Showing posts with label CityTime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CityTime. Show all posts

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Broken Windows focuses law enforcement resources on 50 cent cigarettes, meanwhile Moreland Commission gets disbanded

Mayor de Blasio defends the NYPD's controversial and discriminatory approach to policing, known as "Broken Windows," whilst federal investigators probe whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo intentionally obstructed the work of a corruption fighting panel's investigations of political corruption.

There has been at least $1 billion in cost overruns on New York City's failed ECTP 911 emergency call system upgrade project, bringing the total cost to over $2 billion, and the system still doesn't work as it was envisioned. City officials find no criminal fraud in this failed $2 billion project, but NYPD administer an instant death penalty to Eric Garner for allegedly selling 50 cent cigarettes ?

Political blogger and artist Suzannah B. Troy, who holds the world record of writing blog posts about the CityTime technology contract scandal, which cost the city over $600 million in cost overruns for an employee timekeeping system that failed to work, again leads local journalists in drawing the public's attention to the city's failed ECTP 911 emergency call system upgrade, which has now cost taxpayers over $2 billion, even though that technology system, too, still does not work.

In her latest YouTube video, Ms. Troy compares and contrasts the scandalous ECTP 911 cost overruns against each of the death of Eric Garner, which has been ruled as a homicide by the city's Medical Examiner's office, and her own case of injustice in an attack, in which she was assaulted and battered, in the SoHo medical offices of Dr. Andrew Fagelman. Ms. Troy asks : Why does law enforcement forcus on ridiculousness -- and overlook major crimes ?

In the broken justice system in New York, as pointed out by community activists and by activists informed by the Occupy Wall Street movement, cost overruns on a $2 billion failed IT project do not result in fraudulent criminal charges just like the corruption of Wall Street, which caused the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the resulting global recession. Yet, the police can apparently instantly murder Eric Garner on the scene, according to some activists, for reportedly selling single cigarettes for 50 cents a piece in "untaxed transactions," and Ms. Troy's attacker can go unprosecuted. One day after Ms. Troy posted her video on YouTube, the growing outrage over this "tale of two justice systems" has driven Mayor Bill de Blasio and his NYPD Commissioner William Bratton to throw Police Chief Philip Banks III under the bus in an apparent attempt to make him the fall guy for the community anger over Mr. Garner's murder.

Selling a cigarette for 50 cents in an untaxed transaction is justification for police to administer a death-inducing chokehold, the police union head says, but the corrupt $2 billion ECTP 911 emergency call system upgrade escapes prosecutors. Adding to the controversy of Broken Windows policing is that the big money crimes are not being committed by people of color or people with low incomes ; rather, the crimes that rob society of its resources are being committed by Big Businesses and corrupt politicians and their lobbyists-enablers, which do not receive the scrutiny that they really deserve.

Extell Development Company paid over $300,000 to Gov. Cuomo's campaign committee in apparent exchange for $35 million in tax breaks for a luxury condo skyscraper worth $2 billion. Big Businesses and special interests seeking similar or larger favors from New York State government have contributed to Gov. Cuomo a $35 million war chest. How large is the corruption at stake for Big Businesses if $35 million is the down payment for anticipated favours ?

Against the backdrop of the injustice, and, ultimately, the murder, Mr. Garner endured, is a political "Game of Thrones" playing out up in the state's capital. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who oversees a cesspool of political and campaign corruption in Albany, apparently commissioned a panel of corruption-fighting prosecutors to investigate criminal conduct by elected officials only to decommission the panel, once the panel, known as the Moreland Commission, began to investigate the apparent pay-to-play of his own campaign donors. Using corrupting political machinations to steer a state investigation commission away from his own political supporters, Gov. Cuomo has been thwarting law enforcement probes into corporate and campaign corruption, while NYPD Commissioner Bratton is left unchecked to over-police the sale of untaxed cigarettes for 50 cents.

In respect of Gov. Cuomo's role in corrupting the state's law enforcement, the U.S. Attorney's Office, led by Preet Bharara, is reviewing the unfinished investigations by the Moreland Commission and is also examining the governor's machinations that may have obstructed the Moreland Commission from its critical work. What has yet to happen, Ms. Troy has been pointing out for years, is for federal prosectors, such as Mr. Bharara, to examine the corruption in the CityTime and ECTP 911 projects for criminality by elected officials. Ms. Troy and other activists in New York City have been raising the issue that real estate interests may be behind the spree of hospital closings that have taken place in New York City, even as state health officials do everything in their power to sabotage the fragile economics of hospitals in a scorched earth campaign to make radical cuts to the state's Medicaid program.

