WELCOME TO MOSQUE GATE ?

Emails Show City Backing Of Mosque

By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL And SUMATHI REDDY

Wall Street Journal

The chairman of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission allegedly wanted "political cover" before denying landmark status to a building situated on the site of the proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero, giving critics ammunition in their legal quest to stop the project, records released Thursday showed.

The records—sought by the project's opponents and released by City Hall—show members of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration working very closely with the organizers of the project, known as Park51, to combat public opposition and navigate various governmental hurdles. One city official ghost-wrote a letter for the project's organizers.

Aides to Mr. Bloomberg, an outspoken champion of the organizers' right to build the mosque, said the slew of emails reflects the typical back-and-forth between government officials and members of the community. The project's opponents said the records show the Bloomberg administration was in cahoots with the organizers. The records, they allege, raise serious questions about the legitimacy of the Landmarks Preservation Commission's Aug. 3 vote, which paved the way for the project to rise two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In one email from May, Shelly Friedman, the organizers' lawyer, wrote that Manhattan Community Board 1's vote in support of the project would be helpful as organizers urged landmark commission Chairman Robert Tierney and other panel members to reject landmark status for the building currently on the site. "I do know that chairman Tierney was looking forward to having the 'political cover' their support would bring him," Ms. Friedman wrote.

Mr. Tierney declined a request for comment, the mayor's spokesman, Stu Loeser, said.

Mr. Loeser, though, insisted Mr. Tierney and the other members of the panel based their decision on the facts. "The landmarks vote was on the building's architectural and historical merit or, more specifically, lack of merit and nothing else," he said.

Brett Joshpe, counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, one of the groups that sought the documents and is suing the city, said Ms. Friedman's email is telling.

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The third term jinx is alive, and "the gods" are smiling from mount Olympus.

Looks like 2010 has been a bad year for Bloomberg and I don;t see 2011 being any better.

VJ MACHIAVELLI

JOEL BONDY SAYS BYE BYE TO CITY AND CITY TIME GATE

New York City Payroll Chief Resigns

By SERGE F. KOVALESKI and JOHN ELIGON

Published: December 23, 2010

The Bloomberg administration official responsible for overseeing a huge, troubled payroll and timekeeping project for New York City employees that is the focus of an $80 million federal corruption case said on Thursday that he was resigning from his government position.

In a one-sentence letter to the board that oversees his agency, the official, Joel Bondy, said he was stepping down as executive director of the Office of Payroll Administration effective Dec. 31. Last week, Mr. Bondy, who has not been charged in the case, was suspended without pay. His biography was removed from the agency’s Web site earlier this week.

His departure comes as newly available documents reveal that he gave glowing evaluations for the work done by the company acting as the quality assurance monitor for the project, known as CityTime, during a period when, prosecutors say, consultants for the firm were bilking the city for their own enrichment.

Last January, Mr. Bondy took stock of how the effort to overhaul the city’s payroll system was going. The company charged with quality assurance, Spherion, was due to be evaluated on an $18.6 million contract.

How Spherion’s performance was rated by Mr. Bondy was important in a number of ways, with potential implications for the company’s ability to stay on the job and to win future work with the city.

Mr. Bondy, records show, was deeply impressed with the company’s work. According to two years of evaluations, for the periods from February 2008 through 2009, made available through a state Freedom of Information Law request, he gave the firm an overall rating of excellent, the highest possible level, for its work on CityTime.

And for each of the three areas covered in the evaluations, including fiscal administration and accountability, Mr. Bondy wrote the same seven-word comment in praise of Spherion: “The contractor’s work has consistently exceeded expectations.”

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And hello to ........................

VJ Machiavelli

GOOD SHIP BLOOMBERG RAMS INTO CITY TIME GATE ICEBERG

It's Mike's mess

Last Updated: 1:45 AM, December 17, 2010

Posted: December 17, 2010

Prosecutors have charged four consul tants with ripping off $80 million from a program to develop an electronic-timesheet system for municipal employees.

