City Hall - May 1, 2008

John Liu, right, speaks about his decisions for 2009 (Page 8),

Keith Wright sees his star rise in Harlem

(Page 10)

Vol. 2, No. 12

www.cityhallnews.com

May 2008

RICHARD CLARK

Analysts place their bets on who else will make the mayor’s race

BY EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

nother poll, another prediction of a 2009 race with Undecided ahead of all three expected major Democratic candidates—by 30 points.

There was some movement between the Quinnipiac poll released in March and the new one released May 7. Rep. Anthony Weiner (DBrooklyn/Queens) and Comptroller Bill Thompson (D) have each climbed two points.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-

A

and Dennis Walcott, left, discusses renewing mayoral control and his post-Bloomberg plans (Page 14).

Manhattan) has dropped three. But nothing decisive: combined, the expected titans of the 2009 Democratic race still would not have enough to get past a run-off if the election were held next week, and the difference between them barely falls outside of the margin of error.

Of course, the election will not be held next week. It is early, way too early to think seriously about a primary that is 16 months away, and most voters who are thinking CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

2

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

CITY HALL

Floyd Puts Teamsters, and Himself, on the Move New York chapter takes the lead on national union movement to re-engage political process

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS FLOYD, PRESIDENT of the Teamsters Union Local 237, has a new plan for getting elected officials to listen to the concerns of his members.

In April, Floyd helped launch what he calls a groundbreaking new initiative to educate members and their families in the basics of civic involvement. The idea, he said, is to empower union members with the right tools to better understand the city agencies that affect the fundamental quality of their lives and to help union members and their families better hold lawmakers more accountable for their decisions.

In collaboration with the National Union of American Families (NUAF), a non-profit grassroots organization, Local 237 plans to establish resource centers in each of New York’s state legislative districts where anyone—union-affiliated or not—can learn more about the political, educational, economic and law enforcement issues that affect their lives.

The initiative would also serve to make communities safer by erasing a lot of the divisions that exist between neighbors, Floyd said.

“Can you imagine if you knew who your neighbor was?” he said. “There would be no fear, crime would go down, quality of life would go up.”

NUAF is in talks with International Brotherhood of Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. and other national unions to negotiate a plan to take the project to other cities across the country, said the group’s founder Jesse Epps, a veteran of the civil rights movement who played a prominent role in the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers strike and who was with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the final moments of his life.

Epps said that these days, city, state and county legislators are more beholden to special interest groups than communities and working families. By working with labor leaders like Floyd, Epps said he hoped to change that.

“Those that are elected to power become the equivalent of special interests because it’s the special interest peo-

G

E OF TH T A

IONS

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

UN

E

ST

REGORY

ple that provide for the support system that they need in order to stay in office,” Epps said. “And so we the people become the servants rather than the masters.”

The NUAF initiative could be one of several projects that help Floyd as he eyes advancement within the Teamsters.

He said he would like to have a role in the national Teamsters organization. If he is able to make the move, he would continue in what has been a steep but steady rise over the last 15 years, when, as an officer in the Queens Hospital Center police force, he became the youngest police captain in the history of the Health and Hospitals Corporation.

That helped get him the attention of the union leadership. In 1994, Floyd was appointed deputy director for peace officers for Local 237, then director of the union’s Citywide Division. In 2002, he was elected the union’s secretary-treasurer.

He went on to win the presidency.

Under his leadership, the 24,000-member union—which includes employees of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Board of Education, the City University of New York and several other city and Long Island agencies—has become more progressive and politically active. With members from all over the city, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut, Local 237 has a broad political base.

“Wherever there are races,” he said, “whether local or national or state races, we can cover four states.”

In addition to politics, Floyd has broadened the union’s agenda to include raising over $100,000 for the United Negro College Fund and assisting in the management of the Bridge Fund of New York, a homelessness prevention program.

Greg Floyd has looked to strengthen the ranks of the Teamsters as the New York local’s president. this year is under-funded by almost $200 million. The budget deficit has fueled concerns of service reductions among the city’s 400,000 public housing residents, as well as staff cutbacks among the Teamsters.

The rally drew thousands of union members and public housing residents, as well as a handful of elected officials and a four-piece rhythm and blues band called GQ, which supplied each speaker with a funky, bass-slapping introduction.

“We are the largest public housing system in the country,” Floyd shouted at the rally. “We are larger than most cities! We count!”

And Floyd has also extended his activist approach to help the Teamster members who are school safety officers, helping raise money for a gang intervention organization called the Council for Unity. Floyd reasons that by making the

Under his leadership, the 24,000member union has become more progressive and politically active.

But with about 9,000 of Local 237’s members employed by NYCHA, Floyd said the critical lack of funding for public housing may be the most important issue for the union today.

On May 1, Local 237 held a spirited rally in front of City Hall to call attention to the budget crisis facing NYCHA, which

schools safer, he is protecting his members, many of which are affected by gang violence in schools.

“They won’t get injured,” he said of school safety officers, “they’re not subject to disciplinary charges, accused of being excessive with force. It’s more community-oriented.”

Amid managing his union’s many responsibilities and an evolving philosophy of union politics itself, Floyd has nurtured his own political connections, both inside the union in the national Teamsters, and, he joked, potentially beyond as well. He recalled meeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in May—a meeting that went so well that it prompted his wife to ask whether he would be in the running for Secretary of Labor.

“I looked at her and said, ‘No, I’m not going to be Secretary of Labor,’” he said.

“But I would move to Washington if the right job came along.”

—with reporting by Dan Rivoli ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

C

Congratulations to JOHN MATTESON Associate Professor of English John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York

Winner of 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography “Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and her Father”

The Newest Member of CUNY’s Literary Faculty Winners Circle

PROMINENT

EXAMPLES OF

CUNY’S LITERARY FACULTY WINNERS C IRCLE I NCLUDE: Michael Cunningham

Mike Wallace

Edwin G. Burrows

Tina Howe

1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Brooklyn College

1999 Pulitzer Prize for History John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY Graduate Center

1999 Pulitzer Prize for History Brooklyn College

1984 and 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist Hunter College

Meena Alexander

Blanche Wiesen Cook

Kimiko Hahn

Gregory L. Rabassa

2008 Guggenheim Fellowship for Poetry Hunter College, CUNY Graduate Center

1992 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY Graduate Center

2008 PEN/Voelcker Award for 2006 National Medal of Arts Poetry, 2007 Shelley Memorial Queens College, Award/Poetry Society of America CUNY Graduate Center Queens College

Jeffery Renard Allen 2000 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction Queens College

Beth Baron 2007 Carnegie Scholar City College CUNY Graduate Center

Nicole Cooley 1995 Walt Whitman Award for Poetry Queens College

Edouard Glissant 2004 Laurea ad Honorem de l’Université de Bologne en Langues et Littératures Étrangères CUNY Graduate Center

Eva Bellin 2006 Carnegie Scholar Hunter College

Emily Braun 2005 National Jewish Book Award Hunter College 1988 and 2001 Booker Prize, 1998 Commonwealth Writers Prize Hunter College

2007 Whiting Writers’ Award College of Staten Island

1996 Bancroft Prize Baruch College, CUNY Graduate Center

David Nasaw

Emily Raboteau

2001 Bancroft Prize, 2007 New-York Historical Society American History Book Prize CUNY Graduate Center

Grace Schulman

Elizabeth Nunez

Isaac Goldemberg

2001 American Book Award Medgar Evers College

2007 P.E.N. Club of Peru Literature Award Hostos Community College

James Oakes

Marilyn Hacker

Peter Carey

David S. Reynolds

Cate Marvin

2004 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature City College, CUNY Graduate Center

2006 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship City College 2002 Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry Baruch College

Charles Simic

2008 Lincoln Prize CUNY Graduate Center

2008 U.S. Poet Laureate Visiting Professor at Baruch College

Gerardo Piña-Rosales

Tom Sleigh

2006 Ayuntamiento and Casino de Lorca Prize Lehman College, CUNY Graduate Center

2008 Kingsley Tufts $100,000 Poetry Award Hunter College

Billy Collins 2001-2003 U.S. Poet Laureate Lehman College

BENNO C. SCHMIDT, JR.

MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN

Chairperson Board of Trustees

Chancellor

Visit cuny.edu/lookwhoisteaching.com to learn how you can study with the best!

4

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

CITY HALL

Attempt to Liberate Independence Endorsements Awaits Appeals Court Ruling State party defends right to limit power of city factions in local elections

Supporters of Leonora Fulani and Frank MacKay are fighting over who decides which candidates get the Independence endorsements and ballot lines.

BY DAN RIVOLI R.

LENORA FULANI, A PERENNIAL THIRDparty candidate, has been a thorn in Frank MacKay’s side for years. And now MacKay, chair of the state Independence Party, is hoping the courts will allow his latest effort to push Fulani and her supporters out of the party.

On April 24, the state’s Court of Appeals heard arguments about which faction of the party—the state or the city—controls who gets the party line on the ballot in local elections.

Last June, the state party passed a rule that only the executive committee can issue certificates of authorization, which enable fusion voting, prompting the suit. No matter what the Court of Appeals decides, the state party will endorse candidates in cross-county races. The executive committee also conceded citywide elections.

The court ruling will decide only who controls endorsements and ballot lines in elections for borough president, Council, Assembly and State Senate.

Those in the city party, which consists of all the borough committees except for the Bronx and maintains a single office for all boroughs’ committee chairs in Lower Manhattan, say this amounts to disenfranchisement.

“MacKay is trying to marginalize the leadership and strip us of our local control,” said Cathy Stewart, chair of the New York County Independence Party. “He wants to control this very valuable piece of political real estate.”

The city leadership, according to the state party, consists only of people loyal to Fulani, a political activist and leader of several third parties.

Fulani did not return a call for comment. But her sup-

D

porters insist she is responsible for the party’s growth in recent years. They credit her with giving blacks and Latinos an alternative to voting for Democrats, which they say explains the votes on the Independence line which helped Michael Bloomberg win both his mayoral campaigns. The city party, which now boasts 92,000 members, has doubled enrollment since 2000.

The Court of Appeals decision, Stewart said, will determine where New York’s third largest party goes from here.

“What is the Independence Party brand? That’s what’s at stake,” Stewart said. “Is it going to be one more top-down controlled third party, or a fundamentally new party that’s run from the bottom-up?”

MacKay disagrees with this assessment, arguing that he is in fact trying to put a new leadership structure in place to limit the power of Fulani and longtime cohort Fred Newman, who he says run the city parties like a political cult.

“We didn’t take away any local control because there is no local control,” MacKay said. “All the power comes from Fred Newman.”

The schism began after Fulani’s anti-Semitic comments from 1989 surfaced in 2005. Instead of denouncing them, Fulani defended them.

“That got the ball rolling,” MacKay said. “Any time she comes across as a spokesperson for the party, it’s always death. She’s a poison.”

Fulani repudiated the statements last year as she began exploring a 2009 run for mayor.

But that was insufficient for MacKay, who was prompted to change the endorsement process as another way of

stripping power from the city organizations.

Under his system, county candidate screening committees make recommendations to the state party executive committee. Though the executive committee has the final word, MacKay said he anticipates that it will generally defer to the county decisions.

“We would lean heavily on the opinions of the local people to make the decision for the local offices,” MacKay said. “These are not ‘yes’ people. They are activists, purists and volunteers.”

The disputed rule dictates that only the state executive committee can endorse candidates in cities with populations of a million or more. This was a deliberate maneuver to solely affect New York City.

The state’s second-largest city, Buffalo, has a population of less than 300,000.

“The idea that New York City is the size of many states warrants a different set of rules,” MacKay said.

“When a cult of 100 or so people comes in and they could dominate a party while it’s fuming out the hatred toward the Jews, it certainly warrants the party to govern itself.”

MacKay’s previous attempt to seize more control by trying to strip Fulani, Newman and 100 followers of their enrollment in 2006 was reversed in Manhattan and Brooklyn courts.

There have been other problems as well: in 2002, the city Board of Elections investigated the city Independence Party for inflating its committee membership with voters who do not live in the city or have registered to vote elsewhere.

Despite his intention to block Fulani, MacKay—who now chairs the Independence Party of America—said she is irrelevant to what he called prosperous growth of the party in the state, since she is not well known outside of city politics. Enrollment is expanding rapidly.

Fundraising, aided by contributions from the state’s GOP politicians, has remained consistently high.

“What is the Independence Party brand? That’s what’s at stake,” said Cathy Stewart, chair of the New York County Independence Party.

All this may enhance the impact of the Court of Appeals ruling, expected in May, before this year’s petitioning period for state races begins. This fall, the outcome of at least two State Senate races in Queens could potentially rest on the number of votes cast on Row C. And with more than 30 Council seats and all three citywide offices going vacant next year, the power of the local endorsements could be even stronger in 2009.

“In several races where it’s close,” said Michael Zumbluskas, member of the state party’s executive committee, “the Independence Party can be the difference.” drivoli@manhattanmedia.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

C

6

MAY 2008

www.cityhallnews.com

CITY HALL

Biofuel Bill Delays Ignite Criticism of Bloomberg Debate over mayor’s plan to wait for national standards from California and D.C.

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS AWMAKERS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS

L

and the heating oil industry are pushing Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Unaff.) to enact a policy that would encourage the use of biofuels to reduce the amount of carbon emissions from apartment buildings.

But the green-friendly mayor is stalling until clearer guidelines on biofuels become available. His hesitation is frustrating supporters of the policy, including a number of environmental groups that are encouraging Bloomberg to broaden his prior requirements that all municipal building furnaces use blends of biofuel and heating oil.

Both the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board are in the process of developing biofuel and low-carbon fuel standards. California is expected to be done by year’s end. EPA standards are expected to take longer.

Though the timeframes are unclear, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has been advising Bloomberg to wait for them, insisting that New York not tackle the issue before the outside agencies develop biofuel standards which would be acceptable throughout the country. So far, Bloomberg has been obliging, keeping a pair of bills introduced in the Council in stasis, reluctant to pass a policy which might have to be rewritten to fit whatever standards emerge.

That has frustrated many biofuel supporters, including two Council members who have often been allied with the mayor.

“The position that some have taken is that it’s absolutely necessary to wait for California before we can do a bill in New York City, and I just don’t believe that to be the case,” said Council Member James Gennaro (D-Queens), who, as chair of the Environmental Protection Committee, held hearings in January on his bill.

Gennaro dismissed the idea that amending the policy to account for new guidelines, whenever they arrive, would be a problem.

“We can do the bill in such a way to indicate in the law that there’ll be an ongoing review,” he suggested.

His bill, like one by Council Member David Yassky (D-Brooklyn), would require all heating oil used in the city to be “B20 bioheat,” a mixture consisting of 80 percent standard heating oil and 20 percent biodiesel, by the end of 2013.

Gennaro argued that his bill would help decrease the city’s greenhouse gas output, almost 80 percent of which comes from homes and apartment buildings.

Despite the mayor’s preference to

Council Members James Gennaro and David Weprin at a Queens gas station, calling for the expanded use of domestic biofuel, which they say is cheaper and more eco-friendly than fossil fuels. wait, Gennaro said he was confident the bill would get a vote sooner than later.