In respect of Mayor de Blasio, the civil rights and activist communities have begun to lose patience with the mayor's close alliance with Big Money real estate donors, who apparently are keen on keeping the Broken Windows policing tactics, as it directly supports real estate developers' goals of further driving up escalating real estate prices by forcing people of color and low-income communities out of neighborhoods intentionally targeted for gentrification by developers. Activists have called out the corrupt use of nonprofit and government grants and other political machinations, which deescalate community pressure for a complete overhaul of the corrupt police department, effectively locking these community groups in what has been referred to as "veal pens," and by the duplicitous racial politics now at play by the de Blasio administration, which aims to steer the public away from any serious roll-out of reforms that have been long called for by such civic leaders as Margaret Fung, Michael Meyers, and Norman Siegel, whose past work on overhauling the NYPD are once again coming back into focus. The calls for reforming law enforcement go unheard, meanwhile, White Collar pay-to-play corruption continues in government.

Former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn received approximately $30,000 in campaign contributions from the Rudin family, owners of Rudin Management Company, in the time leading up to the city's approval of Rudin's $1 billion luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital. Similarly, Gov. Cuomo received campaign contributions from the Kestenbaum family, founders of the Fortis Property Group that won the bid to convert Long Island College Hospital into a luxury condo complex, of at least $17,500. Allegations have been made that each of St. Vincent's and LICH, as Long Island College Hospital is known, had been intentionally driven into the ground to facilitate billion-dollar luxury condo conversions. The Fortis-LICH scandal comes atop of the $300,000 that another developer, Extell Development Company, made in campaign contributions to the governor in exchange for $35 million in tax breaks for one of Extell's projects, media reports indicate. The appearance pay-to-play is everywhere in government. If federal prosecutors are aiming to stop public officials from selling out our government in exchange for campaign contributions, then let's hope that the federal corruption investigations look to elected officials, and their corrupt lobbyists, for full accountability of these massive scams of public resources : from CityTime, the ECTP 911 project, to what happened at each of St. Vincent's, LICH, and other hospitals, to other alleged campaign corruption involving The Advance Group, which has already been referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In post-Occupy America, voters want to see a complete overhaul of government that goes to the very roots of corporate and campaign corruption.

RELATED


City Investigation Finds Faults, But No Crime, In $1 Billion In Cost Overruns On NYC ECTP 911 Upgrade Project (CBS 2 New York)

The Moreland Commission had 15 cases pending against lawmakers when Gov. Cuomo pulled the plug on it (The New York Post)

Shocker : How SUNY lost more than $100M mismanaging LICH, but SUNY Trustees face no criminal investigation (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

HOMICIDE: Medical examiner says NYPD chokehold killed Staten Island dad Eric Garner (The New York Daily News)

Friday, July 4, 2014

City Council Leadership Denied Lawmakers a Look at the Details of a $75 billion City Budget

Withholding of City Budget Details Undermines Financial Oversight and Checks and Balances

Melissa Mark-Viverito photo Melissa-Mark-Viveritoexport_zpsa541f49c.jpg

RELATED


Council Staffers Withheld Budget Documents From Lawmakers (The Wall Street Journal)

New York City Budget : Vote First, Read Later (The Wall Street Journal)

Melissa Mark-Viverito Is Quiet on City Council’s Budget Losses (The New York Observer)

City Council Central Staff, reportable to Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, delayed sharing with all municipal lawmakers some of the budget paperwork for several hours on the day that the Council voted on the city budget.

IN A CONTINUATION OF corrupt strong-arming of City Council votes, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito's central staff deliberately withheld some budget documents from Councilmembers for up to six hours before the full Council would vote on the Fiscal Year 2015 $75 billion city budget.

The phony reason that Speaker Mark-Viverito's central staff gave for holding back some of the budget paperwork was because all of the budget had not yet printed, and that staffers were told that “you don’t slow drip the budget,” as one person told The Wall Street Journal, whose City Hall reporter broke the story.

But this blatant lie flies in the face of that fact that Council Speaker Mark-Viverito did "slow drip the budget" -- by dropping the 400+ page budget report of the speaker's slush fund, otherwise known as "Schedule C," the night before the Council voted on the city budget.

Releasing the Schedule C report of slush fund allocations to politically-connected charities, Council Speaker Mark-Viverito satisfied Councilmembers' first order of business : how much tax dollars were they going to be able to award to nonprofit groups that helped Councilmembers with get out the vote efforts, mailing lists, and other soft forms of political contributions.

By withholding the details of the FY2015 city budget up until the very last minute, the Council Speaker aimed to thwart any debate on or challenges to the budget by her fellow Councilmembers. Details of the city budget were probably largely dictated to the City Council by de Blasio administration Budget Director Dean Fuleihan on the mayor's behalf.

