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Council Bills To Curb Street Vendor Fines Moving to Committee


vendors
 

For Moustapha Cisse, 48, setting up shop each morning can be a nightmare.

Cisse is a general vendor; he typically sells handbags and scarves at 51st street and 7th avenue. His table or cart must be within 18 inches of the curb, ten feet from a crosswalk, 20 feet from a store entrance, and on a sidewalk that is at least 12 feet wide. His license must be worn, visibly, on their chest and not covered by scarves or outwear, and he can’t be on top of a subway grate or too close to a pay phone. Cisse’s found a regular spot to peddle his goods, but choosing that location can’t have been easy. In Manhattan, there are at least 160 blocks with restrictions on vendors — some ban vending entirely on certain stretches while others restrict the time of day vendors are allowed.

Deviations from these rules come at a high price. Fines can cost as much as $1000 for each violation; vendors say that fines can quickly put them in debt or completely out of business. Vendors typically make $15,000 - $20,000 a year, according to the Street Vendor Project, the advocacy group that has lead the charge to change these laws.

Two City Council bills are working to fight these hefty tickets and according to lead sponsor Councilman Stephen Levin, they will likely receive a Committee hearing within the next three months.

“We have a lot of support, this is a matter of months,” Councilman Levin said, calling the fines "outrageous."

The bills, Intro 434 and Intro 435were introduced in November 2010 and already have a majority support — 33 and 35 cosponsors, respectively.

“These are common sense, basic fairness bills,” Councilman Levin said. “[Vendors] are extremely hard-working. These people are trying to put food on the table for their families. For someone to get a $1000 fine for a minor infraction goes against a lot of what we believe in this city.”

The Fine Print

“It’s not doing the city any good to issue such outrageous fines because it just ensures that the people aren’t going to be able to pay them,” Levin said.

Indeed, in 2008 and 2009, the Independent Budget Office found that of the $15.8 million of issued tickets, only $900,000 was paid to the city.

The two Council Bills proposed by Councilman Levin already have a majority number of cosponsors. The first bill, Intro 434, has 33 cosponsors and would lower the minimum ticket to $25 and set the maximum fine cost at $250 and Intro 435, which as 35 cosponsors, would stop the ticket price for rising for unrelated violations, meaning that the fines only rise if the tickets are issued for the same violation.

The 2010 IBO study that investigated the issue also found that the regulation of vendors was costing the city money. In fiscal year 2009, street vendors cost the city approximately 7.4 million, though only $1.4 million was collected in revenues.

The “Easy Targets”

Mohammad Anu Miah, 50, emigrated to the U.S. from Bangladesh in 1998 has been selling hot dogs in SoHo since 2002, but this year he lost his license because he owes $4,513 dollars in fines but doesn’t have the money to pay it. Some of his fines are health code violations — something these bills wouldn’t affect — but one $1000 violation is for vending on a sidewalk less than 12 feet wide.

Miah says he can’t find other work and still owes the money to the city. Sometimes he can’t afford to eat and since losing his license, he’s been unable to send money back to his wife and six children in Bangladesh.

“They refuse to admit that there are ticket quotas, but I think it’s pretty publicly known that there are,” Shapiro said. “Vendors are easy targets – they’re out their on the street, a lot of them are immigrants and they don’t speak great English. It’s hard for them to protect themselves.”

Vendors report that arguing with the cops or trying to show that they are in fact abiding the law only leads to more tickets.

“The lesson I’ve learned is don’t talk,” said Cisse, who said he thinks he’s been targeted by cops. Cisse still has his license, but is in debt to a friend after he had to borrow money for a $750 ticket last year.

Vendors report wide disparities in enforcement. Street Vendor Project explains that the regulations for vendors are so elaborate that many cops can’t keep them straight.

Wanda Foster, 46, was fined for being less than 90 feet from a Subway while selling fruit. Even when she said she used a tape measure to show the cop that she was a full 90 feet from the subway entrance, she still received a ticket. But the law only says vendors have to be ten feet from the subway, according to Matt Shapiro, the staff attorney at the Street Vendor Project.

And while vendors can fight these tickets, Shapiro said that most don't know how to appeal the decisions and language barriers often hurt their attempts. The Street Vendor Project often appeals tickets, but they are rarely successful in getting the ticket reversed.

Air Conditioner at Center of Legal Battle


cooperative
Photo by BostonBill.