“I think you’ll see some softening in the doctrine that says, ‘Thou shalt wait for California before making a move in New York City,’” he said.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn (DManhattan), though, is apparently following Bloomberg’s lead on biofuels, according to a spokesperson who explained that she is mindful of the outside issues concerning the legislation and is monitoring the situation.

Rohit Aggarwala, director of the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, explained that Bloomberg supports the use of biofuels, but believes having scientifically sound standards is more important than rushing passage of any legislation.

“It’s one of these things where there’s so many uncertainties, the responsible course is to take a moment to think of the right way to do this well,” Aggarwala said, referring to lingering questions about the environmental and economic impact of biofuels. “And sometimes that takes time.”

Recent studies have suggested that biofuels, which include ethanol from corn as well as fuels derived from vegetable oil and soybeans, can be as harmful to the environment as fossil fuels because so much land must be converted to support the growth of these products.

A growing worldwide food crisis is also serving to throw a wrench in the food-for-fuel movement. This year, as a result of the share of the corn crop going into ethanol in America and the European Union, EU began implementing its own biofuel targets, as wheat and

rice prices have risen to their highest level ever.

“We’re eager to move forward on both the cleanliness of heating fuels and biofuels,” said Aggarwala, “but we do feel that we have to make sure we have a good way to ensure that nothing we do winds up hurting food prices.”

But bill supporters say that this position does not take into account the specificity about the sources of biofuels incorporated into the Council bills.

“This is not ethanol,” said Josh Nachowitz, policy director at the League of Conservation Voters.

“According to the bill, 80 percent of the material comes from soybeans,” he said. Since soybeans are grown in

accounting system is in place to regulate their use in the city.”

That makes waiting essential, he explained.

“I can’t imagine why we’d want to rush this,” Greene said.

But Yassky, who is trying to beef up his environmental credentials in preparation for a run as the green candidate for city comptroller, said that the demise of the mayor’s congestion pricing plan explains some of the urgency he and others feel about biofuels.

“Congestion pricing took all the oxygen out of the room on several key environmental initiatives,” Yassky said.

“Now that it’s off the agenda, it’s time to get back to these critical initiatives. And I think bioheat is one of them.”

Michael Seilback, senior director for public policy and advocacy at the American Lung Association of the City of New York, agreed. He said that passing the biofuels bills could result in immediate declines in pollution, and that delays harm communities where sulfur emissions from building furnaces have contributed to high asthma rates.

“In areas that are being pummeled everyday with air pollution, this is something that is going to be an immediate local air quality benefit, which could happen pretty much with the act of passing a bill and the mayor signing it,” Seilback said.

The effort behind the bills has made for an unlikely coalition of environmental and public health groups, like the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the Environmental Defense Fund, the New

“Depending on how you cultivate your feedstock and turn it into fuel, biofuels can be either part of the climate solution or part of the climate problem.”—Nathanael Greene, a senior policy analyst, National Resources Defense Council. upstate New York, the bills would be a boon for the state economy, Nachowitz said.

Nonetheless, NRDC senior policy analyst Nathanael Greene said that the details were too vague in the bills, despite their good intentions.

“Depending on how you cultivate your feedstock and turn it into fuel, biofuels can be either part of the climate solution or part of the climate problem,” Greene said. “Because of scientific, agricultural and economic vagaries surrounding biofuels, Bloomberg has a responsibility to ensure that a formal

York League of Conservation Voters and the New York Oil Heating Association—a coalition of terminal operators, equipment installers and fuel distributors.

From a business perspective, the delays on the bill are both troublesome and costly, said John Maniscalco, executive vice president of the New York Heating Oil Association.

“I’m not sure what all this hesitation is about,” he said. “The industry needs time to ramp up. You can’t just flip the switch and all buildings go to using biofuel tomorrow.” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

C

Building the Future of New York 510 Madison Avenue Our Legacy to New York New York City Union Carpenters and Contractors are building the iconic 510 Madison Avenue utilizing the work of skilled carpenters, millwrights, dockbuilders, timbermen, cabinetmakers and floor coverers.

“In New York, it’s all about making things happen. Union Carpenters and Contractors are working to make 510 Madison Avenue a landmark to last for generations.”

Harry Macklowe, Chairman, Macklowe Properties

Visit builditunion.com for your

free rebuilding New York pin

Quality • Safety • Opportunity BUILDITUNION.COM

8

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

CITY HALL

On His 2009 Prospects, Liu Keeps an Uncharacteristic Silence Comptroller run is likely, public advocate might be, Queens BP and mayor are out

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS TUESDAY, JOHN LIU (D-Queens) was an emissary, standing with his fellow members of the City Council’s Black, Asian and Latino Caucus to welcome Bolivian President Evo Morales to New York.

The next Tuesday, Liu was a tour guide and a civics teacher, explaining the inner workings of City Hall to a delegation from the Gyeonnggi Provincial Council of South Korea.

Minutes later, he was a defender of civil liberties, sitting in the Council chamber and chiding a deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department for attempting to forward a new policy that was “hypocritical” and “oxymoronic.”

And later that same day, Liu was a peacemaker, attempting to soften anger over the Sean Bell verdict at a pair of community gatherings in Queens and Brooklyn.

But everyday, at every minute, Liu is also a candidate for citywide office in 2009. Which office he is a candidate for, though, remains a question. And despite his constant public appearances and well-earned reputation for sending out waves of press releases—or that many of the other term-limited Council members have made their intentions clear for next year—Liu has been keeping uncharacteristically quiet about his plans.

As the city’s first Asian-American Council member, Liu is positioned to enter either race with two significant advantages: a sizeable base (there are more than 800,000 Asian Americans in New York) and a bulging war chest.

He is presumed to be leaning towards either public advocate or city comptroller, with most assuming he will make a bid for comptroller. Liu smiles at the chatter, but does not say anything. Remaining an enigma has not hurt his fundraising, though, with an amassed $2 million, much of which was donated by Asian-American supporters, that makes him one of the best-funded candidates in the city.

Both races present different sets of challenges for Liu. If Liu throws his hat into the comptroller’s race, he will be facing a crowded and highly competitive Democratic primary. The line-up includes Queens Council Members Melinda Katz and David Weprin, Brooklyn Council Members Simcha Felder and David Yassky, Brooklyn Assembly Member James Brennan and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión.

On the other hand, the public advocate race is much leaner, with only Queens Council Member Eric Gioia, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel and Assembly Member Adam Clayton Powell IV expected to run at this point, with the

O

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

N ONE

Council Member John Liu is carefully keeping his options open for 2009. possible addition of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

Veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said Liu would fare much better in the public advocate race than the one for comptroller.

He could present himself as a fiscal watchdog, a transportation advocate (Liu chairs the Council’s Transportation Committee) and as a defender of immigrants, Sheinkopf said—all qualities voters look for in a public advocate.

The comptroller’s race, with its diverse menu of candidates and several Queens candidates already set on running, would be more difficult for Liu to break into, Sheinkopf added.

“I don’t see him well-positioned for that race,” he said. “He needs an opportunity that’s fresh and different.”

Several recent events have allowed Liu to highlight his roles as a fiscal watchdog and an independently minded politician willing to speak out against the

city’s elected leadership.

In early April, when the City Council was still reeling from the discretionary fund scandal, Liu was the first member to speak out forcefully against the budgetary reforms sought by Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).

Liu later said that although he does

Liu smiles at the chatter, but does not say anything. not relish the opportunity to point out wrongdoings in the Council, he does so vigorously because he feels compelled.

“If any of my colleagues are doing something wrong, I will speak out about that,” he said. “But my goal in representing my constituents and the people of New York is not to speak out against Council members, but to talk about what

the Education Department can do better, what the MTA can, what even the Police Department can do better.”

If that sounded too much like someone planning to run for public advocate, Liu quickly clarified his comments.

“I think anybody in the comptroller’s position would have the same kind of concerns,” he said, before adding, “Anybody in elected office in New York should have the same concern.”

As he deflected questions about his 2009 plans, Liu had criticisms for those elected officials who have already declared their candidacies.

“By not dwelling too much, or at all, on what I might run for next year, I’m not counted out from my current job,” Liu said. “I think that’s a pitfall in declaring for an office too early. You become a lame duck.”

Liu’s move to keep quiet his citywide ambitions may be unusual, but, he insists, will not put him at a disadvantage when he does declare a candidacy.

“I’m not thinking a whole lot about next year, but I’ll be ready,” he said with a slight smile. “And one of the ways candidates have to be ready now is with their war chests. Apart from that, I got a job to do right now.”

That job takes him from City Hall to Flushing to Fort Greene in Brooklyn in one day, where Liu has the opportunity to test his citywide appeal. But he dismisses the notion that he will need a citywide constituency to win votes.

“I don’t know what that means, ‘constituency.’ That’s like political talk,” he said. “I do know that I have 8.2 million fellow New Yorkers in a city that I’ve lived in almost my whole life.”

As far back as 2006 people were talking about Liu as a candidate for mayor.

Two years later, his name still comes up in conversation.

He shot down those rumors, as well as ones which have him running for Queens Borough President. More likely, he teased, he could leave politics altogether and return to the private sector.

“I could return to my own firm,” he said, referring to his pre-Council days as a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“I have tentative offers to help run companies, to head up companies.”

Standing in the revolving doors at 250 Broadway, Liu paused to finish his thought, causing a slight traffic jam of people trying to exit the building.

Liu defended his indecision by insisting he would run for the office he felt most suited him. With his characteristic no-nonsense style of humor, he added one more thought before finally going through the revolving doors.

“I have no intention of staying in office,” he said, “just for the hell of staying in office.” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

C

10

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

CITY HALL

of New York in my district.”

His long-time relationship with Farrell, a fellow Harlem politician—“He represents my mother,” Wright noted—has made him the presumed frontrunner for the position.

“We have a lot of issues in common and a lot of people in common,” Wright said.

Freeman, the Harlem district leader who volunteers at Wright’s office, said Wright’s geniality with county leaders and his outspoken attitude qualifies him to succeed Farrell.

“The county has been run very well by Farrell. I think Keith Wright can continue that religiously,” Freeman said.

“He’s listened to people whether or not he agrees with their decisions. That’s what I like about him.”

Wright, whose career spans four New York governors, has shown his willingness to tussle with those he disagrees with, regardless of party. He was one of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s earliest Democratic critics after he removed Wright as chair of the Harlem Community Development Corporation.

As Wright’s career in Albany progressed, he received more responsibility. Once the chair of the Elections Committee, he was picked last year to head the Social Services Committee—a post he said he never pursued.

As the Social Services Committee’s chair, Wright said he witnessed the result of public assistance in his district first-hand.

“I’ve been unemployed twice in my life. I used to drive a taxi cab. All of these things bring in life experience, which has helped me become a good chair of the Social Services Committee,” Wright said.

Wright said that the switch between two relatively unrelated committees has been a good test run for any veteran of the Assembly, such as himself, who wants to chair the Ways and Means Committee, should Farrell win the City Council race and move out of the Assembly.

“Who wouldn’t be interested?” Wright said of the chairmanship. “This is part of the natural evolution of folks being in public life for 20 or 30 years.”

He said the same thing about running for Rep. Charles Rangel’s (DManhattan/Bronx) seat, though Wright noted, “Charlie has at least 20 Assembly Member Keith Wright may be on his way good years ahead of him.” to succeeding Assembly Member Herman D. Farrell Rangel is 77 years old, but has shown no signs of as one of the major powers in Harlem politics. slowing, especially with his long-awaited chairWright said there is no campaign for county chair so manship of the House Ways and Means Committee and long as Farrell remains in the position, and time will tell active advocacy on behalf of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s preswhat will happen when a vacancy occurs. But he said idential campaign keeping him busy.

Wright’s increased stature in the neighborhood and the county chair’s power in nominating judges to the beyond—and potentially getting county chair—could New York Supreme Court has piqued his interest.

“New York County has the best judicial selection put him in a stronger position for the congressional seat process in the country,” Wright said. “Helping keep good or other opportunities that arise.

One office he says he will not run for again is judges on the bench—I’d be intrigued in doing.”

Wright’s family is active in the judicial branch: his Manhattan borough president, saying his interest in the father was on the Supreme Court for 30 years and his position has waned since 2005.

Whatever may be ahead, for now his plan is to continue building seniority in the Assembly, enabling him to deliver more money and services to his district.

But Wright said he is keeping his options open concerning his future in the Assembly.

In Albany, Wright said, nothing is permanent but brother is an acting Supreme Court judge.

“I embarrassed my family by going into politics,” change. While he has no definite plans outside of the county chairmanship, he is prepared nonetheless, he said.

Wright joked.

“Albany,” he said, “is a fabulous training ground to Wright said he believes his diverse Harlem district, which includes blacks, Hispanics and whites, makes handle whatever life throws at you.” him an ideal candidate for county chair. drivoli@manhattanmedia.com “I serve everybody,” he said. “I have a cross-section Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

Wright Time

After 16 years in Albany, county chair and other options ahead for Harlem politician

BY DAN RIVOLI 16 YEARS IN the Assembly, Keith Wright (D-Manhattan) says he is starting to feel like the senior legislators he knew back in his freshman year in Albany.

“Some of the younger members look to you for guidance,” Wright said. “I guess I have become one of those people now.”

Of the older Assembly members who gave him guidance, Wright said, only Assembly Member Herman “Denny” Farrell (D-Manhattan) remains.

Farrell, the chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, is planning an end to his 34-year career in Albany by running for Council Member Robert Jackson’s (D-Manhattan) term-limited seat next year.

But that is not the only change on the horizon.

Farrell, who quit as chairman of the State Democratic Party in 2006, will be required to give up the chairmanship of the Manhattan Democratic Party if and when he is sworn in to the Council, according to Conflict of Interest Board rules.

While Wright has been coy about running to succeed Farrell as chair, he is actively seeking the position, according to Harlem district leader Theresa Freeman.

The move would be a demonstration of Wright’s rising stock in local politics, after years of moving through the ranks in the Assembly and an unsuccessful bid for Manhattan borough president in 2005.

Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan), who also was a candidate in the 2005 borough president race, is reportedly looking at the county chair job, as is Marc Landis, a West Side district leader who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in the 2006 special election which sent Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) to Albany.

A

FTER

Wright’s long-time relationship with Farrell, a fellow Harlem politician—“He represents my mother,” Wright noted—has made him the presumed frontrunner to be the next county chair.

C

12

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

Albany and Council Debate Who Owns Oversight of Leased DoE Properties Efforts to clarify legal discrepancies and powers to prevent toxic schools

BY RACHEL BREITMAN ACING OVERCROWDED CLASSrooms and an expected budget crunch, New York City’s Department of Education has increasingly turned to leased buildings to help create new public schools in a hurry. But parents, politicians and environmental activists say that the leased sites leave too many loopholes in the safety review process.

“When the city plans construction on a site that’s been purchased for a new school building, under state law they need to notify the community board and the City Council and go through an environmental quality review,” said David Palmer, a staff attorney for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “But if the school is leased, they don’t require those steps. When we are talking about contaminated properties, this puts children at risk.”

The Department of Education’s fiveyear capital plan calls for the city to lease 35 school buildings.

Palmer has already fought for additional environmental testing at the High School for Information Technology, which opened in 2003 on the grounds of a metal warehouse in Long Island City and at a school opened in 2004 in a former factory in the Soundview section of the Bronx.

