Cleaning House: New Management Staff at NYCERS

At the November 9, 2017 NYCERS Regular Board meeting, the new executive director notified the trustees that she was preparing a budget modification requesting four new positions. She stated that the full request would be presented at the December meeting for the trustees' approval. Interestingly, she added that this request would not involve any additional costs but only authorization to hire.

The four new positions are:

1. a second deputy executive director,
2. a deputy division director for administration,
3. a deputy division director for internal audit, and
4. a project director for the IT legacy replacement project.

Because of the scope of the legacy project, the new project director will need to take control of the IT division. There is currently staff serving in these four positions. It is not clear what will happen to those people.

I have previously written about the deputy executive director position and its current occupant.

The executive director appears to have also found other problems at NYCERS that require these new personnel. She stated at the meeting that she will provide rationale for these new positions at the next board meeting.

I suspect those problems will include questionable vendor contracts, a bloated administrative budget, inadequate agency oversight by the internal audit division, dubious HR practices and a lack of general IT management competence. Specifically, she probably has found serious design flaws and delays with the IT “legacy replacement project”.

In her review of the internal audit division, I also suspect that she has found issues with the redundant compliance division which doesn’t seem to have a legitimate function, but is a dumping grounds for personnel that need to be protected.

A Little Good News!

On Wednesday, September 14, the NYCERS executive director, Diane D'Alessandro, announced that she was retiring at the end of December.

Hopefully the exit of this vicious incompetent boss should provide most NYCERS employees with some relief from their daily stress at work. Of course it will create serious concerns for all the equally incompetent flunkies that she has hired over the last 11 years as well as some other specific employees that have done her dirty work during that time. I am referring to Karen Mazza, Felita Baksh/Ramsami/DiLorenzo, Kin Mak, and Liz Reyes among others.

There was a DOI investigation started in response to the Ellen Carton hiring. I suspect D'Alessandro wants to get out of Dodge before the sheriff arrives.

I sincerely hope that the trustees are able to clean house after she is gone. This agency has a totally adequate operating budget as opposed to other city agencies. It should be an example of almost perfect service to members and retirees as opposed to the arrogant dismissive operation that it is.

Assuming D'Alessandro has no pre-2001 NYS/NYC service, her pension will be about $50K/yr. based on a $217K/yr salary and 14 years of service. This is not a smart financial move. Six more years of service and 12% increase in salary would have increased her pension to $97K/yr.

My Wife Resigned from NYCERS in May of this Year

In May of this year my wife resigned from NYCERS about two years shy of the date she would have been able to retire. She started working at NYCERS in the fall of 1998. In December of 2003, she was promoted to Deputy Director of Administration by Milt Aron, the Deputy Executive Director.

Prior to that, starting in 1980, she worked at the Mayor’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office, and the Department of Homeless Services.

In June, 2005 she was demoted by Aron with the explicit approval of Martha Stark, Chair of the NYCERS Board of Trustees and the Finance Commissioner. She was demoted because of her relationship with me. She was forced back to her permanent civil service position and her salary was reduced by $14,000, the amount that she had been given when she was promoted.

From June of 2005 to May of 2015 my wife was given no work. She was told many times that there were strict orders from the executive staff that she was not to be given any work. Many times over the ten years she explicitly asked for work.

On a few rare occasions she was given some significant work but the minute the executive staff became aware of it, the work was stopped. Kin Mak could always be counted on to pass the word along to Karen Mazza about the work assignment.

In 2013 my wife was hospitalized for 12 days with acute ulcerative colitis.

In 2014, while driving to church on Palm Sunday, she had a major heart attack. She almost died on the side of the road. It was incredibly fortunate that she was at a stop sign and that her 16 year old daughter was with her in the car. The EMT’s were there in minutes and were able revive her with a defibrillator. She spent 18 days in the hospital. She was on reduced body temperature protocol for possible brain damage. She had double bypass surgery and another procedure for a defibrillator implant.

Both of these illnesses were directly caused by stress.

After both of these hospital events she returned to work. Both times she asked for work and both times NYCERS executive staff refused to assign her any work.

In the spring of 2015 the stress of being totally marginalized at NYCERS finally became too much of a threat to her health. She reluctantly resigned. At that point her salary was $104,000.

For many years now, I have been writing about the wretched way that NYCERS, and I mean D'Allesandro, Mazza, and Baksh/Ramsami, have treated members, retirees and NYCERS employees. I speak from personal experience.

You can understand why people lie, cheat, and steal for their own personal gain but to be just plain nasty for no good reason is despicable. The only thing I can come up with is that they are so incompetent they think they have to kick every one under them to hide their own failures. Maybe City Hall and the new NYCERS Chair will get tired of them like the previous mayor did with Martha Stark.

DOI and Mazza

The Department of Investigation (DOI) recently released a fraud report involving theft of NYCERS checks.

Below is an excerpt from the beginning of the report which was 23 pages long and dealt with the loss of nearly $384,000 from NYCERS. The report, while accurate about the fraudulant cashing of NYCERS benefit checks, is a lot to do about a relatively small issue. DOI rarelly reports a complete accounting of the actual convictions and prison sentences that result from its investigations.

