City Hall - June 1, 2008

Melinda Katz, right, builds on her strength with developers (Page 12),

Gifford Miller discusses his new life (Page 30) and

Randi Weingarten, left, looks to the future

Vol. 3, No. 1

June 2008

www.cityhallnews.com

Was it Tom Dewey’s fault?

Will New York still want her?

Page 22 INSIDE: Queens Democrats wonder what backing Monserrate means for them

Page 9 Staten Island judge hopefuls battle for seat which may not exist

Why Not 10 Reasons That Deflate the Bloomberg-for-Governor Trial Balloon

Page 10 Andrew Cuomo discusses keeping himself low-profile and his cases high-profile.

Page 14

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CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

JUN E 2008

ON/OFF THE RECORD BREAKFAST

On Tunnel Vision in Washington, Both Good and Bad ep. Jerrold Nadler (D) has been an active force in New York politics for decades. Over his 16 years in the Assembly and 16 years in Congress over his 32 years in elected life, he has established himself as an authority on many issues, including transportation and the judiciary, as well as becoming a leading advocate for Ground Zero, which sits within his district.

On May 29, Nadler joined City Hall for an On/Off the Record breakfast held at the flagship Commerce Bank location at 42nd Street and Madison Avenue for a wide-ranging discussion about things on the agenda in Washington, the fate of the rail-freight tunnel he has long championed, and his thoughts on both Sen. Hillary Clinton’s and his own political future.

Q: This has been an interesting few months in New York politics. From your conversations in Washington with people from around the country, what do they think of all the revelations about the personal lives of our politicians?

A: Well, I think they think New York is entertaining. I don’t think it’s done anything fundamental, about having New York, I mean, these are three very disconnected things that just happened to happen in, not in the same place, but the same state and around the same time. I mean, the thing with Eliot Spitzer was so completely unexpected and out of the ordinary and completely sui generis and Vito Fossella is not the first congressman— or senator for that matter—to be in a situation like that, so I don’t think it’s done anything fundamental about the viewing of New York. It’s provided a lot of amused commentary, but not much more than that.

Q: With Ground Zero in your district, you have fought to bring more attention to the air quality at Ground Zero, to Homeland Security money, to all sorts of other things in response to that. Do you think that Washington has responded in a way in line with the kind of sympathy we saw pouring out after the Sept. 11 attack?

A: No, I do not. A lot of that sympathy has dissipated just because of the passage of time and because that degree of sympathy for New Yorkers is only produced by a really traumatic event and will not last. No. Certainly we have not, yet. We’ve been fighting, as you know, for medical monitoring coverage for the first responders, many of whom are sick, and for the residents and students in the area.

Q: Do we get to a point where too much time has gone by to do anything?

A: No, unfortunately. The problem is only going to grow.

There are two separate problems. I would say there were two cover-ups. One is unraveled, one is still covered up, and we still have to deal with that, we haven’t dealt with it at all.

Q: You have long advocated a rail-freight tunnel connecting Brooklyn to New Jersey. Where do you think things stand on that? Is your dream ever going to get realized?

A: I think there is a very good likelihood. The Port Authority, as you may know, has restarted it. They should be finished with the final Environmental Impact Statement before the end of the year, and Governor Paterson has been a supporter of the rail-freight tunnel for the last 20 years, at least. And we’re going to go, if the state supports it and the governor supports it, we’re going to try to get very large funding for it in the next transportation bill. And I do think that ultimately, it has to happen, because as

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

R

Winston Churchill said, “The government will always do the logical thing once it has exhausted all the other alternatives.” And, we are coming there. I mean, if you assume an average economic growth rate in New York City and Long Island of 2 percent or 3 percent a year, and that’s a conservative assumption—you could assume 3.5 percent—but on that conservative assumption, the amount of freight by volume, and by freight we mean everything from grapefruit and Xerox machines, the amount of freight by volume coming into New York and Long Island is going to increase in 20 years by over 80 percent. Eighty percent.

You’re going to have 80 percent more tractor trailers on the roads and streets in New York? Where are you going to put them? The city’s paved over. You’re not going to increase them. You’re not going to substantially increase highways in Long Island. We have a major rail network that is basically unused mostly because there’s no connection to the continent closer than below a bridge 12 miles from Albany.

Q: Mayor Bloomberg has not always been a major fan of this. Have you spoken to him again about the idea since congestion pricing died?

A: No, I haven’t spoken to him about that since congestion pricing. The mayor made very clear, starting back in 2005, that he didn’t think the city should be the lead agency on this and I agreed, frankly. The City of New York cannot build a rail-freight tunnel into New Jersey. It has to be a bistate agency, they need the Port Authority. The mayor’s administration, to its credit, within the last year cooperated in all the legal legerdemain that had to be accomplished between the city and the Port Authority and the state and the federal administration in transferring the project from the city to the Port Authority. And the Port Authority has now picked it up and is now running with the ball.

Q: So, when would you predict we might see a train pull out from New Jersey, go into the tunnel and get to Brooklyn?

A: 2016-17 range, optimistically.

Q: To get it built, will there need to be allocations of money from existing tax bases, or would you say that perhaps we should have new taxes to fund transportation projects or maybe a fare raise?

A: Well, first of all, the whole rail-freight question is in a completely separate boat from everything else ‘cause it’s not a transit project. It does not get funding from the

Federal Transit Administration. It’s not in competition with the MTA. The MTA, you know, we have various taxes that the legislature enacted back in the mid-80s that are dedicated. We pay 8.25 percent, or 8.375 percent sales tax, a quarter percent of that goes to the MTA. None of that goes to freight, which is a completely separate thing.

Q: Moving to politics—are you one of the people who supports the idea of Hillary Clinton being put on the ticket with Barack Obama?

A: I think when you look at a vice presidential nomination…there are two paramount questions you have to ask. One, would this person be a good president? Could he or she be a good president? And my answer, as a supporter of Hillary Clinton, is yes. And second of all, does putting this person on the ticket maximize the odds of the winning? Now, I think that the answer to that is yes, too, more than anybody else. Now, for example, I’ve seen a lot of speculation, said, “Well, you’ve got to unify the party so take someone who supported Hillary, someone from the Hillary wing of the party, who can deliver something. So, let’s say Ted Strickland, the governor of Ohio, he’s a friend of mine, served in Congress, nice guy, and would be a good candidate. He would certainly help the ticket in Ohio. But nobody knows him in New York, well, New York we don’t have to worry too much, but nobody knows him in Pennsylvania. And that same thing is true of anybody, almost anybody you can think of. The only person I can think of who would help the ticket around the country with Obama as the nominee is Hillary. So I would certainly recommend that, for what it’s worth.

Q: Do you think it matters to have a person from New York on the national ticket and perhaps in the administration, on things like the rail-freight tunnel, on things like the Ground Zero funding?

A: Well, I think it won’t hurt. It might very well help.

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To hear Nadler’s predictions on what will be ahead for Congress next year, how the next Congress is likely to deal with the Bush legacy, how a provision he designed for the federal transportation bill could fund the rail-freight tunnel, and his thoughts on running for mayor of New York in 2009, view the whole video at www.cityhallnews.com.

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JUN E 2008

ISSUE FORUM:

CITY HALL

ORGANIZED LABOR CONTRACTS

Ensuring Economic Development for, Not on the Backs of, Working New Yorkers

BY STATE SEN. JOSEPH ROBACH ARLIER THIS YEAR,

I WAS GIVEN the honor and privilege to be assigned to serve as the chairman of the New York State Senate Labor Committee

by Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. I succeeded my friend and colleague, Sen. George Maziarz, who did an excellent job and served in this position with distinction. Sen. Maziarz now serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Telecommunications.

While my colleagues who chair other Senate committees seek to improve the state’s business climate to increase the amount of jobs in the state, we in the Labor Committee seek to reinforce the quality of jobs within the state, to ensure that economic development is done for, not on the backs of, working men and women.

This year, the Senate Labor Committee continued to work towards addressing the major issues facing working families in New York State. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the Labor Committee’s work to date.

Many of the bills reported by the Senate Labor Committee were sponsored

E

by my hardworking colleague, Sen. Serphin Maltese of Queens. Six of these bills comprised a legislative package to improve New York State’s regulation of the apparel industry to assure that these workers are protected. Sen. Andrew Lanza of Staten Island, Sen. Caesar Trunzo of Long Island and Sen. Kemp Hannon of Long Island also co-sponsored some of the bills in Sen. Maltese’s package. Three of these bills (Senate Bills 4249, 6860 and 6863) have already passed

the full Senate, and we are hopeful for their passage in the Assembly. One legislative initiative of Sen. Maltese’s package (Senate Bill 4473) has been enacted into law (Chapter 62 of the Laws of 2008). It mandates that the Apparel Industry Task Force, which enforces labor laws related to the garment manufacturing industry, issue an annual report to the Commissioner of Labor and to the Senate and Assembly Labor Committees.

Senate Bill 6706 (sponsored by Sen. Martin Golden of Brooklyn and co-sponsored by Sen. Lanza, Sen. Maltese and Sen. Frank Padavan of Queens) seeks to add to the number of Ground Zero workers afforded certain protections. This bill has passed the Senate and is awaiting action by the Assembly.

I also sponsored legislation, Senate Bill 7521, which increased penalties for violating existing laws relating to the payment of wages, and mandated that the Department of Labor study the “wage gap” between men and women and between minorities and non-minorities.

Though the wage gap has been studied many times before, my bill would mandate a study focused specifically on New York State, and would concentrate on

determining the causes of the wage gap.

This bill has passed the Senate unanimously.

Another one of my bills, Senate Bill 8212, supported by the State Department of Labor, seeks to require most large employers to provide notice to their employees of unfortunate circumstances such as impending layoffs and plant closings. This bill, which serves an expansion of federal laws on the same issue, would give hardworking New Yorkers a better chance to prepare for what is likely to be one of the most difficult periods of their lives.

While I am proud of the successes we have had in producing and passing legislation in support of the working men and women of this state, I recognize that more work needs to done. As always, I look forward to our continued dialogue during the remaining days of the Legislative session on important issues such as paid family leave, increases in unemployment insurance benefits, nurse overtime and IDA reform.

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Joseph Robach, a Republican representing Monroe County, is the chair of the Senate Labor Committee.

Creative Approaches to Retain and Recruit City Workers

BY COUNCIL MEMBER JOSEPH ADDABBO

A

RE THE CITY WORKERS OF TODAY

and in the near future willing to live on dedication and commitment or do they need to be better compensated?

As chairman of the Labor and Civil Service Committee in the New York City Council, it is clear to me and to a number of my colleagues that job retention and recruitment of workers are major challenges for our city today. It is even clearer that these challenges are only going to increase in the years ahead.

This is true for a number of reasons.

We face constant and growing competition from surrounding municipalities, the cost of housing continues to push workers from the city at a growing rate, we face a much greater pay differential from the private sector, and with the cost of living increasing at a greater rate than a worker’s paycheck, it’s getting harder to meet life’s demands. Currently, some people feel that a city job just isn’t what it used to be. Efforts must be made to match the dedication and commitment our workers have been giving to the city.

It is incumbent upon us as elected and appointed officials to develop creative opportunities in labor negotiations to attract and retain a stable work force. We need to make a city job stand for something that matters. We cannot and should not stand on the sidelines without making an effort to explore ways to assist work-

ers in being better qualified and compensated for city jobs. I would like the city to be a place that is sought after as a place for quality and stable employment.

How does the city government use its negotiations with this work force to recruit and retain skilled individuals?

What policies and legislation must we create to help the city compete with the private sector for qualified workers?

What set of incentives, other than higher wages, can the city offer its employees?

In order to recruit and retain a work force, the city will need to incorporate creative approaches in future contract negotiations with unions. The city can offer strong alternatives to the lure of the private sector. The city already offers job security in most areas and titles. As economic times become less secure, the knowledge that the city is less likely to go bankrupt than a private company becomes more and more evident. That is our constant appeal to the prospective work force.

A significant struggle for skilled and semi-skilled workers in the city is finding affordable housing. Finding affordable housing in close proximity to the workplace is difficult. The city spends a significant amount in subsidies and tax breaks to support new developments in our city.

In exchange, the city extracts concessions from developers to set aside units for affordable housing. It is clearly in our city’s best interest to allow it to grant some credit to be given to city workers

who want to live in our city. A number of other municipalities are considering and implementing work force housing plans, which develop housing specifically for their city work force. The benefit of socalled ‘first responder housing,’ where police officers and firemen are given housing credit for living within the city they serve, could also attract more of those bravest and finest.

While I understand the city and the state agreed to provide $300 million in subsidies and tens of millions in tax breaks to the Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn, it should also look to incorporate into its subsidies provisions that legally and creatively require new developments to set aside a fixed amount of affordable units designated for use of city employees and first responders.

Health care is going to be a continuing concern for workers as they seek future employment. The cost and quality of health care is an area in which the economies of scale give an advantage to the city over most of the private sector.

We can do better. Imagine if the Health and Hospital Corporation was a model for urban health care delivery. Imagine if we were aggressive in our purchasing of pharmaceuticals. What would people save? Imagine if we had primary health care delivery without waiting times and reduced cycle times and preventative care. Imagine if we had electronic record keeping and all the characteristics of a

state-of-the-art health care delivery system. Imagine if the same was true for dental care.

The city can also formulate a program through which the city work force accrues an equity credit that can be used as a down payment for a house, payment for child’s college education or as additional source of retirement funds.

There is so much we should consider doing or actually do for our city workers within our fiscal means. We must first decide that our work force is worth the consideration and investment during contract negotiations. I know it is.

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Joseph Addabbo, a Democrat representing parts of Queens, is chair of the City Council Civil Service and Labor Committee.

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CITY HALL

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JUN E 2008

ISSUE FORUM: ORGANIZED

LABOR CONTRACTS

Collective Bargaining That Helps Us All

BY ASSEMBLY MEMBER SUSAN JOHN

T

HE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AT

the turn of the 20th century brought the birth of the modern labor movement.

Along with this movement came the notion of collective bargaining. Bringing about a process, which became the alternative to the practice of an individual employee negotiating with the employer to the terms and rules of the workplace.

In the early days of the labor movement, collective bargaining did not serve either employees or employers very well.

This was due in part to the fact that most employers refused to recognize duly elected unions to bargain on behalf of employees.

This changed with the Great Depression and the passage of the Nation Labor Relations Act. This New Deal legislation endorsed collective bargaining as part of our national policy and as the preferred mechanism to accommodate the diverse interests of the employment relationship.

During the Great Depression, employers were able, through great improvements in efficiencies, to produce more goods while suppressing the cost of labor. While more were goods produced by manufacturers, these low wages

reduced the purchasing power of working families and helped to spur on and deepen the effects of the depression.

At this point, management began to understand that collective bargaining would help their market position by leading to the stability of the work force and move the nation’s economy forward. This acceptance of collective bargaining by both the employer and employee set up the current system of negotiations and quasi-adjudication, ensuring work rules and conditions that benefit both parties.

While the collective bargaining system worked very well during World War II and post-war period, management took a harder line toward collective bargaining starting in the 1950s and pushed Congress to pass legislation to strengthen their hand in negotiations. With management’s increasing political clout, labor unions understood that if they could not achieve the desired changes through the collective bargaining process, they would have to turn their attention to changes made through the movement of public policy at the legislative level.

Today, we can see the changes in public policy that have been the result of labor unions using the legislative process to benefit not only those that

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they represent in the collective process, but also allowing non-represented workers to receive benefits once enjoyed only through the collective bargaining process.

Collective bargaining is still the main and most reliable way for employers and employees to come together for the common good of the workplace, but the current economic and anti-worker environment of the Bush administration has caused legislators in New York to react to protect working families.

Understanding this situation, I have worked with my colleagues and organized labor to expand upon the rights of workers throughout New York.

Currently, I am working on legislation that will increase the benefit for unemployment claims, so families can keep their homes during tough economic times. Additionally, I have been fighting for legislation (the Paid Family Leave Act) that will allow families to take time off for work, with pay, to care for an ill loved one, the birth of a child or other qualified family emergencies. I have fought for an increase in funding for child care so that working families can afford quality care for our next generation. And, with my colleagues in the Assembly majority, I have tried to get the City of

New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Administration for Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Services to end the shuttering of child care centers and putting unionized workers jobs at risk.

Where the collective bargaining system is working, I will continue to push for its expansion, and where it is not, I will continue to push for public policies that protect hardworking families.

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Susan John, a Democrat representing Monroe County, is chair of the Assembly Labor Committee.

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Greater New York Laborers-Employers Cooperation & Education Trust A jointly managed trust fund, charged with supporting and promoting the interests of 1,500 signatory contractors and the 15,000 members of the Mason Tenders District Council. Its four point mission: marketing and promotion; legislative and governmental affairs; research and business development; and prevailing wage monitoring.

Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York, LIUNA General Building Laborers Local 66 General Building Laborers Local 66 Asbestos, Lead & Hazardous Waste Laborers Local 78 Construction & General Building Laborers Local 79 Waste Material, Recycling & General Industrial Laborers Local 108

Contractor Associations Associated Brick Mason Contractors (ABMC) Building Contractors Association (BCA) Contractors Association of Greater New York, Inc. (CAGNY) Environmental Contractors Association (ECA) Interior Demolition Contractors Association (IDCA) The Cement League (TCL) Wall & Ceiling Contactor Association, Long Island (WCC) Independent Contractors

266 West 37th St. Suite 1100, New York, NY 10018 Phone: (212) 452-9300 | Fax: (212) 452-9318 E-mail: lecet@gnylecet.net | www.masontenders.org

“A Partnership Committed to the Future”

8

CITY HALL

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JUN E 2008

Port Authority Electricians Charge Inconsistent Approach to Prevailing Wage Two-state legislation may be next step for Local 3

BY DAN RIVOLI PORT AUTHORITY Executive Director Chris Ward is starting his tenure in the middle of a labor dispute.

The fact-finding stage of negotiations between the Port Authority and its division of Local 3 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is under way. The bi-state agency and union leaders are trying to resolve a stalemate over using prevailing wages, or a pre-determined pay rate, in their upcoming labor contract.

