City Hall - March 9, 2009

Bradley Tusk, right, explains the dynamics of managing Bloomberg 2009 (Page 15), Christine Quinn, below, sits down for

Vol. 3, No. 12

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March 9, 2009

The perennial politician runs against politics

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her Power Lunch (Page 17) and Earl Brown reflects on filling in for Adolfo Carri贸n as Bronx BP (Page 19).

March 9, 2009

Forethought

Reconsidering the State of Our ‘State of’ Speeches

andrew schwartz

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ach year, at the outset of the calendar, the president travels with full entourage (save one cabinet secretary in line for a potentially very big promotion) to a nighttime joint session of Congress. The Constitution requires it, and presidents have become so fond of the chance to get applauded in prime time that they even go when not Constitutionally required, as Barack Obama did Feb. 24.

Free wall-to-wall coverage of mass adulation: What politician could resist? There is nothing in the least surprising about the downward proliferation of these speeches over the years, to state of the state, to state of the city, to state of the borough, to state of the eversmaller district. Last year, we even got a state of the MTA, for all the good that did the agency, the riders or anyone else. Candidates have even gotten in on the action, with several starting to hold their own shadow “State of” speeches this election year.

And why not? At the level of borough or district, and at even the level of city by anyone other than the mayor, these cannot claim to be anything other than campaign events, meant to pump up the presenter politically and personally. At least when the candidates do them, the speeches and their preparation are not on the taxpayer dime.

This is a moment, with money short on tax revenue and everything else, when we are to take stock of what government does, and learn to do less. What a good place to start: one thing we certainly need less of is these “State of” speeches.

Sure, there is something nice about having a public agenda for the year ahead, and gathering together top government officials and having them listen to what it contains is a decent idea. But aside from the president, governor and the mayor, no one really has the power to set agendas, no matter what kind of wishful thinking might be in these speeches. That alone would be reason to stop doing these, but then there is the question that these speeches inevitably raise: doesn’t the person delivering the “State of” have anything better to do? For that matter, don’t the people in the audience have anything better to do? There are a lot of government dollars going into the salaries of all the

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people in attendance at these lovefests, and not a single cent is being used wisely—and that does not even count the money spent on the hours of preparation for the speeches by both the officials and their staffs, or all the costs that go into preparing and then cleaning the sites, along with all the other collateral costs.

This is waste, and abuse, that can be eliminated immediately.

As for the governor and mayor, each of them has the obligation to make more of the “State of” speeches than Gov. David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg did this year. There may not be any money to pay for the kind of new initiatives and programs that tend to be the grist of “State of” speeches, but still, the governor and the mayor should be able to offer some more in the way of bold leadership than hour-long rhetorical fist-pumping about how wonderful things can be and how much greater they will be.

Understandably, there may not be much new that they can propose, but these speeches could be used to explain how existing structures within city government might be applied in new and useful ways.

Or with so much media trained on the speech anyway, the mayor or governor could use the opportunity to really speak directly to the public in a thorough and honest way about what their government is up to, rather than using these speeches to unfurl a lot of rhetoric geared only to the chattering classes.

Either that, or cancel them entirely.

The irony, of course, is that we could use speeches that lay out agendas on a regular basis, provided they are delivered by the appropriate elected officials with the appropriate level of substance.

Local government should be responsive to the moment, but too often the government on the state and city level in New York seems to move forward without a plan, and certainly without a transparent one. Legislators arrive each January in Albany without much of a clue about what they might address over the course of the session and tend to vote on bills without anywhere near enough time to read them first. The situation in the city is better, but not by much. Though the mayor tends to think big and encourage others to do so as well, the city government has all too often stumbled forward nonetheless. A state and city government with detailed, open plans would be a revolution indeed, and one that our leaders should be ready, willing and able to lead.

There is the question that these speeches inevitably raise: doesn’t the person delivering the “State of” have anything better to do?

For that matter, don’t the people in the audience have anything better to do?

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MARCH 9, 2009

Bloomberg Row

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arty-lacking Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been working overtime to get the support of the Republican Party county chairs in the hopes of getting the GOP line as he runs for a third term this fall.

Getting the Independence line is proving no easier. But this is New York City, and though the Green Party has already gone with Reverend Billy as their candidate, there are quite a few other parties who could turn their spot over to the mayor in November. We asked a few of those who have fielded candidates in recent mayoral elections whether they would consider having him.

“There would have to be a substantial change in every one of his policies. In particular, he’d have to scrap his entire budget proposal,” said Billy Wharton, field organizer for the New York City Local of the Socialist Party USA. “The most dangerous thing about our organization is we can’t be bought. Our asking price is justice.”

“We’d be more than happy to have the mayor on our line. If Bloomberg were to run on the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, it would make history. He just needs to have the courage to make a bold move,” said Jimmy McMillan, the party founder and president. “All he would need to do is buy the founder a cup of decaffeinated coffee—three sugars and cream—and watch me drink it with my pinky sticking out like I was in France. I don’t care where he gets it from.”

“I’m sure there would be some differing opinions within our party. I would say there would be a chance if he were to make some serious and demonstrated philosophical changes. That would also include being vocal on some national issues like ending the Federal Reserve and the IRS. And once again, his disregard for the will of the people that demanded term limits is hard to ignore,” said Gina Miller, director of media relations for the Manhattan Libertarian Party. “Assuming [a price] could be negotiated, we wouldn’t accept any fiat currency printed by the U.S. Treasury, so we’d have to bargain in real money—gold or silver.”

“He has been a very frank and honest guy about his enjoyment of marijuana. …

He’s famous for banning smoking. Maybe somebody needs to tell the mayor about vaporization,” said Allen St. Pierre, spokesperson for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, standing in for the defunct New York Marijuana Reform Party. “So maybe the city is moving toward being smoke-free, but will it ever be vapor-free? Oh, also, he can put the trans-fats back in the munchies? Donuts haven’t been the same.”

“There’s nothing he could do to get our party’s endorsement.

His whole history has been about capitalism,” said Dan Fein, the party’s 2009 mayoral candidate. “Our party is about overthrowing it.”

Eyes on Mid-March Deadline for Justice Department Review of Term Limits

BY SAL GENTILE he deadline for a Justice Department review of the term limits extension is quickly approaching, and all indications are that federal officials will approve the change and allow Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind.) to run for a third term.

The Justice Department is required under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to review election law changes in New York City and other “covered jurisdictions” before they take effect. The department has 60 days to complete the review and issue a decision, unless it requests more information. If no action is taken, the law will automatically be approved at the end of the review period. The city submitted its application on Jan. 16, making March 17 the key date for those watching Washington for word on term limits.

Justice Department lawyers have conducted at least a limited investigation since receiving the law, interviewing a handful of the bill’s opponents as well as others affected by the change. But with less than a week until the review period ends, legal observers believe the department is unlikely to reject the bill or prolong its investigation.

The bill’s opponents would have to convince Justice Department lawyers that the change disfranchises minority voters and “dilutes,” according to the statute, minority representation. “‘Dilution’ would have to mean that the ending of term limits would mean that there would be more white

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representatives,” said Richard Emery, a civil rights lawyer who opposed the extension but supports Bloomberg’s re-election bid. “And that’s hard to do, because presumably the minority incumbents would be re-elected.”

Council Member Letitia James (DBrooklyn), one of the leading opponents of the change, said a Justice Department official interviewed her for about an hour in late February about the “process and politics” of the term limits extension.

“They just asked me a series of questions regarding public positions people had held prior to the vote and then after … the process of who had publicly been in support of it and then had a change of heart,” James said. “They wanted to know if anyone had been rewarded.”

James declined to say which elected officials the Justice Department asked about in the conversation.

There has been chatter at City Hall about at least two members, Council Members James Vacca (D-Bronx) and Darlene Mealy (D-Brooklyn), both of whom publicly changed their positions on the bill from “no” at the start of the process to “yes” on the day of the vote, and both of whom in February received committee chairmanships and the $10,000 stipends that come with them.

Federal officials have also asked Norman Siegel, one of two lawyers representing the bill’s opponents, to provide records supporting his clients’ primary claim: allowing white incumbents to seek a third term in office would disfranchise minority voters, whose

numbers have increased since most Council members were elected in 2001.

“They called us last week and asked us for additional information regarding the registration of racial minorities in New York City … in the sense that it shows that there’s more African-Americans, Latinos and Asians registered to vote now than there were in 2001,” he said. “Which I think is a good sign for our argument.”

But Siegel said the Justice Department official made it clear that the call was not a “formal request for additional information,” which would by law have pushed the review process past the March 17 deadline.

“They were careful not to make it a formal request,” he said. “If they make a formal request, potentially the time period could be extended.”

Randy Mastro, the second lawyer for the opponents, declined to comment.

The fact that the Justice Department has avoided extending the review period is not a good sign for extension opponents.

Lawyers familiar with the process doubt the Justice Department would outright reject the city’s application without first giving each side a chance to submit more information, which would push the review period past the 60-day deadline.

A spokesperson for the city Law Department said the Justice Department has not asked the administration for additional information.

The review has already taken longer than the Bloomberg administration would have liked. In their initial filing in January, officials from the city law department

asked for “expedited consideration” of the application, despite taking more than two months to send the bill to Washington after the mayor signed it on Nov. 4.

That request has apparently been denied, though neither the Justice Department nor the Bloomberg administration would say why.

Emery said the delay was probably due to the presidential transition and staff turnover at the Justice Department, especially in the Voting Rights division.

The Justice Department can approve the term limits extension by simply letting the deadline pass, but usually sends a formal letter explaining its decision, according to lawyers familiar with the process.

Until the city receives that letter, Sweeney said, neither Bloomberg nor the nearly two-thirds of the Council seeking re-election can run for a third term.

And while some, like Bloomberg, may not be waiting for that letter to arrive, others are taking a more cautious approach.

“I am just taking steps this week to start to file my committee—I haven’t raised a dime—and, call me a little superstitious, but I was really hesitant,” said Council Member Lew Fidler (DBrooklyn), who added that opponents of the extension could challenge the Justice Department’s decision in court.

“I have no fantasies about the fact that the people who are adamantly opposed to this are going to fold their tents and go away without having exhausted all of their legal options.” sgentile@cityhallnews.com

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MARCH 9, 2009

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ISSUE FORUM: INSURANCE

Credit Default Swaps, Universal Health Care on Insurance Committee’s 2009 Agenda

BY ASSEMBLY MEMBER JOSEPH MORELLE

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year ago, as I contemplated my agenda as chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Insurance, issues such as increased access to health care for New Yorkers and the need to ensure adequate property protection for our state’s coastal residents loomed large on the list. It was my assumption that these and other matters related to insurance would occupy most of the committee’s attention, and indeed, we did make important inroads on several critical fronts.

In the wake of the ground-shifting events of 2008, however, I am somewhat less willing to predict the course of the year ahead. Last December, we could not have known that the insurance committee would have been required to delve deeply into the causes, and possibly cures, for the great financial collapse that struck at the heart of Wall Street—and therefore

New York itself—and that as a result our state would face its most serious fiscal challenges in many decades.

The reality is that New York, because of its status as the nation’s financial capital, is the epicenter of the economic crisis.

Much of what we do in Albany this year will be a reflection of this hard truth.