Yet still on the loose is the guy responsible for a possible loss on the project of nearly 10 times that sum.

This would be Mayor Mike.

After all, work on CityTime -- an automated time-tracking system for city employees, started just before Mike took office -- was supposed to cost $63 million. Its current price tag?

A staggering $722 mil lion.

And the project still isn't done.

Where's Michael Bloom berg been?

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/it_mike_mess_pKqwQwKcW7R7GiftyqfhzH#ixzz18bhWeEYM
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Mike's doozy: Bloomberg failed in letting CityTime payroll program waste millions in bloat and fraud

EDITORIALS

Saturday, December 18th 2010, 4:00 AM

Ten million filched here, ten million filched there - why, pretty soon you're into one of the biggest inside-job ripoffs in New York government history. Had to be tough to pull it off, no?

Well, not exactly.

Not when management of the civic enterprise - Michael Bloomberg, mayor - has taken a pass on any and all oversight of a hugely ambitious, high-tech overhaul of city personnel practices.

At a price tag of $60 million, this thing called CityTime seemed like such a very good idea: City workers would clock in and out electronically, with a single computer system tracking their hours, days worked, sick time, vacations, etc.

The work was assigned to the Office of Payroll Management, a hybrid agency overseen jointly by the mayor and controller. For the period in question, the latter was Bill Thompson.

Then the question arose: Who should run the office? Who should be given responsibility for hiring computer experts and consultants to design and build such a complicated system?

Forget the right answer. Without so much as a cursory interview, Bloomberg signed off on giving the job to a mope who had worked for the city's child protective agency, who had left that job to become a consultant to the payroll project, who set his sights on running the whole shebang - and who then hired a pal, another child protective agency mope, as a quality control consultant.

Soon enough, that very good $60 million idea was an $800 million nightmare, mope No. 2 had awarded up to $80 million in contracts to associates, and, according to prosecutors, had reaped $25 million in kickbacks.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/12/18/2010-12-18_mikes_doozy.html#ixzz18biWXeKa
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The "Media Barons" are unhappy with there "MAYOR" who they helped win a "third" term.


As more and more comes out the "MEDIIA BARONS" we be blamed for supporting the third term. 


They could have block it but they chose to support one of there "OWN" and now it looks like they will be throwing  Bloomberg under the bus. 


Third term jinx is alive and Bloomberg surly has it.


What "OTHER" scandals are going to be exposed in 2011, 2012 or 2013 ?

BLOOMBERG'S THRID TERM JINK-OR THE REVENGE OF "THE GODS"

As scandal erupts and arrests are made, warning signs for CityTime fraud were there all along

BY JUAN GONZALEZ AND ADAM LISBERG 
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Sunday, December 19th 2010, 4:00 AM

In March 2008, a veteran city consultant working on a complicated project called CityTime complained to the Department of Investigation.

His letter had a bold title: "Fraudulent Timesheet submitted for time not worked."

The complaint said "two senior level managers (Mr. Mark Mazer - consultant - and Mr. Scott Berger - consultant) sign weekly timesheets of [a senior manager] having full knowledge" the woman was absent or on vacation.

As far as the whistleblower could tell, nothing happened.

More than 2-1/2 years later, the allegations exploded into the Bloomberg administration's biggest scandal, exposing years of slack oversight, bungled management and missed opportunities.

DOI and the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office announced six arrests last week and charged Mazer and Berger masterminded an $80 million scam through phony billing and kickbacks in the CityTime project.

Joel Bondy, director of the city agency that oversaw the project, was suspended without pay the next day, and DOI seized bank accounts and $850,000 in cash from safe-deposit boxes.

Warning signs

Investigators are still probing the scheme - but the warning signs were there for years:

• The Office of Payroll Administration, the obscure agency in charge of the CityTime project, learned 18 months ago it was paying for phony work - but never asked why.

• DOI cracked the case in 2010, but the whistleblower who raised the alarm there almost three years earlier said he wasn't taken seriously.