During the last contract negotiations with Local 3, the Port Authority agreed to pay 85 percent of prevailing wagesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the pay rate for a particular craft established by the state comptrollerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;with incremental increases.

Since that contract expired in June 2006, Richard Gonzalo, chair of the unionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s division, said the agency reneged on that deal because 85 percent of prevailing wage was

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too generous and could give leverage to other unions during contract negotiations. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the only division of Local 3 that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get prevailing rates,â&#x20AC;? Gonzalo said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re very frustrated.â&#x20AC;?

The current dispute came as a surprise to Local 3, as the Port Authority stringently follows prevailing wage laws for all businesses that have contracts with the bi-state agency. Port Authority goes as far as setting up workshops on properly paying prevailing wages. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They pay it to everyone in the world except their own employees,â&#x20AC;? Gonzalo said.

The breakdown of negotiations last December prompted the start of the fact-finding, in which each side has been given an opportunity to present its argument about what the final contract should contain.

The effort is being overseen by Mattye Gandel, who was appointed by the Port Authority Employment Relations Panel.

Port Authorityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Board of Commissioners will vote on Gandelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s non-binding decision based on information gathered.

IONS

INT. 771 A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the City of New York, in relation to performance design criteria for illuminated signs.

SPONSOR: Council Member Alan Gerson (D-Manhattan) Alan Gersonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s constituents tell him that the light from surrounding billboards has been flooding their apartments at night and ruining their quiet time at home.

His new bill would require the use of shielded lamps on all city billboards.

The new shielded lamps will shine light directly onto the billboards rather than spill light around in all directions as the non-shielded lamps now do. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People in my district have said that they canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enjoy their night time

because of the light coming into their apartments,â&#x20AC;? said Gerson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is about protecting their night time and their privacy.â&#x20AC;?

Gerson wants to reduce light pollution in the city, but the lifelong New York City resident believes that even energy conservation has its limits.

Gerson said that some things, like Times Square Bills on the burner and the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for the Council skyline should, remain undimmed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not talking about cutting the light used in Times Square or on the skyline,â&#x20AC;? Gerson said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I just want to keep Times Square in Times Square and out of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s apartments.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Carl Winfield

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The Port Authority, however, has repeatedly postponed its own presentation to Gandel.

Though law in New York and New Jersey requires payment of prevailing wages, the Port Authority is exempt because the agency is self-governing: The governor of New York appoints the executive director, the governor of New Jersey

ed a compelling case, and the Port Authority has yet to present their case,â&#x20AC;?

Bechtold said.

Steve Coleman, assistant director of the Media Relations Department for the Port Authority, said the agency will present its case in hopes to have a resolution by the end of the summer.

The next presentation will be July 14.

The Port Authority stringently follows prevailing wage laws for all businesses that have contracts with the bi-state agency, but refuses to use it for Local 3. appoints the chairman of the Board of Commissioners, and each of them appoints six board members.

The arrangement means that the New York State Labor Department has no jurisdiction over the Port Authority. The agency has used this as a defense for not following prevailing wage laws for its employees. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re trying to get them to realize that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re slipping through a loophole,â&#x20AC;?

Gonzalo said.

Joseph Bechtold, Local 3â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business representative for Port Authority interests, said the union is fighting pattern bargaining. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is no equity in pattern bargaining,â&#x20AC;? Bechtold said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the same all across the board, regardless of your knowledge, expertise or danger of your job.â&#x20AC;?

The union, he added, will accept the Board of Commissionersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; vote as a binding decision. Bechtold is confident that Gandelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinion will be favorable. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I believe that she believes we present-

Gonzalo and Bechtold said that if the union is not satisfied with the resolution reached at the end of the fact-finding, Local 3 will likely opt for a remedy through legislation instead of a lawsuit.

But that would take time. And there is no guarantee of success in that, either.

Coexisting bills must pass in New York and New Jersey to affect Port Authority operations. This is no easy task, according to Assembly Member Richard Brodsky (DWestchester), chair of the Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee. â&#x20AC;&#x153;New Jersey has been absolutely resistant to any reform at Port Authority,â&#x20AC;?

Brodsky said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve tried, but New Jersey has turned its back on the people who are subject to the powers of the Port Authority.â&#x20AC;?

Gonzalo, however, is more optimistic. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Both governors are labor-friendly,â&#x20AC;?

Gonzalo said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We hope we can get things done politically.â&#x20AC;? drivoli@manhattanmedia.com

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J U N E 2008

Psyches, Petitions May Feel Fallout from Queens Party Backing of Monserrate Bid While some worry over meaning of Sabini abandonment, many place blame on senator himself

BY ADAM PINCUS MAY BY QUEENS DEMOCRATIC district leaders to support City Council Member Hiram Monserrate for State Senate over three-term incumbent John Sabini was not quite an earthquake, but the unusual move has caused tremors among the party’s elected representatives.

“They threw him under the bus,” one elected official said. “With this done, you are put on notice if you have a challenger who is strong enough to beat you...they may not endorse you. Today it is Sabini, but tomorrow it may be me.”

Monserrate prevailed with 12 votes in favor and two abstentions at the May 23 ballot to determine who the county would support in the Sept. 9 primary. The two abstentions were from district leaders allied with Borough President Helen Marshall, a bitter rival of Monserrate.

This is Monserrate’s second run for the seat. He narrowly lost in 2006 as an insurgent challenger for the heavily Latino district that covers Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst and a portion of Woodside. If victorious, he would be the first Latino senator from Queens.

In 2001, he was elected the borough’s first Latino Council member.

To Monserrate, those historic strides are important.

“I think it is a good opportunity for the party to build even more goodwill in communities that have been disenfranchised and to empower progressive Democrats,” he said.

Party officials said far from throwing Sabini under the bus, the long-time Democrat was abandoned because he was not doing enough to help himself.

Michael Reich, the organization’s executive secretary, said in 2006 the party pushed hard to help the senator. Then-county leader Thomas Manton convinced four unions annoyed with Sabini to support him, the party raised money, and it brought Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) to Queens to endorse him. Yet he only squeaked by.

The party was not ready to do that again this year,

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He pleaded guilty to the charge on Feb. 5.

Assembly Member Ivan Lafayette (D-Queens) said Sabini’s reserved style impeded party relationships.

“I have known him since he was a teenager, and he is a member of my club, but I don’t have any communication with him,” Lafayette said. “We both serve in Albany and I have never been out to dinner with him.”

Sabini said he would continue his campaign despite the vote.

“Nothing surprises you in this business. I was the county leader and I have a long experience. Nothing is a shock, but you do get disappointed when people make a commitment and do otherwise,” he said.

For some, the vote remains a sore point. District leader Veta Brome, who abstained, said little when asked.

“I was there and that was it. Politics is what it is, but I am not going to comment,” she said.

Council Member Helen Sears (D), too, refused to discuss what happened, saying it was a private party matter.

“It was a difficult decision,” she said.

District leader Dorothy Phelan, who voted to back Sabini, said the party was responding to the changing demographics, but noted that some wanted to stick with

The county apparently sought to avoid a contested vote and offered to find Sabini a “high-level” job outside the Senate, several sources said.

Reich said.

“Do we do all that and on top of that try to figure out how he is going to keep the 247-vote margin when the district has become more Latino, not less, in the last two years?” Reich asked. “And on top of that, he has his own personal legal issues which didn’t help, which didn’t make it easier for us going forward.”

Sabini was arrested Sept. 27 in Albany and charged with driving while his ability was impaired. He refused a Breathalyzer test, and for that, his license was revoked for one year.

the incumbent.

Sabini’s troubles were exacerbated by a poll taken this spring that showed his support was weak, several insiders said.

Sabini did not comment on the poll.

Reich said, “If a poll was conducted it was John’s poll. I am not going to confirm or deny anything about the poll.”

The county apparently sought to avoid a contested vote and offered to find Sabini a “high-level” job outside the Senate, several sources said.

Sabini denied he was offered anything.

“It is not something I would trade for,” he said, referring to his seat.

Some insiders suspect Rep. Joseph Crowley (DQueens/Bronx), the Queens County chair, may have wanted to protect his own seat from a potential rival.

In 2004, Monserrate threatened to challenge Crowley, but ultimately opted against a run. Insiders said if Monserrate were settled in the Senate, he would be less likely to challenge Crowley before redistricting in 2012 gave him a more favorable district.

That is in part because Monserrate would not be able to run petitions for the Senate seat and the Congressional seat at the same time, meaning he would have to give up his seat to challenge Crowley, according to state rules.

Others believed the county was looking after its own. Monserrate and Assembly Member Jose Peralta (D-Queens) were planning to run as many as six challengers against incumbent district leaders, several sources said.

It was the charismatic and scrappy Council member himself who pressured the party to act, according to one insider.

“The bigger story is Hiram made this happen. If he hadn’t run for district leader and fought off a primary challenge...and ran hard again against John two years ago and came back strong. He forced county to dump Sabini.”

Sabini still carries the support of the state Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), who will take part in a planned July fundraiser, Sabini said.

In a written statement, Smith elaborated on his position.

“We expect to win the majority, but while winning is important, there are other things that are just as important, such as principle and loyalty. I support Senator John Sabini just as I expect my members will,” he explained.

One of the most effective means the county has of battling opponents is done before the public aspect of the campaign gets off the ground. Once petitions are filed, the party organization or competing candidates can challenge nominating petitions. At least 1,000 signatures are needed to get on the ballot, but candidates often collect three- four- or five-times that to avoid a challenge.

Reich said they would be examining Sabini’s petitions, if Sabini submits them.

“I don’t know if he is going to file. I haven’t heard. We will certainly take a look at this, and if they are valid, we won’t challenge,” he said. “And if they are not valid, then they don’t deserve to be filed.” pincus_a@yahoo.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com

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10

CITY HALL

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JUN E 2008

Court Candidates on Staten Island Try to Judge the Existence of November Race Campaigns proceed in new judicial district despite legislation in limbo

BY DAN RIVOLI ISLAND IS TIED TO Brooklyn by four legislative districts, a school region and a judicial district. That will all change at the end of this year—at least, that is, in terms of the judicial district.

Soon, the island will have its very own state Supreme Court seat, allowing borough residents to vote for homegrown judges.

Due to Judge Robert Gigante’s (D) election to Surrogate Court last year, there will be at least one open seat on the bench for Staten Islanders to vote in a new, competitive borough-wide race this November.

“I think it’s going to make political life interesting for many,” said Assembly Member Michael Cusick (D-Staten Island), author of his chamber’s bill.

State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) carried the bill in the Senate.

Previously, judges from Staten Island would have to interview with a Brooklyn county committee as part of the judicial selection process. Now, the power to nominate locally elected judges will be solely in the hands of Staten Island’s party leaders.

So far, two acting state Supreme Court judges have announced they will make the race. But how this year’s elections will be conducted—either as part of the

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Joseph Maltese and Judith McMahon plan to run against each other for state Supreme Court on Staten Island, if Washington approves the existence of their judicial district. old Brooklyn-Staten Island district or with the new, independent one—is not clear, since the new district can only take effect after approval from the Department of Justice, according to the Voting Rights Act. Cusick is confident that those making the decision in Washington will support the move.

“They’ll find that this is a good piece of legislation,” he said.

But for now, Chris Bauer, speaking as executive director of the borough’s Democratic Party—a post he has since left—said the party is treating this seat as part of Brooklyn’s judicial district until Justice Department approval arrives.

However, if the race becomes competi-

tive as an exclusively Staten Island race, Democrats will run a strong campaign.

“We look forward to a Democratic win,” Bauer said. “It’s definitely a plus for the party being competitive island-wide.”

Potential candidate Joseph Maltese, on the other hand, said his reading of the bill shows that this district is now clearly only for Staten Island. The likely Republican candidate in the race, he said, will wait until next year to run if Brooklynites can vote in the November election for the seat.

Maltese previously lost state Supreme Court races in 1993 and 2006, with Brooklyn’s heavily Democratic population diluting the vote of Staten Islanders voting for their judges, who were only nominated by the GOP.

Now that One New Judicial Slot Exists, a Move for More fter two decades of stalling in committee, State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R) and Assembly Member Michael Cusick (D) garnered enough support to get the Staten Island judicial district bill to then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s (D) desk last December.

Cusick and Lanza both said special thanks was owed to Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Assembly Member Vito Lopez, who rallied the support of Brooklyn’s delegation in Albany, which includes Helene Weinstein, the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee chair.

The Brooklyn delegation was the key to passing a bill that had been repeatedly introduced only to stall in committee under the same objections, according to Lanza.

“We came to the realization that it would hurt the interests of Brooklyn and it would hurt their delegation,” Lanza

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said.

After meeting with Lopez and securing his support, Lanza and Cusick lobbied Spitzer to sign the bill.

“I put it in the context of judicial reform,” Lanza said.

Spitzer not only signed the bill, but traveled to Staten Island for a ceremonial signing.

That initial bill, which set the new district, removed three judicial seats and placed them instead in Staten Island.

Now Lanza and Cusick are pushing legislation that increases the number of judicial slots to 10—or one judge per 50,000 residents, as the State Constitution demands—and restores the three judges removed from Brooklyn’s district.

A new judicial district, Cusick said, needs an appropriate number of staffers, proper funding and space for new judges.

In order to secure the components neces-

sary, Cusick said this part of the legislation had to be broken into a separate bill.

“The purpose has always been to get the judicial district first,” Cusick said.

“You wouldn’t be able to start the district with 10 judges.”

Of the seven additional judges the new bill would add to Staten Island, five would be elected this November and two would be elected in 2009.

The Senate and Assembly bills, which have until the end of session to pass in order to leave time for petitioning, are being reviewed by the Judiciary Committee in each chamber. Cusick is optimistic about the bill’s chance of succeeding.

“I’m confident,” Cusick said, “that the judicial district will move smoothly in January.”

—DR drivoli@manhattanmedia.com

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Maltese was appointed in 1996 to the Court of Claims by then-Gov. George Pataki (R). He said he prefers that method to running in low-profile races.

“The appointed system is far more superior,” he said. “The process is more scrupulous than the elective process.”

Given the obscurity of judicial races and the legal restraint on candidates from speaking about political issues, Maltese believes the race will be decided by dueling résumés and voting by party line or ethnicity.

However, his expected challenger, Judith McMahon, said that the fanfare around the new district would drum up enthusiasm for the campaign.

McMahon successfully ran on the Democratic line for the North Shore Civil Court seat in 2002, and like Maltese, currently serves as an acting state Supreme Court judge.

“This would be the first election where Staten Islanders will be selecting their Supreme Court judge,” McMahon said. “There has been a lot of publicity about it. I think people will obviously be much more aware of it.”

Though both potential candidates are appointed judges, only a state Supreme Court judge who has been elected, not appointed, can move to the Appellate division, the intermediary between trial court and the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.

McMahon’s run for state Supreme Court will coincide with the congressional campaign of her husband, Council Member Michael McMahon (D).

This issue reportedly weighed on Michael McMahon’s decision to enter the race, as he feared that his campaign would siphon funds and party resources from his wife.

Yet without an already well-known Republican in the congressional race, McMahon said she believes the campaigns will not affect one another.

“The two elections and campaigns are separate and distinct,” she said.

Though the congressional race is a top priority for Democrats, who have not held the seat for 28 years, the party wants to keep the state Supreme Court seat once held by Gigante, a popular Democratic stalwart. Control of the seat is also proudly viewed as a testament to the Democratic Party’s strength across the borough.

But as the race begins to take shape, there is a movement to create new openings on the bench from Staten Island with new legislation currently in committee in Albany.

Joseph Romagnolo, president of Staten Island Trial Lawyers Association, said this was the best way to avoid a contentious race between two colleagues in a borough with a much smaller pool of jurists.

“There would be discord and resentment on the bench,” Romagnolo said.

“This will give the people of Staten Island another judge and keep the congeniality.” drivoli@manhattanmedia.com

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A Company as Diverse as the CityWe Call Home

2007 Honors and Recognition for Verizon •

Top 10 U.S. company for Diversity — DiversityInc magazine

•

One of 2007's Best Companies for Multicultural Women — Working Mother magazine

•

Top Ten Company among 60 Business Elite — Hispanic Business magazine

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Top Supporter, Historically Black Universities and Colleges

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A Top American Corporation — Women's Business Enterprise National Council

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Diversity isn’t just a concept at Verizon. It’s a way of life.

Our commitment to diversity simply is part of what we do every day — from work force development and supplier relationships to economic development, marketing and philanthropy.

More than 13,000 Verizon employees — many from around the globe — call this city home. Last year alone, we invested more than $1 billion in their compensation and benefits. And we contributed some $8 million to 278 NYC non-profit organizations in 2007.

We’re proud of our achievements and the recognition we’ve received. But we’re most proud of the impact we’re having in our hometown — New York City.

12

JUN E 2008

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CITY HALL

Relationship to Developers Dogs Katz, But She Calls Ties An Asset Queens Council member positions herself as frontrunner in crowded comptroller field MEMBER MELINDA KATZ (D-Queens), the chair of the powerful Land Use Committee, has touted her ability to encourage development in the city as an asset during her comptroller run.

Yet her close relationship with developers, whose contributions to her campaign have placed her near the top in fundraising—with $1.6 million raised as of January—has made her a target for critics who claim she is too close to the industry.

She shrugged that off, saying developers are the very people who are needed to maintain a healthy economy.

“People talk to me about developers and their support, and my answer is, ‘They are the folks who care deeply about the direction this city is going.’ If they have faith that I can actually make sure the city continues to thrive economically, I think that is a good thing,” she said.

Katz, a former mergers and acquisitions attorney and Assembly member, is one of five announced candidates for comptroller next year. The others include fellow Council members David Yassky (Brooklyn) and David Weprin (Queens), Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión and Assembly Member James Brennan (Brooklyn). Queens Council Member John Liu is said to be considering the race.

The winner of the Democratic primary, who seems unlikely to face strong Republican opposition, will take control of an office which manages city employees’ pension funds, conducts audits of city agencies, and advises the city on financial matters, among other duties.

Katz was first elected to the Council in 2001, and appointed Land Use chair soon after. She made an unsuccessful run for speaker in 2005 after winning her second term. She grabbed headlines this year with her surprise announcement of her well-along pregnancy. Her son, Carter Katz, was born May 3, several weeks premature.