When Stuart Feldman purchased a cooperative apartment in Whitestone, Queens, in 1997, it was to provide a home for his parents, Clara and Jerome Feldman who were in their eighties. Three years later, the family had an air conditioner installed in one room although the building had a central cooling system. After another three years, an employee of the cooperative corporation noticed the unit protruding through a brick wall on the apartment’s terrace. Management said the air conditioner was against their rules. The co-op and the Feldmans have fought this issue in and out of court, where it has now ended in a judicial determination and order. In November, the the Feldmans won their case and were awarded legal fees.

Upon learning of the existence of the air conditioner, the management of the Cryder House informed Stuart Feldman that he was in violation of the lease and the building’s rules which prohibited installation of such units. If he did not remove it within five days, he risked having his proprietary lease and ownership of his shares in the co-op terminated; that would lead to the eviction of his parents.

The boards of directors of cooperative housing, which is considered by some to be an ironic description, have enormous control over their buildings and the occupants. They have almost unfettered powers to act in what they determine to be the best interests of the corporation and the shareholders in general, under something recognized by the state’s highest court as “the business judgment rule.” But in this case the Board came up against charges more powerful.

The board was met by a lawsuit commenced by the Feldmans complaining of discrimination. It was alleged that Ms. Feldman was highly allergic and asthmatic but that air conditioning eased her breathing. The absence of purified air, the plaintiffs claimed, interfered with her ability to carry out the “activities of daily living.” The charge was discrimination based on her physical condition, a violation of federal, city and state laws including the federal Fair Housing Act, and the New York State and New York City Human Rights Laws. Her eviction based on her disability or impairment would constitute an unfair housing practice. The plaintiffs argued that even if there was a violation of the building’s rules, it was minor and was outweighed by Ms. Feldman’s medical needs and legal rights. Still, the defendant corporation continued to press for removal of the air conditioner, and, otherwise, removal of the occupants.

A judicial hearing officer appointed by Justice Martin Schulman of Queens Supreme Court agreed with the defendants that the unit was prohibited, and that the Board had never consented to its installation. However, there was no evidence that this caused substantial damages to the building or other residents, who could neither see nor hear the air conditioner, and who had never complained about it. The hearing officer found that while the building does have cooling units; those units do not provide the filtration provided by the air conditioner, and are not in use all year round. He also reported his findings that Ms. Feldman needed air conditioning to protect her from pollen, dust, mold, lint, feathers, and other allergens which caused her to suffer severe headaches, coughing, sneezing, pain, and difficulty in breathing. An expert witness, Dr. Morton Teich, an allergist and immunologist, testified that exposure to such allergens “induced a reaction including local skin reaction, nausea, burning sensation, itchy throat, dry cough and general malaise [because she is] extremely allergic, hyper-reactive and had delayed reactions [which would last for days].” The air conditioning unit, he testified, was medically necessary for Ms. Feldman’s health.

The post-hearing report led to a determination of discrimination in the defendants’ refusal to accommodate Clara Feldman’s medical needs, without which she could not enjoy the apartment in which she resided, as others do enjoy theirs. The business judgment rule may be nearly all-encompassing, but does not permit co-op boards to discriminate, in this case, against residents who have special medical needs.

While not cited by Justice Schulman, the Court of Appeals had previously ruled in a Manhattan case that a midtown co-op’s ban on the installation of washing machines and dryers could not override all circumstances. In that case, Merle Hirschmann v Constantine Hassapoyannes v 20166 Tenants Corp., Et al., an apartment buyer had cancer which necessitated the frequent laundering of his bed linens and undergarments. The State’s highest court found that the installation of the machines was a reasonable accommodation to the plaintiff’s infirmities, and the board could not discriminate by withholding consent despite their rules.

The result in Feldman v Cryder House is that plaintiffs can maintain the air-conditioning unit as long as Ms. Feldman resides in the apartment. The family will then be required to remove it and repair the wall. The co-op corporation was ordered to pay the Feldmans’ legal fees.

Emily Jane Goodman is a New York State Supreme Court Justice

In New York, the Police Police the Police


nypd
Photo by Ken
Decades after Frank Serpico (portrayed in the movie by Al Pacino) blew the whistle on misconduct by his colleagues in the police department, corruption -- though perhaps not on as grand a scale - remains an issue.

