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Tuesday, May 27, 2025

The NYC Department of Education and UFT Lie About "Undue Burden" and Lack of Accommodations For the Unvaccinated


From Betsy Combier:

If you are a teacher in NYC and have been fired because you never were vaccinated with the COVID vaccine, you should know how the UFT and the NYC Department of Education "DOE" have been lying to you about your being an "undue burden" for wanting to keep your job. Many lawyers are also not addressing this sufficiently, in my opinion.

Let me be less harsh on the lawyers - they just did not do their homework. Instead, they were crushed by the City Law Department's insistance that the termination of unvaccinated teachers was due to a lack of remote positions within the DOE, or an "undue burden" in keeping unvaccinated teachers on salary. No one researched that? Yet, for the past 20+ years educators accused of something are reassigned to a place fondly called the "Rubber Room," and they are still doing it today. Let me qualify what I mean by "place" - to me, the Rubber Room is a process of fraud and corruption that frames employees of the NYC Department of Education by claiming false charges in order to terminate their employment or at least extort money from them by way of a settlement.

So, why did I write "fondly"? Because since I first was let in through the backdoor at the reassignment room located at 25 Chapel Street, 10th Floor, in 2003, I have met my closest friends and learned what not to do if you want to survive in the NYC cesspool called education. As an investigative reporter and not on salary to any union (exception: three years as a UFT Special Representative 2007-2010) or the NYC DOE, I was then, and am now, able to tell you what I have found out without being told to be quiet. Except by the people I write about, of course. I also have 4 children who were all in the NYC DOE System and are now working and married (at least 2 of them), and am very fortunate to have a fear of no one. I cannot be bullied, threatened or forced to do something that I feel compromises justice, safety, health or general well-being. ...of myself or anyone else I am honored to assist. 

So when I write about the Rubber Rooms, I am writing about all of the above, but because the rooms are actual places, it is easier to use "place" for the rubber room even though I mean the whole complicated, ugly, and beautifully human process behind the front door.

Employees sit in these rooms and are given no work, but receive their full salary. I knew one teacher, the late Alan Rosenfeld, who was in such a place for more than 13 years. The medium time currently is 1-2 years. The DOE knows that they have these rooms scattered throughout NYC, all boroughs. 

By the way. The Post article on Alan was incorrect about his case and character. My information about his 3020-a arbitration case is that the DOE failed to prove anything but did not want him back in a classroom. Secondly, Alan was a character from a great movie. He was an attorney, so he sat at his table in the rubber room at 25 Chapel Street and talked to his "clients" - the teachers also placed there - about their problems with employment and real estate. Alan sure liked to talk! Every week, sometimes several times/week, when I visited this location I sat with him and listened. It was better not to talk, you were interrupting him. I was very fond of Alan and he beat the system, so kudos to him!  He finally retired in 2012 and died in 2015 of cancer.

Since the COVID Vaccine Mandate started in 2021, no lawyer argued that the terminations were disciplinary because of the Problem Code placed on every personnel file of an employee who did not get vaccinated. This was a serious error, in my opinion. I am not a lawyer.

I was asked by the lawyers in Kane-Keil to write a Declaration on the Problem Code in June 2022, but the Code was never argued in the Complaint, so there was no Appeal. That's why the Problem Code was not mentioned in the final decision of the Court at the Court of Appeals. However, Attorney John Bursch put the Problem Code into the media big time when he did oral argument at the New York State Court of Appeals in February 2023. He had my Declaration in his hands. Thank you, Mr. Bursch!

I have been, and continue to be, very upset about the lack of attention in the Federal Court cases to the lack of due process and failure to accommodate by the NYC DOE. I would have gladly detailed the information I have with anyone. Fortunately, many people are proceeding with actions on their own.

The Hidden Rubber Rooms of New York City Create a Fiscal Nightmare

Betsy Combier

Betsy Combier 

President at ADVOCATZ

The Hidden Rubber Rooms of New York City Create a Fiscal Nightmare

by Betsy Combier, Linkedin

In 2010, the eight warehouses that had the nickname "rubber rooms" were closed due to news reports of hundreds of education personnel sitting in remote places getting paid their full salary to do nothing. I had started visiting the reassignment centers ("Rubber Rooms") in 2003, starting with the invitation by teacher David Pakter, who was assigned the TRC at 25 Chapel Street, 10th Floor. 

When I started working at the UFT in 2007, I simultaneously started talking and writing on this Blog about the rubber rooms in order for the plight of the enclosed tenured teachers to become visible to the paying public. This idea, that millions of public dollars were being spent to keep people out of their classrooms doing non-teaching activities, was a political nightmare for Mayor Bloomberg and the NYC Department of Education. I told Mayor Mike about it, and he was horrified.