This has already been the case. In December, working closely with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, I chaired a hearing in New York City regarding the use and possible regulation of financial instruments commonly referred to as credit default swaps (CDS), or contracts in which one party promises to cover another’s loss in the event that a bond or other form of debt obligation defaults. In essence, a CDS is a species of insurance against a negative credit event, rather than loss of life or property.

The CDS market, though measured in the tens of trillions, is unregulated, and

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therefore sellers of this “insurance” are not required to meet the same standards as traditional carriers. For instance, there is no regulatory mechanism in place to guarantee that a CDS seller will have the capital reserves necessary to meet its obligations in the event of widespread defaults—precisely the conditions that nearly brought down American International Group, Inc.’s unregulated Financial Products Corporation in September, triggering Wall Street’s precipitous decline.

The committee will continue to examine the question of how and whether to regulate credit default swap transactions, and I will also pursue this matter as a member of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators. I was recently named chairman of NCOIL’s Financial Services and Investment Products Committee, and from the vantage point I will press for a solution with regard to CDS oversight and accountability.

While default swaps will claim much of the insurance committee’s attention in 2009, we remain committed to bringing New Yorkers closer to universal health care and addressing the issue of unregulated life settlements and reforming managed care on behalf of consumers. As always, we will work to create a business climate in New York

in which the insurance industry thrives, even as we maintain proper industry oversight and consumer protection safeguards.

It is my belief that the painful lessons of 2008 can provide the foundation for progress in 2009 and beyond. New York’s financial future, the fruitfulness of its economy and the well-being of its citizens demand that we learn those lessons and act accordingly.

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Joseph Morelle, a Democrat representing Monroe County, is chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee.

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MARCH 9, 2009

ISSUE FORUM: INSURANCE

Like Wall Street, Health Insurance Policy Has Had Too Much Deregulation

BY STATE SEN. NEIL BRESLIN We’d love for you to join us on

fter last year’s meltdown on Wall Street, observers from almost every political and ideological perspective agreed that the financial industry crisis was created in part by the failure of government to provide appropriate oversight and regulation.

Because our public institutions failed to act to rein in excessive behavior on Wall Street, businesses, workers and families got hurt badly.

A similar thing has been happening here in New York in the area of health insurance and oversight of health maintenance organizations (HMOs).

Health insurance costs have soared out of reach for New York businesses, workers and families. It’s not an abstract problem: ask any business owner who’s tried to do the right thing and provide health insurance for their employees or any worker who’s trying to keep up with rising premiums, co-payments and deductibles, and you can hear the real-world details.

It’s a business problem: more than twothirds of New York small businesses polled last year said the cost of health insurance was an important issue for them.

And it’s a family problem: over 2.5 million New Yorkers are now without any health insurance coverage, and millions more have gone without needed care due to unaffordable cost-sharing.

A report issued late last year by the respected health care advocacy group Families USA shows that between 2000 and 2007, health insurance premiums for employer-sponsored coverage in New York rose by 80.7 percent, while median wages went up by only 11 percent.

Premiums rose 7.3 times faster than median earnings here, a rate that was fifth-worst in the nation and significantly higher than the national average.

One big reason we’re slipping so far behind is a legal structure that has prevented our State Insurance Department and other authorities from exercising appropriate oversight and regulation over HMO rate increases and insurance company payment policies.

HMOs have been allowed to “file and use” rate increases of any magnitude, and they’ve taken advantage of deregulation to increase health premiums by over 80 percent this decade.

Deregulation has also allowed HMOs to keep more and more of every premium dollar in profits, leaving less and less to pay health care providers, including community hospitals and neighborhood doctors.

Again, this is not an abstract problem: face-to-face conversations with hospital administrators and family doctors result

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

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Broadway & Chambers Branch in dozens of terrible stories about HMOs that refuse to pay for lifesaving care or that offer “take it or leave it” reimbursement rates that can’t compensate for careful primary and preventive health care.

During testimony at a hearing I held in Rochester last year, one physician told me how perplexed he was that the insurers have managed to position themselves between the doctor and the patient.

Just like it did on Wall Street before the meltdown, the pendulum on HMOs and health insurance policy has swung too far towards deregulation—and businesses, workers, hospitals and doctors are paying the price.

As the ranking member of the Senate Insurance Committee, I’ll start working this month with business, labor and the health care community to develop commonsense HMO reforms that will bring down costs and improve health care access for New York families and businesses.

We’ll work to bring down costs for businesses and workers by reforming stop-loss funding pools for direct-pay and Healthy New York coverage and bringing together individual and small-group coverage programs into a seamless whole.

We’ll work with State Health Commissioner Richard Daines to make our nation-leading Family Health Plus program available to more businesses and workers, providing better coverage at lower cost.

In this effort, we’ll prove to New Yorkers of all political and ideological perspectives that appropriate government oversight and regulation can work to improve the lives of everyday people, including business owners and hardworking families.

While our nation may have missed the chance to bring needed regulations and reforms to Wall Street, it’s not too late to provide appropriate oversight and HMO reform that will reduce costs and improve access to health care for millions of New Yorkers.

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Neil Breslin, a Democrat representing Albany, is the chair of the Senate Insurance Committee.

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ISSUE FORUM: INSURANCE

Regulatory Oversight for Health Insurance Premiums is Urgently Needed

BY SUPERINTENDENT ERIC DINALLO

New Bronx Democratic Party Targets Baez, But Without a Clear Candidate

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS

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ouncil Member Maria Baez was not with the Rainbow Rebels as they took over the Bronx County Democratic Party, and now that they are in control, they are not planning to be with her as she runs for re-election in the fall. So far, though, they have been unable to find a candidate strong enough to take her down.

Yesenia Polanco, former chief of staff to Council Member Annabel Palma (DBronx), had seemed most likely to get the nod from new party boss Assembly Member Carl Heastie. Palma supported Heastie and the other Rainbow Rebels who wrested control from Assembly Member José Rivera last year. And since announcing her candidacy, Polanco has expressed great interest in meeting with Heastie and earning his support.

But several party insiders expressed concerns about Polanco. Some doubt her ability to raise enough money to challenge an incumbent, and are waiting to see if she can put together a sufficient political apparatus. There are also rumors that she was fired from Palma’s office, although Polanco insists she left on good terms to run for Council. (Palma’s office did not return a call for clarification.)

“At this moment in time, we don’t think Yesenia is a formidable candidate,” said one Bronx party source. “She has a lot of work to do.”

Community activist Haile Rivera, whose claim to fame was winning an online contest to have dinner with Barack Obama, was planning to run for Baez’s seat, but has since decided not to run. Other candidates include Fernando Cabrera, founder and pastor of New Life Outreach International Church, and Yudelka Tapia, a city auditor who was expected to seek Rivera’s backing when he still ran the party (and when the seat was to be open, with Baez expected to be term-limited out).

Polanco, for one, said that she is not discouraged by either Baez’s incumbency nor the idea of running for the seat without party backing. Having Heastie’s blessing would be a huge plus, she said, but not essential.

Baez said she felt confident her incumbency, her record and the $30 million she secured in member items for her district will assure her swift reelection even without the support of the county party.

Baez’s district, which includes Fordham, Kingsbridge, Morris Heights and the West Bronx, is one of the poorest in the city, with 72 percent of households earning less than $40,000 a year. Baez said one of her main motivations for staying

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from 2000-2006, those rates increased an average of 15.99 percent annually.

HMO profits or net income increased from under 1 percent in 1996 to nearly 6 percent in 2005. In 2008, four New York health insurers had more than $1 billion in dividends.

An increase in profits of health insurers is one of many cost drivers that have resulted in erosion of employerbased coverage and have made coverage prohibitively expensive for individuals without employer-based coverage. The impact of high health care costs on New York’s economy has been significant. Small business owners want but cannot afford to provide coverage for their employees.

Those who do provide coverage are at a competitive disadvantage in terms of their operating costs. Individuals without coverage are less likely to receive the care they need, tend to be in worse health when they do receive care and receive fewer preventive services than the insured.

Deregulation of health insurance premiums has exacerbated these problems by adding inappropriate costs to the system. Therefore, the Insurance Department’s primary legislative goal is to urge the Legislature to repeal file-anduse and reinstate the Department’s prior approval authority. As the health care system is strained by increased costs, appropriate calculation of premium rates and balancing of costs versus profits becomes increasingly important. Prior approval can be used to ensure that premiums are not excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory. If there is any lesson to be learned from the disasters that have affected our financial markets, it is that strong, effective regulation is necessary to serve the public interest.

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Eric Dinallo is the superintendent of the New York State Department of Insurance.

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

nder New York’s deregulated “file-and-use” system, enacted in 1996, health insurers can increase premium rates by meeting minimal filing requirements, with virtually no regulatory oversight. Health insurers are simply required to pre-certify that 75 percent of premiums collected will be paid towards insurance claims (such as doctor and hospital bills), but insurers are not required to supply data supporting that pre-certification.

Why would the state adopt a file-anduse system, thereby allowing supposedly regulated businesses to set their own rates? Like other deregulatory efforts, the goal of file-and-use was to create an administratively efficient system that would lead to appropriate premium rates based on objective market standards that balanced costs versus profits. But unfortunately, the file-and-use laws contain several loopholes that serve the interests of health insurers’ profits to the detriment of consumers.

For example, insurers can inflate estimates on how many outstanding claims for patient treatment health providers have not yet filed with them for payment. By inflating the estimate of these claims, insurers can appear to meet the file-and-use law’s requirement that 75 percent of premiums go to pay claims.

Even if these loopholes could be closed, deregulation suffers from a fatal flaw. Under the current system, the Insurance Department cannot determine before the rate is increased whether actuarial assumptions are reasonable or even whether simple mathematical calculations are correct.

Thus, deregulation has been a classic case of “justice delayed is justice denied.”

If an insurer’s calculations turn out to be wrong and it overcharges policyholders, the file-and-use law requires the insurer to refund overpayments to policyholders.

The Insurance Department has required health insurers to refund more than $100 million in overcharges to businesses and consumers. But under file-and-use, these refunds are only available to those who pay the unjustifiably imposed premium increase, not those who had to cancel their coverage because they could not afford the rate increase in the first place.

Deregulation of health insurance premiums has therefore not resulted in appropriate premium rates, but has added inappropriate costs to a broken system that everyone can agree is too costly already. For example, from 19961999, before deregulation was fully implemented, HMO rates for individual health plans rose an average of 7.59 percent annually. After deregulation,

The rebels are out for revenge on Maria Baez for supporting José Rivera in the fight over the Bronx Democratic leadership. in office is to complete the half-dozen or so capital projects in her district that are still unfinished, such as the $14 million Mt. Hope Recreational Facility and the construction of a support center for victims of domestic violence. But Baez would not commit to reconciling with Heastie.

“I have not crossed that bridge yet,” she said gingerly.

Still, even without a clear opponent, Baez will have to overcome a tarnished public image to get re-elected. Last year, she had the worst attendance record in the Council and was reportedly involved in a public screaming match with a former county party lawyer at a Board of Elections hearing last August. She has been criticized for running up an enormous, taxpayer-funded cell phone bill in 2007, allegedly writing a check to a non-existent organization and failing to file her January campaign finance disclosure forms with the city.

For Heastie and company, the problem with Baez is rooted in her longstanding ties to the Rivera clan. Before the extension of term limits, Baez, who served as an aide to Rivera, was counting on the former chairman to back her daughter to replace her in the Council.

