibald said the company charged her $100 up front — then failed to deliver and gave her the runaround when she demanded a refund.

“I was very angry. It was very stressful,” said Archibald. “They gave me a lot of petty excuses.”

Archibald said she demanded her money back after months of constant calls to the firm produced just one job interview — and she did not get that position.

“When I went back for the refund, it was such a hassle,” Archibald said. “Every time I went there, somebody had a backache and couldn’t look through the books right now.”

She filed a complaint with the Department of Consumer Affairs in August. The complaint produced an $80 refund in December. The refund helped the firm avoid being cited for a consumer violation.

The owner of City Wide Employment Agency denied Archibald’s allegations. The woman, who declined to give her name, said Archibald missed several appointments to settle her refund application. One refund check even was reissued because it expired, the woman said.

“This license is my life, my bread and butter,” she said. “Whatever we do, we have to do honestly. It is my life.”

Mar 26
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City Council Holding Rent Line By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

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nullWednesday, March 26, 1997

The City Council yesterday endured glares, chants and boos, but ultimately got cheers from tenants as it overwhelmingly approved largely symbolic action to continue laws that restrict rent hikes.

The 47-to-3 vote, which sets the stage for Mayor Giuliani to sign the bill before an April 1 reauthorization deadline, also makes it tougher for landlords to impose large rent hikes on luxury units that become vacant.
The decision came before a boisterous, heavily pro-tenant crowd of about 300 that packed the City Council hearing gallery and spilled over to the City Hall Public Hearing Room, where they heard the Council proceedings over speakers.

But the decision could be rendered essentially meaningless by the state Senate where Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer) has vowed to let the rent protections expire June 15 unless state lawmakers agree to a two-year phaseout of the half-century-old rent protection system.

City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Queens) cited that threat after the vote. “We have sent about as clear and convincing a message as we could to the majority leader of the Senate,” he said.

Mar 24
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City Set to Boot Latino Center By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

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nullMonday, March 24, 1997

The city plans to pull the plug this week on a Latino cultural center when it auctions off the former lower East Side school the group has restored and called home for the past 18 years.

Charas/El Bohio Community and Cultural Center will have to find a new home after Thursday, the day the city plans to sell the group’s 605 E. Ninth St. headquarters for as much as $1.5 million.

The Giuliani administration says the group is being shown the door simply because they are not “good citizens.”

Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said El Bohio doesn’t pay its rent on time and has failed to present credible plans to purchase the building itself. Mastro also said the group had allowed members of the notorious Latin Kings gang to use the place for meetings.

The center, with a $200,000 annual budget, funds after-school programs in music, theater and computers.

It sponsors community conferences and discussions for youngsters, low income residents and immigrants with grants from organizations like the New York Foundation for the Arts, the City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, United Way, NYNEX and individual contributions.

The group has garnered support from artists and politicians, including Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Westchester), Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan) and State Sen. Martin Connor (D-Brooklyn).

“If the mayor wants to pick a fight with me, I’m ready for that,” Messinger said. “But he should not pick a fight with the young people of the lower East Side.”

Though they admit a problem with late rent payments, the center’s co-founders, Armando Perez and Carlos Garcia, said the administration’s efforts to take the building is based on politics and the center’s support among Democrats.

Perez and Garcia also admit that they have had Latin King members in the center but only as part of their attempts to reach out to struggling Latino youth.

When the group first moved into the old Public School 64, it was flooded, everything of value had been stripped and the roof had caved in, according to the founders.

“This building would have been torn down a long time ago if it were not for us,” Perez said.

One of three plans El Bohio put forward is to buy the building for $1 and turn it into a combination community center and low income housing development, which would need a city tax abatement and a zoning change.

Mastro ridiculed that idea.

“They offered $1 for more than a million dollar property,” he said. “That’s not a good faith plan.”

Mar 23
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AFFIRMATIVE INACTION City Work Scarce, Say Minority Firms By MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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nullSunday, March 23, 1997

Many female and minority contractors say they are doing far less business with the city since Mayor Giuliani overhauled an affirmative-action program created to boost their chance of getting contracts.

Twenty of 30 minority and female-owned firms surveyed by the Daily News sharply criticized the 1994 policy shift, saying it has hurt their ability to grow and compete with larger and more established companies. Two others praised the new program and eight had no opinion.

“I just don’t see anybody there reaching out to really help me,” said Lina Gottesman, owner of a metal-refinishing company that has won only one city contract, for $ 5,000, in three years.

The News conducted the survey to assess the overhaul in the absence of hard data showing the number and percentage of contracts awarded to minority and female-owned companies.

City officials provided incomplete statistics despite a year of requests under the state Freedom of Information Law.

Many contractors, however, said the results were clear.

Teresa Johnson said that under a 1992 program for business headed by women and minorities, the city routinely contacted her Manhattan software company.

“I saw my business with the city increase significantly,” said Johnson, 44, who founded her firm in 1988.

