Mike Nelson

Councilman Mike Nelson’s Former Deputy Chief of Staff Wants Apology for Posting on Forums for Nelson, then Being Outed by Nelson.

GerritsenBeach.net, 5/9/2008

Every politician has his enemies; Councilman Mike Nelson apparently has a lot and keeps piling up more.

It recently was exposed on the SBPBCivic.org forums that Councilman Mike Nelson had his former Deputy Chief of Staff Robert Varley post to various websites including this site under the guise of City Insider. Every post that was ever written by Robert Varley, a.k.a. “City Insider”, was seen and approved by Mike Nelson. The identity was always a secret, which was important, since City Insider's opinions should never be linked back to Mike Nelson.

Varley left his position as Deputy Chief under good terms in February 2008 and the forum account has been unused by Varley since. However, since February, a Norman Chesler, who was a close friend of Mike and his wife Sheila Nelson, had began commenting on GerritsenBeach.net. He has been threatening that he would reveal things that will be detrimental to the Nelsons and others. However, it should be known that Chesler is someone who’s admitted making $56,000 in payoffs to Clarence Norman, the former chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party. Clarence was convicted of three felony counts of accepting illegal campaign contributions during his 2000 and 2002 re-election campaigns for his seat in the New York State Assembly and is currently serving a jail sentence. Chesler, although his credibility is close to nil due to his illegal dealings, still could say some damaging things.

Other than Chesler, people have been saying some nasty things about Mike and Sheila Nelson. According to Varley, the Nelsons then took action, blaming him for the nasty comments, then outing him as City Insider on the Forum as another poster because according to Varley “maybe that would make those nasty comments go away”.

Varley who attempted for days to get in contact with Mike Nelson took his story public:

Remember Mike Nelson is/was my friend. My only beef I have with the Nelsons is that how they turned their backs to me when I was being investigated. I'm sure the higher ups in the Democratic Party told them to do so.

It’s funny, all who knew me and said “we are your friends” just turned away and must have said “Norman who?” You took my money contributions when I was under investigation, maybe I should ask for them back. What do you think??

As we all know giving contributions is part of the political game. All you elected officials and public servants accepted my money, gifts and stamps. You all knew what was going on regarding me and when it was beneficial to you and accepted my financial help and got it and when I needed it YOU ALL TURNED AWAY.

Big Question Unanswered in Scandal

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Politicians' self-promotion on our dime soon may end
Daily News, BY FRANK LOMBARDI Tuesday, October 23rd 2007

The days when City Council members could use public funds to take out self-promoting ads in local newspapers could soon end, thanks to a biting report from the watchdog group Citizens Union.

The 110-year-old good-government group, through a Freedom of Information Law request, obtained Council documents showing Council members spent a collective $927,507 in taxpayer funds from July 2001 to this past June on ads they placed in community newspapers and ad journals published by various organizations for fund-raising events and the like.

Figures in chart don't add up to $927,507 because some Council members left office some time during the period covered.

Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, said it's improper to use "taxpayer dollars for such purposes when there's no clear public benefit other than to raise their profile in front of an important constituency."

Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) has pledged to close the door on self-serving ads with new legislation.

So how did your Council member fare? You can find out from the chart.

Here are the individual spending figures - in order of who spent the most - of the Council members.
Michael Nelson, Brooklyn $113,362
Domenic Recchia, Brooklyn $54,219
James Gennaro, Queens $53,077
Leroy Comrie, Queens $44,758
Joseph Addabbo, Queens $44,373
David Weprin, Queens $41,667
Dennis Gallagher, R-Queens $40,791
Helen Sears, Queens $38,485
Eric Gioia, Queens $36,615
Joel Rivera, Bronx $34,234
Hiram Monserrate, Queens $31,354
Lewis Fidler, Brooklyn $28,720
James Oddo, R-Staten Island $22,163
Miguel Martinez, Manhattan $20,357
Peter Vallone Jr., Queens $19,604
Vincent Gentile, Brooklyn $17,673
Christine Quinn, Manhattan $15,433
Diana Reyna, Brooklyn $11,502
Annabel Palma, Bronx $9,817
Melinda Katz, Queens $9,743
Gale Brewer, Manhattan $9,737
Simcha Felder, Brooklyn $9,683
Larry Seabrook, Bronx $9,519
Robert Jackson, Manhattan $7,699
Michael McMahon, Staten Island $7,146
Erik Martin Dilan, Brooklyn $7,031
Thomas White*, Queens $6,612
Alan Gerson, Manhattan $6,211
Oliver Koppell, Bronx$4,908
Bill de Blasio, Brooklyn $4,110
James Sanders, Queens $3,768
Tony Avella, Queens$3,272
Maria del Carmen Arroyo,* Bronx $2,150
David Yassky, Brooklyn $1,583
Sara Gonzalez, Brooklyn $1,348
Letitia James,* Brooklyn $1,275
Charles Barron, Brooklyn $1,183
Kendall Stewart, Brooklyn$1,153
Maria Baez, Bronx $700
Jessica Lappin,* Manhattan $554
Inez Dickens,* Manhattan $550
John Liu, Queens $533
Daniel Garodnick,* Manhattan $468
Darlene Mealy,* Brooklyn $250
Albert Vann, Brooklyn $83
Helen Foster, Bronx $0
Melissa Mark Viverito,* Manhattan $0
Rosie Mendez,* Manhattan $0
James Vacca,* Bronx $0