• At City Hall, Bloomberg's budget team worried about CityTime's mushrooming $700 million-plus cost, even as the mayor and his team defended it publicly.

• Former city Controller William Thompson's office shared joint oversight of OPA with the mayor, but never audited the project as costs exploded tenfold.

• The Daily News began raising questions about overpriced consultants a year ago.

"What could we have done if we'd realized back in 2005 what was going on here?" asked state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Queens), who first raised questions about CityTime at that time as a city councilman.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/12/19/2010-12-19_as_scandal_erupts_and_arrests_are_made_warning_signs_for_citytime_fraud_were_the.html#ixzz18a3VSocp
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As the saying goes "for whom the gods would destroy the first drive "MAD". and the "City Time Gate" scandal is going to drive Bloomberg "MAD"


He now knows the "JINX" of third terms is "REAL" and "other" scandals are in the wings, and then there is "HAGGERTYGATE"

Before there was the "Oracle at Delphi" there was Count Vampire J. Machiavelli

VJ Machiavelli

www.VJMachiavelli.blogspot.com

The Legislative Budget is Too Damn High 

EVAN STAVISKY AND THE SECRET CONTRACT "I WONDER IF HIS MOMMY KNEW"

Secret Senate Democrats’ Contract Guaranteed 80 Percent Of Business To Parkside
By Edward-Isaac Dovere

According to the terms of a contract kept secret during the campaign, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee was prepared to sign over a full 80 percent of all money spent on political mailers, radio commercials and robo-calls for the 2010 campaign cycle to one firm: the Parkside Group.

Stunning several people involved and a number of outside campaign operatives, the contract—which was ultimately discarded amid internal disagreements about spending decisions—guaranteed that this massive percentage of campaign business was required of both the DSCC and all money transferred to individual campaigns by the DSCC. And it almost went even further: the original draft of the contract limited firms other than Parkside to 10 percent of mailers, radio commercials and robo-calls—in other words, guaranteeing the firm 90 percent of this business for the DSCC and candidates it was supporting. Unlike standard contracts signed by consultants, this was a prospective agreement, giving Parkside access to the overwhelming percentage of whatever money was spent long before the DSCC knew how much it would spend.
http://www.cityhallnews.com/newyork/article-1697-secret-senate-democratsrs-contract-guaranteed-80-percent-of-business-to-parkside.html
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As I have said many times Evan Stavisky aka "Son of Toby" and his "Partner" have made a lot of money as Consultants and Lobbyists, he does not lobby his "MOMMY" he just has dinner with her and talks about the weather.

I wonder if he ever told her about this sweet heart deal.

I highly recommend people read the story

Before there was the "Oracle at Delphi" there was Count Vampire J. Machiavelli

VJ Machiavelli
www.VJMachiavelli.blogspot.com
The Legislative Budget is Too Damn High

BLOOMBERG AND THE THIRD TERM JINX CALLED "CITY TIME GATE"

Director of City Agency at Center of Fraud Case Is Suspended
By DAVID W. CHEN and JOHN ELIGON
Published: December 16, 2010

The official in charge of the New York City agency at the heart of an alleged $80 million information technology fraud scheme was suspended on Thursday without pay by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Comptroller John C. Liu.

The official, Joel Bondy, was chosen by Mr. Bloomberg to be the executive director of the Office of Payroll Administration in April 2004. But the payroll agency has been repeatedly criticized for its handling of the CityTime project, an automated system devised to streamline employee timekeeping, which has been dogged by delays and enormous cost overruns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12...
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Welcome to City Time Gate the Bloomberg third term jinx.

Mayor Koch had the Parking Bureau scandal and now Bloomberg has the "City Time Gate"

The more things change the more they stay the same.

'the gods' are smiling from above mount olympus as we know the first drive a person mad before they destroy them.

This scandal will drive Bloomberg "MAD" 

There are so many questions that are going to be asked in the days and weeks that he will have to answer and it is not going to be pleasant for him just like it was not pleasant for Koch.

