THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

Restore Funds for the Disabled, Abinanti Calls on the Governor

Posted on March 6, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From Assemblyman Tom Abinanti’s Press Office. March 6, 2013:

New York State Assembly member Tom Abinanti today called for restoration of $311 million to the state budget for the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) which was eliminated in the proposed Executive Budget.

“These cuts will hurt very vulnerable people who have no alternatives,” said the Westchester Assemblyman. “We must not endanger the health and safety of people with disabilities to pay for the tax cuts we gave to wealthy New Yorkers or to pay for past mistakes by New York bureaucrats who may have taken more federal reimbursements than New York was entitled to.”

The proposed Executive Budget reduces the actual 2012-13 budget for OPWDD by more than 7% and imposes an actual 6% rate cut on non-profit service providers. This follows some 9% – $350 million in rate cuts over the past several years.

The original Executive Budget proposed cutting $71 million from OPWDD’s 2012-13 $4.36 billion budget. The Governor’s thirty day amendments proposed an additional $240 million cut.

“OPWDD has been woefully underfunded,” said Abinanti. “There are waiting lists for community housing, shortages of day programs, underpaid and undertrained service providers, and constant reports of abuse and neglect.”

“New York should not have a budget that will make intolerable conditions worse,” said Abinanti.

Council Ponders Procedure to Terminate Subsidized Leases IF HUD Pulls Funds

Posted on March 4, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. March 4, 2013:

The cutting of Section 8 HUD rent subsidies has not happened yet. But the Common Council is prepared if it comes to pass.

The Common Council prepared for the worst tonight: possible cutting of Housing and Urban Development partial funding of Section 8 housing rentals running at approximately $5 Million, (under the new sequestration legislation signed by President Obama last Friday).

They opened and closed a public hearing (where no one came up to speak), then tabled the resolution that would establish a procedure spelling out criteria defining which tenants of Section 8 subsidized housing would have their leases vacated first in the event HUD cut part or all of their rental subsidy and the rent could not be paid.

Councilman Benjamin Boykin told WPCNR the resolution was going to be tabled because the city does not know if HUD is going to cut its subsidy to the city. Mayor Thomas Roach told WPCNR he hoped to know more tomorrow.

The city prepared for a possible loss of HUD Funds by putting forward legislation establishing what types of Section VIII tenants would be the first to lose their Section 8 vouchers entitling them to subsidized apartments. Section 8 tenants consist of families and individuals meeting certain income levels qualifying them for apartments landlords are willing to rent with the government paying a portion of the rent and the renter paying the balance.

According to the 2012-13 City of White Plains Annual Action Plan on the city website, counts 646 units of its 846 Assisted Living apartments, as subsidized units. A total of 400 Section 8 vouchers are awarded the city in the current year, however the city is limited by the government to using only 372 of them. This would mean at least 372 voucher holders who may represent a head of a household stand to be be affected if the $5,000,000 aid for public housing is cutback by the government.

Councilman Benjamin Boykin and Mr. Callahan credited new Commissioner of Planning Elizabeth Chetney for discovering White Plains did not have a procedure for determining which tenants the city would remove first from Section 8 apartments if and this is a big if, HUD withdrew its funding for the government’s share of tenants’ rent.

Callahan said that the city realized that with no assurance HUD sudsidies would not be cut, the city needed a policy to determine what families would go, should HUD cut off a portion or all of its subsidy to White Plains. He said Ms. Chetney drafted a termination plan in case HUD funds paying the share of rent that renters do not pay were cut back or ended altogether.

Callahan said that the resolution was ready to be passed by the council if HUD cut its subsidies to White Plains. He said many other cities and towns did not have procedures in place either.

Asked if the city could supplement giving tenants time to relocate if the housing subsidy disappeared, Callahan said there was no money to do that. Asked if the Sales Tax Stabilization (collected to replenish city fund balance) might be available, he again said no.

According to the White Plains City website, “the City makes a monthly payment to the landlord on behalf of the eligible tenant which constitutes the difference between the tenant’s payment (30% of income) and the maximum rent allowable set by the federal government for the apartment size offered by the landlord.”