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Katz said projects passed through the Land Use committee have strengthened the city.

“When I ran for the Council, the economy of the city was truly in question, 9/11 had just happened, businesses were moving out, businesses did not have the confidence to move here,” she said. “I know as Land Use chair, one of the things we had to do was instill confidence.”

She has been criticized for overseeing a period in which affordable housing units have disappeared and few new ones have been created. She counters those claims by pointing out that the city approved rezonings with affordable housing at levels never seen before.

“The truth is, there isn’t one major rezoning in the City of New York that has been done over the last few years where affordable housing has not been a key component,” she said. “In Greenpoint/Williamsburg, affordable housing was 33 percent, which was unheard of before this administration came in. Thirtythree percent was an amazing number, Hudson Yards was 28 percent.”

She attacked the idea could have simply legislated more affordable housing into being.

“As Land Use chair, I always have to balance the percent of affordable housing you want, and you want the highest number with the lowest AMI [area median income], but you have to find people who will build it,” she said.

She has already generated much attention for her aggressive political operation, marked by strong, sudden fundraising and a Melinda Katz is hoping her background in the Assembly, Council and as a string of early endorsements. She mergers and acquisitions lawyer will put her over the top in the race to be the has also been the only 2009 candi- city’s next top bean counter. date so far to be run by the politiAs the only woman, but one of three cal veterans at the Glover Park Group, aspects of the job of comptroller. She which is currently running both her polit- remained uncommitted on a policy con- Jews in a race that includes just one ical and fundraising operations. cerning private equity investments from minority candidate—Carrión—she said city pension funds adopted she stood out in part because she has in February by Thompson, been working for the position for two who said the city could opt years.

“This is not a consolation prize,” she out of investments that reduce the amount of afford- said, a possible muted dig at Carrión, who had flirted with the idea of running able housing in the city.

“The question isn’t for mayor before entering the comptrolwhether or not this is a good ler race late last year. “The fact is, I want thing—it is,” she said. “The to be comptroller. It’s been the reason I She is currently searching for a sepa- question is whether or not it does the most have raised so much money and why I to protect and grow the affordable housing have union support.” rate campaign manager, Katz said.

And with the election still a year and a in this city. As comptroller, I intend to fund pincus_a@yahoo.com half away, she is also still in the process of companies that encourage and promote Direct letters to the editor to ironing out her positions on several the creation of affordable housing.” editor@cityhallnews.com.

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

BY ADAM PINCUS

She has already generated much attention for her aggressive political operation, marked by strong, sudden fundraising and a string of early endorsements.

Over the last six and a half years, her committee and the Council as a whole have passed 82 City Planning neighborhood rezonings since 2002, in addition to hundreds of smaller rezonings.

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CITY HALL

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J U N E 2008

13

Much of 2005 Transportation Bond Act Money Remains Unclaimed Second Avenue Subway trust fund may not be enough in face of higher construction costs

BY DANIEL MACHT APRIL, FORMER GOV. ELIOT Spitzer (D) was the latest politician to wield a pickaxe in what has become a series of groundbreakings for the Second Avenue Subway, the elusive “T” line promised to overcrowded commuters since the days of black and white movies.

But the project has always been put on hold, first by World War II, next by fiscal crises in the 1970s.

The money kept disappearing.

But this time was supposed to be different. The 2005 Transportation Bond Act was supposed to guarantee the T. And though the Bond Act money has not disappeared, not much of it has been claimed, and the security it was supposed to provide for the plans has all but evaporated.

In 2005, voters approved $2.9 billion in bond money, half of which was to go to the Department of Transportation for highway repairs and other projects Upstate. The other $1.45 billion was to go to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and would be split between routine replacement of old subway cars, track and other repairs, and Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access. Now, three years later, the MTA is just beginning to spend their share of Bond Act money, most of which has not

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yet been allocated. The MTA had spent $135 million through May, or less then 10 percent of what is available.

The state comptroller’s office, which sells general obligation bonds to investors and gives money to the MTA as needed, does not consider MTA’s spending pace unusual. The MTA does not expect any problems in spending all its money by 2016, seven years after the end of its current capital program.

The Transportation Bond Act is not the only money on the table for the Second Avenue Subway. Last year, the federal government added $1.3 billion to past federal, state and local commitments. None of these allotments came with time restrictions on access. Despite all the cash already lined up, the MTA said it still needs billions more, largely due to higher expenses.

“The MTA along with most public and private sector construction agencies are seeing rapidly rising construction costs,” said MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan, pointing to the 9 percent increase in construction costs in the past several years.

This prompted the MTA’s lateFebruary announcement that all expansion projects—the Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access, Fulton Street Transit Center, South Ferry Terminal— were behind schedule and over budget.

The cost of completing Second Avenue Subway’s first of three phases, all but paid for, is now expected to rise by another $500 million to $4.3 billion, an increase of 13 percent. The cost of East Side Access, by comparison, has skyrocketed by 67 percent.

The MTA had been relying on congestion pricing fees to help plug a $4.5 billion gap in its next capital program.

Next year marks the end of the MTA’s current capital program, which overlaps with the new one, slated for 2008-2013.

At $29.5 billion, the new program will be the highest in the history of the MTA’s capital programs.

Even with congestion pricing, which failed in April, the MTA still had no plan to generate an additional $11 billion to $13 billion to meet its goals. That money will be needed for everything from core repairs to expansion projects, and could derail future Second Avenue Subway construction phases.

With the situation so dire, some have even discussed the possibility of a new state transportation bond to spread the MTA’s financial burden across the state.

So far, nothing suggests that idea has generated much support.

Neysa Pranger, a spokesperson for Regional Plan Association, said a new bond would be a tough sell to the public.

“There is the perception that you have bought and paid for these programs over and over again,” she said.

Instead of a state bond, Pranger echoed others who say the Legislature should come up with a broad-based tax to raise money for the MTA. Some new revenue streams could include a scaled back congestion pricing program, increases on a petroleum tax that is invisible to consumers at the pump, a fee paid by homebuyers and mortgage brokers called the recorder tax, higher tolls and fares.

But the state of the MTA’s finances has moved Gov. David Paterson (D) to change course from an earlier stance that advocated spending cuts across the board earlier this year.

In April, Gov. Paterson appointed former MTA head Richard Ravitch to a blue ribbon panel to recommend new ideas for funding. The full panel of business and transportation leaders was announced in June. They are expected to deliver their conclusions in the fall.

For now, the machines are working on the East Side, and construction on the Second Avenue Subway continues. If history or the MTA’s current financial situation is any guide, though, that first T ride may still be a long time coming.

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

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In his first major interview as AG, Andrew Cuomo makes his opening statement

The

Strategist

BY EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

For the second time, they ask the reporters to move.

This is Andrew Cuomo’s first press conference out on the street that any of his press and security staff can remember, and they are a little overwhelmed. The backdrop of Broadway is perfect for him to tout his latest victory, getting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to stop issuing free EZ-passes to board members, but the setting is more public than anyone has come to expect of him as attorney general.

Seeing the crowd of cameras wedged onto the sidewalk, a man in a Knicks jersey and a hot dog in hand jaywalks over to the edge of the scrum.

“What happened?” he asks “Cuomo’s giving a speech,” says another bystander.

The first one peers through the crowd until he catches sight of the attorney general, head up, hands clasped at the waist.

“Oh, it’s Andy!” he shouts, calling out for attention. “Andy!”

Cuomo, meanwhile, has his eyes locked on a reporter who has just asked a question. He almost takes the bait for a sound bite blasting MTA officials on the symbolism of raising fares while enjoying free rides themselves.

Then, in mid-sentence, he pivots.

“Government must maintain the trust for government to do what it intends to do. Do I believe this was a public trust issue?” he says, asking himself a new, lower-key question. “Yes. I believe it was a legal issue and a public trust issue.”

He takes a few more questions, and then quickly wraps up the press conference. A couple walks by, looking at the dissipating crowd.

“That’s probably, like, a congressman,” the woman says.

The man corrects her.

“That’s Cuomo,” he says.

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he attorney general, the one-time gubernatorial candidate, the scion of New York’s very own political dynasty, Cuomo is a genuine political celebrity—if only as the last man standing. Of the state officers voters picked in 2006, Cuomo is the only one still in the position he was elected to hold.

Quotable, easily recognizable and a saga unto himself, Cuomo is a media favorite, and he knows it. But since being sworn in as attorney general last year, Cuomo has done something almost no one ever expected him to do: retreat from the spotlight. He spends more of his days wringing deals out of marathon conference calls than at press conferences, where he usually stands to the side while others talk, rather than in front of the microphones.

“I don’t think it was a deliberate strategy, except to a point,” he says, explaining, “to the extent you get

involved in personality press and personality politics, it actually detracts from the work.”

So far, the strategy has been successful. Cuomo enjoys high favorability ratings among Republicans and Democrats alike, across all demographics. His dark days of September 2002, with him quietly dropping out of the gubernatorial primary, seem more than just six years behind him.

But the dark days for New York State government are darker than ever, Cuomo says. Reminded of his 2006 campaign line that dysfunction was too weak a word to describe Albany, Cuomo stands by his rhetoric.

“You could say it fundamentally hasn’t changed—three men in a room, three men in a room,” he says, comparing the situation then and now, two governors later. “But there was an intervening fact, which was Eliot Spitzer.”

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www.cityhallnews.com The greatest problem with Spitzer’s disastrous first year and the scandal which cut short his second, Cuomo says, is how much further they lowered New Yorkers’ already low opinion of their government.

“You don’t trust the government the way you need to trust the government. You don’t believe in the government. You’re disillusioned, with good cause,” he says.

“You’ve been personally let down by the leadership of government. I understand that. I don’t disagree with you. You’re right.”

Enter Cuomo. Using the powers of his office, he presents himself as the man to redeem government. What the people really need, he says, is a good lawyer.

“To the extent that there are issues and problems, I’m going to address them,” he says. “To the extent that there is waste, fraud and abuse, I’m on the case.”

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There is, however, a common thread.

Unlike Spitzer, who attacked financial crimes he thought people should care about, Cuomo is out to use the attorney general’s office to deal with things already very much on their minds. New Yorkers worry about paying for education, so they care about student loans.

They worry about their health, so they care about insurance companies misbehaving. They worry about making ends meet, so they care about consumer fraud. They worry about their children’s safety, so they care about child pornography and abuses of social networking websites. They worry about having safe and solid homes, so they care about the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

“Real people, real problems in real time,” Cuomo says.

But there are already 62 district attorneys and four United States attorneys, all with the power to bring cases. New York needs him to be more than just another prosecutor, Cuomo says.

In his first major effort as attorney general, Cuomo made national headlines by securing 35 settlements with some of the larger universities and student loan companies in America which admitted to giving kickbacks to financial aid officers for referring students. All agreed to a new code of conduct. By the time that he got the Legislature to introduce what came to be known as the Student Lending Accountability, Transparency and Enforcement Act, many of the major players had already adopted its provisions, either voluntarily or as a condition of their settlements, obviating a strong lobbying effort against it in Albany.

The bill passed unanimously. A federal version seems clear to coast through Congress.

Spitzer’s office prosecuted the financial sector into submission. Cuomo’s office has a different model: identify an industry-wide problem, prosecute enough cases to generate public and internal attention, settle those cases while gathering information to help piece together a new industry standard, then use the results to create legislation institutionalizing the new way of doing business. Whatever the investigation, Cuomo and his attorneys have replicated the student loan approach over and over and over again.

“The individual cases we bring are usually part of a larger choreography,” says Benjamin Lawsky, Cuomo’s special assistant and deputy counsel. “We expose the problems and fraud through our cases, and then we seek systemic solutions.”

“I fundamentally represent the people,” Cuomo says. “If you are defrauding the people, get your own lawyer. I’m with them.”

he Spitzer aftermath is especially complex for Cuomo, who not only succeeded Spitzer in the attorney general’s office, but built the closing argument of his 2006 campaign around the “Big Shoes” advertisements, which sought to paint him as the heir to Spitzer’s legacy.

The memory of all his supporters holding up the footmeasuring devices brings a smile to his face. No matter all that has happened since, Cuomo says he stands by the ads.

“That campaign was, ‘Eliot Spitzer was the epitome of what an attorney general should be.’ And the question was: ‘Who could fill his shoes?’” Cuomo says, reflecting on his term so far. “I’m comfortable with the comparison of this office’s performance period, on any scale.”

The tendency to compare Spitzer’s and Cuomo’s approaches to the office is inevitable—or was, at least until Spitzer’s surprise implosion. For a while, because of his persona and how he approached being governor, Spitzer seemed to somehow occupy both offices at once.

There was a new sheriff in town, but the Sheriff of Wall Street had just moved to the second floor. Few believed that the town, or the state, would be big enough for the both of them.

And, for reasons no one could have predicted, it was not.

Spitzer’s disappearance may be something of a relief for Cuomo, who no longer has to contend with Spitzer for the spotlight, or potentially, for the votes in the 2010 primary. But during those tumultuous 15 months of everything not changing, while Spitzer was the big story, the new and newly headline-adverse attorney general cobbled together a different direction for the office.

Campaigning, he said he wanted to be the Sheriff of State Street. Today, he shies away from that rhetoric.

“It’s the expression I used on the campaign. Yes, I want to do that. I also want to protect people from consumer frauds—student loans, Dell. I want to fight state fraud—state government fraud, member items. I want to fight local government fraud—school pensions. I want to do civil rights. I want to do the environment,” he says. “I believe the real success story is hard to communicate because it defies the one-line theory.”

Cuomo presses very hard to get this message across.

Spitzer’s vigilance toward Wall Street was not a mistake, he says—cases like the one against former New York Stock Exchange chief Richard Grasso are still being pursued by the office—but he believes Spitzer’s method of waging of a single crusade, no matter how significant, is outdated.

There is a lot to be done, a lot of attorneys and bureau chiefs to keep busy bringing a lot of cases. They are separate and distinct, hitting a wide and mostly unrelated range of topics.

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echnically, the attorney general is the state government’s lawyer. If someone sues New York or a law needs to be defended in the Supreme Court, Cuomo’s office gets the call.

Cuomo interprets his role as a bridge between the people and their government, an intermediary elected by the voters to craft the laws to their advantage. Public integrity cases, he says, get at the heart of this job description.

“I fundamentally represent the people,” he says. “If you are defrauding the people, get your own lawyer. I’m with them.”

Spitzer often portrayed his focus on the financial sector as being a response to the vacuum left by the federal government’s failure to regulate. Cuomo says his approach to public integrity is filling in a different kind of vacuum, this one created by decades of willful inaction by the state government.

Even when there are indictments that can be made under the state’s nebulous laws, just sorting out who has jurisdiction to make them has proven difficult, Cuomo says. And the Albany County district attorney, who clearly does have jurisdiction, the office receives no additional money or staff for pursuing public integrity cases. Cuomo and his attorneys have been surprised to discover so few avenues for prosecuting state government fraud and abuse. There is, Cuomo says, “a

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While not much other legislation has moved in the turmoil of the last 18 months, Cuomo has maneuvered several unanimous votes on the strength of his relationships with Shelly Silver and Joe Bruno. structural void.”

That is no mistake, according to the attorney general.

“I wonder how that happened?” he says. “It didn’t just evolve that way. It was desired by the powers-that-be that there is no police, no monitor.”

By simply paying attention and making sure those in and outside of government alike know that they are paying attention, Cuomo says he and his staff have been able to start reshaping a government which, he says, has grown corrupt lackadaisically. “‘We were doing this for so long and nobody said anything! We hear that all day long,” he says. “It’s not a legal defense, but it’s speaking to the culture.”

Getting involved in the Troopergate investigation was huge in terms of public profile.

But just as important in Cuomo’s view was stopping the MTA board members from getting free EZpasses and stopping local governments contract workers from receiving full-time state benefits.

The point was pursuing a zero-tolerance, broken windows strategy on public integrity.

After a lifetime in politics, Cuomo believes this is the only way.

“Someone’s looking,” he says. “The structural void doesn’t exist anymore.”

paign finance reform, local government consolidation, tax reform and school district reform. These are all beyond the power of the attorney general’s office.

But, he says, they are not necessarily beyond the power of Andrew Cuomo.

“Bill Clinton—when you wanted to get a piece of legislation passed, you didn’t go to Capitol Hill. You went to the districts. Change comes when people demand change,” he says. “Talk to the people. The politicians will follow.”

Whenever he draws the distinction between these two groups, which is often, he refers to himself as one of the people, not the politicians.

Cuomo’s office uses a rough calculation of how much time he should spend in each part of the state, whether

staff and himself for longer than normal hours, his voice, which sounds more like his father’s every day.

Mario was famous for his hesitancy and indecision, first on running for president in 1988 and again in 1992, then on passing up a nomination to the Supreme Court not once, but twice, in a single week. Whatever else Andrew got from his father, he did not inherit those traits.

On the contrary, he leapt into the 2002 gubernatorial race, despite all the conventional wisdom and Democratic establishment aligned against him. Then his campaign imploded, forcing his withdrawal a week before the primary. He was brash and he took hits for opposing Carl McCall, the first major black gubernatorial candidate in New York. When McCall lost, Cuomo got some of the blame.

There was little question at the time that his political career was over. His high-profile divorce from Kerry Kennedy, which put him back on the tabloid covers in 2003, seemed like an extra nail in the coffin.

His comeback was unlikely and overwhelming. By the morning of Primary Day 2006, there was no question he would be the Democratic candidate for attorney general. By the evening, he had won the nomination with 53 percent of the vote, and with barely having to wage a general election campaign, got more than 60 percent in the general election.

But thinking just in terms of the race for governor and attorney general, Cuomo says, is an incomplete portrait of both him and his political career.

“Here in New York, people tend to focus on 2002 to 2006.

That was four years of my life,” he says, rattling backward through the rest of his résumé, from his eight years in Washington to the homeless housing non-profit he founded in his 20s. “I don’t know that I calibrate it that way.”

He is not surprised that people want to know what he will do—he has been around long enough to accept this as a natural part of the game—but he will not discuss his future or possible races for governor, senator or New York City mayor. But he seems pleased that people are talking and he is interested in hearing what they have to say.

