MAN AND THE MACHINE: TAWDRY TALES TAINT A MAJOR FERRER SUPPORTER

by William Bastone

Because Fernando Ferrer is a product of the Bronx political organization that fostered felons like Stanley Friedman, Mario Biaggi, and Stanley Simon, the mayoral hopeful must regularly defend his long alliance with the county's Democratic party.

And while the Bronx borough president could rightly point to some recent organizational reforms, the background of one major Ferrer supporter--a top Bronx party official--could generate further sticky questions about the intertwining of man and machine.

Auto dealer Dick Gidron's run-ins with criminal investigators and Internal Revenue Service agents, and his advocacy on behalf of a notorious Mafia figure, do not reflect well on Ferrer's base of operations. In addition, Gidron, who chairs the Bronx county committee, actually lives in tony Scarsdale, a residency ruse historically employed by many of the borough's governing elite. The county committee picks candidates to fill vacancies for judicial posts and other elected offices.

The 58-year-old Gidron, a past president of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, attended Ferrer's January 27 mayoral announcement and has made a small contribution to the Bronx beep's political committee. Though still a popular Bronx figure, highlights of Gidron's tawdry resume include:

* Twice last year, government lawyers secured federal court orders authorizing IRS agents to raid a Gidron dealership in a bid to collect overdue federal taxes totaling $246,957. The targeted dealership, located on East Tremont Avenue, was guilty of neglect and failure'' to pay 1995 and 1996 levies, according to court papers. While it is unclear what the IRS seized, agent Jeffrey Burg said in a court affidavit that the agency was eyeing cash registers, furniture, file cabinets, computers, fax machines, lifts, and any other property necessary to operate an auto dealership."

* Several Gidron dealerships pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges that they helped launder money for drug dealers. The Bronx dealerships, which accepted cash for cars, failed to accurately report the transactions to Treasury officials. Though Gidron himself was not named in the indictment, his son, Richard, pleaded guilty to involvement in the scheme and served seven months in prison. As part of a plea agreement in the case, in 1993 Gidron's dealerships were forced to pay the government $103,495 in criminal fines, court records show. In a Daily News profile, Gidron once said, "When people think they have to sell drugs to make a living, there is something wrong with our society as a whole."

* After Steven Crea, a Luchese crime family member, was convicted of plotting to murder a man, Gidron wrote a glowing letter of recommendation on the gangster's behalf. In the 1984 missive, sent to the judge preparing to sentence Crea, Gidron lauded the wiseguy as a hard-working, honorable, and dedicated individual,'' whom he had known for 12 years. Though investigators have long identified Crea as a Mafia point man in the Bronx-Westchester construction industry, Gidron asked the judge to return Mr. Crea to the business community of Bronx County--we all will benefit.'' While the mid-'80s Crea conviction was ultimately overturned on appeal, the wiseguy pleaded guilty in August 1995 to participating in a multimillion dollar mob shakedown operation.

During a recent blast at Rudolph Giuliani, Ferrer referred derisively to the mayor's botched 1995 attempt to install a patronage hire as head of the Bronx's Jacobi Hospital. Ironically, Giuliani's planned appointment of Leonard Piccoli crashed and burned after the Voice reported that the hospital administrator had--like Gidron, as it turns out--written a sentencing letter on Crea's behalf.

* Gidron registers to vote from a Bronx apartment, though he has long lived in a house at 117 Deerhurst Road in Scarsdale, where he keeps his home phone number unlisted. While the Bronx address allows him to hold a Democratic party post, other borough political leaders are surely aware of the auto dealer's actual residence. Over the years, in fact, many of these pols have attended Gidron's annual Super Bowl extravaganza, receiving travel instructions to Westchester along with their party invites.

Gidron did not respond to Voice messages left for him at his Bronx office.