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Oberman

City Council candidate Igor Oberman is facing some heat for his leadership of the board of the 1,144-unit Trump Village 4, where some residents and former employees allege that he has abused his power and ruled with an iron fist.

A handful of dust-ups with residents and employees is now making its way into the race, with City & State and the New York Post picking up on the controversies.

This morning, City & State reported that Oberman has been the target of lawsuits from tenants and employees. They write:

As president of Trump Village’s co-op board, Igor Oberman has been sued by tenants on the verge of eviction, faces an age discrimination lawsuit from former employees and is accused of firing another longtime worker who represented other unionized employees at the co-op in a union-busting move.

… In January, Trump Village terminated Pierre Wyatt, a longtime porter at the Coney Island housing cooperative who was also the shop steward representing other union employees working there. Wyatt had taken abandoned flooring, according to one account, and wasn’t completely forthcoming about his actions when questioned. The Teamsters Local 804, however, saw Oberman’s move as union-busting, and the matter is now heading to arbitration.

In March, two female Trump Village employees in their early 60s sued Oberman after they lost their jobs, arguing that they were “harassed, verbally abused and intimidated for the purpose of replacing them with a more youthful staff,” according to a press release from their lawyer.

Prior to City & State’s report, the New York Post reported in April that residents complain Oberman has used eviction proceedings to solidify his control over the board.

One case involved Eugene Ovsishcher, a former soldier who returned home from a combat tour in Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ovsishcher’s wife, a CPA, had previously been asking questions about board finances.

Ovsishcher, 43, was later denied a “service pet” dog to deal with his PTSD and then hit with an eviction order.

He eventually won the legal right to keep his pooch and apartment.

But his psychiatrist, Dr. Zinoviy Benzar, who provided medical testimony on Ovsishcher’s behalf and lives in the complex, was then hit with an eviction order — as were Benzar’s wife and mother-in-law, who own three Trump co-ops between them.

The eviction orders, alleging a failure to pay surcharges for air conditioners, are pending.

But the trio has struck back with a $4.5 million countersuit, charging they were politically targeted for revenge.

Another resident, Yuliya Bezvoleva, 33, an active Army reservist, is fighting an eviction order after she launched an anti-Oberman petition drive.

Co-op boards in New York City are guided by a confusing mess of procedures and formulas called the Business Corporation Law, and there is no oversight agency or independent commission dedicated to co-op compliance – leaving courts as the only resort for residents seeking redress. Abuse allegations have been noted at co-ops here and throughout the city, though the allegations rarely find their way to court due to costly legal expenses.

At Trump Village 4, residents have sought to make their war public in an attempt to cripple Oberman’s campaign, launching a website dedicated to attacking his reign as board president.

Oberman declined to discuss the matter with Sheepshead Bites, instead forwarding us to his campaign spokesperson, who was not available for comment. However, the spokesperson disputed the allegations to City & State:

Chelsea Connor, a campaign spokeswoman, said that Wyatt, the former shop steward, was fired after he was accused of theft, and noted that a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board was dismissed. The two employees in their 60s had failed to deposit a $47,000 check, she said. As for the lawsuits regarding the eviction proceedings, Connor said that the building has had a no-pet policy for nearly 50 years and that another tenant had rewired an apartment and that it failed to meet fire code safety regulations.

Oberman will face off against District Leader Ari Kagan, Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo and Flatbush Shomrim founder Chaim Deutsch in the Democratic primary. In the general, former State Senator David Storobin is expected to take the Republican line.

And then there were… well, still a lot.

But now it’s one less in the race to replace City Councilman Michael Nelson, who is term-limited out of the 48th Councilmanic District. Contender Michael Treybich has dropped his bid for the seat, and is now backing his former rival, Ari Kagan.

“Ari Kagan has the experience working in government and in our community to step in and do the job on day one,” said Treybich in a press release. “This district is incredibly diverse, and Ari Kagan in the only candidate in this race who has a track record of bringing diverse communities together to tackle community problems. He’s honest and hardworking, and it’s my pleasure to endorse him in this very important race.”

The two made the announcement at a press conference in Trump Village on Tuesday. As a Trump Village resident, Treybich gives Kagan a stronger footing in one of the city’s largest co-op complexes, where he can help Kagan gain ground against opponent Igor Oberman. Oberman is the president of the board of Trump Village 4, allowing Treybich to rally support among Oberman’s disgruntled tenants.

Treybich officially suspended his campaign with the Campaign Finance Board last week.

