Columbia University's "Dinkinsgate Scandal" Connection--Part 12

After New York City voters decided in the 1993 mayoralty election that David Dinkins did not deserve a second term as New York City’s mayor, the Columbia University administration hired the local Democratic Party politician to be a professor “in the practice of public affairs” at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. And during the last few years Columbia University Professor Dinkins (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/dd98-fac.html ) has apparently attempted to use his remaining special political influence in New York City politics to help his private employer undemocratically implement its land-grabbing campus expansion plan north of West 125th Street in West Harlem, despite the objections of local community tenant activists. Not surprisingly, when Columbia University Professor Dinkins tried to sell Columbia University’s expansion plan to the 700 community residents who attended the local community board’s hearings in August 2007, the former New York City mayor was booed, hissed and shouted down by West Harlem residents and their Columbia and Barnard student supporters.

Following, is another section of an article on “The Dinkinsgate Scandal” which first appeared in the August/September 1991 issue of the Lower East Side newspaper, Shadow:

On December 18, 1985, Dinkins had attended his last Inner City Broadcasting Corporation board of directors meeting prior to moving into his Manhattan Borough President office. At this December 18, 1985 meeting, an extensive presentation was made to the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation board regarding the construction of an office building in Harlem between the Bishop Office Building and the Apollo Theatre. The Harlem Commonwealth Council, Inc. [HCC] was seeking a zoning change from the Board of Estimate, upon which Dinkins was to sit, in order to construct the Harlem office building as a joint venture with the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, in which the Dinkins family owned stock. Dinkins’ Inner City Broadcasting Corporation was to be both an investor in the Harlem development project and a prime tenant in the office building for which the Board of Estimate’s zoning change approval was to be sought.

On the day before the Board of Estimate was to vote on the proposed zoning change, then-Deputy Manhattan Borough President Sally Hernandez-Pinero met with Columbia University Professor Dinkins. The next day, June 30, 1987, Hernandez-Pinero—on behalf of former Inner City Broadcasting Corporation Director Dinkins—cast an “aye” vote in the Board of Estimate in support of the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation-Harlem Commonwealth Council, Inc.’s Bishop Annex construction project zoning change proposal.

Next: Columbia University’s “Dinkinsgate Scandal” Connection—Part 13

Columbia University's "Dinkinsgate Scandal" Connection--Part 11

After New York City voters decided in the 1993 mayoralty election that David Dinkins did not deserve a second term as New York City’s mayor, the Columbia University administration hired the local Democratic Party politician to be a professor “in the practice of public affairs” at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. And during the last few years Columbia University Professor Dinkins (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/dd98-fac.html ) has apparently attempted to use his remaining special political influence in New York City politics to help his private employer undemocratically implement its land-grabbing campus expansion plan north of West 125th Street in West Harlem, despite the objections of local community tenant activists. Not surprisingly, when Columbia University Professor Dinkins tried to sell Columbia University’s expansion plan to the 700 community residents who attended the local community board’s hearings in August 2007, the former New York City mayor was booed, hissed and shouted down by West Harlem residents and their Columbia and Barnard student supporters.

Following, is another section of an article on “The Dinkinsgate Scandal” which first appeared in the August/September 1991 issue of the Lower East Side newspaper, Shadow:

After he had transferred his Inner City Broadcasting Corporation stock to his son, Columbia University Professor Dinkins—while serving as Manhattan Borough President—continued to maintain contact with his former Inner City Broadcasting Corporation partner Sutton. According to the January 10, 1991 Report of the Special Deputy Commissioner Concerning The Transfer of Inner City Broadcasting Corporation Stock By David N. Dinkins:

“In mid-1986, Mr. Sutton began lobbying Mr. Dinkins on behalf of Queens Inner Unity Cable System in which Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (through a wholly-owned subsidiary) had a 40% interest and Mr. Sutton had a 20% interest.

“In 1983, Queens Inner Unity Cable System had been awarded a contract for the development of cable television service in a portion of Queens. By mid-1986, its franchise was in serious jeopardy, and Mr. Sutton was not shy about trying to find help…The Board of Estimate had awarded the franchise to Queens Inner Unity Cable System, and could take it away. Mr. Dinkins, as Manhattan Borough President, had a vote in the Board of Estimate.”

