Months Keep Passing, Still No District Office for Pedro Espada

BoogieDowner just wants to alert all the residents of the 33rd District of the New York Senate that their Senator, Pedro Espada, Jr., still does not have a district office open. He remains the only Senator in the state not to have such an office up and running - a rather shameful distinction.

(BD note: Senator Espada's office just threw another State Senator under the bus by declaring that Andrea Stewart Cousins of the 35th District also does not have an office open in her district in Yonkers. What made Senator Stewart-Cousins' situation unclear to BoogieDowner in the course of its research is that the Yonkers Senator has a district office listed on her contact page. The only problem is that when you call 914-771-4190, which is listed as her district office, the call gets rerouted to Albany. When I called Stewart-Cousins' office, an angry staffer confirmed that her boss did not have an office open. She said they were "in transition." She did not seem happy that the dirty secret was out! At least Pedro is honest in his disregard for the District. Senator Stewart Cousins beats Petey in deception.)

Repeated calls to Senator Espada's office have yielded nothing except for an angry woman telling me "sometime next week." I must have gotten that response for 5 weeks running. Other calls to Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith's office yielded nothing as well. Apparently no one at Smith's office knows to whom I should speak. Multiple emails and phone calls have not been returned. Please do your part and call Senators Espada's and Smith's offices.

There were promises of a May 1 ribbon cutting, but we are now at June 1. Senator Espada has been in office now for a full 5 months and has known he would need a district office since his election win in early November (to be honest he knew way back when he beat Efrain Gonzalez in the primary - the Bronx being the Democratic bastion that it is). At least Senator Espada now has the address listed on the contact page of his website.

400 East Fordham Road
Fordham Plaza, 7th Floor
Bronx, NY 10458

Notice there's still no phone number... because a functioning office to serve Senator Espada's constituents doesn't seem to exist.

Please call Senator Espada's office in Albany at 518-455-3395 and email Senator Espada at espada@senate.state.ny.us to demand that he open a district office immediately.

Please also call Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith at 518-455-2701 or email him at masmith@senate.state.ny.us to express your disappointment with Senator Espada's disregard for setting up a district office.

~ErLu

Still No District Office For Westchester Pete

BoogieDowner just wants to alert all the residents of the 33rd District of the New York Senate that their Senator, Pedro Espada, Jr., still does not have a district office open. He remains the only Senator in the state not to have such an office up and running - a rather shameful distinction.

There were promises of a May 1 ribbon cutting, but we are now ten days removed from that target. At least Senator Espada now has the address listed on the contact page of his website.

400 East Fordham Road
Fordham Plaza, 7th Floor
Bronx, NN 10458

Notice there's still no phone number...because a functioning office to serve Senator Espada's constituents doesn't seem to exist.

Please call Senator Espada's office in Albany at 518-455-3395 and email Senator Espada at espada@senate.state.ny.us to demand that he open a district office immediately.

Please also call Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith at 518-455-2701 or email him at masmith@senate.state.ny.us to express your disappointment with Senator Espada's disregard for setting up a district office.

~ErLu

I Guess Pedro Got the Message

Following BoogieDowner's revelation that state Senator Pedro Espada, Jr's website was the only state Senator's webpage without contact info, alas! Mr. Espada magically provided some contact info on his website (albeit only his Albany office) and at least took out the "lorem ipsum"place holder in his 'news' section...now it's just blank.

I guess Pedro is a reader or he saw the coverage on NY Magazine's Daily Intel blog or the coverage on PolitickerNy.com. In any case, the website fix was the easy part. Now Mr. Espada needs to open up an office in the district he represents.

A phone call into Espada's Albany office (the only contact info available) yielded nothing. The person I spoke to did indeed confirm that the Senator has not yet opened a district office. When I asked when he would do so, she answered "very soon." She indicated that they were in "negotiations." No specific details were given about time frame or location. The woman also indicated she did not know if there was any legally binding time frame in which the Senator is obligated to open an office in his home(?) district. Does anyone out there know of such a time frame?

Shouldn't Mr. Espada, who had been Senator-elect since November, have been in negotiations before he took office in January? Does Mr. Espada believe he doesn't need to open up a district office in a timely manner? Truly shameful. We will be checking in with his Albany outpost once a week until the local district office is up and running. Until then, please continue to email Mr. Espada at espada@senate.state.ny.us and call him at 518-455-3395 to demand that he open an office to serve his constituents.

~ErLu