The board of directors of the embattled senior-services agency founded by Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez has gone from clueless to connected.
The city ordered a shake-up of the board of the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council last year after investigators were aghast to discover a panel so hapless that some members couldn’t identify the center’s programs and others signed contracts they didn’t understand because they spoke only Spanish.
But the rejiggering has produced a group even more connected to Vito, an assemblyman whose girlfriend and campaign treasurer run the sprawling social-services empire.
The nonprofit is the key to Lopez’s power base.
Joining the board is Frank Carone, the new Kings County Democratic Party counsel and a Taxi and Limousine commissioner who has repped a Ridgewood Bushwick employee in a fraud case.
Also new is Barbara Ortiz, director of the Buena Vida Rehabilitation Center, to which Lopez helped steer $42.3 million in state housing money.
Named to the board last year were George Friedman, a longtime Lopez chum who is the Bronx Democratic leader, and retired Rev. Andrew Varano, a longtime Lopez supporter.
The chairman is Harry Gutter, who once worked for Ridgewood Bushwick.
The lone holdover from the “old” board is Virginia Torres, 75, a self-described Lopez fan.