Talk Bronx New York

James Vacca Coy Over Possible Bronx Borough President Run

East Bronx City Councilman Jimmy Vacca isn’t totally denying he’s thinking about a run for borough president in the 2009 Democratic primary.

Though he’s up for one more Council term, he has yet to declare for any office with the city Campaign Finance Board.

And with three Hispanics - term-limited Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. and ex-State Sen. Pedro Espada - likely to dilute the Latino vote, and Councilwoman Helen Foster pulling a heavy black vote, Jimmy just might slide in with the help of the East Bronx/Riverdale white vote.

But we tend to think it could be a bargaining chip with Joel’s dad, Dem Jefe Jose Rivera, to back Jimmy for a council leadership role - from Speaker to chair of a powerful committee, such as land use or finance.

Competing for a Council plum: South Bronx Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo.

East Bronx/Queens Rep. Joe Crowley likes and respects Jimmy, but as Queens Democratic boss, he also has to deal with his homies.

Gettin’ his mojo workin’

Political circles are wondering just when Joel Rivera is gonna get out of the gate in that run for Bronx BP.

While Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. has been raising bucks and working the boro, Joel’s already spent half his money raised so far and barely been making the rounds.

“It’s like he’s campaigning in his apartment,” said a local political operative - not the only one talking about it.

But Joel’s camp says it’s ready to crank up his political mojo - when the time is right.

One thing for sure - the last thing Daddy Rivera wants is party arch-enemy Pedro Espada having a shot at winning - or being a spoiler. Read more..

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Council Member In Funding Flap 

Bronx City Council member Maria Del Carmen Arroyo has a unique way to get taxpayer support for her family.

Last year she sponsored $82,500 in Council “discretionary funds” into a nonprofit that employed both her sister and nephew, the Daily News has learned.

Arroyo’s sister, Iris, was “fiscal officer” for the South Bronx Community Corp., where a former employee accused her of incompetence that led to thousands of dollars of federal liens filed against the group.

Iris Arroyo’s son, Richard Izquierdo, was also listed as an executive at the agency; he claims he’s not paid.

The Arroyos’ arrangement comes as the feds charged two staffers of City Council member Kendall Stewart on Wednesday with embezzling discretionary funds through their nonprofit.

No one has been charged with a crime in the funding of the nonprofit that employed Arroyo’s relatives, and Stewart himself has not been charged with a crime.

Each City Council member is given a set amount to spend annually on “discretionary” items that are usually pet nonprofit causes within their districts.

Stewart’s aides were charged with siphoning off $145,000 in such funds through a nonprofit he funded.

Council member Arroyo is the former director of South Bronx Community Corp., which purports to “provide various services to the elderly, disabled and low income families” in the Bronx. Her mother, Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, was director of the nonprofit years before.

In her Council biography, the younger Arroyo claims to have been a “volunteer” at South Bronx, though records show her collecting $33,000 to $45,000 a year in 2001 and 2002.

She left the nonprofit after being elected to the Council in February 2005. Early last year, she was co-sponsor of a $75,000 “member item” and sole sponsor of a $7,500 member item for South Bronx Community Corp., records show.

Arroyo confirmed Wednesday she’d sponsored the money for the group, but insisted it was allocated only after her sister, Iris, and Iris’ son, Richard, had left.

“I know that when the Council discretionary funds were allocated, I know that they were no longer there,” she said.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t say when her sister left. As of February 2007, Iris Arroyo was signing tax documents as the group’s “fiscal officer,” records show.

Also the group received $50,000 in discretionary funds in 2006, although at the time sponsors were not publicly listed. Read more..

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Frozen Meals On Wheels Leave Some Salty 

A controversial proposal to dramatically change the City’s Meals-on-Wheels program is in poor taste, according to those fighting the plan.

In 2004 the City implemented a pilot program in The Bronx, called Senior Options, and drastically changed the face of Meals-on-Wheels across the borough. Before the change senior meals were prepared locally by a neighborhood non-profit, and were delivered hot and fresh the same day. Senior Options replaced those fresh meals with a standard issue food from a single provider and removed the local non-profits from the mix altogether, placing deliveries in the hands of larger, centralized organizations.

But the lasting effect of Senior Options has been the introduction of frozen meals to Bronx seniors. Before the changes seniors received a hot meal everyday. Now, they can opt for a hot meal each day or to receive the same meal as part of a frozen delivery twice a week. The Department for the Aging (DFTA), in an effort to modernize senior centers across the five boroughs, is proposing to mimic the Bronx pilot program across the City.

Bronx City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell, a staunch opponent of Senior Options from its inception, is fighting DFTA’s expansion plan. Though concerns have been raised about the actual cost benefits of the frozen meal switch and the critical role that delivery persons play in checking the health and safety of citywide seniors, Koppell is urging his colleagues to reject the plan because the meals, simply put, suck.

In a letter to other City Council members Koppell cites complaints from his constituents regarding the “poor quality of the food” provided by the Long Island-based Whitsons Culinary Group, adding that they have “complained bitterly about the tasteless, salty and generally low quality frozen meals.”

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Our reader says:

“I am beginning to think that we were Bamboozled by the Bronx Borough President who gave our parkland to the Yankee Organization.”

  The new Yankee Stadium, with a 2009 target date, is being built near the old one in the Bronx.

Building Yankee Stadium But High & Dry On Funds 

Several years ago, as the Yankees negotiated to build a new stadium in the South Bronx, the neighborhood faced the realities of a massive construction project in its midst: parks would be closed and moved, traffic would be horrendous, life would be, for a while, a hassle.

So, as one way to make up for these inconveniences, the Yankees and elected officials signed a community benefits agreement. It required that the team would give roughly $1.2 million a year, starting when the work began, to various community groups through a special panel. The deal was similar to agreements in other major projects, like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and Columbia University’s expansion into Harlem.

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