David Seifman of the NY Post reports that former Bronx Borough President and current HUD official Adolfo Carrion, Jr. has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to the conflicts of interest board for failing to pay an architect, who did work on his house, while he also had a proposal to build a project in the Bronx. The architect did the work in 2007, but Carrion did not pay for the services until 2009 after questions were raised by the media. Carrion claims he was not given a bill for $4200 until after the work was done.
Thanks for this ancient history . . . I don't really care about an architect's bill to some political has-been from way back in 2007. Most New Yorkers have no idea who this guy is, and most don't know who his successors are either.
ReplyDeleteFined $10,000 for his dealings with an architect who helped him on a home project & later benefited from the then-borough president's approval of a development deal?
ReplyDeleteThings That Make You Go Hmmmm!
There is so much to write, but so little space. I loved the comments in the Post article, including the one that compared Carrion to Larry Seabrooks mistress.
ReplyDeleteBy the way didn't Ms. Candice Giove now of the Post have something to do with getting the porch into the news the first time, and did she contribute to this story in the Post?
Carrion City Comptroller, how about dog catcher.
This news will be the hot topic on every Bronx street corner!
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. Postal Service is on the brink of insolvency!
ReplyDeleteHere's how the Times reported it:
ReplyDeleteCarrión Is Fined $10,000 for Conflict Over Architect
By Andy Newman
New York Times, Dec. 1, 2011
Adolfo Carrión Jr., the former Bronx borough president and White House official, who is now a federal housing official and is a potential candidate for city comptroller, has been fined $10,000 by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board for using an architect on a personal renovation project who was also involved in a large housing development that required his approval.
The fine stems from events in 2006 and 2007, when Mr. Carrión, then in his second term as borough president, hired the architect, Hugo Subotovsky, to design a porch for his Victorian home on City Island in the Bronx. At the time, Mr. Subotovsky was the architect for Boricua Village, a proposed 679-unit complex in the Melrose neighborhood.
Mr. Carrión, 50, said in settlement papers (see below) that though he did not know at the time of Mr. Subotovsky’s involvement in the larger project, he knew that the architect had been involved in other projects that had come before him and that he “should have disclosed that private transaction to the board.”
He said he had hired Mr. Subotovsky at the recommendation of “my friend Peter Fine,” the developer behind Boricua Village. Mr. Fine and his colleagues at Atlantic Development Group donated more than $52,000 to Mr. Carrion as the project moved through the system, The Daily News reported in 2009.
In 2007, Mr. Carrión, a Democrat, recommended that the zoning change needed for Boricua Village, one of the largest taxpayer-subsidized developments in the Bronx, be approved.
He did not pay Mr. Subotovsky for his work on the City Island house until March 2009, after The Daily News asked him about it. Shortly after The Daily News published an investigative piece on his relationship with the architect — the hiring “was completely unrelated to my professional activities and entirely proper,” Mr. Carrión is quoted as saying in the article — Mr. Carrión received a bill from Mr. Subotovsky for $4,247.50. He said he paid it promptly.
In his settlement with the conflicts board, announced on Thursday, Mr. Carrión concedes that he caused the two-year delay in the billing for the work.
At the time of the Daily News investigation, Mr. Carrión had just been nominated to lead the Obama administration’s Office of Urban Affairs. He held the post until May 2010, when he returned to New York as the regional director for New York and New Jersey in the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Recently, Mr. Carrión was reported to be seriously considering a bid for city comptroller. The current comptroller, John C. Liu, has been buffeted by a series of allegations of fund-raising impropriety.
Thanks . . . I always like to hear updates on the "Vieques Four" (Al Sharpton, Adolfo Carrión Jr., José Rivera and Roberto Ramirez).
ReplyDeletekaboom
ReplyDeleteBe glad you have a job now Mr Carrion. Maybe you can gain from the living wage bill because you are toast in politics. And that is toast with out butter !
ReplyDeleteAlthough Adolfo Carrion, Jr. is slippery, disloyal, cowardly and insincere (in other words, a real politician), I still like him more than the other Bronx pols.
ReplyDeleteAs Bronx Borough President, Mr. Carrion knew how to get real things done, such as waterfront industrial redevelopment, local city planning and rezoning milestones, and, of course, the successful Yankees ballpark negotiations.
On balance, Bronxites came out better because of him. What Mr. Carrion lacked in boldness, he made up for in innovation, flexibility and tenaciousness.
Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead! This means that Adolfo will burn in political hell for all eternity !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhile it's fair to say that Adolfo Carrión was a genial, pragmatic and popular borough president, he was also moderate and conciliatory to a fault. I prefer some more backbone in my elected representatives.
ReplyDeleteYes, he has been fined for an ethics violation, but he's young and has political skills that point toward a bright future. After all, New York's history is replete with examples of politicians who've enjoyed great success despite having been fined or punished for a lapse, misdeed, oversight or worse.
ReplyDeleteGet things done? The Yankee Stadium deal was and is a disaster for the city and the people of that community. Is the promised parkland even open yet?
ReplyDeleteWhat bugs me most about Adolfo is the way his desire not to offend anyone or make waves ended up working against his best intentions.
ReplyDelete2012
ReplyDeleteBarackObama.com
Obama For America!
2012
ReplyDeleteBarackObama.com
Obama Strikes Populist Chord With Speech in Heartland!
An article in tomorrow's New York Times by Kate Taylor states the following about a possible mayoral bid by Adolfo Carrión Jr.:
ReplyDelete__________
Mr. Carrión already has $1.1 million in the bank from an aborted run for comptroller in 2009 — a head start that would be helpful should he decide to run. His status as potentially the only Hispanic candidate in the race, whether he ran as a Democrat or on another line, could also be significant because of the increase in minority voters. Mr. Carrión said by e-mail that he was focused on his current job, as a regional director for the Department of Housing and Urban Development; an associate said he was considering a bid for mayor.
But in a potential setback, Mr. Carrión recently agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board for using an architect on a home renovation project in 2006 and 2007 who was also involved in a large housing development that required his approval as Bronx borough president.
The current Bronx borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., said in an interview that he was also thinking about running for mayor.
I blame Ruben Diaz Jr. for the awful state of Bronx community boards.
ReplyDeleteI went to the meetings of two separate community boards within the past few months. They seem to be the most futile bodies in our city's government.
The board members I saw must have applied for their posts with no ulterior purpose other than to be merely ornamental. Their deliberations went nowhere and they wasted all their time with official-sounding empty talk.
Can't we do better?