Vito Lopez and his Hour-of-Power

New York Post
by Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein
May 9, 2012

Assemblyman Vito Lopez emerged triumphant today in the holy war for control of four upstate Hasidic summer camps. The Satmar faction supported by the Brooklyn Democrat boss won a bitter fight to run the camps in Ulster County.

Ulster County Executive Mike Hein’s administration issued a long-awaited ruling, saying the county did not have the authority to divide the camps between the two warring Satmar factions.

The decision was a loss for Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, a Brooklyn Democrat who advocated spitting the camps between factions. Velazquez faces a tough primary challenge from City Councilman Erik Dilan, a Lopez ally.

At stake for the pols are thousands of votes from supporters of either Satmar faction -- one headed by Zalman Teitelbaum and the other by Aaron Teitelbaum

Dems take sides in Jewish bro battle
New York Post
by Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein
May 6, 2012

It’s a camp firestorm. Four upstate Jewish summer camps are the latest battleground between warring Hasidic brothers ­ and two prominent Brooklyn pols are helping them slug it out.

On one side is Brooklyn Democratic boss and Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who is going to bat for Zalman Teitelbaum. The rabbi was designated the leader of the Satmar Hasidic sect by his late father, Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum.

On the other is Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat whose district was just redrawn to include Hasidic Williamsburg. She is backing Teitelbaum’s older brother, Aaron, who wants to control half the camps.

Velazquez, who’s been in Congress since 1993, faces a tough primary challenge from close Lopez ally and City Councilman Erik Dilan. It’s a fight where every vote counts, even if the candidates have to campaign 100 miles north of Brooklyn.

Restler Warns of Even Tighter Race; Can't Touch Jewish Williamsburg
Orthodox Pundit
May 6, 2012

Lincoln Restler's slim victory for his district leader position is one of the slimmest margins Brooklyn remember (perhaps the narrowest win, by the number of votes, until Storobin-Fidler). Last week, Restler warned at kick-off event for his reelection that the coming race may turn out to be even tighter.

According to Politicker's dispatch from the event, Restler, last Thursday night, cited the strength of his opponent, CB1 chairman Chris Olechowski, especially his ties to Greenpoint’s Polish community - where he kicked off his own campaign, and the firm backing Olechowski is receiving from the Councilman Steve Levin. It was also noted that redistricting took out parts of Fort Greene from Restler's district, a stronghold for him.

Restler conceded at the party that he "can't touch" the Jewish community of Williamsburg, where the majority is loyal to the Vito Lopez. To make up for Vito's strength there, he's aiming to do better than the 79 percent that he won outside the Jewish community, according to his account.

Pol art: Warhol-esque posters paper Greenpoint with Vito Lopez’s face
Brooklyn Paper
by Aaron Short
April 24, 2012

State Assemblyman Vito Lopez isn’t just the face of Brooklyn’s Democratic party ­ his face is becoming a Brooklyn street art icon.

Scores of mysterious posters featuring the Bushwick politician’s head and the words “Vito Rises” have been plastered on poles, walls, and lampposts throughout Greenpoint over the past few days.

Residents first noticed the posters, which consist of 35 black-and-white images of Lopez arranged like Andy Warhol’s famous soup cans, on April 16, when neighborhood blogger Miss Heather published images of the graffiti on her website.

Milton Street residents Rolf Carle said he saw a young couple plastering the posters near his home last week, but did not recognize the artists, nor, at first glance, the subject.

“I couldn’t make out the image until later, but they don’t seem flattering,” said Carle, who doesn’t oppose the political art. “My initial thought was, ‘If you got something to say, say it, damn it!’ ”

Reuters
by Chris Bragg
February 22, 2012

In preparation for a likely 2013 City Council run, Antonio Reynoso, the chief of staff for Councilwoman Diana Reyna, is seriously considering running in 2012 against Brooklyn Democratic Leader/Assemblyman Vito Lopez for Lopez’s district leader seat, according to two Brooklyn sources close to Reynoso.

Reynoso, who did not immediately return requests for comment, sees the chance to run against Lopez as an opportunity to build his credentials with the reform-minded New Kings Democrats, a political club in North Brooklyn that could be quite helpful to Reynoso’s 2013 Council race, the sources added.