Since the policy change, said Johnson, no one calls, and she no longer does business with the city.

Mayor David Dinkins began the 1992 program to reverse alleged discrimination in city procurement. He cited a study that found businesses owned by women and minorities won 8% of $ 3 billion in contracts in 1989, although they represented 25% of bidders.

His program enabled female and minority-owned businesses to win contracts even if their bids were 10% higher than the lowest offers.

Giuliani scrapped the race-based remedy as counter to his goal of “one city, one standard.” A court later ruled the price break illegal.

He also deemphasized a directive that had urged agencies to award 20% of their contracts to minority and female-run firms.

In ordering the overhaul, Giuliani launched a plan he said would help all fledgling firms. He said that because most female and minority-owned businesses are small, they would be aided without penalizing other companies.

Since the switch, officials have said the city is helping more minority and female-owned firms than ever. “I’m proud to say that every year since I’ve been here, that program has grown,” Business Services Commissioner Rudy Washington said when he was named deputy mayor in April.

But The News found:

The city has not compiled an annual tally of the number and value of contracts awarded to minority and female-owned firms since mid-1994.

Washington agreed that a tally is the best way to gauge the program’s success but said, “data gathering is just not a priority right now.”

With many agencies no longer reporting how many minorities and women receive awards, the city has no way of knowing if the goal of awarding 20% of contracts to minority and female-owned firms is being met.

Although the city still invites firms to register as minority or female-owned, Washington could not cite any benefit firms get by doing so. “Good question,” he said.

Most of the minority and female executives surveyed by The News said city agencies seem to feel no pressure to alert them about contracts.

“When you don’t have a goal program . . . encouraging city agencies to meet those goals, you can’t have the same type of results,” said John Robinson, president of the National Minority Business Council.

Many contractors knocked a new Bid-Match program, under which agencies are supposed to notify small firms of contracts worth up to $ 25,000.

“I built six McDonald’s . . . in this city. Each one cost me $ 600,000, so what can you do with $ 25,000? Nothing,” said developer Lee Dunham.

Two firms said they have thrived. Carlos Errico not only won contracts to paint police, fire and sanitation vehicles, but the city put him in touch with a bank that financed the expansion of his Queens shop.

More typical, however, was the view of insurance agent Sam Dunston, head of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce minority and women development committee.

“Some minorities may be getting business, but I don’t know any of them,” he said.

GRAPHIC: MISHA ERWITT DAILY NEWS CONTRACTS: Teresa Johnson, who runs software firm, has seen business with city fall off.

Mar 23
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Rudy Rips INS Green Card Deal By MICHAEL O. ALLEN Daily News Staff Writer

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Sunday, March 23, 1997

Mayor Giuliani yesterday criticized immigration officials for going “in the wrong direction” by suddenly deciding to accept green card applications only by mail.

“People are in a sense of real fear,” Giuliani said, referring to the panic that set in last week after the Immigration and Naturalization Service cut off the line of applicants trying to apply for green cards in person at the agency’s offices.

“Instead of trying to cut back on what the immigration service is doing, the INS should be putting more resources into trying to help people,” Giuliani said. “They are putting a tremendous amount of pressure on people.”

INS spokeswoman Eyleen Schmidt said she could not comment on the criticism.

Citing building security concerns, immigration officials cut off the lines after hundreds of immigrants began camping out overnight hoping to get green cards that would enable them to stay in the U.S.

The lines started building with the approach of the April 1 effective date of tougher new immigration laws. Many undocumented immigrants feared they had to file for legal status by April 1 or risk being deported.

But in a notice issued Friday, immigration officials said the deadline is actually Sept. 30.

Clinton administration officials have asked Congress to postpone the deadline.

The INS notice said there was “no advantage” gained by trying to marry a U.S. citizen or legal resident by April 1 — a tactic that has resulted in crowds of immigrants at city marriage license offices.

“We understand that there is tremendous confusion with the significant changes in the immigration law,” Schmidt said. “We’ve been working hard . . . to let people know that they can go to any INS office in the U.S. after April 1 and apply to adjust their status, to become legal residents of this country.”

The agency also added extra staff to answer calls to a toll-free information number: (800) 375-5283.

Giuliani, who has focused on immigration as he seeks reelection this year, said the federal agency isn’t doing enough.

“The INS has to recognize that the Federal Immigration Reform Act and some of the measures in the Welfare Reform Act have produced enormous problems for people that are not going to be solved by turning them away, or not allowing them to come to the INS offices,” the mayor said.

Original Story Date: 032397

Mar 17
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SOMETHING BLUE AT CITY WEDDINGS Cops check immigrants By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

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Monday, March 17, 1997

The city clerk yesterday said law enforcement agents will continue to check for fraud among immigrants seeking to get married even as critics said the officers’ presence intimidates brides and grooms.

City Clerk Carlos Cuevas requested police support last month when city marriage offices overflowed with couples hoping to wed before immigration reforms go into effect April 1.

