A Vito Lopez crony ''recreated'' records at a non-profit to claim the board agreed to jack up her salary 133% to a jaw-dropping $782,000, a new report alleges.
The DOI report also says Fisher approved raises for Angela Battaglia (pictured at right), a Ridgewood exec who's also Lopez's girlfriend and a sitting member of the city Planning Commission. Battaglia's salary jumped 73% in one year to $343,000 with Fisher's approval.
The dubious salary hikes and other corruption allegations at Ridgewood Bushwick are the focus of ongoing probes by several law enforcement agencies, including federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The new allegations surfaced in a Nov. 9 DOI report obtained by the Daily News under the Freedom of Information Law.
DOI released an earlier report alleging unaccounted-for spending at the non-profit Lopez founded years ago, which gets public funds to bring social services and housing to seniors across northern Brooklyn.
Lopez says he no longer has any connection to the group, although he's steered hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to it through legislative ''member items'' for years. And as boss of the Brooklyn Democratic party, he holds sway over numerous politicians who have also steered public money to the charity.
DOI's latest report (read it in full below) alleges:
*Antoinette Kozlowski, Ridgewood-Bushwick's assistant director for HRA, told DOI Fisher ''recreated'' minutes of board meetings because originals had been ''misplaced.'' The minutes purport to state the board had approved a dramatic spike in Fisher's salary to more than a quarter-million dollars.
Ridgewood-Bushwick lied on tax forms filed with the IRS and the state attorney general, claiming all the amounts had been approved by RBSCC's board.
Between 2008 and 2009, Fisher claimed the board approved doubling her salary from $9,000 bi-weekly to $17,696, tossing in a $48,000 ''bonus'' and $170,000 in ''retroactive'' payments that raised her compensation to $782,000 in fiscal 2009.
Also:
Board chairwoman Lucy Cusimano told DOI she couldn't remember signing forms approving the raises, and all eight board members said they didn't know what Fisher made. Only two vaguely recalled the issue of the bonus coming up.
Fisher signed off on Battaglia's compensation jumping from $198,000 to $343,000 – a 73% hike – between 2008 and 2009. She also got a $32,000 bonus and $56,000 in rretroactive payments, all approved by Fisher.
Battaglia claimed she didn't even know she was getting the back pay until she noticed a dramatic bump in her checking account.
Fisher couldn't produce timesheets for 2008 and 2009, and Battaglia had no timesheets at all.
We are awaiting comment from a lawyer for Ridgewood-Bushwick and a callback from Lopez's office.
Update: I spoke to Assemblyman Lopez, who reiterated that he does not have anything to do with the daily operations of Ridgewood-Bushwick. He said the non-profit "has done outstanding work for over 30 years and has led the charge of revitalizing the [neighborhood].
"I am proud of the work that they have done and the quality of programs and services that they have provided to thousands of my constituents," Lopez continued.
Lopez also felt I should have included here a section on the "Mercer Reports," which are mentioned in the DOI report on pages 12 and 13.
After DOI began its investigation, Ridgewood-Bushwick, through its lawyers, hired consultant Mercer to assess the "competitiveness" of the salaries of six of the non-profit's execs, including Fisher and Battaglia. The consulting firm found the pay rates "reasonable" by IRS standards.
Mercer found that Fisher's pay was in all but nine years before 2008 below her "targeted" compensation, and her substantial pay hike was "catching up for compensation in previous years." The DOI notes that Mercer never defined "targeted compensation."
Of Battaglia, Mercer compared her compensation to executives in similar jobs -- albeit at much smaller agencies, DOI notes -- and said it would be expected that she'd make more than those peers. Mercer found Battaglia's 2010 compensation "above the market median" for the execs to whom her pay was compared.
DOI notes that "The Mercer reports do not address the issues of when, or by whom, the significant increases Fisher received in 2008 and 2009 were determined. Nothing in the Mercer Reports addresses the role, if any, of RBCCS's Board in establishing Fisher's compensation."
Update 2, from Greg: Ridgewood-Bushwick's attorney, Edward McDonald, said the agency and its board had been totally revamped since the questions arose about spending last year.
He said incorrect accounting by fiscal year exagerated the compensation figures, and when the pay is tallied by calendar year, Fisher's never topped $639,626.
''The issues addressed in the report are all issues that existed before the changes that have been implemented by Ridgewood-Bushwick,'' McDonald said.