Now, with Heastie moving to consolidate his power in the borough, Baez finds herself in the crosshairs with few allies to call on.

“I like to use the Russian Revolution analogy,” said one Bronx rebel.

“Councilmember Baez is to Jose Rivera what Rasputin was to Czar Nicholas.

And like Rasputin, she will see the end of days.” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

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JERRY MILLER

State Sen. Marty Golden is helping Michael Bloomberg get the Republican line this year, perhaps with an eye toward getting Bloomberg’s help to run against Rep. Michael McMahon next year.

In Boosting Bloomberg Among GOP, a Golden Opportunity for Political Payback Helping an ’09 mayoral run could pave way for ’10 Congressional run

BY DAN RIVOLI o one has pushed harder for the five Republican county chairs in New York City to let Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind.) back on their line than State Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn.)

If he succeeds and the chairs acquiesce—as is beginning to seem increasingly likely—Golden may be expecting Bloomberg to repay the favor politically, according to several of those involved in the discussions who expect him to court the mayor’s support in an upcoming challenge to Rep. Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn).

Golden expressed interest in running for Congress when incumbent Vito Fossella announced his retirement last year after being busted for DWI and the subsequent revelation that he had a secret family in Virginia.

Golden indicated his ambition for the Congressional seat at several county chair meetings earlier last year, saying

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that had he not been preoccupied with maintaining the Republican Senate majority, he would “run for that seat in a minute,” remembered one person privy to the conversation.

For the 2010 elections, Golden will be free from that obligation. The Senate Republicans nixed the practice of tapping regional campaign chairs—Golden was

on Congress if and when his safe Senate district is redrawn in 2012.

“He’ll be drawn out of the seat. Where does he go? What does he do?” said one Republican official from the area. “He’s got to go to another seat.”

Going against McMahon would be a last-ditch opportunity for Golden to remain the city’s top Republican.

Golden indicated his ambition for the Congressional seat at several county chair meetings earlier last year, saying that had he not been preoccupied with maintaining the Republican Senate majority, he would “run for that seat in a minute,” remembered one person privy to the conversation. the unsuccessful chair for the downstate region—in favor of one senator managing the campaign arm of the conference.

With the Republicans now out of the Senate majority, Golden is keeping an eye

Golden said he is focused on politics in Albany for the moment, but did not completely shut the door on the possibility of running for Congress in the future.

“Right now my only goal is to return

to the Senate majority,” Golden said. “If a door opens, I’m a guy that goes through it.”

Bloomberg would be a major asset in a House race, especially if he is re-elected this fall. He has already hosted fundraisers for Golden in the past, and his endorsement would undoubtedly carry weight in the neighborhoods within the Congressional district. (Bloomberg endorsed McMahon in the race last year, adding strength to his candidacy.)

Congressional Republicans are targeting McMahon, who is the first Democrat to represent the district in three decades. Though Staten Island has been trending Democratic, presidential also-ran John McCain carried more votes on in the district than McMahon’s troubled Republican opponent.

People close to McMahon seem to be already entertaining the possibility of a Golden candidacy, and the congressman himself has been preparing for a strong Republican challenger: he was the only freshman to land a plum spot on the Transportation Committee, fashioning himself as a pragmatic moderate and joining the centrist group New Democratic Coalition, and was a vocal proponent of Obama’s stimulus package, which has already brought $1.3 million to a Staten Island community health center.

“Any Republican will face an uphill battle in challenging Congressman McMahon,” said Shripal Shah, northeast spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Though the conservative Golden is popular in his Bay Ridge Senate district, which covers nearly the entire Brooklyn portion of the House seat, there is a geographic divide between Golden and McMahon. Two-thirds of the district is in Staten Island, where borough pride trumps politics.

“McMahon demonstrated that, even more important than being a Republican or a Democrat, is being from the Staten Island side of the district,” said Richard Flanagan, associate professor of political science at the College of Staten Island. “It’d be a tough race for Golden.” drivoli@cityhallnews.com

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MARCH 9, 2009

After Special Election Win, Ulrich Hopes To Avoid Como Curse Queens Republican banking on surfing the Bloomberg wave to re-election

Newly elected 24-year-old Republican Council Member Eric Ulrich has a tall task ahead of him if he wants to win re-election in November.

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS or Eric Ulrich, the dilemma as he comes on to the Council is how to avoid the fate of that other Queens Republican, special-election victor-turned general-election loser, just months later, Anthony Como.

“We’re two different personalities, two different philosophies, two different districts,” Ulrich said. “I have eight months to prove myself to the voters.”

Ulrich, a Republican, has declared himself the victor in the yet-to-becertified special election to replace State Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Queens) on the Council. Although the last count has him up 1,000 votes ahead of his closest opponent, there is still a mandatory recanvassing before the race can be called, meaning he probably will not be sworn in until late March.

Between now and November, Ulrich said he plans to firmly establish his presence in the district, which includes Ozone Park, the Rockaways and Howard Beach. After winning his special election, Como said he planned to do the same, but was still defeated in November by

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Democrat Elizabeth Crowley.

Queens GOP Chairman Phil Ragusa said the comparison does not stand because the circumstances surrounding Como’s election were very different from what Ulrich will face.

“Anthony got caught up in the Obama tsunami,” Ragusa said. “I don’t think that dynamic will be in play for Eric. And Eric

has a little more time [than Como].”

Not wanting to waste any of that extra time, Ulrich is working at getting his district office up and running and has already submitted his committee requests to Council Minority Leader James Oddo (R-Staten Island): Transportation, Parks, Education, Consumer Affairs and Land Use.

Meanwhile, he is preparing himself politically as well: with Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind.) up for re-election this year, Ulrich sees more opportunities for his survival than were available for Como.

“You can get whatever you want in an election year,” he said. “The mayor, I’m sure, will be very helpful in an election year.”

When he runs for re-election later this year, Ulrich, who resides in Ozone Park, will have to contend with disgruntled Rockaway residents who have thus far been unable to elect any of their homegrown candidates to the Council.

He will also have to face a likely challenge from Frank Gulluscio, a Democratic district leader who was widely expected to win the special election before being bumped off the ballot by lawyers for fellow Democrat (and Rockaways resident) Geraldine Chapey.

Ulrich said that while he is aware of all the obstacles ahead of him, he remains committed to represent each part of his district with the time he has available.

Before becoming a man of politics, Ulrich contemplated becoming a man of the cloth. He briefly attended Cathedral Preparatory Seminary High School before opting for a career in public service. After working his way through both college and graduate school, Ulrich ran for a district leader post in 2005, but lost by 124 votes. Two years later, he ran again and won.

He managed the campaign of Thomas Ognibene, former Council Republican and mayoral candidate, in last year’s special election for Dennis Gallagher’s vacated seat.

At age 24, Ulrich will be the youngest member on the Council, a fact he plans to use to his advantage.

“It gives me a certain level of energy and enthusiasm that maybe some of my colleagues just don’t have,” he said.

“That’s not an insult, it’s just a reality.” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

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After Abbreviated Recount, a Council Hand Becomes a Councilman Succeeding McMahon, Mitchell pledges to continue where his old boss left off

BY DAN RIVOLI When Kenneth Mitchell celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at Jody’s Club in Staten Island, a borough institution, Irish eyes were finally smiling on him. The day before, Mitchell had been declared the winner in the special election to succeed Rep. Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island/ Brooklyn) in the City Council after a recount which took nearly two weeks.

Mitchell is carrying on something of a tradition in the passing of the seat: he was the Council chief of staff to McMahon, who in turn was counsel to his Council predecessor Jerome O’Donovan.

And Mitchell, who staked his candidacy so much on his time with McMahon that he called his special election ballot line Experience Now, is looking to pick up right where McMahon left off when he went to Washington.

The first issue, a common lament of Staten Island politicians from both parties, is getting the Health and Hospital Corporation (HHC) to put a public hospital in the borough.

“There is an overburden to our emergency rooms and private hospitals,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell would try to broker a partnership between HHC and existing hospitals on Staten Island to get the city-

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funded health care services every other borough enjoys.

Mitchell will also be overseeing the progress of initiatives started by McMahon, such as the expansion of a library in the Stapleton neighborhood of the district and building a new library in Mariner’s Harbor.

Mitchell believes his experience navigating the Council as McMahon’s chief of staff will be an asset in pushing these projects through red tape, he said.

“I know the players involved. I don’t have to establish relationships,” Mitchell said. “I know whose door to knock on.”

Having his former boss become the borough’s top elected official will certainly be an asset to the new Council member as well. Mitchell said he will assist McMahon in developing federally-funded projects including the long-studied North Shore light rail, which could one day increase access to the borough’s burgeoning waterfront.

Kenneth Mitchell will be following in the footsteps of his old boss, Congressman Mike McMahon in the City Council after eking at a special election win.

“It’ll be a great thing to get accomplished,” Mitchell said. “It’ll be a tremendous benefit for the North Shore.”

First, though, he will need to buttress for a rematch with Debi Rose, a community activist who nearly beat McMahon in 2001 and held him to an extremely narrow 342 votes in the Feb. 24 election. In winning the seat, Mitchell heavily relied on McMahon’s Staten Island campaign operation, which was instrumental in getting the once-insurgent McMahon elected to the Council. McMahon prioritized the race himself, appearing at rallies and in campaign literature for Mitchell.

The close win behind him, the Council member-elect said he has already begun the process of building relationships with the community leaders and unions that rebuffed him in the special election in the hopes of surviving the primary just six months away.

“I’m going to be in the district every day to build a better community,” Mitchell said. “We need to work together.”

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Monserrate’s ‘Good Cop’ Prepares to Walk His Old Beat on the Council Ferreras aims to heal rifts with Queens, Council leadership, but ready to fight

BY SAL GENTILE alking up the members’ staircase to the City Council chambers two days after winning her special election, Julissa Ferreras said, her victory still did not seem real.

“I won’t believe it until I put my hand on the Bible,” she joked. “Or until I have my first crisis.”

As she swung through the large wooden doors to the Council floor, she was asked if she was really expecting things to unravel that quickly.

“Preparing,” she shot back.

Ferreras’ has been a career spent in preparation. After seven years as a top aide for then-Council Member, now State Sen. Hiram Montserrate (D-Queens,) Ferreras said she is ready for the inevitable pratfalls of political life.

And she has learned the bruising lessons of working against the political establishment.

Ferreras was seen by many in the Council as the “good cop” to Monserrate’s “bad cop,” as one Council staffer put it.

Monserrate would often rail against his colleagues at press conferences and rallies, in order to preserve his image as an advocate of the working class, then send Ferreras to clean up the mess.

Her style is certainly different, Ferreras explained.

“I’m clearly not Council Member Monserrate,” she said. “I think he needed to do certain things to get certain things, and those were his leadership skills. I come with my own.”

As Monserrate raged in public against Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s redevelopment plans for Willets Point, Ferreras worked behind the scenes with administration officials to hash out a politically acceptable plan for the development that will remake a large chunk of her new district. And as the coalition of Council members Monserrate had built to oppose the plans fell apart— many of Monserrate’s colleagues began to privately disavow his stand against the mayor—Ferreras made the rounds, piecing it back together.

Her role as the conciliator paid dividends in the campaign: Despite losing the support of the Queens Democratic Party, she collected the endorsements of 15 Council members, many of whom helped her amass the largest war chest in the race.

