Four city candidates have paid over $38,000 so far this cycle for a range of reported services to a private company based at the same Brooklyn address as ACORN, the Working Families Party and Data and Field Services—a company for which no official records could be located.
The company, NY Citizens Services Inc., is reported in campaign filings as having the same address as ACORN’s, at 2-4 Nevins Street. The candidates’ public disclosures listing the company’s name are the only listing in public records for the company available.
There is a well-known for-profit canvassing company, Citizens Services Inc., which is run out of ACORN’s national offices in New
Orleans. That company drew scrutiny last year from the allegations made about
fake voter registrations collected on behalf of the Obama campaign, which paid about
$800,000 to ACORN (which stands for Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) for services during the presidential campaign. Despite the
flurry of attention, no wrongdoing on behalf of Obama, ACORN or Citizens
Services, Inc. was found to have occurred.
In New York City
this year, a company called Citizens’ Services Inc. received five $6,400
payments from Julissa Ferreras in her successful special election Council
campaign in February.
But no payments to a company identified specifically as NY Citizens Services Inc. appear in public records before the current election cycle headed to the September primaries. In this cycle, Council Member Bill de Blasio’s public advocate
campaign has paid a total of $20,451.20, beginning with a $2,175 payment for professional
services and canvassing in March, early for a campaign to engage in
canvassing. The rest of the de Blasio payments, made in July and August, are
reported as being for campaign workers, staff, campaign consulting and field
staff.
Staten
Island Council candidate Debi Rose, meanwhile, reported two $1,800 payments
totaling $3,600 to the company in her race against Council Member Kenny
Mitchell for professional services and salary. Queens Council candidate Jimmy Van Bramer, running for the seat being
vacated by Council Member Eric Gioia, reported a payment of $2,450 in June and
another of $1,050 in July for petition expenses, services and canvassing, for a
total of $3,500.
Campaign staffers
from de Blasio, Rose and Van Bramer did not return calls and emails requesting
comment to detail the services being provided.
The
campaign of Brooklyn Council candidate Mark Winston Griffith, meanwhile,
reported two payments to date to NY Citizens Services Inc. of $5,278 each—one on
June 17 and another on July 30—for petition expenses and canvassing services.
“NY Citizens
Inc. is where we write the checks to for ACORN,” explained Griffith campaign
spokesman Alan Smith. “ACORN who endorsed us, are also giving us some direct
canvas support, and the other canvas support we’re paying for. So the $5,200 in
both the filings are for the ground crew of ACORN shifts.”
Smith said the
company had provided crucial help in Griffith’s efforts to unseat incumbent
Council Member Al Vann, though he said the number of signatures collected by
the company had been minimal.
Four years ago,
Griffith seemed to be concerned about ACORN’s political involvement.
Writing on the
Drum Major Institute blog on Dec. 30, 2005 about ACORN’s support of Atlantic
Yards, he railed, “ACORN’s penchant for striking shady, self-profiting deals
with huge corporate interests … has muddied the idea of community organizing as
a process of developing grassroots leadership and building community power,”
adding, “if you have ever been to an event organized by ACORN in New York or a
meeting with an ACORN organizer, it’s hard to see their members as little more
than animated props and set pieces in ACORN’s elaborate political theater.”
As for NY
Citizens Services Inc., the widely different amounts paid and different
services listed leave unclear if there are different rates for campaigns.
These four campaigns appear to be the company's only clients so far this election cycle.
Also unclear is
whether there is a financial relationship between Citizens Services Inc. and NY Citizens
Services Inc., or whether the two are separate entities. Though a company
called Citizens Services Inc. is registered with the New York Department of State
Division of Corporations (with a home jurisdiction listed as Louisiana), there
is no listing for NY Citizens Services. However, one of the candidates using the
company—Rose—listed one of her payments to “Citizens Services
Inc. (ACORN).”
A search of
GuideStar, a national database of non-profit tax filings, turned up no listing
for NY Citizens Services Inc., meaning that the company has not reported filing as a non-profit.
No separate
phone number for NY
Citizens Services Inc. could be located. A call to the ACORN main line at 2-4 Nevins Street asking for NY Citizens Services was met with confusion by the
receptionist, who said “that must be some other company.” When asked who at
ACORN should be talked to about political campaigns, she transferred the call
to Greg Basta, whose message identifies him as working at ACORN canvas.
Basta did not
return a call for comment. Nor did Jon Kest, who runs ACORN’s New York
offices.
Ann Sullivan, whom past press releases identify as the head organizer for
ACORN in New York, said initially she was not familiar with NY Citizens Services. When told
that the company seemed to have a relationship with ACORN, she refused to answer further
questions.
At
least two of the four campaigns using NY Citizens Services Inc. have been
endorsed by ACORN’s political action committee, APAC: Griffith and de Blasio.
Announcing APAC’s support in January, the de Blasio campaign issued a press
release stating that APAC will “launch an aggressive field effort to
communicate with its members and recruit volunteers for the campaign.”
Three
of the four campaigns—all except Griffith—are also under contract with Data and
Field Services.
Speaking in
general terms last week about his campaigns with vendors, de Blasio said, “I’ve
never made it a practice since becoming a candidate to get involved in the
minutiae of what’s in a contract and the day-to-day. But I’ve always understood
that everything was being done appropriately.”
De Blasio noted
that specifically in relation to the questions about Data and Field Services
and his campaign, his campaign sent a letter on July 27 to the Campaign Finance
Board (CFB) asking for broad clarification about questions with vendors. That
letter followed the letter from Mark Green’s lawyer Jerry Goldfeder asking for
clarification.
The CFB offered
an advisory opinion in early August in answer to both.
“They’ve had a
lot of information to work with over the last few years, they’ve had a lot of
information from my campaign, and they have not raised a single concern,” de
Blasio pointed out, in discussing the CFB.
As to the issue
of NY Citizens Services Inc., CFB spokesman Eric Friedman would not address any specific questions on campaign filings. However, he confirmed that the Board
reviews each campaign’s vendors as a routine part of its post-election audit.
“For expenditures that are qualified, that are an acceptable use of public funds—and here we’re talking about basic campaign functions—we request of any campaign a certain level of documentation to authenticate those expenditures, including receipts, invoices and contracts,” Friedman said. “In those cases that require further investigation, the Board and CFB staff do request additional documents and or conduct further investigation.”
