Bounced from office by term limits, former Councilman Stephen DiBrienza is making a run for his old Brooklyn seat – but it’s almost as if he never left.
Since leaving the council at the end of 2001, DiBrienza has continued to work out of his former district office, which now houses a not-for-profit group – founded by DiBrienza and funded with a total of $1.185 million in council grants, according to city, state and federal records.
In fact, DiBrienza’s group, the Neighborhood Assistance Corp., has paid a salary and benefits to him, to several former members of his council staff and to his wife, who worked a year for the organization when it first started.
DiBrienza’s group began receiving annual discretionary funds in 2002 from then-Council Speaker Gifford Miller for a not-for-profit he said he created to continue to provide the kinds of community programs that he had funded as a lawmaker.
But the grants have continued to roll in even since Miller was replaced by Council Speaker Christine Quinn – with the group receiving as much as $209,825 in 2006 alone.
“It’s like a ghost district office,” said a longtime political observer from the neighborhood.
The observer noted that DiBrienza’s office is two storefronts from current Councilman Bill de Blasio’s district office.
DiBrienza is a lawyer who teaches college courses part time. His Neighborhood Assistance Corp. shares the corner storefront at 2903 Fort Hamilton Pkwy. in the Windsor Terrace section, with his law office and his real-estate and lobbying business.
Other than the group’s name printed on the awning over DiBrienza’s corner office, there’s almost no other mention of the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. in any publication, press release or Web site.
“It’s a small, niche program,” DiBrienza said of the group, which has never raised any money other than the council’s member-item payments.
Funding for the group did not come from the council slush fund that is under federal investigation. And council staffers insist the organization has been audited by the city.
But like most other not-for-profits funded by the city, its allocation was cut back this year to $100,000.
DiBrienza insists that the group serves hundreds of local kids by sponsoring sports teams.