12 years a knave VOLUME 29, NUMBER 9
contested! Chair’s departure means leadership rumble at CB1
BY YANNIC RACK Community Board 1 will soon be shaken up by contested leadership races, as longtime board members scramble to fill the power vacuum left by Catherine McVay Hughes’ resignation as head of the board. Hughes, who has helmed CB1 since 2012, surprised colleagues by announcing last week that she would not seek re-election for a third and final term next month. She will continue to serve as chair until June and has already been appointed for another two-year term as a regular board member. But the loss of Lower Manhattan’s most ardent advocate on issues ranging from flood protection to construction safety also means the top reaches of Downtown’s local authority are now up for grabs — and prospective candidates came out of the woodwork last week. So far, Anthony Notaro, the current vice-chair of the board and head of its Battery Park City committee, and Paul Hovitz, who co-chairs the Youth and Education Committee, are facing off to replace her at the top. Hovitz threw his hat in the ring this week after Notaro had already handed in his application a few weeks ago. Both of them have unsuccessfully run for chair in recent years. In addition, Tribeca Committee chairwoman Elizabeth Lewinsohn is aiming to replace Notaro as vice-chair of CB1 — but she is already facing a challenge from current board secretary Adam Malitz, ensuring there will be more than one contested race this election season. Malitz had originally asked to be reappointed to his current post as secretary, but changed his application this week, according to CB1’s Nominating Committee, which solicits applications for community board positions. Hovitz, a retired teacher who has been on the board for more than two decades, said he welcomed the competition — but added that he felt he could devote more time to the job since he was retired, while Notaro still works as a principal at a small software company. “I think that nobody should really run unopposed unless they’re John F. Kennedy or someone contested Continued on page 15
MAY 5 – MAY 18, 2016
Silver gets a dozen years in prison for corruption By Mary Reinholz and Lincoln Anderson Former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, once one of New York’s most powerful politicians and a lifelong resident of the Lower East Side, was sentenced by a federal judge on Tuesday to 12 years in prison for his conviction last November on seven counts of corruption, including extortion, honest-services fraud and money laundering. He had been found guilty after a five-week jury trial of abusing his public office to provide preferential treatment to a cancer researcher at Columbia University and two real estate developers. In turn, they provided lucrative referrals to two Manhattan law firms that had retained Silver as a part-time attorney since around 2000. Silver was found guilty of raking in $5 million in kickbacks through the two schemes. Judge Valerie E. Caproni, who imposed the hefty sentence, acknowledged some of Silver’s good deeds to his constituents in the 65th Assembly District, such as his advocacy for tenants and help for locals after 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy. But Caproni also character-
Associated Press / Seth Wenig
Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver left court on May 3, after he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his conviction last November on seven counts of corruption, including extortion, honest-services fraud and money laundering.
ized the 72-year-old Democrat as a “scheming politician” who was simply trying to hang on to power. She ordered Silver to turn himself in to authorities by noon on July 1, saying she wanted to strike fear into the hearts of other politicians who might succumb to corruption by making it clear that “they could spend their golden years in an
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orange jumpsuit.” No one else was indicted in the case. Dr. Robert Taub, who received $500,000 in state grants that Silver funneled to the doctor’s mesothelioma research center in return for referrals, served as a witness for the prosecution. Silver Continued on page 23