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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. January 7, 2008:  The Common Council has approved the design of the Cappelli Enterprises  8-story glass and granite affordable housing building to rise on 240 Main Street. A spokesman for Cappelli Enterprises confirmed Wednesday that demoltion began with interior work Tuesday, as the developer promised the Council Monday evening.

The vote was 6-0-1 with Councilperson Milagros Lequona abstaining because she was not familiar with the materials proposed for the building.

Louis Cappelli told the council he was withdrawing his request for a two month extension to complete the 240 Main Street “Affordable Housing” building he has been requesting since last September (shown in background photograph). Cappelli said he and his engineers now think they can complete the 8-story project by early August, and if not, Mark Weingarten, Mr. Cappelli’s attorney said that would be an issue taken up in August. After some 45 minutes of discussion on what had been expected to be a routine resolution, the council approved the design of the building. 

Mr. Boykin, the Common Council president, suggested that Mr. Cappelli could put the affordable units he owes anywhere even second tower of the Ritz-Carlton complex, but that no Certificates of Occupancy would be issued on the remaining tower of the Ritz complex without the affordable housing units Mr. Cappelli owes in connection with the 221 Main/Ritz-Carlton project (24 units)being completed at that time.  

This issue produced considerable acrimony, with Mr. Weingarten noting that Ms. Malmud’s suggestion that Mr. Cappelli owed the units on time, “ outrageous” and a gesture of “bad faith,” considering that the Common Council had encouraged Mr. Cappelli to make a deal with the builders of the Pinnacle and have The Pinnacle build the affordable housing Mr. Cappelli agreed to build in exchange for the 221 Main project.

Mr. Cappelli said “I feel like I’m getting beat up here. And I put $1.1 Billion into the city when no one else would.”  Glen Hockley, the Councilman remembered that the council did encourage Mr. Cappelli to make the Pinnacle deal.

The Council approved the resolution 6-0-1.

 Given Mr. Cappelli’s ability to maintain a floor a week pace, it is not inconceivable that the 42-unit, 8 Story building would be finished by August. You can figure two weeks for demolition; 4 weeks for the foundation 10 weeks for the 8-stories and that takes you into early June giving the developer eight weeks to complete the building, barring bad weather.

 

Garage Building Tabled Until Feb 4

On the matter of the Air Rights building Cappelli proposes for the City Center Garage, the council tabled that until  the meeting of February 4. The reason for the tabling is that Cappelli Enterprises is developing a proposal that will allow the 23 units in the Air rights Building to be heated at an affordable rate which the firm intended to reveal  before the February 4 date.

In an issue that surfaced during the discussion of those two projects with Councilman Thomas Roach, Mr. Cappelli said he wanted to make sure the city understood he proposed the 42 units in the 240 Main Street building would be a mix of market rate housing and affordable housing – not all affordable units. This was going to be confirmed with the city Corporation Counsel and Mr. Cappelli’s attorneys.

“Political Amnesia” Strikes

Dennis Power, the Councilman, demanded an explanation as to why he had never received a letter dated September 21 in which Cappelli Enterprises had asked for an extension of the August 10, 2008 deadline for having the 221 Main “affordable housing” obligation completed in order that the second Ritz-Carlton complex building could be granted certificates of occupancy.

 Power said he could not remember ever receiving the letter and made quite a fuss about it. Cappelli Enterprises attorney, Mark Weingarten, said it had been sent by e-mail, fax and also to the Mayor’s Office.  After Councilman Power carried  on about this for fifteen minutes, Mayor Joseph Delfino’s Executive Officer, Paul Wood,  produced the Common Council backup material from the  October Common Council meeting in which the “missing” September 21 letter was included as item 102. Mr. Power apologized to the Mayor.

Won’t Stop the Documents

Mr. Wood, when asked  by WPCNR, if developers would be asked not to send any materials to councilpersons in the future, said the Mayor’s office would entertain no such embargo and that documents would continue to be passed on to the council as they always had been. Mayor Joseph Delfino resurrected the term coined by WPCNR  in 2001 , “political amnesia” as being a malaise known to affect some councilpersons. The efforts of Cappelli Enterprises to obtain an extra two months of construction time for the 240 Main Street building have been common knowledge to the reporters covering city hall for the last four months, having been discussed at length in work sessions.