Kagan will face off against Oberman, Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo and Flatbush Shomrim founder Chaim Deutsch in the Democratic primary. In the general, former State Senator David Storobin is expected to take the Republican line.

Video courtesy of Jacob Kornbluh via Yeshiva World News.

The Parks Department planted approximately two dozen new trees along Emmons Avenue west of Ocean Avenue this week, as the city moves to complete the final phase of a decade-long rehabilitation of the waterfront.

The $460,000 project, funded by Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, will continue throughout the spring. On the checklist for beautification are:

• repaired sidewalks
• covered trash bins
• new trees, with granite block pavement in enlarged tree pits
• new curb cuts
• fresh paint on the Bay’s railing
• blue concrete and matching artistic design elements previously installed near the piers, from Ocean Avenue to East 27th Street
• 1964 World’s Fair-style benches

When construction is finished, the Emmons Avenue street-scape will have seen a complete overhaul over the last decade. Repairs began in 2003, when the city installed new antique-style lights along Emmons Avenue and Shore Boulevard. In 2006, the city completed a similar renovation to the current one, from Ocean Avenue to East 27th Street, adding new benches, sidewalk designs, tree pits and more.

Cymbrowitz, in a press release, said that the improvements will help the community continue to recover from Superstorm Sandy.

“Beautifying Emmons Avenue is part of the larger mechanism of long-term recovery,” Cymbrowitz said. “Trees represent new life. They’re meant to last, and so is Sheepshead Bay.”

Clockwise from top left: Theresa Scavo, Igor Oberman, Chaim Deutsch, Ari Kagan

It’s a crowded race to replace term-limited Councilman Michael Nelson of the 48th District, which, come next year, will represent almost all of Sheepshead Bay.

But, so far, it’s been quiet as the campaigns are just gearing up. But a good indicator of a campaign’s strength and public support is their fundraising, and yesterday the candidates submitted their finance disclosure forms to the Campaign Finance Board, revealing their fundraising success – or struggles – and giving a better idea of who’s in it to win it.

See how the candidates are doing, and our analysis.

Nathan’s Famous Is Still Closed, Source: j. reed via wikimedia commons

Six months following Superstorm Sandy, businesses across Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island are still shuttered and the New York Times is reporting that local business owners are growing anxious over what effect the closures will have on the local economy as summer nears.

The Times report pointed to the large number of businesses still closed on tourist-friendly Emmons Avenue.

“Mambo Sushi, gone! Tzar, gone! Fusion, gone!” said Theresa Scavo, the district manager of Community Board 15, as she reeled off the names of destroyed restaurants on a single block of Emmons Avenue, where only a Greek restaurant, Yiasou, managed to reopen.

A block farther along the bay, a few restaurants and cafes where water reached the ceilings were also shuttered. In total, 14 businesses on Emmons Avenue are still closed, Ms. Scavo said, with a dozen more closed elsewhere in the neighborhood. With warm weather approaching, there is concern that tourists will not flock to the bay as they usually do.

“Everybody suffers, because if people are not coming to eat at your restaurant, they won’t shop at my clothing store,” Ms. Scavo said.

(It’s worth noting that the block of Emmons Avenue where they say only one restaurant, Yiasou, is open, there are actually three open restaurants – Yiasou, Baku Palace and Randazzo’s Clam Bar.)

The problems on Emmons Avenue also extend to Coney Island where, among other places, Nathan’s Famous and the New York Aquarium still remain closed.

Along a six-block stretch of Mermaid Avenue, a commercial street in Coney Island that caters to much of the year-round poor and working-class population, many stores are still locked — among them, a Chase bank, a McDonald’s, a bagel store, a Chinese restaurant, a check-cashing place and a Mexican deli. Edward Cosmé, head of the avenue’s trade association, said his 13-year-old beauty parlor, Hair For U, is open only because he spent $40,000 of his own money to replace hair dryers and salon chairs destroyed in the storm, and he received a $25,000 loan at 1 percent interest and $10,000 in cash from the city’s Department of Small Business Services. But the number of customers is down by more than a third, he said, because some residents displaced by the storm have not returned.

Business owners blamed the continued closures on failing to receive timely government assistance that would have made up for money not covered by flood insurance companies. To date, the city has doled out 45 loans to Sheepshead Bay businesses totaling $1 million with 13 grants amounting to $45,000. In Coney Island, 19 loans have been approved totaling $420,700 with eight grants valued at $40,000. According to a NYC Department of Small Business Services rep who spoke to Sheepshead Bites, this represents an 88 to 90 percent approval rate.

