YONKERS, NY – The Journal News reporter, Len Maniace, has today written about the investigation of alleged improprieties by Executive Director Gregory du Sablon. "The YMCA in this city has created a special committee and hired an attorney to investigate allegations of improper spending by its longstanding executive director, Gregory du Sablon." Read the rest of the story through the hyperlink.
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The mayor is inept,and everyone else is supine.
Du sablon hero or criminal?
“Just like Daddy after beating me, sometimes he’ll buy me icecream. to bad he never says sorry.” In-short; du sablon’s history clearly discribes him as a man whom does good deeds to cover up and/or justify his bad ones. What drove him to become a crooked cop? Greed… Same answer as to why he became a crook CEO.
Its unfortunate that the YMCA not only has to deal with the difficult econmic times, but also with the losses that have clearly compromised the survival of the Y.
Spitzer, the prosecutor and straight arrow involved in a prostitution ring-
The fall of the Roman Empire is at hand.
Rest assured that Osama and his pals are laughing their butts off right now. They now how weak we are and that their victory is being made easier by the faults in our society.
And Hezi will write on
Hey, here’s a game, lets postulate what the trough feeders will do when Fills gone.
Peterson, garbage Man
Lopez, bag lady
Halavey, back to spineless idiot
Pagano, bouncer in a woman’s spa
The entire Blanchard family, a clown act at Ringling Brothers
Come-on join in, it’s fun
7:11, 6:18 & 6:38 were meant to be satirical, but I do so love to get you Ameridiot trough feeders boiling. Thanks for the reaction. Trust me; there will be life and welfare for you after Ameridiot.
to 8:47 Zisman and Lopez are both illegal employees in Yonkers. Their positions have never been approved by NY State Civil Service. They are called Fill Amicone “kiss my A**, I’ll do whatever the F I want with the taxpayers money” Positions.
There are hundreds of positions like this that Joan is looking into. They cost in taxpayer dollars, for salary alone, approximately $ 40 million a year. Fill says FU to the State.
Neither one of which was qualified, and both were yes men for their mayors
CC is Charlie Cola and EH is Edmund Hartnett, former and current Police Commissioners.
Harnett needs to stay and Fitzy needs to go. If Fatzy does goes, I bet that the city would gain a profit of a few million dollars, since I would sell off all of his toys to the County DES. Then the city can use this money to spend in places that make more sense. The only loss that the city would have if Fitzy leaves would be Carlo’s Restrauant, since all of this Sausage and Pepper Wedge with a Diet Coke Orders would be history.
What does 12:16 mean? Who is CC and who is EH and where does the No. 9 bus fit in?
Dont get your hopes up. Maybe C C will come back. I just hope if E H goes he takes Bus 9 with him.
ditto 6:38
How about an opening for Deputy Fire Chief of Operations? Has Yonkers finally gotten rid of Fitzy yet?
Maybe they’ll post a vacancy for John Fleming’s position as well.
Wanted : political lacky who couldn’t hack it in the NYPD.
-This position has no responsibility at all.
-Must be able to take down, and see through with delivery lunch orders.
-Must be able to whisper in mayor’s ear and suggest awful candidates to fill positions.
-Must have never lived in Yonkers, Never worked in Yonkers, have no feel for how Yonkers is run, and not mind a 6 figure salary and take home car.
I accessed the site and found no problem accessing or reading the reading the job responsibilities for police commissioner.
City of Yonkers website has Police Commissioner job opening.Reading the job responsibilities it appears to be some computer problem or a hacker hit the site.
What should be most shocking in this matter is the fact that Zisman – the supposed guardian of integrity in City Hall – had this happen right under his nose, as a Board member of the “Y”.
Imagine how assured we are that the Inspector General is inspecting anything at all.
Another “scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” kind of guy.
The taxpayers, as always, come out the big losers having Zisman as Inspector Gadget.
egos clashing and no one wins, ever.
6:38 is in full hysteria mode. Broad, sweeping accusations which are mostly groundless, or else over-stated by a mile. Even the Zherka part of it isn’t true. No “crime.” A civil case. But Zherka is a sleazeball. That part is right.
If Sablon knows things about people, he might now start talking. Could be interesting.
while i disagree with the spencer bit: 6:38 is NOT a fool
Off topic….OBIT.
Dave Hartley, a long-time editor for the
Herald Statesman and then the Journal News,
has died of cancer at 68. Dave was a North Yonkers guy
for his entire life. R.I.P. Dave.
