CRIME PAYS FOR FAKE EDUCATOR To be a principal or superintendent in the city's public schools, you'll need a bachelor's degree, teacher's certification, master's degree, and administrator's license. Or at least be able to use a copy machine and a scanner. That's the lesson Brooklyn's Joan Mahon-Powell taught us by rising from substitute teacher to full-time teacher, assistant principal, principal, acting superintendent, deputy superintendent (of Canarsie's District 18), citywide superintendent, liaison to CUNY, and chief of staff to the schools chancellor.

It turns out Mahon-Powell was never certified as a teacher, never got an administrator's license, and never earned the bachelor's or master's degrees she claimed. Instead, she forged the documents, in one case by scanning the license of a retired administrator who once worked for her and typing in her own name. Her fraud was discovered after she'd been in the system for 25 years, over which time she was paid over $1 million, including $152,500 as Harold Levy's chief of staff.

And how much will she have to give back? Exactly $1,000. Plus 10 days of community service. Apparently crime does pay.

Perhaps Mahon-Powell's saga could be put to good use. For example, it could inspire a question on the next citywide exam, such as: A con artist who stole $1 million and became the chancellor's chief of staff was fined $1,000. Someone who steals $10 million would be:

(A) fined $100

(B) fined $1,000

(C) fined $10,000

(D) promoted.

Education officials now say credentials will be more thoroughly checked to prevent this from happening again. But a skeptical state legislator would do well to write a bill that would virtually eliminate forged credentials from the realm of public employment. The law should require a job applicant's transcript to be sent by his university, along with a designated university official's affirmation that the applicant has completed his program requirements. Certifications should be posted on an online database and public employers should be required to verify them there.

Mahon-Powell, 48, apparently just handed in forged documents herself. The Brooklyn native might still be running her scam if she'd changed the certificate number on her photocopied administrator's license to reflect her own Social Security number. The phony document came to light when she was asked to submit her credentials for a background check upon being named a local instructional superintendent in 2003. The coursework she'd claimed to have completed at Fordham was then found to be a fiction. In 1981, Mahon-Powell was promoted from sub to full-time teacher by District 19 (East New York). When it was discovered in 1985 that she was not licensed to teach, she was demoted back to substitute. But using phony documents, she became acting assistant principal at I.S. 292 in 1992 and principal in 1999.

This shameful episode brings up another question. Was Mahon-Powell, who is black, continuously promoted in part to diversify the school system hierarchy, which has always been more white than the student population? In 1999, the white superintendent of District 19 was fired and replaced by Mahon-Powell, the inexperienced principal of P.S. 292 in East New York, one of the district's lowest-performing schools. The fired administrator sued, charging racism and politics. He must be wondering whether he'd still be employed if he could have forged his skin color as easily as his replacement forged her credentials.

TWO VOTES GAINED, 12,815 TO GO In 2002, Assemblyman Jim Brennan collected 13,018 votes. His opponent, Luke Vander Linden, collected 202 votes on the Independence Party line. If you think that difference of votes is impossible for this year's Independence candidate to make up, you're right. Yet Lawrence Littlefield has been waking up at 5 a.m. to campaign at subway stops in the 44th Assembly District, trying to win over one voter at a time.

At times, he's succeeded. Here's a report from one converted commuter, Chris Buonamia: "About a month ago, my wife, Julie, and I walked our usual route to the morning F train. We encountered a tall guy politely asking if anyone was willing to read his flier. We thoughtlessly agreed, grabbed the flier, and barely made the train. After catching our breath and sitting down, however, we pored over handout. We were amazed by the clear and coherent way Lawrence addressed some of the most glaring problems in Albany: fiscal irresponsibility (especially with respect to New York City), horrendous legislative gridlock, and 'reelections,' more accurately described as reappointments."

Buonamia later met with Littlefield for an hour, finding him to be "the absolute antithesis of an aspiring politician," and then spent four hours approaching strangers to pitch Littlefield's candidacy. Incredibly, nearly all were receptive. "I couldn't help but smile at the well-dressed, composed adults who began to visibly seethe at the mention of the New York State Legislature," Buonamia wrote. Some pledged to vote for Littlefield.

Of course, a campaign of this size cannot convert 142 voters per day for three months to make up the deficit from the 2002 race. Brennan may win by even more this time, if the presidential election boosts turnout in the heavily Democratic 44th A.D. But nonetheless, it appears public dissatisfaction with Albany (at least among "well-dressed" adults) is real. Regardless of how safe Brennan is in his seat, that's something he's surely noticed as well.

PARKER ERUPTS, SHARPE SAYS State Senator Kevin Parker reacted with fury upon being served legal papers by an associate of Wellington Sharpe during a birthday party for Councilman Kendall Stewart. Sharpe, who ran unsuccessfully against Parker in the September 14 Democratic primary, sued because Parker claimed Sharpe had been paid by a third candidate, Noach Dear, to enter the race and split the black vote. Sharpe used the same campaign manager Dear had used in 2002, but we found no other evidence to support Parker's charge, which was vigorously denied by Sharpe and Dear.

Anyway, at Stewart's birthday bash on October 9 at Café Omar, Parker was formally served. He took the papers downstairs to review, Sharpe said. "After he read the papers he came back up and slammed the papers into my back," Sharpe reported. "When I turned around, he was walking away." Parker then invited him outside, said Sharpe.

For some fresh air? "To fight!" said Sharpe. "Obviously to fight. He said he's a black belt and he's going to break me in two and he's going to kill me." Sharpe added, "This guy's totally out of control."