Last Ditch Attempt to Stop the Cuomo-nian Disabled Funding Takeaway

Posted on March 4, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From a WPCNR Correspondent. March 4, 2013:

Chairmpersons of the State Senate and State Legislatures mental health committees are circulationg petitions among New York Legislators to gather support for restoring the 6%, $120 Million cut that Governor Andrew Cuomo is trying to take away from the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities funding. The cut would force millions of cuts in personnel, among other possible curtailments in direct services to disabled individuals.

This letter was released to WPCNR today urging persons who support continued funding for disabled persons care by the state to contact their legislators to show support for telling the governor disabled funding needs to be restored:

Both houses of the State Legislature are in the process of finalizing the respective one-house budget bills. As you are aware, NYSACRA and the developmental disabilities associations are working to restore the proposed 6% across the board cut to all not-for-profit agencies.

The Chairs of the Assembly and Senate Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities Committees (Senator David Carlucci and Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther) are circulating a “sign-on” letter throughout the respective memberships of the Senate and Assembly requesting their legislative colleagues to endorse (sign-on) to the letter requesting restoration of the proposed cut to the voluntary not-for-profits. Individual State Senators are being asked to sign-on to Chairman Carlucci’s letter and individual State Assemblymembers are being asked to sign-on to Chairwoman Gunther’s letter. The letters, from the Chairs, will be delivered to the respective leadership in both houses.

I am asking you to contact your Senator and Assemblymember, today, to ask your Legislators to sign-on to Chairman Carlucci’s letter and Chairwoman Gunther’s letter seeking full restoration of the cut to the developmental disabilities not-for-profit providers. If you are not a NY resident, your loved one is. Please use your loved one’s address to identify his/her legislators.

We understand the Chairs will begin circulating the letters today therefore please contact your Legislators in their Albany Offices this afternoon, if possible.

Please refer to the Assembly (www.assembly.state.ny.us) and Senate websites (www.nysenate.gov) to obtain the Albany Office telephone number for your Assemblymember and Senator. You may also contact the Assembly Operator at 518-455-4100 and Senate Operator at 518-455-2800 and ask to be transferred to your Legislator’s Office.

Woman Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud, Mail Fraud.

Posted on March 2, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR FBI REPORT. From the Federal Bureau of Investigation. March 2, 2013:

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Alicia Holmes pled guilty yesterday to a three-count indictment, charging Holmes with devising and operating a scheme to defraud individuals and entities of hundreds of thousands of dollars in accommodations, goods, services, and money.

Holmes pled guilty to one count of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, and one count of providing a false address in furtherance of fraud Friday in White Plains federal court before U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas, who set a sentencing date for June 24, 2013.

According to the allegations in the indictment filed in White Plains federal court:

From at least in or about April 2007 through in or about May 2011, Holmes made false and fraudulent representations to hotel managers and staff, real estate brokers, property builders, home owners, and school administrators, among others, through e-mails, telephone calls, and letters, including statements that:

she owned and/or was in the process of purchasing certain high-end properties, including homes valued between approximately $6,255,000 and $17,000,000;
she had assets of great value that she would gain access to in as soon as a few days;
she required financial assistance from the victims until she was in possession of those assets; and
once she was in possession of her purported assets, she would use those assets to purchase certain high-end properties from some of the victims or to pay money that she owed to the victims.

Holmes did not have or reasonably expect to have access to assets of great value, did not own any high-end properties, and knew that her representations were false at the time she made them.

* * *

Holmes, 49, is eligible for enhanced penalties at sentencing because she continued her offense while on pretrial release. She faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 65 years, fines of up to $250,000 or twice the gross pecuniary gain or loss resulting from the offense, restitution to victims, and forfeiture of the proceeds of her offenses.

Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ilan Graff, Lee Renzin, and Anna M. Skotko are in charge of the criminal prosecution.

If you think you may have been a victim in this case or have additional information, please call Postal Inspector Patricia Thornton at 914-993-1930.