“He’s prepping up to run for the Council seat, and he wants to prove his bonafides by running against Vito,” one of the Brooklyn sources said.

Reynoso ­ who would be a major underdog against the powerful Lopez, in a run for his district leader post ­ would be facing off in 2013 against Maritza Davila, a Lopez protégé who works at the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, and who has already declared that she will run for the Council.

New York Post
by David Seifman
January 18, 2012

The departing director of the politically connected Ridgewood Bushwick social-services empire founded by Brooklyn Democratic leader Vito Lopez will be collecting up to $135,000 in unused sick time and vacation pay, The Post has learned.

The city ordered Christiana Fisher booted after the Department of Investigation found she had collected questionable “retroactive” pay that boosted her compensation to $782,000 in fiscal year 2009. Her 2008 salary was $336,000.

As part of the deal, Fisher was allowed to serve as an unpaid consultant to new CEO James Cameron and cash in sick and vacation time accumulated over a 38-year career up to a maximum of $135,000.

Cameron had been serving as the chief operating officer of Ridgewood Bushwick for the last 18 months.

New York Post
Editorial
January 6, 2012

It’s long overdue, but City Hall has finally ousted a key political ally of Assemblyman Vito Lopez as head of his powerful Ridgewood-Bushwick social-services empire.

As The Post’s David Seifman reported yesterday, City Hall ordered that CEO Christiana Fisher give up her job by Jan. 15, or Ridgewood-Bushwick will lose $69 million in city contracts.

Fine. But what took so long?

Back in 2010, after all, then-Gov. David Paterson froze all of Ridgewood-Bushwick’s state funding ­ even as the city kept the cash spigot flowing.

And that’s on top of hundreds of thousands funneled each year to the network by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other Lopez allies through the dubious member-item system.

The Brooklyn Paper
by Moses Jefferson
December 7, 2011

Brooklyn Paper veteran reporter Aaron Short received his award from the Manhattan watchdog group New York Civic last Friday, a tribute to his dogged pursuit of shenanigans inside Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s office and its charity spin-off.

New York Civic founder Henry Stern, a former Parks Commissioner, personally presented Short with his $1,000 check as the sole runner up for the Mary Perot Nichols Award at WNYC’s Jerome Green Performance Space, and offered his blessing for a job well done.

Short and Laura Nahmias, a reporter for City Hall News, were named the inaugural recipients of a statewide investigative journalism competition. Nahmias won the top prize of $2,000 for a story that uncovered several instances when Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. sought expense reimbursements for items supposedly bought in Albany when he was nowhere near the state capital.

New York Post
by Erik Kriss
December 10, 2011

ALBANY ­-- Despite allegations about questionable pay increases for its top officials, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council is in line for nearly $850,000 in state grants.

The money for the council, controlled by Brooklyn Democratic boss and state Assemblyman Vito Lopez, is part of $66.2 million awarded through the state Economic Development Council.

Ridgewood Bushwick executive director and Lopez campaign treasurer Christiana Fisher was the target of a recent city Department of Investigation report that found her salary skyrocketed from $336,000 in 2008 to $782,000 the next year, with questionable retroactive payments.

Nonprofit Affiliated with Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman Faces State, Federal Investigations
Wall Street Journal
by Joseph DeAvila and Jacob Gershman
December 9, 2011

The Cuomo administration on Thursday awarded more than $800,000 in funds to a nonprofit that was founded by Brooklyn's Democratic Party chairman and is under investigation by state and federal authorities.

Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a housing and social services group once headed by Assemblyman Vito Lopez, won three awards totaling more than $845,806. It was one of dozens of programs and businesses awarded money through a competitive grant and tax incentive program for economic-development projects set up by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat.

The funds to the group were announced a month after the city's Department of Investigation issued a scathing report about Ridgewood Bushwick that charged that the group had submitted inaccurate expense reports and tax returns. The nonprofit was also faulted for not securing the approval of its board before raising the pay of its executive director, Christiana Fisher, to $782,000 in 2009 from $336,000 the year before.