Comptroller's Report: Multi-Level City Hall Bungling Led To Deal To Turn Nursing Home Into Condos
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A new report by the New York City Comptroller's office Monday said poor management by a stunning number of City Hall officials allowed a developer to take advantage of the city.
As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, the deal allowed a Lower East Side nursing home to be turned into condos behind Mayor Bill de Blasio's back.
It took Comptroller Scott Stringer five months, but he was finally able to answer the question -- how many members of the de Blasio administration did it take to mess up and mistakenly allow the Rivington House nursing home to be developed into luxury condos -- despite city deed restrictions?
"In total, the Rivington mater was reviewed by no fewer than 40 administration officials, including three agency heads and three deputy mayors," Stringer said.
The stunning finding about the controversial Rivington House deal came as U.S. Attorrney Preet Bharara and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman were also probing how high-level people at City Hall knew about proposal and did nothing to stop it.
Stringer pointed out First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris was getting reports about the deal, stating that the Department of Citywide Administrative Services was going to remove deed restrictions that limited use of the property to a nursing home.
But Shorris does not recall having read those reports, according to Stringer.
"He told our office that while he required city commissioners to submit weekly memos, he had stopped consistently reading those memos months before," Stringer said.
Under the deal, a developer called the Allure Group, headed by Joel Landau, bought the property for $28 million. The group paid the city $16 million to remove the deed restrictions.
Three months later, the property was sold for $116 million – a $72 million dollar profit.
Stringer's office did not interview Mayor de Blasio before issuing its findings.
A Mayor's office representative said, "The report proves once again that the mayor was unaware of this transaction… that the developer hid his intentions from City Hall, and that this decades-old process needed reform."
Kramer asked Stringer what he found the most egregious among the findings in the report.
"The failure for City Hall to communicate definitively about what they wanted their agency to do," Stringer replied.
Meanwhile Monday, a new poll found that a majority of New Yorkers – 51 percent – disapprove of the job Mayor de Blasio is doing. A total of 42 percent approve.
The mayor's overall approval rating was virtually unchanged from another poll in May, though it shows a five-point uptick in support from African-American voters and a five-point decline among Hispanic voters.
