TENNIS COURT FIASCO Community Board 14 members seconded the recommendation of Prospect Park administrator Tupper Thomas that the city extend the license agreement of the indoor tennis club at the Parade Grounds. Unfortunately, no one brought to their attention an audit of the club conducted by Bed-Stuy resident Billy Thompson, the city comptroller, which found the club has shoddy record-keeping and might be hiding income. Because the city gets a cut of club proceeds, it would lose money if the club underreported revenues, which wouldn't be difficult because many tennis players pay cash.

The best auditors could do was demand a piddling $2,461 in uncollected commissions for the three years ending in June 2000. And the club didn't even pay that until hit with a notice of termination months later. The Parks Department conditionally reinstated the club's license in July 2001. One of the conditions was the installation of a water meter, since the club hadn't paid a water bill for three years. But DEP couldn't install a meter because the tennis clubhouse that was supposed to be finished in 1998 wasn't there.

It still isn't.

Meanwhile, the whole process is on hold because the club owner says she can't build the clubhouse she promised seven years ago unless she gets a five-year extension. Parks is offering three. The club owner also wants to keep her bubble over the courts for an extra month of the outdoor season, so she can make more cash-though the city isn't sure how much cash she's really making, according to the last audit. The feeling here is the city should put the concession up for bid, even if that means not having indoor tennis next winter. There would be a short-term financial hit for those who teach lessons there, but in the long run a better facility and operator would net them more business.

POLS STAND ON PRINCIPAL In move that's highly unusual even for Brooklyn politics, six elected officials are calling for Adele Vocel to be removed as principal of FDR High School, on the border of Bensonhurst and Borough Park. Assemblyman Dov Hikind is leading the call and has been joined by Councilmen Simcha Felder and Lew Fidler, State Senators Kevin Parker and Seymour Lachman, and Assemblyman Peter Abbate. They may well be justified-Vocel has reportedly taken bad manners to such an extreme that to have her in such a lofty post puts the city in a bad light. S

he apparently has been a capable steward of her school academically, but acts tyrannically in her dealings with the community, notably a local yeshiva that uses FDR's auditorium. But she is far from the only principal whose actions have demanded such a response from politicians. We can only recall former Councilman Sam Horwitz (now retired in Florida) and former Assemblyman Howard Lasher complaining about former despotic Brighton Beach principal Stu Possner, who ended up on the front page of Newsday in handcuffs not long after School Board 21 members (including Domenic Recchia, who now sits in Horwitz's former council seat) named Possner "Supervisor of the Year."

Where, for example, are the dozens of politicians who represent students of Brooklyn Technical High School? Did they not read the jaw-dropping portrayal of Tech Principal Lee McCaskill in The New York Times? If Vocel is a tyrant, McCaskill is Saddam Hussein, judging from the article. And yet, a month after the Times report, we haven't heard of one elected official calling for McCaskill's head. (To receive a copy of the article, email us at erikengquist at yahoo.com.)

Once in a while, someone who can't put together a grammatically correct, coherent sentence becomes principal of a school, typically an underperforming school in a poor neighborhood. The result is more often an embarrassing headline in the New York Post than a demand for the principal's removal by elected officials. Bold activism from politicians concerning FDR's principal is certainly appreciated, but so would be some consistency.

T.A. HOLLERS FOR BOLLARDS Aaron Naparstek became Transportation Alternatives' Brooklyn coordinator in early February, and it didn't take him long to call on fellow Park Slope resident Iris Weinshall, the DOT commissioner, to protect pedestrians.

Following the awful accident in which a drugged-out driver fatally struck two mothers and their babies, Naparstek declared, "Commissioner Weinshall must prevent another Atlantic Avenue horror by installing sturdy, inexpensive bollards to protect pedestrians waiting on median strips. Without bollards to protect them, pedestrians on median islands are lined up like human bowling pins waiting to be mowed down." Bollards are posts rated to stop 15,000 pound trucks traveling 50 mph. They cost $2,500 each, and it takes six to protect a median at each intersection. Bollards on the length of Atlantic Avenue median would cost $1.35 million.

ROGER LOSES SOME GREEN Assemblyman Roger Green was denied the chairmanship of the Higher Education Committee, costing him a $12,500 annual lulu (stipend), not to mention some prestige. Green would likely have been awarded the post by Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver had he not been a subject of an investigation into unreported gifts by Correctional Services Corporation. Green has already admitted receiving free rides to Albany from the company, which worked its Assembly connections to land state contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. Investigators are also probing whether company employees were assigned to Green's staff and his campaigns, and whether Green received a free cell phone as well, the Post and Times reported. Green has denied wrongdoing. His lawyer, Gerald Shargel, when called by the Post, refused to say if Green got free staffers from the company.

Meanwhile, the state Lobbying Commission announced it would soon subpoena Franklin Chris Jackson, the former Democratic district leader and School Board 13 president who in the 1990s lobbied legislators on behalf of his employer, Correctional Services. He was fired in 2000 after the Dominican Republican jailed him on pornography charges, which were later dismissed. Jackson has not been cooperating with investigators. His attorney says he has an aggressive cancer and is too sick to testify before a grand jury. Hence, the subpoena.