On August 1, 1986, Sutton visited Dinkins in the Manhattan Borough President’s office, along with the now-deceased Irish-born former New York City Council President Paul O’Dwyer, who was the Queens Inner Unity Cable System’s lawyer. According to the Report of the Special Deputy Commissioner Concerning The Transfer of Inner City Broadcasting Corporation Stock By David N. Dinkins:

“…It was clear that Mr. Sutton was there seeking to promote the interests of Queens Inner Unity Cable System. Queens Inner Unity Cable System was under pressure from the Bureau of Franchises because it had failed to raise the financing required by its agreements with the City.”

The Report of the Special Deputy Commissioner also noted that after Dinkins’ August 1, 1986 Manhattan Borough President’s Office meeting with Sutton, “correspondence between the Bureau of Franchises and Queens Inner Unity Cable System continued to arrive at Mr. Dinkins’ office with personal Percy Sutton buck slips addressed to Hon. David N. Dinkins, see e.g. letter dated January 21, 1987.”

After Sutton had arranged for a partnership to be formed between a subsidiary of Warner Communications and Inner City Broadcasting Corporation’s Queens Inner Unity Cable System subsidiary, which needed to be approved by the Board of Estimate, Sutton sent “a hand-delivered letter dated September 21, 1987, addressed to Mr. Dinkins” which “outlined the new partnership” and “announced that the matter would be placed before the Board of Estimate on October 1, 1987 or October 26, 1987,” according to the Report of the Special Deputy Commissioner.

On November 3, 1987, Sutton again sent a hand-carried letter to Columbia University Professor Dinkins, and enclosed a copy of the final agreement between Warner and Queens Inner Unity Cable System which was to be considered at the November 19, 1987 Board of Estimate meeting. In this hand-carried letter to Dinkins, Sutton also offered to meet with Dinkins again and “answer all questions to your satisfaction, prior to the November 19th Board of Estimate meeting.”

The Report of the Special Deputy Commissioner Concerning The Transfer of Inner City Broadcasting Corporation Stock By David N. Dinkins also noted that on June 12, 1989 “a committee consisting of Percy Sutton and representatives of Time and Warner came calling on Mr. Dinkins” to discuss the scheduled June 15, 1989 Board of Estimate vote required for Time-Warner to merge previously competing cable-TV companies into a potentially more lucrative city-wide cable-TV monopoly. According to the Report of the Special Deputy Commissioner, “after a short private meeting between Mr. Dinkins and Mr. Sutton, Mr. Dennis deLeon (the Deputy Manhattan Borough President under Dinkins) was asked to come back into the room for a ten minute meeting with Mr. Dinkins and Mr. Sutton” and “on June 15, 1989, Mr. deLeon,” on behalf of former Inner City Broadcasting Corporation Director Dinkins, “joined in the unanimous vote approving the changes in ownership of the New York City franchises caused by the merger of Time and Warner.”

Next: Columbia University’s “Dinkinsgate Scandal” Connection—Part 12

Columbia University's "Dinkinsgate Scandal" Connection--Part 10

After New York City voters decided in the 1993 mayoralty election that David Dinkins did not deserve a second term as New York City’s mayor, the Columbia University administration hired the local Democratic Party politician to be a professor “in the practice of public affairs” at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. And during the last few years Columbia University Professor Dinkins (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/dd98-fac.html ) has apparently attempted to use his remaining special political influence in New York City politics to help his private employer undemocratically implement its land-grabbing campus expansion plan north of West 125th Street in West Harlem, despite the objections of local community tenant activists. Not surprisingly, when Columbia University Professor Dinkins tried to sell Columbia University’s expansion plan to the 700 community residents who attended the local community board’s hearings in August 2007, the former New York City mayor was booed, hissed and shouted down by West Harlem residents and their Columbia and Barnard student supporters.

Following, is another section of an article on “The Dinkinsgate Scandal” which first appeared in the August/September 1991 issue of the Lower East Side newspaper, Shadow:

After his 1985 election as Manhattan Borough President, Columbia University Professor Dinkins transferred his 558 shares of Inner City Broadcasting Corporation stock to his son, David Dinkins, Jr. Although Dinkins told Newsday reporter Paul Moses in 1986 that the stock was given at “no charge,” a few years later he told a federal grand jury and a Special Deputy Commissioner investigating the stock transfer that he “sold” the stock to his son at a bargain-basement price.

In a 1991 telephone interview, Paul Moses stated that he stood by the accuracy of his September 26, 1986 Newsday article in which Dinkins said that he transferred his Inner City Broadcasting Corporation stock to his son “at no charge.” Moses was unwilling, however, to be interviewed by government investigators looking into the Dinkins stock transfer issue because he felt that speaking to government investigators in relation to a news story would compromise his integrity as a journalist.

