Dear Readers,
First, I want to thank those who are responding to these emails - both those who offer words of support as well as those who offer information about the City Council and the Comptroller. Without those who offer such information, it would be hard to compile enough to get these emails out.
Now, onto yet another story just getting out that you won't read about in the Journal News about the sheer silliness regarding the financial irresponsibility of our Comptroller Maureen Walker and her four allies on the Mount Vernon City Council.
Last week and into this week, when the area was plagued by a heat wave with temperatures into the 90's, the air conditioning units at the Doles Center and the Police HQ/City Courthouse completely broke down. Both units are beyond their useful lifespan and need complete replacement.
The Doles Center, which houses a senior program and a day care center was repaired within a few days. The Police HQ/Courthouse however, was out for over a week and the courts were forced to close for at least two days due to unbearable temperatures. The hardworking cops. unfortunately, had no such option as their job is to protect and serve the public through whatever the conditions may be. The original contractor who installed the unit at the PD/Courthouse refuses to ever come back into Mount Vernon due to not being paid by the Comptroller's Office. A second contractor who was brought in to try to get the system working, also walked off of the job due to poor payment history from the Comptroller's Office. This left workers in this vital facility to face stifling temperatures. Fortunately, a third company was brought in to get the system back up, at least temporarily. However, a permanent solution must be found to replace these units so that these expensive temporary patch jobs can end.
The cause of the outrage of this whole situation does not just rest with the Comptroller for poor accounts payable processes. It also lays at the feet of the new city council, her political allies. According to a source, last year the City Council unanimously approved a capital projects plan that would have provided money to repair and replace HVAC systems at city buildings. This foresight would have avoided the a/c issues that affected the health of our seniors. children, cops and other workers and public. However, at the urging of their political master Maureen Walker, the new city council, namely President Edwards and members Watts, Munro and Appuzo, gutted the capital projects plan removing money for replacement of HVAC systems and other infrastructure projects.
This kind of backwards thinking should be a thing of the past and is no surprise coming from the same group who is trying to force the elimination of the Office of the Inspector General. Week after week, at the direction of Comptroller Maureen Walker, Edwards, Watts, Munro and Appuzo stand in the way of our city's progress all due to a political agenda that serves only to increase Walker's chances of being elected Mayor in next year's election. Fellow Mount Vernon residents, you do not deserve this kind of governance. Councilmember Diane Munro-Morris is also up for election next year. Tell her loud and clear that she is betraying the trust and best interests of the public.
Stand up Mount Vernon and make your voice heard.
Send your letters to the city council to the below address:
Mount Vernon City Council
c/o City Clerk's Office
1 Roosevelt Sq.
Mt Vernon, NY 10550
Or, speak at the next City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 13th. You must call the City Clerk's office at 665-2300 to register as a speaker by 3pm on the same day of the meeting. Thanks to the reader who sent in the correction about the deadline to register as a speaker.
Finally, forward this email to your friends and family to alert them to the unethical practices of the Comptroller and the City Council President. Spread the word about what is going on.
To catch up on all of the latest goings on visit http://mvexposed.blogspot.com
Showing posts with label comptroller maureen walker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comptroller maureen walker. Show all posts
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Walker's & Edwards' gift to tax deadbeat political ally
Dear Readers,
As mentioned in last week's post, Comptroller Maureen Walker and City Council President Yuhanna Edwards, acting in their official capacity on the city's Real Estate Committee, voted to approve the sale of a city-owned East 3rd Street commercial property to a political ally who owes the city over $228,000 in back property taxes. Walker and Edwards votes were the two "Yes" votes on the three member panel. You can read the Journal News article here.
The property, appraised at $125,000, was sold to Henry Solly for the bargain price of $25,000. What the above-mentioned Journal News article failed to point out is that Solly is a longtime political supporter and donor of Maureen Walker and apparently this deal is the payback for that steadfast support. Solly is also the President of the All Islands Association, which is a prominent West Indian/Caribbean organization that has honored and backed Walker for many years.