Also related to the scandal, the Village Voice reported that another Brooklyn political operative, Bill Banks, was well paid by Correctional Services throughout the 1990s. Banks, a former campaign manager for and close ally of Rep. Ed Towns, raked in $222,000 in 1993, $296,000 in 1996, $239,000 in 1997, and $300,000 in 1998 as a consultant for the company. According to the Voice, Banks was hired after Towns dropped his opposition to a Bedford-Stuyvesant halfway house proposed by the company.

DEMISE OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS LAMENTED City Councilman Bill deBlasio objected to Mayor Mike Bloomberg's proposal to replace the 32 community school district offices with 10 regional centers. "I have serious doubts that 10 centers for the whole city will be enough to provide the kind of 'customer service' parents deserve and have come to expect," deBlasio said in a statement. It seems to us that since the goal is to keep cuts away from the classroom, district offices are fair game. They are a luxury, not a necessity, and would better serve children if re-converted to classroom space. When we questioned the need for 32 customer-service centers, deBlasio's spokesman Alex Navarro replied that moving services to borough-wide centers "makes parental involvement harder, not easier."

The feeling here is that 99 percent of parental involvement should be with children, their teachers, and perhaps their principal, not with district administrators. Where parental involvement is lacking, the cause is not likely to be too much separation from the superintendent and personnel director. On a related note, we're glad to see that the mayor ignored Borough President Marty Markowitz's request to relocate the Board (now Department) of Ed headquarters to East New York. F

or some reason, Markowitz thought this would improve education in East New York, although having the headquarters at 110 Livingston Street never helped the public schools in downtown Brooklyn. In fact, nearby Public School 8 is treated like an Ebola triage unit by Brooklyn Heights parents, who avoid it at all costs.

DEBLASIO, GAYS AT ODDS CONNOR DESERTERS FACING CUT: Brooklyn's Democratic state senators might be facing an unintended consequence of their ditching Marty Connor in favor of a new minority leader, David Paterson of Manhattan: less money. Senators get discretionary money every year to dole out as they please across their districts. These "member items" are treasured because there's no better way to ingratiate yourself to constituents than to hand out cash. But not every senator gets the same amount of money. Republicans get the most, often a seven-figure amount, because their party controls the Senate. But the majority leader also sends a lump sum to the minority leader, who then disburses it among Senate Democrats. Connor did well under this system because of his good relationship with Majority Leader Joe Bruno. And Brooklyn's senators benefited because Connor, of Brooklyn Heights, was generous with his fellow Brooklynites. Will Bruno give Paterson as much as he gave Connor? Unlikely-if not because of the difference in their relationship, then because of the state's $10 billion budget gap. And then, will Paterson give Brooklyn the same percentage of this pot that Connor did? Paterson's people insist he will be "fair," but no one would be shocked if the architects of his rise to power, Manhattan Senators Tom Duane and Eric Schneiderman, were taken care of before Brooklyn's Velmanette Montgomery, Carl Andrews, Kevin Parker, Seymour Lachman, John Sampson, Marty Dilan, and Carl Kruger.

CONNOR KNOCKS OFF ROSKOFF State Senator Marty Connor's displeasure upon losing the minority leadership in November was compounded by a Daily News story alleging that he did private legal work in his state office, which may well have been untrue and was certainly not verifiable. (We'd heard the allegation a month before the News story but didn't run it. We have standards, you know.) C

onnor, as it happens, had already fired the staff member he believed responsible for placing the story, Allen Roskoff. Connor dismissed him because he believed Roskoff worked with State Senators Tom Duane and Eric Schneiderman to help engineer the coup that cost Connor the minority leadership. One Connor loyalist asserted that the News wasn't willing to run the story on Roskoff's word alone, so Roskoff asked some fellow staffers to vouch for him. Two of them did, but a third couldn't keep the secret and Connor found out, the source claimed. But Roskoff was already gone.

Another source told us Roskoff did not place the News story, though he had complained to Connor about private legal work being done in the Senate office. Roskoff has been telling people the article wasn't his doing, which is wise because he's already suspected of taking part in the coup that bounced Connor from the minority leadership. As one person observed, "Stabbed previous boss in back" looks pretty bad on a résumé.

One of the best connected people in New York politics, Roskoff got wind of his firing before Connor told him, and simply didn't return to his office. He perhaps wasn't too worried about Connor's wrath because he'd been virtually assured of a job on the staff of the new minority leader, David Paterson.

SEMINARA GETS THE MOOLA Joanne Seminara was the first Bay Ridge council candidate to max out her payments from the Campaign Finance Board, which matches individual campaign contributions up to $125 by 4-to-1 for candidates who qualify.

