Any buzz you might hear about this shredded petition is most likely coming from the Craig Eaton faction >>> They couldn’t be any madder if they had been a swarm of hornets and somebody at the Brooklyn BOE had shredded their hornets’ nest
According to a report that appeared in Celeste Katz’ column last night, “.... A single petition volume of 20 pages was inadvertently destroyed" last Friday, Board spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez said in a statement responding to a Daily News inquiry about the destroyed docs. ***
’Fortunately, we have obtained copies of the petition volume in question from both the filer and a member of the public who had previously requested a copy of this volume,’ Vazquez continued. ‘Board staff compared the two copies and found them to be identical.’ *** Vazquez chalked up the shredding to a simple "miscommunication" between employees at the oft-criticized agency....” (See “ ‘Miscommunication’ Led To NYC Board Of Elections Shredding 20 Pages Of GOP Petitions” by Celeste Katz, Daily News/Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/07/miscommunication-led-to-nyc-board-of-elections-shredding-20-pages-of-gop-petit]).
Several questions leap to mind as a result of the material quoted above, among them the following: 1) who tipped-off the Daily News to make a “Daily News inquiry about the destroyed docs” ? 2) Who was the “member of the public who had previously requested a copy of this volume” that was then returned to the BOE for comparison ? and 3) Who, what, where and why was there a simple "miscommunication" between employees at the oft-criticized [BOE]” that caused “[a] petition volume of 20 pages to have been inadvertently destroyed” ?
Also quite interesting is the following item that appeared in Celeste Katz’ article, “Update: I'm also told two workers from the bipartisan Board were involved in the Friday shredding incident. Both are Democrats. That in itself is interesting because typically, petitions are watched over by a team -- one Democrat and one Republican.”
This all could be very embarrassing to the presently former Republican leadership team from the 46th AD Simon Shamoun and Clorinda Annarummo. Already mentioned in the Katz article, this could turn out to be a significant bit of intrigue occurring so early during BOE Commissioner Shamoun’s term at the Board. Furthermore, there is also a BOE employee, who is a very close relation to one of the Republican leaders formerly elected from the 46th AD, and who will almost certainly be called as a witness as things proceed on the strange goings on at the Board .
35 comments:
Note: the following comment appears as the first one following the post above. It was made [at 10:33PM on 7/22/13] long before my article appearing above had been written; and obviously it is not in any way responsive to that post.
The comment is being copied here because it demonstrates the intensity of feeling of at least one observer, who obviously knew about Celeste Katz’ coverage of the mystery of the shredded GOP petition and wanted us to know all about it. That comment is copied in full below, as follows:
“Anonymous July 22, 2013 at 10:03 PM
Speaking of the Daily News, have you seen this one?
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/07/miscommunication-led-to-nyc-board-of-elections-shredding-20-pages-of-gop-petit
Here's a few questions to ponder: Who was in the room when the petition was shredded? Was there a republican there? Who was that republican if he/she was there?
To sum it all up- who knew what, when?
I'm sure we will all find out soon enough...
In the meantime I call on "Commissioner #1" to resign. The identification and resignation of “Commissioner #1” is a necessary service to members of the Republican Party — despite the fact that the anonymous figure is not accused of ordering any petitions to be shredded.
This is about cleaning house. Somebody should have been smart enough to stop the shredding, somebody should have been smart enough to call the U.S. Attorney’s office. We’re not going to put up with people who are going to sell our party or not act in a responsible way.
Sound familiar?”
The Board of Elections has always held petitions for at least two years after the election in question.
Has Marty Golden so frightened and intimidated even longtime Elections employees that they ignore a longstanding policy to placate "The Senator"?
I heard there was a republican in the room!!!
David A. was there!!!!
I am told that the Golden team has been holding emergency meetings trying to come up with a way to save a district leader's son's job.
I think it's too late for that and the commissioner himself should resign.
If David A. was there (I got that info from a very reliable source) then he should have been fired. Since he wasn't then that reeks of a cover up and the commissioner must go.
You see, at best this is utter incompetence displayed by the board and its employees. But at worst, this is corruption of the highest order. Shamoun and Golden claim to be crusading against both and yet no one has been fired!?!
Connect the dots here:
.....Commissioner Shamoun is the CURRENT Republican District Leader from the 46th AD.....The 46th AD team (Clorinda Annarumo/Simon Shamoun)are aligned with Marty Golden in the BKLYN GOP battle against Craig Eaton.....Clorinda's son "works" at the board of elections.....The shredded petitions contained county committee candidates loyal to Eaton.....Who had an interest in seeing them destroyed?