The Department of Education also drew controversy over an Ozone Park, Queens, elementary school at a chemical storage site, and a Harlem elementary school located in a closed dry cleaning plant.

Palmer joined parents, politicians and education groups at the School Construction Authority’s headquarters in Long Island City on April 28 to mark National Healthy Schools Day and protest the discrepancies in the law. The coalition expressed support for a bill introduced last month by State Sen. John Sabini (D-Queens) that would force the Department of Education to notify community boards of leased property, receive City Council approval and follow the criterion of the State Environmental Quality

F

State Sen. Frank Padavan now has a city public school named after him. But several Democrats argue that his standards for properties leased for schools do not make the grade.

Review Act. An identical bill sponsored by Assembly Education Committee Chair Cathy Nolan (D-Queens) passed last June.

“We are putting schools in industrial areas because of crowding,” said Sabini, who had chaired the subcommittee on Landmarks and Public Siting when he was on the City Council. “But to shorten or lessen the review that is given to the sites is unfair and not right for the students and the personnel in the schools.”

But the bill is not likely to get much notice in the Republican-controlled State Senate, where a bill by Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens) covering leased school buildings passed last summer.

Padavan’s bill requires that leased properties receive approval of the School Construction Authority after tests of soil, air and groundwater, but does not necessitate involvement of the city council or community board.

Padavan says that his version provides stringent environmental protection, explaining that its process “stresses transparency and provides rigorous environmental oversight for school leasing sites throughout New York City.”

The law “achieves the fundamental

goals of enacting the necessary safeguards for students, teachers, faculty and administrators,” he added, in a statement.

But local residents disagree, saying that the community needs more input.

In March, Queens’ Community Board 7 voted unanimously to pass a resolution

Gioia and John Liu, have jockeyed for a larger role themselves. Last summer, the Council’s Education Committee voted in favor of making leased schools follow the same environmental reviews as sites owned by the city.

“It’s unconscionable that the Department of Education is using this loophole at the expense of the kids,” said Liu. “The Department Of Education can do stricter environmental testing voluntarily without waiting for the state mandate.”

Margie Feinberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, disagreed, maintaining that the School Construction Authority’s testing is stringent and focused on keeping students safe.

“Site management plans contain all monitoring and maintenance deemed necessary by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in accordance with New York State law, and the School Construction Authority conducts air quality tests more extensively than the state requires,” she said.

But there does seem to be movement toward stronger protections. At the end of April, Padavan announced plans to amend his bill to require the Department

The Department of Education’s fiveyear capital plan calls for the city to lease 35 school buildings. asking the State Senate to amend Padavan’s bill to match the Assembly bill, which would allow for stricter oversight of plans for leased schools.

“We’d like right of review when things come up, but we would be willing to shorten the review process if necessary,” said Community Board 7 chair Gene Kelty. “Sometimes we know things about the area and want to bring it to the city’s attention before they make a mistake.”

And some in the Council, led by Queens Democrats James Gennaro, Eric

of Education to conduct at least one public hearing in each district where a new lease is proposed.

For the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, that will still not result in enough testing and feedback.

“Padavan’s bill still calls for a truncated environmental review process,” Palmer said. “We want the sites to go through a proper review so that city school children aren’t facing the risk of asthma, cancer and learning disabilities.” rachellbreitman@yahoo.com

C

Obama Campaign Inspires County Committee Effort in Brooklyn 50 candidates already recruited for September, New Kings Democrats aim for takeover

BY JOHN R.D. CELOCK REFORM-MINDED

A

GROUP

OF

Democratic young professionals in Brooklyn, inspired by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, is launching a challenge for county committee seats in the September primary election. Despite the excitement of those in the group, though, many outside the group remain unimpressed.

The New Kings Democrats’ goal is to reactivate the powerless county commit-

tee, which has generally taken a backseat to the borough’s district leaders. Their goals are to force more frequent committee meetings, meetings of the operational committees, term limits on the county leader, prohibiting party leaders from holding elective office, having committee members handle constituent services in their districts and more openness of party operations.

“We would like to think of the Obama campaign as a real movement,” said Matt Cowherd, the group’s co-leader. “This

looked like a good way to get those who leaned Democrat to have a say in the party.”

Cowherd said that he and his coleader, Rachel Lauter, started researching pathways for involvement in the party and saw the county committee seats as the best way to get other young professionals involved. With one male and female committee member per election district, and thousands of the sinecure positions, the pair believes it will be easy to elect their group into office.

They have recruited 50 candidates, roughly one percent of the committee, to seek seats in several neighborhoods, though the focus will be on Bushwick, Greenpoint and Williamsburg. A handful will run in Brooklyn Heights.

Cowherd, an attorney, and Lauter, who works for the city, have reviewed the Brooklyn Democratic by-laws to develop their platform. This includes pressing Assembly Member Vito Lopez, the county Democratic leader, to convene the variCONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

CITY HALL ous committees, including rules, law and campaigns, along with creating committees to produce policy proposals.

They claim there has not been a functional meeting of operational committee members in several decades.

The openness proposals are similar to those being advanced by a brownstone Brooklyn reform group led by Alan Fleishman, a longtime district leader.

Fleishman said that while he applauds Cowherd and Lauter’s efforts, he believes the existing system will prevent them from accomplishing their agenda by electing committee members only.

“Unless you elect 2,000 to 3,000 inde-

They have recruited 50 candidates, roughly one percent of the committee, to seek seats in several neighborhoods. pendent committee members, it would be impossible,” Fleishman said. “The system is skewed to be top-down from the leader.”

Fleishman instead encouraged the group to look into district leader races.

Lauter said she and Cowherd decided that trying to work through the county committee would be a better way of bringing people into the process, though she said running for district leader positions was an option they might consider in the future.

While the county committee’s powers, in theory, would put it in charge of the county party, in practice the committee has abdicated its authority to the district leaders and the county leader. The committee meets once every two years to effectively rubberstamp the party leadership, with a small percentage of members attending and the county leader holding proxies for the majority. The committee’s most powerful function is nominating party choices for state legislative and congressional special elections.

Committee members assume office either by being elected in primaries, after surviving the petition challenge phase, or by being appointed to vacancies in a process controlled by votes at a meeting of the full committee.

Lopez said he had not heard of the New Kings Democrats, but said he welcomes them to run candidates. Various groups emerge to run county committee candidates in different parts of the borough every two years, he said. Those who are elected have a role in the county organization, he said.

“People have the right to run,” he said.

“When they run, if they win, they will have an input into the agenda.”

Lopez declined to discuss the party’s inner workings and Cowherd and

www.cityhallnews.com Lauter’s proposals for more openness and meetings, stating that he was focused on his work in Albany. Lopez said he would not discuss party operations for Brooklyn specifically out of context from party operations in the other four boroughs.

Lauter said she has not been in touch with anyone in the party leadership or any other faction of the Brooklyn party.

The group recently launched a website, www.newkingsdemocrats.com, to provide information for others looking to run for county committee.

The group has been working with

Grassroots Initiative, which bills itself as the country’s only not-for-profit political consulting firm. Alex Carabelli, Grassroots Initiative’s deputy director, said his group has been active in recruiting county committee candidates for both parties.

The concept of a county committee challenge being inspired by a presidential campaign is not entirely new: Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 campaigns sparked similar efforts.

Few local Democrats outside the New Kings Democrats seem to have heard of the group at all, but most of those asked dismissed as naïve their goal of trying to

MAY 2008

transform the almost powerless county committee into a forum for hundreds of people to debate policy.

“They seem like well-meaning people, but they don’t know what they are doing—in Brooklyn it’s a relatively worthless exercise,” one consultant said.

“If they want to do something constructive for the Democratic Party, they should find a candidate to run against [State Sen.] Marty Golden [(RBrooklyn)].” johncelock@aol.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

Brighter Choice: New York’s First and Only Year-Round Public Schools In April 2008, the New York State Board of Regents unanimously approved Brighter Choice Charter School for Girls and Brighter Choice Charter School for Boys to become the first public schools in New York to innovate with a year-round school calendar.

Innovation at Brighter Choice is not new. Our schools also were the first public schools in the Capital Region to offer single-gender instruction.

At Brighter Choice, the learning never stops! www.brighterchoice.org

13

C

14

MAY 2008

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

The Pencil Portfolio

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

Reauthorization ahead, Walcott prepares for final exam on mayoral control

After helping institute Michael Bloomberg’s education reforms, Dennis Walcott says he might want to be a principal in a school like the one in Lean on Me.

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS LAW THAT GIVES MAYOR Michael Bloomberg (Unaff.) complete control of the city’s 1,100-plus public schools expires in a little less than 13 months, but Dennis Walcott, the deputy mayor of education, is barely sweating.

Walcott, who also serves as one of Bloomberg’s top education negotiators in Albany, is confident state legislators will reauthorize the five-year-old law. But with more than a year left to negotiate the terms, Walcott said he is concentrating instead on improving graduation rates and student performance.

“Right now our goal is results, results, results,” he said, sitting in a conference room at City Hall, his eyes narrowing behind a pair of throwback horned-rimmed glasses.

Especially in the wake of the Sean Bell verdict, Walcott’s public presence of late has been through his role as the most senior African-American member of the administration, going beyond his education portfolio to advise and assist the mayor in this racially charged situation.

But most of his time and energy is devoted to ensuring the continuation of mayoral control past the end of Bloomberg’s term, in the hopes of securing a key part of the mayor’s political legacy. That means the private conversations with those who will ultimately make the decision, the public testimony and the constant effort to make the

T

HE

system as strong as possible going in to the review process next year.

After six years of mayoral control, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum (D), Albany legislators, Council members and the teachers union are all looking to weigh in on the debate, which has sharply divided many New Yorkers. Over half a dozen reports and assessments on school governance are slated to come out before the State Legislature even takes up the issue.

Mayoral control could mean the difference between success and failure, Walcott said. A product of New York public schools, he believes today’s system is the best that has existed in decades. Higher math scores, smaller class sizes, safer schools and more choices for families are all products of Bloomberg’s ability to run the system from City Hall.

But opponents of mayoral control contend that the policy shuts parents out of the debate over school reforms. With the law set to sunset next year, many parents, politicians and educators are pushing for greater checks and balances and a larger role for parents.

Diane Ravitch, an education professor at New York University and an opponent of mayoral control, points to poor reading and math scores in 4th and 8th graders from 2003 to 2007 as evidence of the shortcomings of mayoral control.

And those are not the only problems she sees.

“Did the mayor or the chancellor

resolve to investigate the cause of the flat reading scores?” Ravitch wrote in an email.

“No, they did not. Did they promise to install a better reading program? No, they did not. Did they admit that the reading program they mandated across the city at great cost was a failure? No, they did not.”

Ravitch predicts that the State Legislature will reauthorize mayoral control, but with caveats.

“There should be a restoration of some form of democratic governance in education and some ability by the public to limit no-bid contracts and get real accountability by the education authorities,” she wrote.

But Walcott said any effort to limit the mayor’s management of the schools would be regressive.

In his frequent trips to Albany to talk with state lawmakers, he said the concerns he hears are mainly parochial, and not about the system as a whole.

“Obviously there’s an overarching issue in reauthorization,” he said, “but in my interaction with them, in my engagement with them, it’s really around a lot of the district issues.”

If anything, mayoral control has improved policy discussions between lawmakers, school administrators, parents, teachers and community leaders because it has made the system more transparent and less bureaucratic, Walcott said.

Raised in Queens by a social worker and an exterminator for the city’s Housing Authority, Walcott worked as a daycare

instructor and a kindergarten teacher before becoming the executive director of the Harlem Dowling’s West Side Center, a social services non-profit. He started during the height of the crack epidemic.

Those who know him from that role say he still carries the experience with him.

“Dennis is both a social worker and an educator,” said Dorothy Worrell, the center’s current executive director. “Without a doubt, he’s from the trenches. And he doesn’t hesitate to go back into the trenches when he’s needed.”

In 1990, Walcott was tapped to head the New York chapter of the Urban League, where he launched countless new services for the disadvantaged.

Bloomberg appointed him deputy mayor of policy in 2002. At the start of the second term, Walcott transitioned to deputy mayor of education and community development, overseeing the Department of Education, the Department of Youth and Community Development, the City University of New York and the New York City School Construction Authority.

Walcott has weathered several crises over the years—from the school bus fiasco of 2007, to accusations of school security officers using excessive force with some students, to the fierce debate surrounding metal detectors in schools.

Throughout all, he has retained his trademark calm air about him, said City Council Member Robert Jackson (DManhattan), chair of the Education Committee and an opponent of mayoral control.

“I have not known Dennis to yell or scream or get emotional sometimes like I do,” said Jackson, who has known Walcott since his days at the Urban League. “And over the past several years, he’s gotten smoother and more in tune with the bureaucratic processes.”

But their disagreements, including those over proposed education cuts, have cooled Jackson’s opinion of Bloomberg, and, as a result, his opinion of Walcott.

“Dennis maintains the status quo,” said Jackson. “I don’t think that he’s making waves. And I don’t think that in his position the mayor would want him to make waves.”

On the contrary, Walcott said he has been working with the mayor to radically change the education system in the city, improving outcomes for students and raising graduation rates, which Walcott says are “getting better and needing to get better-er.”

Like most in the administration, Walcott hesitates to reflect too much on his career post-Bloomberg, preferring instead to stress the intimidating workload he has in the remaining 19 months.

But there was one job Walcott said he would consider: principal of a rough-andtumble high school, like Morgan Freeman’s character in Lean on Me. “It’s a different kind of job,” Walcott said wistfully. “Because I’d be right there directly in the heart of what I’ve been talking about my whole life.” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

C

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

15

Lawmakers Dispute Where to Place Roof for New Housing Abatement Law Housing slump spurs movement to replace 421-b with 421-l tax break proposal

BY RACHEL BREITMAN

A

S

THE

HOUSING

INDUSTRY

continues to recoil from a nationwide subprime mortgage slump, New York City politicians are proposing to revive a plan offering tax abatements on new one-, two- and three-family homes.

The 421-b program, started in 1979 to encourage construction of new homes in the outer boroughs, was allowed to lapse two years ago under criticism that it offered affluent builders and homeowners in Staten Island, Queens, Bronx and Brooklyn an unnecessary tax cut amid a thriving housing market.

But plans for new construction in New York City rapidly declined in the first quarter of 2008, with the total number of new building permits diving 64 percent in the Bronx, 52 percent in Brooklyn, and 40 percent in Queens. Some say now is the time to revive the abatements, modified to include price caps preventing millionaires from receiving the breaks.

Because the similar 421-a program provides tax incentives for condominium and co-op owners, homebuyers in the outer boroughs have often felt left out of the deal.

“The city and state have programs to help folks buy low- and middle-income condominiums,” said R. Randy Lee, a Staten Island homebuilder and chairman

of the Building Industry Association.

“Unfortunately, none of those programs benefit people who want to live in one- and two-family homes, which include much of Staten Island and some of the homes in Queens.”

Lee lobbied the state for a return to the tax abatement plan, tentatively being called 421-l.