Asked what he would say to the speculation about him running for another office, he turns the question around.

“What would I say? You know what I’d say,” he says, then says nothing more.

He defers a question on whether he might like to be a multiple-term attorney general, in the tradition of Louis Lefkowitz and Robert Abrams. He will keep running for attorney general so long as he believes he can make a difference in the office “If I don’t feel that way,” he says, “I’ll do something else.”

Whatever he runs for, and whenever he does, there will likely be political benefits to putting himself on the frontlines of so many issues near and dear to New Yorkers, and perhaps, by positioning himself as the man who helped restore state government. He knows this.

But aside from a passing comment about Republicans fostering an entity apart from the people, Cuomo is very careful to avoid partisan politics.

Cuomo went to law school, but aside from a brief stint at the Manhattan district attorney’s office and a few private law firms, never practiced much. Back then, prosecuting seemed a political necessity, an experience for the bio to leave behind as soon as the real ascent of his career began.

Once that career was in ruins, prosecuting became a political necessity again. Twenty-five years after getting his JD, he seems to now be thinking about politics like a prosecutor, about elections as cases to be made in a larger effort.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” he says.

“We tend to teach our young people that success is a constant upward trajectory. That’s normally not the way it happens.” eidovere@cityhallnews.com

There are already 62 district attorneys and four United States attorneys, all with the power to bring cases. New York needs him to be more than just another prosecutor, Cuomo says.

uomo first got to Albany more than a quarter century ago. The capital was a pretty political place those days, he says, dismissing the idea that things are more political now.

The difference, he says, is that there is less actual governing being done.

“Performance is lower,” he says. “The performance of government, that has suffered.”

Cuomo, however, has gotten some legislation passed, on overarching issues like student loan and online predators protections to smaller ones, like his bill changing the fees on co-op and condominium plans reviewed by his office.

He says he has great relationships with the legislative leaders, nurtured during, and perhaps because of, Spitzer’s attempts to undermine them. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is a friend. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is a friend. He has tried to remain close with both.

To improve public integrity, he will need their help: New York needs authority reform, ethics reform, cam-

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holding hearings and press conferences or hosting town hall meetings and community forums. Cuomo’s high profile, carefully employed, helps get more coverage for the cases he is pursuing.

“Legislators go back to their districts, and they walk through the supermarket. And someone comes up to them in the supermarket and says, ‘Hey, I was reading about that case Cuomo’s doing about pension fraud.

That’s terrible. What are you doing about that?’” Cuomo says. “That’s how legislation gets passed.” uomo has several photos of his father around the office. In one, which he proudly points to, the former governor is on the basketball court, guarding another player with his hand on the man’s back.

“You know what that is? It looks innocent, right? It’s this,” Cuomo says, demonstrating how the stance enables him to move another body around the room.

“That’s what that is.”

Cuomo laughs at the memory, and at those who look at the picture and see his father as only guarding, not also guiding, the other player.

“That,” he says, “was no little push.”

There are many things about Andrew which remind people of Mario—his way of talking about government as a vocation and obligation, his tendency to work his

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Though Bloomberg Bows Out of Cable Negotiations, Some See Dolan Payback his ownership of Bloomberg Television, city officials said. But that has not stopped some from wondering whether the city’s plan to allow Verizon to compete with Time Warner and Cablevision for cable customers is actually much-delayed payback to Cablevision for helping wreck Bloomberg’s Olympic dreams five years ago.

One observer with clients involved called the move to break the Time Warner-Cablevision duopoly “Bloomberg’s revenge.”

The Verizon agreement was given the green light in a May 27 unanimous vote by the city’s Franchise Concession and Review Committee. It now goes to the state’s Public Service Commission for approval.

City Council Member Tony Avella (D-Queens), chair of the Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee, said the idea that Verizon is being brought in to compete with Cablevision as payback may be slightly farfetched. But the new deal between the city and Verizon still makes him uneasy.

“I think it was a huge conflict of interest here with the mayor and the cable Mayor Bloomberg has access channels,” said Avella, a frequent Bloomberg critic recused himself from who is himself running for the Verizon franchise mayor in 2009. “I’m afraid talks, but some still see that the consumers and every his hand on the remote.

New Yorker were shortchanged in this.”

But Avella said that he ultimately supports the agreement, arguing that competition among cable companies will improve services and prices for consumers.

Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden, lobbied heavily in opposition to Bloomberg’s effort to put a new Jets Stadium over the West Side Rail Yards in the hopes of attracting the 2012 Olympics.

Cablevision Chief Executive James Dolan and Bloomberg engaged in a very public war of words, with the mayor calling Cablevision a “disgrace,” and Dolan accusing Bloomberg of trying to forward a financially flawed plan.

But Cablevision was apparently unfazed by the Verizon agreement. City officials said that the cable company did not send any representatives to the public hearings nor did it register any complaints.

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS “We have not seen any opposition from Cablevision S VERIZON NEARS THE FINISH LINE FOR ITS or Time Warner on this,” said Bruce Regal, senior coun$4 billion cable television franchise agreement sel at the New York City Law Department, who was with the city, one person has been notably involved in hammering out the agreement. absent from all the negotiations: Mayor Michael Regal also shot down the notion that the city was tryBloomberg (Ind.). ing to undermine Cablevision’s business by bringing in Bloomberg recused himself from the Verizon nego- Verizon. The goal has always been to make the market tiations to avoid any conflict of interest presented by more competitive, he explained.

“It long pre-dates any conflicts with Cablevision,” Regal said. “This has been a very long-term goal for the city and we’re very happy to have achieved it.”

In Bloomberg’s absence, negotiations were led on the city’s side by Edward Skyler, deputy mayor for operations, Robert Lieber, deputy mayor for economic development, and Lieber’s predecessor Dan Doctoroff, who retired last year to become president of Bloomberg L.P. Under the agreement, Verizon will install a fiber optic network to service all cable customers by 2012. The company will pay the city a franchise fee of 5 percent of generated revenues and has agreed to nearly double the number of public, educational and government channels currently available to 17.

Verizon also agreed to numerous provisions in the “Cable Consumer Bill of Rights,” which was developed

by City Comptroller William Thompson (D) and the New York Public Interest Research Group last May. In a statement released after the committee decision, Thompson said that the new measures add a level of transparency that has been lacking in previous franchise agreements.

Consumer groups, untroubled by any perceived conflict of interest, disagreed with Thompson’s assessment, saying the deal lacked transparency and accountability.

“Substantively, there are some provisions in there that represent a weakening of consumer protections, and they really jammed us,” said Chuck Bell, program director of Consumers Union. “They didn’t give us adequate time to review it.”

Bell said that neither the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications nor the franchise committee published notices about the agreement until the day of the hearing.

“Verizon had plenty of notice, they had plenty of time to line up their supporters,” Bell said. “Hardly anyone was there from the public interest side.”

City Council Member Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), chair of the Technology in Government Committee, agreed, saying she doubted that many New Yorkers even knew the vote was taking place.

One observer with clients involved called the move to break the Time WarnerCablevision duopoly “Bloomberg’s revenge.”

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On the plus side, Brewer said, she was pleased that there was plenty of funding included for public and community access channels.

“I think that the City of New York bargained hard with Verizon, and there are some good things in the agreement,” she said.

The state Public Service Commission vote is expected in July. ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

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Why Not 10

Reasons that Deflate the

Bloomberg-for-Governor Trial Balloon

Here we go again.

For two and a half years, from Kevin Sheekey’s first tease the night after Michael Bloomberg (Ind.) won his second term to his February op-ed officially ending his unofficial campaign, the mayor denied that he was running for president.

For a few weeks, the idea of the mayor as a vice presidential candidate was floated. To give it extra spice, they whispered that as a former Democrat and former Republican, he could go with either party, a number two for either Barack Obama or John McCain.

That did not seem to catch on. So first there were more whispers. Then there was a poll. Supposedly. With two and half years to go before the next state elections, Bloomberg apparently wanted to know more about running for governor. He may be denying the rumors with increasingly strong language, but people just cannot stop talking about the possibility.

It seems so obvious.

Collapsing cranes and still-rising rents aside, Bloomberg will likely leave office at the end of next year with remarkably high approval ratings. A new mayor will be sworn in the New Year’s Day after next, and with other people now running the show at the company he founded, Bloomberg will be out of a job.

He does keep talking about running that foundation. But spending the rest of his life doling out grants and keynoting conferences just may not be enough for a man who has spent two terms setting the agenda of one of the world’s largest cities, and, to an extent, the state and country.

Never one to duck the limelight—this is a man who built a media empire bearing his last name and once dated Diana Ross— Bloomberg has clearly grown used to having the cameras trained on his every word and the daily opportunity to tell the world whatever he has to say.

In the cold days of January 2010, he may come to miss that. Even at his beach house in Bermuda.

Conveniently, there will be another election a few months later. He will be an energetic and well-cared-for 68. And unless the foundation blows through grants way too quickly, he will still have billions to spend.

So, there it is: Bloomberg for Governor.

The trial balloon is being pumped full of air.

But unlike the presidential campaign, an idea which somehow seemed just crazy enough to work, and which the mayor, knee-deep throughout his second term in national issues, like banning illegal guns and promoting environmental conservation, clearly seemed to be interested in, a run for governor has many more people shaking their heads. An interesting idea, sure, and a tasty bone to gnaw on for the next 18 months, but to many political observers, this one just does not make sense. He could try, everyone seems to agree. A $20-billion fortune

leaves no question about that, and his steady standing on top of the polls—he has led the last three Quinnipiac surveys on prospective gubernatorial candidates, hovering at around 30 percent—would give him a strong headstart. He might even be able to win. But would he really want this job, the continuing platform it would give him in public life regardless?

The answer, according to many who know him and have watched him as mayor, is no.

“It makes no sense,” said Democratic consultant Norman Adler. “But politically, it’s fascinating.”

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loomberg is a manager. That was his strength in business, and that has been the root of most of his real successes over the last six years. He identifies problems, he delegates responsibilities, and he looks for measurable results. Data collection is key. New services are conceived and sold as common sense solutions.

There are always goals, but when there are grand visions, they tend to take the shape of specific plans rather than policy initiatives. When, for example, he wanted to restructure the city’s relationship with the environment, he did not just make speeches. He produced

“It makes no sense,” said political consultant Norman Adler.

“But politically, it’s fascinating.”

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

BY EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

PlaNYC, 127 separate initiatives all presented in a glossy, sleekly designed book, complete with colorful charts and graphs. Working on these ideas and then seeing them through is what appeals to him about city government. He has shown significantly less enthusiasm for the other parts of the job—the negotiating, the deal-making, the speeches outlining general policies proposals over which he has little actual control.

As mayor, he does not have to do much of that. As governor, he would get to do little else.

Looking back on Bloomberg’s first interest in the 2001 mayor’s race, William Cunningham, a former advisor and communications director for Bloomberg who previously worked for Govs. Hugh Carey (D) and Mario Cuomo (D), framed the possible problem.

“The job appealed to him because it was a hands-on kind of thing and you can see results fairly quickly,” he said. “The further away you get from the delivery of services to the people, the less results you see. Governors don’t have the immediate impact that mayors

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He Made the List and Used It Twice Bloomberg’s massive voter database could be key to political future If Mayor Michael Bloomberg decides to run for governor, he will have at his disposal one of the more sophisticated databases of voter information available. Much more in-depth than anything that had been compiled for any previous candidate in New York City, the database was created in 2001 and expanded in 2005.

The list could give Bloomberg an important headstart in organizing should he decide to mount a statewide run, though it could also be of use in any other organizational efforts he might want to mobilize people to support. The mayor could also provide part or all of the database to other candidates he favors.

Details about the database’s contents or the methods employed to obtain them have been kept quiet. Also a secret is how much the information was expanded as Bloomberg’s aides prepared for a possible presidential run.

But Doug Schoen, Bloomberg’s pollster, briefly described the list and its power for the two mayoral campaigns in his book, Declaring Independence: The beginning of the end of the two-party system, released in February.

“We were able to segment the electorate down to the individual level and determine how voters were likely to think about politics based on information gathered from interviewing them in detail over the phone. We were also able to use this information to categorize voters into clusters and communicate targeted messages based on their shared interests and attributes,” Schoen wrote. “The result was a campaign that operated largely below the radar and won an upset victory in 2001 and a landslide of nearly 60 percent in 2005.”

Schoen referred all questions about the content of the voter lists, their breadth and their whereabouts to Kevin Sheekey, the Bloomberg political mastermind who built the lists while managing both mayoral campaigns.

Sheekey also would not discuss the list.

“Taking a pass,” he wrote, when asked by email for comment. “But love the question.”

—EIRD eidovere@cityhallnews.com

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have—it’s a function of the job.”

However, Cunningham pointed out, Bloomberg made his decision to run for mayor not after an intense investigation of the job’s official capacities, but because of a conviction that he could do

a better job.

“He didn’t really look at the city charter in terms of the actual powers,” Cunningham said. “He believed he could make a difference in the city and make the city better.”

Noting that he had no inside knowledge of the mayor’s current deliberations or the results of the internal poll, Cunningham said he expects the mayor would run for governor if he comes to a similar conclusion about what he could

do as chief executive of the state.

“It’s not the title that drives him, it’s not the house, it’s not the plane,” he said.

“It’s the challenge.”

Rarely a day goes by without Bloomberg making some reference to his frustration with Albany. On matters large and small, he decries the state government’s tendency to move slowly, if at all. And though the mayor has been publicly supportive of Gov. David Paterson (D) since the abrupt change in power in March, some of his aides have privately expressed frustration with what they see as the new governor’s disorganized leadership and bumbling staff.

These and more specific policy areas could provide challenges for Bloomberg as governor. Given the structures of state government, he probably would not be able to change much, and certainly not at the pace he has come to expect. That in itself might lure him into a job that many seem to agree is clearly not a great fit for him. Maybe.

First, though, he would need to get elected.

Leaving aside his perceived reluctance to challenge New York’s first black

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governor or the complicated political calculus which might result from a possible musical chairs scenario between Paterson, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Sen. Hillary Clinton, Bloomberg would have a bigger problem if he decides to run for governor: He is a man without a party.

With a three-way presidential bid potentially on the horizon, he disaffiliated from the GOP last June and sent the Republicans on their way. To run for governor, he would probably need them back. Though the mechanics of mounting an independent run would clearly not be impossible for a man who was ready to spend millions on a nationwide ballot access effort, running outside the GOP would create significant difficulties. As he learned from his 2001 and 2005 races for mayor, having the base of party-line voters from the GOP can be very helpful.

New York Republicans are arguably in their worst condition ever, lacking any statewide official or many prospects for one of their own and the State Senate on the brink of turning blue. They may be very happy to see Bloomberg return.

State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) said he is eager to have Bloomberg enter the governor’s race. In fact, Bruno said, he has been pushing the idea on the mayor for years.

“I hope he has interest in running for governor—I may have been one of the first to propose that to him way back, before he got re-elected,” Bruno said.

Bruno dismissed the idea that the mayor’s renunciation of Republicans would be a problem if he chooses to run.

“Personally, I don’t think it would be,” he said, adding, “I don’t believe anybody would think it would be a problem.”

With backers like Bruno, his high name recognition, strong favorability ratings and deep pockets to fund his own race and share the wealth with down-ballot candidates, Bloomberg might be able to walk to the nomination.

“There is no question that there is drool already coming off the lips of some Republicans around the state, because frankly, the Republican Party is not in good shape,” said Republican consultant Tom Doherty.

Nonetheless, if the internal party divisions which marked 2006 resurface in 2010, Bloomberg may be in trouble. That year, a groundswell of activists gave the gubernatorial nod to John Faso over the more centrist William Weld. Bloomberg’s pursuit of the GOP could be undercut by those looking for a more conservative option in an effort to keep the nomination out of Bloomberg’s progressive hands. Former Rep. Rick Lazio (R-Suffolk), who lost the 2000 Senate race to Clinton and has had some discussions with Republican officials about running for governor, could provide that option.

However, in an election year without a strong right-wing alternative and when Republicans may be trying to recapture the State Senate or hold on to their

majority one more time, Bloomberg may find his path to their nomination clear, so long as his checkbook remains open. His party registration switch regardless, he has remained popular with many in the GOP establishment, largely on the power of his donations, including the $500,000 check he wrote to their State Senate committee in February. When he made a surprise appearance at the New York County Lincoln Day dinner in June, he

campaign, since, according to party state Chair Michael Long, the mayor would be unlikely to get Conservative support.

“He’d be a hard sell,” Long said. “I do not believe he possesses the Conservative Party point of view that would endear the leaders up and down the state.”

While insisting that any speculation about the 2010 race is still too early, Long said the Conservative Party’s decision to run its own candidates for mayor against

“I hope he has interest in running for governor—I may have been one of the first to propose that to him way back, before he got re-elected,” said State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. was warmly received by many.

Doherty predicted that the mayor’s positives for the Republicans would probably outweigh any lingering resentment, at least among those in positions of power, if not the grassroots, rank-and-file members.

“The vast majority of elected officials and party leaders will run to him as fast as they possibly could,” he said, “and I’m talking about a full-out sprint.”

Even with the Republican nomination, Bloomberg might have trouble with the ballot. As New Yorkers are reminded every local election year, no Republican candidate has won statewide without the backing of the Conservative Party since 1974. The last one who did win without the Conservative line, however, was the Bloomberg-esque Sen. Jacob Javits, on his way to a fourth term.

His ability to massively self-finance and his strong relationship with the Independence Party could help provide the voters to compensate for lacking the Conservative line. Still, the statistic could spell trouble for a Bloomberg-for-Governor

Bloomberg in both 2001 and 2005 was a demonstration of how seriously the party took the ideological divide.

Long warned Bloomberg to stay quiet on a preference for president, or to endorse McCain, if he’s serious about running for governor. If he backs Obama, Long said there was little chance the Conservatives would back the mayor in 2010.

“It would make it even more difficult,” he said, considering the possibility. “I think he would be a non-starter for Conservatives.”