Besides this outrageous act, which still must be voted on by the City Council, the question that begs to be asked is why Maureen Walker has failed to act to collect the back taxes owed by Solly. Rumors have swirled for years now that Walker has many political allies and friends who also owe past due property taxes, yet they get a free pass when it comes to collection action on those debts. Can this be why Walker enjoys the political support of some longtime City Hal insiders? How many other friends and allies owe back taxes to the city? This would make for an interesting query on the part of The Journal News who to date seems to have largely ignored the lack of financial management within Mount Vernon.
Edwards, along with Councilmembers Watts, Munro and Appuzo, have been solid supporters of Walker since they began the term of this new City Council in January. Walker was also their prime supporter during their election campaign. What is behind this alliance? Walker has been the ringleader in the push to eliminate the position of Inspector General in Mount Vernon and the above-mentioned city council members have supported her to no end. Are we now seeing the real reason behind this attempt to eliminate the only City Hall office responsible for ending fraud, waste and corruption in the city government?
Speak out against this travesty. Send your letters to the city council to the below address:
Mount Vernon City Council
c/o City Clerk's Office
1 Roosevelt Sq.
Mt Vernon, NY 10550
Or, speak at the next City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 13th. You must call the City Clerk's office at 665-2300 to register as a speaker by 12noon on the same day of the meeting.
Finally, forward this email to your friends and family to alert them to the unethical practices of the Comptroller and the City Council President. Spread the word about what is going on.
To catch up on all of the latest goings on visit http://mvexposed.blogspot.com
As mentioned in last week's post, Comptroller Maureen Walker and City Council President Yuhanna Edwards, acting in their official capacity on the city's Real Estate Committee, voted to approve the sale of a city-owned East 3rd Street commercial property to a political ally who owes the city over $228,000 in back property taxes. Walker and Edwards votes were the two "Yes" votes on the three member panel. You can read the Journal News article here.
The property, appraised at $125,000, was sold to Henry Solly for the bargain price of $25,000. What the above-mentioned Journal News article failed to point out is that Solly is a longtime political supporter and donor of Maureen Walker and apparently this deal is the payback for that steadfast support. Solly is also the President of the All Islands Association, which is a prominent West Indian/Caribbean organization that has honored and backed Walker for many years.
Besides this outrageous act, which still must be voted on by the City Council, the question that begs to be asked is why Maureen Walker has failed to act to collect the back taxes owed by Solly. Rumors have swirled for years now that Walker has many political allies and friends who also owe past due property taxes, yet they get a free pass when it comes to collection action on those debts. Can this be why Walker enjoys the political support of some longtime City Hal insiders? How many other friends and allies owe back taxes to the city? This would make for an interesting query on the part of The Journal News who to date seems to have largely ignored the lack of financial management within Mount Vernon.
Edwards, along with Councilmembers Watts, Munro and Appuzo, have been solid supporters of Walker since they began the term of this new City Council in January. Walker was also their prime supporter during their election campaign. What is behind this alliance? Walker has been the ringleader in the push to eliminate the position of Inspector General in Mount Vernon and the above-mentioned city council members have supported her to no end. Are we now seeing the real reason behind this attempt to eliminate the only City Hall office responsible for ending fraud, waste and corruption in the city government?
Speak out against this travesty. Send your letters to the city council to the below address:
Mount Vernon City Council
c/o City Clerk's Office
1 Roosevelt Sq.
Mt Vernon, NY 10550
Or, speak at the next City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 13th. You must call the City Clerk's office at 665-2300 to register as a speaker by 12noon on the same day of the meeting.
Finally, forward this email to your friends and family to alert them to the unethical practices of the Comptroller and the City Council President. Spread the word about what is going on.
To catch up on all of the latest goings on visit http://mvexposed.blogspot.com
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Comptroller and new City Council at it again
It's been a little bit since I've posted. However, the sheer audacity of the new City Council and Comptroller Maureen Walker continue on, unabated.
Last week was a perfect example of the perverted sense of public service maintained by Maureen Walker, City Council President Yuhanna Edwards and Councilmember Karen Watts. The first instance of ridiculousness occurred at Tuesday's meeting of the Board of Estimate and Contract. Now a little bit of background is necessary here. In May, Mayor Young filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court against the Mount Vernon City Council over their attempt to eliminate the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The judge gearing the case issued an order preventing all parties involved from partaking in any action that would eliminate the OIG.
