Longtime state Sen. Frank Padavan died, according to an announcement from the Queens County GOP Tuesday morning. Padavan died of a heart attack at New York Presbyterian Hospital, according to a source.
A Republican, Padavan went to Albany in 1972 as the state Senator from the 11th District, a seat he would hold for 38 years representing a wide swath of Queens, including Bayside, Bay Terrace, Queens Village, Bellerose, Flushing, Whitestone, Little Neck, College Point and Jamaica Estates.
Padavan fought hard for mental health patient rights, education, and fairness in the criminal justice system before losing to state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) in the November 2010 general election.
A scathing report issued by the New York State Inspector General’s Office blasts actions taken by the Indian Cultural and Community Center — and inaction by the New York State Dormitory Authority — in connection with the sale of more than four acres of property on the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center site in Queens Village.
The ICCC was before the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals on Tuesday in continuing its effort to construct a pair of nine-story towers on the property.
The project has been roundly opposed by residents, local elected officials, civic associations and Community Board 13.
The 18-page IG report found that “the ICCC exploited loopholes in the statute and lapses in oversight by the Dormitory Authority ... which was tasked with overseeing the transaction.”
The ICCC first proposed purchasing about 4.5 acres for the creation of a cultural and community center, an athletic field and parking spaces, a sale that went through in 2008 with the backing of Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village), former state Sen. Frank Padavan and then-Assemblyman and current Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens).
By the time the contract was signed, the ICCC was claiming it was allowed to build the two apartment towers, first proposing 126 units and now seeking 143.
The IG’s report states that Dormitory Authority officials negotiating the contract were ignorant of the Legislature’s intent on land use restrictions when making the deal; and that the ICCC representatives did nothing to fill the gap in the agency’s knowledge.
It also said the Legislature never placed the specific restrictions in the authorizing statute itself.
The city's districting commission, charged with redrawing the lines that make up the 51 City Council districts, voted to withdraw their original plan Tuesday and hold more public hearings before coming up with a new one. NY1's Zack Fink has the story.
The hastily called meeting came amid questions about whether the commission had the authority to withdraw the maps it had already submitted.
After receiving assurances from the the city's law department, the commission voted unanimously to take back its maps and hold a new round of public hearings.
But that wasn't all. The commission also voted for two changes to the maps.
One change addressed a controversy involving the embattled Assemblyman Vito Lopez.
After the maps had already been voted on by the commission, Lopez's ally, City Councilman Erik Dilan, requested that Lopez's home be moved to the neighboring 34th district where it would be easier for Lopez to run for City Council.
"My concern was that in voting on these several changes, which I don't disagree with, we leave the perception that that's all we are going to do," Padavan said.
Several organizations are seeking additional changes to the maps and their concerns were not addressed.
"I just wanted to make sure that it was understood that this plan isn't adopted because we just revised it," Ognibene said. "There still needs to be public hearings, this is not part of the adopted plan, and I wanted that clear."
The new round of public hearings are expected to take place in January.
N.B. The word unanimously is crossed out because Padavan actually abstained from voting.
Commissioners who unanimously approved new City Council district lines last week were not provided with maps showing last-minute tweaks until an hour before voting for them, one commissioner told The Insider.
Former state Sen. Frank Padavan, a Republican member of the New York City Districting Commission, said the first time he saw last-minute changes that will stand for the next decade came at an hour-long meeting last Thursday — and that he now regrets his vote in favor of the lines at that meeting. Mr. Padavan said he had been unaware that the Broadway-Flushing neighborhood in Queens, which had been in Republican Councilman Dan Halloran’s district, had been split in two.
“When the final drafts were presented [at the meeting] I just didn’t have all the details,” said Mr. Padavan. “It was just cut out and I didn’t notice.”
Commissioners were not provided with copies of the revised maps, but were provided with the opportunity to physically come into the commission’s offices near City Hall in the four days leading up to the final meeting to peruse the final lines. Some of them did so.
“They had drop-ins where you could go down there and take a look at it,” said former Republican New York City Council Minority Leader Thomas Ognibene, another commissioner. “At least, you could have a private opportunity.”