The board cut Seminara a check on January 31 for $82,500, the maximum it will pay candidates in the February 25 special City Council election in Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, and Dyker Heights. Close behind was Vinny Gentile, who got $70,921 from the board. The other candidates have more fundraising to do: Carlo Scissura got $39,528, Steve Harrison $39,488, and Rosemarie O'Keefe $35,652 in matching funds. By participating in the Campaign Finance Program, the five candidates agreed not to spend more than $150,000 or accept more than $1,375 from any one contributor.

But one former program participant will be able to break the board's single-contribution limit: former Mayor David Dinkins, whose failed 1993 reelection campaign remains $200,000 in debt. The City Council passed a bill making an exception for Dinkins, though it doesn't mention him by name. The Campaign Finance Board initially opposed the bill, but dropped its objection when the bill was changed to make it applicable essentially only to Dinkins.

That didn't satisfy Councilman James Oddo, who represents Staten Island, Bensonhurst, and Dyker Heights. "I'm just wondering how many of my constituents who find themselves personally or professionally in some sort of debt can call up friends in government and have their debt legislated away," Oddo told the Daily News.

GENTILE NOT SUING SEMINARA Contrary to published accusations by City Council candidate Joanne Seminara, former State Senator Vinny Gentile did not sue to invalidate her petitions, a Gentile spokesman said. Rather, it was candidate Steve Harrison who tried to knock Seminara off the ballot-and Seminara should have known as much, said Elnatan Rudolph.

"She's trying to play this out as though we are attacking her, which is totally not the case. We want to go to court as little as she wants to," Rudolph said. "You don't win elections in the courtroom." Gentile's objection was to Seminara's bid to be listed first on the ballot based on her submission of four signatures to the Board of Election minutes after the mayor announced the special election. Gentile turned in nearly 2,000 signatures five days later, then later 1,600 more. He was eventually placed first on the ballot and Seminara fifth.

POSTMAN TO RING TWICE, OR MORE Bay Ridge mailboxes are filling up this month as the February 25 special City Council election nears. Most of the mail will quickly find its way to the recycling bin, especially after residents have been inundated with literature for weeks.

The winner could be the candidate who manages to get folks to at least open his literature. Councilman Mike Nelson's special election victory in 1999 might have been aided by some unusual mailings concocted by Democratic district leader Lew Fidler, now a councilman himself.

One piece sent to voters just before Valentine's Day featured a big heart. The front said only "Roses are red, Violets are blue" enticing recipients to open the card to read the rest: "If you liked Anthony Weiner, Carl Kruger, and Chuck Schumer, You'll like Mike Nelson, too." Cheesy, yes. But this was an election, not a poetry contest. And Nelson won.

Borough Politics Archive

2002
February 17 column.
February 3 column.
January 27 column.
January 20 column.
January 13 column.
January 6 column.

2002
December 30 column.
December 23 column.
December 16 column.
December 9 column.
December 2 column.
Novemer 25 column.
Novemer 18 column.
November 11 column.
November 4 column.
October 28 column.
October 21 column.
October 14 column.
October 7 column.
September 30 column.
September 23 column.
September 16 column.
September 9 column.
September 2 column.
August 26 column.
August 19 column.
August 12 column.
August 5 column.
July 29 column.
July 22 column.
July 8 column.
July 1 column.
June 17 column.
June 10 column.
June 3 column.
May 27 column.
May 20 column.
May 13 column.
May 6 column.
April 29 column.
April 22 column.
April 15 column.
April 8 column.
April 1 column.
March 25 column.
March 18 column.
March 11 column.
March 4 column.
February 25 column.
February 18 column.
February 11 column.
February 4 column.
January 28 column.
January 21 column.
January 7 column.

2001
December 10 column.
December 3 column.
November 19 column.
November 12 column.
November 5 column.
October 22 column.
October 1 column.
September 6 column.
September 4 column.
August 30 column.
July 23 column.
July 2 column.
June 25 column.
June 11 column.
May 28 column.
May 21 column.
May 14 column.
May 7 column.
April 30 column.
April 23 column.
April 9 column.
April 2 column.
March 26 column.
March 19 column.
March 12 column.
March 5 column.
February 26 column.
February 19 column.
February 12 column.
February 5 column.
January 29 column.
January 22 column.
January 15 column.
January 8 column.
January 1 column.

2000
December 25 column.
December 18 column.
December 11 column.
December 4 column.
November 27 column.
November 20 column.
November 13 column.
November 6 column.
October 30 column.
October 23 column.
October 16 column.
October 9 column.
October 2 column.
September 25 column.
September 18 column.
September 11 column.
September 4 column.
August 28 column.
August 21 column.
August 7 column.
July 31 column.
July 24 column.
July 17 column.
July 10 column.
June 26 column.
June 19 column.
June 12 column.
May 15 column.
May 8 column.
April 24 column.
April 10 column.
March 13 column.
March 7 column.
February 21 column.
February 14 column.
February 7 column.
January 31 column.
January 24 column.
January 17 column.

1999
December 16 column.
December 9 column.
December 2 column.
November 25 column.
November 18 column.
November 11 column.
November 4 column.