Well, he didnt actually say rathole, and the price tag has doubtless been lowballed but he also had no credible explanation for the debacle, nor did he apologize for it. I know what goes on, Ms. McCray said, adding that she was justified in skipping board meetings. Things happen. While studying there, she became a member of a black feminist organization known as the Combahee River Collective. Ms. McCray declined a request for a follow-up interview to discuss the funds activities in more detail. The first spouse went before the City Council Tuesday tripping spectacularly over her own tongue while removing any doubt that her billion-dollar husbandly indulgence, ThriveNYC, amounts to an epic public policy swindle gussied up as a mental health program. Ms. Baierlein was hired last year as director of development. Ms. McCray with Richard Buery, a former deputy mayor, discussing ThriveNYC, a mental health initiative, before a City Councils committee in 2016. EXPOSED: Dr. Peter McCullough On How Nattokinase Could Counteract Spike Protein Damage! Don't we want people to have a good quality of life? Of the 78,000 newborn deliveries in the city annually, only 28,560 new mothers have been screened by the Thrive program. Mayoral Photography Office Nearly a third of New Yorkers may be out of work thanks to the. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post. Outside school, she was excluded from boy-girl mixers. [11], In 1991, McCray entered politics. She also received books as Christmas gift. Eventually, she started an organization called Black Women in Publishing. And Mayor Bill de Blasios excuse for it is beyond laughable. Same for her $65,000 associate director of advance.. It's all sizzle and no steak. Economic growth has slowed, but inflation remains persistent in key areas, raising concerns that the Feds balance-sheet size could force the Fed to take rates even higher. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. In 1991, I met the love of my life, married him. As the City navigates unprecedented challenges triggered by the COVID-19 crisis, these public servants continue to show up everyday to deliver solutions that reach into every neighborhood and family, and we owe them a debt of gratitude, Caraway said. How many other big-bucks initiatives are in similar straits is unknowable mostly because bureaucrats never blow the whistle on themselves and also because Gothams formal watchdog, city Comptroller Scott Stringer, is among the most incurious individuals ever to hold the office. Read our full Disclosure. It was honorable work, it didnt cost very much and it filled up the spouses free time. TRUE All Along? [6][12] At the time, de Blasio was an aide to a deputy mayor and McCray was a speechwriter. Thanks for contacting us. In December, the Simonses made another donation, of $250,000. Once she returned home from school to find their house scrawled with racist graffiti. However, according to current and former employees in the Mayors office -- and public records --McCrays staff makes closer to $2 million. The nonprofit was created in 1994 by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to raise private-sector money to finance some of his pet projects, including a childrens book featuring his dog. Thereafter, she served Bill Thompson, New York City Comptroller, possibly from 2002 to 2004. De Blasio is an Italian-American. The council redeemed itself only slightly Tuesday, asking McCray too politely for the circumstances to explain herself, and then settling for a non-answer answer for the ages: ThriveNYC was my idea, she said. There is no evidence its working.. Council members learned Tuesday that only $30 million of Thrives $250 million annual budget an anemic 12 percent is spent on the seriously mentally ill, with the remainder of that enormously expensive burden shunted off to the citys more traditional social services agencies. [6][32] Asked about her sexuality, McCray has stated that she hates "labels". Download it here. https://t.co/fqUIyfFc8Z. Taxpayers may get some value from others on her staff, like the special assistant from the mayors office who makes $115,000, and the $130,000 executive program specialist from the Department of Social Services after all, someone has to actually supervise the programs that McCray is nominally in charge of. The amount of time it takes to manage a $50,000 program or project is not infrequently the same amount of time that it might take to manage a $5 million program or project, said Darren Bloch, the executive director of the Mayors Fund, defending the staffing increase. And the chairwoman of the nonprofit, Chirlane McCray, has largely been missing in action: She has attended less than half of the funds board meetings, and her outreach to donors has been sporadic. We've received your submission. But there are other mysteries out there, too. One is a $70,000-a-year videographer (paid via the Health Department!) Thereafter, she worked briefly for the public relation department of the City Group, but could not fit in. It's a way of demonizing people who are suffering and saying they are not deserving of this.. But also mayoral spouse Chirlane McCray, who has just been revealed as a world-class