Before there was the "Oracle at Delphi" there was Count Vampire J. Machiavelli

VJ Machiavelli
www.VJMachiavelli.blogspot.com
The Legislative Budget is Too Damn High

IS IT TIME FOR BLOOMBERG TO RESIGN ?

Bloomberg to Publish Editorials

NY TIMES

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Published: December 15, 2010

Being mayor of New York City would be a large enough platform for just about anyone. But apparently not for Michael R. Bloomberg.

The mayor’s company, Bloomberg L.P., said on Wednesday that it would begin publishing editorials across its vast media enterprise in an effort to broaden the company’s influence on national affairs. And though Mr. Bloomberg has an agreement with the city to have no involvement in the “day-to-day operations” of his company, the endeavor, called Bloomberg View, is intended to channel his personal philosophy and worldview.

“I think it’s very important that everyone understands that our editorial page is going to be, for sure, consistent with the values and beliefs of the founder — even if he happens to be mayor of New York City,” said Matthew Winkler, the editor in chief of Bloomberg News. “I fully expect us in our Bloomberg View always to reflect those values. In fact, I want people to come away from reading the Bloomberg View infused with those beliefs and values.”

The effort presents a host of conflict-of-interest questions for the mayor. The new venture provides the mayor with yet another potent communications apparatus — one that carries his name and imprimatur — to sound off on issues that collide with his job as mayor, his corporate interests and his expanding philanthropic empire.

Bloomberg L.P. executives said they would not shy away from publishing editorials on issues in which Mr. Bloomberg has a direct interest as mayor, like education, public health and environmental policy. Mr. Winkler said the editorials would not avoid such issues but would disclose the mayor’s involvement when warranted.

Though Mr. Bloomberg will not have a hand in conceiving and writing the editorials, he is likely to offer feedback from time to time before they are published, Mr. Winkler said.

“I think that there’s a very good chance that’s going to happen,” he said, referring to Mr. Bloomberg’s occasional involvement. It is unclear whether that level of involvement is permitted under his agreement with the city to remain at arm’s length from the company.

A spokesman for the mayor, Stu Loeser, said the mayor was allowed limited involvement in his agreement with the city. “Weighing in from time to time is consistent with his being the majority shareholder of the company he founded,” he said.

As someone whose presidential ambitions are the source of endless speculation, acquiring the platform of an editorial page is certain to draw more attention to Mr. Bloomberg’s plans. (On Sunday, Mr. Bloomberg ruled out a run for president.)

The unsigned editorials will appear in all of Bloomberg’s online and print media properties — including Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg.com and the nearly 300,000 financial data terminals leased to Wall Street traders and businesses around the world. It will be run by two distinguished voices: James P. Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state under Bill Clinton, and David Shipley, editor of The New York Times Op-Ed page.

Opinion and commentary have not typically been areas of focus for Bloomberg, with its just-the-facts approach. In fact, the mayor has complained about the corrosive effect of the 24-hour news cycle and overheated political commentary in the blogosphere.

But company leaders, including Mr. Bloomberg, who has been aware of the project since it was conceived more than two years ago, saw an opportunity to extend their influence.

For a firm that has made no secret of its ambitions to become the most influential media company in the world, starting an editorial operation is the latest effort to propel it beyond its core mission as a financial news service.

The notion of media barons using editorials to shape public opinion and policy according to their personal views is an old one in American journalism. William Randolph Hearst, for example, often wrote front-page editorials for his newspapers.

Mr. Bloomberg, it would seem, is casting himself in that mold, though there are no plans for him to begin writing signed editorials. For now, he is content letting his trusted deputies speak for him.

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It is time for Mayor Bloomberg to re-join his company and try to shape the world to his views.

He has out grown being Mayor of New York City

He now needs to be "MAYOR" of the "WORLD"

So go to it and remember "the gods"  and the third term jinx.

If you stay they will destroy you.

So leave while you can and on your own terms.

We will survive without you.

Before there was the "Oracle at Delphi" there was Count Vampire J. Machiavelli

VJ Machiavelli