Thus it came to be that since 2003 I have been listening to the stories and working as an advocate at the due process hearings of reassigned educators. For three of those years 2007-2010, I was a UFT Special Representative. I found everything about the NYC rubber rooms to be fascinating. Each location was unique because of the number and character of the people placed there while they waited for their hearing, a 3020-a arbitration mandated by Education Law, and their tenured status. Tenured educators cannot be fired for any reason without a due process hearing on the allegations of incompetency or misconduct. All employees in these rooms stayed at the location for the regular school day with 30-45 minutes for lunch. These times were monitored by the principal placed in each room. I know one teacher in a rubber room in the Bronx who studied for the LSAT while sitting in her reassignment, and now is a practicing attorney. To pass the time, classes in everything from cooking to the law were given every day, depending on the license or interest of the people in each location.

However, placing about 1500 education personnel in rooms away from students for 1 to 15 years simply could not be sustained. In my opinion, must not remain. Holding a public employee on a full salary in a room without justification is more than bad public policy. It's also can be demeaning and malicious. There are many who enjoy being paid their salary and not being harassed by a principal or co-worker.

An important fact is that people in the rubber rooms were organizing. Demands were made by the displaced employees, starting in 2008, to form chapters for “rubber roomers”, and to elect unofficial chapter leaders in each location. Neither the Department nor the UFT wanted to legitimize the rubber rooms in this way.

Under pressure from an angry public, the UFT and the DOE signed an agreement on April 15, 2010, to clear these now very visible examples of fiscal absurdity by speeding up the resolution of charges at hearings known as 3020-a arbitration. No one has paid any attention to either letter agreement, then or now.

NYC promised to ban teacher ‘rubber rooms’ — they went underground instead

NYC hired a roster of arbitrators to hear the cases quickly, but many of the accused fought termination rather than settle, retire or resign, and most wanted witnesses to testify on their behalf. Some hearings are lengthy -- one recent case took 32 days and nine months of hearing dates, not including the decision). The time limits are not enforced.

Then there is the shocking case of Alan Herz. he was charged with two so-called "inappropriate" comments to his students, neither of which, in my opinion, warranted anything more than maybe a slap on the wrist. However, some DOE employee somewhere wanted Alan fired, and he was served 3020-a charges, thus highlighting what I believe is the main problem with the entire disciplinary procedure: the charging, pre-3020-a hearing process. His Attorney informed the arbitrator that the school investigator did not file his report until two years after a student accused the teacher of 'insulting' her. This is a blatant violation of procedure, which requires that any report written by an investigator must be completed within six to 12 months. The arbitrator did the correct thing, as all arbitrators should, and dismissed the case at the pre-hearing, citing the procedural error. Within 10 days the NYC DOE sued the arbitrator in the NY State Supreme Court for dismissing the case so quickly. The Judge dismissed the City’s lawsuit. What this case shows is that arbitrators must do what the Department wants, and that is to prosecute the accused, even if innocent. Speed, facts, and law have no relevance.

I think you can see my point, which is that all decisions made before a 3020-a case begins are random and arbitrary. The NYC DOE honors no rules, regulations, or law when an employee does something that a 'higher up' is embarrassed by, or doesn't like for any reason. The procedures for disciplinary action against tenured employees beg for accountability and mediation of the proposed charges before an arbitrator is appointed and paid to hear the case to decide the penalty. Under these conditions, false charges are justified and unlawfully validated. All an arbitrator has to do is find the DOE witnesses 'credible' and the witnesses and charged employee, or "Respondent", 'not credible'. The penalty of termination is then the 'only' outcome. 

This frame-up is a process designed and used by the NYCDOE, UFT and CSA lawyers, intentionally. All parties violate the rights of the people they are supposed to serve. 

When I do a 3020-a arbitration, arbitrators are challenged, because I and the lawyer I work with (outside of NYC I do these hearings often without an attorney, similar to PERB litigation) are not bound by the restrictions placed on NYSUT attorneys who must comply with the sham.

[Added by Betsy 2025: I remember  an arbitrator telling me several years ago, after he exonerated the Respondent I was advocating for, that he was so fed up with the system where he was "supposed" to terminate everyone, that he decided he would exonerate everyone instead. Yep, he was removed from the arbitration panel by the DOE. In fact, several arbitrators told me off the record that they were told they had finished their service on the panel because they were too "lenient" as they did not terminate every Respondent. I never reveal my sources, so don't ask].

The political ‘solution’ was, and still is, to spread out the accused or allegedly guilty employees here and there -- in school offices, basements, storage or copy rooms -- anywhere hidden from view. The rubber rooms have gone underground. No one knows who these new rubber roomers are, because school and central budgets do not have a category for “reassigned” or “suspended” personnel.

