City Hall - March 30, 2010

Bloomberg Buys Lakefront House In New Hampshire

By Whitehead Hicks

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Vol. 4, No. 13

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April Fools’, 2010

ayor Michael Bloomberg has purchased a vacation home on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, according to property records obtained by City Hall.

Administration sources dismissed any significance to the mayor’s purchase of the 14-acre $11 million estate in the state that will cast the first continued on page 2

Paterson Prepares Gillibrand Challenge

Governor considering June resignation to run full-time against appointed senator

Cuomo Convenes Conference Call To Say, “No Comment”

By John Johnstone

I

n a hastily arranged conference call with reporters on Monday afternoon, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that he declines to comment.

The call was scheduled at the last minute, with Cuomo’s office scrambling to alert reporters through an untitled press release sent only to The New York Times.

More than 200 reporters from around the country dialed in to the call at roughly 5:15 p.m., including one from the Times, two from the New York Post and 37 from the Daily News.

After ten minutes of awkward silence, Jim Dolan of WABC said, “Mr. Attorney General, are you there?”

“Hey, Jim,” Cuomo said, He added: “How’s it going?”

Dolan attempted to answer, but was abruptly cut off by the operator, who moved on to the next question. Times reporter Danny Hakim asked Cuomo why he had scheduled the conference call.

“You know, Danny, I’m not going to get into specifics right continued on page 3

By Cornelius Van Steenwyk

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etermined not to let his shamed exit from the governor’s race be the end of his political career, Gov. David Paterson has approached several associates and at least one campaign operative in what he has told them is “serious consideration” of a primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, whom he appointed to the Senate in January 2009.

“This is an unelected, appointed senator, picked by Albany insiders,” Paterson reportedly told one advisor. “I can’t believe she was chosen.”

Holed up in a utility closet in the Executive Mansion on extended breaks from budget negotiations, Paterson has been drawing up preliminary campaign plans, including a

potential a few campaign slogans, “Reject Paterson’s Pick. Pick Paterson” and “Choice Me, Not My Appointee.”

Many top political figures considered entering the race over the year and a half since Paterson appointed Gillibrand, but have been forced out under pressure from the White House, Sen. Chuck Schumer and the state Democratic Party. Sources say no one has moved to push Paterson out of the race.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo declined comment on the prospective Paterson campaign.

Paterson plans to make the case that the governor would be better suited to the United States Senate, where he would not have to present a budget plan, live in New York, or do much of anything other than

raise his hand for a vote.

“Remember, this guy was in the State Senate Minority for 20 years,” said one person close to the governor. “He’s proved that he thrives in an environment where there are no real demands on him personally and he’s not always being forced to take responsibility for every little thing.”

According to advisors, though, Paterson has spent less time on campaign plans than reviewing seating charts for the Nationals stadium, where he says he is eager to take in a game or two.

The Gillibrand campaign seemed taken aback by the news, immediately issuing a scathing press release attacking the governor.

“The governor bears the responsibility continued on page 3

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APRIL FOOLS’

Walder Aims To Plug Budget Hole With Introduction Of “MTA Classic”

MTA chairman Jay Walder (inset) said the MTA was exploring how to retrofit old train cars rescued from artificial reefs off the coast.

BY CADWALLADER COLDEN

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aced with a mounting deficit and the threat of continued fare hikes, officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently unveiled a plan to revive the beleaguered transit system—called “MTA Classic.”

At a press conference earlier this

Bloomberg continued from page 1 votes for the 2012 presidential nomination.

And at a midtown press conference, Bloomberg quickly dismissed any speculation himself.

“Look, sometimes buying a vacation home is just buying a vacation home, and there isn’t more to it,” Bloomberg said with an eye roll. “Just because the

week, MTA Chairman Jay Walder said the plan would help boost tourism by giving the MTA a “retro vibe,” while also saving hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The service cuts that have been proposed by the MTA would be devastating, so we’ve decided to do this instead,” said Walder, wearing a Wings tshirt, a Kangol cap, and polyester pants.

house is an early-primary state and a swing state for the general, a state with a history of electing reform, and attracting independent-minded people, and a place where they value common-sense, nonpartisan governance over ideological extremism doesn’t mean there is some kind of hidden motive going on here.”

“Jeez,” the mayor added.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo declined comment on the proposal.

The purchase comes after several re-

CITY HALL “People kept telling us, ‘This is worse than the ’70s.’ So we said, ‘You think so?

Okay then.’”

Starting in June, the MTA will phase out the much-hyped R160A subway cars—built with a stainless-steel exterior, fiberglass windows, and the awardwinning Alstom Onix AC traction model for advanced safety—in favor of the R26 model, otherwise known as “The Rattler,” because the noise it makes sounds eerily similar to a death rattle.

“That sound is a quintessentially 1970s sound,” said Jeffrey Pfeffer, the MTA’s commissioner for safety and operations.

“You think there’s something wrong, but there isn’t, probably.”

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo declined comment on the proposal.

Subway lines will also be relabeled to resemble those of the 1970s. The A will become the F, the 6 will become the 3, and the entire N/R/W line will be mysteriously rerouted to run only through the Bronx and parts of southeast Queens.

“That’s how it was in the 1970s,” said Michael Roberts, the MTA’s resident “old-timer,” who stressed repeatedly in an interview that he was only in his early 50s. “We didn’t have maps and color-coded subway lines and doors that opened and closed. If you wanted to go somewhere, you waited 30 or 40 minutes for the next train, rode that until people stopped looking like you, got off the train and figured it out, goddamnit.”

The MTA has also hired renowned conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin to paint each of the new subway cars with replica 1970s-era graffiti. CraigMartin said at the press conference that he would like to focus on what he called “the best of the 1970s,” but that he had to work with the material available.

“I would like to do more than just ‘Reggie Rules’ or ‘Vote Buckley,’” CraigMartin said. “There are only so many times you can write ‘Son of Sam lives’ before people stop taking it seriously.”

“MTA Classic” was applauded for its inventiveness by the Straphangers Campaign and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. But not everyone was immediately convinced the concept would help solve the authority’s cash woes.

“Sounds like a waste of money,” said subway vigilante Bernie Goetz. “I’d rather take a cab.”

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cent moves that have stoked rumors of his presidential ambitions anew. After the election in November, he announced that veteran campaign strategist Howard Wolfson would join City Hall. In early February, he released a draft of his own version of the federal budget, timed to coincide with President Obama’s. Earlier this month, he purchased BloombergForAmerica.com,DraftBloomberg. com, and VoteMikeBloombergforPresident2012.com.

The revelations about the mayor’s lat-

est real estate purchase came during a press conference to announce the kickoff of New York City’s first “Iowa Week,” a celebration of the Hawkeye State that the administration said it would hold at least two more times before the Iowa caucuses.

Thousands of Iowans were flown in via business class for the occasion, and will be meeting with the mayor in small groups, called “town halls” by administration officials, over the course of the next several days.

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CITY HALL

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U.S. Attorney Unveils New “Corruption Amnesty” Program

To Avoid Mass Layoffs, City To Consider Selling Off Michael Bloomberg

BY WILLIAM PEARTREE

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acing an increasingly dire economic situation, city officials announced today that they are considering selling off Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg, worth an estimated $16 billion, is expected to help plug a gap left over from shortfalls in Albany.

“Nobody wanted this day to come,” said Mark Page, director of the Office of Management and Budget. “But the fact of the matter is, this is another firehouse, another daycare center, another senior center that we get to keep open. At the end of the day, it’s kind of a no-brainer.”

The move comes as state and local

Cuomo continued from page 1 “Mr. Attorney General, are you there?”

“Hey, Jim,” Cuomo said, He added: “How’s it going?”

Dolan attempted to answer, but was abruptly cut off by the operator, who moved on to the next question. Times reporter Danny Hakim asked Cuomo why he had scheduled the conference call.

“You know, Danny, I’m not going to get into specifics right now,” Cuomo said.

“Just because you’re great, doesn’t mean

Paterson continued from page 1 are no real demands on him personally and he’s not always being forced to take responsibility for every little thing.”

According to advisors, though, Paterson has spent less time on campaign plans than reviewing seating charts for the Nationals stadium, where

3

APRIL FOOLS’

governments around the country have moved to unload some of their assets, a development that experts say signals a worrying trend.

“Do they sell him by the pound, by the inch, for parts?” said Michael Zuckerman, an expert on local government budget solutions. “I mean, the guy only makes $1 a year. How much do they think they really can get for him?”

Comptroller John Liu immediately issued multiple press releases announcing that his office would be conducting an appraisal of the mayor’s open-market value.

The news that the city was preparing to auction off Bloomberg was met largely with a shrug across New York.

“We need the money right now, so I

don’t really see what’s wrong it,” said Frank LaCroux, 31, of Astoria. “If selling off the mayor means more trains at rush hour, I say, ‘How much?’”

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo declined comment on the proposal.

But Public Advocate Bill de Blasio lashed out against the plan, saying that it “smacks of the worst-kind of backroom deal,” railing, “not only billionaires should be in the conversation when it comes to selling people off.”

Meanwhile, in an effort to raise member-items funds, Council Finance Committee Chair Domenic Recchia announced that he was exploring whether the Council would go for more on eBay individually, or as a full body.

you’re going to get answers out of me.”

As Cuomo spoke, another 15 Daily News reporters dialed. Michael Hornbeck of the Rocky Mountain News asked Cuomo if he was running for governor.

“You know, Michael, first of all, I appreciate your being here,” Cuomo said. “Second of all, there will be a time for politics. Right now, I’m focused on my job as attorney general.”

Steven Wasserman, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, asked Cuomo about the status of his sprawling investigation into the state pension fund system, which has so far netted three indictments and

sparked probes in five other states.

“I want to thank you for the question, Lee, but now is not the time to get into that,” Cuomo said. “My job as attorney general is my job as attorney general, and if I’m going to do it right, I have to do it right. There will be a time for talking, but now is a time for conference calling.”

Ken Rosenthal of WCBS2-HD asked Cuomo to clarify his comments.

“You know, Ken, you can’t go farther than the farthest you can go, and I can’t say more than I can say,” Cuomo said.

“That’s what I’ve done, and that’s what

he says he is eager to take in a game or two.

The Gillibrand campaign seemed taken aback by the news, immediately issuing a scathing press release attacking the governor.

“The governor bears the responsibility for making Kirsten senator,” read the campaign’s statement. “He’s going to have to explain how someone with the judgment to put such a weak candidate

in front of New Yorkers could be an effective senator.”

Paterson is expected to launch the campaign in front of the Executive Mansion to position himself as the outsider in the race and cement his claim that he was raised upstate.

