http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/politics/nyc-vote0310,0,4336081.story
Unraveling the $25M
political mystery
BY
BRYAN VIRASAMI
STAFF
WRITER
It's
the $25 million mystery.
Millions
of dollars that could be used to replace archaic voting machines, improve a
telephone hot line and a poorly run Web site have been set aside for the Board
of Elections for many years. But the board's executive director, John Ravitz, said he knows nothing about it.
Martha
Hirst, commissioner of the Department of Citywide
Administrative Services, told City Council this week that the capital money has
been available for years in her agency's budget.
After
an initial published report, Ravitz told City Council
he had no knowledge of the funds despite an existing plan to spend $7.5 million
to modernize Board of Elections offices.
"The
New York City Board of Elections does not have a capital budget," Ravitz told Newsday on Monday.
During
questioning at a Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Hirst
explained that $7.5 million is earmarked for office renovations at the board's
After
insisting Ravitz had to be aware of the capital
budget since it was being used, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said
yesterday that the city's Office of Management and Budget will meet with Ravitz's staff this week to discuss a plan for the $25
million.
"In
numerous conversations, they sure as heck never said, 'Hey, John, what about
that pot of money we have for you to use?'" Ravitz
said Monday.
Ravitz was not available for comment Wednesday.
Councilman
Bill Perkins (D-Harlem), who chaired the meeting, said he was perplexed at the
conflicting statements about the money's existence.
"It's
strange; it's a mystery. Somebody needs to account for this," Perkins
said. "No one seems to suggest it doesn't exist. Either one pleads
ignorance or one pleads knowledge."
Doug
Turetsky, a spokesman for the Independent Budget
Office, said the money is identified in the fiscal 2006 capital budget and
includes an allocation for the modernization project.
Ravitz testified in the hearing that in addition to
the $75 million operating budget, he needed $15 million to cover a much-needed
$850,000 telephone upgrade and other projects.
The
money could have alleviated the severe problems last year in which Election Day
calls to the board's hot line were not answered and its Web site was out of
order, he said.
The
capital money was apparently held over from a decade-old plan to renovate
voting machines, which has been abandoned, but remains in DCAS' budget.
Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.
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