US News

PAINT MISBEHAVIN’ AT CO-OP

A former president of the Co-Op City board and a house-painting cohort ‘fessed up yesterday to steering a $3.5 million subsidized painting contract to a favored company in exchange for $100,000 in cash bribes.

Iris Herskowitz Baez, 59, who headed the Bronx board from 2000 to 2003, admitted that she abused her position by pocketing taxpayer dollars slated to improve residences for families in rent-reduced apartments.

Nickhoulas Vitale, 36, a painter who worked at Mitchell-Lama developments from 1999 to July 2000, also owned up to bribery charges, for his role in helping Baez devise the illicit scheme with the owner of Stadium Interior Painting.

They each face a maximum prison term of 10 years when they’re sentenced on Jan. 23.

In announcing the charges in April, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said the indictment “exposes corruption at the highest levels of one of New York’s largest affordable-housing developments.”