The hiding of the reassignment rooms and process is very clear in the 3020-a hearings. Here is one example: in a 2019 case, whenever a witness or the NYSUT attorney mentioned anything about the accused teacher being "reassigned", the Department attorney Seyi Collins-Jemmott prosecuting the case told the transcriber/reporter,

"MS. JEMMOTT: [Interposing] I am--the Department is going to ask that the reference made by opposing counsel to respondent being reassigned be stricken from the record."

Ms. Collins-Jemmott interjected this whenever anyone mentioned "rubber room" or "reassignment", to hide the fact that the charged educator had spent almost a year as a reassigned teacher.

In 2009 I wrote:
The "Gotcha Squad" and the New York City Rubber Rooms

In 2010 I wrote about the scattering of rubber roomers throughout NYC:

Teachers in NYC Rubber Rooms Are Now Scattered So That The NYC Board of Education Can Hide The Harm and Retaliation

In 2014 I wrote about the new rubber rooms' and the rules:
The NYC DOE Re-Assignment Policy Issued in 2010

Then, in 2017 we heard the exact same lie about teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve or ATR pool:

City Will Move Sidelined Teachers From Limbo to Classrooms

The Department benefits from hiding the rubber rooms by not being subjected to public outrage for the waste of public funds. The UFT benefits from hiding the rubber rooms because they are saved from public ridicule for keeping "bad" teachers on salary while they are reassigned to do nothing. Everyone wins but the general public and the parents and children in the schools.

When a teacher is reassigned, who takes his/her place? Anyone who is available - a substitute teacher, uncertified para, ATRs, no one is watching. Kids often have their entire school record jeopardized because their teacher is suddenly absent. The reassigned teacher is not permitted any contact with students, and the substitute is not knowledgeable about the subject or the kids. 

But my point is that there are ATRs still sitting in schools citywide. I spoke with one of these in-school reassigned teachers this morning, May 29, 2025. The unvaccinated employees could have been removed to a Rubber Room - which today is, often, home, while the ATRs took their place. 

See: Absent Teacher's Reserve Agreement Reached

Clearly, the NYC Department of Education has a long history of paying employees not to work for many reasons for several years. They have accepted this "undue burden" and have created an employment category just for these people.

The saying "throw the largest amount of mud at the wall hoping something will stick" is right on the mark. However, the most outrageous part of this whole public hoax is the fact that none of the charges need to be true, but the public has to pay for it. And, there is no accountability and no consequences for false charges.

The take-away is that this entire boondoggle is random, subject to whims and fancy, dislike and discrimination, rather than planning and human capital management.

The psychology of lack of ownership for wasting public funds is well-documented. Every elected official has had to deal with "If it's not coming out of my own pocket, who cares?", "Who is going to find out? I'm protected from prosecution", "it's my job to get bad teachers out of the building", etc.

NYC needs to refine the charging process so that public money is used effectively to root out the truly bad while supporting the wrongly charged and consequences for those who pursued false charges.

We also must end the hidden rubber rooms and make these places visible so that public money can be allocated appropriately, and publicly. Give all educators relevant work to do in accordance with their license while they sit in the "rubber room" for a short amount of time, no more than needed to get an arbitrator and hearing date. Give the public a say in where their money goes.

Our educators deserve better.

By the way, the picture used by the POST in my op-ed is a great hero of mine, for resilience and his fighting spirit. His name is David Suker. He was charged with putting a false home address for himself when he registered his daughter for a school on the Upper West Side. He did not do what he was accused of, but in addition, by the time he was charged 10 years had passed. I know that any investigation into a student's real address must be completed within 30 days, and no one can be charged 10 years later. But in the random and arbitrary procedures used in NYC to discipline and/or terminate tenured educators, the laws of NY State have no relevance.

David Suker's NYSUT Attorney Steve Friedman did not know or care to know that the residence requirement charge was bogus, and David was terminated. David called me up after receiving his penalty of termination and asked for my help in his Article 75 Appeal, which I agreed to do with Attorney Maria Chickedanz. We won $250,000.00 for him as well as his job back. Love this guy.

Betsy Combier, betsy.combier@gmail.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ.com

*********************************************************
Below, you can see how the Daily News misinforms the public with platitudes designed to cite one side of the issue, i.e. that the NYC Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers want all accused employees fired without due process. The UFT and DOE "fixed" this in NYC by hiding the new, smaller rubber rooms, and omitting any determination of probable cause. They went straight from making a charge (true or false) against an employee, filing a Letter to File (puts the person on the Problem Code) and pursuing the charge as if it were true, with an arbitrator told to terminate. If the arbitrator doesn't, he/she is fired from the panel. That's how the DOE and UFT "fixed" the rubber rooms' fiscal nightmare.