“He keeps talking about it,” said one person with whom Paterson has discussed the race. “At least for the next ten minutes, this is what we all expect

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By Caleb Heathcote Declaring the existing and anticipated caseload of his office “bigger than Dick Ravitch’s belly,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced a program meant to bring the same level of success several states have enjoyed on collecting back taxes to the efforts to clean up government.

“Influence peddling, shake-downs, cat burglary, and all the other ‘rites of passage’ crimes for state and city government are eligible,” Bharara said about the program that some have already taken to calling “the Bruno Initiative.”

Bharara stressed that the program was open to anyone, and not just those who buy their way in, as some state senators have offered to do, at $50,000-$75,000 each.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo declined comment.

I’ll always do.”

Amy Goodman of the Port St. Lucie Gazette asked Cuomo if there was anything at all that he could comment on.

“You’re persistent, Amy. I like that about you,” Cuomo said. “So out of an abundance of caution, and even though I have absolutely no reason to do this, I’ve asked Chief Judge Judith Kaye to handle yours and all other inquiries moving forward. She is a highly respected jurist and a soughtafter public speaker, not to mention a beloved national icon.”

Kaye then briefly appeared on the call to ask reporters if they had received the care packages she had sent them, which included a tin of freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies a hand-written note thanking them for their “wonderful questions.”

The call then began to disband, with 89 of the 120 Daily News reporters hanging up. As the last few stragglers left, Cuomo added, “Oh, by the way, I’m announcing my campaign for governor in early April,” and hung up.

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS’ NOW BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED

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March 29, 2010

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CITY HALL

Financial Dispute, Accusations Against Judith Hope Split Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy

By Andrew J. HAwkins

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he Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee, an influential women’s political action committee founded nine years ago as a spinoff of the state Democratic Party, has been ripped apart by allegations of financial improprieties, with at least ten board members resigning in protest.

Following a recent audit, Judith Hope, the former state Democratic Party chair who founded the group in 2001, is being accused by several former board members of mishandling some of the organization’s finances.

In an email to the directors announcing her resignation, Agnes Varis alleged that Hope kept an entire $162,000 gift from Varis’s husband, the recently deceased Karl Leichtman, that was originally intended to cover both Hope’s $150,000 two-year salary as well as $12,000 to reimburse the group for payroll taxes.

“I was appalled to read the financial report that memorialized that Judith willfully took $12,000 from Karl’s generous gift that did not belong to her, and she refused to return the $12,000 when the issue was raised,” Varis wrote.

Varis recalled in the email that she was initially skeptical of the request but acquiesced after Hope said she would have to resign due to demands made by her husband, Tom, if she did not receive the money.

“I let her con me, for which I now feel stupid,” wrote Varis, a pharmaceutical executive, philanthropist, and leading Democratic donor. “My weakness was that Tom put her on an allowance and told her she had to get a paying job, or else.

I guess my feminism got the best of me.

She needed the economic security because of her economic strains with Tom, and so I allowed my soft feminist heart to take over my better business judgment.”

Hope said the amount in question was part of her overall compensation that was approved by the entire board. She noted that she worked as president for five years without pay, before accepting a salary as what she called a “special gift” for the final two years of her term.

The money in contention was an extension of that, Hope says.

“The $12,000 that they claim is in dispute was salary paid to me for the three months that I worked as president from January through March in 2008 and was approved by the Board of Directors in the 2008 budget,” Hope wrote in an email late Thursday. “All payroll taxes and related costs were paid.”

But other members say the board only approved $150,000 for Hope’s sala-

ry, not the entire $162,000. Several members claimed that Eleanor’s Legacy was notified by an accountant that their balance sheet did not reflect the payment of $12,000.

“The board didn’t have the power to do that without permission from the donor who gave that money,” said one former member.

Tensions have been boiling under the surface at Eleanor’s Legacy for months.

What first appeared to be a disagreement between board members over the primary race between Rep. Carolyn Maloney and hedge-fund lawyer Reshma Saujani has since blossomed into a full-blown power struggle between the group’s founders, represented by Hope, and newer members who took over two years ago, fronted by Cathy Lasry, a wellheeled Democratic donor and supporter of Saujani’s campaign.

The feud exploded on March 18, when Hope approached Lasry about replacing her as the group’s president. According to one board member, Hope was growing frustrated with being out of power; according to others, Hope was speaking on behalf of many dissatisfied with the direction the group was taking and informed Lasry that she had the votes to oust her as president.

But rather than wait for a vote, Lasry resigned. (Hope denies speaking directly to Lasry.)

In the aftermath, at least nine other members also resigned, including Rosina Rubin, the group’s treasurer; Saujani, who has been running against Maloney since early this year; Denise King, a former executive chair of the state party; Karen Feldman, a political consultant; Varis, Cheryl Effron, and Beryl Snyder, all major Democratic Party donors; and Binta Brown, a prominent attorney. State Sen. Liz Krueger also recently resigned, though she told others on the board that her departure was because of the overriding demands of her work as a legislator.

Krueger did not return a call seeking comment.

The group’s website has already been scrubbed of all references to the resigned board members.

Eleanor’s Legacy executive director Carolyn Kamlet did not respond to a request for comment.

Several former and remaining board members predicted that more resignations could follow if allegations about the group’s finances prove true.

In an interview, Hope described the split as a simple disagreement over whether the group should get involved in primary elections. Eleanor’s Legacy restricts itself to donating to the campaigns

andrew schwartz

Ten board resignations, while founding members complain of direction taken by Cathy Lasry

of women running in state and local races, not federal elections.

“There was a strong difference of opinion about the direction of the organization,” Hope said. “We simply feel that the mission of this organization was to support pro-choice Democratic candidates, not to get involved in family feuds.”

Hope’s supporters have a more pointed outlook on the rift. They characterize Lasry and her camp as relative newcomers to the political arena, with lots of money to throw around but little real influence.

“The perception was that she was buying the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy, because Cathy Lasry has never been active in women’s issues, in politics, in anything,” complained one founding board member, later adding, “They used to be the ladies that lunch—now they’re the ladies that politick.”

Many were supporters of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and are seeking ways to remain relevant in city politics, they say, especially as popular opinion has turned against Wall Street and the financial industry.

“This is a sad and desperate move by a small group of former directors,” wrote Nora Bredes, the vice chair, who has been tapped to replace Lasry as president, in an email. “Rather than acquiesce to a democratic process, the group decided to make accusations, resign, and then try to publicly smear the organization. Their actions are unprofessional and politically unwise. Eleanor’s Legacy is moving forward with new leadership.”

The lawyers have already gotten involved. On March 26, election attorney Henry Berger sent a letter on behalf of Hope to Bredes and the group’s chair, Harriet Cornell, stating that the misappropriation accusations are “untrue and defamatory.”

“In a rather bizarre fashion, Lasry linked a routine workers’ compensation audit (to determine appropriate payroll

tax rates) with the unrelated issue of Judith’s compensation,” he said.

With Lasry and her supporters out, the organization finds itself without many of its wealthy fund-raisers, leaving its future viability in doubt. Lasry’s husband, Marc Lasry, a major Democratic donor, employs Chelsea Clinton at his firm Avenue Capital Group. Varis was also a major bankroller of the group, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years. According to the most recent filings with the state Board of Elections, Eleanor’s Legacy has $286,000 in its main account, while its Vote Project account is $1,200 in debt.

And, as one former board member put it, the bank account is not likely to grow much now that many of the major donors have resigned.

“All the money of the organization has left,” the former board member said.

The organization is a 501(c)4 taxexempt nonprofit, a legally distinct entity from the Eleanor’s Legacy PAC, which has distributed more than $1 million to almost 1,000 candidates in its nine years of operations.

The remaining board members say Lasry’s departure clears the way for the group to be led by an upstate woman.

Bredes, director of the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership at the University of Rochester, has been tapped

by Hope to take over as president.

Catherine Abate, a board member and former state senator from Manhattan, said the geographic shift was significant.

“I’m very appreciative of what Cathy Lasry did and the hard work she put in,” Abate said. “Many people felt it was time for someone from upstate to take over that leadership.”

Several of the departing members, though, are from outside New York City, including Karen Feldman and Denise King.

Lasry, for one, said she is eager to move on and continue the mission of electing progressive women to office.

Her supporters say that they are bonded together by this experience, which could lead to the formation of a new women’s political group in the future.

“We all want to continue helping women around the state,” Lasry said. “I just have to figure out other ways to do it.”

But many members on both sides expressed personal dismay over the effect the internal struggle has had on the group’s mission of supporting women candidates for office.

Or, as one remaining board member put it, “Eleanor Roosevelt would be spinning in her grave right now.” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

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BREAKING BOUNDARIES

IN SCIENCE RESEARCH

Polymer and material science

Venomous toxins for drug development

Superconductivity Theoretical chemical physics Brain cancer infiltration

Fluorescence spectroscopy of complex biomolecules

Spiraling clockwise from upper right: Dr. Myriam Sarachik, Distinguished Professor of Physics, City College; Dr. Neepa Maitra, Associate Professor of Physics, Hunter College; Dr. Marie Filbin, Distinguished Professor of Biology, Director of the Specialized Neuroscience Research Program, Hunter College; Dr. Lesley Davenport, Professor of Chemistry, Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center; Dr. Vicki Flaris, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Bronx Community College; Dr. Mandë Holford, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, York College and CUNY Graduate Center; Dr. Maribel Vazquez, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, City College

Spinal cord injury repair

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reaking boundaries in science at The City University of New York — Distinguished women scientists at all CUNY colleges are making history all year round by conducting pioneering research in fields that are critical to our nation’s future. Through CUNY’s “Decade of Science,” they are teaching and working with outstanding students in laboratories and classrooms in cutting-edge areas of applied and basic science. Vice Chancellor for Research Gillian Small and Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning, Management and Construction Iris Weinshall are working together on the programming and construction of the new CUNY Advanced Science Research Center at City College.

World-class faculty. Breaking Boundaries. Making History. All year round at CUNY.

For more information about CUNY women in science visit www.cuny.edu/decadeofscience

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CITY HALL

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Finally Appointed, Charter Commission Begins To Chart Course

Politicians worry about return of non-partisan elections

By Chris Bragg

W

hen Mayor Ed Koch empanelled a charter revision commission in 1986 to conduct the last sweeping review of city government, the process took three years to finish.

But SUNY chancellor Matt Goldstein, the man tapped by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to chair the new commission, believes he can do the job in just five and a half months and get much of the charter’s referenda on the ballot in November.

“To do less, I think, the opportunity cost would just be too high,” Goldstein said at the commission’s first meeting, in mid-March.