You see, either there was a republican in the room or there wasn't. Either way THAT'S A MAJOR PROBLEM for whoever that republican was supposed to be or actually was!!!
Finally the Jig is up, burn them ALL
Comment maker "Anonymous July 23, 2013 at 6:32 AM -- I heard there was a republican in the room!!!" is describing two categories of conspiracy involving the shredded GOP petition -- one involving the act, another involving a cover-up of the act.
To put it all in the form of relevant questions --- Who was the Republican BOE employee who shoulda/woulda/coulda been eyes-on this petition, or was eyes-on at the moment that the 20-page GOP petition was shredded ?
Also relevant, who were the supervising GOP BOE employees that were in the house where the shredding took place ?
Also, also relevant -- How and by whom was the shredding discovered ? How was the shredding reported and what was done to preserve the facts of and circumstances surrounding the shredding ?
UPDATE: One of my Baker Street Irregulars has filled me in with a lot more detail about the BOE 46th AD GOP petition shredding caper.
The original petition that went into the BOE grim reaper machinery was one that included the signatures for these prospective GOP County Committee representatives: Tom McCarthy, Megin McCarthy, Christopher McCarthy, Hugh McGeety, Pat Minichello, Maria Gardella, Zona Chere, Lydia Cruz, Natalie Ivanova, Yevgeni Zolotarev, Robert Hacken and Gloria Hacken.
Word about the shredding had reached the world outside the BOE by last Friday evening; and Diane Rudiano, who is a GOP District Leader apparently in the Golden camp, was personally trying to obtain copies of the shredded petition in her capacity as Chief Clerk of the King's County Board of Elections. By Saturday Ms. Rudiano had to go to the Brooklyn GOP headquarters on 17th Avenue in Bensonhurst to pick up a copy from the Eaton crew. [It is believed that earlier somebody at the BOE had thought that a BOE-generated copy, purchased and turned over to a "private citizen" could be retrieved and quietly substituted for the shredded original --- however, since that copy had been in the possession of a repesentative of the Golden side, it could not properly be used as evidence during any legal challenge]. Based on Celeste Katz' reporting, it seems that copies of the shredded document that had been obtained from both sides in the GOP fight; and that after a comparison of the two existing copies had been made, a similar conforming copy was substituted for the original that had been shredded at the Board.
Also FYI: the person that I referred to as the "BOE employee, who is a very close relation to one of the Republican leaders formerly elected from the 46th AD, and who will almost certainly be called as a witness as things proceed on the strange goings on at the Board" is probably the same person that was several times called "... David A. " in the comment, "Anonymous July 23, 2013 at 6:32 AM I heard there was a republican in the room!!! ...."
UPDATE: More BOE shenanigans — Joseph Hayon has alleged that the New York City Board of Elections treated his GOP petition to run for City Council in the 44th Council District in a highly unusual manner. He says that the Board falsely made claims about his petition and cover sheet, and then it peremptorily removed him from the ballot without notice for an unrelated, insubstantial and unsubstantiated cover sheet error that was actually the fault of the Board itself.
Hayon intends to show that the BOE didn’t follow its normal practices and procedures, and that deprived him of his constitutional rights. According to Hayon, the BOE did the following: first it sent him an improper notice of an error on his cover sheets, which was nonetheless timely and properly “corrected”; and then it summarily removed him from the ballot for a completely unrelated cover sheet error that the BOE didn’t mention in its first notice or any notice whatsoever. Thus, the BOE violated Hayon’s constitutionally protected rights for unexplained reasons, in that the BOE did not provide Mr. Hayon an opportunity to cure a common defect that is universally afforded to candidates that are similarly situated.
At the same time, Joseph Hayon is taking both his opponent, Councilman David Greenfield, and the NYC BOE to court to remove Greenfield from the ballot of the Independence Party.
Among the direct beneficiaries of the attempted "shredding" dirty trick at the BOE (if that's what it turns out to have been after a full investigation) would have been several key "Republicans for Change" supported 46th AD GOP County Committee Candidates, whose names would look like "Quaglione," "Keating" and "Shamoun"....
Of course, it all blew up on them; and some other Republicans intend to use the BOE mess involving people named "Shamoun" and "Annarummo" against the whole "Republicans for Change" crowd.
Some Independent Brooklyn Republicans really don't like it when you bring up bad memories like that....
BTW, In Memoriam --- Dennis Farina --- " ...Moron #1... Moron #2 ..." from "Midnight Run"
Close this Board of Election down for a little while!