A commission spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr. Padavan’s concerns.
Why weren't the maps e-mailed to the commissioners before the vote? This is 2012, not 1980. While one can blame Mr. Padavan for not taking his role seriously enough, it's kind of suspicious that such dramatic changes were made to the maps by the commission and the commissioners were not adequately informed.
State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has two less challengers after Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone) decided to run in another district and former Sen. Frank Padavan opted not to relive a heated previous campaign for his old seat.
“I’m going to focus my efforts on getting Dan re-elected,” Padavan said at a recent event, referring to City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone), who is running for Congress.
It was widely speculated earlier this year that Padavan would face off against Avella in a general election, and Padavan told TimesLedger Newspapers in February that he was considering the move.
But a source in the Queens Republican Party confirmed Padavan did not want to run. Now the party is in the process of drawing up a shortlist of possible candidates and interviewing them.
It was also uncertain where Stavisky would end up running after the redistricting process, but her office said she would be making an announcement on the steps of Flushing Library, at 41-17 Main St., indicating she would go for the new 16th District.
That district most closely resembles her current seat, but is centered around Flushing, with two arms that extend west into Forest Hills and east along the Long Island Expressway into parts of Bayside. The district is 53 percent Asian, and by running there Stavisky will avoid a primary with Avella.
Having deferred Congressional ambitions, State. Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, announced on Monday that he will run to be re-elected to the state Senate.
A Republican contender for the seat has yet to emerge, but Queens GOP leaders are hoping former Sen. Frank Padavan will attempt to regain his old seat.
Avella had been named as a potential candidate for U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman's, D-Bayside, seat after the long-time congressman recently announced that he would retire. But the senator has, instead, decided to support state Assemblywoman Grace Meng's, D-Flushing, bid for Congress.
Avella said he is planning to run again for the Senate.
The Queens GOP hopes Padavan will take up arms for his old seat. Avella and Padavan last faced off in 2009. At that time, Padavan had been the 38-year incumbent.
A Manhattan judge has backed state investigators who are trying to get to the bottom of a controversial deal to sell state land to an Indian community group in Queens.
The organization that got the sweetheart deal, the Indian Cultural and Community Center, has stopped cooperating with detectives dispatched by state Inspector General Ellen Biben, court records show.
But Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez said in a ruling last week that there is “a legitimate and reasonable basis for [the IG’s] inquiry,” and he ordered the Indian Cultural and Community Center to turn over the records requested.
At its Monday meeting Community Board 13 voted against a plan by a nonprofit group to construct two large apartment towers on the campus of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, stating that the project was out of character with the neighborhood and was not what the organization originally told residents it had intended to build.
CB 13 denied the group’s application for a variance by a vote of 22-1 with 16 absent. First Vice Chairwoman Tanya Cruz abstained from the vote and board member V. M. Chacko was the only one in favor.
In 2008, the Indian Cultural and Community Center purchased two parcels of land at Creedmoor, which is located at 79-25 Winchester Blvd. in Queens Village, near the Bellerose border. The approximately 4.5 acres are adjacent to the homes on the west side of 242nd Street, from Union Turnpike to 82nd Avenue.
The ICCC told community leaders the land would be used to build a community center, a multi-use athletic field and an above-ground parking lot, but the plan was changed to include two nine-story apartment buildings that would contain 126 units of affordable housing for seniors.
The project is not in compliance with the master plan created for the campus by former Borough President Claire Shulman, and the towers would be located 30 feet from its low-rise neighbors with no buffer for privacy or noise, according to Richard Hellenbrecht, the chairman of CB 13’s Land Use Committee. The apartment buildings would also completely obstruct the sunlight and vistas of neighboring homes, and could set a precedent for other similar high-density projects.
The Queens lawmaker who has one of the most clearly contorted boundary lines in the borough wants to take redistricting power out of the hands of politicians.
When state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone) looks at her coverage area, she sees “a Rorschach test for troubled people.”
It is barely contiguous, which is required by the state. Between Clintonville and 148th streets in Whitestone, her district is actually just the Cross Island Parkway.