Suppressing debate, examination, or challenges to the $75 billion budget is detrimental to the healthy function of the City Council. Political bloggers and government reform activists, such as Suzannah B. Troy, have long argued that the Council leadership under Speaker Mark-Viverito's predecessor deliberately thwarted investigations into corrupt multi-billion dollar technology outsourcing contracts, such as CityTime employee timekeeping system and the ECTP program of the 911 emergency call system.

Who knows how many corrupt over-payments, contract-overrides, or payment extensions were granted under the city budget documents that Speaker Mark-Viverito's central staff deliberately withheld for several hours. But the Councilmembers surely did know how many millions they gave to quiet down police reform groups, to deescalate political pressure from the Left on the neoliberal de Blasio administration.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Who is Deborah Lee James ?

Deborah Lee James worked at SAIC during that company's $600 million theft from New York City taxpayers, and now she's President Barack Obama's pick for Secretary of the Air Force.

But what has been her role with CityTime ? What does Rose Gill Hearn know about her ?

Deborah James Biography

Who are the corporate officers at SAIC, who are going to process the $600 million refund to New York City taxpayers ?

(Originally Posted : Thursday 07 July 2011 9:48 p.m.)

Friday, April 5, 2013

Suzannah B. Troy "Leave Britney Alone!" Christine Quinn Parody

Mayor Bloomberg-Christine Quinn-Britney Spears "Stop Picking On Me" parody!

After Mayor Michael Bloomberg begged for people to "Leave Christine Alone !", the blogger-activist-artist Suzannah B. Troy has produced a hilarious parody YouTube video based on Chris Rocker's "Leave Britney Alone !" video.

Suzannah B. Troy dressed up in drag, first as Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and then as New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. In a hilarious send-up of the "Leave Britney Alone !" video, Ms. Troy weeps and whines the way that Mr. Rocker did, only the subjects of Ms. Troy's complaints have to do with serious public issues, like the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital and the massive fraud in connection with the doomed CityTime project.

From The New York Post :

The mayor yesterday launched an impassioned defense of his longtime ally and suggested she was getting unfairly pounded for a corruption scandal involving another member of the council.

“I’ve always said that I think Speaker Quinn, who is getting criticized for this, is a person of enormous integrity, and I think she has done an excellent job of running the city,” Bloomberg declared.

“It’s not an easy job, and I think she’d done it well.”

Mayor Bloomberg was angry at critics of Speaker Quinn, like Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who has called for the elimination of Speaker Quinn's slush fund after Queens Republican Councilmember Daniel Halloran was arrested in bribery and corruption charges in connection to Speaker Quinn's slush fund.

Related : Read Chapter 1 of ''Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn'' on Scribd.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

In John Waters's Film, Female Trouble, Aunt Ida Plays With Her Breasts (Edith Massey), But Once Suzannah B. Troy Talks Politics, YouTube Drapes e-Burka Over Her Videos : Censorship ?

It is a shame to see how blogs and YouTube videos, which discuss critical news about SAIC and the billion-dollar high-tech deals that give birth to insider dealing and mega corruption, can be labeled with adult warnings, but I've seen clips of John Waters' movies on YouTube with nudity and self-gratification scenes, but that's deemed perfectly funny by our admittedly raunchy online standards.

But as soon as a blogger starts talking about RICO charges and triple damages and civil and criminal trials, then we focus our eyes and attention on boobs, and we find reasons to restrict access to information that no msm outlet is putting out there. I wonder what would happen if I shaved my chest and put on a pair of falsies under a bikini top ? Would you give me a free pass, like topless YouTube clips of Edith Massey ? Would I finally get some attention focused on my Kickstarter project ?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/louisflores/roots-of-betrayal-the-ethics-of-christine-quinn

But then again, I'd probably get labeled as adult content by your same sick and twisted double standards, and I'd only succeed at getting warnings on my online content.

Just because all men stare at Suzannah's boobs don't mean we should drape a digital full-body cloaks (aka ''adult warnings'') on her YouTube videos -- against her will.

Did I miss something, or isn't this exactly what you are doing to her work ? She's too sexy even in clothes, so let's drape her videos in adult warnings like a quasi "e-burka."

Monday, October 3, 2011

Bloomberg Tech Deal Waste Continues

The New York Times exposes another failed tech deal under the Bloomberg administration's mismanagement of large taxpayer-financed tech deals.

