Talk Bronx New York

The seat of City Councilman Larry Seabrook remains empty during Thursday’s session.

 Indicted City Councilman Larry Seabrook was a no-show at Thursday’s Council meeting - leaving the spotlight on one of his Bronx colleagues still in the cross hairs.

Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, whose nephew Richard Izquierdo was indicted on charges of looting nonprofit groups she funded, hid behind a wall of aides and security officers as she entered and left the Council.

“I have no comment, no matter what you ask,” Arroyo said.

Sources say Arroyo is a target of the Department of Investigation’s probe of the Council’s $48.8 million pork budget, in which at least seven members have been caught steering tax money to nonprofits and community groups that benefit their relatives.

Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said she has made the pork process more transparent since she became speaker four years ago - and insisted none of the abuses could happen now.

“All of those allegations occurred before the reforms we put in place,” Quinn said. “I do not believe that what is alleged to have happened could happen today under our new system.”

Investigators are less convinced. They have expanded their probe to include two Bronx Assembly members suspected of misusing state funds.

One is Arroyo’s mother, Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, who sent money to Izquierdo’s nonprofits. Prosecutors say he stole more than $180,000, using some of it to pay for tropical trips for the mother-daughter duo.

Assemblyman Peter Rivera is also the subject of an ongoing investigation by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo is looking into allegations highlighted by the Daily News regarding Rivera’s ties to a now defunct nonprofit in the Bronx called Neighborhood Enhancement for Training Services (NETS).

Rivera sponsored $1.3 million in “member items” for NETS, which happened to employ some of his campaign workers, including his son. NETS bought and renovated a building that sits empty. It’s unclear where much of the public money went. Read more..

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While Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión is playing coy about his political plans should Mayor Bloomberg succeed in extending term limits, other Bronx politicians are not.

Carrión, who is running for city controller, said last week he has no doubt the City Council will approve the term limits extension, but he insists it’s still too early to say whether he will flip back and seek reelection to his $160,000-a-year borough presidency.

Much will depend, of course, on what the current controller, Bill Thompson, chooses to do. For now, Thompson is insisting he’s still running for mayor, Bloomberg or no Bloomberg.

Assuming that neither Thompson nor Carrión are politically suicidal, the smart money is on both running next year to keep their current jobs.

That, of course, would force Carrión’s would-be Bronx successors to rethink their game plans for 2009.

Heading the list is Councilman Joel Rivera, (D-East Tremont) son of endangered county Democratic leader Assemblyman Jose Rivera.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of the citywide and local officials postpone their plans for four years,” he said. “And that’s all it’s going to end up being.”

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Mayor Bloomberg lays out multi-agency economic plan for South Bronx

Mayor Bloomberg came uptown Tuesday to tout his South Bronx Initiative, a multi-agency effort to knit various private projects and city improvements into comprehensive economic development.

But one major player - the borough president - was notably absent.

“The South Bronx - long known nationally as the area Howard Cosell was talking about when he said, ‘The Bronx is burning’ and once known locally as an area of underinvestment and decay - is undergoing an extraordinary transformation,” said Bloomberg.

In recent years, nearly $3 billion in public and private investment has poured into the borough, Bloomberg said, including the $300 million Gateway Center Mall, almost $300 million for local schools, more than $900 million for transportation improvements, as well as the new Yankee stadium.

While the mayor credited Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión and his office for major input into the initiative, Carrión was a no-show at the event on the steps of the Bronx County Building.

Sources in the borough president’s office said Carrion was annoyed at “the last-minute notice - not the first time - from City Hall for the event.”

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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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