Melinda Katz

The Bloomberg administration is plowing forward on its plan to redevelop the industrial area next to Shea Stadium, as it intends to start the rezoning process on Monday despite objections from the City Council.

“We have asked them not to certify Monday,” said Melinda Katz, chairwoman of the City Council’s land use committee. “My feeling is that there are a lot of outstanding issues.”

The plan for the 61-acre site, Willets Point, calls for a large mixed-used community with up to 5,500 units of housing, up to 1.7 million square feet of retail, up to 700 hotel rooms, a public school, and possibly a modest convention center. The decision to jump into the seven-month approval process without the blessing of the Council suggests a rising anxiety among members of the Bloomberg administration, which has 18 months left in office and a slew of large development projects left to implement.  read more »

Assemblyman Jim Brennan of Brooklyn, who is also running for city comptroller, introduced his own congestion pricing bill today. A spokesman, when asked, did not say whether he will support the plan as it is currently presented to lawmakers.

Brennan's new bill would ensure the program comes up for renewal in three years, and wouldn't allow the state to issue bonds against the program's future earning. Critics say allowing the bonds means the current congestion pricing plan wouldn't be temporary enough because it would last for the life of the bonds.
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A reader sent along this invitation for a May 1 awards dinner hosted by the Independent Neighborhood Democrats, a political club in Brooklyn. Among the honorees is the organization's councilman, David Yassky, who is also a candidate for city comptroller.  read more »

Last night two city comptroller candidates -- Melinda Katz and David Weprin -- voted against congestion pricing, while three of their likely opponents in the race -- David Yassky, Simcha Felder and John Liu -- voted for it.
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A congestion pricing measure before the Council just passed, 30 to 20.

Domenic Recchia, who is planning to run for Congress, took a pass on voting the first time around, but eventually voted yes. Eric Gioia, who had told the New York Times on March 8 that he was voting no, also voted for it. Comptroller candidate Melinda Katz voted no, but her likely rival David Yassky voted yes. The two candidates for Brooklyn brough president, Bill De Blasio and Charles Barron, both voted against.  read more »

Here’s a shot from the breakfast hosted Sunday morning by the Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations on the West Side, which, as Grace Rauh noted, attracted nearly every 2009 candidate for citywide office.  read more »

During an interview on The Perez Notes last night, Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf delivered a hypothetical negative ad against Councilwoman Melinda Katz, one of the leading candidates for comptroller in 2009.

“I haven’t written it yet," said Sheinkopf. "I’m going to write it write now. Somebody can steal this and do what they want with it:

"‘Melinda Katz wants to be comptroller of the city of New York. Her credentials? Well, she was the Land Use Chair of the City Council. Here are some facts. During her Land Use [Committee] chairmanship, New Yorkers lost more affordable housing than in any other time in history. Rents skyrocketed. She’s taken millions from land lords. Some of those landlords'--lets do it this way--

"'She’s taken hundreds of thousands from landlords, slumlords, the worst kind of people. Those who want to jack up our rents and throw us on the street. So there you have it. Melinda Katz, for the landlords. Think she ought to be comptroller? Ha. Absolutely not.'

Response from Katz's office after the jump.  read more »

Adolfo Carrion just announced two more co-chairs for his city comptroller campaign: former city comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman and Merryl H. Tisch, chairperson of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

Last month, Carrion rolled out two others: former state comptroller Carl McCall and business executive Leo Hindrey Jr.

Locking up the support of two former comptrollers gives Carrion, at least, a distinction among a field that also includes Melinda Katz, David Yassky, David Weprin, Simcha Felder and James Brennan.

The official statement is after the jump.  read more »

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, and so is the big parade, meaning it's once again for local politicians to make a statement one way or another on the organizers' decision not to allow gays to participate under their own banner.

I asked a few possible citywide candidates about their parade plans, and here’s what I heard back so far.

Mayoral candidates:

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The co-chairs for Adolfo Carrion’s comptroller campaign will be former state comptroller H. Carl McCall and business executive Leo Hindrey Jr. of InterMedia Partners, the campaign announced this morning.