I want, however, to point out specifically the mention of Commissioner Gill Hearn's thanks to Karen Mazza at the end of the excerpt. Of course, Gill Hearn doesn't mention that she has not completed the investigation that DOI had committed to pursue into perjury and corruption charges against Mazza and other NYCERS management staff. I am sure the financial impact of corrupt management at NYCERS is far greater than $384,000.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: DIANE STRUZZI
WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2012
(212) 825-5931
DOI RELEASES PENSION FRAUD REPORT INVOLVING EIGHT SEPARATE CASES IN WHICH INDIVIDUALS ATTEMPTED TO DEFRAUD OR DEFRAUDED NYCERS OF MORE THAN $400,000
ROSE GILL HEARN, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), released a report today detailing eight recent investigations into fraud upon the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (“NYCERS“), the country’s largest municipal pension system. The eight investigations included in this report are the most recent that DOI has conducted and illustrate a range of fraudulent schemes that include family members and beneficiaries of deceased pensioners taking NYCERS funds they were not entitled to receive and the theft of NYCERS checks by ndividuals who falsely claimed they had not received the funds. These eight investigations identified nearly $384,000 in NYCERS funds that individuals wrongfully obtained and an attempt to obtain approximately $17,200, which was thwarted by DOI and NYCERS. Five of the eight individuals have already been criminally charged and three of those individuals have pleaded guilty, with one individual receiving a 60-day jail sentence just last week. A copy of the report is attached to this release.
...
Commissioner Gill Hearn thanked NYCERS Executive Director Diane D’Alessandro, NYCERS Director of Security Craig Thornton, and NYCERS General Counsel Karen Mazza, and their staffs, for their assistance and cooperation in these investigations.

State Insurance Audit Checklist

Since July 29. 2013 the State Insurance Department (NYS DFS) has accessed my blog 29 times. So I thought I would provide them with a suggested reading list. Below is a starting list. If I see something else that looks interesting, I'll add to the list.

• Who got the $140M?
• Why was the Transit Operating Force death benefit changed?
• The former chair of the NYCERS Board of Trustees
• Why is NYCERS paying the Comptroller?
• The civil service qualifications for the current NYCERS executive director
• Unaccounted investment fees , background , and more
• Investment madness
• Lack of disclosure on private equity and real estate transactions
• Hedge funds
• Private equity managers
• Delays in processing loans
• Examples of SPD errors ( A , B )
• NYCERS perjury
• D.O.I. and the perjury charge
• Funny wrinkle to the perjury and corruption story
• The WC offset nightmare
• Denial of due process
• The assumed interest rate
• Finally 7%, sort of
• Delays in pension benefit revisions
• The Met-Life building
• Disaster recovery site at L.I.C.
• Allegra Capital and lack of accounting oversight
• Harassment of EMS disabled retirees, and more
• Outside legal services
• Background on past State Insurance Department reports

What Happened to the Perjury Investigation at NYCERS - Thompson & de Blasio

In 2009, four years ago, the Public Adovcate and the Comptroller, both NYCERS trsutees, requested D.O.I. to investigate a charge of perjury and official misconduct by senior management at NYCERS. As of today there has been no resolution of those charges. The trustees made this request in response to specific evidence that I had given to the trustees of the perjury by NYCERS senior staff.

In 2009, Bill Thompson was a NYCERS trustee and the Public Advocate's office made the actual request for the investigation. In 2010, de Blasio became the Public Advocate and a NYCERS trustee.

Thompson and de Blasio are now running for mayor of New York City. Shouldn't they clear up this unfinished business before they take on the responsibilities of mayor? Scott Stringer was also a NYCERS trustee in 2009 and has equal responsibility for cleaning up this mess.

Production Breakdowns

I just became aware that there is a a six plus month delay at NYCERS in processing members' claims to purchase service. This is not the only area where there are delays at NYCERS.

As of March, 2005 the NYCERS trustees regularly received a monthly production report telling them how many claims (for 20 different operational units) had been filed in the last month, how many had been processed in the same month, and a closing balance of outstanding claims unprocessed. These numbers were part of charts going back 15 months so that the trustees could see trends over a full annual cycle. The trustees were also given a summary chart indicating which operations were on target based on closing balances. For units not on target, the executive summary outlined corrective actions and estimated times to clear that balance. The estimates were based on actual levels of production.

Needless to say, since March, 2005 the monthly production charts have changed and no longer provide any numbers, only naked claims that production levels are on target. The new charts are a completed waste of paper.

It is hard to believe that the trustees would accept smoke and mirrors when they previously had extensive production figures. It is fair to say that the trustees don't care. Once upon a time, the union trustees were very focused on helping their members but no longer.

Just for Chuckles

Read this marketing garbage claiming wiz bang improvements at the NYCERS HR division. That's the unit run by Felita Baksh (aka Ramsami). You all know her well from her writing adventures with Karen Mazza, her credit card escapades with COIB, and her loose grip on the truth with DOI and the NYS Division of Human Rights. Of course, there is nothing to laugh about if you are one the NYCERS employees that she has tortured over the last eight years.

Sex, Lies, and Martha Stark

2011 DOI report on Stark

Last week DOI released a June, 2011 investigative report on allegations about Martha Stark that were pending at the time she was forced to resign in April, 2009. Stark, in clear sign of problems, refused to be questioned by DOI. So much for DOI's subpoena power. Stark is still teaching at Baruch College earning over $100K and still earning pension credit at NYCERS. How's that for connections. She also seems to have landed a second job, teaching at Columbia. You can't make this stuff up.