6:38 you are indeed a fool
1:39 thanks for the tax return info on board of directors at YMCA. All appointed and close cronies of Amerclown. Hey, this guy also has Americlows ethics!
Yonkers YMCA. I love this, for four straight days SNOOZE 12 is having in depth coverage of some minor moron thief stealing a box of nails. Now, if Snooze 12 cared to look across the street they would see Yonkers City Hall. This is a place where Mayor Amicone is shoveling $800 million dollars of tax payer money out the back door as quick as he can to his family, investors and his friends.
In recent history we have stabbings in our lawless high schools. Teachers molesting students. There are more legal actions against the Yonkers BOE then there are against Enron. The local BID director, appointed by Amicone, is buying houses with taxpayer money. We have the city council under investigation for development fraud (notice how quiet Barbato and the lepracon have been), the police department is under investigation for brutality and Mayor Ameridiot was just convicted of major 1st Amendment abuses crime, and he lost to one of the biggest sleazes in the state.
And I’m sitting here trying to figure out who these upscale high rise apartments at waterfront are going to be sold to. THERE IS NO VIABLE SCHOOL SYSTEM IN YONKERS FOR WHITE PEOPLE. Is Ameridiot assuming that only minorities are going to buy into this project? Or has Fill planned it so that only young singles and couples without children and old people are going to move into these 3500 units
OK, is there any honesty, integrity and brains at City Hall at all.
Please, please, bring back John Spencer. I’d much rather have a nasty idiot than a sneaky thief, Amicone.
Why is it that “theft”, once exposed, is referred to as “making a mistake”? How many crimes to you want to give a pass to? Theft is theft, so please stop giving it benign euphemisms.
What about Tara circle…2:31 you must work for the city.
Yeah! but they shied away from nValley and the Ridge Hill stories and where where they on the 2 BID funny money stories.
This whole story is just for News 12 ratings. You’d think they’ve uncovered the the worst, most hardened criminal in the history of Yonkers.
This guy is one of the Good Guys. The things he does with troubled youth is commendable.
If he made a mistake, let him right it and let’s move on.
From 2005 Tax Return:
Ronald Cabriele Waterfront Development City Hall
Lindsey Carden: Hudson Valley bank
Harvey Goldberg: AVET
Patrick McMahon: 4TH PRECINCT
Joe Spiezio: Joni Managment:
Julius Walls: Greystone Bakery
Here’s the tax return. Page 18 is the list of names.
http://204.203.220.33/EINS/131740520/131740520_2005_02BAAF18.PDF
Sure, perhaps the DA will give him a Certificate of Merit for signing other people’s names to checks used for personal expenses.
There might also be a medal of recognition for letting $90,000 of our tax dollars go uncollected.
Why did this even become a public issue. This guy should have been left alone to run his private business with public dollars. What is wrong with you people?
When the DA clears Du Sablon of any wrongdoing, I hope this site is as full of apologies as it is of condemnations. Accusations are just that — not judgments.
Lopez. Spring, Zisman, Riti, how many others on the ymca board and who are they?
The Y was not a private enterprise for a strong personality. And who’s John? And you don’t know who posts anything here – there’s a privacy matters standard. If mud goes around, so what. There may be a pearl of wisdom in the mud.
Can’t get Zehy out of that brain of yours John??
Zehy did this, Zehy did that. Who cares he’s history now so move on.
Looks like Zehy’s name comes up again as a person friendly to another under investigation. Hasn’t that hapened before? Is there a pattern here? Isn’t it odd how many times that has happened.
Zehy pushed this guy, big time, to run for office (words out of Zehy’s own mounth) but he wouldn’t do it, perhaps considering what might come out of his closet.
Hope the DA investigates not only the suspect but also the Board, the suspects friends, political mentors and associates (could any funny money have been spread around?) and all of these agencies receiving Comunity development grants.
It sure seems that there may be some pattern in misspent Getty Square CD money. let’s not forget the Chamber of Yonkers and the money thrown away to Zehy by Martinelli/Cacace/ Spano.
March 7, 2008
Westchester D.A. investigates Yonkers YMCA chief
Len Maniace
The Journal News
YONKERS – The Westchester County District Attorney’s Office yesterday confirmed that it has opened an investigation into the alleged misuse of funds by the executive director of the city YMCA.
And today, Gregory du Sablon begins a voluntary leave of absence from his post as executive director. The YMCA’s board of directors accepted the leave, with pay, at a meeting last night, said Jeffrey Buss, special counsel to a YMCA committee that is investigating du Sablon’s spending.
The board also asked the YMCA’s national headquarters to provide a temporary administrator to keep the downtown Yonkers group running, Buss said.