Whatever his ballot lines, Bloomberg would still have to campaign. This would have its own problems: New York City, where he has won twice, has a large electorate, but it is not nearly as diverse as the whole state—geographically, demographically, politically or economically. To someone used to living and running in comparatively homogenous New York City, a statewide campaign can be a shock to the system, said Peter Vallone, the former New York City Council speaker and 1998 Democratic gubernatorial nominee.

“You go to Plattsburgh, you’re talking to people with French Canadian accents, for god’s sake. You go to Buffalo, you’re talking to people from Michigan,” he said, reflecting on his own experience. “They have altogether different problems.”

Nonetheless, Vallone said he is confident that by spending millions of dollars to buy advertisements to introduce himself to the voters, Bloomberg could pull off a win. His record as an effective champion of the city, however, could pose problems. Over the past six years, he has fought successfully for more money from the state budget, both for mass transit and public schools. With suburban and rural New Yorkers already convinced the state bends too far in support of the city, they may not look kindly on a man with such a clear commitment to the urban agenda. Bloomberg would almost certainly run strong in the city, but if voters outside the five boroughs see him as running for governor simply to deliver for the city, they probably will not be disposed to pull the lever for him on any ballot line.

Vallone said he felt the skepticism toward him as a city official when he ran.

“You start off with major distrust,” he said.

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inning would bring its own problems. For starters, a Governor Bloomberg would have to spend his days in Albany, 160 miles away from all his favorite restaurants and all his favorite social events, a “fate worse than death” which then-Mayor Ed Koch (D) famously lamented at the outset of his 1982 gubernatorial campaign.

Comments like that were evidence that he did not really want to be in that race, Koch now says.

“I did it out of hubris and people who engage in elections out of hubris deserve to lose,” he said.

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Republicans accepting Michael Bloomberg back into the fold as their gubernatorial candidate in 2010 would be a different direction than the activists demanded in 2006, when the more conservative John Faso won the nomination.

CITY HALL But Koch believes Bloomberg’s moving from City Hall to the Capitol could be a more logical transition, and one which he believes the mayor should consider.

Though the distance between Albany and New York City might also be a turn-off for Bloomberg, Koch said the billionaire mayor’s personal fortune might take care of that problem too.

“With his planes, he could go back and forth, so there’s no problem there,” he said. “You spend part of the week in Albany and come home. Nothing wrong with that.”

Private plane or not, being governor still means a lot of days in Albany and traveling elsewhere around the state. For a man who values the flexibility of his schedule, this could pose another problem, and another reason why the governor speculation still has a hollow ring to so many.

The days he does spend in Albany could be unpleasant themselves.

Bloomberg has had a troubled record with state government. Though he has won greater shares of state budgets and got control of the city public school system, two signature projects—the West Side Stadium and congestion pricing— have died at the hands of the Legislature.

Though legislators generally find him impressive, given his public comments and limited private wooing of them, many of them have the distinct feeling that the mayor actively disdains them and the Albany dysfunction he sees them as perpetuating. Attacking the status quo in Albany during a gubernatorial campaign, which many expect would have to be a central Bloomberg-for-Governor theme, would not likely help matters.

His experience working with the City Council, which he has sometimes seemed to think of as a rubberstamp for his agenda may have spoiled him, according to State Sen. José Serrano (DManhattan/Bronx), who served three years on the Council during Bloomberg’s first term before voters sent him to Albany in 2004.

The State Legislature has much more institutional power over what gets done, contains two chambers with different agendas, and includes more than four times as many legislators as the New York City Council with a much wider array of political perspectives.

“The Council,” Serrano said, “is a much more manageable group.”

Serrano, who counts himself as a Paterson supporter, warned that Bloomberg might be exasperated by the differences between getting bills passed in Albany compared to getting them passed at City Hall.

“To be governor, you have to have a real ability to form coalitions and get people on board,” Serrano said. “For the executive, it is a major difference. You really cannot compare the legislative experience that you have in the City Council to the legislative experience that you have in Albany.”

Simply railing against dysfunction does not work, according to Serrano.

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Though More Conservative and Registered Republican, Rudy Remains Second Choice ight behind Michael Bloomberg (Ind.) in the 2010 governor’s poll is his predecessor at City Hall, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R).

Giuliani had once been a pariah within the local Republican Party, with his 1994 endorsement of Mario Cuomo over George Pataki to his left-leaning views on abortion and other social issues building an antipathy to him outside of New York City that continued to plague him even into his presidential campaign.

But all his tussles with Republican leaders came before the Sept. 11 attacks, which made him a national hero, and before the burgeoning presidential ambitions, which led him to slowly tilt more conservatively than previously. By last summer, he had gotten nearly every Republican official in the state to endorse his presidential campaign.

So almost as soon as the Florida primary results sealed the deal on his White House ambitions, the talk of him running for governor began.

The idea makes some sense, said Republican political consultant Tom Doherty.

“He has been a controversial figure,” he said, but “he obviously remains popular within Republican ranks.”

But even though Giuliani is seen as more conservative than Bloomberg and his Republican Party credentials stronger, Doherty predicted that the Republican leadership would be more likely to pick Bloomberg over Giuliani given the choice.

“He has the assets to do it on his own, the assets to help people down ballot,” Doherty explained.

But others remain as skeptical about a Giuliani run for governor as they are about a Bloomberg run.

“With Rudy’s stature, you don’t go from running for president to governor,” said one GOP consultant, adding that the chances would drop to almost zero if Arizona Sen. John McCain is elected president, since there will be big money in marketing the connections Giuliani Partners would have in a McCain administration.

“I think he’s looking to stay relevant in New York politics,” the consultant said, noting that his presidential campaign remains in the red. “It’s important that he stay relevant also because he needs to pay off his debt.”

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“A governor has to understand that that’s how things are in Albany right now,” Serrano said. “The way you get around that is by trying to create a coalition of the willing.”

To some, doubts about Bloomberg’s ability to build those alliances with legislators raises a grim prospect about life under a possible Governor Bloomberg: Eliot Spitzer.

Also a strong-willed politician on a mission to remake government, Spitzer lit up hopes and dreams across the state with a well-funded gubernatorial campaign. But long before the prostitution scandal, which brought him down, his combative stance toward the Legislature led to the near-total collapse of his agenda.

Though those who know Bloomberg well say there are more than enough proven differences in personality and background between the mayor and the former governor to be relatively certain that Bloomberg would not suffer Spitzer’s fate. Nonetheless, watching Spitzer’s crash-and-burn may make him

And Giuliani has been taking an interest in state politics. At the New York Republican State Committee dinner in late May, he spent half of his remarks talking up McCain’s presidential candidacy and the rest in a hardhitting exaltation of the state GOP. “Albany is dysfunctional. Without a Republican majority in the State Senate, I don’t know what to call it,” he told the crowd. “We need a Republican majority in the State Senate as a check-and-balance against the ideas that the governor and the Democrats have for dealing with our state—ideas that include ever-increasing taxes, everincreasing spending, and making this state an anti-competitive place for businesses to grow jobs. Democrats don’t understand how the economy of this state works.”

That seems to have hit the right note with State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer), who said that he would be happy to see either Giuliani or Bloomberg run.

“We’re fortunate that people of that caliber consider running for governor and being in public service,” he said.

Asked to pick a favorite, Bruno deferred.

“I’m not going to speculate on a contest that doesn’t exist,” he said.

—EIRD eidovere@cityhallnews.com

think twice about treading into Albany waters—especially when he thinks seriously about who else will be in the pool.

Bloomberg has had enough trouble winning over Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan). If nothing else, the idea of the mayor having to bargain with Silver every day for every agreement is perhaps the strongest reason why most expect he will not run for governor. The prospect of a possible Bloombergbacked Silver coup succeeding is far too low to change that dynamic.

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loomberg’s path to being governor is far from clear. But if he wants to continue in public life, a run may be the only way. Though nearly every one of them has tried, New York City mayors have famously stumbled in their attempts to move on to something else in politics, and the only ones who did, DeWitt Clinton and John Hoffman, both got elected governor. Both had had some major successes in Albany—Clinton built the Erie Canal and

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Hoffman oversaw a period of partisan cooperation unusual for the time. Both were talked about briefly for other things.

Then again, Clinton died in office and Hoffman’s career ended in suspicion over a corruption scandal linked to Tammany Hall.

Though no one expects Bloomberg to suffer either of these fates, few really expect him to run for governor he really wants to or ultimately will at all. The rumors, many who watch him closely expect are serving a simple purpose, and will be circulated so long as they keep Bloomberg from being thought of as a lame duck.

Sheekey, the man believed to be the one fostering the rumors, called the current chatter “natural speculation.”

Asked whether he meant natural because people have an interest in seeing the mayor continue in politics or because of Bloomberg’s proven ability to fan the flames effectively, Sheekey kept his answer short: “Equal parts.” eidovere@cityhallnews.com

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Another Victim of the Dewey Curse Will a New Yorker ever get into the White House again?

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS AMERICANS PICKED A NEW Yorker for president, they did not have much of a choice: In 1944, there were not one, but two Empire State politicians at the top of their ticket. The state, apparently, had reached too far. Franklin Roosevelt won that race, but died not long after. His opponent, Thomas Dewey, ran again in 1948, but despite all the indications in his favor and the pre-printed headlines declaring his victory, Dewey somehow managed not to defeat Harry Truman. There has not been a successful New Yorker presidential candidate since. Boston had the Curse of the Bambino. Ambitious New York politicians, it seems, have the curse of Tom Dewey.

And while there are two new World Series rings at Fenway, there are now three more presidential candidates who did not make it in New York.

They are far from alone.

New York is tied with Ohio for producing more presidents than any other state. But aside from the two Roosevelts, the long and illustrious list of New York politicians who have sought the presidency over the years does not contain many winners. And aside from the Roosevelts, the winners have been mostly forgettable: Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Chester Arthur and Grover Cleveland.

And since Dewey, though there have been no shortage of New Yorkers who have tried for president or vice president, there has not been a single winner. But there have been some pretty notable losers.

Perhaps this is the legacy of Al Smith, the quintessential New Yorker who enjoyed four terms as governor, lost his 1928 campaign for president against Herbert Hoover. Campaigning as a proud New Yorker—also as the first Catholic nominated by a major party—Smith’s New York accent on the radio struck many Americans as foreign-sounding. His campaign theme song, The Sidewalks of New York, did not have quite the nationwide appeal he might have hoped.

There was Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, more New Englander than New Yorker (though he spent the better part of his childhood in the Bronx with his family), who seemed set to win the 1968 Democratic nomination before being assassinated the night he won the California primary.

Nelson Rockefeller, a popular former governor, failed to sew up enough support for a presidential bid in 1960, 1964 and 1968.

Rockefeller did finally go national in 1975, when a newly elevated Gerald Ford picked him as his new vice president. But three years later, Rockefeller was dropped from the re-election ticket.

New York Mayor John Lindsay performed well in

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some of the early caucuses in 1972, but was undone by the city’s failing economic fortune, if not also by the band of protesters from Forest Hills, Queens, who followed the candidate around the country, heckling him.

Two New Yorkers have run for vice president since, and both failed: Queens Rep. Geraldine Ferraro was picked by Democratic candidate Walter Mondale in 1984, and former Buffalo Rep. Jack Kemp was picked by Republican Bob Dole in 1996.

Gov. Mario Cuomo (D) famously came so close to running in 1992 that he had a plane parked on the Albany tarmac, waiting to bring him to New Hampshire to file papers for the primary. In the end, he blamed a need to haggle over the state budget for his decision not to run.

This year, there was less indecision, but just as much disappointment. Giuliani’s Florida-or-nothing gambit proved fatal. Bloomberg’s prospective independent bid was over-shadowed by the trans-partisan appeals of John McCain and Barack Obama.

Clinton came closest than any New Yorker in recent history, but not close enough. With the collapse of her campaign and those of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) and Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind.)—unless Clinton takes another run—there does not seem to be any potential presidential candidate among the ranks of New York politicians for years to come.

At her final campaign night appearance June 3, the realization seemed to elude the several hundred supporters and donors who filed into the Baruch College gymnasium. Bearing signs and defiant smiles, they greeted the senator as if she had arrived on stage with her packed suitcases to move back into the White House.

In her speech, she praised New York as one of the greatest states in the country. But the biggest cheer of the night went to the last state to give her a primary victory: South Dakota.

But New Yorkers can still have some presidential pride, at least comparatively. Despite that cheer and being home to Mount Rushmore, South Dakota has yet to produce any president. And its only major party nominee, George McGovern, lost in one of history’s biggest presidential landslides to Richard Nixon, who had by then abandoned his home state of California and was living in New York. ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

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OCT. 23, 2007:

Hillary Clinton missed 187 Senate votes during the current Congress while out on the campaign trail. None of the votes went down to the wire, but some were on legislation that she herself introduced. Some of what she skipped:

Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008, as Amended and 13 votes on amendments in the week before; sets appropriations to various unemployment and disability funds and provides support to Iraqis and Afghans who arrive in this country under the Special Immigrant Visa program.

PASSED: 92-0-8 OCT. 30, 2007: Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007 (S 294) and four votes on amendments; gives $11.44 billion in appropriations to Amtrak through 2012.

PASSED: 70-22-8

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Weighing the Odds for Clinton 2012—for Senate To some, larger spotlight made her stronger at home, to others, more vulnerable

BY DAN RIVOLI EN.

HILLARY CLINTON’S QUEST TO BECOME president is over. Her quest for a third term in the Senate, however, may only just be beginning.

When she returns to her regular workday on Capitol Hill, Clinton will hardly be the only senator nursing the wounds of scuttled presidential ambitions. But after two lopsided wins for a Senate seat that was largely seen as a steppingstone to a presidential run, some say she may have her work cut out for her in convincing New Yorkers— in a primary, a general election, or both—to send her back to Washington, if that is what she seeks to do, in 2012.

“Between now and 2012, a case will be made that she should not run for another term,” said labor activist Jonathan Tasini, who lost a primary challenge against Clinton in 2006.

The presidential campaign, Tasini said, exposed her shortcomings—her vote for the Iraq War, lobbyist ties, and her hand in President Bill Clinton’s trade agreements—that critics like Tasini had pointed to for years.

Tasini is confident that these grievances will lead to someone mounting a primary. Tasini even refused to rule himself out for a repeat primary after receiving phone calls asking him to run.

“The base of support for people who want a primary challenge to the incumbent senator in 2012 is much broader and deeper than it was two years ago,” Tasini said. “But there’s still some lack of backbone and willingness to engage in primary challenges.”

Senate primary challenges are rare but possible. In 2002, New Hampshire’s GOP was concerned that incumbent Republican Sen. Bob Smith was vulnerable in the

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But Clinton remains deeply popular in the state. Not only did she win 57 percent in this year’s presidential primary, but she took a whopping 84 percent in the 2006 primary against Tasini, without ever paying him much attention. Democratic party leaders and average voters, who cleared the way for her first run in 2000, show few signs of dissatisfaction with her being in the Senate.

And for the general elections, she went from a large 55-43 win in 2000 to a massive 67-31 win in 2006.

“Between now and 2012, a case will be made that she should not run for another term,” said Clinton’s 2006 primary opponent, Jonathan Tasini. general election. Smith, however, had never been wildly popular, and in frustration following an aborted run for the 2000 Republican nomination, had briefly left the Republican Party.

That helped propel John Sununu, a popular congressman, into the primary. He won the nomination and the general election.

NOV. 8, 2007: Confirmation of Michael B. Mukasey, former Chief Judge of U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, as the 81st United States Attorney General.

Clinton issued a statement charging Mukasey of not clearly stating his views on torture and unchecked Executive power.

PASSED: 52-40-7 DEC. 14, 2007: Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007 as Amended (H R 2419) and 10 votes on amend-

John Spencer, the former Yonkers mayor who was the Republican nominee against Clinton in 2006, sees Clinton’s presidential campaign as an opening for a formidable candidate. In 2006, Spencer hammered the theme that Clinton was more interested in being president than a senator for New York.

However, to exploit that point, the state GOP needs a

ments to the Act. Clinton has said the bill provides “a safety net for America’s farmers.”

PASSED: 79-14-7 JAN. 22, 2008: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, as Amended (HR 4986). Clinton proposed three amendments to the bill covering various financial compensation and benefits to service members and their families.

PASSED: 91-3-6; LAW JAN. 28.

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FEB. 12, 2008: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 (S 2248) and 8 related votes She opposed the provision that granted retroactive immunity to companies that participated in the administration’s warrantless wiretapping.

FAILED: 41-57-2 FEB. 26, 2008: Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2007 (S 1200). “Native Americans face a devastating health care crisis in

dramatic makeover, Spencer said.

“If they want to act as they have been doing the past decade, act as Democrat-light, then they won’t beat her,” Spencer said. “She’ll have a difficult time if the Republicans coalesce and make a real Republican agenda.”

Spencer blamed his and gubernatorial candidate John Faso’s crushing 2006 defeats on the State GOP’s weak leadership, which resulted in a base fractured by primary challenges.

That also would have to change, if Republicans hope to give Clinton a real fight, Spencer said.

However, Rep. Peter King (R-Nassau/Suffolk) thinks that Republicans will not be able to topple Clinton. The marathon presidential campaign and strong showing in her state’s primary is a good indication that Clinton will be safe in 2012.

“It may go against the grain, but it’s made her stronger,” King said. “She’s a person of real substance. People will take her more seriously now than they did before.”

Many factors could effect Clinton’s chances over the next four years, King said. A strong showing in New York in the presidential election by Arizona Sen. John McCain could generate the base for future Republican candidates, including some for Senate.

King, who has himself expressed interest in running for governor, said that this might ultimately include him.

“I’m not thinking about it now,” King said. “But I’m not ruling it out.”

An early New York Obama supporter, State Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan) predicted Clinton could cruise to re-election, despite some who feel a rift between Clinton and New York’s black community after the racially-charged South Carolina primary and her comments regarding her base of white Democrats.

She will have to rebuild some bridges, Perkins said.

“There were feelings created by virtue of how the campaign expressed itself, things she has said,” Perkins said. “She has to recognize some of the comments that were made by her and her husband.”

Perkins does not, however, believe that there will be much of a challenge by a black candidate for Clinton in 2012.