The prime source of evidence for this report were emails, going back to at least November 2003, from Stark and other Finance employees. Finance employees, at least six, had no fear of lying under oath to DOI. Without the emails DOI would have been stymied. I guess DOI learned their lesson from their inept 2004 investigation at NYCERS. Of course, they might be using honest intelligent investigators now. Why are any of these Finance employees are still working for the city.

DOI appears to have only addressed the specific allegations pending as of April, 2009. I can only wonder what else DOI stumbled on in reviewing the history of Stark's emails.

Stark should have borrowed Kin Mak from NYCERS to clean up her email trail. Of course, she knew he'd make a copy of everything and then a lot people would be looking over their shoulders.

It is now clear why NYCERS has tolerated the continued employment of high level staff members who have lied under oath. It is a common practice at the city.

This report is 111 pages long and clearly represents an enormous amount of work by DOI. The report is a fantastic read. You will not be able to put it down. It is impossible to quickly characterize it. You just have to read it.

DOI has forwarded this report to the Manhattan DA'a office. What are they doing with this report since June, 2011? Perjury, bribery, and tax evasion are within the DA's jurisdiction, not COIB's.

2002

Bribery at Finance

In February, 2002 the mayor appointed Stark as Finance Commissioner. This is an unclassified title which means there are no qualifications for the job. Stark is an openly gay female African-American. The problem was that she was not really qualified to run Finance. Of course, that's never stopped mayors before. But somewhere along the line the romance went cold.

On February 26, 2002 the NY Times reported the indictment of 18 NYC Finance tax assessors, one of which was a woman named Roberta Hand. DOI determined that at some point Stark and Hand were involved. This bribery scheme had been in existence for almost 25 years.

In response to the scandal, Stark agrees to implement key remedial measures recommended in an August, 2002 DOI/DOF preliminary report. DOI reports that these measures were never fully implemented "leaving glaring corruption vulnerabilities unaddressed". In addition, Stark lied in the 2004 final report about actually implementing these measures.

In the end, this is where Stark probably did the most damage. The tax mess from 2002 was never cleaned up and appears to have only gotten worse under her reign. Her escapades, however insane, with multitude female Finance employees are just a messy side show. In addition, the mayor has provided no evidence that he has corrected the chaos at Finance.

In September, 2002 the mayor appointed Stark to the NYCERS and TRS pension boards. Stark was the chair of the NYCERS board.

For many years Rochelle Patricof's husband, Allan, had worked as an administrative law judge at Finance. In 2002, when Stark made Rochelle the first deputy commissioner, she asked COIB for letter giving her clearance for the appointment and the obvious conflict with her husband working at Finance. There was also a 1997 COIB letter dealing with this issue when Patricof became general counsel at Finance.

In November, 2002 COIB issued a letter to Patricof approving her appointment as first deputy commissioner contingent on her recusing herself from any matters that involved her husband.

2003

In January, 2003 as part of the reform process Stark appoints an outside real estate tax expert, Linda Yancey, as the new Assistant Commissioner of Real Property at Finance. By April 22, 2003, as reported by the N.Y. Daily News, Yancey had resigned in despair and had notified the City Council of her serious concerns about the property tax system and its lack of equity. In retrospect, Stark's comment in the article was completely false. City Hall had fair warning of serious problems at Finance.

On September 8, 2003 DOI determines that Rochelle Patricof, first deputy commissioner at Finance, violated COIB law by invoving herself in matters that potentially affected her husband's compensation as a Finance ALJ.

In October, 2003 DOI concluded that Allan Patricof presented an intimidating presence that people were reluctant to respond to because of his wife's position at DOF.

In the fall of 2003 Stark begins a long running affair with Dara Ottley-Brown, a married female Finance employee who was working in the Bronx at the time. From November 16, 2003 to June 5, 2005, Ottley-Brown's salary went from $84,460 to $131,175.

In order to get a feel for this relationship consider this email exchange between Ottley-Brown and Stark concerning Ottley-Brown's impending promotion. In a November 25, 2003 Finance email titled" The Biggie" Ottley-Brown writes to stark "Okay, here is the big question: If you are vetting me, have you tentatively set my future salary? If so what would it be? Is this open to negotiation? Would Negotiation be contentious? Dara B."

The response from Stark, 20 minutes later, is equally outrageous. I'm too tired to type the whole fawning email but let me give you the last sentence as the coup de gras: "I don't want to disappoint you in any way but I'll let you know if I can do what you want."

Everyone in the city should read this report. It goes to the heart of why the civil service system was invented. Elected officials and their appointees must be tightly constrained when it comes personnel issues.

Also in the fall of 2003 Carol DeFreitas, a female employee at Finance, allegedly asked Stark for a change in her work assignment. In December, 2003 Stark and Rochelle Patricof, the first deputy commissioner, assigned DeFreitas to work at DOI. DeFreitas continued to be paid by Finance for many years while working at DOI. At the very least, this is a violation of the city charter but also appears to be a pattern of Stark's behavior with female Finance employees.