But while several outer-borough elected officials on the Council and in the State Legislature have supported the measure, debate continues over where to cap the prices—especially with real estate prices remaining prohibitively steep even in a housing slump, creating difficulties in identifying what constitutes a middle-class home.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which had supported letting the abatements lapse two years ago, kept this factor under considerations when helping State Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens) and Assembly Member James Brennan (DBrooklyn) design the new bill, which would bring back tax abatements on residences costing roughly $501,000 for a one-family home, $594,000 for a two-family home and $711,000 for a three-family home.

“The 421-b program was criticized by local elected officials for encouraging the development of so-called ‘McMansions,’” said Amanda Pitman, an HPD spokesper-

son. “But the revamped program would include caps in order to encourage homeownership and provide assistance to moderate- and middle-income homeowners.”

The bill, introduced last June, is currently on the Senate calendar and in the Assembly committee on real property taxation. It promises eight-year tax abatements for one- and two-family homes and 11-year abatements for three-family homes.

Meanwhile, City Council Member Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island), who once opposed 421-b, is introducing a resolution in the Council supporting 421-l.

Council Member Leroy Comrie (DQueens) said a new abatement law would give a boost to young people in his borough struggling to buy new homes.

“Construction costs are much higher in New York, and we don’t want that to send people away,” said Comrie. “I have a lot of constituents who grew up in my district and would like to come back and buy homes, but they wind up being forced to buy upstate, or in New Jersey or Pennsylvania.”

Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), chair of the Assembly Housing Committee, worries that the current price limits may be too modest.

He has pushed for raising the maximum price tag of homes that qualify. Lopez is currently crafting a proposal, which will be cosponsored by State Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Queens), to increase by $250,000 the cap on the price of homes eligible for a partial

abatement.

“The cap has to correlate to the sales price of the city, and the average cost of homes is way more than $400,000,” said Lopez. “I believe that you have to balance the short-term cut in tax revenue with stimulating the economy, which will help the tax revenue in the long run.”

Others are concerned that the caps could go too high, enabling certain homeowners to misuse 421-l as they did 421-b.

“I disagreed with the idea of bringing it back without caps,” said Padavan, “and I don’t support raising the caps. It was intended to encourage the development of affordable housing, and that is all it should be used for.”

Current homeowners, like Staten Island Community Board 3 chair Frank Morano, also fear that the tax abatements may make competing with new construction more difficult if and when they decide to sell their homes.

“If a guy buys an existing house, he pays all the taxes, and supports the community, but if you buy a new house, you won’t have to do the same?” Morano wondered. “There is a certain unfairness to it.

And there is no sunset clause. So just like last time, it is likely to stick around beyond its usefulness.” rachellbreitman@yahoo.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

Business Banking. Commerce Style.

Make the Most of Every Dollar.

Switch To Commerce.

• State-of-the-Art Online Banking and Treasury Management Services • Deposit ’til 6pm— Next Day Availability • Affinity Banking Membership Program Great benefits for members and your organization

Find out how Commerce can help your Teachers’ Union.

Call Brandon Williams at 1-888-751-9000.

commerceonline.com Restrictions may apply for next day availability; please see deposit account rules for details. Consult your tax advisor regarding tax-exempt financing. Member FDIC

C

16

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

The Fourth Slot CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

about politics at all have been paying attention to the more pressing and immediate race for the presidential nomination. The race has yet to take shape, the majority of voters yet to even realize there is a mayor’s race next year.

“With it being so wide open, it calls out for someone to come in and lead, or for one of these existing people to step up,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Poll, which has turned up similar results as Quinnipiac about the lack of enthusiasm behind any of the Democratic candidates.

There is a feeling these days. For now, it is quiet, murmured, discussed over drinks or lunch without much seriousness or substance—but discussed nonetheless.

There must, everyone seems to agree, be someone else.

Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with Thompson, Weiner or Quinn, even with the slush fund scandal. All have distinguished themselves as skilled in politics and government, winning difficult elections and passing serious policy.

But in an open race for mayor of New York City, most agree, there should be more than just three major candidates.

And there should probably be more than just these three.

“They’re not heroes and they’re not really representative of any real identifiable base,” said political consultant Norman Adler. “None of them are anathema. It’s just, the door’s still open.”

Two potential candidates, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión (D) and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum (D), have removed themselves from the race—Carrión to run for comptroller, Gotbaum to care for her husband.

But the sparse field has to do with a number of other factors, from the general satisfaction with the direction of the city, which seems to have quelled a lot of potential political agitation, to the term limits which have reduced the time many city officials have in the public eye, to the members of the Congressional delega-

Democratic nomination for mayor of New York, and without a clear, strong GOP candidate—John Catsimatidis is still making inroads with the Republican establishment and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s denials remain as strong as ever, despite him enjoying higher poll numbers than any of the Democrats— this may very well be the race which determines the next mayor of New York.

For many, that leads to one clear conclusion: there must be someone else.

There is room for someone else, they say.

There are bases that are not covered, huge chunks of the electorate without a candidate to instinctively call their own.

Undoubtedly, another candidate will emerge. He is out there. She is out there. They are out there.

Who? No one seems to know.

But that does not stop them from looking. Like Ahab roaming the seas or children tucking molars under their pillows, they believe, proof or not. Someone else will emerge, they insist. Someone must. They just know it.

“I would be shocked,” said political consultant George Arzt, “if the race is as it is at this point.” here are not too many obvious options. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall (D) is seen as at the end of her political career. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (D) is expected to run for public advocate, if he runs for anything other than re-election.

There is Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz (D), who insists he is still far from a conclusion on whether to enter the mayoral race. There are a few members of the congressional delegation who might be able to put a campaign together. Besides them, there are not any elected officials with large enough constituencies to generate the name recognition and voter bases generally viewed as necessary to make a serious run for mayor—though Queens Council Member Tony Avella is already trying to upturn that thinking.

CITY HALL the mayoral field was left without a Latino candidate. That leaves a large number of voters up for grabs.

Thompson is expected to try for this support, but a so-called black-brown coalition has eluded many New York politicians before. For Thompson or another candidate, a strong appeal to the Latino

T

“I would be shocked,” said political consultant George Arzt, “if the race is as it is at this point.” tion enjoying their first term in the majority in a long time, which has given them precious and powerful seniority.

Ambition, tempered by political reality, may also play a part: the scuttled presidential dreams of both Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg have reminded potential candidates that being mayor of New York tends to be a dead-end job.

Still, this is an open race for the

remove money as a major factor, at least between the top tier candidates. Raising a match-able $6 million may not be easy, but it is certainly not prohibitive.

Limits might also soften the ground for a self-financed candidate, who, even with the raised thresholds prompted by such a campaign, would need only about $15 million to outspend those within the system. In a city of 71 billionaires and countless more millionaires, finding a concerned Democrat able and willing to put up the $15 million might not be that hard.

The run-off law would help, too.

The more crowded the field

Money matters, but not as much as some might think. Thanks to the donation limits and public matching funds through the campaign finance system, all the candidates could potentially end up with the same amount of money in their bank accounts, with spending caps helping to maintain a level field. In a thickening race without a clear frontrunner, the campaign finance system could actually

becomes, the less likely any candidate will score a clean 40 percent to avoid a run-off, and the fewer votes necessary for the second place finish to get into one. In the 2001 primary, for example, Fernando Ferrer got 279,000 votes to Mark Green’s 243,000, but Green went on to win the run-off despite being a full 36,000 votes behind in the first round. And in that year’s sevenway public advocate primary, the second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishers were all within 6,000 votes of each other. Miniscule margins like those could encourage a lot of contenders into the race.

So the question for most does not seem to be whether, in the abstract, it can be done.

The question is who can do it.

To many, the answer may come down to demographics. Identity politics may often be dismissed as an antiquated approach to New York elections, but nearly every analysis and prediction of next year’s race relies on the traditional splits of the Democratic electorate into racial and ethnic segments.

With Carrión’s surprise December announcement of his run for comptroller,

community could be an important building block for a candidacy.

Geographical holes exist as well.

There is no candidate from the Bronx, again thanks to Carrión’s decision to run for comptroller. Nor is there a candidate from Harlem or the Upper East Side, both areas which have produced strong mayoral candidates in the past.

CITY HALL The potentially exploitable ideological gaps are harder to discern, with both Thompson and Quinn yet to provide a clear agenda for their campaigns and Weiner still in the process of adapting his 2005 middle-class, outer borough appeal into a platform for 2009. But with barely any ground staked out, according to the collective wisdom, a candidate with a

strong message on just about anything could easily find a spot in the field.

Whatever the gaps, Markowitz believes he could fill them. He will decide whether to run by late summer, he said, and though he is unsure about whether he wants to be mayor yet, he is confident that he would fit well in the field.

“Even if it’s just the three or four of us, we’re offering enough choices,” he said.

He does not expect he would get the support of either the powerful Queens or Brooklyn political organizations, but he would expect to get the support of many Brooklynites and others who have come

www.cityhallnews.com to know him from his efforts as Kings County’s biggest cheerleader. The Caribbean and West Indian communities would back him strongly as well, he predicts, as would many African-Americans.

He is popular in Brooklyn, and would presumably be strong there, cutting into the bases of both Thompson and Weiner as he ran.

“The racial and geographical issues—in this race, with me in it, I don’t think it would be as much as you think,” Markowitz said, sounding the rhythms of a campaign for workingand middle-class voters.

“I’m the candidate of just the average person.”

Other names get mentioned. If Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Queens/Bronx) wanted to run, most agree, he could put together a campaign.

Council Member John Liu, who has millions in the bank for an as-yetundeclared race, could try to build a candidacy on strong support within the Asian community and his home borough of Queens. Carrión could change his mind.

Gotbaum could change hers. And any of the expected candidates for public advocate or comptroller could decide to jump to the mayor’s race.

But two possible candidates come up in nearly every conversation of potential candidates: Rep. Jerrold Nadler (DManhattan/Brooklyn) and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D).

Nadler is well known, a capable fundraiser with an existing war chest, and extremely popular in the parts of the West Side that vote in higher numbers than anywhere else in the city. He represents parts of two boroughs, and he has strong ties to the Orthodox Jewish community, which can vote in high numbers when its leaders decide to push for a chosen candidate. He has had a consistently high profile for everything from his fight for better air quality at Ground Zero to the meetings in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict.

Like nearly everyone in the Congressional delegation, Nadler is thought to have wanted Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. With the possibility of that vacancy growing less and less likely, though, many seem to expect he might look to City Hall instead.

For the attorney general, the thinking

goes like this: Cuomo, whose ambition and political skills are both well known, would like to be governor. He might have found an opening in a Democratic primary against Eliot Spitzer in 2010. The Emperor’s Club revelations put an end to that possibility.

A campaign against David Paterson would be trickier. After carefully rebuilding the bridges he burnt in his 2002

MAY 2008

17

been more frustrating than the return with each election cycle to people talking about being dissatisfied with their choices, and about looking for someone else.

The speculation that Bill Clinton would run in 2001 made him particularly apoplectic, he said, but the pattern as a whole drives him crazy.

“Come on!” he said. “It’s the same question and the same answer. And

“It’s the same question and the same answer,” said Fernando Ferrer. “And amazingly, we all act like this is the first time we heard this problem.” gubernatorial primary race against Carl McCall, Cuomo may be unable, or at least unwilling, to take on another black candidate popular within his party, let alone an incumbent governor.

Cuomo’s options for advancement are slim. With a Democratic field lacking a towering figure, the mayor’s race may provide an opening. City Hall, after all, is just a short walk from his apartment.

Candidates could also come from outside the Democratic establishment. But if they did, they would need huge name recognition, or the ability to buy some very quickly.

That leaves the businessmen or other moguls. Though some might think New Yorkers would be eager to have another MBA mayor, political consultant Hank Sheinkopf warned that with a recession and continuing Wall Street losses, the time may not be right for a captain of industry to try mounting a campaign, even in the somewhat unlikely event that one were to emerge on the Democratic side.

“By the time this year is out, 40,000 people will be out of jobs in the financial sector,” Sheinkopf said. “Not a good calling card.”

So the conversations tend to turn fantastical. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) could run, or maybe Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens). Not that either of them has expressed any interest—Smith, in fact, started signaling his support of Thompson’s candidacy a year ago.

Or a celebrity could get into the race.

California has had two actors as governor, sent Sonny Bono to Congress and elected Clint Eastwood mayor of Carmelby-the-Sea. New York has enough of its own celebrities in residence to make for a mayor. Or maybe a sports star. Joe Torre was once discussed with some seriousness as a possible contender, but he has decamped for Los Angeles. Or maybe Tiki Barber wants to make another career switch.

The search for the mythical mayoral candidate, like the Big Apple’s own Yeti, continues.

Fernando Ferrer, for one, wishes it would stop. In his years involved in politics and his own mayoral runs, little has

amazingly, we all act like this is the first time we heard this problem.” r maybe, just maybe, the primary will be between Weiner, Thompson and Quinn and no one

O

else.

Or maybe voters will turn to Avella, who is waging a proud dark horse race for the nomination on a platform of government reform.

“The reason I’m running is I looked at the top candidates and found them wanting, and figured if you want real change, you’ve got to get in there and do it yourself,” he said.

Those looking for better-funded campaigns, he said, will turn to the big three.

But those who are looking for the bettergrounded campaigns, he insists, will turn to him.

“I have yet to see a vision from any of the other candidates, other than that they want to be mayor,” he said. “For me, being mayor is the consequence of making change.”

So for those asking who the fourth candidate will be, he has a simple answer.

“I’m here,” he said.

Avella scored 4 percent in the February WNBC/Marist poll. He did not register at all in the May Quinnipiac poll, which only reported results for Kelly, Weiner, Thompson, Quinn and Gotbaum among potential mayoral contenders.

Polls out this early are based mostly on speculation, name recognition and gut feelings. Sometimes, though, they work: almost eight years ago, there were four candidates in Quinnipiac’s June 2000 poll about the last open mayor’s race, and those four ultimately were the ones who made up the Democratic field. Mark Green had the highest approval ratings by several points. A year and a half later, despite a bruising run-off and a terrorist attack which shook the core of the city along the way, he still ended up with the Democratic nomination.

But those hoping for Mayor Avella, Mayor Torre, Mayor Cuomo, Mayor Nadler or just about anyone else, take heart. Not recorded as a choice in that June 2000 poll: Michael Bloomberg. eidovere@cityhallnews.com

C

18

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

CITY HALL

The City’s Own Looming Housing Crisis Budget shortfalls and rickety federal support threaten NYCHA properties lieu of taxes, or PILOTs. “There is a good reason for the city to think of NYCHA as a cash cow,” said Victor Bach, a S THE REST OF THE COUNTRY DEALS housing policy expert at the Community with the continuing fall-out from the Service Society, a 160-year-old anti-poverty subprime mortgage crisis, the city’s organization. vast network of public housing is facing a The city does not have any more reason to widening budget gap that could affect living continue to milk NYCHA for these funds, Bach conditions for more than 400,000 residents. said.