But the larger question, Perkins said, is whether Clinton wants to stay in the Senate now that her main goal is out of reach.

“Maybe,” Perkins said, “this was the prize and it eluded her and she doesn’t want to continue in that capacity.” drivoli@manhattanmedia.com

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our country today,” Clinton said in a statement issued by her office.

PASSED 83-10-7 APR. 10, 2008: Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (S 2739) and four votes on amendments; creates new wilderness trails and museums and a seat in the House of Representatives for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Conservation Tax Act of 2007 as Amended (HR 3221) and three votes on amendments.

Clinton issued a statement, saying the bill “should represent the floor, not the ceiling, of what Congress needs to do to address the crisis.”

PASSED: 84-12-4 MAY 8, 2008:

APR. 10, 2008:

An Amendment to a bill to amend a National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (S 2284) that would prevent a change in flood insurance status for areas undergoing remapping.

Renewable Energy and Energy

PASSED: 68-24-8

PASSED: 91-4-5; LAW MAY 8.

BECAME

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Start Again from Ground Zero tallon@manhattanmedia.com

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ichael Bloomberg has proven adept at a lot of things as mayor, but getting his legacy projects approved has not been one of them.

Sometimes that has been for the best.

Sometimes not. Though his administration has unquestionably been a revolution in the performance of city government, his grand vision has produced remarkably few, if any, grand results. Shepherding the city from its darkest moment to some of the best times in its history, keeping the crime rate low and the economic development rate high, and instilling a renewed faith in New York within the five boroughs and beyond—this by no means small record of accomplishment is what has defined Bloomberg’s term in office. But unless the new Yankees and Mets stadiums count, there are no real signature projects that the mayor can lay claim to as his administration enters its final phase.

With the collapse of the Tishman Speyer deal for the far West Side and the natural skepticism about whether the replacement Related-Goldman Sachs deal will actually materialize, the mayor may want to look elsewhere to ensure he finally gets the stamp on the city skyline that he so clearly wants. But he will not have to look far: the natural answer is staring him right in the face, almost literally. The man who came into office when Ground Zero was still in ashes should commit himself to the site being more than a cement pit before he leaves.

The mayor’s hands are tied more than they should be, due to the regrettable

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ANDREW SCHWARTZ

www.cityhallnews.com President/CEO: Tom Allon

Michael Bloomberg has helped Lower Manhattan. Ground Zero should be next. amount of power he turned over to the state in his quest for the West Side Stadium. He may not be able to technically exert more control over the site, but he can become a more forceful advocate for its development. He has at his command one of the world’s best bully pulpits to use in service of the world’s bestknown—and probably slowest-moving— construction site. And after the West Side Stadium and congestion pricing failures, he may have learned the lessons of the kind of behind-the-scenes diplomacy that would also be needed.

Even through something as basic as a weekly press conference pointing out what is getting done and what more needs to get done.

And that could just be the beginning.

ODDS&Ends

This is a man who helped spark more interest in environmental responsibility around the world than nearly anyone else. That is the same sort of focus he should now turn to the 16 acres just blocks from City Hall.

Done right, a new World Trade Center site would create new offices, expand the city’s green space, be a cultural center, and provide an enormous boost to the collective Big Apple psyche. Ground Zero could and should be a nexus for many of Bloomberg’s larger goals, and at the same time provide him with the kind of major brick-and-mortar accomplishment that has eluded him elsewhere in the city.

Clearly, if there is going to be actual progress at Ground Zero, New Yorkers need an advocate. Michael Bloomberg can and should be that advocate.

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Old Vegas bookmakers have been trumped by new technology, and dozens of websites exist to bet on the outcome of all sorts of things, including who will be picked to run for vice president. Intrade lets people buy shares in the candidates’ futures. Ladbrokes gives odds to bet against. Here are this month’s standings.

***2008 VICE PRESIDENTIAL ODDS*** REPUBLICAN 2008 VP NOMINEE Tim Pawlenty Mitt Romney Mike Huckabee Kay Bailey Hutchison Rudy Giuliani Lindsey Graham Condolezza Rice

LAST MONTH

CURRENTLY

LAST MONTH

CURRENTLY

PRICE ON INTRADE

PRICE ON INTRADE

ODDS ON LADBROKES

ODDS ON LADBROKES

6 to 1 4 to 1 N/A N/A N/A 8 to 1 10 to 1

6 5 10 20 25 14 14

15.7 18.9 N/A N/A N/A 3.8 8.1

15.8 20.5 13.1 4 2.7 1.9 2.2

to to to to to to to

1 1 1 1 1 1 1

LAST MONTH

CURRENTLY

LAST MONTH

CURRENTLY

DEMOCRATIC 2008 VP NOMINEE

PRICE ON INTRADE

PRICE ON INTRADE

ODDS ON LADBROKES

ODDS ON LADBROKES

Hillary Clinton Jim Webb Bill Richardson John Edwards Ted Strickland Wesley Clark Al Gore

18.8 12.9 10 9 1.6 N/A 9.8

4 10 4 16

7 6 10 10 10 14 12

22.1 18.1 8 3.1 4.6 4.1 5.2

to to to to N/A N/A 16 to

1 1 1 1 1

to to to to to to to

2 1 1 1 1 1 1

**DATA As of June 9, 2008

CITY HALL

www.cityhallnews.com

J U N E 2008

25

OP-ED

Protecting Prime Victims in Sub-Prime Crisis

BY COUNCIL MEMBER PETER VALLONE JR. he sub-prime mortgage crisis has left many homes empty and has given the economy a bad limp. The debacle has awoken America to the potential for various scams and complications in the mortgage process, illustrating the consequences when greed trumps sound economic policy and oversight.

But this crisis has drawn attention primarily to problems associated with shady lenders or shortsighted borrowers. A great number of foreclosures have resulted from outright fraud. Scam artists have taken out thousands of mortgages on random properties, pocketed the money, and left the actual homeowner stuck with an enormous tab.

The Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reported that mortgage fraud complaints

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increased almost 400 percent from 2003 to 2006. The FBI has also seen its mortgage fraud casework increase over 235 percent and estimates financial losses to the mortgage industry for 2006 between $946 million and $4.2 billion As with many scam artists, these vultures have a favorite target—the elderly. Senior citizens make perfect marks for these cons: They own their own homes; they often are not closely involved in their own finances; and sadly some have dementia or other mental health problems.

It is particularly upsetting because the seniors most vulnerable to this sort of abuse are the most likely to be unable to deal with the financial consequences.

Housing prices are skyrocketing, as we all well know.

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fraud cases, especially against the elderly.

To help eliminate these complications, I have introduced a package of resolutions calling on Albany to make it easier to put scam artists in their own government-financed homes in jail.

First, and perhaps most important, we need to change the larceny statute to include when thieves exert undue influence on the elderly people with mental incapacities. Many times, con artists trick seniors into legally signing over their property to another party. If a senior does not have the mental ability to testify to the contrary, it can be very difficult to prove the property was stolen and not a legitimate gift. Currently, lawyers are forced to argue using complicated case law to prove this point. My resolution would call on the state to codify this theory of larceny to better protect our seniors who suffer from mental infirmities.

Second, we need to make it easier for prosecutors to introduce evidence by eliminating several complications particular to the elderly. State law currently does not allow advanced age as a ground for conditional testimony of a witness, meaning seniors must be examined only at the time when their case is heard. As these cases can drag on for years, sometimes elderly witnesses fall ill or pass away before their case reaches a courtroom.

Also, current state law requires prosecutors to call a live witness in order to introduce certain business records and documents necessary in a fraud case, making the prosecution more difficult and time consuming. Budget cuts to district attorneys’ offices are making it even more difficult to prosecute these complicated cases. Fraud cases have increased immensely, while the assistants needed to prosecute them have been in short supply. We must allow our prosecutors to do more with less, and give them the ability to introduce certified business records without a representative from the bank.

While politicians debate the ways to confront the larger mortgage crisis, there are simple steps we can take to prevent our seniors and others from becoming victims. I have introduced resolutions in the City Council that will call for quick action by Albany to close these legal oversights.

Our laws are powerless without the tools to enforce them, which can leave the vulnerable—in this case the elderly— at risk of exploitation. Our homes and our seniors are two of our most precious possessions. Let’s protect them both.

Malcolm Smith, a Democrat representing Queens, is the leader of the New York State Senate Democratic Conference.

Peter Vallone is a Democrat representing parts of Queens in the City Council.

I have fielded phone calls from distraught seniors and their family members, faced with a bank breathing down their neck and no place to go.

There are simple steps we can take to prevent our seniors and others from becoming victims of the larger mortgage crisis.

Their stories, and countless like them, make me furious. As a former prosecutor, I want to throw the full force of the law at these dirty rotten scoundrels. In my research, however, I discovered that legal complications and budget cuts have hindered the prosecution of many mortgage

How We Can Minimize Excessive Police Force

BY STATE SEN. MALCOLM SMITH n the aftermath of the 2006 shooting death of an unarmed Queens youth, Sean Bell, and his two friends who were seriously injured in a hail of 50 police bullets, a group of elected officials formed the New York State Tri-Level Legislative Task Force and set out to find answers as to why incidents of excessive force at the hands of police continue to occur.

Facing public outcry and anger immediately following the shooting, we sought to gauge public input while examining the root causes of excessive police force and presented our findings in a comprehensive report, Improving Public Confidence in Law Enforcement and Our Criminal Justice System. After more than a year of speaking with advocates for change, victims of excessive force, and elected officials at the city, state and federal levels of government, we found that a necessary trust between police and the public has waned.

Without a plan of action, this public distrust of police will only make their jobs more difficult, and public safety will continue to be threatened. The report

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spearheaded by the state Tri-Level Legislative Task Force will work to restore the public’s faith in police and help them better perform their duties.

We live in a dynamic state. Somewhere along the way, we grew into a hub of multiculturalism. As our communities grew more diverse and compact, the rift between our communities and police widened. Unfamiliar and out of step, these communities lost trust in police as police in turn acted on the crimes and violence committed by a few and mistook them in some instances for the norm. This condition goes both ways.

Since the police shootings of other unarmed civilians such as Eleanor Bumpers in 1984, immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999 and most recently Sean Bell, action has typically not gone farther than an internal review. The time has come to push for new policies and procedures that assure every measure is taken to minimize the recurrence of excessive force by police.

We spent a year examining and assessing New York City Police Department procedures. We listened to police, victims and those who have led past action against excessive force. The state TriLevel Legislative Task Force took these testimonies and recommendations to formulate a grassroots community strategy to change our system of policing and criminal justice.

These community discussions led to a number of initiatives to improve police accountability, oversight and education to ensure these shootings will end. Put simply, we want to assure that police officers can perform their duties to the fullest and find ways to reduce hostilities between them and the communities they protect.

We are asking that police officers who

have discharged their weapons in the course of duty to not only be tested for alcohol, but drugs as well. Interrogations should be recorded, both in audio and video to help prove or deny abuse claims against police. We must provide financial and technical assistance to municipalities to bolster diversity in police hiring practices and sensitivity training for officers in the field. Additional Task Force proposals include oversight and investigation into such shootings under the auspices of the state attorney general and state police.

The report recommends that the state attorney general investigate and prosecute alleged criminal offenses committed by police, and for state police to take jurisdiction over any crime scene where allegations of police abuses or neglect are suspected.

These legislative and administrative recommendations are key to mending the public’s distrust of police and in turn will foster in an age of responsible, safe, reliable and effective policing by our men and women in uniform. A total of seven of 15 recommendations, have been deemed a high priority to begin repairing police practices and procedures and rebuild trust between police and those they serve.

Failing to learn from the lessons of Bumpers, Diallo and Bell, will only perpetuate a lack of trust between police and civilians. Without these additional oversights and educational measures, we are sending our police out to protect and serve a public that fears and suspects them, which only exacerbates the cycle.

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JUN E 2008

More LGBT Candidates Than Ever Set to Run in 2009 and Several Against Each Other Community enters new, post-identity politics phase in campaigning

BY RACHEL BREITMAN STATE SEN. THOMAS DUANE (DManhattan) first ran for City Council in 1991, his candid statement made via “Dear Neighbor” letter that he was gay and HIV-positive did not, as some expected, mark the demise of his campaign.

Instead, he won the seat, representing the West Village, Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen. That took a whole new approach to campaigning, he said, requiring him to draw people into the political process who had not been much involved before.

“Seventeen years ago an LGBT candidate had a lot more to prove,” said Duane. “We really had to invent the wheel in terms of fundraising.”

While there had been openly gay candidates for the Council in the 1970s and 1980s, Duane’s win built a legacy for gay and lesbian candidates in his district, now represented by Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D).

That district was, in part, drawn for LGBT candidates. Others, like the neighboring district encompassing the Lower East Side, Gramercy Park, East Village, Kips Bay and parts of Murray Hill, were not. But that did not stop the district from electing openly gay Council Members Antonio Pagan, Margarita López and Rosie Mendez (D-Manhattan).

“The gay districts obviously had taken effect,” recalled Marty Algaze, president of Stonewall Democratic Club from 1989 to1992. “But the city has changed. Now, gay candidates get elected in places that aren’t necessarily gay enclaves.”

Even with lingering discrimination, LGBT candidates have been willing to run for more conservative outer borough seats.

In Queens’ 30th District’s special election June 3, openly gay financial executive and community activist Charles Ober came in fourth. Though he did not carry the support of Queens County, his chances were also likely hurt by the typed letter neighborhood residents received opposing Ober with anti-gay epithets.

Sunnyside occupant James Van Bramer, weighing a run for Eric Gioia’s (D-Queens) term-limited seat, was a victim of a similar flyer when he ran in 2001 in the neighboring Council district.

“I knew I should expect it, but I found it appalling and shocking,” said Van Bramer, 38, now director of government affairs for the Queens Borough Public Library and a Community Board 2 and Democratic State Committee member.

But discrimination need not prove a death knell for gay candidates, even those who might try to run as Republicans.

“The members of the gay community and those running for LGBT rights still do experience prejudice,” said Gregory Wright, spokesperson for the New York Log Cabin Republicans. “But, we are getting to a point where things are getting better in New York City and across the country.”

There are not currently any openly gay candidates expected to run as Republicans in next year’s city elections.

Lynn Schulman, an openly gay attorney, public relations

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HEN

“With Christine Quinn’s term limit, I don’t want to be the only out person in the City Council,” said Council Member Rosie Mendez, with Daniel Dromm, whom she has endorsed. executive, and former Council staffer from Forest Hills is also giving a Council race a second try. Schulman, 50, says the progress made by previous LGBT candidates motivated her to consider vying for the seat currently held by term-limited Council Member Melinda Katz (D-Queens).

“After Christine Quinn’s role as speaker, people have open minds and want a candidate to represent them,” Schulman said.

With several 2009 Council races likely to include multiple openly gay candidates vying against each other in primaries, politicians could face tough battles for endorsements within the LGBT community.

“Being gay or lesbian is a strength, because it gives you a perspective that allows you to empathize with people who are different,” said expected 2009 Council candidate Brad Hoylman.

“I get two to three phone calls a week from Council candidates,” said Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda.

But, he explained, simply being gay or lesbian does not guarantee his organization’s support.

“We endorse candidates who can move our agenda forward, whether they are gay or straight,” he said.

Council Member Mendez has already endorsed

Schulman and Daniel Dromm, a public school teacher running to replace Council Member Helen Sears (D-Queens).

“The only thing that is missing,” said Mendez, “is to have some out representatives of Queens. With Christine Quinn’s term limit, I don’t want to be the only out person in the City Council.”

But though Quinn may be term-limited next year, there are at least three openly gay candidates expressing interest. This is sure to cause a heated race with much jockeying for support within the LGBT community.

Though Duane endorsed Schulman in Queens and Bob Zuckerman, an openly gay non-profit executive, for the seat currently held by Bill de Blasio, the senator has withheld backing anyone for his former seat until later in the campaign.

Andrew Berman, 39, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and a former staffer in Duane’s Council and Senate offices, is considering running for that spot, as is Brad Hoylman, a lawyer, chair of Community Board 2, and former president of Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats.

Hoylman believes his history of activism within the LGBT community will only help his chances.

“Being gay or lesbian is a strength, because it gives you a perspective that allows you to empathize with people who are different,” said Hoylman, 42, who previously ran for the seat currently held by Alan Gerson (DManhattan).

Yetta Kurland, a civil rights lawyer who earned media attention by representing Emergency Medical Service workers against discriminatory promotional practices, victims of wrongful arrest during the 2004 Republican National Convention, and a lesbian victim of a hate crime assault who was a former contestant on Top Chef, has already declared her candidacy for Quinn’s seat.

“The more people who run, the higher we raise the bar,” said Kurland, 40, who welcomes competition from gay candidates.

Other contests have created more contentious rivalries within the gay community.

Dromm, a Democratic District Leader and the founder of both Queens’ Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade and the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens, faced criticism from Ober when the club endorsed his straight opponent Elizabeth Crowley. Dromm, 52, questioned whether the hate mail directed at Ober was forged.

Dromm is also facing competition in his own race from Alfonso Quiroz, a spokesperson for Con Edison and a board member of Stonewall Democrats.

“I am a fighter and I view his candidacy as an annoyance,” said Dromm, who has lived in Jackson Heights for 14 years, of his potential opponent, a district resident for three years. “I don’t think any gay people in the neighborhood even know who he is.”

But Quiroz, 35, said that one need not be well connected within the gay community to make a successful bid for Council.

“I don’t think that the race will be won or lost on gay issues,” said Quiroz, who is also considering joining the District Leader race. “LGBT issues are the same as anyone else’s: clean, safe streets, access to mass transportation, and a strong education system.” rachellbreitman@yahoo.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

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JUN E 2008

A Day at the New York City Green Party Convention Activists gather at Hunter College to debate their future, largely ignoring Nader

BY SAL GENTILE INETEEN-YEAR-OLD

MICHAEL Acosta is not exactly sure why voters his age do not flock to the Green Party. He was a Democrat himself, but now organizes the campus Greens at Lehman College. He switched just a few months ago, but none of his friends followed suit. That did not surprise him.

“The whole reason you call it a grassroots movement is because it’s down in deep,” he says. “Nobody sees it, nobody notices it.”