2004

In January, 2004 Stark appointed Ottley-Brown to the position vacated by Yancey the year before. It is hard to ignore the suspicion that Stark wanted back door control of the real property division.
It is comical to go back in time and read Stark's press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE... January 16, 2004

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE, DEPARTMENT OF INVESTIGATION RELEASE FINAL REPORT ON ASSESSOR REFORM; FY05 TENTATIVE PROPERTY ASSESSMENT ROLL PUBLISHED

Property Valuation Process Less Vulnerable to Corruption, More Efficient, Easier to Understand

Finance Commissioner Martha E. Stark and Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn today released a report describing steps Finance has taken to reduce the risk of corruption in the property valuation process, and ways Finance will continue to improve the valuation process and make it easier for the public to understand.

Commissioner Stark also introduced Dara Ottley-Brown, newly-selected Assistant Commissioner for Property, who will serve in an acting capacity for three months. They described the data in the Fiscal Year 2005 tentative assessment roll and recent management changes that contributed to a more efficient, transparent valuation process. Ottley-Brown replaces John McBride, who served very ably as Acting Assistant Commissioner for Property. "With this report and this assessment roll, we have ended a chapter in the City’s history and have begun an exciting era of renewed faith in the way we value people’s property,” Commissioner Stark said. “In less than two years, we have vastly improved the way we do our jobs, and we have begun to turn a confusing, secretive process into something that New Yorkers can actually understand and believe in.”

…

Prior to her selection as Assistant Commissioner for Property, OttleyBrown served in various management positions at Finance, including Property. Before joining the division as Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Ottley-Brown worked most recently as Deputy City Register in the Bronx Office. "I'm excited to lead the effort to transform the process of valuing property in this great City, bringing our practices into the 21st century so New Yorkers can be proud of the work we do for them,” Ottley-Brown said. "I want to thank Dara for taking on this challenge, and also thank John McBride for doing such a good job in transition and for identifying Dara as the person best able to do this job,” Commissioner Stark said. “But most of all, I want to thank the assessors and other staff in Property who have worked tirelessly not just to produce an accurate roll but, more importantly, to change the culture into one that is honest, creative and forward-thinking.”

This is a clear indication of Stark's absolute arrogance. You have to wonder what McBride thought at the time.

If the relationship was genuine, the one thing Stark should not have done was promote Ottley-Brown three months after starting the relationship. In fact, Stark should have left her in the Bronx forever. If Ottley-Brown was competent, she would have gotten promoted on her own, of course, not at Finance.

Ironically, in June, 2004, Stark requests that DOI investigate my relationship with a woman who was and is still working at NYCERS. At the time I was executive director of NYCERS and Stark was chair of the NYCERS Board of Trustees. The woman is now my wife.

2005

In March 2005, Stark starts working for Tarragon, a private real estate firm.

This is an absolute violation of the city charter. No commissioner can have outside employment. There is no exception.

It appears COIB was fooled into issuing an approval for work under Chapter 68 of the city charter. You will notice there is no reported approval from the Law Department who could possibly have issued a "colorable" approval but they did not.

Stop for a moment and realize that for seven years the mayor let Stark invest the city pension funds!!!

Even with the COIB approval, Stark was told not use her position to help Tarragon or to use any city equipment or personnel. Stark proceeds to do extensive work for Tarragon during office hours, use her official position and letterhead, and use city resources and personnel, including Rochelle Patricof, to do her Tarragon work. Over a three year period she made at least $120,000. Nice second job!

NYCERS

On March 2, 2005 based on an investigation by Vincent Green and Carol Defreitas, DOI sends Stark a letter falsely accusing me of promoting the woman I was involved with. This investigation bordered on the corrupt with the suppression of evidence and acts of perjury by NYCERS staff. I now suspect DeFreitas was involved with Stark at some point.

On the evening of March 10, 2005 Stark calls me at home and tells me that I have been fired from my position as executive director at NYCERS.

On May 31, 2005 COIB finds that there are no Chapter 68 violations involving me or my wife.

On June 1, 2005 Stark demotes my wife from the position which she had earned on her own merits and without any help from me. At this point both Rochelle Patricof, the first deputy commissioner, and her husband, Allan, an administrative law judge, were working for Finance.

Back to Finance

In March, 2005 Subordinate 2, a married female, starts to work at Finance as a college aide at $12.50/hr in the executive office.

In May 2005, Stark begins trying to find job (public/private) for Ottley-Brown's ex-husband. Rochelle Patricof is brought into the process. Stark's first attempt was with DOITT as per a May 13, 2005 email. Stark eventually hires Mr. Brown at Finance for $78,000 in 2007. I think there was some child support issues involved with this hire.

On June 21, 2005 Stark tries to get Ottley-Brown's ex-husband, Jodie Brown at job at Bloomberg LP.

As of June 30, 2005 Fenella Ramsami was working at NYCERS at a salary of $26,351. Ms. Ramsami is the sister of Felita Baksh/Ramsami the NYCERS HR director. By June 30, 2006 Fenalla was working at Finance at salary of $28,316. Within a year she was earning $42,510. She now is earning $65,000.