The recipient of Dinkins’ stock transfer, David Dinkins, Jr., also refused to speak to Special Deputy Commissioner Elkan Abramowitz and his staff when they conducted their investigation of the Dinkins Inner City Broadcasting Corporation stock transfer in 1990—although David Dinkins, Jr. was not a journalist. If David Dinkins, Jr. was actually given the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation stock by his father in late 1985 as a gift, then there’s a possibility that New York City’s former mayor should have been indicted both for apparently testifying falsely before a grand jury and for apparently failing to pay an appropriate gift tax on his Inner City Broadcasting Corporation stock transfer.

Next: Columbia University’s “Dinkinsgate Scandal” Connection—Part 11

Columbia University's "Dinkinsgate Scandal" Connection--Part 9

After New York City voters decided in the 1993 mayoralty election that David Dinkins did not deserve a second term as New York City’s mayor, the Columbia University administration hired the local Democratic Party politician to be a professor “in the practice of public affairs” at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. And during the last few years Columbia University Professor Dinkins (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/dd98-fac.html ) has apparently attempted to use his remaining special political influence in New York City politics to help his private employer undemocratically implement its land-grabbing campus expansion plan north of West 125th Street in West Harlem, despite the objections of local community tenant activists. Not surprisingly, when Columbia University Professor Dinkins tried to sell Columbia University’s expansion plan to the 700 community residents who attended the local community board’s hearings in August 2007, the former New York City mayor was booed, hissed and shouted down by West Harlem residents and their Columbia and Barnard student supporters.

Following, is another section of an article on “The Dinkinsgate Scandal” which first appeared in the August/September 1991 issue of the Lower East Side newspaper, Shadow:

In 1983—two years before he finally succeeded in winning election as Manhattan Borough President—the then-56-year-old Dinkins was named to be a director of the New York State Urban Development Corporation [UDC]. During the two years Columbia University Professor Dinkins served as a UDC director, UDC contracts were apparently given to his business associates, according to Commentary magazine. The Village Voice also indicated in 1985, after Dinkins announced his support for Denny Farrell for mayor, that some UDC contracts were apparently given to Dinkins’ associates while he served as a UDC Director.

According to The Permanent Government: Who Really Rules New York? book:

“With $500 million in bonding authority and $1 billion in construction projects, the UDC has become a secretive, unaccountable, self-perpetuating fourth branch of government. It has become almost a private bank that financed luxury and leisure projects for permanent government insiders.”

In the early 1980s, the UDC dished out $1 million to finance the Theatre Row development project on 42nd Street, $80 million to finance Donald Trump’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, $375 million to finance the 34th Street Convention Center, and $241 million to finance the luxury Portman Hotel at 45th Street.

As a member of the UDC board of directors, Dinkins voted for the Times Square Redevelopment Project.

In a 1991 telephone interview, Manhattan Congressional Representative Jerrold Nadler, then a New York State Assembly representative, said he felt the Times Square Redevelopment Project, by raising assessed taxation values of midtown real estate, encouraged commercial landlords to raise the rents for garment and other manufacturers in Manhattan; and thus led to a further decrease in blue-collar manufacturing jobs in New York City, by encouraging manufacturers to relocate to cities where commercial rents are cheaper. In Nadler’s view, between 1980 and 1991 public officials in New York City neglected to create the kind of manufacturing zones within New York City that would provide a sufficient amount of blue-collar employment opportunities for City residents.

“The City administration under Koch and Dinkins has been injurious to the blue-collar manufacturing industry and to blue-collar jobs,” Nadler said in 1991.

“To get the idea out” that, unless government funds were used to create super-manufacturing zones instead of for UDC projects like the Times Square Redevelopment Project, New York City’s economic decline and loss of blue-collar jobs would continue, Nadler decided to run for Manhattan Borough President in 1985 against Dinkins.

When a local government agency had announced plans to subsidize the building of 7,000 units of luxury housing in Hunter’s Point, Queens—an area of New York City that was traditionally a blue-collar manufacturing center and a source of employment for African-American, Latino-American and white working-class industrial workers—Nadler had gone to Columbia University Professor Dinkins’ office and urged him to speak out against the Hunter’s Point development plan.

“I asked him to hold a press conference. Break this open. But he wouldn’t lift a finger to oppose the Hunter’s Point development plan,” Nadler said in 1991.