During the campaign, Sharpe had complained that Parker had confronted him physically. Parker responded then that if he'd done anything illegal, he'd have been arrested. Recalling that incident, Sharpe said, "The last time he was all up in my face and slammed his chest against mine. You know, like those football guys celebrating a touchdown. His eyes were popping out. He was foaming at the mouth. Every time I tried to step away from him, he blocked me, asking why I was running against him."

Sharpe said he didn't expect such a reaction to the lawsuit because Parker had won the primary nearly a month earlier. "If the Senate doesn't take some steps, they might just be liable in terms of protecting (people from) this maniac," said Sharpe, who planned to file a complaint at the 67th Precinct. Parker did not return our call.

HIKIND HAMMERED Lambda Independent Democrats lashed out at one of its frequent targets, Assemblyman and Democratic district leader Dov Hikind, for helping President Bush's campaign. "It is a shameful, disloyal act for Hikind to hold such a Democratic party position while actively campaigning for Bush's reelection," said LID President Dan Tietz, noting that one of the primary jobs of a Democratic District Leader is to turn out the vote for Democratic candidates.

Democratic district leader Alan Fleishman, the former LID, criticized Hikind for hosting a Borough Park visit by Senator Rick Santorum, who last year said, "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."

POST NO BILLS You wouldn't expect candidates for judge, State Senate, Assembly, and Congress to blatantly violate the law just before election day. Yet it's a common occurrence. We're talking about the campaign posters plastered on public property across Brooklyn. Yes, it's illegal to post signs, stickers, or anything on public property. Yet the authorities have shamefully allowed campaigns to ignore the law. The exception is in Bay Ridge, where the Bay Ridge Community Council extracts pledges from candidates to post literature only on private property.

But there's no such deal elsewhere, including Flatbush, where one frustrated resident told us she ripped down signs posted by Assembly candidate Zacary Lareche's campaign workers, who then warned her to stop. The workers later moved beyond the usual practice of putting signs on lamp poles and began stapling them to trees. "I can look out my window and see a 100-year-old tree defiled by six signs stapled to it," the resident e-mailed us.

NEW ERA WHO? A goal of every Republican campaign in Democrat-dominated New York City is to garner some Democratic endorsements, as George Pataki, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Bloomberg all did. So the State Senate campaign of Republican Al Curtis jumped at the chance to boast of an endorsement this month by the New Era Democrats, which describes itself as (take a breath) "an independent political association that strives to promote integrity, efficiency and effectiveness in government and to foster mutual respect and cooperation between all racial, ethnic and religious groups within society."

How exactly does it do that? Through a vast network of members? Neighborhood diversity workshops? A charitable foundation? Or is there little to the New Era Democrats besides politically connected board members, an annual awards ceremony, and a feel-good mission statement?

When the group endorsed Pataki in 2002, the governor's campaign called it a "powerful NYC Democratic club." That same year, Marty Golden's State Senate campaign called its support by New Era "a major Democratic endorsement." Also in 2002, Republican candidate Andrew Eristoff of Manhattan announced an endorsement by New Era, claiming it had 500 members. When Bloomberg was endorsed by New Era in 2001, a Queens paper reported it had 800 members. A search is continuing for the 300 members who disappeared.

New Era Democrats was hatched by Bensonhurst's Mary Sansone and her husband Zachary Sansone. It now has 15 board members and officers. Pataki, Golden, and Eristoff hailed their New Era Democrats endorsements as examples of Democrats crossing party lines. But we found no evidence that the club has endorsed a single Democrat in the last three years. Does a club that only endorses Republicans really cross party lines?

Actually, the New Era Democrats is, by its own admission, not a Democratic club so much as a democratic club. As the group wrote in 2003, "We are called 'Democrats' not because of who we are or those who we support, but because we believe that in a democratic republic such as ours no virtue of birth or wealth or social standing is necessary for political aspirants except that virtue mattering most-that of individual worth."

To its credit, this year the Curtis campaign did not attempt to portray the New Era Democrats as a Democratic club crossing party lines to back a Republican. Type "New Era Democrats" into Google and the only relevant page among the top hundred search results is the aforementioned Pataki press release. Further digging turns up a 2003 endorsement of non-partisan elections (which most Democrats opposed) and a $1,000 donation by the club to a Catholic boys' high school to which club president Rick Del Mastro also gave at least $500.

Eventually, we came upon the organization's home page. Half of the links were dead. For a "powerful NYC Democratic club" that issues "major endorsements," the New Era Democrats certainly seems to be flying under the radar.

TIDBITS We saw where Develop, Don't Destroy Brooklyn, the group formed to oppose Bruce Ratner's arena project, is upset about not being invited by Borough President Marty Markowitz to a meeting about the proposal. Gee, why wouldn't the beep invite a group whose founder has pledged "to litigate anything and everything" he doesn't like about the project…

If City Comptroller Billy Thompson runs for mayor in 2005, Assemblyman Jim Brennan would run for Thompson's seat. He expects Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz would as well. But she would have to forfeit her own seat to do so, unlike Brennan…

State Senate opponents Al Curtis and Diane Savino, quoted by the Staten Island Advance: Curtis: "I know my way from Tompkins Circle to Forest Hill Road. My opponent does not know how to get from one point to another." Savino: "I've lived in the district three times longer than Al Curtis." (Three years versus one.) Curtis might want to find a subject other than navigational skills. We caught a ride with Savino once and found her to be something of a human Mapquest…

State Senator Kevin Parker is among those bothered by Councilman Kendall Stewart's dalliances with Republicans. "Kendall hasn't shown any loyalty to the party," Parker said. "He endorsed the governor. He endorsed Mayor Bloomberg. We're still waiting to see whether he'll endorse Bush or not."

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

Borough Politics Archive

2004
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2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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