In September, 2005 in response to an anonymous email from an alleged Finance employee I notified the Law Department that Stark was involved with two female Finance employees, Dara Ottley-Brown and Roberta Hand. In addition there was an allegation that in the spring of 2005 there was improper interference by Stark and Ottley-Brown with the property valuation of the Met-Life Building in conjunction with its May, 2005 sale to NYCERS and TRS. The email listed five specific assessors caught in the interference. The property sold for $1.74B, a record amount at the time. Stark was the mayor's representative on both boards.

In light of the truth concerning the two women, the Manhattan DA's office should review its non-response to the notice I gave to that office in May, 2006.

As far back as 2005 Stark and Ottley-Brown attended public functions and in at least one case were photographed for the Prospect Park Alliance's annual report. As of late 2005, it would have been very difficult for City Hall not to have known about Stark and Ottley-Brown.

After March 2005, Finance employees would approach me in public and tell me about Stark and Ottley-Brown and that they were afraid to report them to DOI. Previous reports had gotten back to Stark. At the time Vincent Green was the I.G. for Finance and Stark was supplying resources to DOI.

In October, 2005 Stark along with the other NYCERS Trustees appointed Diane D'Alessandro as the new executive director. D'Alessandro is an openly gay woman. The executive director position is classified as a non-competitive position under NY Civil Service Law which means that it has specific minimum education and work experience requirements. D'Alessandro had none of the required work experience or a "satisfactory equivalent".

By October 30, 2005 Subordinate 2 is working as a Special Assistant to Stark at a annual salary of $$49,512 up from $12.50/hr in March.

2006

On April 10, 2006 Ottley-Brown signs the infamous Yankee Stadium property valuation letter. Long story short, Ottley-Brown, as part of the documentation for the stadium bond deal, wrote to Goldman Sachs that the land on which the new stadium was to be built was worth $204M. At the same time in a May 9, 2006 letter, the NYC Parks Dept. reported to the federal government that the land was worth $21M. You can guess who who has a tighter grip on reality. If you want the gory details, you can view the Congressional hearing on this issue and read a review of the hearing.

In May, 2006, I notified Dan Castleman at the Manhattan DA's office about Stark, Ottley-Brown and the Met-Life Building deal.

By August 13, 2006 Subordinate 2 is making $63,240/yr up from $49,512 in October.

On Sept 19, 2006 the City Council approves the mayor's appointment of Ottley-Brown as a commissioner to Board of Standards and Appeals, one of the two non-professional positions on a five person board. DOI determined that Stark had recommended her to city hall as possible candidate without declaring their relationship. I suspect that after the DA's office got notice all parties involved wanted to make this problem go away.

In early December 2006 Stark first hits on Subordinate 2 and within weeks they began a sexual affair that Subordinate 2 claims only lasted several months. This is based on testimony from Subordinate 2. It was given to DOI during a third interview on March 2, 2011 with her attorney present, with a grant of immunity, and after twice lying under oath in previous interviews. Based on subsequent evidence presented by DOI, it is quite clear that DOI does not find Subordinate 2's testimony credible.

This turnaround in testimony was caused by the lucky discovery of a June 4, 2008 email. The contents of the email contained a copy of an instant message chat between Stark and Subordinate 2. DOI, generally, was not able to access the Finance Department Blackberry instant messages. But because of technical issues Stark had copied the instant message to an email. It appears that Stark and her associates were even more open with their text messaging than their emails.

As per DOI:

"The email was a revealing glimpse into the sexual relationship Stark had engaged in with subordinates, including Subordinate 2 and Ottley Brown. ... The June 4, 2008 email was a vivid demonstration of the lack of boundaries between Stark's City agency and personal life."

DOI chose to include a direct quote by Stark from the June 4, 2008 email:

"There we are all together. My ex-lover with my current lover, with a good friend from work who was happy to sleep with me, my lover or maybe my ex. All hanging out together at my neices's party ..."

Subordinate 2 was the good friend.

2007

Property Tax Issues Again

In January, 2007 Stark arranges for her long time domestic partner, who she was breaking up with, to get an apartment at a reduced rent at an upper east side complex managed by a firm that had received favorable tax traetment from Finance two weeks before. The following year the firm again received favorable treatment. DOI could find no supporting documentation for these downard assessments. This is a clear indication of the continuing chaos in the property tax system at Finance, five years after the bribery arrests, this time at the highest level.

On a smaller scale this episode is comparable to the Met-Life building allegation in 2005.

As of January 9, 2007 in response to negative publicity about the Patricofs, Stark instructs her PR staff to not admit to the press that there was a conflict with the Patricofs' employment at Finance. Stark was adamant in defending Allan Patricof against charges of falsifying his billings for time worked. Stark and the Patricofs are very close friends. Stark used Allan Patricof for personal and business legal matters, a COIB violation. Patricof advised Stark not to use emails for communicating with him.

On February 13, 2007 DOI sends Stark eight policy recommendations as per Patricof's billing irregularities. Finance rejects them. There were also established problems with Rochelle Patricof's influence over those overseeing her husband.

In May, 2007, DOI presents its findings to Stark that Patricof had falsified his billings. A year later Stark responds with vigorous defense of Patricof. Stark's internal emails show that she had worries over this issue. In response to the DOI public report Stark began to consider withdrawing support that she was providing to DOI. This support was both personnel and materiale, i.e. cars. Of course giving this support in the first place was bad policy and is also a violation of the city charter.

