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Politics & Government

Neighbors of Suspended Official Heedless to Headlines

Neighbors are "surprised" that Joel Bondy has been suspended as executive director of city's Office of Payroll Administration

The Weeks Woodlands section of Bayside is one of the quieter residential sections of the city – the big news in recent years has been the expansion of St. Mary's Hospital for Children – but a new topic may find its way into neighborhood conversations.

Local resident Joel Bondy has been suspended from his $205,180 per year job as executive director of the city's Office of Payroll Administration, in the wake of an alleged $80 million information technology fraud scheme involving the CityTime project.

Bondy has been associated Mark Mazer, who was indicted in federal court on Wednesday with several alleged family members, for bilking the city of millions on the project, which is 6 months overdue and at nearly $630 million charged thus far, ten times over budget.

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According to published reports, Bondy and Mazur worked together at the Administration for Child Services before he was named to his most recent post by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2005. The scandal has generated numerous reports in the media.

But in the Woodlands, an isolated residential enclave between Bell Boulevard and the Cross Island Parkway north of Golden Park, things are quiet. The area is marked by some of the oldest homes in Queens set back behind trees, interspersed with McMansions.

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Several residents leaving their homes walked briskly to their cars and drove off, declining to be interviewed. At other homes, some with the lights on and cars in the driveway, doorbells were not answered.

Belinda, who lives next door to the embattled Bondy, called the revelations "surprising" from the window of her home on 215th Place. "I just heard about it. We don't know them well – we went to their holiday party last year," she said, adding, "My husband sometimes walks the dog with Joel, but he's not home."

The Bondys present the picture of an upscale Queens family on his facebook page, enjoying family gatherings or pleasure boating on Little Neck Bay aboard their 32-foot Pearson sailboat, Pokey III.

Residents on the block seem to know little about their neighbor other than the Bondys "seem like regular people," according to a woman who declined to give her name. "I'm shocked," she said, "I didn't know them well."

Her next door neighbor, directly across the street from the Bondy residence, had even less to say. "I keep to myself. I don't know about it," he said through a half-opened door.

"I don't know the guy and I'm not going to comment on that," he said.

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