City to close ‘rubber rooms,’ $30M detention halls for teachers accused of major violations
By ,  and 
UPDATED: 

The reporters didn't do their due diligence. First, in 2008 there were many more than 99 educators in the 8 rubber rooms. Second, the paragraph below states the reason why Mike Bloomberg "closed" the large centers and hid the reassignment centers: he wanted to pay attorneys to skip over probable cause for specious charges, and go quickly to termination:

"The agreement is not expected to save money immediately since the department will have to hire more lawyers. Education Department officials said they hoped to see some savings down the line as teachers are either returned to the classroom or fired more quickly."

Almost everyone has heard about the termination of educators from the NYC DOE if they did not get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. The City of New York needed to reduce the education budget, and had to omit due process so that they could fire all the unvaccinated as part of that effort. The NY DOE and the UFT "forgot" to mention the rubber rooms and the Problem Code in their speedy termination procedure. Lawyers also omitted mention of the Problem Code and rubber room reassignments because it seems that no one did their homework. 

In any case, every Federal due process class action Complaint filed since 2021 for unvaccinated educators has been dismissed by the Courts.

We all gotta do something about this. 

Give all unvaccinated terminated teachers their former positions back, AND their back pay, pension time and benefits, car days, everything. Now.

betsy@advocatz.com

Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

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Saturday, April 5, 2025

New York City is a Cesspool of Corruption, Nepotism and Political Favors

 

Ingrid Lewis-Martin is escorted into a Manhattan courtroom for an arraignment on bribery charges, Dec. 19, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

From Betsy Combier, Editor:
re-posted from NYC PUBLIC VOICE

When I was growing up in New York City, everyone I knew, and the media, put the New York City Police Department on a separate level of Good People. The 19th precinct on 67th Street in Manhattan was located across the street from where we lived. There was something very comforting about that, especially since the Russian Embassy was also on the same block, and the press about Russia at the time was all about the Cold War and imminent death by nuclear war.

In school we were drilled in how to hide under our desks to save our lives when a nuclear bomb hit us. Today, that would be called "misinformation" at best. But there were no computers in my school at that time and no cable TV. The media were the New York Times, and TV channels 2, 4, 7, 11, and 13. If you wanted to see a movie you went to the theater playing it and bought a ticket, usually just under $4-$5.00.

Currently, in New York City, the police are not considered by many people to be the compassionate heroes and heroines of all New Yorkers. Far from it. We have seen Black Lives Matter become a dominant theme with the noise of racists blaming the "brutal" police for all that is wrong in society (see below);  "stop and frisk" to be put into place, and now the widespread corruption of the Adams administration.

I am hugely against this argument. New Yorkers are possibly the least racist population in the world, because we have more people from every country of the world than anywhere else. Yes, you can fight me on this, but this is my opinion and I'm sticking to it. I never heard the word "race" growing up. If someone has a different skin color or country of birth or ancestry, my twin sister, I, and my parents never noticed. We are human beings (my opinion, not having any experience with a takover by foreign non-earth beings) and we follow the policy that everyone has equal rights to speak and earn rewards such as money and prestige if they work hard and honestly for it.

This philosophy has been trashed and destroyed by those who want money and prestige the easy way - through threats of violence powered by revenge and yes, misinformation. I will say it again: most New Yorkers are not racist and do not believe in discrimination, never have and never will. 

Yet those closest to the rampant rage caused by misinformation and hate, the police, are now, today, a cesspool of corruption, nepotism, sexual harassment, and all the other actions so often prosecuted by the police. This comes from the top: Eliot Spitzer (remember him?), Andrew Cuomo (and see here for the nursing home scandal), Kathy Hochul, and NYC Mayor Eric Adams. They had the power to change this road into all things bad and destructive or good and beneficial to the citizens of New York City and State. They chose the bad over the good, and then had the Democratic Party machine vote into office only those who would support their hate and acts of violence and revenge. Power corrupts. 

Daniel Penny 

One of the examples of the weaponization of New York justice arising from hate and revenge of non-white populations was the Daniel Penny story. Daniel Penny tried to protect subway riders from danger and was put on trial with a possible sentence of 15+ years because he was white, and the man threatening subway riders was black.

Luckily, and I mean that literally, the jury found Penny not guilty and exonerated him. For the first time in many years in NYC a white man without a racist bone in his body, won.