Yesterday, he said he will follow guidelines issued by city Corporation Counsel Paul Crotty, which allow immigrants to get married without valid visas but also support the use of cops.

In a letter Friday to First Deputy City Clerk Raymond Teatum, Crotty put to rest immigrants’ fears they needed valid visas to marry in the city. Any form of identification will do, Crotty said.

But the corporation counsel raised the specter of city employees turning immigrants away if they deem the marriage a sham.

“You are entitled to be vigilant of the use of false documents,” he said.

“The involvement of the Police Department and other law enforcement authorities in this effort is entirely appropriate and should be continued,” he wrote.

Cuevas said yesterday he had not yet seen Crotty’s letter. He said that cops from the police anti-fraud unit, along with Immigration and Naturalization officers, will continue to look over documents that people present for identification.

“Anyone that is proper and is not doing anything against the law should certainly not be intimidated by police. It is not my purpose,” he said.

But Norman Siegel, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, called on Cuevas to remove the officers.

He said they are “a chilling and intimidating presence” to immigrants.

“How is the clerk going to know when two people come up to the desk that this is a sham marriage or not? You won’t know that until months later,” Siegel said.

Mayor Giuliani said Friday that the city clerk’s office has the right and the responsibility to make sure it is not being used to perpetrate a fraud.

Giuliani said a marriage is obviously a sham when the same person shows up with 10 different couples.

That person, more than likely, is a marriage broker taking advantage of desperate immigrants, the mayor said.

“If somebody is paying a broker for a marriage, $5,000, $10,000, that’s not something you should encourage or allow to have happen,” Giuliani said.

Cuevas said his only concern now is how to speed up the line at a time when his office’s caseload has quadrupled while he contends with an antiquated computer system and a budget that has been cut 41% over three years.

Mar 14
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Don’t Monkey With Man; O’Connor sez clones mean armies of drones By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

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nullFriday, March 14, 1997

Cardinal O’Connor presented an apocalyptic vision of cloning yesterday, warning about a world that might use armies of drones to fight wars or become slaves.

“If you just say they are expendable, we can just keep reproducing them, give them a gun, whatever might be the weapon of the day, and send them out. If they get killed, they get killed,” O’Connor said.

Earlier, O’Connor told lawmakers that though he would urge scientists not to cross the ethical line and clone human beings, he said they should not to be too hasty to ban research completely.

Much of the genetic research necessary for human cloning also is necessary for the cure of diseases as well as other scientific advances, the archbishop of New York said at a hearing of the state Senate Investigations Committee in Manhattan.

Scientists, ethicists and other clergy were invited to testify before the hearing, chaired by State Sen. Roy Goodman (R-Manhattan).

“The most fundamental change is that you could have something, whatever you are going to call it, without any parentage, without any social context, without anyone assuming responsibility or accountability,” O’Connor said of human clones.

He recommended that the Legislature allow scientific research that stops just short trying to create a human being.

Asked where he would draw the line, he replied, “I’m not a scientist and only a scientist could say okay, you do this in the Petrie dish or in the test tube or whatever may be and you can go as far as you have to go in genetic research without trying to manufacture a human being, but I don’t know what that point would be.”

O’Connor’s remarks added to the debate unleashed by the announcement last month that a Scottish doctor had successfully cloned a sheep, the now famous Dolly, the first mammal ever cloned from an adult.

That news was quickly followed by a report that American researchers had produced two clones of a rhesus monkey.

President Clinton subsequently put a temporary ban on the use of government money for any research into human cloning.

State Sen. John Marchi (R-S.I.) recently introduced legislation that would make the cloning of human beings a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Scientists such as Nobelist Joshua Lederberg of Rockefeller University testified that a ban would be clumsy, heavy-handed and unenforceable, while others said that research in this area is sorely needed.

Mar 13
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Visiting Irish Rugby Player Drops the Bowl Near Goal By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

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Thursday, March 13, 1997

An Irish rugby team traveled thousands of miles with a precious $ 2,000 hand-crafted crystal rose bowl for Mayor Giuliani but it was ruined when a player dropped it 30 feet short of its destination.

The good-will gift which survived a worldwide obstacle course of customs and airport security checkpoints, plus bumpy New York City streets fell to the floor as it was being placed into a City Hall metal detector.

Its base shattered into “10 million pieces,” one player said.

“I was tripped,” groused player Arthur Campbell, who was carrying the bowl. He fingered the culprit as the City Hall security officer who ordered him to put the box containing the gift through the detector.

The team with players from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will play two games this weekend for charities and attend the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Mayoral spokeswoman Colleen Roche said Giuliani was unaware of the bowl debacle, even as he posed with Campbell who was holding what remained of the bowl for photographs.

But there were other gifts in the offing a plaque and letter from the lord mayor of Belfast, and a decanter of powerful Black Bush Irish Whiskey.

“It’s rocket fuel,” George Martin, another team member, told Giuliani of the whiskey. “I suggest one little thimble at a time, first thing in the morning when you get up.”