“If I walked the perimeter of my district, I would get hit by a car,” she said, standing on a crosswalk high above the thoroughfare.
And Stavisky knows who created that monster.
The corridor-like portion of the district was drawn in 1992, before Stavisky took the seat, she said, by the state Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. The parkway serves as an umbilical cord connecting the Democratic neighborhoods of Beechhurst and Bay Terrace to the main hub of her Democratic district in Flushing.
By connecting the two neighborhoods to the 16th District, the committee took them out of the neighboring district, which was then held by former Sen. Frank Padavan.
Padavan was a Republican, and since the neighborhoods in question typically vote Democratic, they would have hurt his chances for re-election, according to Stavisky, which is why they were removed. But the Democrats benefitted as well, since the addition of the neighborhoods made the 16th District a deeper hue of blue.
“It was wrong in 1992, and it’s wrong now,” she said.
You were elected in 1999. What about the 2002 redistricting? Why didn't you do something about it then? Why didn't the newspaper point this out?
An Indian group proposing senior housing and a cultural center on the ground of Creedmoor was grilled on its plans by a testy crowd during a public hearing last week in Bellerose.
The Indian Cultural and Community Center wants to build two nine-story towers of senior housing and a community facility after state legislation led to it acquiring the Creedmoor land last year.
Civic leaders and public officials criticized the group, claiming it had been deceptive about its plans and saying the proposal is out of character with the community.
Some community residents walked out of the meeting when a South Asian man claimed opposition to the plan was the result of racism.
The public hearing was needed because the ICCC needs a variance to build the senior housing in a zone that only allows for commercial buildings.
The offices of the state attorney general and the state inspector general are investigating the group’s land purchase, which was authorized under legislation sponsored by then-state Sen. Frank Padavan and then-state Assemblyman Mark Weprin.
Former state Sen. Frank Padavan and City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens), both supported the Indian Cultural and Community Center when it purchased two parcels of land at the site, approximately 4.5 acres, in 2008, which the group said it would use to build a community center, athletic field and parking lot.
But now the group’s plans have changed and it has lost the political backing of Weprin and Padavan that it once had.
Padavan said that representatives of the ICCC told him they planned to build a community and youth center. When asked if he supported the new plan, Padavan replied, “The area is not zoned for it,” adding “I am not in office anymore. I have nothing to do with this.”
When asked if he favors the apartment towers, a plan he said he only learned of recently, Weprin said he does not. He believes affordable housing for seniors is needed in the area, but not on the large scale that the ICCC is proposing.
The lawmaker also denied an accusation by state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), who replaced Padavan, that he pushed him to back legislation supporting the second deal.
The whole thing is now under investigation and Tony Avella is introducing legislation to make sure this doesn't happen again in the future.
Members of the Indian cultural group, including Koshy and Sanu Thomas, went to Padavan and pitched a community center to hold “community activities and social gatherings,” including picnics, dances, weddings and holiday celebrations. They targeted two chunks of land on Creedmoor’s 98-acre campus and drew up plans.
So Padavan and then-Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Queens) rammed through separate legislation to OK the sale through a three-day message of necessity. That passed in July 2006. When the sale took longer than expected, Padavan and Weprin authored another bill in 2007 to extend the timetable for the sale by a year.
The group showered Padavan and Weprin with campaign contributions. Members donated at least $2,850 to Padavan and $2,510 to Weprin for his City Council and Assembly runs between 2000 and 2009. Group members also gave $1,600 to Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Queens), Mark’s brother, for his 2009 city comptroller bid. Sanu and Koshy Thomas shelled out the lion share of the group contributions.
Padavan, whose daughter-in-law is Indian-American, went on a crusade to get the land sold. He hounded state dormitory authorities to approve the deal without the usual attorney general review, according to state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens). Sale of state land is usually conducted through an auction to the highest bidder, or granted to public entities. Since 2006, the Creedmoor parcels were the only sale of state Dormitory Authority land to be pushed through with special legislation, according to state records.