Mention the words "NYPD" and "corruption" or "scandal" in the same sentence these days, and many New Yorkers quickly think of ticket fixing. The rest reach for the nearest soap box to decry the department's treatment of Occupy Wall Street protestors.

(For a related article on whether the moves against demonstrators will change political attitudes toward the police and dissent, see Crackdown on Protests Could Spark More Scrutiny of Police)

Both the ongoing prosecution of 16 current officers for making their buddies' (or their buddies' buddies') traffic tickets go away and the rising feud over Zuccotti Park patrolling have for weeks been fodder for local news and afternoon radio show debates. Yet while these sagas continue to play out in judicial proceedings and the court of public opinion, they draw attention away from other, more serious instances of police wrongdoing. Recently exposed criminal conduct -- armed robbery, gun running and drug planting, for example -- by active police officers not only draws a cloud over a department that has made vast strides in keeping the city safe in the last decade, but also again raises an important question that New York has grappled with for more than a century: how to police the police?

A recent report by the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City indicates that, unlike some of the nation's other large police forces, New York's police lack strong, independent oversight controls. "We have been concerned for some time that NYPD is uniquely lacking independent oversight," said Richard Aborn, the commission's president.

If a string of recent criminal incidents is any indication, Aborn isn't the only one who should be keeping an eye on New York's Finest.

A Few Bad Eggs or a Rotten Coop?

On Nov. 1, police detective Jason Arbeeny was convicted on criminal charges for planting crack cocaine on a woman and her boyfriend outside a Coney Island apartment building. At trial, former detective Stephen Anderson testified that during his time on the force undercover cops often planted drugs on innocent people -- what he and other officers called "attaching bodies" to the drugs -- in order to beef up arrest numbers. In finding Arbeeny guilty, State Supreme Court Justice Gustin L. Reichbach said Arbeeny was not simply one rogue cop, but rather the result of the "cowboy culture" prevalent in the city's police drug units.

One of seven narcotics investigators recently convicted for planting drugs, Arbeeny is not the only city police officer to turn up on the wrong side of the law lately. An officer was convicted and three other current or former officers pleaded guilty for their roles in the 2010 armed robbery of $500,000 in perfume from a Carlstadt, N.J. warehouse. Some of the men announced themselves as police officer, displaying guns and badges, during the robbery, in whic11 employees were held hostage.

In October, eight current and former police officers, including 18-year veteran William Masso, were among 12 people arrested in connection with a gun smuggling ring.

All of this is not to mention conduct that, while, not criminal, has raised concern bout police conduct n the city, such as the aggressive, department-wide "stop and frisk" policy that some claim amounts to racial profiling and the recently reported Moroccan Initiative in which officers allegedly targeted Muslims for investigation based solely on their ethnicity.

Police abuse of power is nothing new, in New York City or elsewhere. In 1912 a committee headed by Alderman Henry Curran found that police officers had assisted in robberies throughout the city and, after being caught, were allowed to resign without punishment. Over the years, similar scandals have rocked cop shops from Boston to San Francisco.

Certainly, in a force of nearly 35,000 uniformed officers –New York has more police than Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles combined -- there are sure to be a few bad apples. "The NYPD is the finest police department in the world, and theses arrests do nothing to diminish the selfless commitment of the 35,000 men and women who put on a uniform every day, and who put their lives on the line to keep us safe," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement following the gun smuggling arrests.

Indeed, the Citizens Crime Commission report calls the city's police department "one of the most effective crime fighting forces in the country" as shown by the nearly 80 percent drop in crime over the last 20 years. But the report also indicates that the department needs stronger independent oversight.

"Independent police oversight is essentially non-existent in New York City," Aborn, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney, said.

What Other Cities Do

The commission compared New York's police oversight methods with those in place at the next five largest police departments across the country: Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston and Washington, D.C. It identified three "core elements" essential to proper oversight that are apparent in all, but one of these departments (Houston): transparency; independence; and the power to require that the police provide access to documents, personnel and other information.

While New York has two civilian-run police oversight entities, each fairly transparent and with some power to demand documents and interview officers, they are both only quasi-independent, and their power is limited. One refers all misconduct complaints back to the police department for investigation, and the other is limited to simply making recommendations based on the results of its investigations.