boondoggler in her own right. Born into a middleclass African-American family and raised primarily in an all-white locality, she suffered racial abuse both in and outside school. Mayor Bill de Blasio likes to say that theres plenty of money in New York City, but that its in the wrong hands. Another is a $143,000-a-year PR director whose job, by definition, is to boost her image, not to serve the public. The first lady of New York City Chirlane McCray is married to an American politician Bill de Blasio. DE BLASIO EXTENDS STATE OF EMERGENCY IN NEW YORK FOR ANOTHER 30 DAYS, "That article [referring to The City story]didn't take into account the work that's being done," de Blasio said. Early in her youth, Chirlane McCray identified herself as a lesbian and continued to do so till 1991 when she met her future husband, Bill de Blasio, at that time working as an aide to David Dinkins. The programs at issue ostensibly are meant to assist particularly challenged people the helpless, often homeless, mentally ill and small children whose futures are forfeited because they landed in shamefully nonfunctional schools, an experience from which they will never recover. In interviews with more than a dozen donors and others who had contact with the fund, none said that they had substantive conversations with Ms. McCray. It was . As the wife of New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, she is also the First Lady of New York City since 2014. Only 570 of the estimated 12-15,000 mothers who experience postpartum depression have been reached by the program, Politico reported, a number NYC disputes. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8, Continue reading your article witha WSJ subscription, Already a subscriber? It was honorable work, it didnt cost very much and it filled up the spouses free time. She was born eldest of her parents three children; she has two younger sisters named Cynthia and Cheryl. This story has been shared 119,457 times. or redistributed. This story has been shared 364,374 times. But very soon, she realized that publishing was not her cup of tea. [20] In May 2018, The New York Times reported that McCray had last visited the offices of the Mayor's Fund in May 2017. The discovery shocked many of her dormitory mates. Since then, the program, known as ThriveNYC, has been a lightning rod of criticism for the de Blasio administration from critics who say its accomplished little while costing taxpayers millions of dollars. .css-16c7pto-SnippetSignInLink{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;}Sign In, Copyright 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. "I like the fact that money is going toward mental health, but when they say we're seeing a benefit in all areas, I take exception to that, because I don't see it everywhere," Queens Councilman Robert Holden told The Post. Schedules and emails detail meetings in the years after he was a convicted sex offender. That is, once upon a time, first spouses were content to pretend to be in charge of prettifying highways and things. U.S. Government Docket No. Things happen. The administration has said their approach to mental health has never been done before at this level anywhere in the country. Though, data on what the program has accomplished is hard to find. Seven mayors attended a 2017 national mental health conference in New York City. The reason I say that all of Thrives budget is tailored to [all city residents] is because its very difficult to say [what] is the percentage of our population that is seriously mentally ill, concluded Mrs. Mayor without laughing. On Wednesday, councilmembers were huffing that de Blasio has been showering his wife with tax dollars with embarrassing results. Thereafter from 1994, she served Carl McCall, the New York State Comptroller, as his speech writer. The rescue deal will see JPMorgan take on all of First Republics $92 billion in deposits and buy most of its assets, heading off a collapse that threatened to reignite the recent banking crisis. The number of programs the fund supports has also declined, from 123 during Mr. de Blasios first year in office to 97 the next fiscal year. More telling was that neither Herman nor McCray could even tell the council how many people are on Thrives payrolls though surely there are many. Why start from scratch when other people are already out there doing work that has not up until now been championed by the federal government.. Other members of the shadow staff who participated in a Team Lunch in The Bronx in January 2019, according to McCrays public schedule, are a $143,000-a-year public relations director, also from the Department of Health, and a special assistant from the mayors office who makes $115,000. bob@bobmcmanus.nyc. This story has been shared 132,852 times. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. [33] In 2012, when asked about her 1979 essay, she commented: "In the 1970s, I identified as a lesbian and wrote about it. [27] In a March 2019 article on ThriveNYC, The New York Times reported: "Public health officials credit the plan for drawing attention to mental health At the same time, some initiatives failed to get started, while others placed unrealistic demands on already strained mental health services". [13] She also worked as a speechwriter for the New York State Comptroller Carl McCall and for New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson. They're homeless for other reasons.. Fellow contender, City Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn), slammed the spending. Her performance left council members blinking. Her mother, Katharine Clarissa Eileen (ne Edwards), was an assembly worker at an electronics factory, and her father, Robert Hooper McCray, was an inventory clerk at a military base. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to defend first lady Chirlane McCray against backlash on Wednesday after it was discovered she had private staff that's getting paid millions in. [5], When she was ten years old, her family moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts, becoming only the second black family in the area. In January, Ms. McCray announced that the program would become its own office, which now has 21 employees with a $2 million office budget, according to Susan Herman, appointed to lead the office. So, ipso presto, co-Mayor Bill coughed up enough cash to break a pack mules back and sent it off to co-Mayor Chirlane who then went forth to cure Gothams mental-illness problems. Folks, let me tell you something, if there truly is a "scheme" here and the money was intentionally "misused" or funnelled somewhere, that is criminal. Trump threatens to send federal agents to New York City if Bill de Blasio can't stop the violence, Oklahoma governor makes performing 'irreversible gender transition surgeries' on children a felony, Texas Gov. This story has been shared 375,122 times. Fast-forward to Wednesday, when the City Council was startled to discover that McCray and Team Thrive are closing in on having spent an eye-popping $900 million since the programs inception and nobody seems to have a clue on what. Legal Statement. Once-Thriving City Nonprofit Sputters Under Mayors Wife, Chirlane McCray, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/nyregion/city-nonprofit-that-thrived-after-9-11-lags-under-mayors-wife.html. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. We have elected officials or health commissioners or both, in more than 200 cities, who share information, share best practices, get together and talk about what they're doing so that they can duplicate each other's programs, says McCray. who recorded the first lady baking cookies during the pandemic. Almost every single one of our programs continued throughout the pandemic.. He said that a better measure of the funds success was the number of programs that it finances a number that has also fallen. [28], ThriveNYC drew harsh criticism over allegations of mismanagement and accusations that it had failed to produce records of tangible results. Such as, how did it happen that Thrive burned through more $565 million over four-plus years to no appreciable good effect with nobody noticing? With the aid of the citys First Lady, Mayor de Blasio launched a massive overhaul of the citys mental-health system in 2015. Does anybody know how well more likely, how poorly the co-mayors hugely expensive pre-K program is working, especially that portion consigned to the citys notoriously problematic not-for-profit sector? Ms. McCray last stopped by in May 2017, Ms. Olson said. The City Hall budget shows $594 million in spending since ThriveNYC's inception. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $900 million to start a mental health initiative focusing on helping the homeless in the city. Besides the calls that Ms. McCray makes to donors, she has met with potential donors and hosted an annual Christmas fund-raiser at Gracie Mansion. Activist, writer, loving partner of @BilldeBlasio. That is, once upon a time, first spouses were content to pretend to be in charge of prettifying highways and things. And its only (your) money even if it is quite a lot of it. . And we were fortunate to have an infrastructure of services that people could turn to, says McCray. The office has Ms. McCrays name on a metal plaque on the door. How can she sleep at night hiring these hacks knowing so many other city workers are facing layoffs this fall? In 1964, the family moved to Longmeadow, near Springfield. [18], In his second month in office, de Blasio named McCray chair of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City. A spokeswoman said that they had pledged an additional $250,000, which will be paid this year. We've received your submission. The inquiries were closed in 2016 without charges being filed. While writing articles, she also continued to write poetry, trying to bring about a social change through them. In January 1, 2014, de Blasio was sworn in as the Mayor and with that McCray became the First Lady of New York City. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Chirlane McCray was born on November 29, 1954 in Springfield, Massachusetts into an Afro-American family that had migrated from Barbados and St. Lucia. Theres no separation as a practical matter.. That two such scandals should bubble to the surface unannounced is bad enough. [15] She worked for five years at Maimonides Medical Center. Glenn Youngkin declines 2024 White House bid 'this year'. The ThriveNYC initiative, now three years old, is the signature effort of Chirlane McCray, the wife of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. The first spouse went before the City Council . She says the Cities Thrive initiative was started in response to a lack of guidance coming from the Trump Administration, but she is hopeful there will soon be more mental health support for cities under the Biden Administration. One exception was Marilyn Simons, a philanthropist married to the hedge fund billionaire James Simons. McCray has a core team of eight staffers, according to a recent list provided to The Post following a Freedom of Information Law request filed in October 2019. Even as the city has poured money into mental health . In 1975, after earning her BA degree, Chirlane McCray attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course. [7] The purpose of the essay was to "dispel the myth that there are no gay black people". Her public schedules indicate she spends even less: a total of 19.5 hours spent on fund activities in all of last year; 35 hours in 2016. A company representative, David Lombino, said Ms. McCray did not solicit the donation, which went to an internship program known as Ladders for Leaders. This story has been shared 110,413 times. Two Trees Management, a real estate developer that in 2015 donated $100,000 to the Campaign for One New York, gave $11,750 to the fund in April 2016, just weeks after Mr. de Blasio said he would shut down the Campaign for One New York. Ron DeSantis. First lady Chirlane McCray has raised between $13 million and $28 million in donations for a City Hall-aligned nonprofit from people and entities with business before her hubby Mayor de Blasio, The Ms. Harris missed only one board meeting in the last four years she served as chairwoman, the period for which records were available. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, She added, This is 2018; work can get done in all kinds of ways.. McCray added that she would not run for mayor of New York City. Familiar figures in Mr. de Blasios orbit who gave to the fund include James F. Capalino, a top lobbyist and campaign contributor to the mayor who also made donations, later ruled improper, to the Campaign for One New York, a political nonprofit started by Mr. de Blasio that the mayor was forced to shut down amid ethics questions and the investigations into his fund-raising. Officials for the citys ThriveNYC program, a mental health initiative, struggled to tell members of the New York City Council during testimony Wednesday how its annual budget of $250 million is spent and exactly how New Yorkers have benefited from the citys services. The fact that we've added more services, the fact that we now have an Office of Community Mental Health is in direct response to what people have been asking for, and that is more, more and more more mental health providers, especially mental health providers of color, says McCray. She makes calls to share what our priorities are and to get attention and interest from others, said Mr. Bloch, describing Ms. McCray as a key part of the organizations fund-raising. The nonprofit was created in 1994 by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to raise private-sector money to finance some of his pet projects, including a children's book featuring his dog. Given that nobody seems to know how many programs there even are, itll be a while before McCrays allowance is cut off. [6][9] McCray met Bill de Blasio in 1991, when they both worked at New York City Hall for then Mayor David Dinkins. McCray, who is reportedly looking torun for Brooklyn borough president, has a staff of 14 people,sources told The CIty. In early 1990s, she found a job with the New York City governments press office, eventually being appointed a speechwriter for Mayor David Dinkins, serving in this capacity possibly till December 1993. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion! Abbott tells Chicago mayor to take complaints on border crisis to the White House, Biden admin's coordination with environmental groups to ban gas stoves under investigation by Cruz, Comer, Virginia Gov. Chiara was born seven months after the wedding in December 1994. But the fund itself has become a much larger operation, adding employees and salaries. The chairwoman of the Mayors Fund to Advance the City of New York, Chirlane McCray, has largely been missing in action: She has attended less than half of the funds board meetings, and her outreach to donors has been sporadic. Chirlane McCray can't explain where the $850m in funding has gone after it was given to the organization she runs, ThriveNYC. The City Council discovered this shocking amount of potential waste during a meeting Wednesday. That is, nobody appears to have kept receipts; the subways and street corners are still overrun with crazy people, and nobody in charge knows whats to happen next. Don't we want people to be healthy? Chirlane McCray Wants to Get You Paid. Some critics have said that Thrive focused too little on those with serious mental illnesses.
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