In my opinion, we need to get NYC Mayor Eric Adams voted out of office along with Governor Kathy Hochul, the heads of all the City Agencies must resign or be fired, and we need a huge broom to sweep this trash into the garbage. We need to get a new NY State Comptroller who can hold people accountable for their actions with the power to prosecute them and take their salaries and pensions away permanently.

We need to rid our City of those who hold the power now and yesterday. They have prevented a free and honest government of the people - not just the rich - from putting Citywide policies in place that are not policital favors for Big Pharma or any other Big Donor here in the US or abroad.

Just sayin'

Betsy Combier

Multiple Probes Into Eric Adams' Inner Circle Persist, Even As Mayor Escapes Prosecution

The City, by Greg B. Smith and Yoav Gonen 

A slew of Adams' closest allies have had their homes searched by law enforcement, leading to 11 resignations and 3 indictments - so far.

Hours after a federal judge tossed the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams, the mayor stood on the steps of Gracie Mansion and crowed, “Today finally marks the end of this chapter.”

Not quite.

Law enforcement investigations of some of his closest aides continue apace, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and city Department of Investigation actively delving into allegations of pay-to-play at the top levels of the administration.

Several Adams allies have had their electronic devices seized; some have had their homes searched. At least 11 have resigned for reasons related to the investigations, and three have so far been indicted.

The web of investigations includes prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the Manhattan U.S. attorney and the Brooklyn U.S. attorney, and involves everything from Adams’ team members using their influence to smooth over bureaucratic obstacles or award lucrative city contracts and hefty municipal leases in exchange for personal or political benefits.

Some of those under the law enforcement microscope include some of the mayor’s closest friends and allies, many with histories that date back decades to his time as an NYPD cop, as a state senator and as Brooklyn borough president. Adams has even likened one of them, former chief advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, to his “sister.” 

How far that loyalty now extends is an open question. Adams has repeatedly portrayed the federal case against him as politically motivated, a point he underscored Wednesday by urging all New Yorkers to read FBI Director Kash Patel’s book “Government Gangsters,” a conspiracy-riddled tome that alleges “deep state” actors sought to bring down President Donald Trump. The mayor has yet to make similar claims about the various investigations of his inner circle.

Instead on Wednesday, in remarks that acknowledged how his indictment may have shaken New Yorkers’ confidence in him, Adams said he “trusted people that I should not have, and I regret that.” The mayor did not name names.

Who might Adams go to the mat for? And who might he throw under the bus? Here’s a look at the allegations and investigations into former officials that Adams installed in city government:

Former Chief Advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin

Lewis-Martin, one of the mayor’s long standing associates, resigned from her spot as Number Two to the mayor in December just before she was indicted by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg on charges of using her influence to help two businessmen deal with Buildings Department issues. The DA alleged the businessmen, in turn, provided her son with $100,000 toward the purchase of a Porsche. She has denied wrongdoing and the businessmen claim the money was a loan.

Her troubles, however, are far from over. Prosecutors revealed last week a sitting grand jury was continuing to hear evidence about her and her co-defendants.

Lewis-Martin had her phone seized by the DA and was served a subpoena by the Manhattan U.S. attorney in September when she stepped off a flight from Japan at JFK International Airport. She was accompanied on that trip by Jesse Hamilton, another longtime Adams associate the mayor had put in charge of city leases. Hamilton’s phone was also taken by the DA.

Lewis-Martin’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, did not return THE CITY’s call seeking comment.

Jesse Hamilton, Deputy Commissioner of Real Estate Services

Hamilton, the city official who oversees the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) unit that determines where city agencies lease private sector office space, is currently under investigation by both the DA and the city Department of Investigation regarding whether he steered a lucrative lease to an Adams donor.

The investigation is focused on evidence that DCAS initially planned to lease space in a downtown Manhattan building at 250 Broadway, but  then Hamilton intervened and 14 Wall St. became the building of choice. That landlord, a billionaire named Alexander Rovt, had raised $15,000 for the mayor’s legal defense fund.

Also under scrutiny is the infamous trip to Japan, which included Hamilton, Lewis-Martin and Diana Boutross, a Cushman & Wakefield real estate broker DCAS relies on to negotiate leases with landlords whose phone was also seized. None of the parties have yet to divulge who paid for the trip.

Hamilton has twice skipped City Council hearings that delved into city lease deals. He remains employed by DCAS. Hamilton did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.

Deputy Mayor Philip Banks III, left, and Schools Chancellor David Banks.
 Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

The Banks Brothers

In an early morning sweep in September, law enforcement seized the phones of Schools Chancellor David Banks, his brother, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III, and the chancellor’s wife, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. All have since resigned.

They also confiscated the electronic devices of the Banks’ younger brother, Terence, in an investigation that appears to tie all three brothers to a tech company called Saferwatch.