Though Goldstein says he wants to put as many charter changes as possible on the ballot during the high-turnout 2010 election, Bloomberg’s new charter-revision commission could give itself another year to cull through the 359-page charter, putting off a vote until November 2011.

The schedule for the new commission is expected to be grueling. After hearings in all five boroughs, the commission will pick areas to focus on in late April, Goldstein said, with a draft of potential charter changes written by commission staff by late June. A final draft report will be done by early August. The commission would then have to submit its final recommendations by Sept. 3 to be approved for the ballot.

If anything goes on the ballot for 2010, Bloomberg would technically have to appoint a new commission for any ongoing work after that.

The Bloomberg administration has concerns about splitting questions between years. If the measures of the greatest public interest, such as term limits, are all on the ballot in 2010, more mundane matters pertaining to the nuts and bolts of government—such as those that control city budget practices—could get scant public attention in 2011.

Assembly Member Rory Lancman, a member of the Cities Committee who is pushing a bill that would retroactively alter the makeup of the commission, said he feared Bloomberg would put a popular item like new term limits on the ballot in 2010 and add several pet causes such as non-partisan elections in the hopes that voters approve them all.

Lancman wants the vote pushed back to 2011 to give voters more time to familiarize themselves with these kinds of maneuvers.

Lancman downplayed the concerns

about lack of participation in an off-cycle year.

“I would prefer to have a lower turnout, because that small segment of the electorate would be much better informed,” Lancman said.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is also pushing for the commission to hold off until 2011. He said that if Bloomberg is truly serious about a sweeping charter review, collecting a broad array of ideas and inputs will take far longer than five months.

“The 2009 mayoral election had such a low turnout because people are feeling disenfranchised by their government,”

“I would prefer to have a lower turnout, because that small segment of the electorate would be much better informed,” said Assembly Member Rory Lancman, who wants the charter revisions to be put off until the 2011 elections.

Stringer said. “The last thing you want to do is set up a charter commission that is seen as political.”

The agenda for the new commission remains unclear, although Goldstein said term limits are certain to be on the ballot in 2010.

According to a Bloomberg-administration source, the commission is unlikely to propose eliminating the borough presidents’ or public advocate’s office. Such efforts could become lightening rods that draw public attention away from reforms the administration considers more important. In 2003, when the administration pushed for politically unpopular nonpartisan elections, two other lesserknown measures lost along with it.

But that does not mean non-partisan elections will not come up again. When Bloomberg was seeking the Independence Party line last year, the mayor reportedly continued on page 9

March 29, 2010

Our Perspective The Queens Center Mall: Using Public Dollars to Create Poverty Wage Jobs

By Stuart Appelbaum President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW

T

he Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst is one of the most profitable malls in America, yet its owner, the Macerich Company, receives more than $100 million in public subsidies. For that kind of money you’d think that Macerich would recognize its obligation to our community. Think again.

Despite the huge outlay in public dollars, most of the 3,100 jobs at the mall pay at or around the $7.25 federal minimum wage. And health benefits? Forget it. In fact, the mall’s operators are so cheap that they were recently caught covering parking meters with bogus NYPD “No Parking” signs to give customers no choice but to park in its garage!

On March 8, members of the Queens Center Mall Campaign (QCMC)-a coalition of labor and community groups-demonstrated outside of the mall’s management office. Our message was as simple as it was important: it’s time to transform the Queens Center Mall from a publicly subsidized poverty wage center into an engine for economic growth and jobs with a future.

It’s time to transform the Queens Center Mall from a publicly subsidized poverty wage center into an engine for economic growth and jobs with a future.

And it doesn’t stop in Elmhurst.

The March 8 action was part of a growing, RWDSU-backed campaign to require New York City businesses that receive public subsidies to live up to the responsibilities of corporate citizenship. That includes paying a living wage with benefits, respecting their employees’ right to form a union, and providing affordable space for much-needed community services.

The bottom line is that when public dollars are used to subsidize private development, New Yorkers have the right to expect something in return: that the jobs they’re creating help workers into the middle-class.

Visit us on the web at

www.rwdsu.org

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THANKS NEW YORK.

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CITY HALL

Charter

continued from page 7

told the party that he would again push for non-partisan elections, though in an interview with City Hall in February, a Bloomberg press secretary insisted that the administration is not interested in pursuing non-partisan elections again.

The agenda is likely to be shaped in large part by whoever is picked as the new executive director—especially if the choice is someone close to the administration, like Bloomberg speechwriter Frank Barry, who is seen as one of the frontrunners to become the commission’s executive director. Barry is the author of the pro-non-partisan elections book The Scandal of Reform.

But John Banks, the vice chair of the commission, insisted that it would be independent of the mayor regardless.

“No one has pressed me to take up any part of their agenda at this point,” Banks said.

Once the commission determines the questions to put before voters about the makeup of city government, it will have to decide whether to put the questions before voters singly or to have voters

give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the whole package. This latter option is seen as the more political one, since the administration could bundle less popular measures with ones that the public is almost certain to approve.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has been pushing for Goldstein to commit to writing separate ballot questions so that unrelated issues (including those involving the public advocate’s office) cannot be lumped with unrelated questions.

Stringer, de Blasio, and Comptroller John Liu—all expected 2013 mayoral candidates—have been circulating various suggestions and demands, leading to speculation that the commission could get drowned out in politicking and bully pulpit posturing.

Asked about his philosophy on lumping ballot questions together or separating them, Goldstein declined to take a clear position. He said his focus was on what would be on the ballot, rather than on how it will be presented.

“There are all sorts of ways these things can be presented, but we haven’t touched that at this point,” Goldstein said. “We’re focused on the issues, rather than the structure.” cbragg@cityhallnews.com

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March 29, 2010

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY ADAPTING TO NEW ECONOMICS Building Trades Employers Association

Building and Construction Trades Council

Construction Industry Partnership of New York City A Message from Louis J. Coletti, President & CEO, Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA) and Gary LaBarbera, President of the Building & Construction Trades Council

Last year, New York City’s unionized construction industry was standing at the most important threshold in its history: after an economic crash sent shock waves through the real estate community, financing large-scale construction projects became a thing of the past and thousands of construction-related jobs and businesses were threatened.

Quick action was needed, so the Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA) and the Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTC) took on a shared sacrifice to launch the historic “Economic Recovery Project Labor Agreement,” (PLA) which aimed to stimulate private construction projects stalled by the regional and national recession.

We understood that the financial crisis permanently changed the cost structure of the construction industry. The PLA was a great step forward in demonstrating to the development and financial community that our industry understands the new economic realities of building in today’s market, and that we are willing to make the necessary changes to remain competitive.

And what a difference a year can make! The cost of private unionized construction projects has been reduced by an impressive 10-20 percent through labor and total project cost reductions. In just one year, the PLA jump-started 48 projects worth $11.5 billion, saving/ creating 25,000 construction jobs. Without the PLA, it’s estimated that the unemployment rate in New York City would be at least 40 percent.

: Your stop for New York City political news.

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However, the industry did not stop with just the “Economic Recovery” PLA. We continued working at the negotiating table and ironed out several major labor agreements on public projects. Working with Mayor Bloomberg we were able to secure four project labor agreements that covered $5.3 billion in public projects comprising 32,000 construction jobs over the next four years. Collectively, the agreements will save the City nearly $300 million, all of which will be used for public works projects that otherwise would have had to have been cut due to the economic downturn.

We have seen first-hand the profound and immediate effects these PLA’s have played in jump-starting projects that were stalled, and this has doubled our commitment to making long-term, permanent changes that will keep unionized construction at work.

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MARCH 29, 2010

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CITY HALL

After Lazar Loss, Dov Hikind May Be Next Target Among Brooklyn Jews Boro Park power broker’s influence in doubt after 18-point defeat of backed candidate

BY CHRIS BRAGG

O

n the day after David Greenfield’s stunning 18-point specialelection victory over Joe Lazar, leaders in the Hasidic community of Boro Park were already making calls about the elections this November.

But they were not looking for a candidate to run against Greenfield—though he will have to run again for the Council seat he just won.

Instead, these leaders were gauging the interest in running a Hasidic candidate against Assembly Member Dov Hikind, the longtime Orthodox Jewish powerbroker who strongly backed Lazar, according to an individual who has been approached by multiple people about running against Hikind.

“The question everyone is asking today is: Who is running against Dov?” the person said.

Leaders of Hasidic social-services and religious groups are angry about being strong-armed into endorsing Lazar under the threat of losing funding from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Hikind ally, the person said.

During the Council campaign, meanwhile, younger voters proved to be independent of the religious and yeshiva leaders who lent their support to Lazar, finding new means of mobilizing through technology such as text messaging.

If the community could find someone from the Hasidic community who had political connections like David Greenfield—who knocked on 12,000 doors during the campaign—perhaps it could topple Hikind, say local political operatives.

Mark Botnick, Greenfield’s campaign manager, said the Council campaign proved that Hikind could be beaten.

“I think he’s clearly vulnerable,” Botnick said.

Hikind did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Hikind remains formidable. He still has $1.4 million in his campaign account. His member items also give him a foothold in the community: Last year alone, he doled out $2.2 million.

Though Hikind and Greenfield have a contentious relationship, those close to Greenfield say there is virtually no chance he would spearhead his own effort to get a candidate against Hikind this fall or anytime in the near future.

A more likely target for Greenfield is Assembly Member Steven Cymbrowitz,

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who represents a district covering the Sephardic community—for whom Greenfield has served as a political liaison the past five years, and which still serves as Greenfield’s political base. Greenfield is also said to have a genuine disdain for Cymbrowitz, according to people close to him.

The bigger question surrounding Hikind, observers say, is whether he will continue to wield the kind of clout that has made a trip to Boro Park a necessary stop for any candidate running for citywide or statewide office in the past two decades.

In two recent elections, Hikind’s preferred candidates have not done particularly well in Boro Park. In 2008, he backed Kevin Parker, who won his race but lost big in the neighborhood to then-Council Member Simcha Felder. In 2009, the same scenario played out in the adjacent Council district when Brad Lander, who secured Hikind’s endorsement early on, won the seat despite performing in the teens in Boro Park. These defeats could be explained away—the

candidates came from other neighborhoods and did not share the values of the largely Orthodox community there.

Plus, both candidates ultimately won their races.

This time, though, the contest was between two Orthodox Jews—and Hikind still could not deliver a majority of votes in Boro Park.

In the future, will someone like Comptroller John Liu stick his neck out to endorse Hikind’s candidate, simply because Hikind had endorsed him during the comptroller’s race?