District attorney spokesman Lucian Chalfen, declined to discuss details of the investigation of du Sablon, 60, who has headed the YMCA in Yonkers for 13 years. The YMCA was served with a search warrant yesterday, Buss said.
Among the issues in the YMCA’s investigation, Buss said, are du Sablon’s spending, the ethics of three members of his family working with him at the Y, and the family’s use of cars leased by the organization, Buss said.
“I’m giving them everything and anything they want to look into,” du Sablon said yesterday, “and I’m cooperating 100 percent.”
The board also agreed to impose tighter financial controls. Buss said he could not predict how long it would take to submit.
“We are going to do it as quickly as possible but we want to do a thorough review,” Buss said.
For a time early last year, du Sablon was considered as a possible Republican candidate in a special election for the Yonkers county legislature seat vacated when Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins defeated Republican state Sen. Nicholas Spano. Then Yonkers party chief Zehy Jereis was hoping to enlist him to run for the empty seat.
That would have required the Ossining resident to move back to Yonkers, where he lived from 1974 to the late 1990s.
Du Sablon’s wife, Florence, works for the YMCA as the school-age child-care director, while his son Greg Jr. handles marketing, aquatics and fitness.
Michael Wald, who was described by several people as a foster son of du Sablon’s, also is employed by the YMCA.
Du Sablon started at the YMCA 24 years ago as a lifeguard. He previously worked as the head lifeguard for the county and as a New York City police officer.
Let us not forget that to punish the YMCA now would be to punish the kids who are served there.
6:15 you are right. I volunteer a great deal, and sometimes I’ve been honored for that, and I’ll stand in a row of other honorees, all who get paid for their work – it was their job – but I’d be the only one who stepped up and it wasn’t my job at all. That has always bothered me. I believe Sablon has done a lot of good, but as you say, it was his job. And he may indeed have taken undue advantage of the opportunities all around him.
I don’t know if this man did anything or not, but he did get paid for whatever good work he did. He wasn’t a volunteer– it was HIS JOB!!. Maybe he did it particularly well because of the “perks” he garnered. And it wasn’t a poor mother’s “Baby Stroller” found at his home in Ossining. It was home depot products which were similar to the products paid for by the YMCA. Frankly, I don’t care if he was the male equivalent of Mother Theresa. If he stole money on the side, for his or his family’s benefit, he belongs in jail. I am so sick of the “bad judgement” and “the devil made me do it” excuses of crooks — once they get caught, that is.
5:13, of course not,I posted 5:07, and if one is doing too much – as seemed to be the case with him – it may be he left some accounting aside and put the kids first, which meant it got out of control. If a kid wanted to see him, he’d drop everything. At least that’s what I saw, but I didn’t work there. I visited often. And as for “impuslive” I mean that if a family needed something, would he use the funds to pay for something considered necessary – like a baby stroller so the mom gets some back relief – that’s impulsive but in a good way and you have to explain it down the road. there has to be an account for such sudden expenses so it doesn’t look “impulsive” in a negative sense. If he helped himself, and if his wife or son helped themselves, they should all resign. And the board must be accountable for not assessing things more closely. There had to have been warning signs.
Yonkers Inspector General didn’t have a CLUE… Hmmmmm
Did he ask for help, you say!!??? What does that mean? Because he may have been overworked he stole money? And is this how you look at theft of funds and public trust — “Impulsive” activity??? Hope there are no public funds where you are.
Sablon is an amazing person. He has helped so many kids stay out of gangs, made sure they had a safe place to hang after school. He gets a lot of kids to believe in themselves, which is good. It is possible he did do some innapproriate things with money, and that´s sad, and very punishable. I just wonder why he was left to handle all the money like that, did he ask for that, did he ask for help, did he know how serious it was to be impulsive with those funds, thinking it would be taken care of since, well, he´s doing a lot of good. This money wasn’t his to be impulsive with.
Didn’t post story to show his humanitarian size. Posted it, as indicated at the beginning of the post, to see if this, too, is something that should be investigated. Wonder who the unpaid lodgers were, anyway.
YONKERS IS DAMNED!!!
Yeah but if he tried to evict them the usual crazies would be in court trying to stop them. The Journal News and Snooze 12 would be doing tear-jerker stories about the cruel Y. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
IS CHRIS SPRING OF WESTCHESTER MANAGEMENT CORP STILL ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS?