“Residents are scared,” said Council Member “NYCHA is in serious deficit,” he said. “These Rosie Mendez (D-Manhattan), who chairs the payments should be reconsidered, renegotiatCouncil’s Public Housing Committee. Mendez ed, waived.” said the lack of apparent solutions makes calmHernandez said the payments are issues that ing residents’ fears increasingly more difficult. would have to be settled between the mayor “You see the conditions they’re living in and and the City Council. the problems they’re going through,” she said, While city and state officials work to stream“and you’re sort of helpless in trying to rectify line NYCHA’s budget, the union that represents the situation.” the majority of the authority’s 13,000 employees The New York City Housing Authority is laboring to make the issue of public housing (NYCHA) is facing about a $200 million shortheard above the chorus of other housing and fall this year, almost one-third higher than last economic concerns. year’s $168 million deficit. In other words, At a May 1 rally in front of City Hall conNYCHA is reimbursed by the federal governvened by Teamsters Local 237, thousands of ment around $0.83 for every dollar that the public housing employees and residents gathauthority spends. ered to protest the budget cuts. With a Critics charge that the Bush administration JumboTron projecting the action behind them, is simply trying to find a way out of the public a four-piece R&B band led the multitude in the housing business. But the city and state share a chant, “Save our jobs, damn good jobs!” responsibility too, Mendez said.

Days before the rally, George Floyd, presiWhile most of New York’s 343 public housing dent of Local 237, said that while he expected developments were built with federal money, 16 Paterson to fight for more funding, there was were constructed by the state and five by the little that could be done in the near future. city. NYCHA manages the whole system, which “Does he have the economic base, the tax employs about 13,000 full-time workers and has base, to deal with this problem—as well as edua total budget of $3.4 billion.

Thousands of public housing employees and residents gathOver the years, the city and state have zeroed ered earlier this month in front of City Hall to protest budget cation, as well as other things he has to fund in out their commitment to NYCHA’s operating cuts. NYCHA is facing about a $200 million shortfall this year. this state?” Floyd asked. “The answer, probably, today is no.” budget—about $62 million from the state and In the search for solutions, rumors of privatization firm those commitments next year. about $25 million from the city.

When Hernandez meets with Gov. David Paterson have fueled fears among housing activists that New Mendez’s attempt last year to modify the budget to include more money for public housing failed. She said (D) in the months ahead, he plans to petition the new York could soon follow other cities in selling off its public housing to private owners. governor to restore state subsidies. she will try again this year.

Nicholas Dagen Bloom, an assistant professor at the “We’re going to go back to the state and say that the “If we here at the city and state don’t take responsibility for those units we created, you know, it’s going to state really has the obligation to restore that $62 million New York Institute of Technology and author of Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth have dire consequences for residents of public hous- to operate those 16 developments,” Hernandez said.

The NYCHA chief said that whole funding streams Century, said despite the rumors, privatization was ing,” said Mendez, who herself lived in public housing unlikely. for more than 20 years and whose district includes have been dried up by the federal government.

“It’s not likely the program will be privatized,” he “They’ve either been zeroed out or cut pretty signifimany public housing projects. said, “but there will be structural changes in the way it Mendez’s fellow public housing warrior (and another cantly,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez has responded by cut- operates to reflect current conditions, which is higher ting almost $500 million from the costs.”

Currently, rent in public housing averages at $320 a authority’s budget, reducing staff by almost 2,500 positions and introduc- month for residents who earn on average $20,000 a year, ing technology to reduce inefficien- or about 1.6 percent of their annual income. Bloom said cies. The signing of the shelter restrictions on rent ceilings could be loosened.

Whatever happens with the privatization effort, allowance bill last year by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) also will free up Council Member Mendez said residents are still fearful about $47 million when it is fully of developments being sold and demolished to make way for high-rise luxury condominiums. phased in, Hernandez said.

In New York’s competitive and volatile housing marThe move to convert 8,400 units to Section 8 housing will also save ket, public housing often gets lost in the conversation, Mendez said. But most people fail to realize that public some money, he added.

“Over the long term we’ve had some victories that housing is essential to New York’s entire housing equaformer tenant) is NYCHA Chairman Tino Hernandez, who agrees that the state needs to restore its commit- will result in added funding,” Hernandez said. “We still tion, she said.

“We’re losing rent-regulated apartments at an alarmtry to grapple with the short-term problem.” ment to the 16 developments it used to operate.

Advocates see areas of other savings that have yet to ing rate,” Mendez said. “If we don’t do something about Last year, the state provided a one-time, $3.4 million subsidy for NYCHA, a mere “pittance,” according to be approached by either the City Council or the mayor. stabilizing public housing, for many that’s the housing of NYCHA pays the city about $73 million for police last resort, that’s their last hope, and we could in the Hernandez. Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Unaff.) also dished out a one-time $100 million allocation last year. services, $30 million to the Department for the Aging for future lose that as well.”

But neither the city nor the state are expected to reaf- senior services and around $130 million for payments in ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

A

“If we here at the city and state don’t take responsibility for those units we created, you know, it’s going to have dire consequences for residents of public housing.”

—Council Member Rosie Mendez.

C

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

19

Democrats See Green to Close Budget Gap in Hedge Fund Tax Proposal strongly supported despite opposition from Bloomberg and Paterson

BY RACHEL BREITMAN F THE PEASANTS HAVE NO BREAD, said Marie Antoinette, then let them eat cake. And if the city’s millionaires will not pay more taxes, say some New York City politicians, then let hedge fund partners pick up the slack.

A proposal to increase the local business tax on New York City’s private equity and hedge funds has City Council members hoping that no heads will roll come tax day.

The additional money could help the city fund its expected $59 billion budget and offset declining tax revenues, estimated to fall by 6 percent next year. With both the city and state expecting dwindling revenue from taxes on Wall Street and real estate profits, politicians continue to debate what putting in a new tax might mean for an already agitated economy.

The proposal would extend the city’s unincorporated business tax to include the interest from investments for hedge funds and private equity, which outpaced the profits from Wall Street banks last year. The unincorporated business tax currently extends to partners’ management fees, but not to the

I

carried interest on investments.

“As working people are paying more and more of the income in taxes, some of the wealthiest New Yorkers are not paying their fair share,” said Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party, which supports both the hedge fund tax and the shelved proposal for state tax on residents earning over $1 million. “Closing this loophole would give New York City’s budget a badly needed boost.”

have grown a lot. Not everyone is down and out right now.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Unaff.), however, has vocally denounced the plan, suggesting the tax could drive away the city’s most profitable businesses virtually overnight.

“More than ever, the people that are paying a lot of the newer taxes are very mobile and they could move to someplace else very easily,” he said at a recent press conference.

Though the mayor has held fast to the goal of cutting taxes this year, giving homeowners a property tax rebate, he admitted in proposing his new budget that raising taxes—as he did in 2003—was a possibility.

A proposal for a new tax would require a Council resolution requesting action, and then a vote by the Legislature.

Assembly Member Rory Lancman (DQueens), said he and other members of his conference may be willing to support the hedge fund tax if they feel that this would help the city close the projected gap between revenue and spending.

“If the city asks Albany for permission to tax private equity fund partners

Economic policy experts say the plan could elevate the city’s tax revenue by between $165 and $225 million a year.

Economic policy experts say the plan could elevate the city’s tax revenue by between $165 and $225 million a year.

“We think it’s a sound tax reform proposal,” said James Parrot, chief economist for the Fiscal Policy Institute, which studied the potential results of this kind of targeted tax hike. “The consensus is that Wall Street is flat on its back and had their worst quarter in history, but private equity and hedge funds

“Wakefern Food Corporation/ShopRite relies on the port of New York and New Jersey to effectively remain the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States. As the region’s leading supermarket retailer, all of us at Wakefern Food Corp./ShopRite understand the benefits of the distribution efficiencies that the port provides. With $9.9 billion in retail sales and nearly 50,000 associates, we know what it takes to remain competitive.Our customers depend on us for fresh products and low prices — we dependon the port to help us keep that promise to our customers.”

and hedge fund managers at the same rate as small business owners and entrepreneurs in order to balance its budget in a way that spreads the pain fairly among city residents and businesses, I think that idea would find broad support in Albany,” he explained.

But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), who had backed the millionaire’s tax, said that the hedge fund tax would only do half the job.

“The speaker thinks that a better way is through the income tax, which is the most progressive model,” said Dan Weiller, Silver’s spokesperson. “He still supports the million-plus tax. It is reasonable and fair to do it that way during a difficult economic time.”

Gov. David Paterson (D) has been adamantly opposed to raising income taxes for the current budget, and has instead pushed for cuts on government spending, an idea which has brought him kudos from across the political aisle.

“The governor is not inclined to increase taxes, but he understands the fiscal situation that the state is facing,” said Morgan Hook, spokesperson for Paterson. “He isn’t inclined to close a budget gap on taxpayers’ backs.” rachellbreitman@yahoo.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

C

Our region’s businesses rely on the port.

Without it there’d be no bananas for breakfast or other products we take for granted. Think of it — the port is responsible for: • More than $150 billion in cargo each year • 236,000 full time jobs in the metropolitan area • Serving 35% of the entire U.S. population The port of New York and New Jersey is the cornerstone of the supply chain that we depend on.

Joseph Colalillo Chairman and CEO Wakefern Food Corporation

The men and women of the port of New York and New Jersey...

New York Shipping Association, Inc. © 2008

20

MAY 2008

www.cityhallnews.com

CITY HALL

EDUCATION Redefining Gifted in the Present

ISSUE FORUM:

BY CHANCELLOR JOEL KLEIN

W

E ALL THINK WE KNOW WHAT IT

means for students to be “gifted.”

It means they are exceptionally bright and are learning at a higher level than other children. It means they wouldn’t get the academic challenges they need to thrive in a regular classroom.

But in our city, until now, the definition of “gifted” has been anything but clear. For decades, “gifted” meant one thing in one neighborhood and something completely different across town.

Last year, for example, in one Manhattan neighborhood, eight in 10 students admitted to a gifted program scored below the 80th percentile nationally. In another Manhattan neighborhood, about eight in 10 students admitted to gifted programs scored above the 80th percentile.

No clear standards meant major inconsistency across our city in gifted and talented admissions.

Many “gifted” students were, in fact, gifted by national standards. More than 40 percent of students, however, scored below the 80th percentile but were admitted to gifted and talented programs anyway.

With no citywide standards, families couldn’t know what to expect. Was their district’s program set up to challenge gifted children or was it serving average or even struggling students?

Also, in the old system, access to gifted programs was uneven. In some neighborhoods, all the rising kindergarteners or first graders took the admissions assessments. In others, almost no students tried to test in.

We’ve made progress in recent years to improve this system, and this year we’re fundamentally transforming it.

We’re replacing a mishmash of different standards with a uniform and rigorous citywide standard and we’re changing the system of limited access to a system that has a place for all eligible students.

For the first time, all students who are offered admission into gifted and talented programs must score at the 90th percentile nationally.

And because of increased outreach to families, more than 50,000 students in kindergarten through the third grade took admissions assessments, compared to just 13,000 last year. This year, as a result of the new admissions policy and process, the number of students applying

to gifted programs increased in every single school district.

What does this mean for families?

It means when parents find out next week if their children are being offered seats in gifted and talented programs, they’ll know why. They’ll know their children are achieving at the same high level as other admitted children across the city. They will be able to trust that their children will receive an education that’s designed to meet their needs.

It also means that our admissions standards for gifted and talented programs are the highest this city has ever had.

In the fall, we considered requiring students to score at about the 95th percentile. This month, we decided to move the requirement to the 90th percentile.

This new cutoff is still higher than ever.

Last year, all but one of our 32 local community school districts admitted students who scored below our new citywide standard.

Even as we’re raising standards, we’ve been able to offer seats to roughly the same number of students as last year, primarily because we tested so many more students for admission.

In our Children First education reforms, we’ve worked hard to set expectations high for our children and work with schools and families to help students exceed expectations.

That’s what we’re doing now in our gifted and talented programs—and I think it will vastly improve the quality of these programs and help many New York City public school children excel.

C

Joel Klein is the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education.

We Need to Work Out Physical Education in Our Schools

BY ASSEMBLY MEMBER CATHY NOLAN ASSEMBLY Committee on Education, I have been at the forefront of an investigation into why some allege schools in New York State are not complying with state law expressly outlining physical education instruction at each grade level.

A hearing was held January 31 in Manhattan where expert witnesses from the New York City Department of Education, New York State Department of Education, principals, teachers, parents and education advocates gathered to share information and experiences.

Current New York State law requires each school to develop a physical education plan that provides students in kindergarten through grade three physical education five days and 120 minutes each week. In grades four through six, students are required to receive physical education three days and 120 minutes each week. Students in grades seven through 12 should have at least three classes per week for one semester and two classes per week for the second semester.

The problem is that these are not recommendations. These are required by state law, but ask people if their children are receiving the specified amounts and in many cases the answer is a disheartening “no.”

A

S CHAIR OF THE

We know funding for physical education has dropped progressively throughout the years in New York City beginning in the 1970s. Today, the challenges that have historically deterred New York schools from achieving high-quality physical education programs continue to create barriers. These include lack of resources, lack of space, lack of parent involvement and lack of knowledge about the law.

I am grateful to those who testified at the hearing, for they have given the committee valuable insight into this problem. From them we learned about the

facts. Experts recommend that children receive at least 60 minutes of physical activity five days a week. Childhood obesity rates in the United States continue to rise at alarming rates. We learned about viable solutions that have a chance of finding success if we see them through by offering teachers and schools the support they need in terms of funding resources. In New York City this potential has been made authentic by the increase in funding through the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement.

The hearing allowed us to understand the challenges faced by those in the trenches of our public schools. A teacher from a public school in Woodside testified at the hearing about the problems she has encountered trying to administer physical education to 30-50 students per class, once per week.

She was creative enough to find ways to teach these students and utilize a new assessment program implemented by the New York City Department of Education, but ultimately she still ran headlong into the reality of lack of space and the fact that she is one person stretched out among all those students.

These are variables that are most difficult to overcome.

According to testimony by Lori Rose Benson, Director of the Office of Fitness and Health Education for the city Department of Education, policy initia-

tives are shifting focus away from competitive sports toward general fitness classes such as aerobics and weight lifting, reflecting health trends of our greater society. New York State United Teachers vice president, Maria Neira, suggested ideas such as the creation of a core curriculum for physical education, and including the legal requirements on school report cards in an effort to inform parents.

As we move forward on this issue, we will continue to look at solutions and develop a comprehensive plan to improve physical education compliance in New York State.

At the first Education Committee meeting for 2008, I introduced a resolution urging the State Department of Education (SED) to begin a review of the level of compliance for physical education instruction. The vote was unanimous, reflecting the state Assembly’s dedication to the goal that all students in New York should receive the legal amount of instruction in physical education. As we initiate positive change, we will improve not only physical health, but mental outlook and academic performance. These are benefits the children of New York State cannot afford to live without.

C

Cathy Nolan, a Democrat representing parts of Queens, is chair of the Assembly Education Committee.

New York City promised $450 million for our schools.

Now you see it, now you don’t.

After decades of chronic under-funding, New York State is keeping its promise to provide an additional $600 million for our public schools. But New York City isn’t. It wants to take away the $450 million that it promised—money that will come right out of the classroom.

That money could be used to ensure smaller class sizes, safer schools, access to pre-K, and quality principals and teachers. We know times are tough. But our children won’t get a second chance. Tell the Mayor and the City Council to keep their promise and fund our public schools.

Call 800-961-6198 and make the city keep its promise to fund our public schools.