How did the Ritz-Carlton Island happen?

In yet another Cappelli Enterprises issue, the council referred out a request by Cappelli Enterprises to purchase the traffic island the company has already constructed in the middle of the new street, Renaissance Square in front of the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Councilman Dennis Power asked for an explanation of how the council is considering selling something that the developer had already built upon. Mayor Delfino explained that the Ritz-Carlton had requested the granite block and it had been done to comply with the Ritz request. (Cappelli Enterprises is proposing purchasing the space taken up by the granite block for $18,240.) Mr. Hockley proposed it be leased in perpetuity, not naming a price.  Ms. Malmud proposed it be leased for a dollar. The matter will be taken up again in work session.

Soundview Fights Fenway on Paddle Tennis Courts

The public hearing on the Fenway Golf Club Paddle Tennis Courts which was met with a contingent of neighbors along Soundview Avenue in opposition to the lit tennis court proposal. Robert Goldstein spoke for the group critic ising the lights proposed for the relocation of the paddle tennis courts as deteriorating the esthetics of the neighborhood. Councilman Boykin suggested the courts simply rebuilt on their present location at the club.  The hearing was held over until February 4.

No Electronic Games Zoning Vagueness here

Finally, the council voted down a resolution that would have loosened the ordinance regulating electronic games. The House of Fun had requested the ordinance be modified to exclude electronic games for use by children under 10 when used in a facility catering to such children exclusively. The council rejected this as making the ordinance too vague.

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey.  January 7, 2008, Updated 3:09 P.M. EST: An audit of the city school district payroll operations from July 2006 to Sept, 2007,  by the New York State Comptroller’s Office found the district lacked  adequate checks and balances of approvals for payments and criticized the district overtime policy as being “improperly monitored,” requiring that all overtime in the future be pre-approved and the purpose documented.

The District has taken steps to correct the situation in early December, and has 90 days to submit a report on how the comptroller’s office criticisms of the overtime procedures – in place for years — are being addressed.

Construction Projects Will Not Be Scrutinized At this Time.

Emily DeSantis, a spokesperson for the Comptroller’s Press Office advises WPCNR that the Comptroller’s Office has no plans to review the  $28 Million high school construction project conducted between 1999 and 2003, (which resulted in a $2.8  Million judgment in January of 2007  against  the district  in U. S. Supreme Court for engaging in constructive fraud to deceive one of the contractors), nor does it have any plans at this time to monitor the new $69.6 Million city school district construction project now under way.

Ms. DeSantis, also told WPCNR that the school district “did not ask for OSC’s assistance with the current construction project.” The statewide report on school audits issued by the OSC lists among its many services available to school districts aid in planning for major construction projects such as new buildings to keep costs in line, and also advice on financing major projects. Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s news release on the statewide school audit and the Annual Report listing the aids the Comptroller’s Office provides school districts may be found at http://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/dec07/122707a.htm

Specifically the audit of the district payment operations says, “The District has not established an internal control system that provides adequate oversight of payroll certification, pre-approval of overtime, and proper access controls to software applications within the information technology system.” The auditors found 19 payroll warrants of 32 that “were not certified as required by Education Law and none had a date to indicate when they had been reviewed,” and cited “an increased risk that payments were made without proper review and approval.”

You may read the report at http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/2007/schools/whiteplains.html

The Audit Report dictates, “The Board should develop overtime policies and procedures, and District officials should ensure they are implemented. Such policies and procedures should require the pre-approval of all overtime and document the purpose.”

 Overtime  Undocumented.

The Comptroller auditors criticized the management of overtime by the Facilities and Maintenance Department, saying “District officials did not properly monitor overtime usage.”  The report said, “The Facilities and Operations Department incurred $614,837 of overtime without maintaining adequate documentation of overtime usage,” over 13 months.