Yosef Rapaport, the political editor of the prominent Jewish newspaper Hamodia, says probably not.

“The real powerbrokers now are the Sephardics,” Rapaport said. “The Hasidic community is totally divided in two.”

In backing Lazar over Greenfield, Hikind may have dredged up animosity among this group, which could cause problems for him down the road.

But Rapaport argued that young people in Boro Park fail to understand the rationale behind the way Hikind operates.

As a politically conservative religious community stuck in the middle of a liberal, secular city, the kind of deal-making and horse-trading Hikind engages in are necessary to get the resources the community needs, Rapaport argued.

With the younger generation increasingly able to get information on these kinds of maneuvers on popular Jewish blogs like Yeshiva World, the backroom deals are now suddenly out in the open.

During the campaign, the attention given to Hikind’s attempts to narrow the field of candidates that would run against Greenfield fed into this perception.

Still, Rapaport believes this new level of transparency and a desire for cleaner government from the younger generation could have negative consequences.

“They don’t pay deference to their own determent,” Rapaport said. “They don’t understand that this is how the sausage is made.”

As Hikind tries to look past the results of the Council election, he must do so in a neighborhood that has undergone rapid change since he was first elected in 1983.

The politically conservative Orthodox population that was once the majority of Boro Park has made an exodus to the suburbs in recent decades as the ultraOrthodox Hasidic population has grown.

Hikind’s profile, too, has grown in some respects in recent years. He has become one of New York’s best-known defenders of Israel, and his frequent trips there garner international-news attention. But critics say there is a perception afoot that he has become more loyal to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than to his constituents.

Ezra Friedlander, the CEO of the consulting and lobbying firm The Friedlander Group, said that Hikind’s real problem is that because he has been the undisputed leader of Boro Park for so long, he has not felt the need to promote his accomplishments.

He has not faced a competitive election in decades, and his name recognition in the neighborhood is not what it once was.

Friedlander suggested Hikind go on a public relations blitz to let the younger generation know of all the things he is doing to help the community.

“Does he toot his own horn? Not enough,” Friedlander said. “This is the age of Twitter and Facebook. He needs to find the Hasidic equivalent of that.” cbragg@cityhallnews.com

More News More www.cityhallnews.com

C

Eva Moskowitz, right, mulls a 2013 comeback (Page 8), new Council Member Liz Crowley braves the harsh weather for her first day on the job (Page 18)

and Richard Ravitch, left, explains why everyone should get on board his plan to save the MTA (Page 23).

D8IKP

Vol. 3, No. 8

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January 2009

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CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

Charter Schools Fight For Equal Funding, Though Critics See Evidence Of Abuse

By Andrew J. HAwkins

F

or all their points of contention, charter school advocates and critics agree that the complex funding formula that bankrolls the schools is fundamentally flawed.

Advocates say the current funding formula, based on the amount a school district spends per pupil the previous year, discriminates against charter school students, especially after the state last year froze aid for charters at 2008 levels. Meanwhile, opponents are preparing for a series of hearings on charter schools that will likely precipitate a push to alter the law that dictates how they are funded.

Senate Education Committee Chair Suzi Oppenheimer said that after budget negotiations are over, she would like to examine the way charter schools receive state aid, as part of her ongoing quest to reduce property taxes.

More distressing to advocates: State Sen. Bill Perkins, an outspoken critic of charters, is planning a hearing of his Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee on the growth of the charter school industry.

Perkins promises that his hearing will open a treasure trove of information about shady deals and questionable business practices at charter schools across the state.

“We’ve been interested in following the money,” Perkins said, “and finding out how much profit there may be in nonprofit. They’re basically using privatized solutions to public education.”

Perkins alluded to several examples he said he will explore in more detail at the hearing, set for mid-April in Lower Manhattan. He cited one school in Brooklyn that receives portions of its funding from the sale of bridal clothes and wedding accessories. While another in upstate New York is located in a building that is owned by the operator of the school; Perkins claims this complex arrangement allows the state to fund the owner’s real estate deal.

“I think the hearing will show these dollars are not being used all the time for educational purposes,” Perkins said.

New York State United Teachers, the state union, meanwhile, has obtained state education data and student records through the Freedom of Information Law, and is also trying to show that some charter schools are mishandling state funding.

March 29, 2010

13

A True Reform Agenda

By Michael Mulgrew President of the United Federation of Teachers

Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, said ultimately the goal is to establish a separate funding stream for charter schools, so as to avoid the bitter competition for state aid between charters and public schools.

“What a separate funding stream does is to do what large foundations are doing,” Iannuzzi said. “Which is to fund well-thought-out innovation, as opposed to rolling the dice to see if something sticks or not.”

NYSUT supports a current bill in the Legislature that would require charter schools to accept special-education and English as a Second Language students, as well as submit their finances to the state comptroller for regular audits.

Charters have successfully blocked these efforts in the past.

Charter schools receive a vast majority of their funding from the state. The State Education Department sets the per-pupil amount for each district based on its expenses and enrollment.

Peter Murphy, president of the New York Charter School Association, claimed that part of the reason he believes New York is unlikely to win funds from the federal Race to the Top program is because the state, with its cap on the number of allowed charters and inequitable funding formula, has failed to put charters and public schools on a level playing field.

“This is a very negative treatment of charter schools here,” Murphy said. “This has been foisted on the Legislature by the teacher unions, which are basically in competition with charters.”

He added, “To me, we’re way beyond competing over public dollars. This is about putting charters out of business.”

Charter school operators say that the state has added insult to injury by freezing aid to charters at 2008 levels.

Eva Moskowitz, the former chair of Council Education Committee, who currently runs the Harlem Success Academy, said the freeze has been devastating for her school and others across the state.

“Whatever zoned schools get, charter schools should also get,” Moskowitz said.

She said she does not understand what motivates teacher unions and legislators like Perkins to look for more ways to stifle the growth of the charter school industry.

“Don’t we want more of these schools?”

Moskowitz said. “It’s like motherhood and apple pie: Why are we against this?” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

C

Diane Ravitch is one of the nation’s most respected writers on education policy and history. A former Assistant Secretary of Education in Washington (in a Republican administration), she was an early proponent of increased accountability, charter schools, and other “market” reforms.

But Ms. Ravitch, who has followed these issues closely in recent years, has not liked what these policies have produced. In fact, she has changed her mind, and her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, is a ringing indictment of many current education “reforms.”

It should be required reading for single-minded proponents of test prep, charter schools and school closings, including their cheerleaders on the editorial pages of New York City’s tabloids.

Charter schools: Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein have made the expansion of charter schools a key element of their education agenda, with the Mayor stating that one of his goals is to expand charter schools to the point where they take in as much as 10 per cent of the city’s school kids.

The Mayor and other charter proponents maintain that charters do a better job of educating kids than do public schools, producing higher average test scores.

Here’s what Ms. Ravitch has to say in a recent column in the Wall Street Journal about her findings in researching her new book: “The higher graduation rates posted by charters often reflect the fact that they are able to “counsel out” the lowest performing students; many charters have very high attrition rates (in some, 50-60% of those who start fall away). Those who survive do well, but this is not a model for public education, which must educate all children.”

Closing Schools: On both a local and national level, school authorities are focusing on closing schools in trouble rather than fixing them. The UFT, joined by the NAACP, recently sued the Department of Education to try to prevent it from closing 19 schools that the Department has tried to shutter, based on shaky or indefinite criteria.

Here’s Ms. Ravitch’s analysis of this phenomenon, nationwide: “The current emphasis on accountability has created a punitive atmosphere in the schools.

The Obama administration seems to think that schools will improve if we fire teachers and close schools. They do not recognize that schools are often the anchor of their communities, representing values, traditions and ideals that have persevered across decades.

They also fail to recognize that the best predictor of low academic performance is poverty—not bad teachers.”

Testing: Chancellor Klein has often discussed how critical he regards the collection of data and the importance of constant testing to determine students’ progress. He also trumpeted dramatic student gains on state tests as proof of the soundness of this approach, although the gains of New York City students on national tests has been much more modest than those recorded on the state tests. Many teachers have complained that the focus on preparation for state tests has taken too much time away from real instruction on what kids need to know.

Ms. Ravitch has some strong words about this issue also: “In short, accountability turned into a nightmare for American schools, producing graduates who were drilled regularly on the basic skills but were often ignorant about almost everything else. Colleges continued to complain about the poor preparation of entering students, who not only had meager knowledge of the world but still required remediation in basic skills.”

Real school reform The public debate on modern education has been dominated recently by charter cheerleaders and “get-tough” proponents of closing schools and relentless testing. Too often they have combined exaggerated claims of success of their “reform” tactics with a denunciation of their opponents as defenders of a failed status quo.

Let’s hope that Ms. Ravitch’s unimpeachable reputation for honesty, her rigorous scholarship and her unmatched sense of history should now be helping these people rethink their positions. Meanwhile, as a teacher and union leader, I heartily endorse another of her observations: “What we need is not a marketplace, but a coherent curriculum that prepares all students. And our government should commit to providing a good school in every neighborhood in the nation, just as we strive to provide a good fire company in every community.”

PA I D A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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March 29, 2010

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CITY HALL

Preliminary Motions Begin For 2013 Brooklyn D.A. Race—If Hynes Goes

end up a consolation prize. Generally a dead-end job, it has little appeal for ambitious politicians looking to climb the ranks. Hynes himself made a run for attorney general in 1994 and for governor in 1998, both of which ended in defeat.

But for politicians with their eyes on Congress or the borough president’s office, district attorney could prove an appealing second choice—especially for someone with an activist profile who might have more success transforming the office into a political stepping-stone.

Both Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries and Council Member Letitia James, prominent African-American politicians who are lawyers, have been mentioned as possibilities. They reportedly have their eyes on Rep. Ed Towns’s Congressional seat, but if that race gets too crowded, they could opt for district attorney.

And by 2013, according to some chatter, if the Senate Democrats are once again in the minority, Sampson will likely no longer be the conference leader and could make another run at the seat.

A split in the black vote could, in turn, leave an opening for a white candidate, especially one who appeals to the reformminded progressives of the Brownstone Belt. Former Council Member David Yassky considered running in 2005 and, despite his seven-year term as Taxi and Limousine commissioner, might take another look in 2013 if the seat opens.

As one Yassky associate put it, “He’s a restless guy.”

Fidler, a close confidant of Hynes’s, is also considered a possible candidate, given that he will be term-limited out of Even so, a formidable black candidate the Council in 2013. Fidler’s relationship the shifting demographics of Brooklyn suggest the next district attorney should will almost certainly be an instant with Brooklyn Democratic Leader Vito favorite.

