"Hit Jobs," and the Home Stretch in the Speaker's Race
Note: As the race for NYC Council Speakers comes to a head with next Wednesday's vote at the Council, the attacks on frontrunner Melissa Mark Viverito will no doubt escalate this coming week. A good example of the type of unfair "hit job" we have been seeing when it comes to Mark Viverito is the Daily News article below by Greg B. Smith with a ridiculously long title (a tip off that there is something fishy here). After implying that Mark Viverito received a no interest loan from the city that she didn't quality for, later in the article it is revealed that when she applied for the loan she did qualify for it! So, basically, this was a non-story designed to discredit her by criticizing her making legitimate investments . The Daily News should be ashamed of itself. BTW, if you want to complain to the President and CEO of the Daily News, Bill Holiber, you can write to him at bholiber@nydailynews.com.
Now I am sure that there are plenty of legitimate issues that could be raised about the Mark Viverito candidacy. The main one is would she be independent enough from the Mayor, who is actively supporting her? The fact that the Bronx Democratic machine (with political characters like Maria del Carmen Arroyo, Fernando Cabrera, Annabelle Palma and the Ruben Diaz father and son team working against her) is opposing her along the Queens Democratic crew under Congressman Crowley (but excluding Councilmember Julissa Ferrera who is supporting Mark Viverito), speaks loudly about Mark Viverito's independence (as does her record).
The coming together of so many Latino elected officials and labor leaders in support of Mark Viverito's candidacy (see article below) is an indication of how historic her election to this post would be for the Latino community and the city as a whole. With individuals like Congressman Serrano and newly-elected Councilmember Ritchie Torres, as well as former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, breaking away from what's left of the Bronx Democratic machine to support her, we see the possibility of real progressive change for Latino politics in the city.
So, stay tuned to Wednesday's vote in the NYC Council on who will be their next Speaker.
---Angelo Falcón
CONTENTS
* "Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, top speaker candidate, built up $1.5M in properties while paying no interest on city loan" By Greg B. Smith,
New York Daily News ( January 3, 2014)
* "Latino Pols Rally For Melissa Mark-Viverito" By Erin Durkin, New York Daily News (January 2, 2014)
Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, top speaker candidate, built up $1.5M in properties while paying no interest on city loan
Mark-Viverito benefited from a no-interest loan program through city Department of Housing Preservation and Development before she accumulated a wealth of properties in Puerto Rico and New York.
By Greg B. Smith
New York Daily News ( January 3, 2014)
The leading candidate to be the next City Council speaker - Melissa Mark-Viverito - has a pretty sweet housing deal.
The East Harlem Democrat has partial ownership of four properties in Puerto Rico - two rental condos, a home outside San Juan worth more than $500,000, and 7 acres of undeveloped land on the island.
She also draws a base salary of $112,500 as a city councilmember. Her net worth exceeds $1.5 million, records show. Despite this lofty status, she took part in the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests, even wearing a "99%" T-shirt when she was arrested.
Under a city program to help low- and moderate-income residents buy homes, Mark-Viverito pays no interest on a $70,400 mortgage she obtained from the city so she could purchase her principal residence, a three-story townhome on E. 111th St. in Manhattan, records show.
That same program also has allowed Mark-Viverito to save tens of thousands of dollars in city property taxes - a perk that shaved $2,590 off her $8,291 property tax bill in 2012 alone.
Based on her current financial situation, Mark-Viverito would fail to qualify for the homebuyer assistance program - and all its benefits - today.
But she met the eligibility guidelines when she purchased the home in 1998, when she was 29 years old and working as a researcher for the giant health care workers union now known as SEIU 1199.
Mark-Viverito once qualified for a no-interest loan from the city, but now she has accumulated part ownerships of beautiful income properties in Puerto Rico.
And since the program does not require participants to forfeit benefits if their financial status improves - as Mark-Viverito's has over the years - she has the legal right to continue to receive those benefits.
Some of Mark-Viverito's opponents, however, question her for doing so.
"She has taken advantage of the system," Gwen Goodwin, who unsuccessfully challenged Mark-Viverito in the Sept. 10 Democratic primary for Council, said Thursday.
"I find it very troubling that this woman who's a multimillionaire lives in one of these units . . . (while) the rest of us in East Harlem are struggling to get by," Goodwin added.
Mark-Viverito did not respond to requests by the Daily News for comment.
Mark-Viverito signed the deed to her three-unit, red-brick home on Dec. 3, 1998. It was valued at $351,000. She scraped together the money with the help of a $228,000 bank mortgage and the $70,400 no-interest loan obtained through the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Since then, she has refinanced the bank mortgage twice, but has not retired the no-interest loan, city records show. The building is now valued at $1.1 million.
The leading candidate for speaker owns a four-bedroom home in a gated community in Guaynabo.
Mark-Viverito has spent months quietly campaigning to become the next Council speaker, arguably the second most-powerful position in city government after the mayor.