Update 3: Said Mayor Bloomberg's Deputy Press Secretary, Julie Wood: ''The report indicates that troubling actions were taken by the Executive Director of Ridgewood-Bushwick. In order for the City to continue to working with this organization, corrective action needs to be taken to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again. The new board members know that."
תוקן על ידי פשווארסק ב- 18/11/2011 18:44:34
נשלח ב-21/11/2011 18:33
City: Vito’s charity boss cooked the books
By Aaron Short
The Brooklyn Paper
Community Newspaper Group / Aaron Short
Christiana Fisher is Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s campaign treasurer as well as the executive director of the nonprofit he founded. A city investigation suggests that she forged documents to give herself and Lopez's girlfriend big raises.
Community Newspaper Group / Aaron Short
City Planning Commissioner Angie Battaglia is not only Lopez's girlfriend, but she's also a very lavishly paid top executive in the charity he founded.
The Brooklyn Paper / Aaron Greenhood
Assemblyman Vito Lopez — he's tied up in this mess (indirectly, of course).
The top official handpicked by Assemblyman Vito Lopez to run his Bushwick charity forged documents to give her and Lopez’s girlfriend massive pay raises — and then lied about it, a bombshell city investigation charges.
Christiana Fisher, the CEO of the Lopez-founded Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, received a $446,000 raise in 2008, bumping her already lavish $336,000 salary to $782,000, while Ridgewood Bushwick’s housing director, Angela Battaglia, collected a $145,000 raise in 2008, jumping her salary from $198,000 to $343,000.
Board documents show that the sky-high salary hikes — plus a lump-sum payment to Fisher of $218,659 — were approved on Feb. 4, 2008. But executives at Ridgewood Bushwick testified they did not see the board documents until nearly two years later, when Fisher sent them to be prepared with the group’s federal tax returns.
In August, 2010, Fisher faxed a copy of a key tax document to her accountant that showed that the board had OK’d the pay raises — but the document did not have any board member signatures on it.
Three weeks later, Fisher faxed another copy of that document, which suddenly contained signatures of all eight board members, to the city.
The charity’s federal tax return stated that executive pay had been reviewed, deliberated, and approved by its board and an independent committee — but several board members cast some doubt on that.
Ridgewood Bushwick’s then-chairwoman Lucy Cusimano told city investigators last year that the signature on the document was hers, but added that she did not remember signing it.
She also said she had no idea how much Fisher and Battaglia were being paid.
“Nobody ever told me what they made,” said Cusimano, who is no longer on the board.
Another board member, Virginia Torres, said that the board discussed a salary increase for Fisher in late 2009 or early 2010, not in February, 2008, as stated in the documents Ridgewood Bushwick sent to the city.
The charity’s human resources director, Antoinette Kozlowski, also told city inspectors that the first time she saw any board documents concerning executive compensation was when Fisher gave her three separate resolutions from meetings in 2008, 2009, and 2010 at the same time in the summer of 2010. Fisher told her that the original files had gone missing and these resolutions were “re-created.”
In addition, city investigators found that Ridgewood Bushwick’s 2009 tax return was riddled with “inaccuracies.”
The return did not include Fisher’s full compensation from a Ridgewood Bushwick home-care subsidiary, about $96,000, which she also managed.
The tax forms did say that an independent committee was monitoring Ridgewood Bushwick salaries, but the charity’s then-Chief Financial Officer Wesley Hitner said that he was not aware of such a review
In May, Ridgewood Bushwick filed an amended tax return with more than 20 alterations from its prior return, including the startling admission that Fisher’s salary “was not approved by the entire board” and its process for determining executive salaries was flawed.
Ridgewood Bushwick’s attorney told the Daily News, which first reported the city’s findings, that the charity has since replaced nearly all its board members and Fisher’s salary was incorrectly recorded on tax forms.
But Fisher’s salary grab made other Ridgewood Bushwick executives skittish.
Ridgewood Bushwick’s Youth, Education and Training Services Director, Maria Elana Zullo, told Fisher on several occasions between 2008 and 2010 that she was “not comfortable” receiving a 32-percent raise that increased her salary to $219,000 in July 2008, according to Zullo’s testimony. Fisher told her she “felt strongly” that Zullo’s work justified her salary, but agreed to reduce to $150,000 in early 2010.
Fisher defended the pay increase as “retroactive compensation” for salary owed to her since 1999, according to the city’s interviews with Ridgewood Bushwick’s CFO and accountant. She refused to directly answer questions from city investigators and calls made to her attorney and her Bushwick office were not returned.