Clark introduced a bill in January to grant the group roughly 6 acres to eliminate the state’s concerns about the patchwork of property. Last month, as the legislative year was winding down, she and Assemblyman Weprin visited Avella in his office and asked him to co-sponsor it. When he refused, she got downright “threatening,” Avella said, and later publicly slammed a “freshman senator” for not knowing his place. Clark then went to Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) to co-sponsor a bill, which he did last month.
Local civic associations are up in arms over the development’s monstrous apartment buildings, which are slated for area seniors. The towers are too tall for the area’s zoning, and the group is trying to get a variance by using obscure examples from those granted in the dense sections of the South Bronx.
It’s not a difficult to see, in Sanu Thomas, the beginnings of a New York politician in the mold of Pedro Espada or Vito Lopez. Espada started a non-profit health clinic in The Bronx, then, when elected to office, steered millions in contracts to it, enriching himself. He will now stand trial for embezzlement.
If the Indian Culture and Community Center gets its land, it could be a low-cost way for Thomas to have a non-profit that “gives back to the community” while it potentially pays his friends and cultivates voters that put him on the City Council or in state government. Decades from now, will Sanu Thomas be steering taxpayer “member items” to these groups?
Thomas already has learned one lesson of New York politics. Any criticism is not motivated by the misuse of public funds, or suspicion about private deals, but racism.
State leaders went out of their way to push through a controversial land deal -- which robbed taxpayers of millions of dollars -- to gain the favor of a politically powerful Indian church, sources said.
Former Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens) championed the sale of 4.5 acres of the old Creedmoor Hospital to the cash-poor Indian Cultural and Community Center, going so far as to hound state Dormitory Authority officials to OK the deal without the usual attorney general's review, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) claims.
"Why would you want to circumvent the normal contract-review process? Only if you want to hide something," charged Avella, who is pushing the AG's Office to investigate the fishy deal.
Padavan's 2006 legislation authorized the sale of the Queens psych-hospital parcel for $1.8 million, a fraction of its estimated market value of $7.3 million. The measure allows the Floral Park group to build a community center and apartment buildings.
Sale of state land is usually conducted through an auction to the highest bidder, or granted to public entities. Since 2006, the Creedmoor parcels were the only sale of state Dormitory Authority land to be pushed through with special legislation, according to state records.
This year, Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens) shopped around another bill to sell the group roughly six more acres as they seek to erect 126 potentially lucrative apartments.
Padavan -- who lost a re-election bid last year -- and Clark received a combined total of $5,201 in campaign contributions from the cultural group's members, elections records show.
The nonprofit is led by a circle of increasingly powerful Queens and Long Island businessmen.
Two legislators who backed the 2009 sale of 4.5 acres of Creedmoor land to [The Indian Community and Cultural Center of Floral Park] - Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens) and former Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens) - got thousands of dollars in campaign cash from its members, records show.
It was a great deal for the Cultural Center: The $1.8 million purchase price was a pittance compared to the property's estimated $7.3 million market value in 2010, city records show.
Now the Floral Park group is twisting state legislators' arms to push a deal for another six acres from the site. They plan to build an access road there to two giant nine-story apartment towers.
The Assembly passed a bill pushing the second sale on Wednesday. When Avella refused to sponsor the bill in the Senate, Clark persuaded Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) to back the idea instead. Smith introduced Senate legislation backing the second sale last week. But after getting furious letters about the land grab, Smith put the bill on hold.
Avella said Clark's insistence that he back the deal was borderline "threatening." Group leaders and their family members delivered at least $2,351 in campaign cash to Clark last year. They've donated $2,850 to Padavan and $2,510 to Mark Weprin for his City Council and Assembly runs.
The race between state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) and former City Councilman Tony Avella is not as tight as some may expect, according to a Siena College poll that showed Padavan with a 24-point lead over Avella.
The poll of 409 likely voters in Senate District 11 found 56 percent of voters choosing Padavan compared to 32 percent for Avella with 12 percent undecided.
In a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 3-to-1, the poll found the race a dead heat among Democrats — 46 percent for Avella compared to 44 percent for Padavan.