So, good to post a story showing a “humanitarian side” of Mr. Sablon. However, it’s not his building or company to be humanitarian about. And if those men didn’t pay rent, what were they doing all day long? The organization isn’t supposed to enable sloths. The organization is to promote strong minds, bodies, and spirit. A 30 day grace period perhaps ok. but 90 days is irresponsible management of people and the facility.
REMEMBER THE STORY BELOW? WONDER HOW THAT FIASCO TIES IN TO THE CURRENT SITUATION AT THE YMCA?
“Yonkers YMCA says public assistance rules led to $45,000 in unpaid rent”
By Ernie Garcia
The Journal News • February 20, 2008
YONKERS – The city YMCA’s reluctance to evict men kicked off public assistance forced the organization to forgive $45,000 in unpaid rent last year,its executive director says.
Much of the uncollected rent was owed by the 18 men housed at the YMCA who were temporarily suspended from welfare or Supplemental Security Income benefits for not following the programs’ rules. The suspensions ranged from a month to three months, and in 2007 they put the 74-room Christian charity in a moral and financial dilemma.
“A guy might get cut off for 90 days. We have the option to put him out,” said Greg du Sablon, the YMCA’s executive director. “We always choose the human side to keep these guys off the street.”
The humanitarian option, however, comes with a price.
“If they are paying $400 a month rent, at the end of 90 days there is no way for them to pay us,” du Sablon said.
Public assistance recipients typically get cut off from financial assistance for not showing up at work or for missing meetings with caseworkers, among other reasons.
Westchester County’s Department of Social Services has four of its clients living at the YMCA, said Deputy Commissioner Iris Jenkins.
“We do have work rules,” Jenkins said of the department’s expectation of its public assistance clients. “We do send them letters and give them every opportunity to comply because we don’t want people out on the street.”
When public assistance recipients fail to comply, Jenkins said, state guidelines require her agency to notify a landlord that a public assistance recipient will be sanctioned and rent will not be paid.
Jenkins said she was not aware that the YMCA had racked up $45,000 in unpaid rent last year.
The YMCA is not the only Christian charity that has been taking a financial hit while caring for the city’s homeless.
The sanctioning of public assistance clients means that The Sharing Community ends up having three or four empty beds a night in its 19-bed, 24-hour shelter. The cost of those empty beds adds up by the end of the year, said the Rev. Anthony Hoeltzel, The Sharing Community’s executive director.
Hoeltzel said that the county eventually covers his organization’s actual costs, “but it means several months at a time of loaning the county money.”
“You’re standing ready to provide services but not being paid for it,” he said.
Hoeltzel said a get-tough approach to public assistance forces suspended recipients to resort to the county’s emergency homeless shelters or warming centers.
Yes, Sablon has been a sacred cow. Like he could do no wrong. He’s gotten a huge amount of money, so where is it? Why does the place look run down?
The board has their head in the sand. Get a new board. One of them, Lorraine Lopez, is from the school of “spend others money like it’s yours” so of course it wouldn’t matter to her what Sablon did. She’d wink.
THE ONLY SOLUTION TO YONKERS PROBLEMS IS A CLEAN HOUSE POLICY. FIRST THIS MAYOR SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN RE-ELECTED, AND SHOULD BE FORCED OUT. SECOND THE COUNCIL ARE USELESS, ALL OF THEM EXCEPT JOAN WHO HAS SOME SPUNK.
IN THE FUTURE WE NEED TO GET A NEW CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT AND NO BARBATO OR LESNICK WILL NOT DO. IT NEEDS TO BE SOMEONE WITH A FRESH APPROACH TO THE PROCESS AND ONE WHO WILL STAND UP OT THE WRONG MAYOR, AND NOT THE PUSSIES WE HAVE RIGHT NOW.
12:34 is most likely a participant in the Yonkers Welfare Systerm, i.e. either a union person or one of our infamous politcal idiots referred to in the “sacred cow” posting.
And it is impossible to believe that conspiracies could exist in this City – right?
12:34 part of the problem, not part of the solution.
I sure hope this is not another one of these conspiracy stories. They don’t happen in Yonkers, or do they???
and to the sacred cow poster MOO!
Names of YMCA board members along with Zisman and Riti? How many years has this been covered up? Unbelievable.
Spencer & Amicone have given us Galimi, Hornsby and now this guy. He used to be one of their sacred cows.
Maybe some of the Home Depot stuff that he bought went to someone else’s house.
As much as he was their man going back 14 years or so, watch them run for the hills and dump him like a pile of shi t.
The Feds should not only investigate and put all if the crooks in this City in jail. It would be better if the City were put into the hands of a court appointed special master who would not have to answer to all of the unions and political idiots in this town. Then we might free ourselves of the special and unique kind of social welfare that the Yonkers system has become.