New York City's model, in Aborn's views, pales in comparison to that of Los Angeles, which he cites as the gold standard for police oversight. There, the Office of the Inspector General oversees the city police department, operating completely independently of the department's self-policing Internal Affairs Group. According to Aborn, the inspector general has "unfettered access" to information and officers in carrying out its investigations.

For John Jay College police science professor Maria Haberfeld how Los Angeles -- or any other city for that matter-- monitors its cops is neither here nor there. "Oversight is something that should be agency specific. We have over 18,000 police agencies in the United States. NYPD is certainly very different from all of the others both size and logistics-wise," she said.

Nevertheless, the Citizens Crime Commission expressed concern that, unlike most of the other large police departments, New York lacks a completely independent oversight body with the power to compel testimony and the release of evidence from the police department.

What New York Does

The department's Internal Affairs Bureau investigates allegations of corruption and serious misconduct against police officers. Anyone can file an complaint and may even do so anonymously. The bureau worked with the FBI to bring down the gun smuggling ring in October and built the case against the ticket-fixing officers. It does not appear to have been at the forefront of investigating the perfume heist or drug planting incidents.

The two civilian-run city entities intended to independently oversee police operations -- the Civilian Complaint Review Board and the Commission to Combat Police Corruption -- also appeared to have had little involvement with these case. The 13-member review board deals with complaints against police officers alleging specific behavior: "excessive or unnecessary force, abuse of authority, discourtesy or the use of offensive language."

Following an investigation, the board submits findings and recommendations to the police commissioner. The police commissioner is required to cooperate by making records and officers available for inspection and interrogation. Once the board issues its finding, however, the commissioner remains free to implement the board's recommendations, take them under advisement or simply do nothing at all.

Despite its civilian bent, Brooklyn civil rights attorney Richard J. Cardinale said that the board is not nearly as independent as it holds itself out to be. "The Civilian Complaints Review Board and the Internal Affairs Bureau are both rubber stamps for the officers," said Cardinale, who has recently represented clients in stop and frisk related cases against the city. "I don't even encourage clients to go there."

Neither the police department nor the Civilian Complaint Review Board responded to the Gazette's request for comment.

Last year, the review board found sufficient credible evidence to believe that an officer acted improperly in 11 percent of the complaints it investigated. The number of officers involved in substantiated complaints last year -- 377 – was the highest number since 2006. The department took some sort of disciplinary action, which can range from an oral warning to termination, in 78 percent of those cases.

The Commission to Combat Police Corruption's monitors all the department's corruption control policies and procedures. It reviews all corruption complaints received by the department as well as Internal Affairs' investigation of these complaints. The commission is authorized to demand police department documents for auditing purposes. It also receives corruption complaints.

On its website, the commission touts itself as "completely independent of the NYPD." Yet it also advises, "Please be aware that the commission does not, absent extraordinary circumstances, handle investigations itself. Complaints received by the Commission to Combat Police Corruption are, when appropriate, forwarded to the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau for review and investigation. In some instances, the commission monitors complaints that have been forwarded to the Internal Affairs Bureau."

Thus, while the review board and the Commission to Combat Police Corruption are both on their face independent entities, neither has final enforcement authority. In the case of the board all of its recommendations are subject to department approval. As for the commission, any complaints it receives are actually investigated by the officer's peers in Internal Affairs.

Debating Independence

Aborn believes the current system simply isn't good enough. "An entirely independent body with subpoena power is necessary to reassure the public that its findings will not be tainted and to serve as a deterrent to officers," he said.

In a 2008 report, the good government group, Citizens Union, issued a review of police policies and procedures and also called for a more independent review board and a "stronger" commission to combat corruption. Among other things, the group advocated letting the review board prosecute cases and that it have more money for staff and investigations. (Citizens Union's sister organization publishes Gotham Gazette.)

But not everyone agrees independent oversight is the sine qua non. "Policing is a profession that can be fully understood only by its members," said Haberfeld. "I understand the need for accountability and to include citizens, but to make oversight completely independent without police input is to already indict the profession."

One thing that Haberfeld, Aborn and Cardinale agree on is that the department's current oversight models can be improved.

"I would like to see more accountability at the precinct level," Haberfeld said. While she thinks that current safeguards are sufficient, she added, "It's one thing to have the structure in place; it's another for it to be carried out effectively."

Cardinale has his own ideas about how local police can be made accountable: "I think that the Justice Department needs to intervene, the same way that they did in New Orleans."



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