Democratic Congressional Representative Nadler also recalled in 1991 that during Dinkins’ successful 1985 campaign for Manhattan Borough President, it was revealed that Columbia University Professor Dinkins’ campaign organization failed to pay the taxes it was obligated to pay in relation to its $7,000 per week payroll disbursements.

Next: Columbia University’s “Dinkinsgate Scandal” Connection—Part 10

Columbia University's "Dinkinsgate Scandal" Connection--Part 8

After New York City voters decided in the 1993 mayoralty election that David Dinkins did not deserve a second term as New York City’s mayor, the Columbia University administration hired the local Democratic Party politician to be a professor “in the practice of public affairs” at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. And during the last few years Columbia University Professor Dinkins (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/dd98-fac.html ) has apparently attempted to use his remaining special political influence in New York City politics to help his private employer undemocratically implement its land-grabbing campus expansion plan north of West 125th Street in West Harlem, despite the objections of local community tenant activists. Not surprisingly, when Columbia University Professor Dinkins tried to sell Columbia University’s expansion plan to the 700 community residents who attended the local community board’s hearings in August 2007, the former New York City mayor was booed, hissed and shouted down by West Harlem residents and their Columbia and Barnard student supporters.

Following, is another section of an article on “The Dinkinsgate Scandal” which first appeared in the August/September 1991 issue of the Lower East Side newspaper, Shadow:

In September, 1975, Mayor Beame appointed Inner City Broadcasting Corporation Director Dinkins to the New York City Clerk patronage post. According to the 1990 Current Biography Yearbook, the “City Clerk does little besides process marriage licenses and the financial disclosure forms of public officials, but the plum patronage post afforded Dinkins an opportunity to rehabilitate his reputation and establish political ties that would later prove useful.”

Dinkins held his City Clerk patronage post from 1975 to 1985, during which time he sought election as Manhattan Borough President three times.

When his Inner City Broadcasting Corporation business partner, Sutton, decided to run for Mayor in 1977, Dinkins unsuccessfully attempted to succeed him as Manhattan Borough President and thus keep the post in the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation “business family.” In 1981, Dinkins again attempted to win election as Manhattan Borough President and again the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation Director/New York City Clerk/Carver Clubhouse politician lost. In 1985, however, after receiving an additional patronage appointment from white corporate establishment interests to the New York Urban Development Corporation [UDC] in 1983, Dinkins finally was elected Manhattan Borough President. In his 1985 campaign for Manhattan Borough President, Columbia University Professor Dinkins was also supported financially by real estate developers Donald Trump and Peter Kalikow.

Next: Columbia University’s “Dinkinsgate Scandal” Connection—Part 9

Columbia University's "Dinkinsgate Scandal" Connection--Part 7

After New York City voters decided in the 1993 mayoralty election that David Dinkins did not deserve a second term as New York City’s mayor, the Columbia University administration hired the local Democratic Party politician to be a professor “in the practice of public affairs” at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. And during the last few years Columbia University Professor Dinkins (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/dd98-fac.html ) has apparently attempted to use his remaining special political influence in New York City politics to help his private employer undemocratically implement its land-grabbing campus expansion plan north of West 125th Street in West Harlem, despite the objections of local community tenant activists. Not surprisingly, when Columbia University Professor Dinkins tried to sell Columbia University’s expansion plan to the 700 community residents who attended the local community board’s hearings in August 2007, the former New York City mayor was booed, hissed and shouted down by West Harlem residents and their Columbia and Barnard student supporters.

Following, is another section of an article on “The Dinkinsgate Scandal” which first appeared in the August/September 1991 issue of the Lower East Side newspaper, Shadow:

On May 8, 1972—while holding a “public service” office of President of the New York City Board of Elections—Dinkins became a founding shareholder of the privately-owned Inner City Broadcasting Corporation by purchasing 50 shares of stock for $5,000. By December 31, 1985—while holding the “public service” office of New York City Clerk—Dinkins had increased his holdings in the privately-owned Inner City Broadcasting Corporation to 588 shares.

