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September 13, 2007
Minority contractor fails to pay subs
Crain's NY Business
By Theresa Agovino
The news that contractors were stiffed by Dolly Williams and Bruce Ratner in East Harlem made Crain's today:
A prominent minority business owner and member of the City Planning Commission has failed to pay her construction subcontractors, a reality they say is causing havoc in their own companies.
At least five subcontractors employed by Dolly Williams’ construction company say she owes them amounts ranging from $150,000 to $2.3 million for work done on an East Harlem mall being developed by Blumenfeld Development Group and Forest City Ratner Cos.
“I don’t know how much longer I can hang on,” says Michael DiTore, a vice president at Daurio & Russo & Sons, who says his company is owed $2.3 million.
It's not clear how culpable Ratner is in this mess, though his ties to Williams go well beyond this East Harlem project:
Vincent Capazzi, president of KJC Waterproofing, says Ms. Williams owes him $650,000. He has called Forest City as well as Tishman Construction Corp. of New York, the project’s construction manager, seeking payment. Mr. Capazzi says each company has told him they cannot pay him because of the money they had to spend fixing Ms. Williams’ mistakes. He doesn’t believe them, and is considering suing them along with Ms. Williams.
Spokesmen for Forest City and Blumenfeld declined to comment on the subcontractor’s plight. A Tishman spokesman says the company isn’t contractually obligated to pay the subcontractors.
...
As an investor in the Nets, Ms. Williams recused herself from the approval of developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, which will house the team.
Atlantic Yards Report, Defining deviancy down & Dolly Williams
Norman Oder notes that what is considered shameful has been redefined in recent decades, and that someone who thinks she is above the law might be unscrupulous in other matters:
Scholar and U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously coined the phrase "defining deviancy down" in an essay in the Winter 1993 issue of The American Scholar:
I proffer the thesis that, over the past generation, since the time Erikson wrote, the amount of deviant behavior in American society has increased beyond the levels the community can "afford to recognize" and that, accordingly, we have been re-defining deviancy so as to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized, and also quietly raising the "normal" level in categories where behavior is now abnormal by any earlier standard.
Now let's acknowledge that Williams might come up with some explanation for the allegations. Still, a City Planning Commissioner who thinks she (or someone driving her car) can park with impunity at a fire hydrant might think she can get away with more questionable behavior.
Posted by lumi at September 13, 2007 1:48 PM