In your State of the City speech that you made this past week. You said that you are going to reform the New York City Board of Elections. Click on hyperlink:

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c70...

You mentioned in the State of the City speech that 2008 is the 130th anniversary of the death of Boss Tweed. Let's also make it the year we finally put to rest his style of politics.

So Mayor Bloomberg click on this hyper link and read this article:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0624,robbins,73514,5.html

My question to you is when is this going to happen. At this point my advice to you, Mayor Bloomberg is “ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS” You have been talking about this since 2004. Certain employees at the Board of Elections are abusing the integrity of our electoral process. Click on hyperlink:

http://www.nycivic.org/MediaArchive/BloombergSpeech041110.html

One of your departments (New York City Department of Investigation) already has an ongoing open investigation at the Board of Elections, where there have been countless news reports for the past twenty years of allegations of fraud, dishonesty, corruption, and abuse of the political patronage process.

Click on hyperlinks:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/nyregion/02bronx.html?ex=1330491600&en...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03022007/news/regionalnews/election_money_mi...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03012007/news/regionalnews/board_of_elex_rai...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10222006/news/columnists/gas_guzzler_hosp_ra...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08272006/commentary/soprano__tries_out_a__ne...

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0025,robbins,15831,5.html

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09032006/commentary/election_boards_wacky_su...

http://gigablast.com/get?d=177429555272

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02EFDE1E39F937A25756C0A...

http://www.r8ny.com/blog/the_republican_dissident/bronx_county_gop_just_...

There have been so many news reports written recently and in the past to inform the public of how and where their tax dollars are being spent. Please read the following compilation of news articles of abuse at the New York City Board of Elections, many people mentioned are still currently working and some have retired. Please read the following:

Suspended Over Temper;
Election official kicked door

BYLINE: By Glenn Thrush. STAFF WRITER

A prominent Manhattan Democrat was suspended from his $65,000-a-year job at the Board of Elections after trying to kick down the door of a supervisor's office during an argument with her over preparations for today's primary.

The incident was just the latest tirade at a city agency that insiders say seems to be suffering from a collective anger-management problem. Tim Gay, deputy director of the board's Manhattan borough office, screamed profanities at the office's director, Roseanna Kostamoulos, during an argument about Election Day staff deployments Wednesday, he acknowledged.When Gay was told to leave, he began vigorously kicking Kostamoulos' door, shouting in front of several other agency employees, board officials said.

Gay, who is close to Manhattan Democratic boss Herman "Denny" Farrell, was suspended for three days and is due to be reinstated today. Jon Ravitz, the board's executive director, who, like Kostamoulos, is a Manhattan Republican, suggested Gay be fired. But the 10-member board chose to suspend him, making Gay apologize in front of his co-workers.

"He should be fired. Period," Ravitz said. "You can't have a man screaming at a woman in an office and you can't have a board manager kicking board property."

Gay's replacement during his three-day suspension was Alvin Samuels, who served 9 months on Rikers Island in 1997 for beating his girlfriend, another board worker. While in jail, Samuels was paid $7,624 in accrued leave and got his job back after being released.

A month ago, the board suspended for two weeks Jerry Vedral, a white $24,000-a-year receptionist, after he allegedly used a racial epithet to describe a black supervisor. Two weeks after that suspension, Newsday reported that another current board employee had received a similar suspension in 1999 after being videotaped scrawling anti-gay graffiti on the wall near the time clock in the board's central office.

In the case of last week's incident involving Gay, he became incensed after learning Kostamoulos didn't consult him about the deployment of personnel at polling places. The top Republican and Democrat in each borough office typically share information about Election Day logistics.

"I got frustrated, I lost my cool and I deeply regret my actions," Gay, a district leader in Chelsea, told Newsday yesterday. "I actually respect Roseanna very much. I just lost my cool and blew it."

All 316 board employees are appointed by the Republican and Democratic leaders in the five boroughs. The board - ostensibly responsible for disciplining them - is appointed under the same system.

Newsday (New York) June 10, 2001 Sunday QUEENS EDITION

Electing Overtime;
20 elections workers got more than $20,000 extra last year

BYLINE: By Stephanie Saul; STAFF WRITER

AN AIDE TO THE HEAD of the city Board of Elections racked up $62,550 in overtime last year, nearly tripling his $37,642 annual salary-a startling sum that has led two commission members to call for a review of the agency's escalating overtime costs.

George Gonzalez, administrative aide to board executive director Danny DeFrancesco, clocked 2,048 overtime hours last year, an average of 39 hours a week, according to figures released to Newsday by the agency. Gonzalez, who does everything from typing board minutes to driving DeFrancesco to official appearances, received more in overtime than any other worker at the 312-person agency. But he was only one of 20 Board of Elections employees who received more than $20,000 in overtime last year, a year when the agency expended $3.3 million in overtime. It was an all-time record, due at least partly to the demands of a presidential election and the hand count in Manhattan state Sen. Roy Goodman's squeaker election.