The people are too foolish to fix this problem. The politicians are too greedy
Spencer & Amicone have given us Galimi, Hornsby and now this guy. He used to be one of their sacred cows.
Maybe some of the Home Depot stuff that he bought went to someone else’s house.
As much as he was their man going back 14 years or so, watch them run for the hills and dump him like a pile of shi t.
The Feds should not only investigate and put all if the crooks in this City in jail. It would be better if the City were put into the hands of a court appointed special master who would not have to answer to all of the unions and political idiots in this town. Then we might free ourselves of the special and unique kind of social welfare that the Yonkers system has become.
The people are too foolish to fix this problem. The politicians are too greedy
Yonkers YMCA launches investigation of executive director’s spending
By Len Maniace
The Journal News • March 6, 2008
YONKERS – The YMCA in this city has created a special committee and hired an attorney to investigate allegations of improper spending by its longstanding executive director, Gregory du Sablon.
The attorney, Jeffrey Buss, said he was hired Tuesday as special counsel by the YMCA’s board of directors. He confirmed he would assist the committee in looking at du Sablon’s spending, the ethics of four du Sablon family members working for the YMCA, and the family’s use of cars leased by the organization.
“We are going to review all circumstances in which expenses were charged to or paid for by the YMCA and make a determination whether the expenses were appropriately authorized and part of the duties of a person working for a charitable organization or if personal in nature,” Buss said yesterday. “In which case, it would not be appropriate.”
Yesterday, a former YMCA employee, Jorge Robles, told The Journal News that YMCA employees had worked at a Yonkers apartment building owned by du Sablon at hours when they should have been at their job. The men did maintenance work at the building at 36 Victor St., he said.
Robles also said du Sablon family members employed by the nonprofit group at one point had three cars for their personal use. Robles said he worked for the YMCA from 1998 to 2003, when he said he was dismissed and du Sablon’s wife assumed his job.
Earlier this week, a former board member, Sam Riti, who had regularly signed checks for the organization, raised questions about du Sablon’s expenditures. Riti said checks reimbursing du Sablon for purchases at The Home Depot and Sam’s Club bore a stamped version of Riti’s signature, something that should have been used for paychecks only.
In an interview earlier this week, du Sablon acknowledged that he might have made “errors in judgment” in using his expense account. He said he had used a YMCA credit card to make personal purchases, but he had always reimbursed the organization.
Du Sablon did not return calls to his office yesterday, but on Tuesday he said he was awaiting a determination by the board of directors as to whether his spending was appropriate as part of his job benefits.
At that time, du Sablon also denied allegations he had used YMCA employees to work at his home in Ossining or used YMCA funds to pay for home improvements.
Buss said he had not interviewed du Sablon and that he would meet with the board of directors tonight.
Du Sablon said his wife, Florence, works for the YMCA as the school-age child-care director, while his son Greg Jr. handles marketing, aquatics and fitness. Another young man with the first name of Michael, who was described by Buss and Robles as an adopted or a foster son of du Sablon’s, also is employed by the YMCA.
The YMCA depends on individual donations, as well as support from the state, city of Yonkers and nonprofit groups for funding. In a statement released yesterday, the YMCA’s board of directors attempted to assure those donors that the organization was using their money “for the exclusive benefit of the YMCA’s program’s and community children.”
“We want to assure our friends, supporters and members that the YMCA remains fully committed to its core values of ‘honesty, respect and responsibility,’ ” the statement said.
Since it’s public monies the City should have the ability to ask how and where OUR money is spent. You wouldn’t understand any of that because you are one of those who are part of the whole problem with City Haul and this crazy City.
And quados to the poster who listed the money given to the YMCA. You have to wonder if they got any other …Special… favors from the City of Vision.
And wasn’t that du Sablon also involved with the Downtown BID and Kipp???
So now this is Yonkers’ fault? Get over yourself, poster. The state and others also contribute to the Y.
No one has yet (typical of the JN) come up with a figure here. Are we talking about $5,000, $10,000 or a lot more? I guess those answers aren’t known yet, but a minimal estimate would be in order. Ie, several thousand, many thousands, etc.
Here’s what the City has been handing out to the YMCA.
Office of Community Development
Notice to the Public
Proposed Draft Budget for Year 34 – 2008
Public Facilities
YMCA $114,000.00
The After School Program
YMCA $12,000.00
YMCA $12,000.00
Summer Program
YMCA – School Age $14,000.00
Payment for Shelter
YMCA $13,366.00