Democrat politicians helping their community, NOT.

Pols' 'charity' $acks Queens pee-wee football players
By MELISSA KLEIN and ISABEL VINCENT

They stiffed Queens kids, too.
More than $400,000 raised by a nonprofit started by Congressman Gregory Meeks and state Sen. Malcolm Smith was never given to the community they represent, including a youth football league that requested a donation, a Post investigation has found.
The Rosedale Jets Football Association went hat in hand to the New Direction Local Development Corp., hoping for a piece of a $250,000 grant that was to go to community groups.
The Jets dutifully submitted an application, hoping to get up to $25,000 to fix up their field. They never got a cent.
"They said they never received our application," said Gerald Karikari, an immigration lawyer and the football team's chief financial officer.
Karikari said the Rosedale Jets, a squad that mixes football and cheerleading with life lessons for 200 kids ages 7 to 13, is always struggling. It had to stop low-cost equipment rentals to players because it could not pay for refurbishing the helmets and protective pads.
Instead of helping the plucky pee-wee players, New Direction spent $405,000 on salaries, mysterious consultants, office expenses and meals, according to paperwork filed by the nonprofit. By 2008, $55,254 was left sitting in its bank account, untouched.
The Post has reported how the charity started by Meeks and Smith, both Queens Democrats, raised at least $31,000 for Hurricane Katrina victims but gave out hardly any of that money.
Yet the problems with New Direction are much broader. The group collected about $600,000 over seven years, but spent just under $200,000 -- 33 percent -- on community programs, according to its tax returns. And even that number is suspicious, as paperwork often lists a "cash donation" with no details as to where the money went.
For one year, $46,664 in cash grants is listed but never explained or even included in the total tally of money spent that year.
Among those few donations that are specified: a scholarship fund. The amount: $500.
By contrast, New Direction spent large sums of money on other things:
* Cynthia Allen, a former assistant district attorney in The Bronx, made $95,100 as president of New Direction in 2001 and 2002. In those two years, the group gave only $195 in an unspecified donation and spent the rest of its money on meetings, legal fees and other office expenses. Allen has not returned calls for comment.
* The $10,314 paid in legal fees in 2001 presumably went to Joan Flowers, a lawyer and former campaign treasurer for both Smith and Meeks, who drew up the incorporation papers for New Direction.
* In 2005, $37,925 was spent on "office expenses," even though New Direction didn't have an office -- it used the same address as Flowers' law practice. Smith later appointed Flowers to a $145,396-a-year Senate job after he became majority leader.
* "Independent contractors" were paid nearly $98,000 over six years. Who they are and what they did is not detailed.
* In 2007, $11,783 was spent on "meals and entertainment," more than any other donation the group made that year, including a listed $999 gift to Toys for Tots. The local Toys for Tots representative told The Post he had no record of a donation from New Direction.
Meeks and Smith both claim they are not responsible for the money, despite the fact that they started the nonprofit, are pictured accepting donations for the group, and stocked the board with cronies.
Now New Direction, which claimed its purpose was to promote community development in the Far Rockaway area, is under federal investigation following a series of Post reports.
The charity has collected $56,560 in taxpayer money since 2001, mostly state Senate "member items" sponsored by Smith.
But the single largest source of income for New Direction came from the International Airport Centers, which gave $250,000 in 2004 to quell opposition to a cargo center it built on part of a large tract near Kennedy Airport that local activists want to keep as a land preserve.
The New Direction tax forms show it gave out $80,870 in grants in 2004 but provide no details on who got the money. There is also no clue to where the remaining $170,000 went.
The Eastern Queens Alliance, which is spearheading the land-preserve effort, said it was supposed to get $25,000 but received a few thousand less after New Direction kept a slice for administrative fees.