KEEP THE PROMISES COALITION

22

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

ISSUE FORUM: EDUCATION

Education Funding Crisis—Dejà Vu All Over Again

BY COUNCIL MEMBER ROBERT JACKSON 1991, I WAS PRESIDENT OF THE local community school board in Washington Heights/Inwood. Our schools were really overcrowded and many were on split sessions. I grew so frustrated by the declining state funding for our school district that I joined Attorney Michael Rebell to found the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE). In the CFE lawsuit, it took 13 long years of litigation for the courts to establish that New York City public school students are entitled to the opportunity for a sound basic education. The dual purpose of that lawsuit was to define a standard of educational adequacy and establish a steady State funding stream to make that standard a reality.

The state, after considerable public pressure, has upheld its end of the deal and kept the promise to fund public schools.

It took a mere hiccup on Wall Street for the man who ran for office as the “Education Mayor” to renege on his commitment to our kids. The mayor, who urged Albany legislators to restore proposed cuts to education funding when he testified at State budget hearings earlier this year, has evidently decided that he will craft the city’s own budget with different priorities. With cuts of $324 million

I

N

in the mayor’s preliminary education budget plus a subsequent call for all city agencies to pare 5 percent more, schools across the city will really feel the pinch.

This comes on the heels of a surprise mid-year, across-the-board cut of 2.5 percent that erased $180 million from the education budget overnight.

Parents, teachers and principals have contacted me to express their outrage and frustration because $110 million of

that cut came right out of individual school budgets, crippling or closing many programs that were already delivering services. Too many kids are still getting instruction in hallways or can’t do hands-on experiments because there is no science lab.

It is hard to understand the thinking here. Experience consistently demonstrates that when our public dollars are invested in education, we end up collecting more tax revenue from bettereducated, higher-earning workers—and save money on a whole gamut of social services. We save money on healthcare costs because educated people can afford healthier food and make more informed health care choices. Educated people are less likely to end up on welfare or be incarcerated or lack the skills to be gainfully employed. This isn’t just anecdotal evidence or folk wisdom. A highly-regarded study by Columbia University’s Teachers College calculates that each new high school graduate costs the public $82,000 but yields $209,000 in higher government revenues and lower spending—benefits 2.5 times greater than costs!

However, rather than making a proven long-term investment in the future, the mayor has decided to treat

his budget as a popularity contest—with $400 rebates and a 7-percent reduction in property taxes. Who doesn’t like to get money back? These gimmicks will yield $1.25 billion less income to the city coffers in 2008-2009 alone. And less revenue will mean that very basic and fundamental educational needs of New York City students will go unmet. I guarantee that taking a projected $700 million out of the city’s education budget in 18 months will undermine classroom instruction.

It is true that New York City’s expected revenue from corporate taxes is lower than projected, reflecting the downturn in financial markets and profits. But this drop follows several years of record revenue and budget surplus. Education funding must be consistent to be effective. CFE taught us that money matters.

In good times, we need to anticipate the lean times and provide reserves that can generate steady funding. We made the promise of educational opportunity— now the mayor must “Keep the Promise.”

We are heading in the wrong direction—turn around!

C

Robert Jackson, a Democrat representing parts of Manhattan, is the chair of the Council’s Education Committee.

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

ISSUE FORUM: EDUCATION

The Protection of Children Must Be Our Highest Priority

23

Issue Forum for June:

Labor Contracts

with political perspectives from:

BY STATE SEN. STEPHEN SALAND ARE OVER 225,000 classroom teachers in New York State, and by far the vast majority are hard working, dedicated individuals who care deeply about the well-being of students. A small number, however, capture the headlines when caught preying on innocent children. These are the predators that every parent fears.

In 2000, I authored a law that required all prospective school employees be fingerprinted to undergo an FBI background check. In addition, this law required school districts to directly report to law enforcement all criminal allegations involving suspected abuse of a child by a school employee.

According to a 2007 State Education Department Report, the law is working as it was designed to do. Nearly 1,400 applicants were denied clearance to work in a school setting after the criminal background check revealed they were unfit to work with children. In addition, the number of reports involving teacher misconduct more than doubled since 2001. While the number is alarming, it is clear that more children are being protected by a law that was crafted to stop the old practice of districts sweeping criminal behavior under the rug and “passing the trash” to another unsuspecting school.

This staggering increase in reports, however, has created a tremendous backlog in the number of investigations being reviewed and prosecuted. In working closely with the State Education Department’s Office of School Personnel Review and Accountability (OSPRA) which handles these cases, I have learned that they are in critical need of additional personnel, as many cases languish for over a year.

OSPRA has indicated that it is seeking $600,000 for additional personnel to more expeditiously address its backlog of cases to determine whether a teacher’s actions should result in suspension or termination of their teaching certification.

Unfortunately, despite this well reasoned request for funds, the governor’s executive budget did not include an increase for OSPRA’s operations.

Instead, the governor cut OSPRA’s budget by $500,000, or nearly one-third of its operating costs. The governor’s Division of Budget rationale for this severe reduction is an anticipated savings generated by the introduction of new technology (LiveScan). This new technology, which will cost school districts roughly $14,000 to purchase and $1,000 a year to maintain, will eventually eliminate the need for the roll and stamp fingerprinting at

MAY 2008

T

HERE

Councilman Joe Addabbo (D-Queens) Chair of the Labor Committee State Sen. Joe Robach (R-Rochester) Chair of the Labor Committee The best way to reach every elected official in New York City.

Enhance and reinforce your lobbying and advocacy campaigns with City Hall. the district level and replace it with an advanced electronic system which will reduce errors in the fingerprint collection process.

Presently, fingerprints forwarded by districts are reviewed by six part-time temporary employees at the State Education Department. While this advancement in technology is a vast improvement over the present collection and review of fingerprints, the Department has made it clear that it does not address OSPRA’s need for more investigators, attorneys and support staff. The governor’s recommendation to slash $500,000 from this unit’s budget will further hinder their efforts to review cases involving sex offenses and sexual misconduct. Surely, this gross error should be rectified and OSPRA’s efforts to protect children should be adequately funded in this year’s state budget.

In addition to addressing OSPRA’s backlog of cases, I plan to introduce legislation which would immediately remove a teacher’s certification if they have been convicted of, or pled guilty to a felony sex offense. While it is important to ensure tenured teachers due process at both the school district level and the State Education Department’s certification review, these safeguards become costly vehicles of redundancy and delay following a conviction or a plea to a sex offense. This practice is unjust and should be immediately rectified.

I do not view this as a partisan or political issue, but a matter of conscience and moral obligation that should be embraced by all. As the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, my priorities are clear: we must act swiftly to remove predators from our schools.

Ad Deadline: June 2nd • Issue Date: June 9th For advertising information please contact your account executive at 212.284.9735

The Capitol and City Hall are seeking a knowledgeable

sales executive.

Due to our tremendous growth over the past 12 months we are seeking to expand our team. Prior sales experience and knowledge of New York City & State politics is a plus. Compensation includes base salary depending on level of experience, commissions as well as bonus opportunities. Benefits include 401k, health & dental. Only serious candidates need apply.

Please send résumé and cover letter as a PDF or Word document format only to aschweitzer@manhattanmedia.com.

No phone calls or faxes please.

C

Stephen Saland, a Republican representing parts of Columbia and Dutchess counties, is chair of the State Senate

nycapitolnews.com cityhallnews.com

24

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

‘A’ is for Agenda, ‘B’ is for Ballot Access, ‘C’ is for Campaign Finance

BY DANIEL MACHT EILAND SAT DOWN AT A SMALL conference table in the front of the classroom and clutched his notes. Up on the blackboard behind him, the words “um,” “like,” and “you know” were written—reminders of what not to say.

The 30-year-old mayoral hopeful with a background in grant writing was dressed in a blue, striped collared shirt, a Star-of-David pendant on a gold necklace peeking out between the buttons. He started his closing argument in the mock debate. The class of 20 other wouldbe candidates stared back at him.

“I believe in a city that takes care of its homeless, low-income families and youth at risk,” he said in a quiet voice while reading from the notes. “I believe in a society that can progress without unnecessary taxes and assessments.”

About a minute later, after pledging to create 100,000 units of affordable housing, Eiland looked up for the first time.

So far no “ums,” “likes” or “you knows.”

He smiled.

“Though no man is an island, it takes one to run New York City,” he said. “I am Tyrell Eiland and I’m running for mayor.”

The audience applauded.

Laura Altschuler, debate coordinator for the League of Women Voters, asked them for feedback.

T

YRELL

The collective wisdom was that Eiland was not loud enough. He should have made eye contact. He should have spoken on fewer topics. And not enough people had heard him ask for their votes.

Altschuler offered other public speaking tips: Do not bring an entire speech to an event. Use note cards.

Become an expert on one issue. Do not come off like a policy wonk. No props, unless you are Rev. Al Sharpton.

Ladies, wear long skirts and pants. Men, watch out for navy and black sock combinations.

“When you run for office you will not be a rock star,” she warned. “You will be perhaps on Queens cable—where the equipment is good, but it is not the same as a studio’s.”

Experience always helps, too. And that is what the $50, two-day League of Women Voters’ “How to Run for Public Office” course for first-time candidates is meant to provide.

The program covers how to get on the ballot, campaign finance law, and explores methods of get-out-thevote drives. Since first offering the course last year, the League has tweaked their courses six times, in part to also appeal to those who do not intend to run for public office. Many of the 126 people who have taken past courses have indicated that their goal is not to be candidates, but to have staff positions on campaigns or in government offices, said Alison Alpert, the League’s director. So far, none has run for office.

Between term limits and expanded public financing, there are more frequent opportunities for new people to

DANIEL MACHT

Two-day seminar teaches the nuts and bolts of running for city office

“Though no man is an island, it takes one to run New York City,” said this prospective candidate, practicing his stump speech. “I am Tyrell Eiland and I’m running for mayor.” get into politics, Alpert said, but at the same time, fewer people have joined political clubs than in past years, decreasing the number of candidates coming up though traditional ranks.

The latest course, held at York College in Queens, was full of political newcomers, many of whom had stumbled across a notice for the course on the League’s website or heard about the event from a friend.

And they took to the seminar in different ways. A janitor from East New York seemed to doze off during a lecture on the finer points of in-kind contributions but spoke passionately about stopping violence in his neighborhood. An internet entrepreneur took the course for the second time to motivate himself for a run at Assembly, even though that campaign process required different rules than those for seeking city

Some Campaign Lessons, Say Elected Officials, Cannot Be Taught efore four-term State Sen. Ruth HassellThompson (D-Westchester/Bronx) ever ran for office, she knew how to organize fundraisers and prepare for debates. As a recruiter of female candidates for two organizations, she also helped manage campaigns. In 1993, Hassell-Thompson jumped into her first race, for a seat on the Mount Vernon City Council.

With her background, she was ready for most of what the campaign would bring. But not all the standing around.

“I almost had to beg for a staff member’s shoes because my legs ached,” she said, laughing at a memory of an early fundraiser.

For a while, she pretended the pain was not there.

By the next event, though, she found a solution.

“There’s nothing like a couture dress and Converse sneakers,” she said.

Whether rediscovering sneakers and sun block, or discovering for the first time the uncomfortable feeling of asking family members for money, those who have actually run for public office say that even a course like “How to Run for Public Office” cannot prepare people for everything that arises on the campaign trail.

“You see the glamour and the glitz and think ‘I could do that,’” said Hassell-Thompson. “When you step out, some-

B

times you question whether it was the smartest decision.”

Joseph Lentol (D- Brooklyn), a 36-year veteran Assembly member, first ran for his seat as a freshfaced 29-year-old. At the time, he worried that “the other guy looked like he should be the Assemblyman.”

Still, Lentol benefited from name recognition. His father and grandfather had both served in the Legislature, which Lentol saw as a mixed blessing.

“I had big shoes to fill, because everyone knew my father and no one knew me,” Lentol said.

Name recognition also helped Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Queens) in her run for her husband’s Senate seat after he died in June of 1999. Without a famous name in her district, she would have been far behind in campaigning, she said, recalling the phone calls from elected officials urging her to run—which poured in as she was busy making funeral arrangements.

“It was extremely difficult, sort of like Charles Dickens’ ‘best of times, worst of times,’” Stavisky said.

Having managed her late husband’s political campaigns and knowing how Albany worked, Stavisky felt an advantage over others in the race. Her son helped secure petition signatures.

Nonetheless, Stavisky said the transition from campaign manager to candidate was difficult.

“I needed someone to do for me what I did for my husband,” she said. In subsequent campaigns she found support.

She has since been re-elected four times.

City Council Member Jessica Lappin (DManhattan) won her first term even more recently, in 2005. She said she also turned to her family to be a secret weapon in the campaign, asking her husband to be her campaign treasurer.

There were some problems along the way, but Lappin said the decision ultimately benefited her both politically and personally.

“We had a couple fights but I am glad I made the selection I did,” Lappin said, laughing. “I think out marriage is stronger for it.”

Lappin said she felt uncomfortable at first soliciting friends and family for political donations but soon accepted that people wanted to help.

And she often worried about disappointing those who backed her in that first race.

“When you build a successful organization, you do feel a responsibility to these people and you don’t want to let them down,” Lappin said. “And, thankfully, I didn’t. I won.”

—DM

C

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

DANIEL MACHT

MAY 2008

John Heyer writes his practice closing argument in the “How to Run for Public Office” course. office, which are the focus of the course.

Then there was Carlene Thorbs, a retired police officer and current church minister. She had not planned to run for office, but signed up out of curiosity about how politicians got into power. Of all the volunteers to go before the class and speak about why they were running for office, though, her speech was a class favorite. As she spoke about regenerating her community through maintaining schools and sewers, she

25

“I don’t have to hear the specifics. I heard the love,” Solomon said after Thorbs finished.

Thorbs remained uncommitted to a race. But she saw and heard enough during the course to say she would pray about whether to change her mind and run for Council.

First, though, there were other questions to answer.

The nuts and bolts of campaigning took up the last part of the afternoon.

Did running for office mean a candidate should carry make-up everywhere in case of an impromptu press conference?

No. What if you used your own copy machine to make campaign fliers?

The expense would have to be reported.

Then there was the briefer on the Campaign Finance Board (CFB).

Eric Joerss, chief of candidate’s services for the CFB, said in the past candidates were caught using campaign funds for trips to Las Vegas, the Dominican Republic and Napa.

“Your campaign can’t buy a car, pay for tuition or a child,” he scolded.

“What about call girls from other states?” joked John Heyer, 25, who plans to run for the seat of term-limited Council Member Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn).

Toward the end of the session, League volunteer Adrienne Kivelson told the class they need not wait for next year’s elections to start acting like elected officials. She advised helping neighbors file complaints and directing the unemployed to job training programs.

“This isn’t rocket science and it isn’t brain surgery,” she said. “Most of what your constituents will ask you can be solved with common sense.” dmacht@manhattanmedia.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

Tips for first-time candidates include: Do not bring an entire speech to an event.

Use note cards. Become an expert on one issue. Do not come off like a policy wonk. paused between sentences and worked the room, seeming to look each person in the eye.

The stump skill alone won over Linda Solomon, a seminar organizer in the room.

C

Someone standing in the way of that promotion?

Try the

Job Board.

FREE TO POST FREE TO VIEW Submit job listings (175 words maximum) to:

editor@cityhallnews.com.

To view job listings, go to:

www.cityhallnews.com.