Are they all mean and rotten or do they owe their jobs to special people who put them their?
Do you see Gale what they do with their little clicks.
It's a shame oh great Knight of the people and of versus.
Smile God loves you!!!!
Sometimes we look through the telescope from the wrong end.
The BOE has become dysfunctional for a variety of reasons, but part of its existence is to do the necessary work of registering voters, conducting primaries and elections, and maintaining many necessary election records.
The BOE also is a patronage dumping ground and graveyard, with direct ties to many elected officials and other power brokers. The Brooklyn Board is now being "influenced" by the new Golden-Shamoun cabal, which has come in hammers and tongs with an agenda. But remember, their "authority" as such is only derivative. Simon Shamoun might have been selected by Marty Golden, but he wasn't appointed by Marty Golden -- that was done by a rump of Republican Councilmen, none of them from Brooklyn. The only way that Golden-Shamoun can consolidate their foothold at the Board, is to get control of the Kings County Republican Party.
UPDATE: The buzz is that the BOE Commissioners will not be launching any investigation of the shredding of certain GOP 46th AD petitions by employees of the BOE. My source indicated that Brooklyn's GOP BOE Commissioner Simon Shamoun "explained" what had happened to his fellow Commissioners, who "accepted" his explanation.
Why did the Brooklyn Republican Commissioner need to "explain" this sordid affair to the rest of the Commissioners ? According to the BOE spokesperson, wasn't it two Democrats that allegedly did the shredding ?
Isn't it funny that this was was handled internally by the same people who are responsible for the error - AND, without providing any details as to who, what, when and where. AND how could Shamoun have known about what happened? Did he do an investigation? If so, where is the report? Someone should FOIL all these records and when it is disclosed that no such records exist, then all involved need to be held accountable. Not good for the new Commissioner of the great Senator.
There is an opportunity here for somebody who claims to be "one of the few adults in the room" to prove that he is serious and to police his own territory and interest.
He needs to stop with the Hamlet-style self-doubt. He is an aggrieved party and he needs to go to the DOI, the Manhattan DA and the NYS AG. On a parallel track, if he has been dis-served by any Republicans serving at the Board of Elections, he should take an action or proceeding against ALL of them. Start with Simon Shamoun and go down the roster from there until the Brooklyn GOP side of the BOE looks like a stage in the final act of a Shakespearean tragedy....
Keyword there is Graveyard.
The Board of Election should not be run by the Democratic, the Republican Party or any party it should be Federally run to insure this type of nonsense does not go on.
This goes for every place in The United States, not only here!
The corruption is very deep and until The Federal Government cleans it up, you will always have this type of nonsense.
The people that are their should be giving Federal test to insure they know how to read, add and how to address people properly Thank You
Moron
If anybody is running in the EDs in which the Eaton slate petitions were shredded is challenged by any side, they should subpoena all the BOE "suspects" in the shredding fiasco.
If there is any attempt to put the copied petition into evidence in place of the shredded original petition, an "explanation" of what happened to the original will have to be made, along with the method of establishing the authenticity of the substituted copy. It could get interesting very quickly.
UPDATE: Just when I thought it was safe to check my Email, look what came in:
NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 24, 2013
Contact: Craig Eaton
917-903-4700
______________________________________
Brooklyn GOP Chairman:
Elections Board loses last "shred" of decency
______________________________________
Responding to news accounts that political nominating petitions for his supporters were shredded by political workers in the Brooklyn office of the New York City Board of Elections, Brooklyn Republican Chairman Craig Eaton said he was "shocked and disgusted" by the Board's antics. *** "The Board says there was a 'miscommunication' that led to the petition destruction," said Eaton, "well I want to know exactly what was said that could be so horribly misinterpreted."
*** Official Board of Election policy is to store all nominating petitions for two years, and longtime political observers in both parties can't remember such a blatant error. *** "What could any supervisor have said," Eaton continued, "to cause anyone over the age of five to misunderstand or misconstrue an order and result in the destruction of a nominating petition?" *** The Board was recently the focus of a political coup, with Eaton's nemesis, Senator Marty Golden, and the city's four Republican councilmen, joining forces to take control of the election board from the official Republican county organizations. *** Coincidently, Golden installed Republican State Committeeman Simon Shamoun of the 46th Assembly District as the new GOP Elections Commissioner for Brooklyn, the same district from which the destroyed petitions were gathered. *** Eaton also said he plans to file a Freedom of Information Act request for all internal documents and memos surrounding the destruction of the petitions. *** "The public has a right to know what happened here," said Eaton, "and we will get to the bottom of this." *** The incident has raised eyebrows because sources at the Board claim that two Democratic employees of the agency were handling the petition at the time of its destruction. Board policy is for all petitions to be handled by a team comprised of at least one Democrat and one Republican. *** "There are two many lapses in decades-old policy, and two many unanswered questions here," Eaton concluded, "and if the Board of Elections is unable or unwilling to get to the truth, I am confident there are other government agencies who can and will do so."
