Under slum pressure!
Say city moved to keep deal quiet
The head of a Bronx homeless service provider has revealed that a high-ranking city official demanded she sign an affidavit swearing that her nonprofit had no affiliation with the Podolsky brothers, a pair of shady landlords who recently sold 17 buildings to the city for $173 million.
Aguila Inc. CEO Jenny Rivera told the Daily News on Monday that she did, in fact, provide services to homeless families at properties owned by the notorious brothers in question — and that the city was well aware of that fact.
The city’s apparent demand that she say otherwise — documented in emails and in her signed and notarized affidavit — shows the city was laying the groundwork for the controversial land deal with the Podolsky brothers as early as last year, she said.
Rivera told The News she signed off on a notarized affidavit while under immense pressure to pay her employees after the city withheld a requested loan to her nonprofit for a month.
“Under duress, I was coerced into signing this affidavit even though the city knows full well that Aguila manages multiple buildings owned by the Podolskys,” she wrote late last month in a letter addressed to Mayor de Blasio, detailing that and what she described as the city’s effort to “dismantle” the nonprofit.
“Aguila requests that City Hall look into the above matters as well as the decision-making process and actions of the Department of Homeless Services and the Mayor’s Office of Contracts,” she continued.
In an April 8 response to Rivera, city Homeless Services Administrator Joslyn Carter described the affidavits as “standard representations of the relationship between the entities.”
City Department of Social Services spokesman Isaac McGinn said such affidavits are specifically intended to affirm that service providers and landlords are not the same entity.
“This is a standard part of good-governance contracting procedure to ensure our provider partners are not directly linked to or financially affiliated with property owners,” McGinn said.
The Podolskys finalized the sale of 17 buildings for $173 million last week as part of the city’s plan to convert homeless housing to permanent affordable housing. The controversial deal has drawn criticism because the sale price is millions more than two city-commissioned appraisals of the properties — one that set the total value at $49 million and another that set it $143 million.
Comptroller Scott Stringer slapped City Hall with a subpoena last week to get copies of those documents. Others have questioned the fact that the Podolskys’ lawyer, Frank Carone, is also a longtime ally and donor to Mayor de Blasio.
Rivera, who’s been contracting with the city for almost two decades, backed up her coercion claim with a signed affidavit and emails from Human Resources Administration chief contracting officer Vincent Pullo.
In April 2018, Rivera and Aguila employees began inquiring with Pullo and other city officials about bridge loan applications it made to the city so the nonprofit could make payroll and pay its utility bills.
Pullo responded on April 27, 2018, that he was “trying to get this contract registered” and requested “proof of site control” and current leases for several Podolsky buildings in the Bronx.
That same day, Rivera, who told The News she was growing increasingly desperate to pay her staff at the time, replied with a signed lease for the Podolsky buildings Pullo referred to.
Five days later, Pullo sent an email requesting an affidavit from her asserting that Aguila “has no affiliation with” several people and entities, including Podolsky associate Alan Lapes and the “Podolsky Family (any and all members).”
Others on the list include shady landlords Barry Hers and Isaac Hersko.
The affidavit, which Rivera signed and provided to The News, states that “Aguila is not an affiliate or affiliated with … [the] Podolsky Family (any and all members) and Alan Lapes.” It also states: “I submit this Affidavit at the request of the Comptroller of the City of New York.”
Comptroller spokeswoman spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays said Stringer’s office “did not request an affidavit in the registration of this contract.”
Rivera said at the time she suspected the request was connected with a deal the city had in the works with the Podolskys, but that remained unconfirmed until more recently when The News revealed in January that brothers Jay and Stuart Podolsky were negotiating with the city.
“This is a problem,” she said of the affidavit request coming in the context of the bridge loan talks. “We have email after email after email.”