She expects to call on those relationships once in the Council chamber as a member in her own right.

“I’ve had conversations with quite a few of them,” she said, “to let them know

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“Good Cop” Julissa Ferreras won the race to replace former Council Member Hiram Montserrate, despite a lack of establishment support. what my priorities are in the district.”

Number one on that list will be Willets Point. Ferreras expects the ongoing negotiations over the use of eminent domain at the 60-acre site to eat up much of her initial agenda.

“When I get started, most of the attention will be on Willets Point,” she said. “I would like to see exactly what [the Economic Development Corporation] is proposing as shovel-in-the-ground time, where we are with negotiations with the present businesses.”

In the course of those negotiations, Ferreras will also have to repair many of the relationships Monserrate frayed in his scuffles with the Queens establishment, which mostly supported the Willets Point project.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall (D) went so far as to endorse one of Ferreras’ rivals, George Dixon, in the special election. That decision stung Ferreras, who has known Marshall since she was 14, when then-Council Member Marshall inducted her into city politics

with an appointment to the Corona Youth Council.

After Ferreras won, the two sat down and discussed ways to move past the often bitter relationship Monserrate had with Marshall by calling on those old memories.

“We had a very private moment about, kind of, remembering that, and me expressing to her how important it was for us to work together now, and her expressing to me that she wants water under the bridge,” she said.

But Ferreras, though soft-spoken and mild-mannered, does not plan to entirely relinquish Monserrate’s role as the agitator.

“Neither one of them supported me during this race,” she said of her 21-point win running against Marshall and the Queens Democratic Party. “And we had a very decisive win. I think that it’s great, it benefits our community, when we work together. But can we make this happen without it? Absolutely.” sgentile@cityhallnews.com

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MARCH 9, 2009

MARK GREEN DOESN’T CARE THAT YOU HATE HIM

By Edward-Isaac Dovere

lmost no one in the city’s political class wants Mark Green back—the mention of him running tends to elicit guffaws, groans, eye-rolls and the occasional reference to what they call his “disease”— but here he is. He has the name recognition (he insists on “record recognition”) over more years and races for more offices than just about anyone in New York history. What he will almost definitely not have is the endorsements or institutional support, either because people had already promised their backing to someone else, because they dislike him, or because they want him to go away.

But with notoriety that would cost much more than the election’s $3.8 million spending cap to buy, Green, shades of Richard Nixon and Al Lowenstein aside, probably does not need them. Simply by declaring himself a candidate for public advocate, by putting himself out there as an option, Green became the man to beat, clocking in at 35 percent in the Feb. 20 Marist poll done the day after his announcement. Assembly Member Adam Clayton Powell IV (D-Manhattan), who has said he has no desire to wage what he assumes will be a losing race against Green, was 20 points behind.

So Green is not worried.

“At the end of the day, surrogates and intermediaries are valuable only to the extent that they can convince voters that you’re the person who will fight for them,” Green said. “I’m hopeful that voters have come to that conclusion on

their own because of what I’ve done, not really because of who supports me.”

That is not enough to satisfy many people, even old fans like Village Voice columnist Tom Robbins, who published a sympathetic political obituary of Green after his disastrous 2006 run for attorney general.

Asked what he thought about the return of the man he had eulogized, Robbins shook his head.

“Shameless,” Robbins said, with a cold laugh. “Shameless. When I say a guy’s dead, he better stay dead.”

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he latest Green resurrection actually comes after one of the shortest breaks between races in a long career of failed races, over the course of which he has hemorrhaged nearly all his political friends and allies. This year, he is convinced he will not need them and, in fact, talks about the weariness he prompts among politicians with pride.

The very things that make people hate him, he seems to believe, are what make him the right choice to be re-elected, as he explained in his video campaign announcement, in which he blasted the special interests, and, with a light note in his voice, confided to viewers that, “I think I’ve been pretty persistent and consistent, sometimes annoyingly so, I have to admit.”

One of Green’s favorite stories he tells to explain why he is running again for public advocate is from the night of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s (D) State of the Borough address, when he ran into Sen. Charles Schumer (D) on his way out of City Hall.

“‘Mark—again?’”

Green said, recounting what happened in his best nasal, Brooklyn-heavy Schumer imitation. “‘You’re incorrigible!’”

Green smiled, beaming at the memory.

“I said to myself, ‘Wow, Chuck Schumer is calling me politically incorrigible.’ I said, ‘You know, Chuck, you are a perennial senator because you love it, and you’re damn good at it. Count me a perennial advocate.’”

To Green, Schumer’s response was validation. Being an advocate is what he does (in another often-repeated story, charter commission chair F.A.O. Schwartz remarked after the title of Council president was changed to public advocate in 1993 that the office should be held “by a real advocate, somebody like Mark Green”), so running for the job again only makes sense.

Schumer’s response could also be seen as a gentle ribbing about the fact that to many, what Green really seems to do is just run for office.

Wrong, Green said.

“I’m not a standard politician, because I come in elected office because of a movement, not because I’m a career politician,” he said, sitting in the living room of the expansive Flatiron apartment which stands as a stark reminder of the family wealth that has in part enabled his long political career. “By the measure of time spent since the day I got out of law school until now, which is coming on 40 years, the overwhelming bulk has been as a public interest lawyer and appointed consumer commissioner, a teacher, a businessman, a commentator and an author.”

This is, of course, not for lack of trying. Green was only an elected official

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

The perennial politician runs against politics

for eight years of his life, but he has spent 29 of those nearly 40 years running for Congress, Senate, public advocate, twice, Senate, again, mayor and attorney general, before beginning this latest race.

His brother bought Air America and installed him as president a few months after the attorney general race. The liberal radio network was a good resting ground for Green, a reasonable place to land after the disappointing end to his slashand-burn attorney general campaign the year before. Far out from the September primary, Green seemed aware that he was going to lose the primary to Andrew Cuomo, and his campaign quickly turned more negative than even some of his more committed supporters could bear. Behind closed doors, his behavior was even more problematic: most local politicians backed Cuomo in the race, and most have a story about being cursed at and eventually hung up on by Green over the course of that summer.

Many were still nursing bitterness and frustration at Green from the 2001 mayor’s race, for the racially divisive primary he fueled, for his willingness to entertain

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the idea of extending Rudolph Giuliani’s term an extra 90 days in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and for snatching defeat in the general election from the jaws of victory. Fairly or not, Green was the face of what is arguably the lowest moment for Democratic politics in New York City.

Politicos were overwhelmingly eager to repay the favor and wave him off into the sunset.

Already by that race, most of the core Green aides had left him, either because they had taken other jobs or moved out of town—many were still shell-shocked from the 2001 race—or because they had had enough. In what many expected was going to be that last campaign, in 2006, Green collected a handful of endorsements from interest groups, unions and other elected officials, though there were more from writers and Blist celebrities than fellow politicians behind the campaign: Robert Caro, Bob Balaban, J.J. Abrams, Lewis Black, John McEnroe, Alan Cumming, E.L. Doctorow, Tony Kushner, Letty Cotton Pogrebin and Kathleen Turner versus a scattering of politicians that included David Dinkins,

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Marty Markowitz and Bob Kerrey.

He got 32.5 percent of the vote.

Out of options, he seemed eager to reinvent himself as a network president and radio broadcaster, though the agony of what could have been clearly still lingered in his mind. There was still a note of pain in his voice as he introduced Michael Bloomberg, the inaugural guest on his weekly radio program, with the Eurythmics’ “Would I Lie to You?” playing over the introduction, calling the role reversal of would-be mayor and would-be media mogul “the Peter Principle cubed.”

The old rivals chitchatted about policy and ended with Green seeking the mayor’s advice on being father of the bride at his daughter’s upcoming wedding. But before they did, Green pressed Bloomberg with the kind of fun hypothetical that can make for a good interview moment.

“In New York City, we have term limits, you cannot serve longer than eight years consecutively,” Green said. “Were there not term limits, is it your guess you’d want to run for mayor again?”

Bloomberg answered without hesitation.

“I don’t think so,” he said, launching into a short speech about how he was a big believer in change and stood by an old quotation of his which held that “a new guy always does it better.”

Green is a lawyer, and he says his inclusion of the word “consecutively,” while somewhat ironic given what has happened since, was simply him being lawyerly. He also admits, however, that the itch to get back into politics started in earnest not very long after the interview.

Green was already at work on his Change For America: A Progressive Blueprint For the 44th President, a 600-page memo to the new administration he hoped would soon arrive to reverse the work of George W. Bush, and as the contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama picked up steam, he began to think about running again. Obama’s victory prodded him along.

“I thought, God, look how he is going to bring progressive change to Washington,” he said, “it would have been nice if I had been in public office, could have brought progressive change to New York City.”

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reversal, self-contained in that last month before Election Day, was a convenient coincidence. Betsy Gotbaum’s decision not to seek re-election sealed the deal.

He started popping up at events all over the city, brushing up his routine, like a stand-up comedian trying out new bits at small nightclubs after years on a sitcom. A coordinated leak of his possible interest followed. He began to lay the groundwork, quietly talking people up about the city needing him back somehow because of the recession, about how strong a candidate he could be, in an effort to make the rationale for his return overwhelming by the time he made the official announcement on Feb. 10. He said his mind was made up at least a month earlier.

People have chalked up the decision to ego, boredom, an inability to let go, a last-ditch effort to get closure on the near-miss for mayor in 2001—or a Hail Mary to line himself up for what everyone in the know believes will be a last-hurrah run for mayor in 2013, should both he and Bloomberg be elected in the fall.

Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz

MARCH 9, 2009

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(D-Bronx), a supporter of Green in every race he ran except for the 1998 Senate primary against Schumer, does not know what to make of it.

“There’s no question he was an incredibly effective public advocate, and I’m sure he would be an incredibly effective public advocate if he were elected again,” he said, but added that he has one question: “Why does he want to do this again? Usually people move on to different things.”

Other people closer to Green asked him similar questions as he was making the decision to get into the race.

“Why do you want to live like that?

You’re number two, still public advocate, it’s a step backwards,” one recalled telling him. “There are other options, you can be engaged nationally. Why drag yourself through it?”

Green dismissed these comments.

“They don’t know me that well,” he said, explaining that anyone who does understands the magnetic pull that drew him back into the race.

He offered a comparison between himself and the main character of Sunset Boulevard, a forgotten actress driven to isolation and delusion out of desperation for a comeback which will not come.

“Norma Desmond is chided for playing a certain role and she said, ‘There are no small parts, only small actors,’” Green said. “I know how important and influential the office of public advocate has been, and could be even more so, given that the city is in crisis and we need all hands on deck.”

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hatever disagreements exist about why Green wants to win, there is no arguing that he can and very well might.

Despite everything which was part of the election eight years ago, he was nearly elected mayor—a powerful statement about his resonance with the city electorate, thanks to being born with a campaign slogan for a last name and putting it to use over decades in the ozone

of New York politics. After all, Green’s Democratic opponents spent millions in vain trying to shove him aside in the 2001 primary, and Bloomberg barely beat him, even with outgoing Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s (R) Midas touch endorsement and outspending him five-to-one.

Still, there are a lot of people who hate Green. He knows it.

“I think I’m grounded when it comes to people who may be more enthusiastic about me than I deserve but who also may be more hostile because of some reason

natural confidence, advocacy, to be confused for arrogance,” he said. “My friends and family are stunned when they see critics say that I’m arrogant, because they know I’m not—but they understand why someone may think that.”