Much of the overtime pay went to high-ranking employees of the agency, including several relatives of elected officials. While Gonzalez declined to discuss his compensation, DeFrancesco defended it as legitimate, saying Gonzalez functions as his "right arm." Two Board of Elections members, however, said it raised questions, and asked at the board meeting last week for reviews of agency overtime. "This is wrong," said Mark Herman, the Democratic commissioner from Staten Island, when told of Gonzalez' overtime. "I want to know who's getting it [overtime] and why." In addition to Gonzalez, others who ranked in the top 20 overtime recipients included: Pamela Perkins, the agency's contracting officer. She is the former vice chair of the state Democratic Party and is married to Councilman William Perkins (D-Manhattan), also a former Board of Elections official. Pam Perkins got $49,353 in overtime on top of her $64,717 base pay, according to Board of Elections figures. She was on vacation and could not be reached for comment, but DeFrancesco said her overtime was partly because of work she performed on the Goodman count. Perkins' overtime hours: 1,021, an average of 19 hours a week. Martin Cohen, a deputy finance officer and the son of Queens Assemb. Michael Cohen. Martin Cohen got $33,261 in overtime in addition to his $36,642 base pay. His father, a Forest Hills Democrat, is a former Board of Elections commissioner. Martin Cohen, who has an accounting degree from Pace University, said his division is understaffed and overworked, the reason for his overtime. "We're one of the smallest finance offices in the city, but we're in the top 10 percent of workload," he said. Cohen's overtime hours: 1,344, an average of 25 a week.

John Manton, a computer programmer who is the son of Queens Democratic leader Tom Manton. John Manton, who is in charge of networking the agency's computers, got $24,203 in overtime on top of his $40,000 base pay. "He's the son of a county leader or a former congressman, but he's up on a ladder running wires through the ceiling," said DeFrancesco, praising the younger Manton. "Got a problem in Manhattan? John will go to Manhattan. Got a problem in Brooklyn? Staten Island? John will go." Manton referred a reporter to the agency's press officer. His overtime hours: 837, an average of 16 a week.

DeFrancesco also praised his assistant, Gonzalez, likening the agency's top overtime getter to "quick cement" that can be used to fill in any gaps that arise in the agency's operation. "Whatever hole I've got, I plug it up," said DeFrancesco, who said he had also assigned Gonzalez, a former City Hall employee, to work on the Goodman count. But two members of the 10-person commission that governs the agency questioned why Gonzalez would have worked 2,048 hours in overtime.

"I think it deserves a close look because that pay is quite substantial in the context of city employment," said Stephen Weiner, the Queens Republican commissioner, when Newsday told him about Gonzalez' overtime.

At a commission meeting last week, Weiner asked for an explanation of overtime in the agency's information systems department in what he later characterized as an initial step in reviewing overtime expenditures.

Herman, the Staten Island Democratic commissioner, also said he wants a review of the agency's overtime.

"I have people in Staten Island working for $21,000 a year," he said at last week's Board of Elections meeting. "They don't get any overtime, or they don't until September, October, November, our busy period."

Overtime in the agency's Staten Island office is generally lower than in other offices.

Low-level clerks and voting machine technicians at the agency start at salaries in the low $20,000s. A recent analysis by the Communications Workers of America, which represents agency employees, concluded that Long Island elections workers make from 13.3 percent to 119 percent more than their counterparts in the city.

The analysis did not look at overtime pay.

Overtime has increased at the agency since the early 1990s. Last year's overtime, $3.3 million, increased the $9.3 million base payroll at the agency by nearly a third, according to agency figures.

In recent years, the agency has consistently exceeded budgeted amounts for overtime.

DeFrancesco has blamed the increasing overtime partly on a 1994 cut in the agency's staffing level, from 363 to 312 employees.

Several employees who worked many overtime hours last year said it was necessary because of staffing shortages. "We are understaffed for a long time," said Pablo Martinez, who runs the agency's computer systems. "We are trying to struggle here with two or three people." Martinez clocked 1,025 overtime hours last year.

Joe Fabrizi, who is in charge of facilities maintenance, said he is doing a job once done by three people. "There were originally three of us. One left, the other retired. Now, there's just me," Fabrizi said.

DeFrancesco also blames additional work created by the National Voter Registration Act, known as Motor Voter, among other legal mandates.

Agency officials have also criticized Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's office for underfunding the Board of Elections, an agency the mayor wants overhauled.

Other experts have said the seasonal nature of the agency's operations requires a lot of overtime and a large temporary staff. The agency employs up to 150 temporary workers, not including the thousands of poll workers who assist on Election Day.

"You're almost bound to have overtime and a temporary staff, or you're going to have a larger permanent staff," said Doug Turetsky, a spokesman for the city's Independent Budget Office. "It's a trade-off."

But as officials such as DeFrancesco defend the agency, they also acknowledge that there have been recurring allegations of overtime abuse at the agency, where overtime is recorded down to the quarter-hour.

Within the past year, allegations have been submitted anonymously to the Board of Elections that certain employees in both its Queens and Brooklyn offices have inflated their time cards, according to agency sources.

