Workers in the City Council Special Election campaign of college professor Geraldine M. Chapey are getting a hard lesson from the self-described holder of a doctorate in “management and labor relations.”
More than a month after the Special Election, some still have not been fully paid, they claim.
Campaign workers who are owed amounts of a few hundred dollars each include a “between jobs” 50-something and a St. John’s University honors student who passed up a paid internship to work for the 67-year-old Chapey.
“We are getting stiffed – hard-core,” student Seth Allen reportedly said.
Chapey, daughter of New York State Regent Geraldine D. Chapey, is a Democratic District Leader in Rockaway when she isn’t a $102,235-a-year tenured professor at Kingsborough Community College.
She came in third in the Special Election after now Councilmember Eric Ulrich and Lew Simon.
Campaign finance records show that she raised a total of nearly $116,000 for the race, including contributions from party stalwarts, elected Democrats, city workers and other union members.
The records also show Chapey with slightly more than $16,000 on-hand, and that doesn’t sit well with her political consultant and Flushing resident James Wu, who said, “I’m stunned by this behavior.”
Chapey has maintained through her attorney, Eugene Crowe, that the delay is the result of a lack of signed time-sheets and other discrepancies from Wu’s Cornerstone Strategies, which handled the actual campaign.
Chapey did not respond to a reporter’s calls as of press time.
Wu insists that the paperwork was done exactly as Chapey demanded, and the errors in computing salaries due was hers. “We did the paperwork over twice,” he said.
Crowe initially told The Courier, “We have made numerous entreaties to Mr. Wu for the signed time sheets and we want them to reconcile the amounts to be paid.” He accused Wu of “totally misrepresenting” Chapey’s requests.
As of late Tuesday, April 14, both Wu and Crowe were more hopeful for a quick resolution of the paycheck impasse.
“We’re hoping that the workers can come in, sign their time sheets and get their checks,” Crowe said.
Wu admitted to a slight misunderstanding of one of the legal documents requested by Crowe, and said he bore the lawyer no ill will. “In fairness, he was only relaying what Geraldine [M. Chapey] told him. He realized her initial math was wrong and that was a help.”
Wu was less kind to Chapey. “I think she just didn’t want to deal with anything after the election, and made us submit paperwork over and over to put off dealing with it.”
Having been the one to actually hire the campaign staff, Wu said he felt an obligation to meet Chapey’s demands quickly. “We worked all night,” he said. “I don’t think she ever imagined we’d be done that quickly.”
As for the as-yet unpaid workers, both and Crowe and Wu were hoping for payment without further delay.
