NYC Department Of Investigation Chief: Board Of Elections "Hostile" To Reform Recommendations

[hrmjustin]

BY CELESTE KATZ

The new head of the city Department of Investigation testIfied Friday that his staff has encountered "outright hostility" at the highest levels of the Board of Elections while trying to get the embattled agency to clean up its act.

The Board has not been “anywhere near as cooperative” as necessary in responding to a 2013 DOI investigation that detailed nepotism, incompetence, inefficiency -- and even possible crimes, DOI Commissioner Mark Peters (pictured center) told a joint hearing of the City Council Government Operations and Oversight and Investigations Committees.

Peters said DOI has referred several issues for possible civil prosecution, and said criminal charges are still possible. In describing "illegal" activity at the Board, Peters told the lawmakers, “I use the word deliberately. This is an ongoing investigation, so there are aspects of it I am not prepared to discuss."

The scathing Dec. 30 DOI report, including 40 recommendations to improve the elections agency, said family favoritism, waste and ineptitude hobble the Board.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2014/02/nyc-department-of-investigation-chief-board-of-elections-hostile-to-reform-rec

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Good find. There's a *lot* wrong here but the following is the most blatant:

>>>He tangled -- protractedly -- with Councilman Ritchie Torres of the Bronx about the definition of "nepotism," saying that just because members of the same family work at the same agency doesn't indicate de facto corruption.

Torres countered that the agency -- which gives limited notice of job openings when it gives them at all and hires many of its full- and part-time workers through a patronage system linked to the county parties -- has an inarguably high degree of family relationships in its ranks.>>>


I remember your post from the last election cycle where you fumed about the logistical nightmare these people had set up for voters in your district. This is a window into why it's as bad as it is.

Kudos to Comm. Peters and to Mayor dB for taking these people on.

[hrmjustin]

2. I think they should fire the leadership of the BOE.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Torture first. ( I recommend water boarding.) Then firings. n/t

[hrmjustin]

4. Sounds like a plan.