New York City

New York City Conflicts of Interest Board Settles Cases Related to Misuse of City Time, Resources

One case involved a teacher selling a geometry bingo game during work hours for personal gain

What to Know

  • The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board settled four cases related to the misuse of city time and resources
  • One case involved a teacher who was selling a geometry bingo game for personal gain; his settlement included a $1,000 fine
  • The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board’s jurisdiction extends to former and current officers, elected officials, city employees, lobbyists

The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board settled four cases related to the misuse of city time and resources, including one case involving a teacher who was selling a geometry bingo game for personal gain.

The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board is an independent and non-mayoral agency that oversees public servants to make sure they are not using city time or resources for any non-city purpose as well as looking for any other conflicts of interests that may arise.

According to a settlement reached by the board and Hussain Abdullah, a teacher at Brooklyn’s P.S. 971, Abdullah admitted to using work hours to “demonstrate, market and sell a geometry bingo game” that he intended to sell online for personal gain during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years.

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The settlement states that the teacher agreed to pay $1,000 to the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.

In another case involving a school faculty member, Mazra Schindler, a guidance counselor at Stuyvesant High School, admitted to providing college counseling services to high school students and used school property — a computer and flash drive — to store documents related to her private college counseling practice.

She also posted Department of Education information sent via DOE emails regarding scholarships on the Facebook page of her private college counseling practice, according to the settlement.

Schindler agreed to pay a fine of $800.

Furthermore, the Conflicts of Interest Board found that a current maintenance worker at New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services admitted to using a city-issued credit card intended for New York City Housing Authority gasoline purchases, to buy gasoline for his own vehicle between five or ten different occasion over a six-month period in 2016 while he was an employee with New York City NYCHA.

When NYCHA began disciplinary charges against Wayne Wiggins, he resigned from his post and obtained a job as a maintenance worker at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

Wiggins’ settlement with the Conflicts of Interest Board calls for him to pay a fine of $2,500.

In another case involving city employee, Ben Gonzalez, a Park Supervisor for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) admitted that he misused city resources by storing his mobile home on a DPR service road in Forest Park from March to May 2017. In a settlement with the conflicts board, Gonzalez agreed to pay $1,000.

The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board’s jurisdiction extends to former and current officers, elected officials, city employees and lobbyists.

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