By February 4, 1983, the market value of Dinkins’ $5,000 investment in Inner City Broadcasting Corporation stock had increased to $1,009,230. The privately-owned broadcasting corporation, which he and Sutton directed, then owned WLIB and 7 other radio stations in New York, Michigan, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Berkeley. That same year, a subsidiary of Sutton and Dinkins’ Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, Queens Inner Unity Cable System, won the bidding for a lucrative cable-TV franchise in Queens which was awarded by the then-existing New York City Board of Estimate. Inner City Broadcasting Corporation then-Chairman of the Board Sutton, of course, had been a member of the Board of Estimate for over 11 years, prior to getting it to award his company the lucrative Queens cable-TV franchise. According to The Permanent Government: Who Really Rules New York? by Jack Newfield and Paul DuBrul:

“Advances in satellite, electronics, and computer technology have made this the period in which fortunes can be made in cable television…A 20 percent return on investment is predicted for the companies that win the bidding.”

By the 1990s, Inner City Broadcasting Corporation brought in over $19 million per year from its annual business operations and then-Chairman of the Board Percy Sutton’s son, Pierre Sutton, was the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation President; while Columbia University Professor and former New York City Mayor Dinkins’ son, David Dinkins, Jr. was a major Inner City Broadcasting Corporation stockholder.

Next: Columbia University’s “Dinkinsgate Scandal” Connection—Part 8

Columbia University's "Dinkinsgate Scandal" Connection--Part 6

After New York City voters decided in the 1993 mayoralty election that David Dinkins did not deserve a second term as New York City’s mayor, the Columbia University administration hired the local Democratic Party politician to be a professor “in the practice of public affairs” at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. And during the last few years Columbia University Professor Dinkins (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/dd98-fac.html ) has apparently attempted to use his remaining special political influence in New York City politics to help his private employer undemocratically implement its land-grabbing campus expansion plan north of West 125th Street in West Harlem, despite the objections of local community tenant activists. Not surprisingly, when Columbia University Professor Dinkins tried to sell Columbia University’s expansion plan to the 700 community residents who attended the local community board’s hearings in August 2007, the former New York City mayor was booed, hissed and shouted down by West Harlem residents and their Columbia and Barnard student supporters.

Following, is another section of an article on “The Dinkinsgate Scandal” which first appeared in the August/September 1991 issue of the Lower East Side newspaper, Shadow:

In its Nov. 29, 1973 issue, The New York Times noted that Columbia University Professor Dinkins was “a consultant to Percy Sutton,” the Manhattan Borough President from 1966 to 1977. By 1991, former Manhattan Borough President Sutton was the Chairman of the Board of the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation and a director of the New York Board of Trade and the New York City Partnership organizations of New York City’s corporate establishment.

Percy Sutton’s father, S.J. Sutton, was a principal of the Phyllis Wheatley High School in San Antonio, Texas, who also owned a cattle farm. Percy Sutton’s brother, G.J. Sutton, entered Texas state politics and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives from San Antonio.

Another brother of Percy Sutton, Oliver Sutton, migrated north to New York City like Percy Sutton did and became a Justice of the New York Supreme Court. According to The Permanent Government: Who Really Rules New York? by Jack Newfield and Paul DuBrul:

“Judgeships are not exempt from the subtleties of legal graft…A politically beholden judiciary is essential to the clubhouse system, especially to disqualify opponents who want to run against the machine in primary elections, and to dispense fees and guardianships to the right lawyers…State justices are chosen by party leaders in private brokered deals.”

After attending Columbia University Law School, Percy Sutton served as a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer during the U.S. military intervention in Korea and then, in 1953, he set up a law partnership with his brother, Oliver, and a third partner named George Covington, which had law offices on 125th Street in Harlem.

Along with Harlem’s long-time current Congressional Representative, Charles Rangel, Percy Sutton formed the new Harlem Democratic Party political club in 1963 and Sutton was elected to the New York State Assembly from Harlem in November 1964. Less than two years later, Dinkins’ political “godfather-rabbi,” Tammany Hall leader J. Raymond Jones, appointed Sutton to be Manhattan Borough President. According to Jones in The Harlem Fox book:

“The business of the Borough Presidency was easy…My first choice was Percy Sutton…the other five Manhattan Democratic Councilmen may not have been thinking along these lines, but I knew that once it was understood that I wanted Sutton, there would be little opposition.”

Sutton was later elected to the Manhattan Borough Presidency in November 1966 and held the position until 1977, when he unsuccessfully attempted to get elected as Mayor of New York, himself, on an “anti-crime” platform.

While each held public office in the early 1970s, Manhattan Borough President Sutton and his then-consultant, now-Columbia University Professor David Dinkins, enriched themselves by forming a privately-owned broadcasting corporation, the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation.

Next: Columbia University’s “Dinkinsgate Scandal” Connection—Part 7