Hindrey, the former C.E.O. of the YES Network (which broadcasts Yankees games) also helped raise money for another Bronx politician seeking citywide office: Fernando Ferrer, who ran for mayor in 2005.  read more »

Here's a fund-raising email from a 2009 candidate for comptroller which may partly explain why that industry is so generous to some city candidates.

The message, forwarded to me by an interested reader, is from City Councilwoman Melinda Katz, and it includes a profile of herself that was published in the Real Deal. The profile describes how Katz leverages her position on the powerful Land Use committee to raise money.

The full email is after the jump.  read more »

Comptroller candidate and City Councilwoman Melinda Katz has just hired Geoffrey Garin, a Democratic pollster (who was quoted in today’s New York Times).  read more »

The chairwoman of the City Council’s land use committee, Melinda Katz, has apparently gotten the memo that there’s a whole lot of cash in the real estate industry. Just a quick glance at her fund-raising numbers for the past six months—the termed-out Queens legislator is running for city comptroller in 2009—suggests that real estate was by far the most dominant industry on her donor list, accounting for the bulk of the large donations, and maybe even composing most of the $592,000 total raised.

[UPDATE 5:05 p.m.: Indeed more than half of Ms. Katz's funds from the past semester, at least $298,000 by our quick tally, came from real estate professionals and their families].

The numbers from the candidates are trickling in today on the Campaign Finance Board Web site.

To name a few for Ms. Katz:  read more »

The city’s Campaign Finance Board will be posting updated campaign finance numbers for 2009 candidates later today. But some numbers are available for campaigns that cross-filed with state Board of Elections, like City Comptroller candidate Melinda Katz.

Katz raised $582,756 and now has $1,078,196 on hand for her campaign.

 

She got donations from, among many others, Helen Sears ($100), Kenneth Fisher ($4,950), and James Capalino ($1,000) [link added].

Katz has spent $36,800 on mailings (anybody get one?) and $2,000 on committee dues at the American Jewish Congress.

More updates when the official numbers come in.

To the fund-raising numbers for comptroller candidates Adolfo Carrion, Melinda Katz, David Yassky, and David Weprin -- all hovering around the million dollar mark -- add a total for one more candidate.

Jim Brennan’s campaign announced just now that he’s raised $144,000 in this most recent fund-raising period, bringing his total amount of contributions up to $405,000, they said. That leaves him with $280,000 on hand, according to spokeswoman Linda Gross.

Brennan’s campaign estimates they are also eligible for about $670,000 in matching funds from the city’s Campaign Finance Board.

Get ready to "Max Out for Melinda.”

That’s the subject line of an email invitation to a fund-raiser for Melinda Katz’s city comptroller campaign, which a reader forwarded to me. It’s taking place on January 10 at the Manhattan office of Howard Milstein, a major real estate developer.

Full text of the invitation after the jump.  read more »

Isac told me today he’s supporting Melinda Katz for city comptroller.

“She’s the only female running against five men,” he explained.

Some reactions from the 2009 circuit to Adolfo Carrion’s entry into the comptroller’s race:

Fernando Ferrer, the most recent Hispanic candidate to run for mayor, told me via cell phone, “Well look, I think that he’s staked out for himself a race where he’s going to be a dominant figure.”

Asked if he was disappointed that Carrion would not be seeking the mayor's office, Ferrer replied, “I’ve just given you my comments.”

More after the jump.  read more »

 

 

This evening, David Yassky kicks off his City Comptroller campaign with a fund-raiser at the Harvard Club.

He's part of a fairly crowded field in which some of the candidates have already started to raise money and endorsements: Melinda Katz, David Weprin, Jim Brennan and (all-but-declared) Simcha Felder.

The next Campaign Finance Board disclosure filing deadline is January 15. Any predictions as to what the candidates will show?

UPDATE: Also tonight is a birthday party/fund-raiser for Assemblyman Micah Kellner of Manhattan at XES Lounge, 157 West 24th Street, starting at 6:30 p.m.

It's official: David Yassky is running for comptroller.

He filed paperwork with the Campaign Finance Board late last week and it just popped up on the CFB’s web site a few minutes ago.

