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

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

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.”

March 24, 1997
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AFFIRMATIVE INACTION City Work Scarce, Say Minority Firms By MICHAEL O. ALLEN

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

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.

March 23, 1997
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Rudy Rips INS Green Card Deal By MICHAEL O. ALLEN Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

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

March 23, 1997
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SOMETHING BLUE AT CITY WEDDINGS Cops check immigrants By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

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.

March 17, 1997
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Visiting Irish Rugby Player Drops the Bowl Near Goal By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments
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.”

March 13, 1997
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They Rent & Rave To Ax Hikes By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Wednesday, March 12, 1997

Facing an unprecedented loss of state rent protections, hundreds of tenants packed a municipal hearing yesterday and called on the City Council to preserve the regulations.

Carrying signs and shouting at landlord advocates, the tenants demanded that the Council meet an April 1 deadline for reauthorizing laws that restrict the size of rent hikes for more than 1 million city apartments.

Walter Gambin, 52, an upper West Side tenant, said renters are being pinched from all sides, including by politicians serving the interests of landlords. “They’ve got a lot,” Gambin said of the landlords. “We don’t. Why do they want to take more from us?”

The tenants jeered as Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, defended state Senate plans to let the rent laws expire in three months.

Anderson said government rent regulations have depressed the city housing market to the point where developers have shied from constructing rental buildings.

The hearing, where one tenant was tossed out of City Hall for rowdiness, marked the latest skirmish in an emotionally charged battle over rent laws.

At yesterday’s hearing, the tenants demanded that the Council certify a recent survey that found the rental vacancy rate in the five boroughs remains below 5%, the official measure of a housing emergency.

The Council has until April 1 to vote on the issue.

Council members are expected to approve the politically sensitive emergency designation by an overwhelming margin, and Mayor Giuliani–facing reelection this year–is expected to sign it.

The focus then will shift to Albany, where State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer), a long-time foe of government rent regulations, has threatened to end the rent-protection system.

Bruno’s threat has taken on heightened importance because the GOP-controlled state Senate can simply let the rent laws expire June 15, despite opposition from the Democratic-run Assembly.

Gearing up for the battle, tenants yesterday warned City Council members not to reverse their long-standing support for the rent laws. Some advocates showed up at the hearing with lists showing honor and dishonor rolls of Council members who in the past have voted to curb the protections.

“I don’t think City Council members running for reelection want to get caught on the side of landlords,” said Jenny Laurie of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, a tenant group.

Copyright 1997 Daily News, L.P.

March 12, 1997
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Don’t Pass The Ammunition; Mayor holds off on new bullets

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

March 5, 1997

by BOB LIFF, MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JOHN MARZULLI, Daily News Staff Writers

Mayor Giuliani put the brakes on the police plan to arm cops with controversial hollow-point bullets yesterday — demanding to see studies on the expanding rounds before approving the change.

Giuliani summoned Police Commissioner Howard Safir and his top brass to City Hall to brief him on the switch, which would replace the full metal jacket police bullet with a round that expands on impact and is less likely to ricochet.

The mayor said he believes the bullets would be safer for cops and civilians, but insisted he needs more time to study the sensitive issue.

“I asked them to see all the studies so that I can review them personally,” he said after meeting with police brass. “They went over some of them with me. They are going to get me more because I want to look into this issue carefully.”

“It is not a done deal until I finally approve it,” Giuliani said as City Council members prepared to grill Safir on the switch to hollow-points at a previously scheduled public safety hearing today.

Civil rights advocates have long criticized the snub-nose bullets, which create gruesome wounds but are more likely to stop a suspect. Elected city officials said yesterday they also want to hear more about the changeover before throwing their support behind it.

“Right now we in the Council have more questions than answers,” said Speaker Peter Vallone, (D-Queens).

Councilman Enoch Williams (D-Brooklyn) called the hollow-points “a license to kill.”

“It means that if someone makes a mistake out there . . . a youngster 15, 16 years old that maybe does something the police officer doesn’t like . . . and he shoots, that kid is finished,” Williams said.

“It should be disturbing to all elected leaders and citizens that the NYPD could just introduce these bullets without any briefing or public hearing about the implications,” said Michael Meyers, executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition.

Police officials argue that hollow-points do not ricochet and rarely pass through walls or the body of an intended target — lessening the risk to bystanders from stray bullets.

New York is virtually alone among major police departments and law enforcement agencies in using full metal jacket bullets.

Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Lou Matarazzo applauded the change, saying the advantages of the hollow-points “outweigh the risks” to cops and civilians.

Giuliani said he understands the potential benefits for police. He said the decision on hollow-points was made by then-Commissioner William Bratton before he resigned in April. The mayor said he did not disagree “at the time” with Bratton’s decision.

But Bratton told the Daily News he “did not recall” signing off on the new bullets before he left, although he would have approved the hollow-points.

Bratton, who had a stormy relationship with Giuliani during his last months as commissioner, said he believes the mayor was angry that Safir made the announcement Monday.

“The mayor doesn’t like media surprises, so he’ll hold off on it for a while to reinforce that he doesn’t like being surprised,” Bratton said.

Critics of the bullets have also said they pose a danger to cops who accidentally shoot themselves or their partners.

Since 1981, 51 officers have been wounded by so-called friendly fire.

March 5, 1997
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City Hall Protesters Rally for Rent Control

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

February 27, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Hundreds of placard-waving tenants rallied outside City Hall yesterday to denounce landlords and politicians and demand renewal of threatened state rent protection.

The tenants, worried that state lawmakers will allow the laws on more than a million city apartments to expire in June, applauded as housing advocates accused State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer), Gov. Pataki, Mayor Giuliani and other officials of favoring landlords.

