David Greenfield’s Hand-Picked Successor On City Council Once Worked For Met Council
Kalman Yeger Image by YouTube
By Josh Nathan-Kazis July 20, 2017
David Greenfield, the powerful City Councilman tapped Sunday to run the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, is keeping his City Council seat in the Met Council family.
Kalman Yeger, the longtime advisor Greenfield handpicked to inherit his seat, is the Met Council’s former director of external affairs.
Yeger worked at the Met Council from 2003 through at least 2004. The group’s executive director at the time, William Rapfogel, later pled guilty in a $9 million kickback scheme.
The Met Council board voted to select Greenfield on July 16, timing that allowed Greenfield’s campaign committee to turn the ballot line over to Yeger. Greenfield has received significant criticism from good government advocates over the move.
A spokesperson for the Met Council told the Forward Tuesday that she did not know whether Greenfield had influenced the timing of the board’s vote.
Many of the Met Council board members who hired Greenfield have been on the board since Yeger worked at the organization, including current board chair Abraham Biderman and Merryl Tisch, the former chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
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