Earlier, I noted the strategy will likely be to pick up support in his vote-rich section of Brooklyn and, since the race is full of outer borough candidates, scoop up the largely unclaimed votes in Manhattan. The other candidates in the race are David Weprin, Melinda Katz and possibly John Liu, all from Queens, plus Simcha Felder and James Brennan from Brooklyn. There's low-level grumbling about Adolfo Carrion getting into that race (although Carrion indicates he'd prefer to run for mayor).

When I spoke with Yassky on Friday, he didn’t confirm or deny he was entering the race. Instead, he said, “I still feel like it’s a long time away. And when given that we still have a city that is almost entirely reliant on diesel fuel to heat itself, when there is biofuels that would make so much of a difference, in terms of carbon emission, and we’re still spending all this money on tax breaks that would happen anyway, which we shouldn’t be doing. I feel like those are the things to be focusing on. Over and above atoning for my sins.”

He added, “It seems too far away to be talking about 2009.”

UPDATE: Just to clarify, Yassky's statement about atoning for sins was a eference was to Yom Kippur, which started on Friday, the day we spoke.

Councilman and all-but-announced city comptroller candidate Simcha Felder of Brooklyn hired another staffer: Eric Kuo, who will be the new new press person.

Kuo previously did press for Councilman Vincent Gentile, a Democrat in the conservative-leaning Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn (the same area that produced Democratic operatives George Fontas, Scott Gastel and Sam Cooper). He also worked for Councilman Oliver Koppell in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. (There are probably some notable operatives from there too, but I'll need some help on that one.)

More on Kuo after the jump.  read more »

About that talk going around that City Councilman David Yassky of Brooklyn will enter the already-crowded City Comptroller’s race in 2009...

"I’m not trying to be coy about it," Yassky just told me. "I want to stay in government. I love this work. I think I’ll want to keep doing it after my term is over. And I think I’ll be in another election," but 2009 is "too far away and I have not decided. We’re not there."

Though there are at least five candidates, it's not that outlandish for Yassky to calculate that there may be room for one more. The list of announced and likely candidates for comptroller include Simcha Felder and James Brennan of Brooklyn, and John Liu, Melinda Katz and David Weprin of Queens, if I'm not missing anyone. The pool of voters in Manhattan, in the absence of another entrant (Scott Stringer, maybe?), are anything but locked down.

Yassky is popular with the New York Times and with Michael Bloomberg, who has already held two fund-raisers for Felder, but has shared national TV time with Yassky. So, if he can line up backing uptown and in his part of Brooklyn... who knows?

Bill Thomson and Adolfo Carrion had a friendly chat during last night’s dinner for the Bronx Democratic County Organization at the Marina Del Rey.

At one point, I and two other reporters ran into Denny Farrell, who was hanging out with his daughter. He cheerily noted that earlier in the day he’d gotten another pro-congestion price mailing, making it three so far. “It must be good to be a billionaire,” he said. (The mayor, about whom Farrell was referring, has denied that he's providing any direct funding for the effort.) Then, Farrell rhetorically asked how many phone calls he’s gotten, smiled, and made a big zero with his fingers.

In introducing Christine Quinn, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the county leader, said, “If I decide to go back to the City Council in ‘09, I want her to be my speaker again.”

Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz told me he won’t be in town when Sheldon Silver convenes his conference meeting in Manhattan on July 16.

Non-Bronx officials who made their way to the dinner include David Weprin, Melinda Katz and Simcha Felder - all comptroller candidates in 2009, Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. Also floating around the room were former City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (no tie!) and Democratic Mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer.

And state Senator Efrain Gonzalez, who was indicted last year for misusing public money, was at the dinner before I arrived and stayed after I left, seemingly having a good time.

Melinda Katz is going full steam ahead with her bid to be the next city comptroller in a race that, technically, doesn't happen until 2009.

“I’ve been in it for two or three months,” Katz, a Councilwoman from Queens, told me.

She's already picked up a major endorsement from RWDSU, the union representing sales and retail workers, to be announced formally tomorrow.