The firm was lobbying both Phil and David Banks to get their “panic button” app placed in the phones of school safety officers. The app would send out system-wide notices in the event of a fire or active shooter. At the time, the company also hired Terence Banks’ consultant firm, Pearl Associates. Their app was soon placed into a pilot program in five city schools. Saferwatch also received a subpoena.

Xavier Donaldson, a lawyer for David Banks, and Timothy Sini, a lawyer for Terence Banks, did not respond to THE CITY’s requests for comment. Phil Banks’ lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, declined comment.

Former senior mayoral aide Timothy Pearson

Pearson, a longtime friend and associate of the mayor from their days in the NYPD that the mayor appointed to a vaguely defined job as “senior advisor,” had his phone seized by the feds and DOI back in September. Weeks later he resigned.

As the wave of asylum seekers flooded New York City, the mayor put him in charge of monitoring public safety and anti-fraud issues at migrant shelters. Since then he’s been accused in four civil lawsuits of sexually harassing a female subordinate and retaliating against male subordinates who complained about his behavior.

In one lawsuit an employee recounted Pearson discussing one of the contracts the city had awarded for a migrant shelter. During the conversation, he complained that other city staffers involved in the procurement process were somehow personally benefitting, stating, “I have to get mine. Where are my crumbs?”

In February a DOI investigation concluded Pearson had committed misconduct when he attacked two security guards who demanded his ID at a Midtown shelter and then lied to the NYPD to have the guards arrested.

Pearson’s lawyer, Hugh Mo, declined to comment.

Rana Abbasova, former director of protocol in Mayor’s Office for International Affairs Office

In November 2023 federal and DOI investigators raided the homes of Adams’ campaign finance directors, Brianna Suggs, and mayoral aide Abbasova. Days later City Hall fired Abbasova.

At the time, reports emerged that she was cooperating with law enforcement. She is listed as “Adams staffer” throughout the mayor’s indictment, allegedly helping to arrange illegal straw donations and travel perks for the mayor provided by officials with ties to the Turkish government.

Rachel Maimin, an attorney for Rana Abbasova, did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.

Former mayoral aides Mohammed Bahi and Ahsan Chughtai

In December 2021, Bahi and Chughtai — then campaign volunteers who later became the mayor’s liaisons to the Muslim community — arranged $10,000 in straw donations for the campaign via an Uzbek businessman, according to Adams’ indictment. After Adams became mayor, the businessman requested his help dealing with a problem with the building department and later thanked the mayor profusely for his assistance.

Former Mayor Eric Adams aide Mohamed Bahi leaves Manhattan federal court after being charged with witness tampering and destruction of evidence, Oct. 8, 2024. 
                                                            Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

In July law enforcement seized devices belonging to Bahi and Chughtai, and both later resigned from City Hall. In October Bahi was arrested, charged with orchestrating the illegal donation scheme and then trying to cover his tracks. The criminal complaint alleged that when he learned the FBI had visited the donors, he informed the mayor and the mayor told him he was confident they would not cooperate with law enforcement.

In February prosecutors said Bahi had agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy count. His actual plea has yet to take place. Bahi’s lawyer, Derek Adams, did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.

There’s no public record of Chughtai being charged.

Winnie Greco, mayor’s liaison to the Asian community

Greco, who has served as an unpaid campaign fundraiser for Adams since 2018, had two homes she owns in The Bronx, as well as an Adams campaign office she worked at in 2021, raided by the FBI early last year — shortly after THE CITY and Documented reported on suspicious campaign donations there.

In October she resigned from her paid government job, where she had served as Adams’ Asian Affairs Advisor since January 2022.

Greco is also the subject of a probe launched in November 2023 by the city’s Department of Investigation into whether she used her government position for personal gain, including by allegedly requiring a subordinate to do unpaid renovation work at one of her Bronx homes.

Greco also lived for at least nine months in a taxpayer-funded suite at a Queens hotel owned by developer and Adams fundraiser Weihong Hu, an arrangement that’s also under investigation by DOI. Greco’s attorney and City Hall have previously said she paid for the room, but have not provided evidence.

Winnie Greco, left, stands near then-mayoral candidate Eric Adams during a Long Island fundraiser in 2021. Credit: Screengrab via YouTube/Jerry Wang

Hu was indicted in February on corruption charges after she allegedly paid kickbacks to the head of a nonprofit organization that was providing re-entry services for former inmates. 

Hu held multiple fundraisers for Adams in 2021 and 2023, raising tens of thousands of dollars in donations. A number of contributors to a June 2023 fundraiser attended by Adams and Greco previously told THE CITY they were each reimbursed for their $2,000 donations by members of Hu’s family. 

