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Leffler donor Stark owes $84K in property tax: City

By Courtney Dentch

Rita Stark, the woman who allegedly conspired to help former City Councilman Sheldon Leffler obtain matching campaign finance funds illegally, is also one of the largest real estate owners in southeast Queens, thanks to her father.

Stark inherited the property from her father, Fred Stark, after his death in 1988, but she has let several of her holdings fall into disrepair and owes about $84,000 in back taxes, according to city buildings and finance records. Stark manages the properties — at least 15 commercial and residential building located throughout southeast Queens — from the Fred Stark Realty office at 198-10 Jamaica Ave. in Hollis.

According to an indictment against Leffler filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan last week, Stark agreed to split a $10,000 donation to his boroughwide campaign into 38 money orders of $250 each, using the names of her employees, their relatives, her tenants and others.

Stark has not been indicted for any alleged illegal activity and she was unavailable for comment on the charges against Leffler or the condition of her properties.

Stark has drawn the ire of community leaders for not maintaining or managing her properties, including the old Jamaica Savings Bank building at 161-02 Jamaica Ave. The ailing Beaux Arts structure, valued at $351,000, has deteriorated, and Stark has received a violation from the city Department of Buildings for failing to maintain the building, according to the agency’s web site.

The building was slated for landmark designation in 1996, but the City Council overturned the designation, allegedly at Stark’s request, according to a source familiar with the building’s history.

“That was a building that a lot of people felt should have been landmarked,” the source said.

The city sold a tax lien on the property in 1999, according a spokesman for the city Department of Finance.

At another property, a residence above a storefront at 114-34 Farmers Blvd., Stark has been hit with violations for cracks to the rear wall, damage to the roof and failure to maintain, according to the Department of Buildings. There are $1,200 in back taxes owed on the land, according to the Department of Finance.

On many of the properties under her name and/or under her father’s estate, tax payments stopped in October 2001, according to the Department of Finance Web site. That was the same time that the Manhattan district attorney was investigating Leffler’s alleged campaign finance fraud.

The Stark and Leffler families have been friends going back to the last generation. Fred Stark sold Leffler’s father property, and Leffler and Stark have worked together on the Hollis Chamber of Commerce, where Leffler volunteered as general counsel.

One political insider defended Leffler’s actions, questioning whether a politician should be held responsible for investigating the backgrounds of all donors before accepting their funds.

Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 138.