Kendall Stewart Watch
Kendall Stewart, the City Council Member from the Flatbush area of Brooklyn around Brooklyn College, and who voted to sell out Brooklyn by voting “Yes” for the congestion pricing tax, seems to be the first council member who can be crossed off the list of active traitors to the borough. Kendall has a swirl of corruption running around him now, which should be no surprise as easy as it was for him to be brought off by the Bloomburg administration for his vote on tolling the East River bridges.
The Associated Press and the Tabloids are reporting that two of Kendall's staff members got caught with their hands in the cookie jar in the growing City Council slush fund investigation. A copy f the report can be seen here at http://www.brooklyn-living.com/stewart_kendall_the_crool_part_1_ny_AP.html As it outlines, Kendall's staffers $145,000 PLUS from a “charity” called the Donna Reid Memorial Education Fund which in of itself seems to be nothing more than a shell account for the City Council to deposit money into. Federal authorities can be quotes as saying, "Without transparency and accountability in the budget process, discretionary items are ripe for abuse," Garcia said. "Taxpayer money allocated to fake nonprofit entities, organizations that do not even exist, is even more difficult to trace and more easily diverted for personal gain." Gee, think what we can do with 500,000,000 a year going into the MTA's black hole with the help and over site of the city council, guaranteed by the transportation tax voted for by Kendall.
Kendall was quoted as saying, "While I believe in the presumption of innocent until proven guilty I must say that I'm deeply disappointed over the allegations leveled at Mr. Reid and the embarrassment that his actions — right or wrong — have caused me, my hardworking staff and the people of my district,". This guy just doesn't get it. He treats his public office as an object to trade for his own profit purposes. Is that a bit harsh? Well it isn't.
Kendall's overt sale of his vote for Congestion Pricing and this money grab by his staff isn't the first corrupt grab to use his office for private profit and corruption at the cost of his constituencies interests. It was reported on January 17th, 2008 that Kendall was subpoenaed about graft in the non-profits by his Chief of Staff Asquith Reid. Yes, the same Reid who established the City Council funded slush fund.
“[City Councilman Kendall Stewart, of the 45th district] said Wednesday he was subpoenaed in a federal probe of charities linked to one of his top aides. Stewart said he received a subpoena last week from the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office but is not a target of the probe. Investigators appear to be looking into nonprofits set up by Stewart's chief of staff, Asquith Reid, a well-known figure in Brooklyn's Caribbean-American political circles. "They're trying to find out how monies are being utilized by the CBOs [community-based organizations]," Stewart said.”
Then there was the shooting at Cafe Omar, which is owned by Kendall and in which Kendall refused cooperation with the police. The killing earlier this March is reported here
http://pillsbottlesneedles.blogspot.com/2008/03/this-looks-like-wild-wild-west-elijah.html on the local blogs and also archived by Brooklyn-Living at http://www.brooklyn-living.com/kendall_shooting.txt. Kendall's tapes of the night had to be confiscated and his the statements after the shooting outright remarkable.
"There were no problems at our place," he said. "We're about a block away from where this happened." Stewart's son Omar, 25, said he was at the club early Saturday and that patrons were well-behaved. "Everybody that came to our establishment had a good time and left in an orderly manner," he said. "We believe that this incident is not a reflection of our club."
Say that again? This is Brooklynites your addressing. We're not that stupid.
According to the New York Times, Stewart, the tax Brooklyn for living, councilman wants to go into the state Senate, http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/a-rough-ride-with-challenges-for-a-brooklyn-state-senator/. Yeah – we trust this guy with the people's business. Time to sweep him out.
The Call for Free Subways
Congestion Pricing Plan and it's impact on Brooklyn
Photos of Williamsburg 2006
Photos of Bastille Day in Cobble Hill 2007
Photos of Coney Island Summer of 2007
Never Published Downtown Walking Tour