Such a reimbursement would be illegal, but there’s been no public suggestion that Hu’s indictment is connected to her fundraising for Adams. Hu has pleaded not guilty.

An attorney for Greco declined to comment, and Hu’s attorney in the criminal case didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Edward Caban, police commissioner

Caban resigned in early September after serving for just over a year as NYPD commissioner, stepping down just days after he and his twin brother’s homes in Rockland County were raided by the FBI.

The office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District is reportedly looking into whether the brother, James Caban — who was fired from the NYPD in 2001 for abuse of authority — was benefitting from the commissioner’s position by offering to protect nightclubs from police enforcement as a paid consultant.

A former Brooklyn bar owner who said his establishment was frequently targeted by police came forward just days after Edward Caban’s resignation to allege that a City Hall staffer had connected him to James Caban for assistance with dealing with the local precinct. The bar owner, Shamel Kelly, said Caban asked him for $2,500 to help smooth things over, but that he refused to pay.

The phones of multiple high-ranking police officials, including those overseeing enforcement of nightclubs in certain precincts, have been seized as part of the federal probe, according to published reports.

Separate attorneys for Edward and James Caban didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

Eric Ulrich, building commissioner

Ulrich was the first top mayoral aide to be implicated in scandal. He resigned his position as commissioner of the Department of Buildings in November 2022 and was indicted by the Manhattan DA about a year later, charged with taking bribes from a variety of individuals seeking favorable treatment from City Hall.

Prosecutors charged that Ulrich had accepted cash and Mets tickets from a tow truck firm seeking to expand its work hauling away vehicles off city highways, took payments from a Queens restaurateur who was battling with buildings inspectors, and accepted a discount apartment from a developer trying to get City Hall to evict a homeless shelter near one of his properties.

The case against Ulrich is pending. His attorney, David Cohen, did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.

Jeffrey Maddrey, NYPD chief of department

Maddrey, the highest uniformed officer in the NYPD, had his home raided by federal officials in January, following a complaint filed by a female subordinate that he had coerced sexual favors from her in exchange for overtime opportunities.

The subordinate, former Lt. Quatisha Epps, also alleged wider overtime abuse at the department during Caban’s tenure in a complaint filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

Maddrey has denied the claims, acknowledging only that he and Epps had an “office fling.” His attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Adams elevated Maddrey to Chief of Department and repeatedly defended the appointment despite a number of misconduct allegations against Maddrey over the past decade.

In late 2021, Maddrey was accused of ordering that the arrest of an ex-cop be voided, just hours after the ex-cop allegedly threatened three kids with a gun. A video investigation by THE CITY detailed the unusual lengths that Maddrey went to intervene in the case, which a Civilian Complaint Review Board probe subsequently determined to be abuse of authority.

Maddrey eluded discipline after Caban ruled the CCRB didn’t have purview over the incident. 

In 2015, Maddrey was investigated by the NYPD after he got into a physical tussle with an underling he was having an affair with, and allegedly lied to the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau about it.

He escaped that jam with the loss of 45 vacation days despite initially being charged with fireable offenses.


NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey is pictured during a press conference in Queens on Feb. 28, 2023.© Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/TNS

Editorial: The free press & the NYPD — The Daily News and others exposed the cop overtime scandal

Opinion by New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News
 
December 26, 2024

Look no further than the reporting of Daily News correspondents Graham Rayman, Rocco Parascandola and Tom Tracy who last month uncovered the NYPD overtime scandal that OT is being directed to a large number of cops at HQs, not police out in the field.

Their work blew open the dirty inside secrets, showing that the No. 1 highest earner among 35,000 uniformed cops was Lt. Special Assignment Quathisha Epps, who just happened to be an aide to Jeff Maddrey, who was chief of the department until a few days ago.

Exposed, Epps put in for retirement on Dec. 16 and two days later she was suspended. She then charged that Maddrey had been demanding sex in exchange for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of OT she had pocketed. That’s when Maddrey quit.

The salacious details ascribed to Maddrey are horrid. And so is the scandal that OT is apparently being funneled, not to crime fighting and hardworking cops freezing their behinds off patrolling the streets and subways, but to paperpushers like Epps with cushy jobs back at 1 Police Plaza. There are hundreds of OT recipients who need to be carefully reviewed.

The city Department of Investigation is probing, as is the Manhattan district attorney, as are federal prosecutors. Everyone except the World Court it seems. As they all should be, for this is theft from the taxpayers and theft from ordinary cops keeping us all safe.

