
Queens Assemblywoman Barbara Clark has steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to a charity she helped found, which spends a large portion of the money on rent, salaries, office expenses and tax penalties while operating as a vague “referral center.”
The Community Care Development Project, which has taken in more than $1.9 million in city and state money since 1996, is supposed to help residents “avoid the bureaucratic obstacles which prevent them receiving immediate services.”
That’s the same help constituents can get at Clark’s district office — located only three doors down from the charity on Springfield Boulevard in Queens Village.
The lone employee at the referral center last week sent a reporter seeking help in finding a nursing home for a family member to Clark’s office, saying the group did not provide that service.
Community Care acts as an intermediary in handing out taxpayer money to groups including the New York Junior Tennis League and Kickers Youth Sports Association as well as public schools, churches and Little Leagues.
Clark sponsored at least $481,500 in member-item money to Community Care from 2006 to 2009, with $209,500 going out to other organizations. The rest was used for salaries and office expenses.
Lisa Bang-Jensen, a senior policy analyst at the Empire Center for Public Policy in Albany, said such pork-barrel spending should be eliminated because there is no transparency.
“There’s no way for the public to know where the money’s going,” she said.
Clark, a Democrat who has been in office since 1987, said she founded the organization in 1989 to help immigrants in her district get public resources and services.
She said that the group’s mission did not duplicate her own and that she was prevented from giving member-item money directly to organizations that did not have tax-exempt status.
She also said it was easier for small groups to apply for money through Community Care rather than through the state directly.
In fact, there is no rule saying member items need to go to registered charities as long as the cash is spent for a public purpose, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.
And Clark has funneled member items directly to the same Queens groups that were funded indirectly by Community Care, The Post found.
The New York Junior Tennis League, for instance, received $1,000 from Community Care in the 2008 fiscal year and then $1,000 directly from the state, thanks to Clark, in fiscal 2009 and again in fiscal 2010.
The Harvest Life Center in Cambria Heights, a youth organization, received $5,000 from Community Care in ’08 and then $5,000 from Clark the next two fiscal years…