Since Senator Golden and Commissioner Shamoun have taken over the Board of Elections (their words) the following has happened:
1) people's jobs have been threatened
2) rivals' petitions have been "accidentally" shredded
3) overtime has been cut for anyone not supporting Joe Lhota and Marty Golden/Tim Cochrane
4) the republican party in Brooklyn has been split into 3 factions
To all our friends that work at the BOE and read this blog- write your story in a letter to as many people that you can.
Start here:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildoi.html
Whistleblower Protection
The City’s Whistleblower Law protects City employees, including employees of City entities headed by elected officials such as Borough Presidents, the City Comptroller and members of the City Council, from retaliation for reporting misconduct, corruption, criminal activity, conflicts of interest, gross mismanagement and abuse of authority. To be protected by the Law, the City employees must make these complaints to DOI or to a member of the City Council, the Public Advocate or the Comptroller, each of whom must refer the complaints to DOI. In 2007, the City Council amended the Whistleblower Law to further protect City employees who report certain conduct which presents "a substantial and specific risk of harm to the health, safety or educational welfare of a child by another city officer or employee." City employees will be protected under these amendments so long as such reports are made to DOI, the City Council, the Public Advocate, the Comptroller, the Mayor, or to an agency head, a deputy agency head or to a "superior officer" who has been designated by the head of the agency to receive such a report. The City Council amended the Whistleblower Law again in 2012 to protect officers and employees of contractors with a City contract valued at $100,000 or more. Any such officers or employees who are retaliated against by their employer for reporting corruption or other misconduct to DOI, a City Council member, the public advocate, the comptroller, or the agency chief contracting officer, are entitled to bring a cause of action against the employer seeking relief.
In 2002, DOI began the most comprehensive "Corruption Prevention/Whistleblower Protection" campaign for City employees in the agency’s history. The campaign included lectures and the distribution of printed materials, such as brochures and posters, to all City employees so they could learn how to recognize and report corruption. The campaign also taught City employees how to avoid conflicts of interest and educated them about their right to be protected from retaliation for reporting misconduct. Since this campaign began, DOI has given more than 4,600 lectures to City employees and individuals who do business with the City. The efforts have resulted in an increased number of complaints from City employees about alleged wrongdoing. These efforts remind City employees that they must report corruption, as well as reassure them they will be protected when they do.
That's hot, hot, hot... !
But, sometimes "hot, hot, hot !" is cool.
It's coolest when it's cold.
Sometimes you just have to be cold.
UPDATE: Not so fast there, BOE... OR ... maybe faster than you think... the BOE will be in court about those shredded petitions !
As part of Celeste Katz’ follow-up piece on the BOE petition shredding story, no doubt motivated by the Brooklyn Chairman Craig Eaton’s press release and other reactions to the BOE’s very abbreviated investigation and terse explanation about the shredded GOP petitions from the 46th AD, was an interesting comment or two by NY Election Law expert Aaron Maslow ( See “Brooklyn Republican Chief: Why Did Board Of Elections Shred My Supporters' Petitions?” by Celeste Katz, 7/25/13, Daily News/Daily Politics
[http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/07/brooklyn-republican-chief-why-did-board-of-elections-workers-shred-my-supporte]).
Aaron Maslow represents a group of candidates -- aligned with neither Eaton nor Golden -- who intend to challenge the validity of the shredded petitions in court. According to the Celeste Katz report, Mr Maslow is specifically warning that "I needed those petitions to be in court next Monday for my clients' case.... Knowing now that they are shredded, I may need to introduce testimony...” as to the who, what, where and why the shredding occurred, and how the BOE went about obtaining and filing the substitute petition.
Everything about the handling of this portion of the 46th AD petition is unusual. The most unusual aspect of all of it is that BOE Commissioner Simon Shamoun appears to have been given carte blanche by the BOE to solve a problem that involved the shredding of a petition that included the signatures for an opponent to Mr. Shamoun’s mother. That is over and above the fact that Mr. Shamoun formally remains the GOP District Leader in the 46th AD along with Clorinda Annarummo, whose son is employed at the BOE -- a person of interest -- who has been suggested by many to have been involved with or have knowledge about the initial shredding at the BOE.