Whether or not they know him as arrogant, they seem to know that they do not like him, even if they have largely liked the work that he has done.

“Mark was very good at being a public official. He was never very good at being a public person,” said another former aide.

“I think New Yorkers have always wanted to reward him for his public work, but he’s created a barrier through the public person he’s portrayed. So he’s never let them.”

This year, Green will have to hope that enough voters have either forgotten their past resentment or gotten over it.

More realistically, though, he is hoping that his celebrity will be enough to carry him in a down-ballot race, that everything else between now and September ends up being pragmatically immaterial next to the massive name recognition he has right out of the gate.

Cynical or not, odds are that it will work. But first Green has to contend with trying to fundraise quickly amid the worst economy in years. Add to that the problem that Green’s most reliable donors have been his real estate developer brother’s real estate developer friends, almost all of whom are in the Campaign Finance Board’s

CITY HALL campaign chair John Siegal, his 2006 fundraiser, Lisa Hernandez Gioia (not surprisingly working for her husband), and his 2006 pollster Joel Benenson.

Many other supporters have gone to Norman Siegel, who appeals to that same base of diehard liberals who run strong in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

A few have stuck by him. His campaign manager, Anne Strahle, has been with him since she ran his community affairs unit in the public advocate’s office, and his son, Jonah, followed up the “Absolute Advocate” poster that he drew for the 1993 campaign (displayed in the freshly painted campaign office in a building not far from his office owned, of course,

by SL Green) by shooting the video announcement for the 2009 campaign.

No politician has yet endorsed him, but the Office and Professional Employees International Union and New York City Uniform Fire Alarms Dispatchers Benevolent Association did the day after he declared his candidacy.

Green says he had settled on supporting another candidate himself before getting into the race (though he will not say whom), and a lot of his conversations have been trying to position himself as the second choice, should the various players’ first choices not make the runoff.

But even those that have long stood by him are keeping their distance.

“I don’t know this is his time,” said one

Green offered a comparison between himself and the main character of Sunset Boulevard, a forgotten actress driven to isolation and delusion out of desperation for a comeback which will not come.

“Norma Desmond is chided for playing a certain role and she said, ‘There are no small parts, only small actors,’” Green said. of politics, style or substance,” he said.

Getting back into public life means getting attacked again, reading and hearing people say all the terrible things which people say when they talk about Mark Green. He insists that this does not bother him, that he has built up “so much scar tissue that I’m largely immune to unfair attacks.” Yet he has trouble getting through a four-minute stump speech without warning people about the unfair attacks.

“First, apparently and thankfully, a lot more voters approve of me than disapprove. And voters are a notunimportant cohort in this business,” he said.

The facts do not exactly bear him out: if a lot more voters in fact approved of him than disapproved, he would have been congressman, senator, mayor or attorney general.

“I assume responsibility for the fact that some political people may not yet embrace me, because I’ve allowed my

“doing business” database and therefore now banned from giving him more than $400 each, while their LLCs and LLPs are banned from giving anything. Green has never been a prodigious fundraiser—his attorney general campaign is still $20,764 in the red—but he believes the seven-toone matching funds can lift his war chest to competitive levels.

Nonetheless, he is already gently lowering expectations about how much he will raise and how much he needs to be competitive, given the race’s low spending cap. He also has the advantage of having not yet spent anything toward the spending cap, while Council Member Eric Gioia (D-Queens) had already reached $398,000 as of January and Council Member Bill de Blasio (DBrooklyn) already $311,000.

The infrastructure problem is a real one, too. Even the floating of Green’s candidacy was late, after most potential staffers had signed on elsewhere, many of them to Gioia, including his 2001

elected official who has backed Green before but is expecting to go in another direction this year. “I think he’s gone through a couple of chapters, and I think there’s a time when the public closes the book on every one of us who doesn’t go on their own.”

Whether or not Green will win, he has already significantly altered the race. What seemed likely to be the most crowded citywide primary this year has since thinned, with first Adam Clayton Powell IV, then Council Member John Liu (D-Queens), then Council Member Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan) bolting. The stakes have changed for the remaining three candidates—all of them white men—as well: what was once a race to get into the run-off is now a race to make sure that Green does not do well enough to avoid a run-off. And whereas the goal of the candidates had been to get either of the two spots in the run-off, now the race is to be the one candidate who gets into the run-off with him.

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Mapping an Agenda, Green Looks Back to a Rudy-less Future

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mong the things Mark Green has received since beginning his campaign for public advocate is a questionnaire from the Working Families Party with one question that made him laugh: How would you differ from the first and the second public advocate?

“I thought, ‘This is a trick question,’” he said.

Nevertheless, if he wins this year’s election and returns as public advocate, Green will come into a job that will be both deeply familiar and completely different. He was the first person to hold the position. Especially since current Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum (D) has been such a quiet presence, there are probably some people who believe he still is the public advocate—no doubt to his political benefit as he runs for the job again this year.

Yet the city is not the same place as when Green was first sworn in alongside Rudolph Giuliani (R) in January 1994, or even when he and Giuliani left office together eight years ago. Crime rates are lower, the school system has been revamped and, with help from the current crisis on Wall Street, the city economy has been transformed. Even the office itself has been reworked, with some of its powers stripped away in the 2003 referendum.

But the biggest difference if Green is elected would be the absence of Giuliani as an easy foil.

Serving as the check on Michael Bloomberg, should he be re-elected, would hardly be the same.

“Bloomberg is not Giuliani,” Green said.

“However, watching him on term limits, watching him foolishly say that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme like Madoff, watching him say it would be completely unfair to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers at a time when everybody is going to be getting a haircut or worse reminded me that he could use a watchdog too.”

As he makes his own case for a third term,

Green, though, does not necessarily have an easy road ahead: the Marist poll done just days after his official campaign announcement put him at 35 percent, well ahead of any of his prospective opponents.

But that is where he stands with essentially universal name and record recognition.

The question he faces now is whether that 35 percent is a floor or a ceiling, whether more people will be drawn to his candidacy as he reminds them of him and his record, or whether they will flee as they remember him and do more than just latch onto the familiar name.

Green is doing his best to prompt the right kind of memories, as he attempted to do at the March 5 meeting of Brooklyn Democrats for Change, the small political club in Bay Ridge that supported his attorney general campaign but did not even exist when he was last public advocate.

“Past is prologue,” he told the crowd, launching into a half-hour-long history of the office and himself, starting from 1831, stopping in Sweden to explain the origin of

Green is clearly anticipating a Bloomberg win, and seems to have given no serious thought to what he would do as public advocate should one of the Democrats angling for the job pull off an upset.

But his vision of what he would do in the future is still largely based on what he did in the past, albeit with a technological update.

“The heart and soul of the office is its credibility as an independently elected public official to investigate abuses, propose solutions and get problems fixed. I still, should I get elected, would be able to look at what’s wrong in health care, education and economic development, shine a light on deficiency in the bureaucracy or in a program and then bring it to the attention to the mayor or the City Council, hoping for a good result,” he said.

He wishes the office would get subpoena power.

But he is not holding his breath, which is all the more reason, he argues, to elect someone who proved he can use the bully pulpit and other levers of city government to get results.

“What I found was that if you’re a well-known public advocate who seeks information from the bureaucracy, you can get it by dint of carrot or stick—even when the mayor is a Giuliani, who didn’t want to turn over any records to me when it came to police misconduct. There I had to sue and win,” he said.

Green has been trying to catch up with changes in the office. He attended the presentation Gotbaum has been delivering to each of the candidates campaigning to succeed her. He could not remember whom he voted for in the 2005 public advocate primary between Gotbaum, Norman Siegel, Andrew Rasiej and a few others—but, reminded who the candidates were, he said, “The reason I can’t remember is that Andrew Rasiej is a close personal

the word “ombudsman” and covering Paul O’Dwyer, Ralph Nader and the abolition of the Board of Estimate in 1989. The references to his record are dated, from the “Tuesday Night Out” restaurant promotion he created with Christopher Reeve before Reeve’s accident, to a proud aside about his pioneering work creating what was then the first city government website.

He ran through a standard litany of career highlights that is impressive, though somewhat musty as well: exiling Joe Camel, combating police brutality, combating domestic violence and protecting patients in hospitals, while his staff passed around his campaign literature, such as it is—a two-sided sheet with his campaign announcement on one side and a history of “Consumer Commissioner and Public Advocate 1990-2001,” on the other, complete with a photograph of him and a not-yetcompletely gray-haired Bill Clinton.

“If you think I was an effective advocate for you for eight years, I think that’s reasonable evidence that I’ll be an effective

MARCH 9, 2009

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friend of mine, and I enormously admire Norman as a friend, and I thought Betsy had done a good job.” Even so, he says he is focused on achieving two of the things that were much discussed during that campaign: First, the office should have an independent budget so that it can truly be independent of the rest of government. Second, he wants to employ open-source technology to make the office into a hub of information for thousands of New Yorkers to submit information and complaints about the delivery of city services.

Overall, he wants to create an office that is more responsive to whatever issues arise, so he resisted mapping out an agenda too discretely.

However, he said he wants to more sharply define the public advocate’s role in dealing with the economy, education and health care.

In working on these issues, though, some wonder whether Green will be able to get much done even if he has enough support from voters to overcome the resistance among political insiders about his return.

“What can you do when everyone hates you?” wondered one Democratic consultant. “Let’s say you do get in, how do you get things done with all of your colleagues hating you?”

A lot of what he wants to do he could also achieve as mayor. With his name recognition, some might argue, he might have been able to make a strong argument against Bloomberg.

Green refused to engage in talk about a mayoral campaign, either for this year or the one that most people think he is trying to line himself up for in 2013.

“You’ve got to make choices, and I believe this is an office that I know uniquely well and can do a lot more with,” he said.

Asked if the thought of running against Bloomberg had occurred to him, Green did not say no.

“Everything crosses your mind. As you walk down the street, people say ‘Oh! Run for—’ trust me, they’ve said that. But it did not seriously cross my mind,” he said. “Although everything crosses my mind, except for pope and president.”

—EIRD

public advocate in the next term—or two,” he said, making his final appeal.

Green shook every hand in the room as Gioia, who had arrived toward the end of his speech, walked to the front to make his appeal. Moving the music stand Green had been using as a podium off to the side, Gioia seemed unable to resist a few subtle generational digs. He mentioned Green’s knee surgery. He laughed about playing Mark Green once in a debate, when Green was running for Senate in 1986 and Gioia was in junior high school.

But nothing Gioia, or, for that matter, de Blasio or Siegal, can do over the next six months will make any of them as famous as Green. Yet without the support of the unions, politicians and political clubs his opponents have already locked up or soon will, Green may not be able to piece back together the old coalition of liberals, Jews, African-Americans and Upper East Siders which carried him to victory in 1993 and 1997. Fashionable as it may be to dismiss the insiders, Green will have to hope that people continue to receive him like they

did on a recent Saturday morning in the far reaches of the Bronx, where he was greeted by a crowd eager to shake his hand or pose for pictures. One woman, remembering him from the ’90s, asked for his help settling a problem with her landlord.

