Third Term Enabler Seabrook Indicted

Three-term Bronx City Councilmember Larry Seabrook, whose vote helped overturn term limits, was taken into custody this morning at the offices of the city's Inspector General in lower Manhattan.

Seabrook, a former state assemblyman and state senator, was indicted as a result of a joint city-state probe into City Council discretionary funds channeled to non-profit organizations.

According to the indictment, Seabrook funneled more than $1 million in discretionary funds to non-profits he "controlled and directed."

The pocket-lining schemes detailed in the sealed 66-page, 13-count indictment include shakedowns, favoritism and nepotism.

Seabrook's attorney Murray Richman said his client would enter a "not guilty" plea at arraignment and be released on $500,000 bond pending a March 15 appearance.

Seabrook's enterprise, according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, operated like a "corrupt, publicly-funded friends and family plan."

According to the indictment, the married Seabrook slipped more than $500,000 in discretionary funds to his girlfriend and his relatives, parked on the payrolls of shady Bronx non-profits.

Seabrook allegedly shook down a Bronx businessman for $50,000 in a "pay-to-play" for a boiler contract at the new Yankee Stadium -- and used the money to pay parking fines and credit card bills.

The indictment charges that Seabrook even doctored the receipt for a bagel and diet soda he bought for $7 near City Hall to read $177, and collected the funds from the North East Bronx Community Democratic Club.

Seabrook's total take from the club is estimated at $44,000.
 
The article from the Daily News.

Upcoming Local Events

OLPH Flea Market 

On Sunday, February 14 from 7 AM to 6 PM, there will be a "supa" flea market at Notre Dame Hall at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 545 60th Street in Sunset Park.

The ASPCA Mobile Van will be available at the site during the event.

Shop and get your cat spayed, all in one stop!

For more information, call 917-312-9855.

62nd Precinct Council

The 62nd Precinct Council meets on Tuesday, February 16 at 7:30 PM at Bath Avenue and Bay 22nd Street in Bensonhurst.

The community is invited to attend.

For more information, call the 62nd Precinct House.

Rosemaling Society

On Monday, February 22, the Mid-Atlantic Rosemaling Society will meet at 7 PM at 59th Street Church, 749 59th Street in Sunset Park.

There will be a free Rosemaling session.

For more information, call 718-853-1734.

Banana Carrier

Defining "Underperforming"

In a late November speech at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., Mayor Bloomberg announced his administration's plans to close the lowest performing 10% of city schools within 4 years and reopen them under "new leadership".

In December last year, the city's Department of Education proposed the closure of 20 schools, beginning in the 2010–2011 school year, and the elimination of grades 6–8 at Frederick Douglass III Academy.

As in prior rounds of closures, this round will be phased in over several years by closing schools to new classes.

Brooklyn's  Paul Robeson High School, P.S. 332, the Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence, Metropolitan Corporate Academy, and Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School are on the closure list.

The proposed closures have raised the question whether the schools targeted are in fact in the lowest 10%, by the DOE's own measures.

To answer that question, the city's Independent Budget Office did a comparative review of the characteristics of closing schools with other schools, also in the bottom 10%, that the DOE is keeping open, and found that, while the closing schools were in the bottom 10% on many variables, their performance was not consistently low. In fact, some closing schools are doing better than other schools in the same decile on a number of performance measures.

The IBO also found that closing schools faced greater challenges than non-closing schools. Closing high schools in Brooklyn, for instance, had sharp increases in special needs students, and all closing schools had more low‐income students and homeless students compared to the medians for non‐closing schools in their respective boroughs. Closing high schools also had more students over 18 than non‐closing schools.

The report from the IBO.

According to the Gerritson Beach blog, Sheepshead Bay High School, FDR High School at 5800 20th Avenue, John Dewey High School at 50 Avenue X, and Grady High School at 25 Brighton Fourth Road, will also be closed this fall, although they do not appear to be in the list on which the IBO report is based.

Union Church Concerts

At this afternoon's performance by the Chiara String Quartet at Union Church, I picked up a flyer for Union's 2009-2010 concert series.

The church has an active music ministry.  

On Sunday, March 21 at 4 PM, Union's gifted minister of music, Vince Peterson, will direct Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, vigorously set in the original Hebrew for voice, harp and organ -- with echos of West Side Story.

On Sunday, May 23 at 4 PM, Vince Peterson, with members of the Union Church Academy and special guests, will perform a selection of sacred and secular music in a range of styles and genres, including Peterson's Second String Quartet in F Major 5.

Admission to both events is $12.

Union Church is at the corner of Ridge Boulevard and 80th Street in Bay Ridge.  The phone is 718-745-0438.  Click here for the church website.