All The Mayor's Scandalized Men And Women (and Cougars)

So many scandals in the Bloomberg administration, you need a scorecard to tell who is who.

Here at Perdido Street School, we're big on accountability as well as baseball, so we thought we'd provide you with an Bloomberg Accountability Scandal Scorecard.

First, here's a picture of the mayor lecturing about the importance of accountability and performance.


Next, here's the latest Bloomberg administration official to be linked to a corruption - her name is Judith Hederman and she used to be the Department of Education's chief of financial operations until she perjured herself, uh, misspoke in an inquiry into corruption involving a DOE computer consulting partner:






Here's the NY Post on the Hederman scandal:

Judith Hederman, executive director of the Division of Financial Operations, was making $168,000 a year when she abruptly resigned last week, according to education officials.

The Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation confirmed that it is investigating Hederman, 42, but declined to provide further details.

Court records show that the commissioner has been engaged in a lengthy probe of Future Technology Associates, a computer consulting firm that Hederman had overseen and shared offices with since as early as 2005.

FTA has a three-year, $43.2 million contract to integrate the DOE's payroll and finance system with that of the rest of the city's agencies.

Documents show the probe of the firm involves "allegations of corruption, conflicts of interest, unethical conduct or other misconduct."

That includes accusations that FTA has been hiring its workers through multiple contracts so that the "hourly fee for the consultant's services was marked up before being passed on to the DOE."

Hederman's husband also works for the DOE as an accountant. No word on whether he's a crook too, but it surely doesn't look good for Ms. Hederman. The Post notes that the allegations against Hederman and the company she was supposed to oversee, FTA, "echo recent charges filed against another DOE contractor, Willard (Ross) Lanham, who allegedly bilked the city of $3.6 million by using layers of subcontractors to jack up costs"

Which Brings us to the Lanham scandal. Below are pictures of DOE computer consultant Willard Lanham and his "cougar" wife, Laura. Lanham has been arrested for stealing millions from the DOE by overbilling the city and using the money to build his own real estate sub-development, including a street named for his now estranged wife. This story won't die because Laura, the estranged wife, is a self-described "cougar" who wants to star in a reality show and loves to blog about her conquests of younger men who like older women. You can see her fine work here. Unless you're trying to read the blog while on a computer with Internet set up by Willard Lanham - that wouldn't work so well because the work Lanham did didn't work so well.

So that's where some of the money that could have been used to save teachers from layoffs went - at least $3.6 million, at any rate, and perhaps a lot more since the work Lanham did was pretty crappy.

Below is a picture of another Bloomberg official who was supposed to oversee outside contractors but had to resign after it became clear that he was a) not doing any oversight of them b) allowing them to steal millions and c) may have been making money in the deal as well. His name is Joel Bondy and he is the former director of the NYC Office of Payroll Administration. You can read more about Bondy here and the CityTime scandal here.




Below is a picture of Cathie Black, former chancellor of NYC schools. Black is not accused of stealing any money, not yet, at any rate (though rumor has it she was given a six figure parting fee, which, if true, would be stealing in my book.) But I thought I'd add her photo to the mix because she really is an emblem of the cluelessness and corruption that the Bloomberg administration is. So, for old time's sake, here is a photo of Ms. Black:



Who will be the next person to make the Bloomberg Scandal Accountability Scorecard?

Hard to know, but since Comptroller John Liu is looking closely at many other contracts Bloomberg has signed with outside contractors, you can bet that there WILL be additions.

It's a shame that accountability at the DOE is ONLY for teachers and NOT for the people doing the oversight of the contractors, the contractors themselves or for Bloomberg.

But that's how it is in Bloomberg's New York.

Which is why we need a Bloomberg Scandal Accountability Scorecard in the first place.