Living Wage and Dishonesty at Willets Point: A Challenge to de Blasio

We have underscored the hypocritical dishonesty of EDC about the question of a living wage at the Willets Point development before, but now that a vote is imminent it is appropriate to return to this field of schemes that the city is trying to foist on Queens. Here’s what we pointed out almost two years ago:

“In the battle over whether the city should adopt a living wage for retail workers when a development project is heavily subsidized the issue of Willets Point has wormed its way into the discussion. 

City Hall News lays out the reasons:

"In June 2008, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, Stuart Appelbaum, stood on the steps of City Hall to praise the city’s Economic Development Corporation. Along with several other powerful union bosses, Appelbaum touted the EDC plan to jumpstart a long-stalled, $3 billion project at Willets Point in Queens, because he said it would lead to the creation of so-called “living wage” retail jobs for his workers – paying a minimum of $10 an hour.

“It won’t just mean thousands of jobs,” Appelbaum said. “It will mean thousands of construction and permanent jobs that pay prevailing wages and living wages.”

Juan Gonzales in the NY Daily News also weighs in on the correlation:

"And in 2008, when the mayor wanted the City Council to approve a proposed $3 billion Willets Point development project, his deputy mayor then, Robert Lieber, made such a deal with several labor unions.Under that deal, the city would require that all construction, maintenance and security jobs at Willets Point pay “prevailing” wages — far higher than $10 an hour. 

As for retail jobs, Lieber promised to “view favorably” Willets Point proposals that “maximize” the number of “living wage jobs.” He even specified $10 an hour for a living wage. Because of those promises, the unions backed the plan and the City Council approved WilletsPoint."

Only one problem: EDC has-like it has done with so many other things -- reneged on the deal. In doing so EDC and the rest of the gang down at city hall demonstrate that they will say almost anything just to advance their crooked scheme to abscond with the Willets Point property. The key prevaricator in all of this is former Deputy Mayor Lieber -- a stone chump if there ever was one.

As City Hall reports:

"Appelbaum’s contentions that his members could expect living wage jobs at Willets Point were based upon by a letter penned in April 2008 by Robert Lieber, then the city’s deputy mayor for economic development, to the then-head of the city’s umbrella labor organization, Gary LaBarbera.

“NYCEDC will view favorably development plans that maximize the number of jobs that meet the City’s living wage and health benefits standards,” Lieber wrote. “The proposal must explain how the proposed tenanting plan maximizes the number of jobs that meet these criteria.”

That was then, and this is now-just as WPU has already reported: "

Yet this May – when the EDC put out a 125-page request for Willets Point proposals to developers – there was not a single mention of living wage jobs. It did state that developers had to hire construction contractors who would pay prevailing wage and that some building workers would get prevailing wage salaries—but retail workers were left out completely. Earlier this week, far from offering tacit support for a living wage, the EDC released a list of 36 projects around the city, including Willets Point, that it said could be jeopardized by the living wage bill."

In response EDC has started to spin like a top: 

"EDC spokesman David Lombino declined to directly address why living wage language from the 2008 letter never made it into the requests for proposal. “When seeking proposals for development, the city always considers the creation of well-paying jobs in addition to other factors like the feasibility of the project, proposed uses, job density, and cost to taxpayers,” Lombino said."

And so it goes-just like with the purported revenues at Hudson Yards. The city never lives up to its promises, but now we have a new team coming into office and Bill de Blasio has made living wage and affordable housing his signature issues for dealing with income inequality. The WSJ reports today:

“A proposal by Bill de Blasio to guarantee higher wages at city-subsidized projects could set up a battle with business and real-estate interests if he is elected. Real-estate and business leaders and labor experts alike said they were surprised to learn that Mr. de Blasio, the Democratic nominee and front-runner, would demand a so-called living wage of $11.75 an hour in cash and benefits to all workers on most city-subsidized projects—including, most controversially, to retail workers.” (emphasis added) 

Yes, the same workers that Stuart Appelbaum is supposed to represent have been thrown under the speeding bus. That brings us to de Blasio-and his promises on this issue:

“A campaign spokesman said the plan is part of an economic-development vision "that is less about trickle-down, subsidizing a fast-food restaurant, providing subsidies to low-road, low-wage employers."