The Comptroller audit states, “ The District’s Facilities and Operations Department, with a staff of 90 employees, had approximately $3.7 Million in regular salaries and incurred an additional $614,837 in overtime pay during the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Five of the 90 employees received 21% of $614,837 of overtime paid to Facilities and Operation employees. One emplyees’ overtime amounted to 65% of his annual salary. This employee’s annual salary was $52,134 and he received $33,753 in overtime pay.

The Director of Facilities (Director) informed us that overtime for Facilities and Operations personnel is verbally pre-approved by building administrators and no documentation is maintained to corroborate the purpose of overtime. As a result, there is an increased risk to the District of incurring unnecessary overtime cost.

Overtime Cutting Has Been Substanial.

The Superintendent of Schools Timothy  Connors told WPCNR that the district has cut down on the expenditures for overtime over the last several years but did not have the figure on how much has been saved, saying he would get that figure for WPCNR . Connors said the Comptroller’s Office has averages for expenses like overtime, that triggered their interest in the White Plains overtime figures.

“This district does an awful lot in keeping our schools open. First of all we don’t  want to lose our service to the public. You’re in our schools all the time, our building are open til 10 o’clock or later. We want to continue to provide that service not only for education programs but for other programs we do for the city, but there may be ways we can cut our costs. We’re in the process of looking at those now, and that’s what we implied in our response (to the Comptroller’s Office),” Connors said.

“We’ve got people working on it. We may always be higher than the average (overtime) because of the level of service we provide.”

WPCNR asked if the school district required organizations to pay the cost of keeping the buildings open.

“People outside the community have to pay, we charge them a higher fee than we charge the city recreation and youth bureau. Those costs are part of the cost in the education budget, but they service the wider city. We may look at increasing fees, would be one thing, and that’s one of the things we’re looking at,  but I think it should be kept in mind (and we said this to the comptrollers), what they did they have as formula and they said our costs are high, but I’m sure that other  school districts don’t keep their schools open as much as we do.”

I asked when the new overtime tracking policy as suggested be formulated.

“I can’t give you a date. We’re working on it now. And it will be part of what we do for our budget because we want to bring those costs down.”

I asked if now all overtime would have to be approved. Connors said, “I think what it does is it shows we made some substantial changes in overtime over the last couple of years. Ever since Dr. Lenora Boehlert (Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources)  has been here, we’ve taken a close look at overtime in our secretarial areas and other areas of the school, and what we were cited for were the high costs in our custodial overtime, and a lot of that is sports programs as well. We’re going to look at trying to find more economical ways  of making sure the work that has to be done is done and at the same time serve the public.”

Asked how much overtime had been cut, the Superintendent said he would get that figure, that it “had been cut back substantially.”

Software Access analysis

Asked how serious Connors thought the software access criticisms were, the Superintendent said, “What that really means is in terms of checks and balances, the people who are making the changes on payroll, shouldn’t be the payroll clerks who come out of Dr. Boehlert’s office. That’s real simple.”

The Audit Report told the district to assure that  “incompatible payroll duties relating to personnel (hiring, pay rate setting and benefits), timekeeping and supervision, payroll records processing and check distribution are not accessible by the same person.”

The auditors noted: “The District has a Human Resource Department independent of payroll processing, the current software grants payroll personnel access to personnel records. As such, payroll personnel would be able to add new hires, adjust salaries, change payment instructions, update employee files, and enter salaries. These access control weaknesses increase the risk that payroll transaction errors and irregularities may occur and go undetected.”

On the payroll approvals.

Mr. Connors downplayed this protocol criticism: “As you know the largest percentage of our payroll is done by direct deposit.  The payroll office has been doing that. The person who should push the button to send it off is our person here, the treasurer, and that will be done.

So it’s just simple checks and balances. No improprieties. If you don’t have those checks and balances then you could have something occur, and so we’ve taken steps directed by the Comptroller’s Office.”

The Superintendent said he considered the Comptroller’s report “a good audit.”

 

Fixes Are Under Way

The School District has sent a letter to the Comptroller’s office promising the design and implementation of an Overtime Policy and Regulations as suggested, and instituted the Payroll Access and Software Access recommendations, and installation of “routine audit logs” to check for “unusual transactions or adjustments” (implemented November, 2007); the Internal Claims Auditor will also be provided sufficient time to review payments.