Golden Synergy

It's called the Bay Ridge-Bensonhurst Beautification and Preservation Alliance, a  not-for-profit corporation founded by local State Senator Martin Golden in 1994, when he ran the Bay Ridge Manor.

Golden's still the registered agent.

For three years, before he was elected to the City Council and stepped down in 1998, Golden served as president of the alliance.

Robert Howe, vice-chair of the Brooklyn Republican Party, currently heads the organization.

The estimated $770,000 in member items Golden has directed to the alliance from Albany are recycled through local events and services Golden co-sponsors, like the eponymous annual summer concert series, the free "Golden Harbor Bus Loop" senior bus service, the Third and Fifth Avenue Festivals, an Easter egg hunt, and other popular neighborhood events.

This kind of political "synergy", once the norm in Albany, has been out of favor since 2007, when, according to a Golden spokesperson, then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo "suggested" that such relationships come to an end.

Before 2006, you couldn't even find out which state senator sponsored a particular member item. But a series of scandals in New York City and Albany has since brought more transparency to the process.

The case of popular local neighborhood event organizer Chip Cafiero provides a look into the synergistic relationship between Golden and the BRGBPA.

Cafiero, a paid part-time event organizer at Golden's office from 2003 to 2007, was, during the same period, also a paid consultant to the BRGBPA, organizing festivals and parades funded by member items Golden sponsored.

Two other neighborhood not-for-profits that front for Cafiero have reaped more than $70,000 in campaign funds and tax dollars to co-sponsor local events with Golden.

While Cafiero worked part-time at Golden's office in 2004 and 2005, the Southwest Brooklyn Citizens’ Corp., an emergency preparedness organization with a single employee: Cafiero, got a blind $35,000 member item from Golden. In 2007, the month before Cafiero left Golden's payroll, and again in 2008, Golden directed a $23,000 member item to the Cafiero front. 

As member item funds have dried up over the past few years due to the recession, Golden has funneled about $31,000 in campaign dollars to the Southwest Brooklyn Parks Task Force, another Cafiero front for which no legal, tax or incorporation records exist.

In a style reminiscent of the Tammany era, Cafiero and Golden have cleverly branded practically every family-friendly event in Bay Ridge, a major source of Golden's political strength.

The article from City and State.