Violated City Charter
2 Employees Fined For Family Favors

By RICHARD STEIER

The Conflicts of Interest Board has reached settlements that impose fines on two men who used their city positions to improperly benefit family members, it disclosed March 27.

In one case, a former Housing Assistant at the Housing Authority agreed to pay $2,250 to settle charges against him for using false pretenses to obtain an HA apartment for his wife, allowing her to bypass numerous other applicants.

Got Work for Sister

The other involved a Construction Project Manager at the Department of Design and Construction who recommended his sister for a job with a DDC vendor. He paid a fine of $1,250 to settle the case against him.

The Housing Assistant, Angel Vale, who left his position last May, stated in the stipulation of settlement that on Nov. 29, 2003, at a time when he had been employed by the HA for less than two years, he personally interviewed his wife as part of her application for the apartment. "Although I was married at the time of the interview," he stated, "I processed her initial application for public housing for a two-bedroom apartment for my wife and her brother."

He subsequently contacted a Clerical Associate and, over the course of several phone calls, managed to get the application expedited. He persuaded another Housing Assistant to review his wife's application "ahead of a significant number of pending priority cases and a backlog of a greater number of non-priority cases."

But when he sought further assistance from another Housing Assistant who was responsible for sending applicants a project guide that would indicate where vacancies were, she refused his request. Ultimately, his wife did not get the apartment. "We didn't process the application once we became aware of the issue," said HA spokesman Howard Marder.

Mr. Vale admitted to violating Chapter 68 of the City Charter, a section of which states, "No public servant shall engage in any business, transaction or private employment, or have any financial or other private interest, direct or indirect, for the public servant or any person or firm associated with the public servant."

Mr. Marder said Mr. Vale had resigned his job for reasons unrelated to the Charter violation.

George Sahm, who has been a Construction Project Manager at DDC for the past 6-1/2 years, engaged in his violation about a year after he was first hired.

From Wedding to Toilets

In September 2001, while supervising the restoration of bathrooms at Rikers Island that was being done by Arkay Construction, he overheard the president of the company discussing the hiring of a photographer for his upcoming wedding. When the executive, Rantik Parikh, asked Mr. Sahm if he knew anybody, he mentioned that his sister, Katherine Waldman, was a wedding photographer.

Mr. Sahm said he subsequently discovered that Arkay had hired his sister to take site photographs for the Rikers Island project to show the monthly progress made with the bathroom restorations. He said that as soon as he discovered his sister on the site taking photographs, he had her removed from the premises.

Nonetheless, he was found to have violated the Charter by having a sibling obtain financial gain - she was paid $780 for her work - as a result of his position.