But Ridgewood Bushwick’s accountant Francis Bowen testified that Fisher’s retroactive increases only occurred for a year-and-a-half period between February 2007 and July 2008, not the nine years stated in the 2008 board resolution.
And Battaglia, Lopez’s girlfriend and a City Planning Commissioner, told city investigators that she did not notice receiving a $145,000 raise until she saw an “unusually high balance” in her checking account in 2008 that she “had not expected or requested.”
When Battaglia asked Fisher why her annual salary rose from $198,000 to $343,000, Fisher told her she was receiving a “retroactive” salary increase for two years of work.
But the city was unable to verify Battaglia’s salary and hours worked because Fisher never required her to fill out timesheets. And Fisher was unable to produce her own time sheets for 2008 and 2009, upon the city’s request.
Even Lopez, who was not named in the report, distanced himself from Ridgewood Bushwick’s financial mess, telling the Daily News he does not have a role in the daily operations of the charity he founded, but defended its 30-year legacy of revitalizing Bushwick. Lopez’s office did not return a call for comment.
But that was enough for Mayor Bloomberg to call major changes at the Bushwick charity.
“Corrective action needs to be taken to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again,” said Bloomberg spokeswoman Julie Wood, adding that Fisher’s resignation could be one of the actions.
And Democratic District Leader Lincoln Restler called on the City Council and state agencies to halt funding to Ridgewood Bushwick.
“The obscene compensation packages represent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars that should have been spent on meals and home health care visits for Brooklyn’s seniors,” said Restler. “Public dollars intended for Ridgewood Bushwick should be reallocated to local organizations that serve Brooklyn honestly.”
Assemblyman Vito Lopez in front of dumpsters at a waste tranfer site in Brooklyn,NY. photo Debbie Egan-Chin
A political crony of Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez “recreated” missing documents at a non-profit she runs to justify hiking her salary to a jaw-dropping $782,000, a new report alleges.
The city Department of Investigation details several alleged misdeeds by Christiana Fisher, Lopez's campaign treasurer and director of the non-profit he founded, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Center.
Investigators say Fisher also approved raises for Angela Battaglia, a Ridgewood executive who's Lopez's girlfriend and a sitting member of the city Planning Commission.
Battaglia's salary jumped 73% in one year to $343,000 with Fisher's approval.
The stunning pay hikes and other corruption allegations at Ridgewood Bushwick are the focus of ongoing probes by law enforcement, including Manhattan federal prosecutors.
The new allegations surfaced in a Nov. 9 Department of Investigation report obtained by the Daily News under the Freedom of Information law.
Lopez founded the non-profit years ago to provide social services and housing to seniors across northern Brooklyn.
Lopez says he’s no longer connected to the group, although he's steered hundreds of thousands of public dollars to it through legislative "member items.”
And as Brooklyn Democratic boss, he holds sway over numerous politicians who have also steered public money to the charity.
The Investigation Department’s latest report alleges:
*Antoinette Kozlowsky, an assistant director at Ridgewood-Bushick's, told probers that Fisher "recreated" board resolutions approving pay hikes because the originals had been "misplaced."
Between 2008 and 2009, Fisher claimed the board approved doubling her salary from $9,000 bi-weekly to $17,600, okayed a $48,000 "bonus" and signed off on $170,000 in "retroactive" pay that raised her compensation to $782,000 in fiscal 2009.
*None of the eight board knew what Fisher made and six of the eight couldn’t recall signing the resolutions approving the raises.
*Fisher couldn't produce timesheets for 2008 and 2009, and Battaglia had no timesheets at all.
Lopez defended the group and its executives, saying an independent review by a consultant Ridgewood-Bushwick hired found the pay matched similar groups.
"I am proud of the work that they have done and the quality of programs and services that they have provided to thousands of my constituents," Lopez said.
Fisher and Battaglia did not return calls seeking comment. Ridgewood Bushwick’s attorney, Edward McDonald, said the agency and its board has been revamped since the questions arose about spending last year.
He said Ridgewood mistakenly listed pay by fiscal year, exagerating compensation figures. When the pay is tallied by calendar year, Fisher’s never topped $$639,626.
“The issues addressed in the report are all issues that existed before the changes that have been implemented by Ridgewood Bushwick,” McDonald said.
A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg said the report shows “troubling actions were taken by the Executive Director of Ridgewood-Bushwick. In order for the City to continue to working with this organization, corrective action needs to be taken to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again. The new board members know that."