In January, 2007 Galia Galansky began working at Finance as director of employee services. Galansky admitted to being socially active with Stark.

DOI chose to quote the following June 8, 2008 email from Stark to Rochelle Patricof:

"I don't care what you say {referencing an email exchange with Galansky], she's as dumb as [Subordinate 2]. I love you but we both are crazy about two dummies. Let's face it."

DOI is pointing out a relationship between Patricof and Galansky that is the same as the relationship between Stark and Subordinate 2. DOI also is raising the possibility of a similiar relationship between Stark and Patricof given Stark's appetite.

As per February 6, 2007 and March 8, 2007 emails, Subordinate 2 was pushing Stark and Patricof for a move to a more "challenging" position.

By March 13, 2007 Subordinate 2 has been assigned to work for Galansky. Subordinate 2's salary increases from $63,240 to $72,602 during the first 6 months of 2007. Her salary increases to $81,840 during the last 6 months of 2007. There is no backup in Subordinate 2's personnel file to support these salary increases. This is also the case for Ottley-Brown's salary increases.

In June, 2007 Stark arranges for her niece to get a job at Finance.

In August, 2007 Stark hires Ottley-Brown's ex-husband at Finance, having failed to find him employment at other places. His salary was $78,000

This hiring resulted in an EEO complaint based on the non-posting of this position. Without all the facts being established the complaint was dismissed on July 18, 2008. This complaint should now be reopened.

As of November 25, 2007 Subordinate 2 is making $81,840/yr and Subordinate 2's sister starts working at Finance.

2008

May, 2008 Stark is instrumental in her half-brother getting a job at Finance. She continued to be closely involved with his work activities and performance at Finance.

In July 2008 Ottley-Brown's is divorced from her husband.

2009

In April, 2009 Stark and senior Finance staff, including Patricof, publicly lie about Stark's relationship with Ottley-Brown. Stark and her crowd also lie to City Hall. What were they thinking? DOI determined that Patricof knew, at least as far back as 2005, that Stark and Ottley-Brown were involved. Did you have any doubt?

On April 28, 2009 Stark resigns.

In October, 2009 Stark shows up teaching at Baruch for $99,200/yr. for two lectures a week. This is as close to a no show job as it gets. I wonder what the average salary is for an associate professor with a PhD and publications? It appears she is now also teaching at Columbia.

The truly interesting question is how far back did City Hall know about Ottley-Brown. Based on public appearances in 2005, reports by Finance employees to DOI in 2004, and my reporting to the Law Department in September, 2005, this could hardly have been a surprise to anyone in New York City.

In December 2009 Subordinate 2 is divorced from her husband.

2011

In April, 2011 Subordinate 2 resigns from Finance. All the rest of the crowd who lied under oath and Stark herself are still working for the city.

Perjury at NYCERS - Suprise arrest at FDNY

On November 20, 2009, DOI issued a press release announcing the arrest of Jennifer Ramsammy. She is accused of falsifying her time records while working at the NY Fire Department. The false records resulted in $428 of fraudulent pay. The Kings County District Attorney has charged her with 19 felony counts.

Ms. Ramsammy has worked in the pension bureau at FDNY since 2007. Prior to 2007, she worked at NYCERS. She left NYCERS under a cloud relating to her time records. Ms. Ramsammy is the cousin of Felita Baksh (a.k.a. Ramsami), the HR director at NYCERS. Prior to 2004, Ms. Baksh worked at FDNY.

Currently Fenella Ramsami, Ms Baksh’s sister, works at the NYC Department of Finance. Prior to that she worked at the NY Fire Department and before that at NYCERS.

Prior to the mayor asking for her resignation, Martha Stark was the Commissioner of the Department of Finance and the Chair of the NYCERS Board of Trustees.

DOI is currently investigating a work related perjury charge against Ms. Baksh. DOI is also investigating Ms. Stark at the request of the mayor.

Maybe, all of these issues are connected.

Perjury at NYCERS - Trustees sleeping

November 16, 2009 - This is an update on the DOI perjury investigation of the NYCERS HR director, Felita Baksh (aka Ramsami). Listed below are letters between the NYCERS trustees and myself with respect to this investigation.

It is clear from the letters, that the trustees are ignoring this issue. I thought the November 3, 2009 election would have provided the trustees with a date for action. They are, however, still allowing this woman to put the agency at risk.

This year Baksh again lied under oath. NYCERS is currently trying to terminate a long time employee because she allegedly incorrectly claimed to have completed three cases on a weekly production report. This employee had previously reported the agency to DOI. That did not make the current executive director happy.

At a disciplinary hearing at OATH for this employee, Baksh lied about a conversation she had with the employee. Since it was a two person conversation, she felt free to deny saying what the employee claimed she had said. The employee, however, had the good sense to record the conversation unbeknownst to Baksh. There is now evidence of two instances of perjury by Baksh.

NYCERS had the nerve to threaten the employee with disciplinary charges for recording the conversation. You can’t make this stuff up. Of course, the NYCERS legal director, Mazza, was involved with the OATH hearing, so anything is possible. This was months ago and there is still no decision from OATH. That is not a good sign.