Souns like a DISTINCT CONFLICT OF INTEREST HERE...something an Attorney should not be engaged in......
I'm telling you all, David A. was involved.
He was the supervisor when this happened. He was there!
You would be surprised how many BOE eployees read this blog and then chirp away to guys like me.
Dud Job Well Done Everyone Take Them All Away!!!!
Uh oh...
Turns out David A. is also a candidate for County Committee in the 46th AD...
If he was in the room when petitions were shredded then this is big.
If he wasn't, then who was???
UPDATE: Low hanging fruit for Brooklyn GOP Organization objectors turned to mulch by BOE.
According to one of my Baker Street runners with contacts to the Kings County Republican Organization, the following “Republicans for Change” candidates have been passed upon by the BOE with the following negative results:
45th AD:
Rep. State Committee - Mikhail Yusupov - Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 3 - Avi Rosenberg - Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 26 - Ron Tesker- Off Ballot
47th AD:
Rep. State Committee - Peter E. Cipriano- Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 5- Stephen Russo - Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 5- Lorraine Grecco- Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 8- Vincent Golden- Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 8- Marietta Rozental- Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 36- Brianna Volpetti- Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 36- Josephine Bruzzese- Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 50- Adelina Cassisi- Off Ballot
Rep. County Committee ED 50- Michael Cassisi- Off Ballot
50th AD:
Rep. State Committee & Judicial Delegate - Victor V. Best- Off Ballot
Wait!
Wasn't peter supported by golden?
Wasn't mikhail supported by storobn?
And all the above supported by lhota?
Not lookin good....
Oh no, does a "Lhota" for support mean a lotta support or just an iota of support ?
Hopefully, it's at least a lotta iotas....
@ the BOE nepotism reins supreme.
UPDATE & BACKFILL: The Nabisco Spoon-sized Shredded Petition Edition.
I had a conversation with a fine young person who knows people who know people.
This fine young person gave the following account of what is known by his circle of friends and acquaintances that work at the BOE: a Democrat BOE supervisor says that he told a Democrat BOE worker bee to "copy" a small volume of Republican signatures; the Democrat BOE worker bee then "shredded" the volume of Republican signatures and made no copy prior to the shredding; part of the worker bee's normal duties include operating the shredding machine to shred BOE papers; and lastly that each and every aspect of this "copying"/shredding incident did not follow normal BOE procedures. Later, upon my specific questioning, the fine young person specifically mentioned as a reason that no Republican BOE employees were listed as having been involved in any way with the assignment of the BOE worker bee that normally did shredding and that did shred the Republican volume was to establish "deniability" for a specific BOE Republican employee.
In addition, it was also reported by another source, who has had repeated dealings with the BOE, that on "Thursday evening," several BOE employees, including BOE supervisors in Manhattan said to that source that a volume of Republican signatures that had been requested for copying some time earlier had been "sent to Brooklyn" and needed to be returned to Manhattan --- it turned out that the requested volume is the same volume that had been referred to on Friday to some other people outside the BOE as a "shredded" volume of Republican signatures.
You should see what really goes on there...this is nothing. James and his gang need to go
Why so vague ?
Everybody has a story to tell, so tell it....
This story about the shredded petition is not nothing. It might only be a small thread in a bigger tapestry. However, if you pull on that thread things will begin to unravel showing more tatters and giving everybody more leads to follow. In the end, the blanket covering things up will have holes everywhere and there won't be enough patches around to fix all of them. Plus, most patches stick out like sore thumbs and there's plenty of Nosey Parkers to pull at them.
We can sleep at our desk in plain sight of all supervisors. We text all day and get away with it. Life is good here...shame about the petitions....
UPDATE on the "Slice and Dice": Three sources reported on some of the goings on in the courtroom today in the Special Part for Election Matters.
Bottom line --- Justice Schmidt seems like he would rather not get tangled up in all of the details of the BOEs shredding incident, but reserved on any decision on those questions, at least until Thursday. Expect that the court will only go as far as it must to handle any open issues about "best evidence..." and the necessary foundation for the admission into evidence of a photocopy of the allegedly shredded petition volume instead of the original. Thursday also might also be a key day for "David A...." Meanwhile a referee has been ordered to conduct a "line-by-line" for the challenged, mostly "Republicans for Change" candidates running in the 46th AD.
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