New York City – Giving Charity a Bad Name

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    New York City – What began as a minor legal squabble in a lower East Side City Council race has exposed a festering boil on the body politic – excessive coziness between nonprofit groups and the elected officials who sponsor them.

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    All too often, city and state lawmakers treat community groups as their personal pets – keeping them well fed with tax dollars while expecting plenty of affection in return.

    Some outfits become little more than fronts with letterhead, paying salaries to a pol’s friends and family while delivering little in the way of actual community benefit.

    Others are bona fide charities that get sucked into politicking out of misplaced gratitude to their sugar mommies and daddies or, just as likely, fear of offending them.

    The United Jewish Council of the East Side appears to fit into the latter category – an otherwise respectable, well-meaning group sadly dragged into unseemly political relationships.

    As first reported by Daily News columnist and blogger Liz Benjamin, three UJC officials have been doing campaign legwork for two Democrats – Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and City Councilman Alan Gerson – who have supplied their organization with millions in grants.

    And two of those UJC employees brought some of the paperwork into their office – a possible violation of campaign finance laws and IRS rules that strictly forbid political activity by tax-exempt charitable groups.

    UJC director Joel Kaplan denies any wrongdoing, insisting his employees did their political volunteer work on their personal time and will be careful to avoid bringing paperwork into the office in the future.

    But the details that came out in court this month suggest otherwise – and cry out for investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

    Cuomo is already probing Sen. Pedro Espada Jr.’s and Assemblyman Peter Rivera’s unhealthy back scratching with pet nonprofits in the Bronx, which The News exposed earlier this year. The lower East Side situation, and the many more like it that span the state, deserve no less scrutiny.

    The UJC’s involvement came to light when City Council candidate Pete Gleason sued to invalidate Gerson’s nominating petitions. The nursing director of UJC’s home health program, Renee Abramowitz, testified that she found petitions for Gerson, Silver, William Thompson and other Democratic candidates sitting on her desk at work one morning and knew exactly what to do.

    “I have done this many years,” Abramowitz said under oath. “So I know when the sheet’s on my desk, I just go out and I volunteer to do signatures.”

    Also suggestive was her statement that she left the filled-out petitions on the desk of her boss at UJC, Howard Fried.

    Bringing that paperwork into the office “wasn’t wise,” Kaplan admitted to me yesterday. But, he added, “It doesn’t mean anything more than a convenience. They work in the same office.”

    Which would be easier to accept if government funding didn’t account for virtually the entire budget of UJC – including $2.3 million personally earmarked by Silver since 2006 and $16,000 delivered by Gerson over the past two years.

    Also noteworthy is the fact that a third UJC official, David Weinberg, happens to be a Democratic district leader who supports Gerson and Silver and also carried their petitions.

    These many cross-relationships create at least the appearance that the group and its sponsors are washing each other’s hands, politically speaking.

    That’s unfair to challengers like Gleason, who can’t use government money to win support. It’s unfair to other community groups, who have to raise money and compete for grants on merit rather than cronyism.

    Most of all, it’s unfair to taxpayers – who deserve to know that their tax dollars are being used wisely and not dished out as favors for friends.


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    8 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    All city grants and awards should be made by independent outside experts based on demonstrated needs and qualifications in a competitive solicitation. This will mean many “heimeshe” charities will no longer automatically get money and will have to compete with other organizations who may be able to do a better job with fewer dollars. The days where just knowing “shelly silver”, or “simcha” or “dov” or some other politician who trys to buy jewish votes is over. Organizations or charities should not get money must because they are “heimish”.

    Concerned Member
    Concerned Member
    14 years ago

    Yes number 1, that’s right.

    Those days should be over huh?

    But the days where other groups in Brooklyn get huge grants because they know “kevin” or “darlene” or “maria” or “letitia”… those days can continue, right?

    It’s clear that you know nothing about politics. Every politician who works on a local level brings home money for their community, particularly non-profits, yet for some bizarre reason people like you only poke at those in our own community.

    A councilwoman in Brooklyn wanted to give a grant to a mental patient in her district who speaks gibberish because she felt he’s an assett to the community. But no, let’s complain about organizations that actually help people.

    The lack of understanding in our community for the political process is pitiful and sadly people like number 1 will end up leading us to a point where organizations that help our poor will be crippled.

    Great job!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Calm down No. 2. No. 1 believes that reforms should apply accross the board, not just for Jewish organizations. Who knows — Maybe if grants were distributed by independent, objective decision makers, the Jewish organizations would get more. Maybe some competition in the non-profit world would be good.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Shtusim. All therse guys are silver’s neighbors for since they were little. They daven with him shmuz with him and are friends with him. Nothing to do with the council which is a local operation run by local guys in the same circle as silver. They sit at the same table during kiddushes

    mewhoze
    mewhoze
    14 years ago

    the UJC works hard for all who come to them. Whether they are Jewish, Chinese, Latino, Russian etc. They ahve social workers that speak all those languages and more. The LES has a huge amount of seniors who need help. The UJC Lunch Program and UJC Home Attendant Program specifically take care of those seniors. The UJC Multi Service Center takes care of all ages.The UJC has existed longer than those elected officials were in office. They are not some fly by night storefront that is here today , gone tomorrow. G-d Bless the workers at UJC. YOU CARE!

    Concerned Member
    Concerned Member
    14 years ago

    Number 4) no they would not because the majority of people in this city still believe that “Jewish” and “poor” are terms that do not exist together. Without political allies looking out for Jewish groups we would be the last at the table. Anyone who works in politics or in the non-profit world would be happy to explain that to you.

    Number 5) Yet another person who knows nothing about the political process. Assembly members, while serving statewide, are elected locally. If you are so appalled by the fact that a member of the Assembly grew up with people of his district then perhaps you should spend your time supporting carpetbaggers (look up the definition) like Hillary Clinton who have no roots and no loyalty to the communities they claim to serve. It’s very sad that you’re so bitter about Silver and who he “sits at kiddushes” with. It’s also bizarre. Good luck with that.