For the record, this savvy employee also has an EEO action against the agency which is moving into a trial stage. In light of my recommendation to the trustees to put Baksh on paid leave while the investigation is going on and their refusal to do so, it is disturbing that NYCERS felt it necessary to put this employee on paid leave for the last nine months along with a 30 day suspension without pay. Remember perjury is a criminal charge.

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        August 12, 2009

Greg Floyd, President – Teamsters Local 237
Trustee, NYCERS Board of Trustees
216 West 14th Street 
New York, NY 10011

        Pub. Adv. Case #: 140753

Dear Trustee:

 This is a follow up to a letter I sent to most of the trustees in March, 2009.
The original letter provided the trustees with evidence of perjury by the current NYCERS HR director, Felita Baksh.

 Only one of the trustees, the Public Advocate, took any action with respect
to this evidence. The Public Advocate forwarded the charge to the Department of
Investigation (DOI) for its review and notified me of her action. 

 As of today, I have received no notice of any subsequent action in this case.
As reference, I am enclosing a copy of a May 9, 2009 letter that I sent to DOI 
Concerning this matter. Please notify me of the status of this investigation.

 In the interim, the trustees should immediately place the HR director on
administrative leave, since this is a criminal matter and the investigators already have clear evidence of the crime (an audio tape of DOI sworn testimony)
in their possession.



        Sincerely yours,



        John J. Murphy



Cc:  Ms. Susan Edelman, NY Post

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     THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
    OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER 
     GENERAL COUNSEL 
    1 CENTRE STREET. ROOM  614 
    NEW YORK, N.Y. 10007-2341

         TELEPHONE: (212) 669-2048 
         FAX NUMBER: (212)815-8714

         WILLIAM C. THOMPSON, JR.
         OMPTROLLER

Lewis Finkelman
DEPUTY COMPTROLLER FOR LEGAL
AFFAIRS/GENERAL COUNSEL

         August 19, 2009 

John J. Murphy 

Dear Mr. Murphy: 

 I write in response to the letter that you mailed to the
Comptroller on August 14ft and that was forwarded to me yesterday,
regarding your allegations of perjury by Felita Baksh, a current
employee of NYCERS. Your initial letter to the Comptroller in March
2009 regarding this matter was also referred to me and, at or about
that time, I promptly contacted the Department of Investigation ("DOI")
and forwarded your letter to that agency for its handling. Your most
recent correspondence makes clear that you have referred this matter to
DOI as well. Accordingly, you should follow up directly with DOI as to
the status of its investigation of this matter.

        Very truly yours, 


        Lewis Finkelman 

LF/lm 

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        August 23, 2009

Mr. Lewis Finkelman
Office of General Counsel
Office of the Comptroller
1 Centre Street, Rm. 614 
New York, NY 10007

        Pub. Adv. Case #: 140753


Dear Mr. Finkelman:

 Thank you for your August 19, 2009 letter in which you acknowledge my March
20, 2009 letter to the Comptroller and notifying me that you had referred the reported perjury charge to DOI.

 The Public Advocate had already promptly notified me in an April 29, 2009
letter that she had referred this work related perjury charge against the NYCERS HR director to DOI. The Public Advocate also sent me a copy of her
April 14, 2009 letter to Rose Gill Hearn.

 The purpose of my August 12, 2009 letter to the NYCERS trustees was to find
out the status of that investigation. 

 It would appear from your August 19, 2009 letter that you also do not know the
status of that investigation.

 DOI has never given me any acknowledgement of this matter in spite of my
Direct correspondence to Rose Gill Hearn or Richard Sullivan.

 The Comptroller, as a NYCERS trustee, is employing this person as the 
NYCERS HR director. This is while she is under investigation for perjury with 
respect to her official duties at NYCERS. DOI has the audio tape on which she
intentionally lied under oath while being interviewed by DOI in 2004.

 As a NYCERS fiduciary, the Comptroller should be protecting the fund from
this employee. He has hard evidence that this employee committed perjury. 

 I strongly recommended that the trustees place this employee on administrative
leave until the investigation is completed. I also request that you notify me
 whether you adopt this recommendation and, if you don’t,  why not.

 DOI can not provide the trustees with protection from misdeeds by this
employee while she is under investigation. The fact that DOI is possibly complicit in the perjury charge makes this action more imperative. 

 In 1986, the trustees dealt with perjury in a rapid and ruthless manner. Why
Such a casual attitude now?
 

        Sincerely yours,



        John J. Murphy



Cc:  Mr. Michael Barbaro, NY Times
 

Perjury at NYCERS

Listed at the end of this posting is part of an interview of a NYCERS employee, Felita Baksh, conducted by a NYC Dept. of Investigations (DOI) investigator, Daniel Lau, on July 13, 2004. Following the text of the interview is a excerpt from a letter written by Vincent Green, a DOI IG for Finance, on March 1, 2005. Finally, there is listed a part of DOI interview conducted, also on July 13, 2004, with another NYCERS employee, Karen Mazza, who contradicts Baksh's testimony.

Based on the DOI excerpt it is quite clear that Baksh lied under oath when being questioned by DOI. At the time Baksh was the HR director at NYCERS and still is. Mr. Lau, however, was not the chief investigator assigned to the investigation. That person was Carol DeFreitas.