Some people might balk at spending a whole Saturday morning in front of a plate of eggs and bacon at Eastwood Manor, listening to speech after speech of community leaders. Green seemed to bask in the attention, and was eager to turn up to applaud for Fred Lewis, one former aide who remains a fan, as he received an award from Council Member Larry Seabrook (D-Bronx).

Reflecting on the morning afterward, Green, who turns 64 on the Ides of March, said he thought this was a perfect way to spend the day.

“What’s wrong? … I’m a very loyal person, and so I get turned on by assisting people who have assisted me. And I got a free breakfast,” he said. “Look, we all have what floats our boat.” eidovere@cityhallnews.com

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With Carrión’s Departure, a Possible Electoral Problem for Thompson Comptroller will have to build black-brown coalition without Bronx BP’s help

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS he plan was simple: Comptroller Bill Thompson and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión would link arms in a show of Democratic unity in 2009 and barnstorm across the five boroughs from campaign event to campaign event—or at least would team up in people’s minds, drawing AfricanAmerican and Latino voters out together to sweep them both into office in the fall.

But it is not to be.

With hardly a wave goodbye, Carrión absconded to Washington to join the Obama administration, shattering the hopes for the fabled black-brown coalition that has forever eluded New York elections.

Eduardo Castell, Thompson’s campaign manager, shrugging off the possibility of the rumored coalition as overly simplistic, says the candidate has a plan for addressing the concerns among Latino constituents.

“He’s been a longtime friend of the Latino community,” Castell said. “There will be folks who support that, leaders who attest to that and reinforce that message.”

Indeed, endorsements from Latino elected officials would do wonders for Thompson’s image among Latino voters, said Jerry Skurnik, a political consultant who runs Prime New York. He recommended Thompson use Latino media outlets to improve his name recognition, which is fairly low among voters of all stripes right now.

“Unlike the black community or any other ethnic group, the Hispanic community has its own major media,” Skurnik said. “El Diario and Channel 41 and Channel 47 actually have a major following in the Latino community. Events that Weiner or Bloomberg might not even notice, Thompson going to some ribbon cutting in the Hispanic community, actually make press.”

Skurnik threw cold water on the belief held by some that black candidates have traditionally had

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difficulty gaining support among Latinos, saying when faced with the choice of one black candidate and two white candidates, most Latinos will vote for the black candidate. After all, 66 percent of Latinos voted for Barack Obama last year.

But if Thompson and Carrión had been able to join together on a fusion ticket, all of this would have been so much easier. Thompson could have counted on Carrión uniting Latino voters behind their shared platform, freeing him up to concentrate on other blocs of voters: outer-borough immigrant communities, right-leaning

“Bill Thompson has to work extra hard to get the Latino vote, because he doesn’t have the presence of a well-known Latino running on the ticket,” said Herman Badillo.

whites and others who may not like Michael Bloomberg, but see no harm in re-electing him to office.

But without a big-name candidate on the ticket this year, and with discontent about Latino representation in political office running high, politicos are unsure what will happen come fall. And Bloomberg has been boning up on his Spanish in the hopes of wooing Hispanic voters all over the city.

“Bill Thompson has to work extra hard to get the Latino vote, because he doesn’t have the presence of a well-known Latino running on the ticket,” said Herman Badillo, a former congressman and the first Latino Bronx

borough president. “He still has to put the coalition together.”

And it will probably end up being even harder than Badillo imagines. In 2001, 47 percent of Latinos who went to polls voted for Michael Bloomberg, then a Republican running against then-Public Advocate Mark Green, who received 49 percent of the Latino vote. The even split was a shock to many in New York, where the Latino vote has long been assumed to be overwhelmingly Democratic.

In 2005, then-Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer beat Bloomberg among both black and Latino voters by almost 30 points.

In making his appeal to the Latino voters who could put him over the top in both the primary and general elections, Thompson will have the guidance of Castell, who is Cuban-American, and Roberto Ramirez, a Bronx political consultant and powerbroker who advised Ferrer in the 2005 mayor’s race.

But Gerson Borrero, a columnist and consultant for El Diario, said high-priced consultants and focus groups are no substitute for wading into the community and experiencing the anger many Latinos are feeling about the rise in crime, the income gap between rich and poor, and the lack in representation in city and state government.

“There has to be an understanding of what it is our community faces,” he said. “We’re at the bottom of the totem pole in terms of political power.”

Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan), for one, is not worried. Making clear he has not endorsed anyone in the mayor’s race yet, Espaillat said Thompson should have no problem winning Latino votes. All he has to do is try.

“He has across-the-board appeal, he has worked very hard to speak to our constituency, and I feel he is very inclusive,” Espaillat said. “I don’t think he’ll have any difficulties.” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

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Atop the Bloomberg 2009 Flow Chart, Tusk Manages Money and Egos

BY EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE here are no land lines installed yet, but there is already a bullpen in the Bloomberg 2009 campaign office that runs over a full floor in a quiet office building across from Bryant Park. No one but campaign manager Bradley Tusk has an official title (“someone’s got to be accountable,” he said), but there is an organizational flow chart—though only Tusk and Michael Bloomberg himself have seen it so far.

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

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Tusk is one of several former aides who have returned to the Bloomberg payroll as the mayor formally begins the campaign for a third term, which the candidate himself has taken to denying is underway when asked by reporters, despite a growing staff and meetings with local political leaders about party lines and endorsements.

Asked about the mayor’s reluctance to publicly discuss the politicking going on while sitting in the cavernous conference room at the heart of the campaign office, Tusk said that the explanation has to do with the mayor’s conception of city politics.

“I think what he means is that a traditional campaign is a back-and-forth and you have clear opponents and every day there’s a dialogue,” he said. “We’re not in it. We will be at some point.”

Of course, there are at least two declared Democratic candidates, and likely a third, if Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens) ends his wavering and officially enters the race, for Bloomberg to run against. And there are preparations well underway for the race, with campaign workers getting hired, volunteers being recruited with handwritten notes and the groundwork being laid for what Tusk promises will be the largest canvas operation the city has ever seen.

Tusk, whose résumé also includes a stint as Sen. Charles Schumer’s communications director, returned to the Bloomberg staff after six years. His last job for the mayor was as a special assistant at City Hall, which he left in 2003 to become a deputy governor for then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich,

where he spent three years. He returned to New York to run a state lottery privatization unit at Lehman Brothers, moving into Peter Cooper Village, where he lives in the building across from Council Member Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan) and next door to Giuliani Fire Commissioner Jerry Hauer’s mother.

Working outside of government was fun, he said, but when the company tanked in September, he says he left the world of finance behind without really looking back.

“Because I really had come from another industry, because I hadn’t really lived like a banker and had the kind of financial obligations that bankers have, when they declared bankruptcy, I just walked out the door,” he said.

He had already lined up his back-up plan over the weekend that Lehman was collapsing, huddled with Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, a friend from their days together at the Parks Department and the godfather of his two young children.

While New Yorkers were reeling over the news of the firm’s demise that Monday morning, Tusk was meeting with chief Bloomberg political advisor Kevin Sheekey. By that afternoon, he was meeting with the mayor.

“He said, ‘I’ve got other things in mind for you,’” Tusk recalled.

That was two weeks before news leaked about Bloomberg’s plan to change term limits, which enabled him to run for re-election this year. Tusk was heavily involved in the effort to change the law, and shortly after the bill was signed began organizing the official effort which has since become the Bloomberg campaign.

As campaign manager of an operation that has already swelled to include some of the biggest names in local political staffers, Tusk has what some might see as the unenviable task of avoiding the clash of egos that many believe inevitable. That has yet to be an issue, he said, though noting that when he wants feedback on an idea, he often sends separate e-mails out to those whose opinion he is seeking, rather than copying several people on the same note.

Though this avoids back-and-forth between the other campaign aides and allows him to get unfiltered feedback, this does not necessarily make the job any easier, especially as he collects responses where “Howard Wolfson thinks one thing, Josh Isay thinks another, Maura Keany thinks another—well, they’re all really smart, so how do I figure out what the right answer is?” he said. “And that’s one of the challenges of the job.”

Tusk is the one to shrug off questions about the mayor seeking the Republican line and about how his billionaire bank account will play on the campaign trail amid a recession, while also being the one to keep piecing together the campaign operation and signing every purchase order.

He and the mayor have discussed the cost of the campaign. But they have not yet set a spending cap.

“I have a budget. I don’t know what the final amount will be—it will be dictated by events over the course of the campaign,” Tusk said. “We’ll have the resources to do what we need to do to be successful.” eidovere@cityhallnews.com

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THE

OF

The weird and woeful mayors through hizz-tory

Man of the Drunk People IN THE KNOCK-DOWN, drag-out fight for most disreputable mayor, Fernando Wood stands as the reigning and still undefeated champion.

(Sorry, A. Oakley Hall, you did not quite make the cut. But thanks for trying.)

To his contemporaries, the fact that Wood aspired to the mayoralty was an insult to the office. The fact that he ran five times and won three sent them into apoplectic rage. As one former mayor put it, Wood, “instead of occupying the mayor’s seat, ought to be on the rolls of the state prison.”

Having gotten his start in life running a dive bar on Rector Street, Wood took his liquor money and invested in merchant ships.

He then took that money and went into real estate, where his FERNANDO WOOD reputation as a businessman hit 1855-1857, 1860-1862 bottom and kept on digging.

When he ran for mayor in 1854, Wood was called the candidate of “Rum and Rowdy-ism.” He won largely on working-class support. His victory could also have something to do with his impressive showing in the Irish Sixth Ward, where he got 4,000 more votes than there were voters.

Upon taking office, Wood promised everything and delivered essentially nothing. Well, to be fair, he did ghostwrite a “biography” of himself as the “Model Mayor.”

For his re-election in 1856, Wood employed bands of hoodlums to strong-arm voters into voting the right way. To assist this effort, he kept scores of policemen busy working on his campaign and sent others on forced vacation.

But the defining moment in this shambles of a mayoralty came in 1857, when Albany Republicans attempted to assert greater control over the city with restrictive liquor laws. Knowing that Wood, a long-time booze man, would never enforce the new laws, Albany created a separate police force controlled by the state. Wood, in response, created his own private police force, thus turning New York into a giant Wild West show.

Policemen chose sides and the two forces fought a citywide turf war, battling for neighborhoods and station houses. Needless to say, 1857 was a banner year to be a criminal in New York. Arrested by one police force, you would be sprung by the other. What a deal! The city’s rival gangs, when they were not fighting each other and both police squads at once, were stealing everything not nailed down. And some things that were.

The climax came when the state police ranks stormed City Hall in an attempt to arrest the mayor. Wood’s forces initially beat them back in a bloody clash, but the state troops regrouped and when they returned, Wood became the first and only mayor to be arrested at City Hall.

Amazingly, he bounced back two years later and won in 1860. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Wood took up the anti-war cause amidst the Draft Riots in the city. His aversion to war with the South was born out of financial interest, and also because he just did not seem to have that big of a problem with slavery. True to form, Wood kicked his proslavery stance up a notch by suggesting that New York City secede from the Union and join “our aggrieved brethren of the slave states.” Spoiler alert! Despite his best efforts, he did not manage to make this happen.

—James Caldwell

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MARCH 9, 2009

Classifieds

OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR, A NEW YORK DEMOCRAT A New York Democrat is seeking to fill an Office Administrator position. In this capacity the administrative assistant would work with the District Director to develop a strategic scheduling program, including processes and procedures for the district office. He/she would also be responsible for working collaboratively with the elected official’s Executive Assistant/Scheduler and District Director to review and maintain the weekly schedule. Other duties include managing the reception area, ordering and keeping an inventory of all office supplies and maintaining all office equipment.