“Sen. Padavan can take nothing for granted in this district that has an overwhelming Democratic enrollment advantage — however, he appears to be in a very strong position with voters,” said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg. “He is more well-known and viewed far more favorably than is Avella and voters think he is better on every issue.”
Avella, a Democrat, took 16 percent of Republicans in the poll while Padavan had support of 75 percent of Republicans polled.
Padavan had a wide lead among independents: 65 percent to 17 percent with 19 percent undecided.
Those polled were asked who they thought was the better candidate on 10 issues ranging from the state budget to crime to taxes — and Padavan came out on top in each category.
Crime is an issue in all city parks, but College Point Park has long seen a relatively low rate of incidents.
That seems to have changed in recent months, as complaints by area community members and business owners have risen about issues including drug dealing, loitering, public drinking and fighting at the park located at College Point Boulevard and 14th Avenue.
So Monday afternoon in College Point, about a dozen community leaders, area residents, business owners, police officers from the 109th Precinct, state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) and City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) gathered for a meeting in the park to discuss ways to address the recent rise in criminal activity there.
“Some of the local business owners had expressed concerns with recent upticks in crimes in the park — there was drinking in public there, there was drug dealing,” Steve Stites, a spokesman for Halloran, said. “They brought their concerns to Halloran, Padavan and the 109th and the meeting yesterday was to take the temperature of everything, discuss everything and see how they can move forward and make the park safer.”
The consensus was that the park would do well to have a fence around it, as many parks across the city do, and to have an official open and close time, which would enable police officers to arrest individuals who are in the park after-hours.
Halloran plans to take the lead and work with the city Parks Department to get the fence and signs indicating a closing time of 9 p.m. installed.
First he should take the lead on buying himself some long pants...
A controversial catering hall in Floral Park that has drawn the ire of neighbors for its customers’ rowdy antics was granted a liquor license, prompting outrage from elected officials.
Residents said they saw customers bring in alcohol to Shahi Darbar at 83-47 258th St. and witnessed patrons having sex on top and inside their cars at night.
Other complaints included broken bottles of alcohol on the sidewalk, double-parked cars and loud noise.
A resident who asked not to be named said when he went to complain about some of the behavior recently, he was pushed by a Shahi Darbar employee.
Community Board 10 voted against a liquor license for Shahi Darbar last year, but the state Liquor Authority approved the application anyway in June without notifying the board about the hearing.
“We were very disgusted,” said CB 10 member Seymour Finkelstein, who lives near the establishment. “We feel that we had no say in the matter. Why weren’t we notified to the hearing?”
State Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) wrote to state Liquor Authority Chairman Dennis Rosen July 27 asking the body to suspend the liquor license and set up a public hearing in the community.
“This establishment has become a nightmare for local residents,” the senator wrote.
Padavan said he has yet to hear back from the authority.
In his attempt to hold off former New York City Council Member Tony Avella this year, State Sen. Frank Padavan will have the crucial Independence Party line.
But fellow Queens Republican Anthony Como, who is running against State Sen. Joe Addabbo, will not.
The party’s executive committee officially submitted its endorsements on Monday.
Both riled members of the State Independence Party by using members of the party’s rival New York City faction to gatherer their petition signatures. Padavan was pulled from the precipice thanks to his longstanding ties with party chair Frank MacKay and his close relationship with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an Independence ally and benefactor.
But in Como’s race, the line went to Addabbo.
“I was able to keep one of them off,” said Michael Zumbluskus, a downstate executive committee member who was upset with the campaigns’ use of rival signature gatherers, and claimed victory from keeping Como off the line.
Zumbluskus said that the decision was also helped by Addabbo’s campaign carrying petitions for Independence Party state committee members, while Como’s had not.
Como campaign spokesman James McClelland sought to downplay the development, which could make it difficult for Como to win in a Queens district with a heavy Democratic enrollment advantage. McClelland said that Como’s campaign met Sunday night after learning of the news and decided they still would be viable going forward.
“It’s not a blow to the campaign, because this year the anti-incumbent sentiment is so strong,” he said. “In the past, the Independence Party was more of an asset.”