The New York Times reporter David Halbfinger spoke with Brian Lehrer from WNYC about Mr. Halbfinger's recent article about the New York City Automated Personnel System (NYCAPS) and the problems with the Bloomberg administration's wildly over-budget personnel tracking system. Nine years after work began, the Bloomberg administration has spent $363 million on the NYCAPS tech deal — and the work is far from done.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

SAIC RICO Triple Damages

SAIC RICO Bloomberg Protest - Suzannah B. Troy Speech

Artist, blogger, and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy gave a speech today outside the New York City offices of SAIC to demand a RICO refund of triple damages against SAIC for their role in the organised crime that took place to rob taxpayers of over almost $1 billion in CityTime project costs.

Union representatives from Local 375 and DC 37, community activists, New York City taxpayers, and others gathered at 1250 Broadway in a demonstration against the technology company known as SAIC.

For years, newspaper and television reporters, bloggers, and whistle blowers have been reporting details of a massive taxpayer fraud perpetrated by New York City officials, by employees of SAIC and of another company known as Technodyne, and possibly by lobbyists in connection with the scandalous CityTime project.

The CityTime project began with an original budget of approximately $60 million, but has since ballooned to over $700 million.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has begun an investigation, but nobody yet knows how high this scandal, and other technology consultancy contract scandals, may go up the Bloomberg administration.

Stay tuned.

CityTime Protest Rally Today


Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Bloomberg CityTime Special Prosecutor

Ask United States Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a federal special prosecutor to investigate the Bloomberg Administration and the City Council for the massive CityTime fraud.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday called for an almost complete $600 million refund of the fraudulent CityTime automated payroll system, reported Celeste Katz of The New York Daily News.

Mayor Bloomberg made his request for a refund in a letter addressed to Walter Havenstein, CEO of Science Applications International Corporation ; the letter has been released to the public.

2011 06 29 Michael Bloomberg Letter Saic Citytime 600M Refund

For months now, political commentator, artist, and blogger Suzannah B. Troy has also been calling for a complete refund of the taxpayer money wasted on CityTime.

The U.S. Congress also has some power to appoint a special prosecutor or special investigator, if Mr. Holder doesn't have the guts to investigate the Bloomberg-Quinn administration.

We need to take this investigation out of the hands of any city official, whose investigation budget depends on Mayor Bloomberg's or City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's oversight.

Mayor Bloomberg has previously attacked the budgets of the Manhattan District Attorney and of the Public Advocate.

For her part, Speaker Quinn still likes to use the city budget to dole out her politically-motivated special member items.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

John Liu : CityTime Developer Is Holding NYC Hostage

Without Naming SAIC Directly, A Report By The Comptroller's Office Finds That The Faulty CityTime Project Allows The Developer To Hold New York City Hostage ''In Perpetuity.''

“The CityTime product as it currently stands may allow the vendor to maintain an indefinite monopoly on the development and maintenance of New York City’s timekeeping system,” New York City Comptroller John Liu said in a statement issued today.

Mr. Liu released his statement in connection with a review of the technology behind the CityTime payroll system. The Comptroller's Office, in Mr. Liu's statement, says that the review ''casts serious doubts on whether the system could be run independently without the project’s developer.''

“The emerging product holds the client -- the City of New York -- hostage to one company, the project’s developer," Mr. Liu said, in his statement.

The development contracts behind the CityTime payroll system has involved the theft of $80 million dollars, and Mr. Liu asked that two city agencies to scrutinise the failed system.

According to the statement, ''Subsequent to the assessment, Comptroller Liu instructed his representatives on the Office of Payroll Administration and the Financial Information Services Agency Boards of Directors to ensure that all deficiencies caused by the vendor are cured at no additional cost to taxpayers, and to explore all options including ceasing deployment of new users.''

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

John Liu Exposes Another Technology Contract

NYC's Emergency Telephone System Contract Draws New Scrutiny

The CityTime technology contract scandal has cast many doubts on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's other expensive IT programs. The Gothamist has reported that suspicion has grown in connection with the out-of-control costs associated with a technology upgrade to New York City's 911 emergency telephone system.

''The City Time scandal had already been a point of contention between the Bloomberg administration and City Comptroller John Liu, and now their fight has spread to the City's emergency services. Yesterday Liu's office rejected a $286 million contract request for the city's Emergency Communications Transformation Program, (ECTP), an effort to update the city's 911 system—a project that, incidentally, was initially budged at $380 million and has since ballooned to $666 million.''

Now that the Comptroller Liu has finally started showing up to the office as Comptroller and not a candidate for mayor, maybe he will expose other black holes in the city budget ?

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

DiNapoli Rejects SAIC MTA Contract

SAIC $80 Million CityTime Fraud Spreads To MTA ; State Comptroller Rejects SAIC Contract With Transit Authority.