Minimum 3 years scheduling experience or 5 years of related office experience with an elected official or within a corporate environment with strong organizational skills and a proven capacity to successfully multi-task in a fast-paced environment while adhering to established deadlines. Willingness and ability to work long hours and weekends is essential.

Writing skills and ability to prepare memos and reports is integral to job performance.

Position available immediately. Send cover letter, resume, references, salary requirements and two writing samples to ResumeNY@mail.house.gov. NO WALK-INS OR CALLS PLEASE!

DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF OFFICE OF STATE SENATOR ERIC ADAMS Office of State Senator Eric Adams has opening for position of Deputy Chief of Staff. Please email pvkatona@gmail.com for interview appointment. Attach your resume.

Minimum requirements: • college degree (BA or BS) • minimum 1 year law school experience (law degree not required) • minimum 2 years work experience in NYS Senate or Assembly office • supervisory experience as officer in a major NYC/NYS police department, with minimum 15 years experience in law enforcement with a major police department • certification as instructor of police science • supervisory experience in emergency management (including emergency communications) for major NYC/NYS police department • certification or experience in internet security/cyber security • experience working with offices of local District Attorneys • licensed to carry firearm • work experience as security officer for elected officials • supervisory experience in not-for-profit agency work (director, field director, etc.) • work experience as member of political advance team • training/certification in public speaking • experience in supervision of community service programs PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, NON-PROFIT ENERGY COALITION Non-profit energy coalition seeks Program Associate for entrylevel role in their White Plains office. Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, and the ability to work occasional evenings and weekends required. Ideal candidate will possess strong communications and research skills, the ability to work as part of a team, and an interest in politics.

References and writing samples required. Full health and dental benefits for employee included. Please send cover letter, salary requirements and resume to energycoalitionposition@gmail.com.

LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR Responsibilities will include but not be limited to writing bill memos, analysis and synthesis of bills, coordinating opinions of our legislative committee to form coherent positions on policy, and researching and updating legislative initiatives.

Must respond well under pressure, turn around writing assignments quickly, and be good at multitasking. This company is a politically active statewide not-for-profit pro-consumer organization of over 4,000 members. We offer competitive salary and excellent benefits.

To apply, submit resume, cover letter, and writing samples to

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Stephanie Wilson at nysconsumerrights@gmail.com.

RECEPTIONIST FRONT DESK OFFICE OF UNITED STATES SENATOR CHARLES E. SCHUMER Title: Receptionist Front Desk Position Type: Full-Time Employee Location: 757 3rd Avenue, New York 10017 Job description: • Serves as the primary representative of the office in the reception area • Greets visitors to the office and answers the telephone in a courteous professional manner. • Letter writing as need arises • Assists with various administrative duties Qualifications and skills: • A college degree and satisfactory professional experience.

• Qualified candidate will possess good analytical, problem solving and both oral and written communication ability; will be capable of working in a team-oriented environment; will be organized and have good computer skills.• Ability to work long hours if necessary • Salary is mid-twenties with full benefits.

To Apply, send resume to: Contact: Suzan Orlove, Director Constituent Services Email: suzan_orlove@schumer.senate.gov Fax: 212.486-7693 Phone: 212-486-4430 MEDIA RELATIONS REPRESENTATIVE, ENERGY-BASED ORGANIZATION WITH OFFICES IN WHITE PLAINS Media Relations Representative position is available for energy-based organization with offices in White Plains.

Candidate must have a background in media writing, including news advisories/statements, opinion and newsletter articles, and speeches or testimonies; and experience managing media events. Candidate must also able to furnish news clips/work samples.

Position requires a degree in communications or a related field; a minimum of 3 years experience in media communications, public affairs, public relations or political campaigns; and a professional demeanor.

Full health and dental benefits for employee included.

Please send cover letter, salary requirements and resume to energycoalitionposition@gmail.com GRAPHIC ARTIST, OFFICE OF MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT, SCOTT M. STRINGER Responsibilities: Develop, execute design and layout solutions with a high level of proficiency and creativity including but not limited to flyers, newsletters, programs, posters, proclamations other printed and graphic materials.

Responsible for concept development, execution, and maintenance of the Office’s Web site(s).

Consult staff members to develop design concepts, gather information, discuss alternatives, gain approval and review publications.

Coordinate proper paper, ink, type, illustrations and printing techniques for total production.

Monitor scheduling and overall job production; coordinate interrelated activities with staff members.

Qualifications: Experience in managing Websites and blogs, advanced knowledge of HTML, Adobe Creative Suite 4, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and working knowledge of CSS required.

Strong strategic, creative and conceptual abilities. Understanding of graphic design and print media. Flash and Action Script expertise greatly desired. Salary will be commensurate with experience. Interested candidates send resume in Word or PDF format to resumes@manhattanbp.org. NYC residency is required. The Office of the Manhattan Borough President is an EOE.

To have your ad placed in the new City Hall Classified section, call Steven Blank at 212-894.5415 or email sblank@manhattanmedia.com

Comings and

Goings

Bob Liff, formerly with George Arzt Communications, has joined M+R Strategic Services as a senior vice president in the New York office.

Christopher Del Giudice,

former legislative director for Assembly Member Joseph Morelle (D-Monroe) and senior legislative analyst with the Assembly Program and Counsel staff, has joined Davidoff, Malito & Hutcher LLP’s Albany lobbying practice as a senior governmental relations specialist.

Phillip Goldfeder

joined the office of Senator Charles Schumer (D) as his director of intergovernmental affairs

Daniel McMahon

was selected as chairman of the executive committee of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP, succeeding Thomas Wilson, Sr. McMahon, who is based in Wilson Elser’s Chicago office, has been a part of the firm’s transition team for several years and also served as chairman of the firm’s operations group and as senior managing partner.

Julissa Ferreras

Council Member is staffing up—and poaching aides from her new colleagues. Angel Audiffred, a former communications aide in Council Member Joel Rivera’s camp, has left to become Ferreras’ new chief of staff. Before working for Rivera, Audiffred worked for two years in the press office of Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Wanted:

Comings and goings and weddings, too Let City Hall and The Capitol know about all your official staff changes by e-mailing information about your staff hires, promotions and departures. We’d also like your unofficial changes such as engagements, weddings and anniversaries. Please include photographs when possible.

Please e-mail all submissions to editor@cityhallnews.com and editor@nycapitolnews.com.

CITY HALL

hristine Quinn has spent her political life representing Chelsea and the West Village, first as chief of staff to then-Council Member Tom Duane, and then in 1999 as his successor on the Council, after Duane was elected to the State Senate. She still lives in the same Chelsea apartment that she has been renting since 1992, and now shares with her partner, Kim Catullo.

Since being elected Council Speaker in 2006, though, Quinn has spent more time in the neighboring Council district further downtown, dealing with a broader array of Council issues. In fact, city business required that the original location of this interview, Moonstruck Diner, a regular haunt of hers on Ninth Avenue and West 23rd Street, be shifted closer to City Hall. Instead, she sat down at Jerry’s Café, a gastro-diner on Chambers Street, to chat about food, family dynamics and her plans for St. Patrick’s Day.

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Q: What is good here?

A: I’ve been here for breakfast, I’ve ordered in the Cobb salad, which was good.

I think I’ve ordered in the Caesar salad. It’s fairly new. But people like it at City Hall.

Q: So this is one of the hot new lunch spots?

A: It used to be in Soho and then they couldn’t afford the rent, so then they moved here fairly recently.

Q: What are you leaning toward?

A: Oh, I’m going to get a salad.

Probably the Caesar salad. Or maybe the Cobb salad.

[Waiter arrives; Quinn orders Caesar salad with shrimp and unsweetened ice tea] Q: Do you have time to shop and cook, or are you more of a takeout person?

A: I have personally never been a big cooker. My partner Kim likes to cook. I actually like to bake. I find baking pretty relaxing, but I don’t get to do it as much as I would like. I made a cake over the weekend—olive oil and polenta, from the Babbo web page, which is in the district. It’s very hard to time it right. The last time I made it, it was a little too dry. Kim likes the cake and she’s going to be working on a trial soon so I was just trying to do something nice.

Q: So what’s in your refrigerator right now? A bottle of ketchup?

A: No, actually, our refrigerator—Kim is

MARCH 9, 2009

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ANDREW SCHWARTZ

Caesar Salad and Ice Tea with Christine Quinn

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really good about keeping it well packed.

We’ve got a bunch of mandarin oranges. I brought them down to City Hall yesterday.

I meant to do it again. They were really good. A bunch of grapefruit. If you opened our fridge, you would think we would have a real fear of the scurvy, which we don’t.

What else do we have in there? A bunch of cheese, a lot of yogurt, some hummus.

Q: The city is at an importatnt crossroads. What’s your take on where we are?

It was interesting—my sister’s coming to New York this morning … and she was recounting having plans with grandparents, my mom and my aunt, not going back to the city to see Broadway plays because they were nervous about the crime. And my mom and aunt had grown up in the city.

That was the most important thing—to not let the city go back to a place where there was garbage and crime.

Q: I knew you had a sibling, but I didn’t know if it was a brother or a sister. Your sister’s older?

A: She is. She’s 10 years older than I am. She’s 52 years old. My father always said he had only two children. She lives in Guilford, Connecticut, she’s a geologist and she’s married to Dr. Robert, we call him. He’s a psychiatrist at Yale.

Q: Does he analyze the whole family?

A: I’m sure he does [laughs]. But he doesn’t share it. My sister’s incredibly smart. She’s a geologist, but also has an MBA. She’s kind of a combination geologist-businesswoman. She’s the tough one in the family.

Q: Is that a weird dynamic? You dad is very involved with your political operation—he’s got a basement office in City Hall.

A: He does, I just saw him. He was complaining about something or another.

Q: How does your sister feel about your father being so involved with your life?

A: He’s as involved with her life. We

e-mailed this morning. She was going through scheduling of when he was going up there, did I not need him for this weekend—so he’s very involved in their life. They’re redoing their house. He’s been helping them with that.

Q: You guys share custody of him.

A: Absolutely.

Q: Tom Duane has said that he goes to your place down the Jersey Shore. Is he a good houseguest?

A: He is a very good houseguest. He’s a very good houseguest for a host of reasons, not the least of which is he loves the beach. He’s a fun houseguest because he really has a good time.

Q: You and Kim have busy schedules—how do you make time for each other? Date night?

A: We don’t have a set one; we just try to figure it out. Every week is different ... You just have to work at it. Like on Monday, I had the day off, she had to work because she’s getting ready for the trial, so she left work a little earlier, went home, watched a DVD of Grey’s Anatomy and then went out to dinner. That was fun.

Q: Do you have any guilty-pleasure TV shows?

A: Oh yes.

Q: What’s on the list? American Idol?

A: I like American Idol at the end. I don’t like it at the beginning. It’s mean. It almost makes me not watch it at the end. I haven’t made a decision whether I’m going to watch the end of this season or not.

Q: Because they make fun of people?

A: They’re mean. I love, love, love Charmed! It’s fabulous. It’s three sisters who are witches. One was Shannen Doherty, who had to get kicked off the show. Another one’s Rose McGowan. Anyway, it’s terrific, three strong women. Men as well. And then anything Lifetime.