“Landlords have claimed for years that rent control and rent stabilization have made it impossible for them to make what they call reasonable or adequate profit. This is sheer baloney,” Bob Grossman of SRO Tenants United told the crowd at City Hall Park.

The rally was the first major protest by Showdown ’97, a coalition of tenant organizations fighting Bruno’s threat to let the state rent laws expire on June 15. The laws regulate how much landlords can charge for lease renewals and vacated apartments.

Bruno has called for a two-year transition to a free-market rent system. Only elderly, disabled and low-income tenants would keep rent protections under Bruno’s plan.

But the Democratic-controlled Assembly and several Republican lawmakers from New York City districts are battling to extend the current laws.

The tenants called on other state lawmakers to support the fight. Carrying sheets and placards that read “Keep Rent Protection,” the crowd of about 750 joined in chants of “Tenants united will never be defeated.”

Bruno spokesman John McArdle scoffed at charges that the majority leader is beholden to landlord groups, who have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Senate Republicans. He said Bruno “has been calling for rent decontrols for the last 10 years” on the ground that the laws perpetuate an unfair system.

Jack Freund, a spokesman for the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents most of the 25,000 owners of the more than 1 million rent-stabilized housing units in the city, criticized the tenant activists.

“Rent regulations have been a disaster for New York City’s economy and its renters. It’s time to phase out the system in a responsible manner,” Freund said.

But Jenny Laurie, director of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, said that “landlords are full of crap” for battling to strip tenants of their rights under the law.

February 27, 1997
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Rudy Probes His Own Campaign

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

February 17, 1997

by BOB LIFF and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers

Mayor Giuliani’s reelection campaign has launched internal audits to determine whether any corporate contributors gave donations that exceeded the $7,700 limit allowed by the city’s public campaign finance law.

Campaign officials disclosed the reviews after the Daily News reported that a company that landed a lucrative recycling contract gave $77,500 to Giuliani’s reelection drive after concluding the deal.

Campaign treasurer John Gross described the audits as a regular process designed to insure that Giuliani does not violate campaign finance laws as he runs for a second term.

Based on an initial review, Gross and Giuliani said they did not believe any other givers had contributed amounts above the $7,700 limit.

“I’m not aware of it,” Giuliani said yesterday, adding that his campaign “returns money any time there are questions.”

The campaign pledged to refund all of the contributions made by Pratt Industries U.S.A. after the Daily News reported that the firm got a no-bid city contract to build a $250 million recycling plant on Staten Island. The deal calls for the firm to process up to half the discarded newspaper and wastepaper in the city.

Giuliani yesterday dismissed the company’s excess contributions as “technical violations” of the campaign finance law, which gives taxpayer-funded contributions to candidates who agree to abide by limits on their private fund-raising.

The law bars companies and subsidiaries they control from giving a total of more than $7,700 to a single candidate who accepts public campaign funds.

The News reported on Saturday that the firm and nine subsidiaries began making contributions to Giuliani in January 1996, two weeks after reaching the recycling deal with the Giuliani administration.

City officials said there was no connection between the contract award and the political contributions, and Gross said the campaign discovered the overpayments and initiated refunds without any prompting.

“Anyone who would like to investigate our finances can have at it,” Gross said.

But three Democrats vying for the nomination to challenge Giuliani in November called for an investigation of the Pratt contributions.

The three, Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and the Rev. Al Sharpton, charged that the contributions raised questions about Giuliani’s fund-raising.

“This looks like the worst kind of government quid pro quo since the corruption scandals that United States Attorney Giuliani uncovered nearly a dozen years ago,” Ferrer said.

Giuliani fired back, accusing the Democrats of using the issue for political purposes.

Original Story Date: 02/17/97

February 17, 1997
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City Has Net For Deadbeats

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

February 7, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

The city yesterday launched a cyberspace hunt for deadbeat parents who owe tens of thousands of dollars in child support payments.

Computer users around the city and the world can now access the Internet and view a “Deadbeat Hall of Shame” with names, photographs and other data on the 25 most-wanted deadbeat parents, Mayor Giuliani said.

“With a click of a mouse on the picture of the deadbeat parent or parents,” Giuliani said, computer users can get vital statistics, the amount owed and other information on each nonpayer.

“These are people who we are seeking and we have warrants for and that will be arrested once they are found,” said Nicholas Scoppetta, head of the city Administration for Children’s Services.

The city is seeking about 65,000 New Yorkers for failure to pay as much as $750 million in support owed for 90,000 city children, officials said.

Paul Milson, a 51-year-old marketing executive whose last known address was in Long Valley, N.J., holds the top spot in the new hall of shame. He owes a whopping $205,000.

Also high on the list is Eric King, son of millionaire boxing promoter Don King. He has yet to make a single support payment for his daughter, and now owes more than $175,000, city officials said.

The computer effort, similar to programs already launched by the state and federal government, features identifying traits similar to “Wanted” posters hung in post offices.

For instance, computer users who click on the photo of Peter Paul Lynch, 51, learn that he sports tattoos of cartoon characters Yogi Bear and Boo Boo on each arm and is now believed to be living in Florida.

The information represents an international expansion on the Top 10 poster of worst deadbeats that the city distributed in government offices and libraries last year.

City officials said the poster helped nab three deadbeats, who either coughed up what they owed or are negotiating to pay up, ACS officials said. Two others have been located, and their cases are pending.

Giuliani announced that the city office of child support enforcement collected $235 million from absent parents on behalf of 135,000 children during 1996, up $29 million, or 14%, from 1995.

To view the deadbeat list, click on the Administration for Children’s Services site.

February 7, 1997
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