Well last Tuesday, City Council president Edwards, acting in concert with Maureen Walker attempted to push a resolution through that would reduce the salary of the IG from $110,000 to just $1, yes one dollar. Reportedly, the Mayor fought this attempt as it would have violated the judge's order. However, Edwards and Walker forced a vote on the matter which passed 2-1 with the Mayor's vote being the one nay vote.
Now what was reportedly perhaps the most controversial part of the meeting occured after a brief recess. In order for this resolution to be voted on and take effect, the City Clerk, George Brown, must sign the resolution in order for it to be executable. Brown refused to sign the document stating that doing so would be in violation of the judge's order and he wanted to operation within the parameters of the court's instructions. Well, after a recess, Brown returned to the room, swithced the audio recorder back on and clearly stated for the record that Councilmember Karen Watts threatened his job if he did not sign and execute the resolution. He alst stated that no matter what threats were made against him or his job, he would not sign the resolution. It is important to know that it is the City Council that hires or fires the City Clerk and Karen Watts, being the leader of 4 of thr 5 City Councilmembers, has considerable sway over the jobs of the City Clerk and the Deputy City Clerk.
It is refreshing to those who are interested in good government that Mr. Brown made a stand against cronyism and the City Council's and Comptroler's attempt to eliminate the one office (OIG) that stands in the way of corruption and fraud.
The second act of outrage happened one day later at a meeting of the Real Estate Committee. The committee consists of Comptroller Maureen Walker, Council President Edwards and Assessor Anthony Debellis. Among the powers of this committee is the decision-making authority to sell city-owned properties. At this meeting, Comptroller Walker introduced a measure that would sell an East 3rd Street commercial property to one Henry Solly. Now again, some background is necessary. Solly is the President of a very prominent West Indian/Caribbean association and is a longtime friend and campaign contributor of Maureen Walker. In addition, Walker has allowed Solly to use the very same city-owned property for free for his auto repair center for many years now. Finally, Solly owes the City of Mount Vernon $300,000 in back taxes. Yes, THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS IN BACK TAXES.
In the end, Walker and Edwards voted to sell Solly this property for the low bargain basement price of $25,000. Debellis voted no. So there you have it folks, a longtime friend and campign contributor who owes the city $300,000 was allwoed to purchase a property likely worth in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for just $25,000. Will Solly now begin to pay down his enormous debt to the city. Will he finally be held to account by his friend and be forced to pay back his tax obligations? Does he even plan on paying any property taxes on his new property? Maureen labels herself as the city's financial watchdog. Do you really believe her?
This Wednesday, the City Council will take a vote on whether or not to approve this real estate sale/giveaway. Show up at the City Council Chamber and speak out against it. In order to speak before the council, you must call the City Clerk's office by 12 noon on Wednesday. The number is 665-3000.
One last note. It is no secret that Maureen Walker was holding back a substantial portion of the city Chief of Staff's annual salary. Why she did so was a mystery as noone could find a good reason for it. For the first three months of the year, the withheld amount totalled $7,500 according to the Journal News. It turns out that the Chief of Staff, Yalonda Robinson sued Walker personally for the withheld portion of her salary. Reportedly, within minutes of being served with court papers notifying her of the lawsuit, Comptroller Walker called Robinson's boss, Mayor Young, whining about the lawsuit and promised to have a check cut for Robinson the next day. Sure enough that check was in the Comptroller's office waiting for Robinson the very next day - clear proof that Walker was playing silly political games and withholding Robinson's pay for no reason whatsoever.
Good readers, these shenanigans are typical of the new City Council and their alliance with the Comptroller. Unless we start to speak up and make some noise about this behavior, it will continue.
Last week was a perfect example of the perverted sense of public service maintained by Maureen Walker, City Council President Yuhanna Edwards and Councilmember Karen Watts. The first instance of ridiculousness occurred at Tuesday's meeting of the Board of Estimate and Contract. Now a little bit of background is necessary here. In May, Mayor Young filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court against the Mount Vernon City Council over their attempt to eliminate the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The judge gearing the case issued an order preventing all parties involved from partaking in any action that would eliminate the OIG.