Lopez has been strained in recent months, be a prominent black or Latino.

Two black potential candidates whose but some political observers suggested “I just can’t see, at this point, given Brooklyn’s demographics, there not being names have circulated are Zachary Carter, that with Hynes as mediator, Fidler could a qualified black or Latino candidate a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern mend fences with Lopez and become the running,” said Chris Owens, a former District who now works in private county’s preferred candidate for D.A. The early favorite among progressive Congressional candidate and a political practice, and Loretta Lynch, the current activists, though, seems to be Assembly activist. “And that, of course, makes U.S. Attorney under President Obama.

In a brief interview, Carter would not Member James Brennan, a close ally of everything else interesting.” the reform-minded Central Brooklyn Brooklyn’s black populaIndependent Democrats who briefly tion has been paralleled in “The politics of Brooklyn ran for comptroller last year. its rise only by the booming Brennan, a lawyer who oversaw the Brownstone Brooklyn vote, are such now that if there Assembly’s Oversight Committee which has grown more impor- were not a formidable, and sits on the Codes Committee, tant in recent years, accord- qualified black or Latino confirmed in an interview that he ing to political analyst Jerry candidate, I would be would look at the race if Hynes Skurnik. An open district atchooses not to seek re-election. torney’s race could pit the two very surprised,” said “It’s something I would consider,” against each other, especially Chris Owens, a former Brennan said. if there is a heated DemocratCongressional candidate Brennan added that his record ic primary for mayor at the and a political activist. of overseeing investigations in the top of the ticket.

Assembly and dealing with criminal The split would also make “And that, of course, makes justice issues would fit the profile of horse-trading among the everything else interesting.” the district attorney’s office well. borough’s power brokers “I would think that issues of cormore likely, given that there would be an open race for borough say whether he would consider running if ruption and public integrity would be president at the same time. Black the seat opened up, though he did rule out a significant concern for me if I were political leaders might want one of their a challenge to Hynes. Political leaders say to pursue the district attorney’s office,” own to run for the borough’s top job, Lynch would be a more likely candidate Brennan said. “It’s very important for the in which case they might trade their if Obama loses the 2012 election and a district attorney to have a long-standing record of independence. And I think I fit support for a Brownstone candidate in a Republican president ousts her.

Among elected officials, the Brooklyn that bill.” down-ballot race, such as in the race for district attorney post could in some way district attorney. sgentile@cityhallnews.com emily byrl

Brennan interested, though field could also include Zachary Carter, Loretta Lynch

By Sal Gentile

A

ll last year, the question swirled among criminal defense lawyers and political leaders in Brooklyn: “Have you heard anybody who’s running against Joe Hynes?”

By November, the 74-year-old Brooklyn district attorney won re-election with 99.9% of the vote, just four years after narrowly fending off a challenge from State Sen. John Sampson and two others.

In the months since, Hynes has told close associates that the only way he will leave the district attorney’s office is “in a box.”

“Joe Hynes has already started raising money for his re-election in 2013 and has told me he intends to be ‘the Irish Morgenthau,’” said Council Member Lew Fidler, who ran Hynes’s first campaign for district attorney, in 1985.

But speculation about Hynes’s political future has been fueled by his age—he will be 78 by the next election—as well as by his health: He quietly underwent openheart surgery last summer.

(Almost everyone expects that Hynes will finish his current term; but if for some reason he does not, the governor at the time would be empowered to appoint a replacement and call a special election.)

Several activists in the borough have begun arguing that the time for a change in the office has come, and that

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CITY HALL

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MARCH 29, 2010

15

As ACORN Fades, Its Successor’s Political Clout May Grow

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

No longer accepting government funding, New York Communities for Change may join the Working Families coalition

BY SAL GENTILE ow that ACORN is shuttering its headquarters and splintering into dozens of different grassroots groups, its leaders across the country and in New York are doubling down on the very thing that has antagonized its conservative critics.

“Organizing, organizing, organizing,” said former ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, standing on the steps of City Hall on a rainy Monday in March.

Lewis had just celebrated, along with a half-dozen local lawmakers and citywide officials, an appellate court ruling which found Congress’s decision last year to strip ACORN of its funding unconstitutional.

The ruling itself was a pyrrhic victory.

Lewis had already instructed ACORN’s successor organizations to disentangle themselves from local governments, to diversify their funding sources, and to distill their core missions. ACORN affiliates will no longer provide foreclosure counseling or help low-income workers apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit, two programs that were funded in part by taxpayer dollars.

“We’re not going to be a service group,” said Jon Kest, the former head of the New York chapter of ACORN and now

N

The outlines of ACORN are still visible in the New York Communities for Change, at the group’s 2 Nevins Street offices, and in many of its relaunched operations. the leader of New York Communities for Change, a local successor organization run by many of the same people. “The key piece for us is going to be community organizing.”

Refusing government funding and shedding their social-services components will also allow New York Communities for Change and other ACORN successors to more easily engage in electoral politics without opening themselves up to charges of using taxpayer dollars for partisan purposes.

Nationally, the group ran a political consulting arm called Citizens Services Inc. A local incarnation called New York Citizens Services was contracted by several Council candidates and the campaign of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in last year’s elections. Going forward, though, New York Communities for Change will operate as a nonprofit organizing group focused on public policy.

Lewis acknowledged that the receipt of government funding was what made ACORN a ripe target for its enemies.

“This is a weapon that folks have used,” Lewis said. “And so, for us, our advice to other community groups is, ‘diversify

your funding base, and don’t even give these people a chance.’”

Without the restrictions tied to government funding, according to Lewis and others, ACORN’s successor organizations will likely be even more politically aggressive than ACORN was.

Already, supporters and board members of New York Communities for Change have begun to discuss whether the organization should join the Working Families Organization, an association of labor unions and community organizing outfits tied to the Working Families Party, a significant force in local elections. Lewis was a co-chair of the Working Families Party and co-founder of the Organization, and ACORN was among the largest and most influential members.

“They were such an integral part of the organization and everything we did,” said Dorothy Siegel, the treasurer of both the WFP and the WFO. “If we needed troops on the ground, there were two ways to get them: through ACORN and through an affiliate.”

Siegel held one of the first fund-raisers for New York Communities for Change in her home in Brooklyn Heights in late February. The event attracted several

elected officials, including de Blasio, and raised several thousand dollars.

Though WFP co-chair Bob Master and executive committee member Peter Colavito were on the host committee for the event, neither they nor other officials from the WFP attended, according to Siegel, and ACORN leaders were absent from a meeting of the WFP executive committee in Albany in March. But Siegel said there has already been preliminary discussion among WFP members about whether New York Communities for Change should join the coalition.

“I think they want to participate,” Siegel said of the new organization’s leaders. “These are people who are very, very involved in the work of the WFP.” Kest said that there was considerable support among the organization’s board members for working with the WFP coalition and that the matter would be discussed further as New York Communities for Change rebuilds.

“There’s a lot of sentiment that part of what worked well with ACORN was being involved with the WFP, as well as doing the organizing work,” Kest said.

He cautioned, though, that New York continued on page 16

16

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Acorn continued from page 15 Communities for Change could not simply inherit ACORN’s role in Working Families, because there is no formal link between the old group and the new one that would allow ACORN’s paid membership in the WFO to be transferred to New York Communities for Change.

Working Families spokesperson Dan Levitan said the group would have to decide on its own whether to join.

“As a community organization doing the work that Communities for Change is setting out to do, joining Working Families might be a good fit,” Levitan said. “But of course, it’s up to them.”

As for ACORN, Lewis and her colleagues have begun to formally dismantle the national organization. Most former ACORN officials, especially those who have started new organizations, consider ACORN, for all intents and purposes, dead.

But in the weeks before the bankruptcy proceedings, Lewis said she held out hope that it would one day be possible to revive ACORN—after its well-publicized troubles have faded from public memory.

“We’re hoping that our presence can be reconstituted,” Lewis said. “Other folks, they’ve decided, ‘We’ve got to move forward. We’re not ACORN, because we need to be independent.’” sgentile@cityhallnews.com

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ACORN Housing Arm, Battered By Federal Funding Ban, Lives On The nationwide community organizing group ACORN may be shutting down, but its nonprofit housing developer, ACORN Housing Corporation, lives on.

The organization, which manages and develops affordable housing units in New York, has gone through a rebranding of its own, changing its name to Mutual Housing NY. Ismene Speliotis, the group’s executive director, said that was ACORN Housing Corporation’s original name when it was founded in 1986.

Speliotis said the group is neither an affiliate nor a subsidiary of ACORN, but that it has nonetheless been hurt by Congress’s decision last year to ban federal funding for ACORN or any of its “allies,” a term Speliotis said is overly broad. A court has since deemed Congress’s decision unconstitutional, though the Obama administration is appealing.

“We’ve tried to make it clear to the government that MAHNY is a separate entity, that it’s always been a separate entity,” Speliotis said. “If the law says, ‘Don’t fund ACORN,’ and then we say, ‘we’re not ACORN,’ and then somebody decides that we are ACORN even though We’re not ACORN, then it’s a bit of a problem.”

ACORN’s successor organizations across the country, such as New York Communities for Change, have been disentangling themselves from local governments and diversifying their funding bases, so that they no longer rely on taxpayer funding. But as a nonprofit housing developer, MAHNY subsists in part on federal housing subsidies, such as Section 8 funding, to maintain the roughly 12,000 affordable units it manages in New York.

So far, MAHNY’s contracts with the city Housing and Preservation Department remain intact, according to officials.

“Every organization that we partner with has to go through a vetting process,” said Eric Bederman, a spokesman for HPD. “This is no different for MHANY, or any other entity.

Where we have contracts or are working with them this is the case.”

But the Defund ACORN Act, passed last year, held up many of those Section 8 grants, Speliotis says. An ACORN-managed property in the Bronx, for example, was scheduled in January to begin receiving $25,000 a month in Section 8 funding. That money has failed to come through, threatening MAHNY’s ability to do basic capital improvement projects at the site.

“That’s not a position we want to be in—which is not taking care of our tenants and our building,” Speliotis said. “We’re very good owners.”

MAHNY will also be charged with leasing and marketing the roughly 2,250 units of affordable housing to be built at the controversial Atlantic Yards site in Prospect Heights.

Advocates say ACORN’s shuttering has thrown the Atlantic Yards plan—which has already changed several times—into disarray.

“One of the big issues, of course, is that nobody has any idea when this affordable housing might be built,” said Jo Anne Simon, a lawyer and activist with the Brooklyn Speaks coalition, which is lobbying for accountability at the Atlantic Yards site. “And, of course, ACORN was there to ensure not just that it was built—they were going to be managing that property.”