26

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

EDITORIAL

Still Waiting for a Congestion Pricing Alternative www.cityhallnews.com President/CEO: Tom Allon tallon@manhattanmedia.com

CFO/COO: Joanne Harras

jharras@manhattanmedia.com

Group Publisher: Alex Schweitzer aschweitzer@manhattanmedia.com

EDITORIAL Editor: Edward-Isaac Dovere eidovere@cityhallnews.com

Reporter: Andrew J. Hawkins ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

Editorial Assistant: Dan Rivoli Contributing Editors: Christopher Moore, Charlotte Eichna Photography Editor: Andrew Schwartz Interns: David Colon, Daniel Macht, Carl Winfield Contributors: John Celock, James Caldwell ADVERTISING Associate Publishers: Jim Katocin, Seth Miller Advertising Manager: Marty Strongin Senior Account Executives: Ceil Ainsworth, Frank Legio, Monica Conde Marketing Director: Tom Kelly Marketing Coordinator:Stephanie Musso Executive Assistant of Sales: Jennie Valenti BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Controller: Shawn Scott Accounts Receivable: Kathy Pollyea Circulation Director: John Baxter circ@manhattanmedia.com

PRODUCTION Production Manager: Mark Stinson mstinson@manhattanmedia.com

Art Director: Mitchell Hoffman Advertising Design: Heather Mulcahey Assistant Production Manager: Jessica A. Balaschak Copy Editor: Alex Padalka Web Design: Heather Mulcahey City Hall is published monthly.

Copyright © 2008, Manhattan Media, LLC Editorial (212) 894-5417 Advertising (212) 284-9715 Fax (212) 268-2935 General (212) 268-8600 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10016 Email: cityhall@manhattanmedia.com City Hall is a division of Manhattan Media, LLC, publisher of The Capitol, Our Town, the West Side Spirit, Chelsea Clinton News, the Westsider, New York Press, New York Family and AVENUE magazine.

Letters to the

Editor: We welcome letters to the editor.

All letters must be identified with the author’s full name and, for verification, phone number. Anonymous letters will not be published.

Substantive letters addressing politics and policy will receive top priority.

Submit your letters by email to editor@cityhallnews.com, or contact our staff writers directly with the email addresses at the ends of their articles.

month has passed since congestion pricing died in Albany, slowly suffocated by those who believed the plan would come down too hard on the outer boroughs and suburbs. There will be no $8 fee for driving into midtown Manhattan, no cameras on the streets to record license plates, no new authority to collect the money and redirect it into the deeply troubled MTA. The opponents had their say, and they have their victory. What they do not have, though, is a real, detailed plan to help solve the city’s ever-mounting congestion problem, now that Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s has been dismissed. So far, no one has given any indication that devising one will be a priority.

Everyone has an interest in reducing traffic in the city and state’s financial center. Those who fought to defeat congestion pricing have a responsibility to lead the way in figuring out how to do this.

By making Manhattan a less pleasant place to do business, traffic threatens billions of dollars annually in private sector profits and tax revenues. Congestion, like just about anything that involves transportation engineering, is hard to put into perspective. That four-second delay caused by a car briefly stuck in an intersection is barely noticeable to the driver

A

or even those honking their horns to get him out of the way. But those four seconds can quickly add up to more and more minutes of delays, until a traffic jam is born. A small cost to the individuals can be a large cost to the city as a whole.

Congestion pricing tried to turn this principle on its head: a cost to individuals

though they have always been, and money must be found to fund them. And there is no better time to revive the cross-harbor freight tunnel to link Brooklyn straight to New Jersey and remove so many trucks and their exhaust from the city.

With all the resources of his administration at his disposal, no one is better equipped than Bloomberg to come up with a new plan. New Yorkers should hope that he is neither too bitter nor too exhausted from the fight over what should have been his legacy project to devise a new solution—and perhaps one which will not require Albany approval this time.

The real burden, though, falls on all those who attacked congestion pricing and railed that there must be some other way. A month has passed.

Now that their victory has been secured, they have an obligation to New York City and State to start crafting the next plan.

That is the difference between politics and government. That is the difference between leadership and pandering. For the sake of New York, for the sake of all the people living here and for the sake of not passing the buck to the next generation of those in government, the congestion pricing opponents should start demonstrating that they know those differences.

Problems like these only have far-sighted and largescale solutions. Congestion pricing fit this bill. Other proposals might, too. could have had a major benefit to the city.

But the plan is dead, and there is no use crying over its demise any longer.

Congestion is still with us, and with a million more people headed this way over the next 20 years, the need for action grows each day.

Problems like these only have farsighted and large-scale solutions. Congestion pricing fit this bill. Other proposals might, too. Creating a system which charges commercial vehicles for deliveries made during peak hours but not at night is a possibility to be considered. Increasing ferry service and quickly expanding bus rapid transit are both now essential,

C

OP-ED Calling on Bush to Continue His Father’s Commitment to NYPD

BY DISTRICT ATTORNEY DANIEL DONOVAN n the morning of February 26, 1988, I was a law student in the night program at Fordham University working towards my dream of becoming a prosecutor. Like millions of other law-abiding New Yorkers, I awoke horrified by the news that Edward Byrne, a 22-year-old rookie police officer, was assassinated at point-blank range with five gun-shots to the head while sitting in a marked patrol car in front of the home of an immigrant from Guyana who had been reporting the activities of drug dealers in his Queens neighborhood of South Jamaica.

Four suspects were named in the assassination of Edward Byrne; they were apprehended within a week of the murder and were all eventually convicted. It was learned that the killing was ordered from jail by notoriously violent crack dealer Howard “Pappy” Mason, who is currently serving a life sentence at the federal “super max” prison in Florence, Colo.

Officer Byrne was but one of 1,896 murders recorded in our city that year, and one of seven police officers killed in the line of duty; but it was perhaps the

O

most symbolic of a lawless city that was drowning in crime and urban decay.

So horrified was the nation by this murder that then-Vice President George H.W. Bush frequently referred to Byrne’s assassination when he attacked “soft on crime” positions of liberal politicians such as his opponent in that year’s presidential election, Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts.

Officer Byrne’s father, Matthew—himself a retired NYPD lieutenant—presented Vice President Bush with his late son’s shield, as a reminder of his campaign promises to law enforcement. It was a prescient message which Mr. Bush rode to a landslide election, carrying 40 states.

With George H.W. Bush leading the way, the U.S. Justice Department created the Edward Byrne Memorial Grant Program.

Over the two decades since his death, billions of dollars in aid have flowed to municipalities to assist law enforcement in combating the murderous thugs who once made our cities unlivable and claimed the lives of heroes like Officer Byrne.

In light of George H.W. Bush’s leadership on this issue and commitment to the family of Edward Byrne, it is ironic that his son, President George W. Bush, has

proposed gutting the Byrne grant program in his new budget, as well as the COPS grant, which has provided funding to hire new cops for the already depleted NYPD. According to information provided to my office by Sen. Charles Schumer, who is leading the effort to restore the grant funding, New York has received over $200 million in Byrne grant funding since 2000, while our share of COPS grant money has amounted to $609 million since its 1993 inception.

Twenty years have passed since Police Officer Edward Byrne’s tragic execution on the streets of the 103rd Precinct. Since 1990, murder in that precinct has declined by over 78 percent, nearly identical to the decline across our city. Those thousands of lives saved are the legacy of Edward Byrne and are proof that he did not die in vain.

Our prosecutors will continue to work hand-in-hand with the NYPD to fight any retreat to the “bad old days” of 1988.

Now, we need President George W. Bush to continue the commitment his father made to the family of Edward Byrne.

C

Daniel Donovan, a Republican, is the Staten Island District Attorney.

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

27

OP-ED

Answering the Energy Crisis Wake-Up Call

more demanding, calling our office when she was ultimately fired from her job.

Toni-Anne is just one of nearly two million New Yorkers balancing the health care of their loved ones and their jobs. As the number of New Yorkers requiring care increases and the population of informal caregivers grows, the City’s Human Rights Law must be amended to extend protection against employment discrimination to all New Yorkers who are actual or perceived caregivers.

Although New York City has some of the best anti-discrimination laws in the country, this is another example of where we have fallen sadly behind. The District of Columbia and Alaska have enacted legislation to expand protections in the workplace. And, in February of last year, both a Senate bill in California and a House bill in Pennsylvania were introduced that would prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of “familial status.”

This Mother’s Day, let’s show caregivers how much they mean to us with more than flowers. We need to support our hardworking caregivers by encouraging local representatives to pass the caregiver bill. Our moms, and all caregivers, deserve it.

electric production, at today’s staggering cost of more than $100 a barrel.

The Fresh Kills wind farm is a common-sense solution that wouldn’t cost the city a dime. A private operator would fund the $40 million cost to install the turbines in a lease agreement. The wind farm would also help achieve the “greener” city goal of Mayor Bloomberg’s “PlaNYC,” which projects a 30 percent increase in the city’s energy demand over the next 25 years.

Soaring energy costs and our growing dependence on foreign oil have caused hardship for families and businesses struggling to make ends meet in this economic downturn. To keep companies from relocating to less expensive areas, New York must lower costs by utilizing domestic energy alternatives to expensive foreign oil, which pollutes the environment and funds terrorism around the world. We’re only dependent on foreign oil because we want to be. And there’s no reason to be, except for the special interests that care only about themselves, the public be damned.

Wind farms are growing in popularity, from Atlantic City to upstate Lackawanna, because they produce renewable “green” energy that will not pollute or contribute to global warming.

Today’s structural and foundation engineering technology allows for wind turbines to be constructed on top of active and inactive landfills. Germany is already building such facilities. The Fresh Kills turbines, situated atop four landfill mounds, would be the most visible wind farm in the world.

But New York needs to begin the landlease process now.

If New York City is going to meet Mayor Bloomberg’s ambitious goals for 2030, clean energy projects like the Fresh Kills wind farm must be embraced and developed. Wind power can provide New Yorkers with the electricity they demand and transform one of the country’s worst ecological nightmares into a free, limitless resource that will make a positive difference in the environment.

Otherwise, we’re just tilting at windmills.

Betsy Gotbaum, a Democrat, is the public advocate of New York City.

James Molinaro, a Conservative, is the borough president of Staten Island.

ity and reduce energy costs. I have sent a letter to the new governor, who formerly chaired the State’s Renewable Energy Task Force, asking his support for New York City’s first wind farm.

A study underwritten by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has determined that not only is a wind farm feasible at Fresh Kills, it is the only location in the city that could support wind energy.

Yet despite a looming energy crisis, the proposal languishes nearly a year after the successful study was completed.

My proposal calls for seven 400-foot turbines placed throughout the future Fresh Kills Park (nearly three times the size of Central Park) that could generate 17 megawatts of energy, enough to power 5,000 homes. It would take 4.3 million gallons of oil per year to achieve this

BY BOROUGH PRESIDENT JAMES MOLINARO new Manhattan Institute report on energy revealing that New Yorkers pay a whopping 66 percent more for electricity than the national average is a wake-up call for the city to start seriously moving toward alternative and renewable energy sources.

Staten Island is answering the call with a proposal for a wind farm at the former Fresh Kills landfill. We’re ready to put a shovel in the ground. All that remains is for the city to green-light this green-energy project.

The Manhattan Institute report, “NY Unplugged? Building Energy Capacity and Curbing Energy Rates in the Empire State,” concludes that action by Albany is urgently needed to expand energy capac-

A

Give Caregivers the Care They Deserve

BY PUBLIC ADVOCATE BETSY GOTBAUM very year on Mother’s Day I encourage sons and daughters to do something nice for their moms, like making them breakfast in bed or helping out with the household chores.

But this year, I say we give moms, and all caregivers, something more lasting: peace of mind, job security and the financial stability to care for loved ones all year round.

Caregivers need all the support we can give them. Governments across the country are finally beginning to address caregivers’ struggle. In February, New Jersey joined California and Washington as the third state to pass legislation that provides paid family leave to caregivers.

But New York State, so often on the forefront of innovative and progressive legislation, has yet to pass our bill, the Working Families Time to Care Act. The number of working caregivers is overwhelming, and growing. In 2004, the National Alliance for Caregiving estimated that there are 44.4 million informal caregivers in America, and nearly 59 percent worked while providing care. In New York State alone there are 1.9 million people providing informal care to loved ones.

Half of caregivers report they have had to make work-related adjustments in order to help take care of their loved ones.

With everything caregivers have to worry about, they also face the stress of potentially losing their job if they have to care for their sick parents or an ill child.

It happens because the New York City Human Rights Law protects against many classes of workplace discrimination—including discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, age, national

E

origin, citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, partnership status and status as a victim of domestic violence—but noticeably absent is the category of caregiver.

Workplace discrimination against caregivers actually takes many forms. Working moms get assigned to “mommy track” jobs with lower pay; working dads get subjected to unfounded performance evaluations after they reveal they are caregivers.

That is why I introduced a bill in 2007, with Council Members Bill de Blasio (DBrooklyn), Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) and David Weprin (D-Queens), to give caregivers protection from workplace discrimination. The Caregiver Bill (Intro No. 565-A) would close a loophole in the NYC Human Rights Law and expressly protect working caregivers from employment discrimination.

In this context, the term “caregiver” applies to a person who provides ongoing care for a child for whom they have assumed parental responsibility, or a person who provides ongoing care to a family member or partner suffering disability or impairment.

The Caregiver bill prohibits employment discrimination based on an individual’s actual or perceived status as a caregiver, adding caregivers to the list of protected classes and requiring that employers make reasonable accommodations to enable caregivers to perform and fulfill the requirements of their jobs.

One caregiver who called my office, Toni-Anne, was struggling to balance her job and her responsibility as a caregiver and mother to her 13-year-old autistic son. Toni-Anne fought to hang on to her job as her son’s disease became more and

C

C

City Hall welcomes submissions to the op-ed page. A piece should be maximum 650 words long, accompanied by the name and address of the author, and submitted via email to cityhall@manhattanmedia.com to be considered.

28

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

The condition of the apartments was a cut above as well.

“When I was growing up, all the kids who went to school with me wanted to come to my house to play and study because we didn’t have rats and we didn’t have roaches,” she said. “We always had heat, and they didn’t always have that in their apartments.”

Her mother would often volunteer at a homeless shelter in a local Catholic Church, and Mendez would accompany her, carrying food her mother would cook for the people there. She remembers recognizing people from the surrounding community who had had homes and lost them, now living at the shelter.

One incident had a particular effect on her as a child.

“I remember in junior high a student got evicted,” she said. “Then he wasn’t doing as well in class. And after that summer when we came back to school, he just didn’t come back. This was someone who had been in school with us all through elementary school and part of junior high school and then he was just gone. It was like a void. You always wondered what happened to him and his family.”

Only when she was already an undergraduate across the river at NYU did Mendez begin to fully grasp the effect growing up in public housing had had on her.

“I started reflecting on the changes that I saw growing up as a kid, and having benefited from growing up in public housing,” she said. “I really started to get what public housing was, why it was created, and the ideology behind it. And I was fascinated by it.”

After law school, Mendez went on to work for Brooklyn Legal Services with Rosie Mendez on tenant and relocation issues. She got involved in government as Margarita López’s chief of staff, and later won her old seat, which represents large swaths of public housing on the Lower East Side. On the Council, she now chairs the Public Housing Subcommittee.

