Vito's life still a picnic
By GARY BUISO and AARON SHORT, NY POST, July 24, 2011
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Investigators may be hounding his social-services empire, but Assemblyman Vito Lopez is still the top dog -- at least at the annual picnic he lords over every year.

Top pols from across the city braved sweltering heat to glad-hand seniors and kiss the tarnished ring of Brooklyn Democratic boss Lopez at the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Center's annual soiree on Long Island Thursday.

Party faithful munched on 5,000 sirloin steaks at the $80,000 taxpayer-funded event, which Lopez hatched as founder and head of the embattled Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council 39 years ago.

Despite an ongoing FBI and city Department of Investigation probe into the sprawling agency and the jaw-dropping six-figure salaries of its execs, hungry pols turned out in force for the picnic.

Mayoral hopeful William Thompson joined a veritable who's who of the elected, including congressional wannabe Assemblyman David Weprin, City Council members Steve Levin, Domenic Recchia, Mark Weprin and Erik Dilan, state Sen. Martin Dilan, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

"I have convicted more politicians than any other district attorney in this state's history, and I know the difference between a crook and others," said Hynes of his host. "So Vito is a good guy."

NY Assemblyman Vito Lopez, His Buddies, And City Council Speaker Christine Quin Are Implicated In a Scam

Brooklyn NY Assemblyman and Democratic Party Boss Clarence Norman is in Trouble Again

Poor ratings sink bids by Vito-linked group
By DAVID SEIFMAN City Hall Bureau Chief, NY POST, July 29, 2011
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The politically connected Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council won't be allowed to bid on contracts to run 10 planned enhanced senior centers because the agency received a rarely issued "poor" rating from the city last year, The Post has learned.

Only 20 of the 449 nonprofits that provided services to the Department for the Aging in fiscal year 2010 got the embarrassing grade, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Law. Ten of the 20 were senior centers that later got shut down.

Officials cited Ridgewood Bushwick for defects in the case management of home-care services and the delivery of meals to homebound clients.

One source said auditors discovered problems "in the way they were keeping records. They were missing part of the (client) assessments."

According to the city, a corrective action plan was developed and "by mid-FY 11 they had resolved any outstanding issues."

But the case-management shortcomings couldn't have come at a worse time.

Last October, the city announced plans to open 10 "innovative" senior centers offering health and wellness services, cultural programs and other new benefits.

Major nonprofits with revenues of at least $1 million were invited to pre-qualify as potential bidders -- but those that received a grade of "poor" for any reason in the last three years were automatically disqualified.

That left Ridgewood Bushwick out of the running, along with two other well-known agencies, the Jewish Association for Services to the Aged and Sunnyside Community Services Inc. Both were also found to have problems in case management.

JASA and Sunnyside filed challenges to their non-bidder status once the problems were resolved but lost in administrative hearings.

The first of the innovative senior centers is projected to open in January.

Repeated calls to Ridgewood Bushwick were not returned.

The powerhouse social-services agency, founded by Brooklyn Democratic leader and Assemblyman Vito Lopez, receives tens of millions of dollars from the city and state to run everything from senior centers to housing programs.

In the northern Brooklyn neighborhoods around Bushwick, the organization runs the vast majority of government-funded social-service programs and operates a massive affordable-housing development program.

It came under intense scrutiny last September when the Department of Investigation reported that the city was improperly billed for $340,000 worth of services that weren't delivered in one of its programs.

DOI also determined that the agency's handpicked board of directors frequently had no idea on what they were voting.

With federal investigators also on the case, all new contracts to Ridgewood Bushwick were temporarily suspended for several weeks.

The board was revamped, another corrective action plan was put in place and it was back to business as usual.

Last month, City Council members including Lopez protégé Steve Levin delivered $607,000 of their "member item" taxpayer disbursements to the agency.

What's surprising about the poor rating is that even amid numerous investigations, Ridgewood Bushwick maintained its reputation as a high-quality provider.

"This is the one time they've fallen down," claimed the source.

From Betsy Combier:
Even the NY POST doesn't get the support of Hynes for Lopez:

The DA & the boss
NYPOST, July 31, 2011
LINK

What on earth was Brooklyn DA Charles “Joe” Hynes thinking by appearing at Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s annual Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center picnic this month — and vouching for the pol’s “ethical” bona fides?

Talk about unseemly.

Pols regularly flock to the event to kiss up to Lopez, a longtime Brooklyn political boss. On tap this year were ex-city Comptroller Billy Thompson, a mayoral wannabe; Assemblyman David Weprin, who’s running for Anthony Weiner’s House seat; Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who has his own aspirations, and others.

With such luminaries on hand, it’s easy to forget that Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council (which Lopez founded some 40 years ago and has been linked to since) is under federal investigation.

Over the years, the nonprofit has benefited from millions in taxpayer funds via state and city contracts, member items from Lopez personally, as well as City Council earmarks directed by Lopez cronies, many of whom attended the picnic.

The earmarks helped cover six-figure salaries for Lopez’s girlfriend and his campaign treasurer, who together run the senior-citizens council.

So what was Hynes doing there?

Trying to help whitewash Lopez, it seems: “I have convicted more politicians than any other district attorney in this state’s history, and I know the difference between a crook and others,” Hynes said. “So Vito is a good guy.”

Huh? It’s one thing for folks like Thompson, Weprin and Diaz to turn a blind eye to the Lopez taint and attend the picnic.

But Hynes is a DA — someone who’s supposed to uphold high ethical standards.

Not praise potential G-men targets.

True, Lopez hasn’t been charged with anything — yet. But the stench from his Ridgewood operation is overwhelming.

Meanwhile, as The Post’s David Seifman reported Friday, Ridgewood Bushwick was rated so bad by the city (it was among the 20 worst, of 440 Department of Aging vendors) that it won’t be allowed to bid on contracts to run 10 new senior centers.

So much for the claim that it’s a top flight operation with essential, one-of-a-kind, quality service for seniors.

Even if it were, of course, for a sitting DA to praise a pol as dubious as Lopez is just mind-boggling. Hynes should know better.