Pal Viv raps Blas team over land-deal probe
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a close ally of Mayor de Blasio, said Wednesday it’s “very troubling” his office impeded an investigation of a botched Lower East Side real-estate deal.
The city’s Department of Investigation issued a scathing report last week on the administration’s handling of the deal — which removed deed restrictions to allow for the conversion of the Rivington House nursing home into luxury condos — and cited a lack of access to requested documents and computer terminals.
“It’s very clear what the authority of DOI is. The Department of Investigation is to have full access to documents, so that is a concern,” Mark-Viverito said at a press conference calling for similar deals to become part of the more transparent land-use review process.
“Clearly, access to the documents should not have been made difficult,” she added. “It should have been freely made available, so that aspect of the report is also very troubling.”
The DOI said in one case Law Department officials, who report to the mayor, redacted 990 pages out of 1,000 that were requested.
City officials also blocked access to all computers in the Mayor’s Office.
Hizzoner has insisted that “a huge amount of material was provided.”
While he has said no one would be fired despite the DOI’s conclusion that top City Hall officials knew or should have known about the deal, Councilmember Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan) demanded discipline.
“I’m troubled by what [DOI] found and I believe that those responsible should be held accountable,” she said.
Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer have spearheaded the push for changes to the process for altering deeds.
The former nursing home at 45 Rivington St. was purchased by The Allure Group in 2014, and the city removed restrictions limiting the uses of the property in exchange for a $16.1 million payment in 2015.
Earlier this year, The Allure Group sold the building to a trio of luxury housing developers for $116 million, even though administration officials had been looking to turn it into affordable housing.
The deal is still under investigation by the New York US Attorney, the state attorney general and the city comptroller.
[Access to the documents]do should haveh been freely madema available, so that aspect of thet report is ... veryv troubling. —City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-C V iver ito( left ), blasting interference by the Viver Mayor’ s Office in the investigation of the May Riving ton House real-estate deal
You know City Hall has crossed the line when even City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is squawking — as she is over Mayor de Blasio’s stonewall over the Rivington St. nursing-home flip.
At a press conference calling for new rules for lifting deed restrictions like the one in that now-notorious case, the speaker called it “very troubling” that the mayor’s office impeded the Department of Investigation’s probe of the affair.
“It’s very clear what the authority of DOI is. [It] is to have full access to documents — so that is a concern,” said Mark-Viverito. It sure is. What is the mayor hiding? After all, what DOI did uncover already shows he’s a liar. When word of the flip hit the press, he claimed City Hall had been blindsided by the news — yet The Post uncovered proof that two deputy mayors had been all over the deal.
He also insisted he first learned of the flip from the papers — yet DOI produced a memo showing he’d been briefed on it.
What else is to be learned from the documents and electronic devices that de Blasio’s Law Department refused to let DOI ininspect? And why did DOI take “no” for an answer? Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Queens) has a point: DOI chief Mark Peters — who was the finance chairman of de Blasio’s 2013 campaign — should resign if he won’t pursue legal action to get that “full access.”
US Attorney Preet Bharara, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Manhattan DA Cy Vance have no doubt taken notice and are drafting subpoenas to take possession of the possibly incriminating information.
If DOI won’t get the job done, it falls to prosecutors to get to the bottom of the Rivington swindle.