Metro

Owe, no! City Council candidates have poor financial history

These council candidates want to help manage a $70 billion city budget, but their history as delinquents on taxes and other personal obligations raises serious questions.

The worst offender is Joel Bauza, a candidate in The Bronx’s 15th District. On Jan. 7, 2012, the state filed a tax warrant against Bauza for $42,968. It’s still outstanding, records show.

The IRS filed a lien against him for $84,505 on Oct. 14, 2010, and a second lien against him for $9,395 on Nov. 11, 2011, according to records.

“That’s news to me,” said Bauza, senior pastor at Calvary Church.

Other alleged past and present deadbeats include:

* Former professional poker player Stephen Pierson, who is running in Brooklyn’s 33rd District, paid the state $15,396 to settle a tax warrant last December. He blamed “some confusion” about his financial status.

* In Queens’ 27th District, Ira Daneek Miller, a longtime labor and community activist, appears to be the front-runner after racking up key endorsements from unions and establishment pols. Yet the US Small Business Administration sued him in Brooklyn federal court in 2003 for defaulting on a $12,500 loan.

Miller was forced to pay back $7,832.15 plus interest. He also had to settle judgments filed against him by Citibank ($6,429) and Household Financial Corp ($6,799).

Miller declined comment.

* Accountant and business consultant Pedro Alvarez, running in The Bronx’s 16th District, also had to satisfy a tardy debt with the government. The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board filed a judgment for $34,750 against his firm, P. Alvarez Associates, in 2006.

Additional reporting by Sally Goldenberg