Q: Switching gears again, the mayor gave you a few challenging moments for 2008 and some other things arose

last year. Was there one issue for you that was the toughest to get through?

A: Obviously, leading into the economic downturn, which we could kind of see moving in both slow motion and at light speed when you’re in the middle of it in 2008, was frightening. You could see it was headed in a way that was going to be very, very impactful on our budget and of course, potentially, impactful on New Yorkers’ everyday lives.

Q: So that for you was the biggest thing. Having to embrace that and figure out how to …

A: How to get through it in a way that was true to what I and the vast majority of Council members believed, that you have to deal with this budget crisis in a way that’s economically fair and just, and you have to do it in a way that—some services are just too important to cut to the bone or beyond.

Q: When you’re on regular business throughout the city, though, do you get the celebrity treatment ever?

A: Sometimes you go places and people recognize you … Occasionally you get folks who come up to you and thank you for something, or young women who are excited, or young LGBT people who get excited. And that’s always exciting on my end. It’s kind of a kick when that happens … And, look, this is New York City, you could be sitting at a diner next to Madonna having breakfast with Julianne Moore, so people are like, “So there’s the speaker and the mayor, who cares?”

Q: Your dad in the past has said that you need to be more succinct when you talk, and you’ve begrudgingly agreed.

A: Sometimes my answers go on too long.

Q: Have you taken his advice? Do you get more sound bites?

A: (To press secretary) Have I gotten more sound bites? I’ve tried. I don’t know if I’ve succeeded, but I’ve tried. ceichna@manhattanmedia.com

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CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MARCH 9, 2009

Praise Be, Rev. Billy Enters Mayor’s Race on Green Line

Liu’s Stalkers As the first Asian-American elected to office in New York City, Council Member John Liu (D-Queens) is something of a celebrity. And like any celebrity, Liu has stalkers.

Minutes before Liu announced his switch from the public advocate race to the comptroller race on March 8, about 20 protestors from the religious

sect the Falon Gong were removed by police from the steps of City Hall and were forced outside its gates. During Liu’s announcement, they held a banner through the fence bars reading, “John Liu Does Not Represent the Interest of the People of USA.” The Falon Gong has been harassing Liu for the better part of a year. Their protests stem from a series of alleged assaults on Falon

Gong members in Liu’s Flushing district during May and June of 2008, with what the sect believes was the Council member’s tacit support. The Falon Gong, a group that rejects the use of modern medicine and has been outlawed in China, believes Liu is working in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party and with pro-communist mobs from the Chinese Consulate.

“He’s being manipulated by the Chinese government. There’s lots of evidence he’s ‘playing booty’ with the Chinese Communist regime,” said Falon Gong member Thomas Zhong.

Liu, who is originally from Taiwan, has said he has not seen any actual evidence that any Falon Gong members have been attacked. He cheerfully disregarded the group when asked about them during the press conference.

“We hang out all the time. These are my friends,” Liu said. “They follow me to Flushing. They follow me to Washington.

They follow me here.”

Lippman’s Footwear Dilemma Lucky for new Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman that

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

On a snowy morning in Union Square earlier this month, New York City welcomed its newest member to the mayor’s race—anti-consumer activist Rev. Billy.

Billy, whose non-clerical name is William Talen, has made a name for himself with his exorcisms of Wal-Mart cash registers and gospel-theme protests in front of Starbucks stores, will be taking his first foray in electoral politics on the Green Party line.

“We are surrounded here by logos!” the Rev said as he held his arms up and gazed around the Square—once a hotbed of radicalism, and now bookended by a Barnes & Noble, a Whole Foods Market and a Staples office supply store.

“An infernal Bermuda triangle of retail? Can I get an amen!”

And from the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir, resplendent in green robes and arrayed behind him, the Rev most certainly got an amen.

It was most likely to be the only rally this political season where the candidate mentions Duke Ellington, Tito Puente, Charlie Parker and Allen Ginsburg.

“Their genius was aided and abetted by this city,” Billy said. “Neighborhoods are hip! Hey—I just came up with that.”

Choir members say they want to raise enough money to get Billy into the first mayoral debate.

The Reverend, though, has more exotic plans.

“I would like to debate Mike Bloomberg on his jet. I’d like to fly to—well, it’s up to him, I can fly to his London house or his Bermuda home. I’d like to have a debate on his jet, so we can lower his carbon footprint, which is so significant,” he said. “At least we can share that footprint together. Amen.”

his official outfit is a long flowing robe.

That saves him the trouble of making any tacit comment about fashion as it might pertain to his continuation of the legacy of Judith Kaye, the former chief judge who was his mentor.

Kaye, the first woman appointed to New York’s top court and, later, its first female chief judge, was known for the red high heel shoes she often sported, a gentle reminder of the trail she had blazed for women in the law.

Speaking at his official investiture at the Court Feb. 25, Lippman said he knew the task in front of him was a tough one, “in trying to fill the shoes of Judith Kaye—though I must tell you, red is not a becoming color for me.”

With Fire Joke, Rivera Douses Mood in Council Presiding over a stated meeting of the City Council may at times seem like a joke. But the public advocate’s chair, it turns out, is no place to trot out a comedy routine.

At a Feb. 26 meeting of the Council, after hours of wrangling over the appointment of a Council clerk, members voted on a bill to assign or reassign six

new committee chairmanships.

One was the Fire and Criminal Justice Services committee, which went to Council Member James Vacca (DBronx). After the news was announced in the chamber, Vacca got a round of congratulations and made a brief speech about his priorities as chairman.

“There should be no more firehouse closings in the city of New York,” Vacca said to boisterous applause and a standing ovation.

Then came Council Member Joel Rivera (D-Bronx), who was presiding over the meeting, and who had to follow Vacca’s act.

“I agree,” he said, “and we should have no more fires in the city of New York also.”

Crickets.

After a few moments of awkward silence, the Council moved on to the other business. After the meeting, Rivera announced that he would drop his bid to replace Conan O’Brien on Late Night, and run for re-election to his Council seat instead.

—by Chris Bragg, Edward-Isaac Dovere, David Freedlander and Sal Gentile

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CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MARCH 9, 2009

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: Playing President ith Adolfo Carrión headed to serve in the Obama administration as head of the new Office of Urban Affairs, longtime Deputy Borough President Earl Brown now takes reins, making history as the first African-American and Brooklyn-resident Bronx borough president and the city’s first openly gay borough president. Officially, though, he is “acting president”—but only until the April 21 special election to fill the end of Carrión’s term.

In an interview at the Bronx Borough President’s Office a day after he officially assumed the presidency, Brown reflected on whether he ever wanted to run for borough president himself, what he hopes to accomplish in the next five weeks, and whether he believes criticisms that the Carrión administration did not follow through on many of its promises are unfair.

The following is an edited transcript.

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independently of the mayor. And I think that in the eight years that Adolfo was president—given the limited amount of financial resources and power that the borough presidency has—that he really did an enormous amount of work here.

CH: Such as?

EB: One of the major complaints was that communities didn’t seem to be benefiting or participating as robustly as they should be participating, given that many of those projects were being supported with public dollars.

Adolfo insisted on a “Buy Bronx” campaign, which was that if you’re coming to the Bronx to develop a project here, you had to make sure that Bronxites were working on the project on all phases. Design, development, construction, post-construction. And that as many products as possible that were used during the construction phase were actually produced in the Bronx.

There have been also over 40,000 new units of affordable housing built. And there’s a new culture of home ownership so that families actually have a stake in the borough. It’s not, “Well, I’m renting an apartment and if the economic climate changes, the owner of that building can force people out because they can.”

When you own property in your community, you’re in control of it.

CH: Not aspiring to higher office is an unusual trait for a politician—you never thought about getting into the race to succeed Carrión?

EB: I never really considered myself to be a politician. I’ve considered myself to be a government technician. I enjoy having the opportunity to work on intractable problems, or seemingly intractable problems.

DANIEL S. BURNSTEIN

City Hall: Mayor Bloomberg called for a special election immediately after you got the job as acting borough president. Did you want to try out the job for a little longer?

Earl Brown: My goal was never to be the borough president of the Bronx. But certainly I’ll try my best to put the agenda that Adolfo put together forward.

It would be nice to have an opportunity to put my own stamp on the borough presidency of the Bronx, but I’m pretty clear about the city charter and the fact that there has to be a special election. That’s fine by me.

CH: What did you think of the recent Daily News article detailing Carrión’s alleged quid pro quo with contractors?

EB: The mayor has made very clear that he thought it was unfair. I thought it was an unfair representation. It was very one-sided and didn’t really tell the entire story of what he accomplished while he was here.

CH: Now that you are headed out of the borough presidency and the deputy borough With Adolfo Carrión headed to Washington, Earl Brown is presidency, what stands out personally from the last seven years?

CH: Why do you think there was such a in charge of the Bronx for the next six weeks.

EB: Every year we do a bike tour called the Tour lengthy delay in Carrión joining the Obama in the country with people feeling very uninspired and De Bronx, where we invite people from all over the administration?

EB: My presumption is that there were so many things almost hopeless about the direction of the country. I region to come to the Bronx. … One of the things people happening in Washington at that time—the inaugural had think with the inception of the new administration in marvel at as we bike through the Bronx is how different to take place, there’s the fiscal cataclysm that’s taking Washington, things have changed dramatically. I for one the Bronx is from what they imagined. Because many place—and the president is in the middle of it all. My was moved to pay for my own airfare and pay for my people have visions of the old Bronx from the 1970s, assumption is that there are lots of different priorities own accommodations to work on the campaign. I went when negative portrayals of the Bronx were common.

And when you drove the Bronx you could to Cleveland for the general the administration faced and they had to triage. see the physical signs of the distress the election. And went down and borough was going through. When you CH: What do you hope to do in your brief time as stood in the 7-degree weather for bike through the Bronx now and see more the inauguration. borough president? of a micro-vision of the borough, and EB: Practically speaking, we would want to take things slowly amble through streets, people are on that could really be accomplished in a five-week CH: Some have said Carrión just amazed when they see ranch-style period of time. We’ve been working with the Department had a mixed record when it houses with big backyards that look like of Education on honing the next “five-year plan” so that came to delivering on promises you’re in some village on Long Island, it more aptly represents the needs of Bronxites. We’ve he made when he started as and you’re literally on a plot of land that also been working with the city on the budget. And we’ll president. Is that fair?

President Carter walked through that was certainly be taking a look at transition, because I think EB: I think it’s unfair. During the rubble-strewn, glass-strewn. You can’t it’s important that we have all requisite pieces of the time of the Board of Estimate, believe it’s the same place. the borough presidency was agency in order for the next administration. very powerful and really had a CH: Would you like to eventually follow Carrión to lot of the levers of government available to it to make CH: And what about you? What comes next? change in each borough, and collectively in the City of EB: Lots of changes are happening very, very quickly Washington, D.C.?

EB: If I were offered a position in the Obama New York. With the changes in the city charter that did here. So I’m looking at my options. administration, I would certainly have to consider it. I away with the Board of Estimate, it really hampered the —Chris Bragg think that we went through a period of political malaise borough presidency and its ability to get things done cbragg@cityhallnews.com

“I never really considered myself to be a politician. I’ve considered myself to be a government technician.”

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