Mayor Bloomberg has actively intervened to thwart a modest, palliative "greening" of solid-waste-by-rail operations. The Mayor opposed tweaks to existing state environmental law that would close current loopholes that benefit railroad and waste management corporations. These loopholes allow freight trains to haul and park open and unsealed cars of solid waste in our communities. The resulting stench, air and water-borne pollution, habitat for disease vectors, and unsightly rail corridor are draining health and value from communities. People are suffering with these problems that are exacerbated by the summer heat. In a late session debate, the Mayor's colleagues invoked his opposition and also took up the arguments of railroad lobbyists (Railroads of New York) and the interests of rail and solid waste management corporations in a debate with Senator Addabbo, who spoke on behalf of citizens. The debate can be accessed starting at 2h 53 min.:
Following are CURES responses to the arguments made by the Senators (major points are in bold and underlined), including those the Senators expressed on behalf of the Mayor, and an email from CURES Co-Chair Laura Zimmer. Laura wrote to Senators Padavan, Farley, and Libous, "I pray daily that legislators will find it in themselves to represent ordinary folks in the same manner that they would represent the wealthy." Amen.
CURES answers to the Bloomberg/Senators' arguments made on the floor of the Senate: - the city has demonstrated that it has the power to mandate the use of freight rail for transport of city garbage. It already has done so in at least one contract with WM (Varick St.). (PADAVAN) - the idea that tarps would be a big safety problem is not borne out by the national experience of tarped trucks on interstate highways in the company of passenger vehicles. (PADAVAN) - the notion that the only alternative to open and unsealed rail cars of garbage is bringing back tractor trailers is a false choice that asks the people to "pick their poison" instead of making corporations clean up the way they do business. (PADAVAN) - the Senator needs to drive down to communities in Queens, Brooklyn, and Suffolk Co. and see how scenic the view is from backyards, parks, and other properties that open onto stinking loads of garbage. (LIBOUS) - Assemblymen from Suffolk Co. co-sponsored the assembly version of the bills, proving that it is not just the city's problem. (LIBOUS)
Other answers to Padavan's arguments: - the city doesn't have to wait to see what its vendors and their vendors dish out. It has a lot of power in this matter. This is an essential city service and a sure source of revenue for companies that make money off it -- WM, the railroads. The city has the power to make sure railroads really are a green mode of transportation for the communities of NYC. Unfortunately, instead in this case the Mayor has used his clout to thwart a modest greening of solid-waste-by-rail operations by actively opposing a tweak to existing state environmental law that would close current loopholes that benefit railroad and waste management corporations. - the idea that railroads would refuse to carry solid waste if the loads had to be tarped because of liability is all speculative threat. This seems extremely unlikely in light of the substantial percentage of their current business that the solid waste business comprises in the NYC area. - the waste management companies own the rail cars. Any investments they would have to make in equipment, operations, labor would be offset by depreciation and other tax write offs.
Answers to Farley's arguments: - his focus is all on the idea that this legislation will place burdens on railroads. This came without even a mention of the role of waste management companies in this business or any regard for the daily problems our communities experience, which were eloquently expressed by our Senator Addabbo. - is he really making the argument that the solid waste business isn't lucrative unless these primitive practices and equipment are used? Is he really saying that the waste management industry and the portion of railroad business that serves it require subsidies from communities in the form of diminished health, quality of life, and property values or it isn't worth it? That rail doesn't have enough inherent competitive advantages over individual trucks?
Other answers to Libous: - if trucks still haul open loads of waste through NY State (this is NOT the case in other states) over highways, absolutely they should be tarped. - economic development would be well served by making these corporations clean up their acts. Manufacturing would benefit -- new equipment and maybe machines. Maybe a few more people would be employed. When did it become fashionable to allow corporations to avoid investing in safety and environmental protection, in newer equipment, operations, and personnel in order to plump up short-term profits? And what about the economic value that is being taken out of communities along the rail line?
Italicized passages and many of the photos come from other websites. The links to these websites are provided within the posts.
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