The lessons from the old neighborhood remain with her. She started in public housing, and that, she says, is where everything starts.

“The most important thing is housing,” she said.

“Once you’ve stabilized that, then you can work on everything else.”

RECENT PHOTOS BY LAURA SAYER

ball field and roller derby track, with races around the lone tree. The door to the building had no lock and children would stream in and out constantly.

“We were like a posse here, playing all the time,” Mendez recalled. “This was our domain.”

They would roam the development recruiting kids for various teams. The door accessing the roof was unlocked, affording an additional play area with a view.

Later in elementary school, the children were allowed to cross the street to the park unaccompanied.

The neighborhood surrounding the housing development was largely a Latino community, but Mendez recalls the wider ethnic diversity of her building.

“I could smell the Latino food, with the rice, the beans and pork chops, and I could smell cauliflower and collared greens from our African American neighbors,” she said. “We had some Irish neighbors that were on the third floor and there were distinctive smells which now I know as corned beef and cabbage, but back then I wasn’t sure what it was.”

At night she would sit in the apartment’s kitchen window, talking for hours with a friend in her bedroom window across the way.

When the crack epidemic spread through the city in the early ’80s, the neighborhood got hit hard. Dealers were all over the streets, Mendez remembers. Syringes were all over the sidewalks and playgrounds.

BY JAMES CALDWELL

T

HE

PUBLIC

HOUSING

DEVELOPMENT

THE STREETS A trip back to the old block

WHERE THEY LIVED

C

OF

Williamsburg Houses sits on 23 acres not far from the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn—a collection of four-story buildings sprawling out over the acres at odd angles to the surrounding neighborhood grid. Built by the New York City Housing Authority in the 1930s, Williamsburg Houses was the first public housing of its kind in Brooklyn.

In 1964, when Council Member Rosie Mendez (DManhattan) was 11 months old, the Brooklyn tenement where she, her older brother and parents lived was destroyed by fire. Soon after, the family moved into a two-bedroom apartment on the fourth floor of 115 Scholes St., a building in the southwest corner of Williamsburg Houses. They lived there for 23 years.

The bedroom Mendez shared with her older brother faces east down Scholes St. and overlooks a park in the center of the development. Today, the tenements and storefronts on the street and surrounding avenues are huddled between luxury condominiums and office buildings in various states of completion. Signs of change and gentrification are everywhere in the neighborhood, but the modernist brick complex of Williamsburg Houses is for the most part the same as it was 40 years ago.

“My brother and I buried our first hamster right here somewhere,” Mendez said, looking down to a patch of ground in the small courtyard outside the entrance to her old building.

When they were kids, the courtyard served as a base-

jamespcaldwell@gmail.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

Rosie Mendez at Williamsburg Houses, and in the kitchen of her apartment, with her older brother.

“People were afraid to leave their homes,” Mendez recalled.

Two senior citizens were murdered at home in the development. By that time, there were locks on all the doors and the children no longer played on the roof.

Despite the ups and downs of the neighborhood, Mendez said she was aware from a young age that the family was lucky to be in public housing. Her mother worked for a while as a beautician and her father was an assistant at a pharmacy. Because rent in the development was capped at 30 percent of household income, the family was never in danger of missing the rent. In contrast to the surrounding community, evictions were relatively rare in Williamsburg Houses.

POLITICS • POLICY • PERSONALITIES

Look who’s reading

City Hall...

“All the politicians read it.”

–Marty Markowitz

The Way to Reach Elected Officials

www.cityhallnews.com

For advertising information, please contact your account executive at 212-284-9735 or advertising@manhattanmedia.com

30

MAY 2008

Before Fossella Arrest, Recchia Considered Dropping Race The morning that news broke of Rep. Vito Fossella’s (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) DWI arrest in Arlington, Va., two weeks ago, Council Member Domenic Recchia (D-Brooklyn) called at least one elected official from the district about dropping out of his bid to unseat the incumbent, according to a source familiar with the conversation.

However, Recchia denied that he had ever wavered in his interest in going to Congress.

“Domenic Recchia is still in this race.

Domenic Recchia is fighting hard and Domenic Recchia is raising money,” he said, describing himself.

With $325,175 in his campaign war chest, Recchia currently has $76,679 more cash on hand than Fossella.

Doubts about Recchia’s candidacy have arisen in past weeks as he has not formally declared his candidacy or established a campaign operation and missed several Democratic club debates against his potential primary rival, 2006 nominee Steve Harrison. He missed one such debate due to an illness of his daughter.

Recchia’s personal issues, which include his wife being attacked by a mugger in March, led to rumors that he was reconsidering his candidacy.

“Obviously, with the horrible thing that happened to his wife, anyone would wonder how to approach things,” said one prominent Democrat in the district.

“It’s difficult [to run for Congress]—the fundraising, the scrutiny, the hours.”

Another prominent Democrat said Recchia’s initial interest in running for Brooklyn borough president and being absent on Staten Island led to suspicion that he contemplated dropping out.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) targeted Fossella’s seat before his DWI arrest, and has regularly indicated its strong preference for Recchia over Harrison.

State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn), who recruits candidates for state Democrats, said Democratic gains and displeasure over the Iraq War makes this seat winnable.

Democrats are committed to having a candidate with proven fundraising abilities in the race, and Recchia is that candidate, she said.

“When you have resources with many races to run, you have to evaluate each race,” Savino said. “No one wants to throw money against the wall and see what sticks.”

www.cityhallnews.com

Power Walk

Former Attorney General Janet Reno, who has Parkinson’s Disease, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan/Queens) joined tens of thousands in Central Park April 26 to raise awareness and funds to find a cure.

That may be bad news for both Harrison and Recchia. With the GOP likely to push Fossella out of the race in favor of a strong GOP candidate, the DCCC is reportedly pushing to keep the race competitive by having a Staten Island-based Democrat make the race.

Savino’s name has been mentioned as well as those of Assembly Member Michael Cusick and Council Member Michael McMahon.

No Acts from Acting Gov. Bruno In a press conference after becoming the new governor in March, David Paterson (D) said he would not be leaving the state. If he did, after all, acting lieutenant governor Joseph Bruno would become acting governor for however long Paterson was out of town.

Paterson stayed put for his first month and a half in office. But on May 1, he traveled to Washington to address the state’s congressional delegation about New York’s worsening economic status.

There was no coup in Albany while Paterson was away on his one-day trip.

Paterson spokesperson Errol Cockfield said the governor was only joking about staying in the state to prevent Bruno from being acting governor.

“He was being facetious,” Cockfield said. “The folks who know the governor know he’s an affable guy and jokes from time to time.”

Bruno’s office was contacted in advance about Paterson’s trip out of New

York. Bruno spokesperson Scott Reif said the majority leader was not interested in seizing power on a technicality. He signed no bills or brought any suitcases over to the Executive Mansion while Paterson was away.

“Senator Bruno is interested in working with Governor Paterson to do whatever is necessary and appropriate,” Reif said.

Congestion Pricing Cash on the Move to Chicago, LA The $354.5 million New York would have gotten for congestion pricing has gone to Chicago and Los Angeles.

Federal Transportation Secretary Mary Peters awarded a total of $848 million in federal funding to New York, Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Chicago last year. New York received the largest share of federal funding but, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan died in Albany last month, the Department of Transportation had to reallocate the funds.

“This was a ‘one-shot deal’ for fiscal year 2007,” said Melissa Delaney, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation. “And, though it is unfortunate that the plan did not succeed in New York, we have to move on.”

Though Chicago and Los Angeles now have $153 million and $213 million in their respective transportation budgets, no one involved in planning has suggested anything as radical as Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan.

CITY HALL Instead, both cities will create pilot programs to increase the number of buses in service along major expressways.

Marc Littman, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of Los Angeles County (MTA), said that, like Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan, he expects the city’s pilot program to help Los Angeles residents change their behavior.

“Half of the people on the freeway during rush hour do not need to be there,” Littman said. “Now they will have options beyond driving their own cars and causing more gridlock.”

Neither Chicago nor Los Angeles has received the federal grant money yet.

Officials in Chicago have to follow through on their pledge to privatize all metered parking in the city before they can receive the money. And as in New York, California’s state legislature must approve the pilot project before they can use that state’s portion of the federal grant. Legislators will not vote on their version of the plan until October.

New York can still apply for grants to improve traffic congestion, but Delaney was unsure that another fund of equal size would be available without conditions placed on it by Congress.

“We had the funding and now they have it,” said Adam Levine, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Transportation. “Things like this happen all the time.”

Lecture Series Named in Honor of Late GOP Manhattanite The late Bill Green, who represented the East Side of Manhattan in Congress from 1978 to 1992, now has a lecture series named in his honor at the New School for Management and Urban Policy. The first lecture, to be held on May 28, is called “The Hypertension Era in Washington: Can Federal Bipartisanship Be Revived?” Green was elected to Congress in a special election in 1978 to replace Ed Koch. Green was one of the few Republicans in New York to have a long legislative career in a city dominated by Democrats, though he did ultimately lose his seat to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan/Queens).

Green sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1994 that eventually went to George Pataki.

The New School named the lecture series for him to honor his “deep commitment to bipartisanship.”

—by Andrew J. Hawkins, Dan Rivoli and Carl Winfield

C

Have a tip for

CHatter?

Email cityhall@manhattanmedia.com

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

MAY 2008

31

:Accounts and Accountability care needs. So we have over $3 billion in this lock box trust fund, which will be used for future retirees’ health care needs that we know will be there a number of years down the road.

We’re not spending the surplus. We’re rolling over to prepay expenses that we know we’ll have, which will reduce the deficit in ’10 and ’11.

s chair of the Finance Committee, Council Member David Weprin (DQueens) has overseen every budget over the last six years, watching revenues climb from the fiscal crisis which followed the September 11 attacks to the $3 billion surplus last year.

Despite the current fears about the state of the economy, he insists that there is no recession. On the contrary, he has a rosy outlook about the city’s financial health and on his own political future. He discussed his ideas for controlling spending in the budget, why he can pull ahead of the pack in the crowded comptroller’s race and how the Council slush fund scandal is actually an example of transparency in city government.

What follows is an edited transcript.

A

City Hall: How bad is the economic situation in New York City?

DW: I think New York City has lagged behind the country. Obviously the country probably was in a mini-recession, but I think nothing that’s unrecoverable. But New York City, I think, lagged a little bit behind it. I think our real estate market was a little more stable than the rest of the country and Wall Street was still a strong economic engine for a long time. I think we’re feeling the effects of some of the cuts on Wall Street. As the mayor directly said, we should all pray for Wall Street’s health.

CH: You just said the country was in a “minirecession.” Why not call it a recession?

DW: Recession is, I think, a legal term. It talks about two quarters of negative economic growth, so I don’t think the word is a negative word, per se, other than the perception out there that it means something major is happening in the economy that is having a major economic impact. I don’t think we should necessarily be afraid of using the word as much as looking at ways to turn around the economy and see the markets do well. What I think we have to do in New York City is really create new industries and try to expand new industries. Traditionally, we’ve relied so

think there should be more in the central administration, as well as the outside consultants. There’s a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars spent on outside consultants. I think there can be administrative cuts at all the agencies. But you want to make sure there’s not a major impact on government services and services we care about: senior services, services to children, afterschool programs. Sometimes when there are cuts, the first thing that suffers is after-school programs, arts, music and athletic programs.

Those get less priority than the academic programs. I can understand why, but at the same time it’s important that our students have a well-rounded education which includes arts, music, athletics and after-school programs.

“You can always twist anything you want with a headline, but I think what you’ve really seen here is actually more transparency.” much on Wall Street revenue. And when Wall Street was booming, Dow was setting new highs, the economy was booming, the money from Wall Street kept coming and coming. When Wall Street retracted, we weren’t doing so well. We have to create and expand new industries.

CH: The executive budget reined in spending, but you criticized some of the mayor’s proposed cuts.

What do you think should be cut to control spending?

DW: I’m particularly concerned about the proposed cuts to the Department of Education. That’ll particularly affect class size and other classroom activities. I think there can be cuts at the Department of Education, but I

CH: What will be different about passing a budget this year, given the current state of the economy?

DW: You know, a lot of this economic downturn we won’t feel until later budgets. I think we’ll be fine with this upcoming budget, but I think I’m more concerned with ’10 and ’11 budgets…. And we’re being very responsible, because we’re actually setting aside billions of dollars to prepay expenses which will make it easier for next year and the year after. We’re actually setting aside over $2 billion, even in this budget, to prepay debt service, to prepay certain salary expenses, as well as setting aside another $400 million to the health care trust fund where we already set aside $2.5 billion for future retiree’s health

CH: How will the recent slush fund scandal affect the budget?

DW: I don’t think it’ll have any effect at all, other than the fact that we’re trying to create more transparency, which we’ve already done in the past few years. We’re expanding upon that. Even Mayor Bloomberg said 98, 99 percent of the organizations the city council funds with discretionary money and other initiatives are good groups, well spent. There is maybe a 1- or 2-percent fallout when you have a $59 billion budget.

It’s very hard to keep track of all the groups, all of the thousands and thousands of groups. If someone wants to steal money, they can steal money no matter what the process is. The process actually discovered it. In the case in a lot of these stories that have been negative stories, they shouldn’t be negative stories. What they really are taking are voluntary disclosures that the Council, on their own, decided to do about a year ago where they said, ‘if you have any relatives or close friends that are actively involved with organizations that the city council funds, or on a non-paying board or on a paid salary, you should disclose that.’ And we did. And we actually disclosed it and filed with a financial disclosure form. And what happened is, the newspapers have asked for Freedom of Information requests, basically just bringing out what we already disclosed, which is not conflict of interest. We disclosed to avoid the appearance of impropriety and a lot of these stories make it look like there’s something improper. So it’s kind of twisting things around. You can always twist anything you want with a headline, but I think what you’ve really seen here is actually more transparency.

CH: There are at least seven candidates potentially running for city comptroller next year. What separates you from the rest?

DW: The main way I would separate myself is my extensive financial background, first as deputy superintendent of banking, then my 18-year municipal finance career, as head of Securities Industry Association New York District, and, of course, head of the Finance Committee. I would like to bring all that background, all my contacts to get all the resources we can to help us in the office. I would hope to distinguish myself from the five, six, seven, eight, however many candidates there are, based on the fact that I’m the only candidate being mentioned that really has an extensive financial background and I think that’ll make a difference as we get closer. And with editorial boards, we get out, with direct mailing and TV commercials, the message that we’re a little different based on our background than some of the other candidates.

CH: This is your seventh budget. What have you learned over the years?

DW: It’s more fun to have a surplus than a deficit.

—Dan Rivoli drivoli@manhattanmedia.com

C

The Most Advanced Communications Network.

Ever.

Built By New Yorkers For New Yorkers More than eighty years ago, New York Telephone opened its doors at 140 West Street in Lower Manhattan.

We built the most technologically advanced communications network in history.

We're still here today. And we’re doing it … again.

Verizon has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to create new networks and services for you — built by New Yorkers for New Yorkers.

These investments mean faster, more advanced Internet services, more reliable phone and wireless networks and — coming soon — an alternative to cable TV. Together, we’re not just building a new network where we live and work — we’re building the future of communications and entertainment for our hometown.

www.verizon.com/ny