Fordham Place Building Manager: Never Heard of Pedro Espada

This is the office building, Fordham Place (400 E. Fordham Road), that State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. claims is home to his district office, at least on his Web site.

But that simply is not true, said the building's manager, Todd McGaughey. In fact, McGaughey said he'd never spoken to the man or even heard of Espada until seeing his name and face plastered all over recent newspapers.

This is all despite the fact that Espada has been claiming he's been in negotiations with the building's property managers for months now.

About a month ago, Espada's press guy, Steve Mangione, told me the problem with getting a district office up and running was with Senate officials who weren't signing off on Espada's plan for new digs.

Today, the NY Times reported that Espada was asking for $100,000 a year (more than twice the amount allotted for New York City senators) for rent for his district office and the Senate had rejected him. It was one of the reasons Espada defected to the Republicans, along with the Democrats' refusal to sign off on his earmarks (known as member items), which Espada reportedly was directing to nonprofit groups of his own creation. So, now, as Republican, maybe he'll have a district office. But it hasn't happened yet.

If that sounds familiar, it's because the man Espada supplanted in the 33rd Senate district, Efrain Gonzalez, recently pleaded guilty to bilking the state for hundreds of thousands of dollars, by funelling state money, through member items, into two nonprofit groups he created. That money then ended up in his own pocket.