Well last Tuesday, City Council president Edwards, acting in concert with Maureen Walker attempted to push a resolution through that would reduce the salary of the IG from $110,000 to just $1, yes one dollar. Reportedly, the Mayor fought this attempt as it would have violated the judge's order. However, Edwards and Walker forced a vote on the matter which passed 2-1 with the Mayor's vote being the one nay vote.
Now what was reportedly perhaps the most controversial part of the meeting occured after a brief recess. In order for this resolution to be voted on and take effect, the City Clerk, George Brown, must sign the resolution in order for it to be executable. Brown refused to sign the document stating that doing so would be in violation of the judge's order and he wanted to operation within the parameters of the court's instructions. Well, after a recess, Brown returned to the room, swithced the audio recorder back on and clearly stated for the record that Councilmember Karen Watts threatened his job if he did not sign and execute the resolution. He alst stated that no matter what threats were made against him or his job, he would not sign the resolution. It is important to know that it is the City Council that hires or fires the City Clerk and Karen Watts, being the leader of 4 of thr 5 City Councilmembers, has considerable sway over the jobs of the City Clerk and the Deputy City Clerk.
It is refreshing to those who are interested in good government that Mr. Brown made a stand against cronyism and the City Council's and Comptroler's attempt to eliminate the one office (OIG) that stands in the way of corruption and fraud.
The second act of outrage happened one day later at a meeting of the Real Estate Committee. The committee consists of Comptroller Maureen Walker, Council President Edwards and Assessor Anthony Debellis. Among the powers of this committee is the decision-making authority to sell city-owned properties. At this meeting, Comptroller Walker introduced a measure that would sell an East 3rd Street commercial property to one Henry Solly. Now again, some background is necessary. Solly is the President of a very prominent West Indian/Caribbean association and is a longtime friend and campaign contributor of Maureen Walker. In addition, Walker has allowed Solly to use the very same city-owned property for free for his auto repair center for many years now. Finally, Solly owes the City of Mount Vernon $300,000 in back taxes. Yes, THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS IN BACK TAXES.
In the end, Walker and Edwards voted to sell Solly this property for the low bargain basement price of $25,000. Debellis voted no. So there you have it folks, a longtime friend and campign contributor who owes the city $300,000 was allwoed to purchase a property likely worth in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for just $25,000. Will Solly now begin to pay down his enormous debt to the city. Will he finally be held to account by his friend and be forced to pay back his tax obligations? Does he even plan on paying any property taxes on his new property? Maureen labels herself as the city's financial watchdog. Do you really believe her?
This Wednesday, the City Council will take a vote on whether or not to approve this real estate sale/giveaway. Show up at the City Council Chamber and speak out against it. In order to speak before the council, you must call the City Clerk's office by 12 noon on Wednesday. The number is 665-3000.
One last note. It is no secret that Maureen Walker was holding back a substantial portion of the city Chief of Staff's annual salary. Why she did so was a mystery as noone could find a good reason for it. For the first three months of the year, the withheld amount totalled $7,500 according to the Journal News. It turns out that the Chief of Staff, Yalonda Robinson sued Walker personally for the withheld portion of her salary. Reportedly, within minutes of being served with court papers notifying her of the lawsuit, Comptroller Walker called Robinson's boss, Mayor Young, whining about the lawsuit and promised to have a check cut for Robinson the next day. Sure enough that check was in the Comptroller's office waiting for Robinson the very next day - clear proof that Walker was playing silly political games and withholding Robinson's pay for no reason whatsoever.
Good readers, these shenanigans are typical of the new City Council and their alliance with the Comptroller. Unless we start to speak up and make some noise about this behavior, it will continue.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sam Rivers Mugshot?
Came across this mugshot online and at first glance, the resemblance to Samuel L. Rivers was uncanny. However, on further review, it appears not to be Scam Rivers. However, you be the judge. Given his criminal history and his series of run-ins with the law, I'm sure that there are at least a few of Scammy Sammy's mugshots out there.Given Scam Rivers' criminal history that spans his adult life, why does City Council President Yuhanna Edwards and the rest of the city council, along with Maureen Walker tie themselves to this crook.?
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