She was the first councilmember to endorse Bill de Blasio for mayor, and since the Nov. 5 election de Blasio has repaid the favor, investing much political capital in urging councilmembers to support Mark-Viverito for the Council's top job.
Mark-Viverito's former employer, SEIU 1199, also has been lobbying councilmembers on her behalf, and on Thursday, a coalition of Latino elected officials got behind her candidacy, saying it was time for the Council to have its first Latina speaker.
The election will be decided next Thursday, in a vote by the Council's 51 members. Mark-Viverito claims she has the support of 30 colleagues, but her chief rival, Councilman Daniel Garodnick (D-Manhattan), says her support is soft and that the race is not over.
The fate of Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito and the City Council will be decided at a vote Thursday.
Mark-Viverito has alienated some colleagues who see her as too liberal and ideologically rigid, and personally standoffish.
She has made a career out of attacking gentrification in her district, which includes a swath of East Harlem and the South Bronx.
Mark-Viverito has been receiving her assistance under the Partnership New Homes Program, which was created in 1984 to encourage lower- and moderate-income New Yorkers to buy homes in marginal neighborhoods. The program has led to the creation of 15,000 housing units. Today, buyers making $32,000 to $75,000 a year qualify.
After buying her East Harlem home, she acquired, in 2002, properties in her native Puerto Rico, starting with one-third interests in a three-bedroom condo near the beach in San Juan worth up to $500,000 and a one-bedroom condo also in San Juan worth up to $250,000, her financial disclosure reports show.
She also got a 16.7% interest in a four-bedroom home in a gated community in Guaynabo, valued at more than $500,000, plus a 16.7% interest in seven acres of vacant land next to a park in Celba, worth up to $250,000.
Celeste Katz' Daily Politics
Latino Pols Rally for
Melissa Mark-Viverito
By Erin Durkin
New York Daily News (January 2, 2014)
Latino pols rallied Thursday to support Melissa Mark-Viverito as City Council speaker - and put the pressure on the twenty City Council members who are supporting her opponent.
Rep. Jose Serrano cast the East Harlem Councilwoman's candidacy, which would make her the first Hispanic speaker, in historic terms.
"I never thought I would see an African American president in my lifetime," he said. "This is our Obama moment."
Mark-Viverito has announced the public support of 31 members of the legislative body, a majority, but the other 20 members are still supporting Councilman Dan Garodnick, who will not throw in the towel.
"I repeat again: this is a historic moment," Serrano said, stressing a warning to those outside Mark-Viverito's camp that was repeated by many of the elected officials and union bigwigs who spoke. "To those who don't get it: You will miss the boat. This train left the station. You will miss the boat and you will miss a historic moment. You will miss the opportunity to say that you were part of bringing the first Latina woman as speaker."
Former Bronx Borough President and mayoral candidate Freddy Ferrer MC'd the event, hailing Mark-Viverito's "capacity, her commitment, her intelligence, her integrity, and her independence."
Mark-Viverito's candidacy is being pushed by Mayor de Blasio, who engineered a deal for the Brooklyn Democratic chair to support her, giving her a majority.
But the Queens Democratic party and its chair Rep. Joe Crowley, along with Bronx Dems, are still putting up strong resistance.
"I give my support to Melissa even though, you know, my borough isn't leaning that way - not yet," said Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-Queens), who broke with Crowley to back Mark-Viverito.
"Why this moment is so important is that I still walk into rooms where people ask me, 'Who do you work for?'" she said. "They're not expecting a woman, they're not expecting a Latina.
"I give my support because she's qualified, and a Latina. Because she's smart, and a Latina...Because she's ready, and she's a Latina," she said.
Garodnick countered with a statement from his own Latino supporters on the Council, a response to when Mark-Viverito held a rally by woman supporters last month.
"We believe that New York needs a Speaker who will stand up for progressive values, while bringing people of diverse backgrounds together to deliver real results. We want someone who has the skill set to deliver economic opportunity and fairness to the people we represent," said the group, Maria del Carmen Arroyo, Annabel Palma, and Fernando Cabrera.
"The ethnic identity of the Speaker is far less important than his/her ability to stand up and fight. And while we largely support the Mayor's agenda, it is critical for the Latino community that we have a City Council that is empowered to do its work independently," they said. "Dan Garodnick has a long record of progressive activism, independence, and a proven ability to work with people across the spectrum. He will be a great advocate for Latinos, and all New Yorkers, and we look forward to electing him Speaker of the City Council next week."
Garodnick said Wednesday he still thinks he has a shot to swing enough votes before next week's vote.
"We feel really good about where we stand. The people who have committed to me are there strongly. And we are making the case to our colleagues that we want to support the mayor's agenda here but we also don't want to disempower the City Council," he told the Daily News.
Asked about de Blasio inviting Mark-Viverito to his private swearing in outside his home Tuesday night, which only a small group of people were allowed to attend, he quipped, "I can only read the tea leaves that he is supporting her candidacy for speaker.
"It's not a prescription for independence if the mayor is involved here," he said.