Neither Patrick Gaspard or Bob Master, nor Bertha Lewis or Sam Williams are included in a portion of the 2006 Organization tax return asking to list all current officers, directors, trustees and key employees. Nor are they listed in the section asking for former officers.
Instead, the 2006 tax return lists five officers: Karen Scharff as president, Wilfredo Larancuet as vice president, Patrick Welsh as secretary, George Short as assistant secretary and Dorothy Siegel as treasurer. The 2007 form lists these same five, and again has them uncompensated and working 0 hours per week.
Scharff, Larancuet and Welsh are all at-large executive committee members of the Party, according to the party rules filed with the New York State Board of Elections. In addition, Scharff is the executive director of Citizens Action, Larancuent is a vice president of UNITE and Walsh works for the Communications Workers of America branch in Westchester.
Though all of these groups are dues paying members of the Organization, none of their affiliations are mentioned on the Organization’s tax return in response to a question asking whether anyone in these positions receives compensation from “any other organizations, whether tax exempt or taxable, that are related to the organization.” On the form, the box is simply checked “No.”
Short is the South Carolina-based accountant for the Party whom WFP executive director Dan Cantor claimed in an August interview with City Hall had been the resident at the address used on the incorporation form for Data & Field Services. Short’s name appears throughout a range of the Party’s financial documents, including as the person filing the Party account statements with the Federal Elections Commission as recently as Nov. 20, 2009.
(This is despite being ill and living with his parents in South Carolina. In an Oct. 18 email, Short explained that he continues “to provide administrative services on a part-time basis,” adding “I am in constant communication.”)
Short also signed the 2006 form, certifying himself as the preparer, though a person identified as Steve Short, another South Carolina-based accountant who has received payments from the Party’s state account, also signed the return as a paid preparer.
Siegel’s connections are more political. She is the chair of the Working Families Party South Brooklyn Club who was named the treasurer of the Party following the abrupt resignation of Mike McGuire as treasurer in August over concerns about what he called “sloppy bookkeeping” in private conversations.
As for the employees of the Working Families Organization, the 2007 New York City lobbying records lists two lobbyists—Bill Lipton and Patrick van Keerbergen—who received $1,158 in compensation. Van Keerbergen eventually left Working Families, and worked for the Bloomberg campaign this year.
The lobbyist officer listed for the Organization is Alexander Rabb, who is the other non-voting assistant secretary of the Party with Dan Cantor, according to party rules filed with the state Board of Elections. He is also one of the lawyers representing Data & Field Services in the lawsuit brought against the company and Staten Island Council Member-elect Debi Rose. In fact, his co-counsel, Larry Mandelker, described him to the judge in the case as the “in-house counsel for Data & Field Services.”
Rabb, who was once employed by the Organization and the Party, now works at Levy Ratner, a firm that used to be the home of Kevin Finnegan before he became the political director at 1199 SEIU. Levy Ratner used to be paid by the Party for legal services, though the firm’s most recent payment from Working Families Party was in March, according to state campaign finance disclosures.
However, when asked whether Rabb was indeed the in-house counsel for Data & Field Services, Levitan said no.
“I took it to mean something less specific, which is why I didn’t interrupt the proceedings to correct Larry Mandelker,” Rabb later explained via email. “I serve DFS in the capacity of general counsel, not an unusual arrangement.”
Mandelker has additional Working Families connections himself, having represented the Party in front of the Campaign Finance Board over the course of this election cycle. His firm, Kantor, Davidoff, Wolfe, Mandelker, Twomey & Gallanty, was paid $7,500 by the Party.
For the 2008 city records, Lipton and Party spokesman Dan Levitan were the listed lobbyists, with Alex Rabb again the listed lobbyist officer. (According to Levitan, though, Rabb stopped working for the Party and Organization in August 2007. When asked why Rabb appears on the records, Levitan responded by email: “The lobbying record is incorrect—our fault, not his,” he wrote, pledging to amend the records.)
The list of those authorized in 2009 to lobby state officials under the Working Families Organization banner include Party electoral campaigns director Emma Wolfe, Party Fingerlakes organizer Hilary Penner, Party Buffalo organizer Louisa Pacheco and Party statewide canvas director Elizabeth Pitt. Also on the list was Saba Debesu, the New York City organizer whom the Party has said was provided to winning Brooklyn Council candidate Jumaane Williams as part of Williams’ contract with Data & Field Services during the 2009 primary.
Another name was Melody Lopez, the organizer for the Manhattan chapter and Bronx Co-Op City Club for the Party who became winning Queens Council candidate Danny Dromm’s campaign manager as part of his DFS contract. Mike Boland, who identified himself as the director of Data & Field Services when the company was served with paperwork in relation to the Mastro lawsuit, is also on the list.
