Author Topic: Feds: Councilwoman sold her vote for trinkets & cash (Would you hit it?)  (Read 591 times)

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Feds: Councilwoman sold her vote 'for baubles and trinkets'
www.lohud.com
Timothy O'Connor and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
tpoconnor@lohud.com
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WHITE PLAINS — Former Yonkers Councilwoman Sandy Annabi sold her vote “for baubles and trinkets,” federal investigators said today as Annabi and two connected political insiders were indicted on public corruption charges.

Annabi is accused of taking more than $160,000 in “secret payments” for casting the deciding council vote on two Yonkers development projects — the $630 million Ridge Hill development and the Longfellow development of two abandoned city schools.

Also indicted were former Yonkers GOP Chairman Zehy Jereis and political fixer Anthony Mangone, who U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said conspired with Annabi to accept bribes and no-show jobs in exchange for pushing the development deals through the city council.

“Rather than keep her word, she betrayed Yonkers residents by selling the most important assets any elected official has: her integrity and her independence,” Bharara said at a midday press conference at U.S. District Court in White Plains.

According to the indictment, Jereis was given a $60,000 consulting job in exchange for Annabi switching her vote and backing the Ridge Hill project on July 11, 2006 — the deciding vote.

Annabi, 39, also received $30,000 to switch her vote in opposition to the Longfellow project, federal prosecutors said. The project called for developers Milio Management Inc. to redevelop two abandoned city schools, including the Longfellow School in the Hollow section of Yonkers, which sits in Annabi’s council district.

Annabi had held up the project for years because residents in her district opposed it. But she later switched her vote. Prosecutors said that was after she received a $30,000 bribe, with Mangone acting as the middleman, allegedly receiving $10,000 himself.

Jereis, 38, is also accused of paying thousands of dollars in cash and expenses for Annabi, who is also his cousin. According to the federal complaint, Jereis gave Annabi $60,000 for two separate homes in Yonkers and $7,200 for a co-op apartment on Rumsey Road in 2004 alone.

He also paid more than $6,000 worth of utility and cable television bills for her, the complaint said.

Annabi, Jereis and Mangone are all due to be arraigned on the charges this afternoon in U.S. District Court in White Plains.

Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone issued this statement this afternooon: "I am deeply disappointed with today's indictments of individuals who, if proven guilty, have brought shame upon themselves, their positions of public trust and the people they represented. Those of us who have endeavored tirelessly to build a better future for this city, and who have done so with integrity, condemn such criminal actions in the strongest possible terms and urge a swift and appropriate administration of justice. As always, we will continue to run an honest and ethical city government so that the people of Yonkers may be assured that the few who seek personal gain over the public good are just that---a shameful few."

Annabi served on the Yonkers City Council until last month, when she was forced out due to the city’s term limits law. She challenged Westchester County Legislator Jose Alvarado for his seat in November election but lost by a narrow margin.

Jereis served as Yonkers GOP chairman between 2003 and 2007, when he opted not to seek re-election. He was a former aide to former state Sen. Nick Spano, his political patron of many years. Jereis also pleaded guilty in 1998 to charges of falsely witnessing a campaign nominating petition, and to misdemeanor marijuana charges in 1994.

Mangone is a politically connected lawyer who once served as counsel to Spano. He also represented Milio when the council approved the developer for the project. In 2002, Managone was also charged in a ballot-rigging scandal, and was accused of opening sealed absentee ballots to write in the names of Spano and a judicial candidate. He agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge but was never charged.

In the winter of 2008, at least five Yonkers council members received federal subpoenas demanding records and ordering them to testify before a federal grand jury in White Plains. Annabi, a councilwoman at the time, would not say whether she had also been subpoenaed.

The subpoenas covered a range of topics, from the long-disputed $630 million Ridge Hill development to the Longfellow project, a redevelopment plan involving two shuttered city schools; and increased water rates and higher fees for building and fire safety inspections.

The Ridge Hill project, under construction since the summer of 2007, is expected to produce 1,000 apartments, 1.3 million square feet of retail space and a movie complex on 81 acres east of the New York State Thruway and north of Tuckahoe Road.

Proposed by Forest City Ratner, Ridge Hill faced opposition largely over the issue of traffic from neighborhood groups, the Westchester County Planning Board and the neighboring municipalities of Greenburgh, Hastings-on-Hudson and Ardsley.

The City Council attempted to get around the county's opposition, which would require a so-called supermajority, or five members of the seven-member council, by changing the law to require only a simple four-vote majority.

When that law was struck down in court, the Ridge Hill development appeared in peril, but in July 2006 Annabi dropped her opposition to the development, citing an agreement by Forest City Ratner to pay an additional $10 million in property taxes over three years.

The Longfellow school project remained before the city council as recently as July 2008, when it was revived by Yonkers-based Milio Management after sitting dormant for nearly two years.

The developer was proposing to tear down School 6 on Ashburton Avenue and build a Walgreens pharmacy, and redevelop the Longfellow Junior High School on Mulberry Street as a 40-unit apartment building. The proposal called for the city to swap the school sites for an 8- to 10-foot strip of land on five Milio-owned properties between School 6 and North Broadway to allow for the
widening of Ashburton Avenue.

Annabi, whose district included the Hollow neighborhood, had met with the developer about including some senior housing in the Longfellow conversion, citing concerns that market-rate housing would price them out and change the character of the neighborhood.

In response, Milio agreed to earmark 20 percent of the units as affordable housing and market exclusively to seniors for six months.

Check back for updates on LoHud.com.
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This chic goes to my gym and drives in a 65k Merces Benz rag top on a supposed 35K salary as a councilwoman.  She also wears gaudy jerewlry.  Dont these idiots ever watch Goodfellas?  DONT BUY ANYTHING!

As for Mangone, I grew up in the same hood as that guy and was buddies with his brother.  I went one direction, these criminals went another.  He also is a lawyer and recently got arrested for KTFO'ing a guy in a resturant near me.

When you guys ask why I dont get involved in politics where I live, this is why.  Its a criminal enterprise from top to bottom. 

But at the end of the day - would you bargain for a lower sentence if she turned a few tricks?