Bertha Lewis, the CEO of ACORN, said in an interview that she was unsure how the Community Benefits Agreement the group signed with Forest City Ratner would have to be amended to reflect the change in organizations. But she insisted that ACORN would continue to live on in some way in order to enforce the housing provisions in the agreement.

“I don’t know what we would have to technically do,” she said, adding, “ACORN still exists, and Bertha Lewis still exists.”

—SG

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MARCH 29, 2010

Business Leaders, WFP Take Council’s Temperature On Paid Sick Leave

BY CHRIS BRAGG

I

n December, Council Member Gale Brewer presided over one of the longest Council hearings anyone could remember—a five-and-a-half-hour marathon on the paid-sick-leave bill she is sponsoring.

Since then, Brewer and her staff have met repeatedly with business groups as she delayed the bill’s introduction in an effort to bring them on board.

When the bill was finally reintroduced at the end of March, it contained a number of concessions.

Still, as Brewer stood on the steps of City Hall next to a dozen Council members and myriad community activists and union members, not a single member of the business community stood with her.

Brewer insisted she had done the best she could to involve them and that it was time to get the legislative process started.

“Every single person who has met with us has been listened to,” she said, announcing the introduction of the bill.

The new bill changes the definition of small business from those with 10 or fewer employees to those with 20 or fewer and allows these small businesses to offer only five paid sick days a year, rather than nine. But the business owners said that for all the talk, many of their concerns had not been addressed.

“Eight months after the introduction of the original bill, we thought there would be more than just cosmetic changes,” said Matt Greller, a lobbyist for several

business interests fighting the legislation.

“Unfortunately, this is just lipstick on a new pig.”

Members of the business community are now hoping Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg will soften the bill. They still hold out hope that workers will ultimately have to contribute to a fund that would pay for a portion of the cost of the sick days, arguing that an unfunded mandate would be crippling as they pull out of a recession.

But Quinn so far has remained noncommittal and her position inscrutable to these business interests. At a press conference following the rollout of the new bill, Quinn was asked three different times whether she would support it and responded each time that she would take no position until it had passed through the committee process.

Brewer, however, noted that Quinn’s staff had a hand in drafting the new legislation after Quinn herself had held numerous meetings with interested parties, perhaps signaling that she will ultimately be on board.

Political consultant Joe Mercurio said that as Quinn tries to balance the interests of business and labor she may be forced to acknowledge that a new order has arrived on the Council, including the “progressive caucus” headed by Council Members Melissa MarkViverito and Brad Lander, announced just days before the new paid-sickleave bill was introduced.

SCOTT WILLIAMS

Long-awaited bill arrives with concessions in a test for Quinn and new members

“Her new, more energetic and progressive Council—not to mention public advocate and comptroller—are going to be pushing this kind of stuff,” Mercurio said. “If she’s ever going to rehabilitate her mayoral candidacy, not to mention her place as speaker, these are the kinds of things she will need to support.”

17

Business leaders, meanwhile, say there is some disagreement within the Bloomberg administration about the bill. Leadership of the Department of Health is strongly in favor of the legislation, especially in light of the H1N1 epidemic, while the Department of Small Business Services has serious reservations, they say.

The bill had a veto-proof majority back in December but now is hovering just below that number, with 34 co-sponsors— though Council Member James Sanders said he would also ultimately sign on after it passed through his Civil Service & Labor Committee.

Sanders said that no one from the administration had contacted him to try and seek changes in Brewer’s new bill, which he takes as a signal that the mayor would sign it in something near its current form.

“Michael Bloomberg’s imprint has been on health more than small business,” Sanders said. “I would expect that trend to continue.”

If the bill does pass, the administration would have to determine who would enforce the new law, since there is no such thing as a city Department of Labor. Adding more work for either the Departments of Health or Small Business Services would strain already tight budgets.

Many also see the bill’s return last week, after the intense efforts from business groups, as a sign of the growing clout of the Working Families Party.

Sanders argued that it was the WFP that had kept the bill largely intact, despite the onslaught of business groups trying to get Brewer to change it.

“It must be the Working Families and others that are holding her up,” Sanders said. “Otherwise, I don’t know how she could have withstood this.” cbragg@cityhallnews.com

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Renewable Energy Bill Would Make Uncompetitive Technologies Turn Profits Businesses concerned that Hevesi bill would raise energy rates above already high levels

BY ANDRE TARTAR

A

bill currently before the Assembly Energy Committee would change the economics of the renewable-energy industry by turning previously unprofitable projects into cash cows.

Known informally as the New York Renewable Resources Act, the bill would be among the biggest experiments in the country in changing the economics of renewable-energy investment.

Sponsored by Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi, it would mandate that most public utilities buy some of their electricity from renewable sources and pay producers of renewable energy higher rates, known as “feed-in tariffs.”

These tariffs would ensure a long-term profit for those willing to invest in renewable-energy generation.

Currently, many solar, wind, and hydro projects cannot compete economically with traditional energy sources. If the plan were adopted, utilities would pay fees to producers based on the amount of subsidy each type of renewable energy needed in order to turn a profit.

“Similar [legislation] passed in Germany resulted in a doubling of the renewable-energygenerating capacity in only four years,” Hevesi said, adding that the country is poised to produce 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

The major drawback is that the bill would raise energy rates for consumers. But Hevesi’s legislative director, Ashley Pillsbury, said the rates would grow only “slightly higher” under the plan. Proponents of the bill say a shortterm increase in rates would pale in

comparison to the long-term creation of renewable-energy jobs.

Business groups, however, are adamantly opposed to the bill.

“Given the current economy, given that businesses are continuing to struggle, this bill would mandate that utilities buy power from sources at seven to eight times the going wholesale rate,” said Ken Polasky, senior director of government affairs at the Business Council of New York.

The bill would set up an annual review by the Public Service Commission to look at cutting the tariffs on the green technologies as these investments became more economically competitive.

Once green energy became as economically viable as traditional sources—or “grid neutral”—the tariff would ultimately be ended.

But a bill that increases costs to consumers is a tough sell during a recession.

The bill is under consideration in the energy committee—but its chair, Assembly Member Kevin Cahill, so far has not put the plan on the committee’s agenda.

Steve Bambrick, Cahill’s legislative director, said one reason for hesitation is that an increase in energy rates in the United States would be more widely noticed than the increases in Europe.

“It follows the European model, and European countries are used to having much higher energy prices,” Bambrick said, while adding that Cahill had not ruled out going forward with the legislation.

Hevesi, meanwhile, said he continues to believe the examples of success in Germany and other European counties would outweigh any short-term costs.

“New York has the opportunity to be a national leader in the generation of renewable electricity,” Hevesi said. “This legislation can be the first step toward reaching those goals.”

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MARCH 29, 2010

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

As City Takes Over Joint Projects, Concerns About Responsible Development

DANIEL S. BURNSTEIN

Brooklyn Bridge Park, Governors Island takeovers spark privatization questions

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS ayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson were all smiles at the rain-soaked opening of Brooklyn Bridge Park on March 22.

“Without the governor, this arrangement with the city would not have been possible,” Bloomberg said, commending Paterson for doing the right thing by relinquishing the state’s stake in the 85-acre park. “It’s going to put control of this park where city parks should be, in the hands of the city.”

M

Of course, there was no mention of the years of arguing, grumbling, foot dragging and finger pointing that preceded Monday’s ribbon cutting. For years, city officials blamed the state for failing to commit the necessary funds to develop the park. In turn, the state rebuffed the city’s effort to win full control.

The end of the partnership is being seen as a clear acknowledgment that New York City, unlike New York State, has the money and the determination to see both projects through to their completion.

“We didn’t have the money long-term,” said one senior state official. “So it’s great that the city is going to take it over.”

But questions about the city’s closeness to the real estate industry could influence

how these projects are funded in the future and fundamentally change how public space is used and maintained.

At the park’s opening, Bloomberg made only a brief mention of Governors Island, the other joint-owned project that will soon be transferred to the city’s sole ownership. “We’re working on Governors Island,” Bloomberg said. “Each of these projects is somewhat separate, but similar format, similar funding. The governor and I have spent a lot of time on it, and I’m optimistic that we’ll get there.”

State officials justified the move to transfer control to the city by explaining that neither Brooklyn Bridge Park nor Governors Island quite fit into the state-run Empire State Development Corporation’s core mission of luring businesses to create jobs.

Still, there are those who complain that the state is getting a raw deal.

“If I were the governor, I would want to have a stake,” said James Gill, a member of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, the joint citystate entity that is in charge of the island’s operations.

Gill also said that he felt the state’s decision to cut its losses was justified, considering that Governors Island would always be thought of as a city park.

“If you’re going to spend the money, and it’s not going to be recognized, why would you want to spend it in the first place?” said Gill, who was appointed to the board by the governor.

The question of funding has been

driving the debate over both projects.

Using money originally intended for the expansion of the Javits Center, the city said it will commit $55 million for Brooklyn Bridge Park and an estimated $60 million for Governors Island. Where that leaves the plans for the 675,000-square-foot Javits Center is unclear, although state officials suggested the project was unlikely to get under way while the state struggled to find its way out of the current budget crisis.

The deal over Brooklyn Bridge Park does not give Bloomberg unfettered control. The original plan to build luxury condos to help raise the money to offset the estimated $16 million in annual maintenance costs for the park, for example, would have to first be approved by two state lawmakers, State Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Joan Millman, both of whom oppose housing and favor alternate funding streams.

Squadron said he feels confident that like Brooklyn Bridge Park, a deal that satisfies all stakeholders could be reached over Governors Island, but possibly with fewer restrictions than what was ultimately decided for the park.

“I look at each one of these discussions differently,” Squadron said. “I’m not sure that every deal has quite as many facets.”

While the deal on Brooklyn Bridge Park may inform how the city wins control of Governors Island, land-use experts said the state was unlikely to divest itself from other joint-run projects. (Most are functioning better, leading to fewer disputes.) Nonetheless, many said they

were shocked that the deal ultimately went through, and were still trying to piece together what it would mean for future economic development projects.

“This is a historic anomaly,” said Ken Fisher, a former Council member who now specializes in land use at Cozen O’Connor. “It does raise a big question in the future, particularly if we continue to have years of economic stress.”

Fisher said that city government tends to be closer to the real estate industry than the state, leading to development plans that many find irresponsible and out of character with the surrounding area. On Governors Island, this could prove to be controversial, according to Fisher.

“The pressure for overdevelopment or for privatizing parts of the island could prove inexorable over time,” Fisher said.

