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com
Phantom funds
Golden promised $4 mil on eve of election
that never materialized, according to Parks
BY CHANDLER KIDD
His word is not Golden!
State Sen. Marty Golden welched
on an election-year promise to allocate
$4 million for repairs to an
ailing Marine Park playground, according
to the city Parks Department.
Golden claimed credit for the
massive cash infusion for the dilapidated
PS 278 Playground on Fillmore
Avenue near Stuart Street —
which suffers from peeling paint
and pools of stagnant water that attract
gnats, mosquitoes, and mold
— in November, near the tail end
of his 2018 re-election bid against
Democratic candidate Andrew Gounardes.
However, following the eightterm
senator’s defeat in the general
election just a few days later, the
promised funds never made their
way into Parks Department coffers,
according to a Parks spokeswoman,
who said there’s no evidence the
money existed to begin with.
“Despite our best efforts, we
have been unable to verify that the
$4 million existed for the agency to
receive,” said Parks Department
spokeswoman Anessa Hodgson.
A spokesman for the New York
Senate Majority said the upper
chamber’s finance gurus were similarly
unable to uncover evidence
of Golden’s promised funds, and
accused the former senator of announcing
the money as an 11th hour
ploy to grab headlines before a tight
election.
“Marty Golden lied to Brooklyn
families and took credit for money
he did nothing to secure and knew
wasn’t coming,” said Gary Ginsburg,
a spokesman for the New York
Senate Majority.
When reached for comment over
the phone, Golden said “I’m busy,”
before hanging up. Three subsequent
calls went unanswered.
However, a spokeswoman for senate
Republicans rushed to defend
the former state lawmaker, and provided
this paper with an email sent
from Golden’s office to the Parks Department
on Oct. 30, 2018 containing
a preliminary two-page application
for the Marine Park senate grant,
which she claims the agency failed
to fill out, and that the parks money
was never allocated due to the agency’s
bureaucratic oversight.
“Marty Golden cares deeply
about Marine Park and fought to
allocate $4 million to fix the playground,”
said Candice Giove, a
spokeswoman for the New York
Senate Minority. “It is sad that because
Marty Golden promised $4 million for Marine
Park that never existed, according to the
Parks Department.
Photo by Steve Solomonson
an employee at the New York
City Parks Department let an application
worth $4 million sit in an in
box until this day, and failed to submit
it, that Marine Park never received
this money.”
The Parks Department responded
to Giove’s accusation in a statement
that ignored the application,
instead doubling down on their assertion
that Golden’s money never
existed, while saying the agency
doesn’t suspect any foul play on the
part of the former senator.
“We appreciate former Senator
Golden’s well-intentioned efforts to
secure funding for Marine Park,”
said Hodgson.
Giove went on to claim that then
Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan
sent a letter to Golden just a few
days before the application was sent
out, but could not provide a copy by
deadline due to his secretary’s recent
hospitalization.
And while Ginsburg admitted
that Parks may have failed to fill
out the application, he insisted that
Golden’s victory lap was premature
and premeditated to aid his re-election
bid, saying his election day defeat
did not deprive him of six remaining
weeks in office, during
which no effort was made to secure
the funds.
“If Marty actually cared about
this more than getting a press release
and getting a nice photo op,
he would have made a call to make
sure they saw the email and were
filling it out,” said Ginsburg.
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