"We're not saying that's all the Bloomberg administration did, but to the extent that the mega-development projects had a high focus on retail, often low-wage retail, we'll look to invest development dollars and target development dollars into creating good jobs," said the spokesman, Jonathan Rosen, calling it a "very high priority."

Okay, then. This thrusts the Willets Point deal right into center stage, because as we have seen, the promises have not been kept-and the trickle down here is more a trickle up, up to the coffers of the Mets and Related. But we shouldn’t be surprised at the comments from Bloomberg lackey Seth Pinsky:

“The Bloomberg model has proven to be a successful one. If someone is campaigning on the concept of trying something different, I think that person has a high bar they need to achieve in terms of explaining how that something different will work better," Mr. Pinsky said.

Mr. de Blasio's plan would address a critique of the Bloomberg administration: that too many of the jobs created have been low-paid.”

Success, we guess, is really in the eyes of the beholder-and as far as little Seth is concerned his world view, and current paycheck, comes right from Big Real Estate. Yet Pinsky is experiencing some cognitive dissonance-even while lacking any sense of irony:

"Mr. Pinsky said the next mayor will need to tackle inequality—a growing issue nationwide. Of Mr. de Blasio he said: "He's hit upon an issue that is absolutely critical to the future of the city. The income gap could be an existential issue to the future of the city."

The Bloomberg model has aggrandized the Relateds and Vornados of the world at the expense of neighborhoods and small business. In the process, the average New Yorker has been short changed and all of this has been promoted through the generous use of tax subsidies.

Willets Point could be de Blasio’s Rubicon-a river if crossed that will mean his rhetoric is not matched by his real commitment to equality and fairness. How do you come back from this unethical corporate welfare scheme? We’re all waiting to see what Bill will do.

City-owned properties omitted from developers' Brownfield cleanup application

Please see following letter from Willets Point United to entire City Council, which will vote on the Willets Point plan this Wednesday. As the letter notes, a legitimate reason why some of the properties that are within "Phase One" are NOT included in the Brownfield Cleanup Program application, is that they are not owned by the City. It is important to note, however, that even discounting those properties, there are still numerous properties that the City DOES own, that Sterling/Related have excluded from their BCP application and thus from the program. Why don't Sterling/Related want a BCP Certificate of Completion pertaining to those properties? Do they not want NYSDEC looking so closely over their shoulders to scrutinize the remediation (if any) that they perform on those particular properties? How is the pubic interest served by deliberately excluding properties from the BCP -- when remediation is a top selling point of the whole project?

Letter Brownfield Application by unitedtriangle

WPU members interviewed on WHCR radio

Photographs of Willets Point United members Irene Prestigiacomo and Joseph Ardizzone during the live community affairs radio program on 90.3FM, hosted by Leroy Baylor; Sunday, October 28, 2012.
Prestigiacomo and Ardizzone, together with documentary video producer Robert LoScalzo, recounted the City's illegal tactics in attempting to implement Mayor Bloomberg's plan to take over Willets Point and give it to the Wilpons and Related Companies -- including lobbying by NYCEDC and Claire Shulman's LDC in violation of state law which the NYS Attorney General has confirmed. The wide-ranging conversation lasted nearly one hour, and included topics such as the shameful refusals of many area elected officials to do anything to help end the City's withholding of municipal services and purposeful neglect of Willets Point; the abuse of eminent domain for the aggrandizement of private interests; the failures of AG Schneiderman and the state Inspector General to hold anyone to account; and other topics raised by listeners who called in.

A Do-Over, by Any Other Name

On November 9, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) held its "Public Information Meeting" for the public to discuss and ask questions about NYCEDC's permit application to allow toxic water removed from the Willets Point sewer construction site to be discharged, after filtering, into the Flushing bay. But even before that meeting occurred, it was obvious that NYCEDC had failed to comply with the written public participation plan that it had presented to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), as well as applicable DEC regulations.