New Commissioner Jessie Tisch has already dumped NYPD Chief of Internal Affairs Miguel Iglesias, who should have found out about this and didn’t, or even worse, did know and let it slide. Tisch, who is in the midst of a cleanup, may also be investigating a crime scene.

And back to what Trump is spouting about; this cascade started with the vigorous free press of our reporters and their competitors at the other news outlets covering the NYPD. The system as envisioned in the First Amendment, that the government cannot interfere with the freedom of the press, is working precisely as the Founders thought.

As for Maddrey, this guy had skated on ethical charge after ethical charge, always protected by the old boy’s network. We find out now that he was sworn in as a licensed New York State attorney in September. That means he won approval from the court system’s Committee on Character and Fitness. And he managed to complete law school and study for the bar (which he passed this spring) while also being the NYPD’s only 4-star chief, the top uniformed job. Was he also collecting OT along the way?

With the ouster of Maddrey and Iglesias, Tisch’s crackdown on OT is rightly starting at the top. She has clean hands, having just arrived a month ago. Anyone who was wrongly dipping into the OT kitty for themselves or others has to be found and exiled from the high command, if not fired outright.

Overtime is sometimes a necessary expense, but it must be used for the public safety function of the NYPD, not to fatten the wallets of the undeserved. That is the mission of the NYPD, just as it is the mission of the Daily News and the rest of the press to watch them.

New York Police Officer Quathisha Epps arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court on January 31, 2011. (Jefferson Siegel for New York Daily News)

A NYPD lieutenant in Police Headquarters who earned more than $400,000 last year has put in her retirement papers, following a report by the Daily News noting she claimed to have worked more than 1,600 hours of overtime for a hefty sum of $204,000.

Lt. Special Assignment Quathisha Epps, with a salary of $406,515, was the highest earning cop in the entire NYPD in fiscal year 2024, city payroll records show, even though she worked in an administrative capacity for Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey. Sources say her earnings are under review, and late Wednesday Epps was suspended from her position.

Those earnings were detailed in The News’ report, which also reported a significant number of the top 400 overtime earners have administrative assignments as opposed to patrol responsibilities. For example, 13 of the top 400 earners were assigned to the police commissioner’s office.

Police sources say since The News’ Nov. 16 report, the department has embarked on a crackdown on administrative overtime. In addition, precincts are under increased pressure to track overtime. Borough commanders held meetings on Dec. 11 and Dec. 12. The NYPD press office did not reply to several emails sent by The News Tuesday and Wednesday about Epps’ retirement and the overtime crackdown.

Epps put in papers for a “vested separation retirement” on Monday, NYPD personnel records show. She is slated to leave Jan. 14, the records show.

Epps joined the NYPD in July 2005, records show, which means she is leaving seven months short of her 20th year – the year full pension benefits kick in – and will have a slightly reduced pension as a result. It was not immediately clear why she was retiring early. She also risks not getting a so-called “good guy” letter, which would allow her to carry a firearm in retirement, something that is an important prerequisite for security work.

A News analysis of her salary shows her pension could be at least $150,000 a year tax-free and possibly close to $232,000, the payroll records show.

Payroll records show Epps put in 1,626 hours of overtime earning $204,453 over her regular salary of $172,893. She also earned $26,169 in “other pay.” In fiscal 2023, Epps claimed 1,003 hours of overtime, earning $114,210, or half as much as she earned in fiscal 2024.

In fiscal 2022, she claimed 496 hours of overtime, earning $49,561, the records show.

The rank of lieutenant special assignment is a discretionary promotion that does not have to go through civil service procedure under NYPD rules.

On Monday night at a town hall meeting on the Upper West Side, Mayor Adams said he directed Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to do a “desk by desk” analysis of cops, saying cops are “masters at hiding out somewhere.”

The comment drew a rebuke from Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry, who said the force is burned out and drained by waves of retirements. “Shuffling cops’ assignments or squeezing them for even more mandatory overtime is only going to drive more away,” Hendry said.

Lou Turco, president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, declined to comment. Epps did not reply to a call and a text message.

Under the city’s Police Pension Fund rules, a police officer’s pension is based on their final year of service.

The amount of overtime earned cannot exceed 20% of the previous year.

In Epps’ case, if she received a standard pension, she would receive 50% of her final year regular pay plus 20% more than her fiscal 2023 overtime earnings.

Her fiscal 2024 salary of $172,893 plus 20% in overtime more than she earned in fiscal 2023 – $137,052 – would put her at a total salary for pension purposes at about $309,000.

A standard pension is calculated at 50% of the final salary tax-free, so her estimated annual retirement payment would be roughly $155,000.

Epps is a cancer survivor, so if she put in for a disability pension, it could add up to substantially more – 75% of her final year salary – or $232,000.

Originally Published: 
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