No problem for employees living outside NYC

From Capital New York:

Eight members of the de Blasio administration were granted permission last year to skirt residency laws and live outside New York City, according to documents obtained by Capital on Friday from a Freedom of Information request.

By comparison, three waivers were given in 2013 and eight were granted in 2012.

In each letter, agency heads requested the exemptions be granted because the employees could not move for personal reasons, often family-related, but that they either possessed a unique skill or the agency needed to broaden its candidate pool.

Queens is hosting the most migrant children

From Capital New York:

The Department of Education is instructing its principals on how to manage the influx of unaccompanied migrant children streaming into New York City, according to a memo obtained by Capital.

The memo, which contains guidelines for everything from enrolling the children to finding them dental care, was sent to all city principals earlier this week.

The letter states that the D.O.E. is "well-positioned to guide the enrollment, instruction and support of unaccompanied child migrants arriving in NYC."

According to D.O.E. figures, 62,998 migrant children have come to the United States since October 2013. D.O.E. officials said 2,552 of them have been enrolled in the city's public schools: 676 in Queens; 409 in Brooklyn; 404 in the Bronx; and 63 in Manhattan. School officials said they expect an additional 1,000 over the next five months.

The children have come mostly from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

From the NY Times:

New York State will conduct a compliance review of school districts’ enrollment procedures in an effort to eliminate barriers to schooling for undocumented immigrant children, the State Education Department and the attorney general’s office plan to announce on Thursday.

The review is intended to determine whether districts have violated federal law in imposing enrollment requirements that bar children on the basis of their immigration status, especially in suburban counties near New York City that have absorbed hundreds of unaccompanied minors from Central America this year.

The new steps come a day after The New York Times reported that some undocumented immigrant children on Long Island have been excluded from classes because their families cannot gather documents that schools require to prove they are residents of the district or have guardianship — obstacles that contravene legal guidance on enrollment procedures the State Education Department issued in September.

In summary, illegal aliens will get to jump to the front of the school line (I'm not sure if they come before or after the homeless kids), while people who actually come from the areas where their schools are located will continue to be forced to prove it. And then they'll only be offered a slot if there's space left. This seems fair, doesn't it?

No residency requirement for shelter placement

From the Times Ledger:

“Imagine trying to explain what was happening to an 8-year-old child,” resident Shakema Brown said after collecting backpacks for her kids.

The 28-year-old mother of three, including a 3-month-old, moved in with some family after her house in Pennsylvania burned down.

“We moved into the Farragut Houses in Brooklyn, but soon after they [her family] got evicted and we ended up here at the Pan Am,” she said.

Brown added that she and her children were among the first to move into the facility June 6.

Sheila Jones nodded in agreement.

“I’m a grandmother caught in a situation who’s trying to get back on my feet. We all have a story about why we’re displaced,” she said.

Jones moved back to Queens, where she was born and raised, after losing her home in Georgia. She said she was surprised when she heard the tone of the protesters.

Georgia?

Pennsylvania?

Shouldn't there be a residency requirement for getting a $4,000/mo subsidy?

COME TO NY: LAND OF THE TAXPAYING SUCKERS

People leaving NY in droves

From Forbes:

More people are moving out of New Jersey than are moving in. The same is true for Illinois and New York. Those three states top the “outbound” list compiled by United Van Lines, the big St. Louis-based moving company that has put together an annual survey of where Americans are moving for the last 37 years. The company analyzed a total of 125,000 moves across the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia in 2013 and came up with a picture of migration patterns across the U.S.

According to Professor Michael Stoll, chair of the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a consultant to United Van Lines who studies American migration, the moves reflect long-term shifts in the U.S. economy and the hit to employment in many states resulting from the slow recovery.

Of the top nine states where more people moved out than moved in, four are in the Northeast: In addition to New Jersey and New York, Connecticut (No. 5) and Massachusetts (No. 8) make the list. The list also reflects Americans’ desire to leave the frigid states in the north for warmer climes. “Over the last 20-30 years there has been a general shift of the population from the Midwest and Northeast to the South and West, which we think of as a move from the frost belt to the sun belt,” says Stoll.

This is news?

From City and State:

Evan Stavisky and Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky are husband and wife. He is a well-known political consultant in Queens; she is the head of the Rockland County Democratic party. When they attend the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina in September, they will represent districts an hour’s drive apart.

