Mayoral Appointee Joe Chan Resigns from Panel For Educational Policy

Joe Chan has resigned from the Panel for Educational Policy. Chan was a former Bloomberg administration official and recently head of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership where he was the subject of a NY State Attorney General's Investigation.

In her September Report Card column for the Brooklyn Rail, journalist Liza Featherstone noted Chan's questionable credentials for his school board role:

He has been investigated by the state attorney general for misuse of city funding for using city money to lobby city officials, which is, under state law, not allowed. As the New York Times reported in 2009, Chan spent $200,000 on lobbying for the Atlantic Yards construction. Neither the DBP nor the attorney general’s office will say whether this investigation is still ongoing, but “Report Card” assumes that if it had been cheerfully resolved, either body would be happy to tell us so. (Of course, since the DBP was created by Bloomberg to advance Bloomberg’s agenda, it matters only slightly whether or not the DBP “lobbied” anyone.) Given this historically casual relationship to public funds, it’s particularly rich that as head of the PEP committee that oversees DOE contracts, Chan decided it no longer needed to meet.

The original NY Times article concerning the investigation can be found here.

Chan has been replaced by Judy Bergtraum. No biographical information has been provided by the Bloomberg Administration.