From Capital Tonight is only on YNN:

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli just announced he has rejected a $118 million contract between the NYC Transit Authority and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the firm that designed the scandal-plagued CityTime payroll system, saying the firm’s role in the mess “remains unclear.”

The contract was for an upgrade to the Transit Authority’s VHF radio system in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx was the first contract submitted to DiNapoli’s office under the Public Authority Reform Act passed earlier this year.

Read the full article on Capital Tonight about DiNapoli Rejects $118M SAIC Contract. Meanwhile, you can read the Office of the State Controller official rejection letter to the MTA below :

Schaffner122110

CityTime Mayoral Control Freak

Michael Bloomberg Has Been Advocating Mayoral Control Over Everything, Including Espousing An End To Progressive Era Reforms, But Mayor Bloomberg Accepts No Responsibility That Comes With Being A Control Freak.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has asserted mayoral control over the public education system, trans fats, and even sugary sodas.

We have even reached a state, where the famous photographer Clayton Patterson has described how citizens need protection from Mayor Bloomberg's out-of-control need to control (aka ''destroy'') everything that is good about New York City.

AND YET, in the aftermath of the theft of what may turn out to be over $100 million in taxpayer money connected to fraudulent consulting fees (Investigators and prosecutors can only now prove that $80 million was stolen, but the scandalous CityTime project is $650 million over budget, so the investigations and audits are not yet done.), Mayor Bloomberg claims he was caught unaware of the corruption. According to an editorial, The New York Post holds that Mayor Bloomberg is responsible for the ''breakdown'' that lead to the CityTime scandal.

Mayor Bloomberg, and his deputy mayor, Stephen Goldsmith, have been arguing that we need to end many progressive era reforms, which were enacted to put a check on this very kind of corruption, because, in their ideological worldview, they want city managers to have more discretion over the business of New York City.

City Councilmember Letitia James, who is acting more and more like a public advocate, is criticising Mayor Bloomberg for his negligence. Did the mayor and his deputy mayor not know that when you give city managers, including mayors and deputy mayors, unchecked discretion over running the business of the city, that you lay the groundwork for spectacular corruptions to take place ?

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christine Quinn's CityTime Scandal Dishonesty

Best Little Sidestep in NY City Council : ''No one, even in the Daily News, would have thought this was happening,'' said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Really ?

Last week, a giant scandal of theft of possibly over $100 million dollars in taxpayer money began to break wide open, exposing Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a self-described financial Wizard of Oz who argued his experience in funneling money should earn him a controversial third term in office, to criticism that he was no wizard at all. Joel Bondy, the executive director of the Office of Payroll Administration, was suspended after investigators alleged that city contractors used fraud to rob the city of at least $80 million under the CityTime automated payroll system that, contrary to Speaker Quinn's denial, has been under intense scrutiny for several years as a result of the system's runaway, costly over-runs.

Here is the text of the shocking statement, made in total denial by Speaker Quinn, after details of the first $80 million of theft was exposed by a joint investigation team :

''No one, even in the Daily News, would have thought this was happening. ... The Council's had a number of oversight hearings on CityTime. I think we're all anxiously awaiting the results of what the deputy mayor will find. You know, everyone was very unhappy I think across the city to hear this yesterday. But I was grateful to the mayor that he reacted quickly and thoroughly and that he's putting the deputy mayor in charge. ... I don't know that he could have done anything more quickly than as soon as he found out yesterday. You know, you can't, sometimes these investigations start and you can't, you may even know about them, and you can't do anything. They have to play their course out to get to the point where law enforcement can make the arrest. So really, the mayor could not have done anything until after yesterday. He didn't let any grass grow under his feet.''

The $80 million theft led to the emergency announcement that Mr. Bondy would be suspended. It was separately reported by NY1 that,''In the wake of Bondy's suspension, Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith will have direct oversight of the CityTime payroll system.''

Meanwhile, many people believe that the $80 million that prosecutors alleged has been stolen, is only the tip of the iceberg. As early as March 2008, questions were being raised around a shady government contract that was awarded to Science Applications International Corporation (''SAIC''). SAIC is the main contractor for the CityTime automated payroll system ; at the time the contract was awarded, it was reported to be worth only $68 million. As of March 2008, that contract had been inflated by an additional $280 million and was, at that time, worth a total of $348 million. So far, prosecutors can prove that $80 million has been stolen.

In a separate analysis of the CityTime scandal, the newsroom of WNYC radio has estimated that, to date, New York City has spent ''more than $630 million on CityTime, which was supposed to cost just $63 million.''

More and more, $80 million looks like just the tip of the iceberg.