In at least one of the offices, employees were alleged to have clocked in for others. During a recent executive session, the Board of Elections considered, but did not adopt, a proposal to install video surveillance cameras on time clocks, according to agency sources.

"There are a lot of allegations, but I don't know if it's true," DeFrancesco said. "They know that if they're caught clocking anybody in, it's an automatic dismissal. They've been told that time and time again."

DeFrancesco attempted to minimize overtime following one busy period. After last March's presidential primary, he issued a directive that everyone should return to their normal work hours. "This is to inform you that effective April 1, 2000, all overtime must cease," the memo said.

After the memo was issued, overtime fell during the agency's traditionally slack period. The overtime bill dropped from $85,539 for the two weeks ending April 1 to $51,114 for the two weeks ending April 29. It rebounded by fall as the general election approached.

Because major elections usually come in the fall, agency employees generally are prohibited from taking summer and fall vacations during election years.

"The people here would love to have a summer off. They'd love to have a normal life, but they don't," DeFrancesco said. "These are unique people. They're dedicated to this agency." WORKING LATE TONIGHT? The top 10 overtime earners at the Board of Elections in 2000.

Base Overtime Overtime SalaryEarnings Total Hours

George Gonzalez - $37,642, $2,550.11, $100,192.11, 2048.74 Assistant to executive director

Pamela Perkins - $64,717, $49,335.41, $114,052.41, $1021.75 Chief contracting officer

Pablo Martinez - $62,910, $48,024.33, $110,934.33, $1025.5 Chief security officer for computer system

Joseph Fabrizi - $43,686, $38,036.57, $81,722.57, $1174.75 Director of equipment

John O'Grady - $55,530, $37,256.50, $92,786.50, 934.25, Staff analyst

Martin Cohen - $36,642, $33,261.68, $69,905.68, $1344.25 Deputy finance officer

Alvin Samuels - $24,324, $30,176.37, $54,500.37, $1633.75 Manhattan office manager

Vincent Merendino - $33,336, $31,500.15, $64,836.15, $1185.75 Warehouse supervisor

Joseph LaRocca - $61,080, $28,088.22, $89,168.22, $646.5 Runs candidate records unit

Newsday (New York) June 10, 2001 Sunday QUEENS EDITION

Despite His Past, a Manager Thrives

BYLINE: By Stephanie Saul; STAFF WRITER

The top overtime recipient in the Board of Elections' Manhattan office is Alvin Samuels, an ex-offender who was welcomed back to work after serving time at Rikers Island for assaulting his girlfriend, another board employee.

Currently the office manager of the Manhattan office, Samuels more than doubled his $24,324 base pay with $30,176 in overtime last year, clocking an extra 1,633 hours, the equivalent of 31 hours every week. He declined to talk to a reporter for this story. Before he joined the Board of Elections in 1994, Samuels served nearly 8 years in prison for an armed robbery in which a grocery store clerk was killed and two others were injured.

Samuels, who was 16 at the time, was not the trigger man and did not use a weapon, but was initially charged along with his accomplices with second-degree murder. He pleaded guilty to robbery and received a 5- to 15-year sentence.

A little more than one year after Samuels' 1992 release from prison, he joined the Board of Elections as a clerk, earning $19,640 a year.

Samuels got his job through the recommendation of Carolyn Rowan, a Democratic district co-leader with Assemb. Herman (Denny) Farrell, the Manhattan Democratic chief.

Rowan said she recommended Samuels because he had grown up in her neighborhood.

"He made a mistake, and a lot of people make a mistake, and they come out and they try to get their lives together," Rowan said. "He's a hard worker trying to change his life. If we don't help our young men do that-to change their lives-then we'll have a street full of people who can't do anything, can't work, who come out of jail into the same environment," she said.

Three years after he joined the Board of Elections, Samuels was charged with assaulting his girlfriend, another Board of Elections employee.

Samuels spent 9 months at Rikers Island after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault and possession of a 9-mm handgun, according to court records.

While in jail, Samuels was paid $7,624 in accrued leave by the Board of Elections. When his accrued leave ran out, he was continued on unpaid leave until he returned to his job on Jan. 27, 1998, the day after his release from jail.

There apparently is no specific city policy governing whether to allow leaves for jailed employees. The question of whether to grant leave is left up to the agency.

In January, Samuels was promoted to administrative assistant, and is currently manager of the agency's office at 200 Varick St.

"I think he does a very good job as the Manhattan office manager," said Danny DeFrancesco, the agency's executive director. "He's smart. He gets things done. He never looks at the clock. He never complains. He knows where everything is and what has got to be done."

Explaining his high overtime, DeFrancesco said one of the reasons was that Samuels worked on counting votes in the close race between Manhattan state Sen. Roy Goodman and his Democratic challenger, Liz Krueger.

DeFrancesco also defended the decision to keep Samuels employed following his assault case, noting the incident occurred at a home Samuels had shared with his girlfriend.

"The media has a whole different concept of public life and private life," DeFrancesco said. "A man's home is his castle. These are people that are living together."

Samuels' ex-girlfriend, who has resigned her job at the Board of Elections, declined to comment.

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