Fed probe won’t stop Ridge Hill
A stepped-up federal probe of Yonkers City Council activities related to two development projects will not stop or stall the $630 million Ridge Hill Village under construction in the city, a spokesman for the project”™s Brooklyn developer indicated last week.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Michael J. Garcia this month issued subpoenas demanding records from at least five current City Council members who served when the Ridge Hill project, a mixed-use development on an 81-acre tract between I-87 and the Sprain Brook Parkway, was approved by a split vote in 2006. Council members also were ordered to appear this Tuesday before a federal grand jury in White Plains.
Federal investigators are seeking council members”™ records ”“ including notes and memos, calendars, correspondence, appointment books, telephone records and expense reports ”“ related to Forest City Ratner Companies”™ contentious and for a time litigation-ensnared Ridge Hill project and the so-called Longfellow project, a Yonkers company”™s proposal to redevelop two vacant former city schools for retail and residential use that the council unanimously approved in 2006. The subpoenas also demand records related to the council”™s approval in 2004 of hikes in city water rates and building and fire safety inspection fees.
This month”™s subpoenas are the second round directed at Yonkers elected officials by the U.S. Attorney”™s office in an apparent corruption probe. Garcia early last year sought city council documents that included agendas, audiovisual tapes of meetings and voting records dating to 2004. Council members”™ action on the Ridge Hill Village project reportedly was the focus of that investigation.
The recent subpoenas were served on both the majority and minority sides of the council aisle. They included two Republicans who twice voted against the Ridge Hill project, Dee Barbato and John M. Murtagh, and Republican Minority Leader Liam J. McLaughlin. Barbato and Murtagh, in a joint statement with council Democrat Patricia D. McDow, hailed the ongoing investigation as “necessary to assure the public that all of the business of the City of Yonkers is conducted with integrity and with the best interests of the citizens and taxpayers at heart.”
Majority Leader Sandy Annabi last week declined to say whether she was served a subpoena, citing the confidential nature of federal investigations. Annabi, reversing her previous position, cast the deciding vote for Ridge Hill in 2006 after Forest City Ratner agreed to a $10 million increase in its property tax payments.
“I”™m pretty confident that at the end of all of this, this council is going to be cleared ”“ both every member of the council and the council as a whole,” Annabi said last week. “Certainly if there is any wrong on this City Council, it should be weeded out.”
“They”™re casting a wide net,” said Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick, who steered passage of the Ridge Hill Village proposal through a second council vote in July 2006 after a court ruling invalidated an earlier one. “I don”™t know what they”™re doing.”
Lesnick took office in 2005, several months after the council”™s passage of the rate hikes that also apparently interest federal investigators. Regarding Ridge Hill Village, he said, “Every conversation that I had concerning that project had to do with traffic studies or additional tax revenues for the project.” Lesnick said he would provide the requested documents before the grand jury meets this week, though “I really don”™t think he (the U.S. Attorney) has anything to gain from that.”
Another focus of the federal subpoenas, the commercial Longfellow project, was approved by the council in September 2006. The council agreed to convey two boarded-up buildings, the former Public School 6 at 33 Ashburton Ave. and the former Longfellow Junior High School on the city”™s west side, to Milio Management Inc. in exchange for nearby Milio property that would allow the city to widen Ashburton Avenue and North Broadway.
A Walgreen”™s drug store was planned for the School 6 site, Lesnick said last week. The Milio family proposed to redevelop the junior high school for multi-family residential use. “They just haven”™t done anything with the project yet,” Lesnick said.
A Milio Management officer did not return a call for comment last week.
Lesnick said his conversations with the Milios “had to do with historic preservation.” He wanted Walgreen”™s to keep the school”™s shell when building its retail store, he said.
Annabi, whose district includes the Longfellow school, reportedly met with Milio officials after senior citizens opposed the school”™s proposed conversion to market-rate housing. The agreement approved by the city council required the developer to exclusively offer the rental units to senior citizen households for the first six months of its marketing campaign.
At Forest City Ratner Companies in Brooklyn, spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt said the Ridge Hill developer would not comment on the new round of federal subpoenas and the ongoing probe. “We don”™t know what it”™s about, but obviously it”™s larger than Ridge Hill,” he said.
The spokesman said Ridge Hill Village, which includes 1.2 million square feet of retail space, 1,000 housing units, a hotel and conference center and entertainment venues, will open in late 2009 or early 2010.
“It shouldn”™t affect the (Ridge Hill) project at all,” Lesnick said of the federal probe. “The project is moving on pace and it”™s going to continue moving on pace.
“I don”™t know what they”™re looking for. From my perspective, it”™s a distraction ”“ a minor distraction, because I didn”™t do anything wrong.
“It”™s one of those press-interest stories that really doesn”™t affect the way we do business,” the council president said.
Yonkers Mayor Philip Amicone, whose office was not included in the federal probe, said in a written statement his administration was cooperating with the U.S. Attorney”™s Office and supported “this and any other effort to identify and prosecute possible corruption.
“The subpoenas issued to the City Council portray our entire city government in a bad light, despite our significant efforts to the contrary. It is especially disappointing to me as I and so many of our public servants at every level have endeavored to move Yonkers away from what, at times, has been a troubled past.”