And aside from process, Katz is casting herself as the most experienced candidate for the job, reminding me that she is the chair of the Council’s Land Use Committee, a former state Assembly member, and former associate at Weil, Gotshal and Manges.

“I’ve become the known entity in this race,” she said, on her way to City Hall. That's where two of her three likely opponents for the race currently work: fellow Queens-based Council member David Weprin and Councilman Simcha Felder of Brooklyn.
Also considering the race the race is Assembly member James Brennan of Brooklyn.

Yesterday, one of the quirkiest traditions returned to a major Memorial Day Parade that starts a few blocks inside Nassau County before winding its way through the Little Neck-Douglaston section of Queens.

“I refused to march on the Nassau side,” Weiner told me. He stood on the border, next to the 'Welcome to Nassau' sign and waited for the parade to get into New York City territory before joining in. A person who has been marching in that parade for a couple of years told me that the most notable politician to do that in the past was Rudy Giuliani.

Also attending the parade were regular marchers Mike Bloomberg Frank Padavan, Chuck Schumer, Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Adolfo Carrion, Eric Gioia, Melinda Katz, David and Mark Weprin, and Peter Vallone, Sr.

Last night, the Manhattan Surrogate's Courthouse--Tammany Hall's glorious Beaux Arts folly--played host to the City Council's annual Christmas party. The highlight, by unanimous consent, was a duet rendition of "Silent Night" by Council member Melinda Katz and former Council Speaker Gifford Miller.

Council members are said to have paid $35 a head for their staffers to attend the party, while lobbyists had to shell out $50.

There were a number of other parties as well, including one for Jerry Skurnik's political consulting firm, Prime New York. Efrain Gonzalez, the state senator from the Bronx recently indicted for embezzling more than $400,000 from charities in his district, was spotted at that one, according to one person who was there.

If anyone has pictures of the festivities--lampshade shots would be great--please forward them on.

UPDATE: The Politicker has been corrected--rather amusingly--by several anonymous commenters from City Hall. It seems some (all?) council members made their staffers pay their own way to the holiday party. Sheesh--you'd think there'd be room in the city budget for a couple free longnecks and a bowl of Fritos. Jimmy Walker would never have stood for this! Keep the outrage coming...

-- Azi Paybarah

A reader more familiar with Alan Hevesi and Melinda Katz said today's Page Six story about their alleged affair is "complete bullshit."

Here are some reasons why:

"When Alan became City Comptroller [in 1992], there was a Special Election to replace him in State Assembly. Queens Dems picked District Leader Michael Cohen. Katz ran as Liberal Party candidate in Special Election with Alan's strong support. She won."

The affair rumors flow from the question of why Hevesi would support anybody against the machine-backed candidate.

The item also quotes people saying they've seen the two of them publicly making out, which is sort of suspect for obvious reasons.

"The fact that they've been seen in public together [smooching] is complete bullshit. That would have been noticed before now."

And of course is the obvious observation: People who are screwing around together don't do it in public." Okay, maybe sometimes.

-- Azi Paybarah

It seems the Yankees' efforts to buy a winning team are not restricted only to the playing field. According to today's Metro City Council Land Use Committee Chair Melinda Katz and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion also received checks from the men in pinstriped suits. Granted, nothing close to the roughly $26 million a year given to Alex Rodriguez, but the campaign contributions were arguably more effective as the Yankees seem well on their way to building a new stadium. —Jason Horowitz

Community benefits agreements—contracts between real estate developers and grassroots organizations to provide jobs or housing for local residents—are popping up all over without anyone much agreeing what they are and what they should and can do. Aside from a handbook published last May by some of the people who created the first C.B.A.’s in California (PDF), there has not been much, and yet these agreements are becoming part of the fabric of real estate development in this city.

In March, the New York City Bar will hold a panel discussion on the topic March 13 at the association’s headquarters, 42 W. 44th St. Entitled “Community Benefits Agreements: Who is the Community and What is the Benefit?” and sponsored by the association’s land use, planning and zoning committee, the panel will include City Council Member Melinda Katz; Joshua Sirefman, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff’s chief of staff; Carl Weisbrod, former president of the city Economic Development Corporation; and Brad Lander, executive director of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development.

