"City Councilman Ruben Wills was arrested early Wednesday morning as part of a corruption investigation...
New York 4 Life was supposed to use the money to fund a breakfast for single mothers; a luncheon for single fathers; a campaign to fight childhood obesity, and a program to “adopt” a commercial strip.
...Wills had failed to fully comply with a subpoena, forcing them to go to court to compel the nonprofit to open its books.
The funds were earmarked in 2008 by then state Sen. Shirley Huntley, the Queens Democrat who once employed Wills as her chief of staff, court documents showed. Huntley has since been convicted and sentenced to a year in jail for stealing $88,000 from a different taxpayer-funded charity she controlled...
Wills...has been on the New York 4 Life nonprofit’s board since he started the group in 2006, and he served as its chairman since at least 2009.
...in Wills’ Council biography he had said the group “has helped single mothers champion critical issues such as civic literacy and financial empowerment.”
In April 2011, the state Office of Children & Family Services sent a letter to Wills seeking documentation on how the grant was spent. It never got a response, the court filing alleges.
...City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan) said that "the City Council takes these troubling allegations from the New York State Attorney General very seriously and will be reviewing them thoroughly."
"New Yorkers expect and deserve a government that is ethical and responsible and that is the standard we're seeking to uphold," she said.
A council official said Wills has been stripped of the ability to steer so-called member items to his district. Instead, that responsibility will fall to the head of the Queens delegation and the speaker's office."
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/nyc-councilman-ruben-wills-arrested-state-attorney-general-office-blog-entry-1.1782606#ixzz315Dvwtw8
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