Still, the complexity of government forms have tripped up business owners from getting desperately needed assistance from other sources, like the U.S. Small Business Administration, as we’ve previously reported. (UPDATED: See below)

Jim Tampakis, a man who runs a Red Hook-based ship boiler and pump repair shop gave up on trying to seek federal help entirely.

“I became discouraged,” Tampakis told the Times. “There was a feeling that businesses were getting the runaround.”

The problem facing business owners like Tampakis has led Councilman Domenic Recchia, who is currently running for Congress, to urge the city to ease the process.

“It’s imperative that more businesses have access to this type of funding so that they can get back on their feet,” Recchia told the Times.

Whether or not the businesses that are still closed can clear the bureaucratic red-tape and conquer their financial difficulties before the busy summer season starts remains to be seen.

UPDATE (May 2, 2012 at 11:00 a.m.): A previous version of this article noted in the segment providing the loan totals that business owners have had trouble with paperwork for these loans. An SBS representative called us this morning to note that the link we directed viewers to regarded the U.S. Small Business Administration loan rates, which, at the time, was below 30 percent. The SBS rep said the numbers in this article, which are for SBS, actually reflected a much higher approval rate than SBA, at a rate of 88 to 90 percent. We regret any confusion caused by the link, and have separated it out from the paragraph and tweaked the language to more accurately portray the situation.

BYLAWS REVISED: After taking heat from a group of neighbors upset about a drug treatment facility proposed for Kings Highway, Community Board 15 voted to revise a section of their bylaws that would require more intense community outreach in the run-up to a hearing for similar facilities in the future.

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David Storobin

The race for Michael Nelson’s term-limited 48th District Council seat is heating up. Politicker reported that former State Senator David Storobin officially kicked off his campaign by registering as a candidate after losing his Senate seat to redistricting last year.

Storobin has been endorsed by the Conservative Party and he told Sheepshead Bites that he has already met with GOP County officials to seek their endorsement.

Storobin would be the only announced Republican so far in a crowded race that also includes District Leader Ari Kagan, Community Board 15 Chair Theresa Scavo, Nelson aide Chaim Deutsch, and attorneys Igor Oberman, Michael Treybich, and Natraj Bhushan.

Photo by Erica Sherman

The Be Proud Foundation served approximately 500 local seniors in need during its fourth annual Passover food distribution event last week.

The organization took over the Aqua Health Rehabilitation Center at 2753 Coney Island Avenue on March 21, handing out goody bags overflowing with food supplies for the holiday, including chocolate matzo, pickles, raisins, tuna and other products.

Raisa Chernina, Be Proud’s executive director, said the event is a way for her organization to “share the joy of the holiday” with those who are struggling. It was attended by Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo, Councilman Michael Nelson, and 46th Assembly Democratic District Leader Mark Davidovich.

And then there were two!

Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo became the second candidate to officially announce a bid to replace term-limited City Councilman Michael Nelson this year, touting her lifetime residency in the neighborhood and her seven-year-long tenure as the Board’s chairperson.

“Because of my work at Community Board 15, I am able to hear the problems that are being faced day after day by our neighbors,” Scavo said during her remarks before the Highway Democratic Club at Mirage Diner (717 Kings Highway) last Thursday. “To solve these problems, no matter where you live, we need leadership, we need a vision and we need a commitment from someone who cares.”

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THE COMMUTE: According to Theresa Scavo, chairperson of Community Board 15, the MTA stated that it is now too late to request additional stops to the B44 Select Bus Service (SBS) because maps have already been printed. She made that announcement at this month’s Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association (MBNA) meeting. She also stated that the board is still fighting the reduction in available parking spaces. However, that is the least of the problems this route will cause.

If it is too late to add an SBS stop at Avenue R, a likely assumption would be that it is also too late to change the route as I recommended back in 2011. I suggested that the southern portion of the B44 SBS terminate off-route at the Sheepshead Bay station instead of at Knapp Street and Voorhies Avenue, using Avenue Z to get to the station supplementing B36 service.

Whether you agree with me or not is not really important now. What is important is that I received assurances from the MTA Project Director Ted Orosz at the last B44 SBS Workshop that he would investigate my suggestion and get back to me in three months. He also stated that if they agreed that it was feasible to do, and it was something the community wanted, they would change their plans. He never investigated it, nor got back to me as promised.

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