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March 20, 2007
Speculation rampant in wake of Yonkers City Council subpoenas
The Journal News
Commentator Phil Reisman nearly does a stand-up routine on Ridge Hill and the latest subpoena:
It inevitably comes up in conversation every time there's an investigation into the dealings of Yonkers city government: "Yonkers is the City of Hills where nothing is on the level." That the current federal probe might be focusing on Ridge Hill - an actual hill - potentially gives literal meaning to the old bromide.
How big is Ridge Hill?
...so big it should carry its own ZIP code and be renamed Disneyland.
Seriously folks:
Suspicion has clouded this project almost from the start. Much of it has to do with the Ridge Hill Development Corp., a private group of appointed developers and city insiders set up by the Yonkers Industrial Agency to push the project along.
...
All that is publicly known is that on March 2 Yonkers City Council was slapped with a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's Office, which declined to comment as to what the investigation was about. And yesterday, Yonkers Republican Committee Chairman Zehy Jereis was named in a second subpoena served the Yonkers City Ethics Board.
NoLandGrab: The Yonkers grapevine tells us that Republican Committee Chairman Zehy Jereis is a cousin of City Council Member Annabi, who switched her vote to grant final approval to Bruce Ratner's controversial Ridge Hill project. If this is true, then things just got real interesting in Yonkers.
Additional coverage:
Yonkers Tribune, Yonkers GOP Chairman Zehy Jereis Subject of Subpoena Served on Yonkers Board of Ethics By Hezi Aris
Judge Nocca advised that the subpoena requested financial disclosures of the Yonkers Republican City Committee Chairman Zehy Jereis.
The Honorable Nocca pointed out that the newly enacted Yonkers Code of Ethics permitted jurisdiction over two categories of personnel; either city employees, or city officials. Mr. Jereis is nether a city employee nor a city official. That being the case, Judge Nocca believes that there may be little information that the Yonkers Board of Ethics may have purview that will satisfy the request of the the subpoena.
Posted by lumi at March 20, 2007 6:33 AM