It turns out that the bar association tackled C.B.A.’s once before. In a report to Mayor Ed Koch in June 1988, the bar association recommended the developers only be required to provide improvements that were included in the zoning code (such as building a subway entrance in order to get a density bonus) or that would mitigate environmental disruption that the project would cause (such as traffic).

The report concentrated on the role of government, and less on community groups striking their own deals with developers. And back then these improvements were called “amenities” and had less to do with jobs—today’s hot topic in Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards, the Gateway Mall in the Bronx, and Columbia University's expansion in Harlem—and more to do with parks or senior housing. But throughout the 44-page report (included in “The Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York,” Vol. 43, No. 6), the bar association committee strikes notes that resonate today. Here's a sample:  read more »

The ad hoc payment of money or services in return for favorable governmental action also adversely affects the decision-making process. In egregious cases, the decision maker is corrupted. In less egregious cases, satisfying the wish list for a borough president, community board or a mayor enhances the recipient’s political power. The decision-maker may accept the project in order to get the unrelated amenities, when perhaps it should be voted down. Thus integrity is eroded, of the government in general and of the zoning laws and land use regulations in particular.

-Matthew Schuerman

All this fresh air around the race for City Council Speaker seems to be causing a bit of discomfort around -- gasp! -- policy issues. Housing Here and Now, a coalition of tenants' groups, just announced that two of the Speaker candidates with (relatively) pro-landlord records, Leroy Comrie and Melinda Katz, pulled out of their forum tonight.

"While it's great that the leading candidates for speaker will be there, it's too bad that the other candidates chose to withdraw their support and I'm sure tenants will want to know why," Housing Here and Now spokesman Jonathan Rosen told The Politicker, adding that he hopes all the candidates participate.  read more »

Candidates are expected to be grilled on their stance on several bills, including one that would extend "421a" affordable housing to new neighborhoods. And one imagines that it would be no fun to tell the room of 1,000 tenants things they don't want to hear.

In a sign that some see Freddy or his aides as useful friends in future campaigns, the daily disclosure forms (you know, the ones Mike's avoided filing) show three transfers in on Friday: one from Andrew Cuomo's campaign for Attorney General; one from Lieutenant Governor candidate Tom DiNapoli (who must hope that his investment, one way or another, wins him the regard of Eliot Spitzer), and one from City Councilman David Weprin. A quick look at City Council candidates' disclosures, available on the same page, show that Weprin and his fellow Speaker hopeful Melinda Katz, have in recent days, been spreading money around among their future colleagues (Tom White in Weprin's case; Darlene Mealy in Katz's).  read more »

A key element in Gifford Miller's surprise rise to City Council Speaker was money. He rounded it up in his East Side district, and spread it around to grateful colleagues and candidates.

Four years later, Speaker wannabes are, to varying degrees, following his lesson, though the wise men and women are cautioning us that the same trick may not work twice.

Melinda Katz -- the Council's land-use czarina, which is kind of like being from the East Side as far as fundraising ability goes -- leads the pack, but don't miss crafty Lew Fidler, who has been spreading money around via an obscure committee called Friends of Lew Fidler IV, theoretically established for his candidacy for District Leader. While the others' records are online, Fidler's move sent us down to the Board of Elections to get ink on our hands.

Here are the totals, through the end of last year, on transfers from Council members to candidates and colleagues who will still be around next year:  read more »

Melinda Katz: $8,050 Christine Quinn: $6,450 David Weprin: $4,500 Lew Fidler: $3,150 ($2,750 through Friends of Lew Fidler IV) Bill De Blasio: $3,100 Leroy Comrie: $0 Quinn has also been generous with some of the pressure groups that helped push Miller over the top. She transferred $3,000 to the Working Families Party, and $2,500 to the liberal advocacy group ACORN. Fidler, for his part, gave a -- in some circles -- rather impolitic $150 last year to Councilman Hiram Monserrate, Co-Chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, and perpetual thorn in the side of the Queens Democratic Party.