In early August, the Bronx’s most intense primary race made a stop outside of Tracey Towers, the high-rise apartment complex on Mosholu Parkway where tenants are fighting to stave off an enormous rent hike.

Tracey lies within the 80th Assembly District, which, following redistricting, winds through Norwood on its way to Morris Park and Pelham Bay. On this particular Saturday, tenants held a rally to protest the rent increase and invited anyone who would listen and support them. Representatives from several elected officials showed up and sat at a table in front of the crowd.

Half an hour into the rally, however, 80th Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera was nowhere to be found. That’s when Mark Gjonaj, the well-heeled realtor who has launched a relentless campaign to unseat Rivera, was asked to sit at the front table. He obliged. Then 15 minutes later, he got up as Rivera made her way to the table.

Despite her lateness — attendance problems in Albany have plagued Rivera throughout her eight years in office — the incumbent wasn’t quite ready to give up her seat. In her remarks, she laid into unscrupulous landlords and took a swipe at her opponent. (Gjonaj is well-connected in the Bronx real estate world. He says he’s only a property manager who owns some vacant land, but his family owns several Bronx apartment buildings. Gjonaj wouldn’t say how much of his campaign is funded by real estate money, but several real estate companies are listed as contributors, according to campaign finance records.)

The scene fit the narrative of the race up until it took a tabloid turn the very next day.

In its Sunday edition, the New York Post unveiled an “exclusive” story about a Facebook page Rivera used to post pictures of her getting cozy with a political hopeful from Brooklyn, Tommy Torres, who she hired to be a part-time community liaison for $18,123 over a four-month period ending in December 2010. The story raised questions about how Torres could do that job, which amounted to about $54 an hour, and still hold down full-time employment as a gym teacher with the Department of Education.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver quickly sent out a statement, saying the hiring was completely above board. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and other supporters defended Rivera, saying she was the victim of a smear campaign. But questions remained about exactly what Torres did to warrant such a high rate of pay.

The next week, the Post dropped another bombshell report based on information provided by Vincent Pinela, a former personal trainer who Rivera had helped get a job as the executive director of the Bronx Council for Economic Development, a nonprofit started by former Bronx Democratic boss Roberto Ramirez.

Pinela said he was unqualified for the job, but Rivera, who has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars in discretionary funds into the council over the years, gave it to him anyway. During his tenure at the council, which ended in 2010, Pinela said Rivera directed him to use council funds for extravagant personal meals, campaign expenses and to hire her brother for outside work.

When Pinela broke up with Rivera, he said the assemblywoman replaced his staff with her relatives and made it difficult for him to continue working there. When he was fired, Pinela filed a sexual harassment complaint against Rivera, but lost because she wasn’t his direct employer.

To the Post, Rivera again denied the allegations, saying “The allegations made by Mr. Pinela against me are untrue and are made intentionally and maliciously to defame my character, and to question my integrity. Friends, and constituents who know me, know that these are baseless accusations. I will not let myself be distracted from the work that needs to be done in my district.”

But since the story broke, the Bronx District Attorney, the Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Education and the State Joint Commission on Public Ethics have launched investigations into the dealings with Torres and Pinela.

Joseph McManus, the district leader in the 80th Assembly District initially brushed off the allegations. “If it’s not in all three papers [Post, Daily News and New York Times], then it’s not a story,” he said.

But now, all of the papers have written about the scandal, lumping Rivera in with an infamous list of elected officials who have been buried by corruption scandals, including ex-state senators from the Bronx like Pedro Espada, Efrain Gonzalez and Guy Velella.

Rivera has since made appearances at recent community events, attacking Gjonaj for being an outsider, as well as his real estate ties and his lack of Democratic credentials. (Gjonaj has a home on City Island, but is planning on moving into the district. He only recently became a registered Democrat and says he has identified as an Independent in the past.  Update: A spokesman for Gjonaj’s campaign says Gjonaj moved into the district soon after he filed his petitions on July 9. He now lives at 2100 Eastchester Road.)

But Rivera hasn’t talked to the media about the investigations since they became public. She declined to be interviewed for this article.

Meanwhile, Gjonaj is sparing no expense to take Rivera down and paint himself as a defender of tenants.

Last week, he helped re-open a shuttered community room at the Allerton Co-ops and hired a lawyer to file an injunction on behalf of tenants against the rent hike at Tracey Towers. (A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday morning, Sept. 5. Rivera said she would work toward stopping the rent increase, but it’s unclear what she’s done on behalf of Tracey tenants since the early August rally.)

Gjonaj has also sent out his Gjonaj CARES crew — stands for his mantra in acronym form: Community, Accountability, Respect, Encouragement, Service — an army of workers clad in yellow T-shirts who clean up various parts of the district.

“That’s what I do,” he says. “I see a problem and I do something about it.”

The other two challengers in the race, however, say neither is worthy of representing the district.

“The 80th District is not for sale – not to a landlord, not to a politician whose family is being investigated,” said Irene Estrada-Rukaj.

“It’s clear by the misappropriation of funds that the incumbent has no respect for most workers,” Adam Bermudez said about Rivera.

He added about Gjonaj: “I think Mark is a nice man. However, he is an independent, not a Democrat. I have no idea if Mark will pursue progressive Democrat legislation [if elected].”

The primary is Thursday, Sept. 13.

Editor’s note: A version of this story appears in the Sept. 6-19 print edition of the Norwood News. It has been updated to clarify the status of Mark Gjonaj’s current residence, which is, in fact, in the district. We had reported that Gjonaj was planning to move into the district.

admin

Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.