Rob Pirani, executive director of the Governors Island Alliance, said a lack of clarity over how to develop Governors Island has stymied that project so far. The city and state have already committed tens of millions of dollars to development on the island, but funding has stalled in recent years, with Paterson failing to designate any money for the island’s operating budget for the past two years and the city unwilling to put up any cash without the state’s commitment.

Under sole management by the city, that may begin to change, Pirani said.

“Having one person in charge, having one person responsible in anything,” he said, “you know, makes life easier.” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

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Advocates Take Temperature Of Council On School Nurse Cuts Bloomberg budget plan would return staffing to 2003 levels

BY SELENA ROSS

O

ne of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first actions as mayor was to try and pull nurses from parochial schools. A year later, he cut dozens of school nursing jobs. Every year since, has tried to scale back the program.

Under this year’s proposed budget, Bloomberg has targeted them again. His current plan would remove them from schools with fewer than 300 students or, in the “doomsday” contingency scenario, from schools with fewer than 500 students. A handful of public schools and 177 parochial schools would be affected.

Parochial-school administrators, furious at what they describe as a siege on their children, are wondering why they keep drawing the mayor’s wrath. Henry Fortier, associate superintendent of the New York Archdiocese, asserts that the city has bigger and costlier public health programs, and the attempted cuts have repeatedly backfired as parents have pushed back.

According to union representatives and political observers, a mix of politics, labor problems, and changing public health goals has brought all school nurses under fire during the Bloomberg years.

Now they worry that the mayor, free from many political pressures in his final term, may be serious about starting to wean New York off the whole program.

“They don’t have respect for the school health program. They don’t have the feeling that it’s a good program,” said Judy Wessler of the Commission on the Public’s Health System about the administration.

“It’s not going after salt. It’s not going after smoking. It doesn’t get headlines.”

Parochial schools have city-supplied nurses because city law mandates that health professionals must monitor vaccination compliance. Once on-site, the nurses provide basic care, as well as ensuring children get their daily medication, if needed.

Bloomberg and the Council wrangled over school-nurse budgets in 2004, when Bloomberg made major cuts to the program. The mayor restored the cuts following an outcry from irate Catholic parents on Staten Island and in Queens.

The Council responded by passing a bill that year mandating a boost in nurse staffing: Every school with more than 200 students would receive a nurse, down from the previous 300-student cutoff.

Bloomberg vetoed the bill, though the

Council overrode it.

Bloomberg is now seeking to return nurse staffing to the level it was at before this fight—but for the current cuts to go through, the Council would have to pass a bill allowing schools with fewer than 300 students to lose their nurse again.

Several factors may work in the mayor’s favor. The leaders on the 2004 bill—Mike McMahon, Eric Gioia, and Speaker Gifford Miller—have all left the Council. No member has stepped forward to sponsor a new bill. And, adding to the pressure, Wessler speculated that the mayor may force the Council to concede by asking it to “buy back” the $3.1 million school-nurse cuts with its own funds.

The cuts are not likely to affect the administration’s prized charter schools or most small public schools, even though many of them have fewer than 300 students. It will apply to school sites, not the small separate schools that often cooccupy buildings, according to a spokeswoman from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. There are only 57 public-school sites in the city with fewer than 300 students overall. Out of those, 40 are protected because the Health Department will not pull nurses from schools with special-medical-needs students—an option that has not yet been given to parochial schools, whose superintendants say they learned of the proposed cuts by reading about them in the newspaper.

Judith Arroyo, president of nurses’ Local 436 of DC 37, said school nurses have the lowest starting salary of all city nurses, which leads to very high turnover. The city fills gaps by hiring from outside agencies. An investigation by DC 37 found that these nurses are paid up to $100 per hour for their work in the schools. City nurses, by comparison, are often paid less than $30 an hour. Because these jobs are so difficult to fill, the city must rely on outside contractors, and the cost balloons.

Arroyo cast the fight against more cuts in terms of Bloomberg’s larger mission to improve public health.

“If anybody really studied the number of cases of asthma that we’ve kept out of the emergency room and how much money that’s saved the insurance companies, the families, and the city, it would probably be millions of dollars,” Arroyo said.

“Since 2002 they’ve been trying to cut the program, reduce the program, change the program. They basically just want to get rid of it.” sross@cityhallnews.com

MARCH 29, 2010

Introducing Monthly Industry Sections City Hall’s Award Winning Editorial Staff will Feature Monthly Coverage of the Political Issues Related to: ENERGY UNIONS EDUCATION HEALTHCARE REAL ESTATE/DEVELOPMENT City Hall’s increased editorial coverage of these critical areas will attract and lead to increased attention from the New York policymakers who will impact and decide the related issues.

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Advocates Pressure Council On School Nurse Cuts Bloomberg budget plan would return staffing to 2003 levels

BY SELENA ROSS ne of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first actions as mayor was to try and pull nurses from parochial schools. A year later, he cut dozens of school nursing jobs. Every year since, has tried to scale back the program.

Under this year’s proposed budget, Bloomberg has targeted them again. His current plan would remove them from schools with fewer than 300 students or, in the “doomsday” contingency scenario, from schools with fewer than 500 students. A handful of public schools and 177 parochial schools would be affected.

Parochial-school administrators, furious at what they describe as a siege on their children, are wondering why they keep drawing the mayor’s wrath. Henry Fortier, associate superintendent of the New York Archdiocese, asserts that the city has bigger and costlier public health programs, and the attempted cuts have repeatedly backfired as parents have pushed back.

According to union representatives and political observers, a mix of politics, labor problems, and changing public health goals has brought all school nurses under fire during the Bloomberg years.

Now they worry that the mayor, free from many political pressures in his final term, may be serious about starting to wean New York off the whole program.

“They don’t have respect for the school health program. They don’t have the feeling that it’s a good program,” said Judy Wessler of the Commission on the Public’s Health System about the administration.

“It’s not going after salt. It’s not going after smoking. It doesn’t get headlines.”

Parochial schools have city-supplied nurses because city law mandates that health professionals must monitor vaccination compliance. Once on-site, the nurses provide basic care, as well as ensuring children get their daily medication, if needed.

Bloomberg and the Council wrangled over school-nurse budgets in 2004, when Bloomberg made major cuts to the program. The mayor restored the cuts following an outcry from irate Catholic parents on Staten Island and in Queens.

The Council responded by passing a bill that year mandating a boost in nurse staffing: Every school with more than 200 students would receive a nurse, down from the previous 300-student cutoff.

Bloomberg vetoed the bill, though the

O

Council overrode it.

Bloomberg is now seeking to return nurse staffing to the level it was at before this fight—but for the current cuts to go through, the Council would have to pass a bill allowing schools with fewer than 300 students to lose their nurse again.

Several factors may work in the mayor’s favor. The leaders on the 2004 bill—Mike McMahon, Eric Gioia, and Speaker Gifford Miller—have all left the Council. No member has stepped forward to sponsor a new bill. And, adding to the pressure, Wessler speculated that the mayor may force the Council to concede by asking it to “buy back” the $3.1 million school-nurse cuts with its own funds.

The cuts are not likely to affect the administration’s prized charter schools or most small public schools, even though many of them have fewer than 300 students. It will apply to school sites, not the small separate schools that often cooccupy buildings, according to a spokeswoman from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. There are only 57 public-school sites in the city with fewer than 300 students overall. Out of those, 40 are protected because the Health Department will not pull nurses from schools with special-medical-needs students—an option that has not yet been given to parochial schools, whose superintendants say they learned of the proposed cuts by reading about them in the newspaper.

Judith Arroyo, president of nurses’ Local 436 of DC 37, said school nurses have the lowest starting salary of all city nurses, which leads to very high turnover. The city fills gaps by hiring from outside agencies. An investigation by DC 37 found that these nurses are paid up to $100 per hour for their work in the schools. City nurses, by comparison, are often paid less than $30 an hour. Because these jobs are so difficult to fill, the city must rely on outside contractors, and the cost balloons.

Arroyo cast the fight against more cuts in terms of Bloomberg’s larger mission to improve public health.

“If anybody really studied the number of cases of asthma that we’ve kept out of the emergency room and how much money that’s saved the insurance companies, the families, and the city, it would probably be millions of dollars,” Arroyo said.

“Since 2002 they’ve been trying to cut the program, reduce the program, change the program. They basically just want to get rid of it.” sross@cityhallnews.com

MARCH 29, 2010

Introducing Monthly Industry Sections City Hall’s Award Winning Editorial Staff will Feature Monthly Coverage of the Political Issues Related to: ENERGY UNIONS EDUCATION HEALTHCARE REAL ESTATE/DEVELOPMENT City Hall’s increased editorial coverage of these critical areas will attract and lead to increased attention from the New York policymakers who will impact and decide the related issues.

Advertising adjancencies are available for effective messaging in each targeted editorial environment.

Educate & Influence Reach N ew York’s Public Officials with:

C

More Access More News More cityhallnews.com

For information on advertising packages, please call 212-284-9735 or contact advertising@manhattanmedia.com

21

22

MARCH 29, 2010

www.cityhallnews.com

CITY HALL

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MARCH 29, 2010

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CITY HALL

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MARCH 29, 2010

Koch-Led Reform Group To Focus On Independent Redistricting Without deeper structure, skeptics say, amassed forces may be ineffective in fall races

BY EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE n 1962, a very frail Eleanor Roosevelt climbed up a shaky ladder at a rally in Washington Square Park to lend a helping hand to the Assembly campaign of a young firebrand named Ed Koch.

Roosevelt had spent years, along with Sen. Herbert Lehman, driving Carmine DeSapio out of power as the top power broker of the Democratic Party. But Roosevelt kept going. West Village Assembly Member Bill Passanante was liberal, but he was not reform-minded enough. And for Roosevelt, that was reason to give Koch the last endorsement she would make before she died.

Fifty years later, Koch, now 85, is trying to pick up the mantle of Roosevelt and Lehman. Their effort was called the New York Committee for Democratic Voters, and succeeded in ending Tammany Hall in 1961. Koch syas his will be non-partisan, but his ambitions are just as large.

The effort began March 12. Up in the conference room at Bryan Cave, they gathered: Henry Stern, Dick Dadey of Citizens Union, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, former state comptroller Ned Regan, Jay Kriegel, Jerry Goldfeder, Frank Macchiarola, Fred Siegel, Business Council president Ken Adams, Common Cause executive director Susan Lerner, Hudson Institute president Herb London, Westchester County Association president Bill Mooney, Brian Keeler and Frank Baraff of Reboot New York, Bloomberg 2009 campaign manager Bradley Tusk, DL21C chair Elizabeth Caputo, and political consultants Jerry Skurnik, George Arzt and Doug Forand. Along with a scattering of Koch administration veterans, like Jim Capalino and Peter Solomon, the 70-plus people spent two hours airing their gripes and plotting the revolution.