The New York Green Party has many identities: radicals who like to rehash the ferment of the 60s, fringe intellectuals who rattle off histories of English imperialism since the Spanish Armada, disgruntled progressives who like Ralph Nader.

They do not always coalesce.

But they did come together May 31 at Hunter College for the New York Green Party convention. The factions were often at cross-purposes. Some see the party as a political entity, one that requires ballot access, savvy candidates and a jolt of professionalism to thrive.

Others are committed to romantic notions of sweeping change and an image of the Green Party as a movement, one that marches, organizes and petitions before mounting national campaigns.

The fissures can bubble over into chaos.

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DANIEL S. BURNSTEIN PHOTOS

Anarchists for Obama

At the New York Green Party convention at Hunter College May 31, participants chose delegates to the national convention (top) and held seminars, like the one led by Susan Cushman (below), chair of the Peace Task Force at All Souls Church, about recharging the anti-war movement.

ories about the government’s role in the assassination of Martin Luther King and ruminate on the legacy of Karl Marx.

The question at hand: how to build the Green Party in New York. As O’Neil talks about balancing “online agility” with “street-level dedication” for a sleeker, more efficient Green Party, the first faultline underlying the group’s identity erupts.

Ed Hush is a Green from Queens and self-styled hisSome want to recapture the torian of fringe politics spark of the 1960s. That, or (after the panel, he trails toss around theories about off into an extensive histoof the Green Party in the government’s role in ry Berlin). He thinks the party the assassination of Martin must first become a grassLuther King and ruminate roots movement, and that ballot access—a on the legacy of Karl Marx. losing notorious obstacle for third parties—might be healthy.

“In New York, it seems like we’re on He gets one, loud and clear.

Most of the people in the room seem reset, and that’s a good thing,” he says. to run in the same circles, many of a “Greens need to propose a platform that’s demographic not a prime target in today’s solid and substantive, that puts us on the politics. They are here because they lived next level.”

There is a cascade of grumbling and through, and were exhilarated by, the political convulsions of the 60s, and hope head shaking both during and after his rant. the Green Party, little more than a decade At least some seem uncomfortably aware old in America, will offer a way to recap- of this more radical wing in their party.

But to Hush and others like him, a ture that spark.

That, or they want to toss around the- forecast tidal wave of Democratic At a crisp 9:45 a.m., a few dozen Greens trickle in to hear Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping—a “gospel choir” of activists who croon an anti-consumerist message—give the convocation. But the Reverend does not show up. Instead, Mike O’Neil, one of the younger panelists and a relative newcomer to the New York Greens, asks the crowd for a “change-allujah.”

momentum this year threatens to subsume Green Party politics, unless it appeals to its natural constituencies and builds a movement from the ground up.

“A lot of people call themselves Green but vote Democratic,” Hush says. “I meet anarchists who want to talk about Hillary and Obama.”

Bird lovers, Ralph Nader and the fall of capitalism Later in the day, the group scatters into breakout sessions on a variety of progressive causes. The most popular one focuses on the Green Party’s signature issue: climate change.

When the floor opens for discussion, participants flood the panel with a litany of complaints and myriad suggestions of varying feasibility. One man complains about buildings leaving lights on all night, a seemingly superfluous waste of resources. He is outraged.

That is, until someone else in the crowd explains that the buildings keep their lights on at the request of the Audubon Society, to keep birds from crashing into them at night.

The man pauses and looks around.

“All right, so there’s a complication I’m not aware of,” he says.

The group then gets sidetracked into a strategy session on how to stop capitalist growth.

An older woman in the audience tries to steer the discussion back toward conservation, but cannot help letting her predilection for radical politics slip.

“I’m very happy to hear people talking about the fall of capitalism,” she says.

That night, after the end of the daylong Green rumination on the demise of the “fatally wounded capitalist monster,” Ralph Nader, who split with the party after catapulting it onto the national stage, held a rally downtown for his independent presidential bid.

Few at the convention seem interested, except to express their fear that outof-the-loop Greens might pick him as their candidate again at their national convention over the summer.

The party at this convention is clearly different from the one Nader branded in 2000. The preferred candidate of the New York Greens, former Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney, herself once a Democrat, is a champion of, among other things, the 9/11 truth movement. In lionizing “Cynthia,” as she is known to supporters, the Greens—bird lovers and anarchists alike—hope to change perceptions about the identity of their party, whatever those perceptions may be.

“People have to learn that peace is not a bad word,” concludes one older Green named Fred, discussing the need for new leadership. “It’s not just a bunch of hippies trying to ruin people’s afternoons.” sgentile@cityhallnews.com

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J U N E 2008

29

Grassroots Initiative Seeks to Mow Down Establishment Politics Aiming to change landscape of the city and political consulting, firm takes root

BY JOHN R.D. CELOCK ACH YEAR IN NEW YORK, POLITical neophytes attempt to run for dozens of offices. Often, they fall through the cracks of the state’s complicated ballot access laws.

Rushing to the rescue is Grassroots Initiative, a political consulting firm which bills itself as the world’s first nonprofit firm. Founded in 2005, the firm seeks to provide easy political access for underrepresented groups and other political outsiders across the city.

The firm claims success with county committee races in various boroughs and has used its website to recruit candidates for office.

Grassroots was founded by Jeff Merritt, a University of Michigan and Columbia University graduate looking for a way to spread political participation to new groups. He developed the idea for the group after spending time working for State Department-sponsored programs in Eastern Europe to spread democracy.

Encouraging political participation in other countries while seeing a closed-off system at home was upsetting, he said.

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

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“I was surprised about how closed the system was and how hard it was to get into the system,” Merritt said. “I was a lower middle-class kid who had gone to top schools. And if someone like me can’t get into the process, there is something wrong with the process. I wanted to bring that ‘real democracy’ back to the United States.”

Grassroots Initiative differs from the traditional political consulting firm in part because of its non-profit status. Under federal tax laws, the group cannot advocate for the election of any candidate. This prohibition leads the group to function primarily as a clearinghouse for candidates, providing access to information on ballot access, voter lists and election attorneys.

Merritt and his small staff also provide assistance to candidates on strategy and voter outreach. To stay within federal law, the firm’s services are not limited by party and are not necessarily limited to only one candidate per race.

Grassroots has also been providing resources on its website encouraging people how to run for office. While the website lists all the offices open to New Yorkers, Grassroots has been centering its work on recruiting candidates for the county committees. These traditionally sinecure offices allow for a lot of potential for budding politicians, Merritt said.

The process of running for county committee is a small-scale version of a race for higher office laws. Alex Carabelli, Grassroots’ deputy director, said past successful county committee candidates assisted by the group have redefined the

job’s role, turning their positions into mini-Council members. This has included hosting town hall meetings and roundtables on policy issues, and providing assistance to constituents.

Grassroots success stories have included the first Sikhs to win office in the city, for positions on the Queens Democratic Committee. This year’s clients include a group of young professionals seeking Democratic committee seats in Brooklyn.

Bert Mandeville, the executive secretary of the Harlem Republican Club, said her group has been using Grassroots for a year to elect district leaders and committee members. She said in addition to the traditional services offered, Grassroots offered a chance for her and other Republicans to network with Democratic candidates across the city, which she said has laid the groundwork for future coalitions.

“It can be scary and they take the fear away,” she said. “They are people who won’t hurt you and do not have a political agenda, except to get people into the process. It’s quite unique.” johncelock@aol.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

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JUN E 2008

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Framing the Issues in a New Arena Former Council speaker turns to art insurance, leaving politics completely behind

BY DAN RIVOLI N THE ART WORLD, FEW ARE SAFE

from the headaches caused by stolen art, victimizing even people like Steven Spielberg, who bought a previously stolen Norman Rockwell painting last year.

But celebrities have financial resources to soften those blows, when they come. Average art collectors do not.

Stepping forward to help them is former Council Speaker Gifford Miller (DManhattan).

Instead of parlaying his name recognition into a lucrative lobbying or consulting career, Miller followed his love of art.

Last year, he and friend Brian Madden, who met while Miller was speaker, founded Liberty Art Title, a division of Madden’s real estate title agency that insures clients from losing money on fraudulent artwork.

“People are being asked to take significant risks with their collection without guarantees,” said Miller, who serves as the company’s chairman. “They want to

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

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Gifford Miller is now the chair of Liberty Art Title. be sure their investment is protected.”

The FBI estimates that stolen art costs the industry up to $6 billion annually due to reneged sales and other losses. Art collec-

tors are hit especially hard after buying stolen art because, once stolen, pieces tend to carry a taint forever.

Though each title problem his company encounters might not be as dire as buying stolen work, loopholes and minor technicalities often sour sales.

Miller noticed a vacuum in the art world, an unregulated industry with little consumer protection. Miller and Madden looked to be pioneers in this new market.

“Art is an increasingly valuable commodity. People do a lot of crazy things with it,” Miller said. “Every day, people find title problems with works of art they’ve collected.”

Though the Council never delved into art insurance, Miller was a supporter for arts funding and made cultural funding a priority during his time in office. And while he knows his personal budget for art is not as large as that of some of his clients, Miller said, he does have his own small photography collection.

Though the art business is not a natural extension of political life, Miller said

he has culled experience from his leadership position in the Council to inform his work at Liberty Art Title.

“A lot of my experience is in managing a large organization and knowing how to advocate a cause,” Miller said. “There’s not a lot of politics in the art world.”

To Miller, his niche in the art business is another example of how he views his political career, which began with a 1996 win for Council, a surprise victory in the 2001 speaker’s race, and ended with his losing finish in the 2005 Democratic mayoral primary.

“I’ve done pretty well in the past trying to seize opportunities where people haven’t seen them,” he said.

He ruled out running for office again, but his passion for art has made for a smooth transition into his new professional life.

“For me, it’s been pretty seamless,” Miller said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to work with people who care deeply about their collections.” drivoli@manhattanmedia.com

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IN THE TRENCHES

Markowitz’s New Chief of Staff Reorganizes and Plans for Future

BY SUSAN CAMPRIELLO 80, meeting with constituent groups, and, most of all, making sure that everyone in Brooklyn and New York City knows what Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is doing with and for his borough—that is what Carlo Scissura does as Markowitz’s chief of staff.

“It’s like four or five jobs,” he said, his brown eyes opened wide.

Originally hired as general counsel in January, Scissura was named Markowitz’s chief of staff in April.

One of the highlights so far has been a memorable trip to PS 205 in New Utrecht, where he was named principal for the day.

“I was great,” he said. “I gave them no homework for the weekend.”

A framed poem expressing the value of teachers, which he thinks everyone should remember, sits on his desk.

“The world may be different because I was important in the life of a CHILD,” it reads.

His time at PS 205 was not Scissura’s first exposure to city schools. He was elected to his district’s school board in 1999, and in 2004, Markowitz appointed him to the district’s Community Education Council. Through this and his service on Community Board 11, he was

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ANAGING A STAFF OF

involved with numerous school construction projects and worked with several developers and city agencies.

He also taught law for four years at Baruch College.

And in a way, he still feels like a principal at his current job, though instead of keeping students in line and happy, he has an 80-member staff. Coming onto the job with the goal of improving daily operations at Borough Hall, one of the first things he did was give everyone on staff a copy of a management book called First, Break All the Rules.

“We have to break every rule that we know and go full speed ahead,” he recalled telling them.

An advisory board of staff members was created to report on ideas to further improve procedures. He shuffled personnel and implemented relaxing yoga breaks on Fridays.

He also re-arranged his office, positioning his desk diagonally in a far corner, facing the door.

“I like it that way,” he said. “It fits with my whole open-door policy.”

But though he has enjoyed the past two months on the job, he said an unfortunate consequence of his busy schedule is a drastic reduction in the time he has to spend in his kitchen.

“I make a great sauce, Penne Puttanesca,” he said, before launching

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

Carlo Scissura discusses his recipe for success, but not his pesto sauce, and hints at mayoral plans

into a slightly risque discussion of the derivation of the dish’s name.

He also laid claim to a great pesto, with a secret recipe he refused to reveal.

And there are the difficulties on the job as well, mostly from dealing with the controversial development projects and proposals—including the Atlantic Yards—which Markowitz supports.

Scissura thinks Atlantic Yards will benefit the surrounding community and the borough through the use of its stadium for local graduation ceremonies and performances of local bands.

“In 10 years, people are going to say, ‘Thank God that there were people out there that could get this done,’” Scissura predicted.

The future of the Brooklyn Academy of Music Cultural District in Ft. Greene, which

he said rivals Manhattan’s Lincoln Center, is another project which he said would help make Brooklyn the future of the city.

And the Brooklyn borough president may be the future of city politics, he said.

Markowitz has been weighing a run for mayor, but made no official announcement. According to Scissura, though, a possible campaign is on the radar screen.

“What’s good for Brooklyn translates into what’s good for New York City,” he said.

So when asked where he might go after term limits end Markowitz’s time in Borough Hall at the end of next year, Scissura is not sure.

One possibility, though, has crossed his mind.

“Maybe City Hall,” he said. scampriello@manhattanmedia.com

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JUN E 2008

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Straniere Adjusts to Life After Politics, with Relish With hot dog business a year old, political background feeds plans to expand brand

BY JAMES CALDWELL

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post-political career stories, not many of them involve bison hot dogs.

Former Assembly Member Robert Straniere’s (R-Staten Island) does. A lot of them. And not just bison dogs, but Kobe beef dogs, organic nitrate-free dogs, soy dogs, chicken dogs, turkey dogs and, soon, duck and venison dogs.

Those are some of the menu items at the New York City Hot Dog Company, which was founded in 2007 by Straniere, his wife Ruth, and three sons, Ken, Bret and Jeffrey.

All of the Stranieres play a central role in business operations in a company which, now celebrating its one-year anniversary, has grown to have a staff of 11.

Journeying from politician to hot dog entrepreneur was not the original plan.

After 24 years in Albany, Straniere’s Assembly career was cut short in 2004, when he lost the primary to Vincent Ignizio, who was backed by several Republican elders on Staten Island.

Nonetheless, Straniere said he welcomed the change.

“It was time for a new career,” he said.

Ironically, the idea for what would become the New York City Hot Dog Company originated half a world away from its namesake city.

“I was sitting in Peking on Christmas Eve of 2004 eating Peking duck with some Hong Kong businessmen,” Straniere recalled recently in the company’s store on Chambers Street in Tribeca. “And I asked them, ‘What can I bring to China from America?’ And they said, ‘American hot dogs.’”

So Straniere boarded a plane at 8 o’clock that night and flew from Beijing to Los Angeles. There, he brought his family together and promptly announced that they were going to introduce hot dogs to China.

As the idea developed, however, they decided that a more prudent plan would be to try their business plan on the streets of Manhattan before heading to more exotic locales. But in a city awash in hot dog eateries, the question immediately became how to set the company apart.

“From the beginning, we wanted it to be a destination place that we could build into a national hot dog-centered company,” Straniere said. “We weren’t going to have these skinny hot dogs where you don’t even know what they’re made of, and we also wanted to be responsive to healthy choices for customers.”

The emphasis on health drives the menu, with healthy options accounting for more than 40 percent of the company’s sales. With 14 varieties of hot dogs currently offered, and a goal of adding two more by the fall, only one is a variation on your standard high-fat beef hot dog. And while that one remains the top seller, Straniere

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

N A CITY WITH THOUSANDS OF

The New York City Hot Dog Company, founded a year ago by former Assembly Member Robert Straniere, his wife Ruth, and three sons—Ken, Bret and Jeffrey—offers 14 varieties of hot dogs and 40 possible toppings. says, it is not by much.

Not only are Straniere’s hot dogs unconventional. The toppings are, too. Of the more than 40 varieties available, rarities like mac ‘n cheese, plum sauce, and apricot chipotle mustard stand out as the most unexpected.

Straniere said his long-term goal was to have stores in all five boroughs, but more immediately he is negotiating with the city to get permits for hot dog carts on the street.

While the company’s focus is on New York City for now, Straniere said he still sees the possibility of a global presence.

Indeed, after Time Out New York rated theirs the best Kobe beef dog in the city, the New York City Hot Dog Company found itself live on Japanese television.

Founded by a politician and located a few blocks from City Hall, the store sees its fair share of political clientele, perhaps giving it a chance to become the Capitol Grille of hot dog destinations.

“You get an idea for a legislative bill and you try and sell it,” Straniere said, comparing his two careers. “It’s the dynamic of that process that is not unlike trying to develop the concept of a hot dog-centric series of stores.”

“This is almost like a legislative cause,” he said of the effort to get the fleet in action.

Straniere added that in negotiations with the city, he hoped officials would see the company’s menu as consistent with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (Ind.) emphasis on healthier food options.

“This is a product people are eating every day,” he said. “They can have the same product but it will be better for them.”

“We do have regulars, but some may not want their wives knowing they’re eating hot dogs,” Straniere said, declining to name specific politicos who haunt the shop. “We have a lot of well-known people who come in here, and a lot of friends of mine through politics come in.”

His political background not only provided a base of customers, Straniere said, but also provided the perfect training for getting the New York City Hot Dog Company off the ground.

“You get an idea for a legislative bill and you try and sell it,” he said of his Assembly experience. “It’s the dynamic of that process that is not unlike trying to develop the concept of a hot dog-centric series of stores.”

While the journey from politics to the food business has been successful so far, Straniere recently toyed with the possibility of returning to politics. He pushed his name into discussion as the first choices of Staten Island Republicans all passed on the race for the congressional seat held by scandalridden Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn). The Staten Island GOP, which has long been at odds with Straniere, instead chose Francis H. Powers, a former Wall Street executive who also served as the finance chair for Fossella’s campaigns.

Nonetheless, Straniere said ultimately, the challenges and rewards of his business venture far outweighed those of political life.

“Being a congressman would be easy compared to trying to make this business a success,” he said.

But when asked which was the messier process—cooking hot dogs or navigating the political turf in Albany—Straniere did not hesitate.

“Definitely Albany,” he said. “Getting a bill passed as a Republican in the Assembly is a lot more difficult than selling a hot dog.” jamespcaldwell@gmail.com Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com.