Strangely, Ms. DeFreitas was an employee of the Department of Finance and not DOI. In late December, 2003 she was loaned to DOI through an agreement between Martha Stark, the Finance Commissioner, and Vincent Green, the IG for Finance.

The NYCERS Board of Trustees had originally requested the investigation which was the reason for the interviews. Subsequently, at the close of the investigation Vincent Green, in the March 1, 2005 letter, failed to report the perjury by Baksh to the NYCERS Board of Trustees. The letter was addressed to Martha Stark who was also the chair of the NYCERS Board. In addition, Green misstates what Mazza had actually admitted in her testimony. He also never mentions the fact that Mazza attempted to destroy emails between her and Baksh involving the resume or the fact that DeFreitas allowed Mazza to hide the emails with help from the LAN administrator at NYCERS.

In light of the circumstances surrounding Stark's recent forced resignation, this reporting failure by Green raises many questions. There is also the fact that in September, 2005, as part of litigation against NYCERS an attorney at the NYC Law Department was notified of allegations of Stark's involvment with an senior employee at Finance and other more serious charges involving pension investments. That attorney was Paul Marks.

Unfortunately, Baksh is still the HR director at NYCERS. She has since changed her name to Ramsami. Since 2005, Baksh has terminated dozens of NYCERS employees for trivial infractions. In addition, COIB has since found Baksh, a.k.a. Ramsami, in violation of NYC Charter regulations, in particular using a subordinate's credit card.

Inconceivably, Baksh subsequently fired the subordinate with an assist from Mazza. It may have something to do with the fact that the subordinate knew that Mazza had administered the final writing test to Baksh in 2004, which was the basis of her hiring as HR director.

Early this year I notified the NYCERS trustees and the DOI Commissioner of Baksh's perjury. Only one trustee, the Public Advocate, responded by forwarding the complaint to DOI. DOI responded to the the Public Advocate who then again notified me. I wonder how long it will take DOI to produce a professional response and how long the trustees will allow Baksh to stay as HR director?

From July 13, 2004 Baksh interview with DOI:

Lau: On that note, I’m only going to re-ask you one question and you’ve answered this before but I just want to make sure. I want to affirm that you are still under oath. That when you applied for the position nobody helped you with your resume, you said.

Baksh: No, no one changed anything on my resume. The only change that I remembered that they said and I remembered it because the e-mail said there’s only one thing that I’m missing. I’m sorry that we have to change this is on the cover letter.

Lau: And that was who?

Baksh:I’m a stickler or something like that.

Lau:That was Karen?

Baksh: Yes. I’m sorry. (phone rings)

Lau: Sure.

Baksh: That’s gotta be my children ……… - Sorry.

Lau: No problem. So you were saying. So Karen didn’t - just the cover letter.

Baksh: Yeah only the cover. She only did one – right.

Lau: One minor correction.

Tavarez: But Niki made the cover letter?

Baksh: Huh?

Lau: Well Niki also reviewed the cover?

Tavarez: Niki was the one who reviewed your cover letter

Baksh: They both but Niki – but Karen is the one that’s probably – I think Karen was the one who said it’s just that one word in the cover.

Tavarez: That was it. That was it.

Baksh: Niki didn’t have any changes to my resume. None at all. And I remember saying, you didn’t see anything you would change – any wor and she was like – no. But I think she was too busy. You know she just she was just getting into her position too.

From March 1, 2005 DOI report:

In addition, Karen Mazza, the NYCERS General Counsel, acknowledged to this office that she helped Baksh with her resume by suggesting she move things around. "

From July 13, 2004 Mazza interview with DOI:

Ancrum: Karen, the letter writer indicated that you had helped Felita in her application process. Specifically with her resume.

Mazza: The answer to that is yes. I help a lot of people with their resume. I have a reputation within our agency and among people who know me as being a real stickler for resumes. I’ve done a lot of interviewing over the course of my career – not myself – interviewing people and hiring – um – so people know I will look for and I will find, you know, the comma that’s in the wrong place, or the, you know, when you switch from plural to singular in the paragraph. So a lot of people come to me and ask me to look at their resumes and I never say no, and she came to me and asked me if I would look at her resume and I said yes.

DeFreitas: Did you look at anybody else’s resume that applied for the position?

Mazza: Nobody else – I didn’t know anybody else who applied – I said – I take that back. I do know Aurora Perez – I know her because our kids went to Pre-K together – our kids are not in 5th grade – but I don’t know her – but she would never call me and ask me to look at her resume.

DeFreitas: Did you make changes, Karen, to her resume?

Mazza: I suggested, you know, I may have suggested like, you know, switching words around or paragraphs around – like that – I don’t know if she made the changes because I didn’t…

DeFreitas: Because it was a suggestion, but you brought her into your office, you told her look – you need to change this around – do this – do that – it wasn’t something that you yourself physically took her resume and made revisions to it and made revisions to it yourself.

Mazza: She e-mailed it to me.

DeFreitas: OK

Mazza:And what I did was, you know, tracking on – how you do tracking on Word – with tracking I said I would move this here – I would do this, I would do that…

DeFreitas:OK

Mazza:So – that’s – so I didn’t meet with her to do it.

DeFreitas: Uhmmm

Mazza: We did it by…

DeFreitas: E-mail.

Mazza: Yeah.