Their dual lives have led to grumbling among Queens Democrats and questions about the state’s porous residency laws. But Evan Stavisky says the arrangement is proper, if convoluted, as he remains as devoted to his native Queens as his wife is to her native Rockland.

Still, even though his drivers license gives a Queens address, some of his neighbors there say he is a scarce presence. “He’s rarely ever home,” one said.

What complicates the picture are Evan Stavisky’s dual roles as a Democratic district leader and a consultant with the Parkside Group, which represents some of the county’s leading candidates—including his mother, Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, who has paid Parkside more than $440,000 over her career.

Democratic operatives claim Evan Stavisky keeps the Queens home in part to maintain his position as district leader, giving him a vote in picking local candidates and access to potential Parkside clients – accusations he angrily denies.

How funny is it that they credited this website for the photo when I quite clearly credited City Hall News - the paper that City and State used to be - for the photo back when I used it on the site? Evan's Flushing apartment is not the only place where the light's on but no one's home.

Kept on payroll after she left

From the Daily News:

The outgoing boss of Mayor Bloomberg’s Business Integrity Commission gave his private secretary three hefty raises — even as he managed to keep her off the city payroll.

Mike Mansfield, who was in charge of driving the mob out of city businesses, gave secretary Hope Kennedy three raises in just seven months, pumping up her salary nearly 60%, the Daily News has learned. Mansfield, who is leaving the commission for a private-sector job, was able to hide the pay-raise trifecta by making Kennedy his chief of staff — yet keeping her on the payroll of the Queens district attorney.

Kennedy’s salary climbed from $68,000 to $108,000 during seven months, records show. The raises were hidden because Kennedy continued to be paid as an employee of the Queens DA’s office even after she left her job there, in an arrangement that appears to be unique in the city. By doing this, Kennedy also was able to dodge residency rules that require all Business Integrity Commission employees to live in the city.

Instead, unlike everyone else in the BIC office who lived in the city, Kennedy’s home is on Long Island.

A nice place to represent, but they wouldn't want to live here

From the Daily News:

Deputy Mayor Robert Steel insists he lives in the city - but his wife, his Porsche, his Mercedes-Benz, his Lexus and his four yappy dogs all live in Connecticut.

"Where would you rather live if you were a dog?" Steel asked when the Daily News confronted him in the driveway of his extravagant Greenwich mansion. "I'd rather live here."

City law requires all top city officials to live in the city.

Although most major unions have negotiated the right for members to live in the suburbs, Mayor Bloomberg issued an executive order insisting that top officials - except those granted a waiver - reside in the city.

Just 32 employees have been granted that waiver. Steel never requested one.

That means he had 90 days to move to New York after becoming deputy mayor for economic development in August 2010.

Also from the Daily News:

The city official charged with fixing the problem-plagued $2 billion upgrade of our 911 emergency response system has been doing much of his work from home - in sunny Florida.

Glen (Skip) Funk, the man Mayor Bloomberg appointed in August 2010 to a $200,000-a-year post as director of the Office of Citywide Emergency Communications, still lists an address in St. Augustine, Fla., as his legal residence.

Property records show Funk and his wife are receiving a $50,000 "homesteading" tax exemption Florida grants to residents who claim a property as their primary home.

In addition, Florida voter records show Funk and his wife both cast ballots in that state's election last November - more than two months after he started his new job for New York City.

Bloomberg's take?

"He lives in the city. What is your evidence? What are the allegations? Why do you try to assassinate somebody?" Bloomberg demanded.

New Quinn policy is all bark and no bite

From the NY Post:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has begun strictly enforcing residency requirements for all legislators -- and is promising to look into anyone who doesn't comply, The Post has learned.

Quinn last week sent every incoming and current member papers explaining that they are required by law to live in their districts on the date of election, and mandating they prove residency, citizenship and age before they are sworn in on Jan. 1, 2010.

"If a member does not comply, the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Elections will conduct a review of the matter. If the committee believes a council member-elect should not be seated or is not eligible, the committee will recommend any appropriate action to the full council," according to a copy of the council rules.

Members must submit five records from a list of 18 documents, including driver's licenses, bank statements, voter-registration forms and mortgage-payment notices.

An election-law expert said it would be difficult for her to refuse to swear in a new member if the full council voted in that member's favor, despite any controversy over residency.

Kevin Kim's moving adventures

For a guy who claims to be from Bay Terrace, Kevin Kim sure has bounced around...from Manhattan...to Flushing...and to CD 19 just in time to run!

I can't wait for Ruffles to write an exposé on this.