Opinion ID: 510217
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Politicians and the PVB

Text: 10 A central figure in the pervasive corruption of the PVB was Donald Manes, a major figure in New York City politics until his suicide in the spring of 1986. During the 1960's, Manes served as a New York City Councilman from Queens. He was elected Queens Borough President in 1971 and became Chairman of the Queens Democratic Committee in 1974. Manes's accession to the borough presidency and party chairmanship, posts which he held until 1986, made him one of the most powerful of New York City's politicians. As Borough President, Manes sat on the New York City Board of Estimate, the body that negotiates and approves all City contracts. As leader of the Queens Democratic Party, he controlled the distribution of substantial patronage in City government. 11 While serving as a City Councilman, Manes established friendships with defendants Michael Lazar and Stanley Friedman. Lazar, like Manes, was a Councilman from Queens. Friedman served as counsel to the Majority Leader of the City Council. During this period, Manes also met Geoffrey Lindenauer, a key witness for the government in this case and a remarkably decadent and corrupt person. Lindenauer falsely claimed to hold a Doctor of Philosophy and operated a sham psychotherapy institute with the help of his mother. The institute was unprofitable financially, but Lindenauer used it as a way of having sex with his patients. The institute failed in 1974, but only after Manes had loaned Lindenauer $25,000 to purchase the portion of the institute owned by Lindenauer's mother. 12 During the next two years, Manes unsuccessfully attempted to find work for Lindenauer. In 1976, Manes introduced Lindenauer to Stanley Friedman. Friedman, then Deputy Mayor, secured for Lindenauer a patronage job in the City's Addiction Services Agency, a position from which he was fired approximately one year later. Manes then secured another patronage job for Lindenauer, this time an assistant directorship in the PVB. Manes warned Lindenauer that if he lost the PVB job, there would not be a third. Thus chastened, Lindenauer became an upwardly mobile City bureaucrat, gaining promotion to the second-highest position in the PVB, Deputy Director. 13 Meanwhile, Michael Lazar was rising in political prominence. In 1971, he was appointed Chairman of the City's Taxi and Limousine Commission. In 1974, he became Administrator of the DOT, the parent agency of the PVB. After leaving City government in 1976, Lazar remained active in Democratic Party politics, becoming a member of the Finance Council of the Democratic National Committee. Taking full advantage of his political ties, Lazar prospered as an attorney, lobbyist and developer. His political protege was defendant Lester Shafran, a former associate in Manes's law office and a former Assistant District Attorney in Queens. When Lazar served as Chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, he appointed Shafran to be the Commission's Assistant General Counsel. When Lazar later became Administrator of the DOT, he appointed Shafran to serve as the DOT's Inspector General, thereby making Shafran responsible for investigating corruption in the DOT. After Lazar left the DOT in 1976, Lazar's friend Manes helped Shafran obtain an appointment as Deputy Commissioner of the DOT and Director of the PVB. 14 The PVB retains private contractors to perform a variety of tasks. For example, the PVB has contracted with private firms to perform data-processing services, to redesign its computer system and to perform keypunching for the entry of parking-violation data into its data-processing system. The PVB also awards contracts to private collection agencies for the collection of parking tickets. Thus, if the PVB is unable to collect a parking summons issued to a vehicle registered in New York, it will assign the task of collecting the summons to a first placement agency working on a commission basis. If the first placement agency fails to collect the summons, the PVB reassigns the summons to a second placement agency. Second placement agencies receive higher commissions than first placement agencies. The PVB also awards contracts for the collection of summonses issued to rental cars and to cars registered outside New York. The PVB's collections serve as an important source of revenue for New York City.