“In a sense, this is high noon, with Ed as the sheriff,” Stern said, warming up the crowd.

The day before, a proposed list of principles had circulated: 1. Support an independent redistricting commission to reapportion the state after the 2010 census.

2. Support the restoration of fiscal responsibility with the legislature required to deliver a balanced budget on time.

3. Support a unified court system.

4. Support the merit selection of judges.

5. Support home rule for the major cities.

6. Support greater publication on the Internet of government documents, while protecting personal privacy.

7. Support efforts to televise all

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

I

Former Mayor Ed Koch is taking names, saying that he has more than enough time between now and the fall elections to shake up state politics. proceedings of the legislature and government agencies and give the public the opportunity to comment on legislation via the Internet.

8. Support campaign finance reform.

9. Support stronger ethics, oversight, and enforcement.

But by that Friday morning, even Koch was beginning to doubt that a nine-point platform would work. An independent redistricting commission was something most agreed to as a goal. Forced fiscal responsibility got a lot of support, as did ethics reform. Home rule for cities and the unified court system proposals did not get any attention, but a short debate did ensue over whether to have the group do something about curbing union influence over state government.

In the end, they opted to narrow their focus. As much as some of the people in the room were aching for a Contract for America-type document to rally New York reformers, Koch cautioned them against issues that would cost them broad-based support. Even term limits, he told them, should be left out of their platform, as close as the idea might be to all their hearts. He does not simply want them to complain, he said. He wants them to win.

“The slogan of ‘Throw the bums out’ is one that I share, but it’s not pragmatic,” Koch said, stretching out the syllables in his distinctive whine.

Coming out of the meeting, several in the room expressed doubts that anything could come of the effort. There were too many disparate groups, they said, too vague a mission, too many restrictions on groups like DL21C and Citizens Union that would keep them from participating in full-throated campaigns. There was no

form to the group, several of them said, and as effective a spokesman as Koch can be, they worried that the effort seemed all too susceptible to amounting to a lot of complaining and not enough results.

Elizabeth Caputo of 21DLC stressed the need to engage more young people (at 37, she was one of the youngest in the room, and was invited to the meeting only after reaching out to Koch and Stern) and suggested that the effort might need a formal office and an executive director to make a real impact.

discussion is that it wasn’t happening before he said so. What comes out of it, time will tell.”

In the days since, Koch has been working the phones, convening one-onone meetings and two larger strategy sessions. They seem to have agreed to focus on demanding the formation of an independent redistricting commission, raising awareness of what they think this could accomplish, and overall keeping the heat on what Koch calls the “crumb bums” in charge of state government.

He has not raised any money for the effort—“when we go out to lunch, I pick up the check,” he joked—but he said that he has been approached by people who support what he is doing and are willing to chip in with funds and other resources.

Even some of the most skeptical at the outset have in the days since begun to say that given the unpredictability of politics nationally this year and the massive voter resentment toward Albany, they believe the efforts could get some traction, provided the right discipline.

And, Dadey said, the diversity of the group might even prove an advantage.

“It doesn’t need to all exist under one big tent in order for it to be effective,” he said. “The more and varied efforts that are under way to change Albany, all the better.”

For his part, Koch said that he has already been invited to speak in front of several groups around the state, and he has been corralling many old friends and allies to join him. And, he promised, he would soon unveil a collection of elder statesmen to rival the Roosevelt-Lehman coalition of the 1960s.

“Trust me when I say to you that I thought it would be much more difficult than it currently is to get these people to be involved,” he said.

A victory, he said, would be enough wins at the ballot box or enough commitments in between to make the independent redistricting commission a reality.

They will do whatever it takes to get there, he said.

“This could all end if, let’s say, Shelly and the Senate majority leader were to call up and say, ‘We surrender. What do you want?’” he said with a laugh. “Our response is, ‘Just good government—and your commitment, sworn to, under threat of perjury.”

Over and over, his message has been simple, as he said in closing the initial meeting.

“There will never within our lifetimes be an opportunity like this. And if we don’t do something, we have only ourselves to blame.” eidovere@cityhallnews.com

“In a sense, this is high noon, with Ed as the sheriff,” said Henry Stern, of the effort to take on state government being led by former Mayor Ed Koch.

“My fear with a lot of these efforts is that you get a lot of really smart, really outspoken people on these issues, and then nothing ever comes of it,” Caputo said. “Everyone in that room is running some organization—the challenge for them is to become a cohesive force. With Koch behind them, there’s no question that it will. … It’s the question of how it takes shape.”

Even those who expressed excitement about the effort indicated that they were reserving judgment for the moment.

“Change has to start somewhere,” Stringer said, reflecting on the meeting, at which he was the only current elected official. “The significance of that

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March 29, 2010

23

Blue Jay Number 32 T

he governor is imploding. The budget is late. And subpoenas are flying left and right.

But at least the Senate has a functioning majority again.

José Peralta walked across the Capitol building to the Senate chamber earlier this month a conquering hero, soundly defeating Hiram Monserrate in the March 16 special election.

He has gone from being just one rank-and-file member of a large Assembly majority to being, as he put it, “Number 32.” That new role, Peralta explained, requires a careful balancing act: He must demonstrate his independence from the Democratic leadership and advocate for the interests of his constituents, without upsetting the Senate’s fragile unity. And he must avoid antagonizing those of his colleagues who supported Monserrate, namely, the Amigos.

As he navigated his first week on the job, Peralta discussed the future of the Amigos, the role of gay marriage in his campaign, and what his election means for the future of the Senate.

What follows is an edited transcript.

City Hall: So you were sworn in less than 24 hours after winning the special election.

José Peralta: They throw you right in the water.

CH: What was the first difference you noticed between the Assembly and the Senate?

JP: You become Number 32. You become someone. Any one of us has access to ask questions and thoroughly go through many of the issues that matter to New Yorkers and the people we represent.

So the difference is really that we have to deal with 32 and we have an opportunity to get access to the information that sometimes is delayed over on the other side.

CH: Is it exciting to have your vote matter that much more?

JP: We had 15,000 come out for this election, which is record-breaking for this neck of the woods. They wanted someone who was going to be not only Number 32, but also someone who was going to work on the issues that mattered to them, like health care, like education, like creating jobs. And they understood that it was necessary to get that person in. So it’s very exciting to be part of a body that has an opportunity to have input over what matters to your constituents. That’s what’s going to be very exciting.

&

CH: Did you get a sense of the mood among your colleagues when you

finally arrived?

JP: It was a sense of calm. I think it was a sense of relief. It was a sense of “Now we can get back to business to work for the people of the State of New York. Now we can deal with the budget. Now we can deal with legislative priorities like health care, like education. Now we can deal with all those issues that matter.”

CH: What issues are of special importance to you, beyond urgent matters like the budget?

JP: Higher education has been one of my missions over in the Assembly. I’m a product of the CUNY system. I graduated from Queens College, and actually, my introduction to politics was through CUNY, where as a student-government leader I would lobby the state legislature for restoration of programs. So higher education is very dear to me.

CH: Your predecessor played a starring role in one of the most dysfunctional periods in the history of state government. What are you doing to restore confidence in the Senate’s ability to function?

JP: I’ve noticed that everyone in the conference is looking to work together, send a loud message that we’re united on all the issues that matter—in particular, the budget. And this is why you’ve seen that we passed the budget resolution, when many people were surprised or asking, questioning, if we were going to have 32 [votes],

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if we were going to stand together. We passed the budget resolution so it can be a road map and a beginning for future resolutions. It wasn’t expected, but we did it.

CH: What is your relationship like with the Amigos?

JP: It’s been very positive, believe it or not. It’s been very positive. They understand that politics is politics and business is business. And now we have to get down to governing. And we have to get down to the business of the people. So they understand that, and although during the political season they were with my predecessor, now it’s about making sure they deliver for their constituents and just for the rest of the state of New York. So they understand that, and you’re going to see more and more that they’re acting in that same manner to make sure that the conference comes together and deals with this budget.

CH: Did your arrival in the Senate represent the end of the Amigos?

JP: I don’t know, I’m not part of the Amigos, but I do agree that there’s a sense of calm. I do agree that there’s a sense of unity. I do agree that there’s a sense of people trying to work together for the better interests of the people of New York. So I do agree that whether they’re the Amigos or whatever other cliques, that everyone’s trying to do the right thing and work together for this budget.

CH: The Amigos billed themselves as Latino leaders. If they are no more, what happens to Latino leadership in state government?

JP: Right now we have a majority leader in Pedro Espada who holds the highest-ranking title, as a Latino, in New York. But I do believe there’s room for progress. We need, as Latinos, to understand that we have a place at the table and we’re going to work hard to make sure that we reach those places. … Latino leadership is not lacking. I think Latino leadership just needs to understand that we need to work together as one, so that we can have more of a place at the table.

And I think that will come at the end of the day.

CH: Gay marriage was a central issue in the campaign. What does that mean for your term in the Senate? Do

you feel an obligation to push for gaymarriage legislation?

JP: Gay marriage was a big issue in the campaign, but you know, it was one of many. So was housing. So was health care.

So was education. I think that my predecessor tried to make it an overwhelming issue in the campaign. But I’m very proud of the record I’ve accomplished over the last eight years with equality, because I believe that marriage is a civil right. It’s about equality. I’m very proud of my stance, and I will continue to be very supportive of the equality issue when it comes up. But there are so many issues beyond marriage that we need to take care of.

CH: What do you think of the effort by some groups, such as Fight Back NY, to unseat Democratic incumbents who voted against gay marriage?

They played a pretty important role in helping you defeat Monserrate.

JP: Look, it’s a democracy. I think they have an opportunity to express their views and express their opinions and deal with the democratic process. It’s their prerogative. It’s their right if they choose to do it. I’m going to be focused on making sure that I deliver the resources that my district and my community needs.

CH: What about the rumors that Monserrate might seek your old Assembly seat?

JP: I’m going to be focusing on the business of the people. And he has every right and every opportunity to run. It’s a democracy, as I said. The people of the 13th Senatorial District sent a very clear message about who they want to represent them. … And even including in my Assembly district, which I left, people sent a loud and clear message that they wanted someone new.

CH: But isn’t it a distraction if he continues running—for your Assembly seat, or against you in the September primary?

JP: We’re concentrating on the budget.

We’re concentrating on the legislative issues that matter. And he will do what he thinks is necessary. But he’s no longer a distraction. He’s no longer something that we worry about here.

—SG sgentile@cityhallnews.com

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