For example, NYCEDC held its November 9 meeting:

• While completely concealing from the public the permit application that was supposed to be the topic of that meeting;

• Without making available project-related documents approximately 15 days in advance of the meeting (or perhaps at any time whatsoever in advance of the meeting);

• After deliberately omitting from the written meeting stakeholders outreach list all Willets Point businesses, including those located on 126th Street immediately adjacent to the proposed sewer work excavation site, that would be most directly impacted by the proposed work – while including on the written notification list 35 church organizations that are located one mile away.

On November 21, 2011, environmental attorney Michael Gerrard of Arnold & Porter LLP, representing Willets Point United Inc. (WPU), notified DEC of multiple failures of NYCEDC, including those summarized above, to comply with the written public participation plan presented to DEC, as well as provisions of DEC Commissioner Policy 29.

DEC must have appreciated that its consideration of NYCEDC's permit application would lack necessary integrity, if it relied upon the inadequate public participation implemented thus far by NYCEDC. And so it comes as no surprise that, after receiving attorney Gerrard's letter, NYCEDC has since acceded to WPU's demands, by:

• Making available to the public the permit application document that had previously been completely concealed;

• Scheduling a new public participation meeting;

• Making available to the public project-related documents in advance of the new public participation meeting;

• Including in the written meeting stakeholders outreach list Willets Point businesses immediately adjacent to the proposed sewer work excavation site, that would be most directly impacted by the proposed work.

Make no mistake about it: NYCEDC is taking those extraordinary steps, not because NYCEDC enjoys public participation in its projects, but because it must correct its failures to comply with its written public participation plan, as well as applicable DEC regulations.

In particular, the new public information meeting to be held tonight is obviously intended to correct the failures of the original meeting. Significantly, the original public information meeting held on November 9 was supposed to have been the only such meeting. (See page 4 of the original Public Participation Plan, http://www.nycedc.com/ProjectsOpportunities/CurrentProjects/Queens/WilletsPointDevelopmentDistrict/Documents/Public%20Participation%20Plan.pdf: "One public information meeting will be held at a publicly accessible location in Flushing to provide information about the construction of the proposed sanitary and storm water sewer lines and the associated NYSDEC permitting process.")

The new meeting is, for all intents and purposes, a do-over – necessary to correct failures of the original.

Now, we understand that no one likes to admit they have failed – especially when doing so could threaten their holiday bonuses.

So while NYCEDC incredulously spins tonight's new public information meeting as a mere "follow-up", the fact of the matter is that this meeting is a do-over, implemented because WPU has held NYCEDC to account, and necessary to correct NYCEDC's prior failures.

Significantly, tonight's sewer meeting do-over is just one example of WPU holding NYCEDC to account, and turning back the clock on aspects of the proposed Willets Point development. That has happened before: After WPU brought to the attention of state and federal regulators fatal flaws in NYCEDC's application for the proposed Van Wyck ramps, the entire process for evaluating those proposed ramps was revised, and still remains incomplete more than two years later. More recently, after WPU brought to the attention of State Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden that NYCEDC intends to proceed with "Phase One" of the proposed Willets Point development without having approval of the proposed Van Wyck ramps, and to condemn Willets Point property on that basis – in direct contradiction of the City's prior representations to Judge Madden's court – Judge Madden has decided to re-open WPU's Article 78 case "in the interests of justice".

We're weren't surprised that NYCEDC and the City attempted to distract from all of that, by staging a sewer project groundbreaking on December 1, 2011 despite not having obtained the required DEC permit, and despite knowing that NYCEDC had failed to implement a proper public participation process (and that it would have to be re-done). Tellingly, NYCEDC's consultant mailed notices regarding the public information meeting do-over on December 2, 2011 – one day after the Mayor's groundbreaking press conference. That prevented members of the press from questioning the Mayor about NYCEDC's revised public participation plan during the groundbreaking press conference.

WPU will continue to hold NYCEDC and the City to account. We're unfazed by the Mayor's phony press conferences, and by NYCEDC's laughably inaccurate spin. For each failure of NYCEDC, expect a do-over. One step forward, but two steps back. And to NYCEDC chief Seth Pinsky we say: Axe those holiday bonuses.

[The December 19, 2011 sewer permit public participation meeting will be held from 6:15PM - 8:15PM at the Al Oerter Recreation Center, 131-40 Fowler Avenue. NYCEDC has not posted notice of this meeting on its web site, apparently preferring low attendance.]