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www.cityhallnews.com for yourself and speak truth to power. I’ve since learned that it’s not always so easy.”

there, and his parents still live on the first level while his sister occupies the second. Gioia, his wife and young daughter live around the corner. He estimates there are hundreds of extended families spread through the surrounding neighborhoods.

2 “Sports played a huge part in my life growing up,” Gioia said. “I played baseball, soccer and basketball—none of it

THE STREETS

A trip back to the old block with Eric Gioia

WHERE THEY LIVED

52ND ST. stop on the elevated No. 7 train in Woodside, Queens is Nunziato’s, a small outdoor flower shop surrounded by a weathered fence. The yard is filled with potted perennials, and a small building sits out back. For the past 100 years it has been run by Council Member Eric Gioia’s (D-Queens) family, and sitting recently in front of his childhood home nearby, Gioia recalled how the store inadvertently put him on the path to politics.

“For a hundred years, every member of the family has gone into the business, but the big joke is that I’m allergic to flowers,” he said. “So it was sort of God’s way of pushing me out the door and telling me to do something else with my life. But I didn’t know that politics would be the thing.”

Sitting on the stoop of the house on 50th St., Gioia’s father Neil remembered when he realized his son wasn’t going to cut it in the flower business.

“We’d be outside loading and unloading the trucks and putting the stuff in the yard,” he recalled. “By the end of the day he’d be dragging, and I’d say to myself, ‘Boy, he’s not a hard worker.’ But after a while we realized he was allergic, so I went to the bookshelf, handed him a book and said, ‘You’re no good to us here, so you might as well start reading.’

Otherwise he’d be making boutonnières right now.”

“It was my lucky break,” Gioia said.

THE

2 The house at 3926 50th Street is a standard issue Queens split level in the middle of a block lined with nearly identical brick homes. Gioia’s mother grew up

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

Fifth grader Eric Gioia was picked to lobby the mayor and school board, which led him to meeting Al Shanker.

Although he landed a job in the Clinton White House at age 22, politics was foreign to him as a kid, Gioia said.

“My family are regular people,” he said. “They always voted, but they’ve never participated in politics. It wasn’t something I was thinking about as a kid.”

Walking the four blocks to his old elementary school, Gioia recalled games of stoop ball and basketball in the park.

Looking at his old neighborhood courts, newly refurbished, he recognized the changes.

“When I was growing up, this park was so dilapidated,” he said. “There was graffiti and broken bottles everywhere. And I have this memory of coming here one day and only one backboard had a hoop.”

2 Cupping his hands and peering in the windows of his old elementary school, Gioia rattled off the names of his teachers from kindergarten through 6th grade. And he recounted what he called his start in politics—being chosen in the 5th grade to lobby the mayor and school board on behalf of the school for more classroom space.

“It was luck, she just picked me out,” he said of being selected by the principal. “It was great for the school, but it was also a powerful lesson to me, which is stand up

RECENT PHOTOS BY LAURA SAYER

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BY JAMES CALDWELL NDERNEATH

J U N E 2008

particularly well, by the way.”

He would listen to Mets games on the radio and was allowed to take the No. 7 train out to Shea Stadium alone before he was allowed to go into Manhattan as a kid.

“I remember in 1981 during the baseball strike, Mookie Wilson, who was a rookie, got a part-time job as a greeter at Joe’s Seafood on 61st St.” Gioia remembered. “And we went and I met him. Then of course five years later, on October 25th, 1986, the seminal moment in any young man’s life from Queens,” he said, referring to the famed Mets comeback against the Boston Red Sox in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the World Series. The Mets went on to win the series in Game 7.

“It was just this incredible moment where you learn that whatever the odds, you never give up,” he said. “Those are kind of coming-of-age moments.”

Although he grew up more among flowers than politics, Gioia, who is running for public advocate, said his early experiences in the neighborhood heavily shaped his priorities when he got to the City Council.

“You live somewhere and your whole life you sit at the dinner table and listen to your mom and dad say ‘Why don’t we have this or that,’” he said, “and then you find yourself in a position to actually do it.”

Gioia grew up at 3926 50th Street in Sunnyside. His parents still live there, and he now lives around the corner.

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www.cityhallnews.com

JUN E 2008

Siegel Invites Obama to Read the Constitution

State Sen. Bill Perkins, both Manhattan Democrats, attended last year.

“I consciously decided not to tell him that I was a candidate for public advocate,” he said of the letter.

But an appearance by the presumptive Democratic nominee would have its benefits for Siegel, whose campaigns have tended to generate fewer campaign contributions than his competitors’.

“Clearly if he came,” Siegel said, “that kind of exposure can only help, I would think.”

Ignizio and Tobacco Explain Being Left Out of Fossella Speculation Staten Island Republicans had such trouble recruiting a candidate to replace retiring Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) that the nominee they eventually got is a little known former Wall Street executive, Francis “Frank” Powers, apparently in a family feud with his son, Francis “Fran” Powers, Jr., who tried to get the Libertarian nomination and is now considering running on his own line.

But as the top-tier and second-tier elected officials declined to run, two names were almost never mentioned: Council Member Vincent Ignizio and

and Investigations Subcommittee, but though he scored some headlines for grilling the city’s budget director on why the fake organizations were not detected at a recent budget hearing, he said the bulk of the slush fund investigation was in the hands of the Department of Investigations.

His subcommittee, on the other hand, will continue focusing on things like banking, defective bullet-proof vests sold to the Police Department, access to food stamps and Aids care, among other issues.

“I view it as a way to shine sunlight on some pretty difficult issues in New York,” Gioia said of the committee’s role.

With currently only a few on staff, Gioia said his goal was to have a handful of full-time investigators and lawyers working for the committee.

“You need enough to be able to find the facts and make the case,” he said.

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

Every year for the past 39 years, Norman Siegel celebrated the Fourth of July by going to Central Park and reading the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights. For 38 years, he read them quietly to himself, but last year expanded the tradition to an out-loud reading to an audience of 60.

Siegel has bigger plans for this year.

The day that Sen. Hillary Clinton (DNew York) conceded the Democratic nomination to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois), Siegel sent a letter to Obama’s Senate office, inviting the presidential candidate and his family to participate in the event.

“It’s a near-perfect setting, and it will send a super message to all Americans about the need for this nation to follow the Constitutional system more than we have in the past,” Siegel said.

Siegel also gave a copy of the letter to State Sen. Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn), who is planning to pass it to people he knows working for Obama’s campaign.

Siegel is running for the third time in 2009 to be public advocate, but said he wanted the focus to be the 2008 election and Obama’s campaign. With or without Obama, he hopes to have a larger showing this year from local elected officials.

City Council Member Gale Brewer and

Assembly Member Lou Tobacco.

Both said that they were not offended to be left out of the speculation. They explained that they immediately took their names from the list once Fossella announced his retirement.

“My name was in several publications,” Ignizio said. “I never played the speculation game. I was not interested in being the candidate from early on.”

Tobacco, who will run his first general election campaign this November, wanted to keep his spot in Albany, leaving the Congressional seat to more attractive candidates.

“They have the most experience and a proven track record of getting the Island to elect them,” Tobacco said.

Retiring Reps. Still Have Almost $2 Million in Bank New York’s four retiring members of Congress will leave office in control of their campaign accounts, allowing them to continue to play a role on the political stage for years to come.

Rep. Michael McNulty (D-Albany) is the poorest of the group, in terms of what remains in his campaign account.

According to Open Secrets, he has $126,736 cash on hand. Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-Erie), a fundraising powerhouse, will leave with the most— $1,010,835. Reps. Jim Walsh (ROnondaga/Wayne) and Vito Fossella (RStaten Island/Brooklyn) have $373,358 and $248,496, respectively.

Laurence Laufer, an election law attorney with the firm Genova, Burns & Vernoia, said the four can utilize the money for a variety of purposes, including contributing to other political candidates, local party committees and charities. They are banned from using the money for personal use, such as vacations. Refunding the money, however, is an almost unheard-of practice.

CITY HALL

The accounts can also be reactivated for a future federal race if desired and can be transferred for use to a state or city race, in accordance with local laws.

“The basic premise is to use the funds to make political contributions,” Laufer said.

Former Rep. Jack Quinn (R-Erie) retired in 2004, but his committee is still filing reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for the less than $100,000 which remains in his account.

Expenses in Quinn’s April report include legal representation for his committee and car expenses, along with donations to other candidates. Quinn, who was a Washington lobbyist until recently, donated to congressional races and to several campaigns in Western New York.

His son, Assembly Member Jack Quinn III (R-Erie), received $1,000.

Former Rep. Major Owens (DBrooklyn), the state’s most recent retiree, had little activity on his account recently. His latest FEC filing shows $1,638 on hand with over $30,000 in debts owed for loans made by Owens himself.

Investigations Committee Not Investigating Slush Fund The revelation in April that millions of dollars of the city’s budget had been allocated to non-existent organizations has led to an increased focus on oversight in City Council, and in particular on the importance of the Oversight and Investigations Committee, chaired by Council Member Eric Gioia (D-Queens.)

“I’ve obviously been outraged by what I’ve seen,” Gioia said of the slush fund scandal. “And I’ve been trying to ask some pretty hard questions. People don’t trust government because they have reason not to. When you open a newspaper, it’s hard to think that your tax dollars are well spent when you see that there are phantom organizations that have received millions of dollars.”

Gioia is chair of the Council’s Oversight

Taxi Agency a No-Show for Miles Per Gallon Mandate Hearing When Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind.) unveiled his environmental initiative for the city on Earth Day 2007, his plan for the 13,000-strong taxi fleet to meet a 25 mile-per-gallon gas standard was greeted with enthusiasm. But setting a strict Oct. 1 deadline, however, has been criticized as asking for too much without enough time.

Representatives from the Taxi and Limousine Commission, however, did not show up to defend the deadline, which was not lost on the Transportation Committee Chair John Liu (D-Queens).

“I don’t fault anyone,” he said, “for trying to avoid a beating.”

In testimony to the Council’s Transportation Committee, Assembly Member Micah Kellner (D-Manhattan), representatives from the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, and a gaggle of taxi drivers criticized the availability of hybrid cars, the safety of the proposed models—the Ford Escape and Nissan Altima—and the arbitrary deadline. Critics testified that with a year extension, there will be time to mass-produce fuel-efficient models already tested for rigorous commercial use, like the Ford Transit Connect, which is currently used for taxis in parts of Europe. They argue this will better address safety and environmental issues.

“In the name of a worthy goal,” Kellner said in testimony, “the Taxi and Limousine Commission is using flawed metrics and a rushed timetable.”

A spokesman for the TLC said the commission has no plans to back off the October deadline.

By James Caldwell, John Celock, Edward-Isaac Dovere and Dan Rivoli

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: Learning Curve andi Weingarten keeps many little presents people have given her over the years scattered around her office, including a small statue of four posed monkeys (Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Say No Evil, and Do No Evil) and a magic wand that lights up when waved. She has built up many presents and clippings and blow-ups of articles in her office over her last 10 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT).

There are two battles ahead as she goes into the summer: one against the proposed school budget cuts of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, which she expects to be fierce, and one for the presidency of her national union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which she expects to be uncontested.

Weingarten recently took some time to reflect on the role of the antibudget cut “Keep the Promises” coalition, what the current situation leads her to believe about renewing mayoral control of city public schools and the secrets only her dog knows about the future of the UFT leadership.

What follows is an edited transcript.

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City Hall: You and the “Keep the Promises” coalition have been engaged in a fight against school budget cuts. Where do you see that headed for its final result?

Randi Weingarten: It’s always been that there’s somebody at the Board of Education, whether it was the chancellor or the board president, who would, regardless of where the rest of the city was, someone’s out there saying, “I don’t care what the other issues are, someone has to champion children.” Where is that person? So what has happened, instead, is that this coalition has become it. This coalition has become the champion of kids. Of course, every single day, some editorial will be in some newspaper about how I really have another agenda.

What’s my other agenda? I’m about to be the AFT president. It would be nice to be doing a lot of focus on that. The principals union and the teachers union, we all have contracts. What’s the other agenda other than just trying to get decent enough budgets so we can actually do the work that the adults in schools have to do with kids. First issue is where’s the champion? Where’s the person that is hired to be the champion for kids? In the absence of that, what mayoral control has done is that it has actually silenced any independence from City Hall in terms of that championing when things are

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

shift resources to the very same schools that CFE was intended to be about. So, here you have a 13year-old state case where we actually have layered state funding for the kids that need it most. Instead of respecting that what they do instead is take their own. They basically create this distraction and this divide-and-conquer strategy to just distract people from their own budget cut.

tough. So, all of a sudden, for the first time, things are tough. There’s a potential conflict between City Hall and the DoE. Where’s the champion? Obviously the connection between the mayor and the chancellor thwarts the chancellor from being the champion.

Number two, what we’re seeing in the last few days is that there’s no transparency. If you ask anybody who’s been involved in this battle, what’s the real cut to schools? What number? Forget for a second about keeping the promises.

What actual dollar amount would it take to immunize classrooms in schools from budget cuts, and the fact that with this basic unprecedented communication between the DoE and the mayor of the City of New York that nobody can know that number, that that number is unknowable says that there is a lot wrong with the checks and balances or transparency.

CH: Does this amount to an argument against renewing mayoral control?

RW: All of it says that there needs to be more checks and balances. A lot of it says that as people used say about Giuliani, “We’re not going to give Giuliani mayoral control because he’s not going to be judicious enough as a steward.” But what we’re seeing is that the Klein-Bloomberg administration in making this argument and pitting schools against schools as an argument for not funding the schools. That’s being demagogic. That’s not being judicious. That’s not being a wise steward of the public school system. So, it does call for a lot more checks and balances.

CH: How will you position yourself as the mayoral control renewal talks begin?

RW: I position myself as always asking, “What should school governance look like?” I’m constantly thinking about what should school governance look like. I think about school governance as not as end towards itself but a means towards an end. The issue is about instruction.

Have you heard in the last two years, three years, four years, does anybody talk about instruction anymore? A school

“What mayoral control has done is that it has actually silenced any independence from City Hall when things are tough.”

CH: Chancellor Klein proposed using some of the CFE money to lessen the budget cuts. What do you think of that?

RW: I think that proposal was one of the most cynical things I have seen the chancellor do ever. If you look at their rhetoric from last year, what they did was they changed their rhetoric 180 degrees from the supposed point of the whole restructuring of the entire financial situation. What they did last year and I thought wrongly, and I think will hurt the schools in the long term, was they fundamentally reshaped their funding formula so that they could

system should be talking about instruction. It shouldn’t just be talking about accountability. Accountability is an important piece to see if we are doing our job. It’s not a be-all and an end-all.

Instruction is the be-all and the end-all.

Teaching and learning is the be-all and the end-all.

CH: Do you think not having your own children does anything to your perspective as a union leader focused on children’s education?

RW: I think I made that fundamental choice. Once I started being on this track, I just knew that, and it was a painful decision, I knew it would be impossible to do both. I love kids. Once I knew I was on this path, and felt the responsibility that would be on it, I knew I just couldn’t.

CH: But does not having your own children in the school system affect your view at all?

RW: If I had my own children, they would be in public schools. My nieces and nephews were from public schools. My parents inculcated in us a very strong allegiance to the public school system.

They see the public school system not only as a great equalizer but also as a fundamental building block for democracy.

CH: Will leading the UFT and AFT simultaneously be tough? Have you thought about the timetable for the transition or potential successors?

RW: The answer is yes and yes and thought about it. Yes I think about it a great deal and no I’m not going to talk about it. I tease like when people often said during negotiations, “Just tell me your bottom line. Just tell me what it is. I won’t tell anybody.” I often tease and say that only my dog knows what I think. Not even my dog, I should say, will know what the appropriate timetable for transition is.

The reason one does this is to ensure a smooth transition. That’s the only reason that one holds both jobs at the same time.

CH: You are a known personality around New York. Does that help you get things done?

RW: All of that had to be earned. What has helped get things done is that I really respect people. First of all, I love the fact that people just call me Randi. It’s a New York thing to do. It’s both a familiarity but also a connection. So when people call you by your first name, there’s a connection. If you’re a school teacher, you have a connection with your kids. You’re always looking to figure out how do you unlock their minds. How do you open them up? How do you get that a-ha moment? It’s not terribly different in terms of how I try to transact business.

Over the course of these years, that is what has happened, but it’s been earned. It wasn’t just plopped there. You’re seeing me near probably my end of my tenure as opposed to the beginning of my tenure. I remember many a time when people would say, “Randi who?”

—Edward-Isaac Dovere eidovere@cityhallnews.com

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ThankYou NewYorkCity Businesses– Partners in Success with CUNY’s Community Colleges CUNY Community Colleges:

Hostos Community College

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EW YORK CITY’S BUSINESSES, agencies, and firms appreciate the work of the six CUNY Community Colleges: Borough of Manhattan Community College, Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College, Kingsborough Community College, Laguardia Community College, and Queensborough Community College. They host student internships, help support enrollments in education and training programs, consult faculty experts, and hire our graduates. Almost 90% of CUNY community college graduates are employed within six months of graduation. No wonder New York City businesses and CUNY are partners in success.

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A partial list of our partners in success: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

311 Call Center 77 WABC 95.5 WPLJ American International Group Amnesty International AR Architects Aramark AT&T Atlantic Bank Aviator Sports Avis Rent A Car Banana Republic Bank of America Bank of New York Barnes and Noble Barney’s Beacon of Hope/Catholic Charities Bellevue Hospital Binder and Binder Bloomingdales Boy Scouts of America Bravo Sound British Airways Bronx Lebanon Hospital Brooks Brothers Cablevision Caldwell Realty Catholic Health Care System Century 21 Cerebral Palsy Association of New York State Champion Learning Center Chase Small Business Financial Center Children's Village Citibank Citigroup/Cushman Wakefield Cluster Community Services Coler Goldwater Hospital Commerce Bank Con Edison Coney Island Hospital Creative Lifestyles Credit Suisse Cumberland Hospital CVS Def Jam Records.

Duane Reade East Harlem Tutorial Program Eden II Elmhurst Hospital Emmis Communications Enterprise Rent-a-Car Fed Ex Flushing Hospital Fresh Direct Game Stop Girl Scouts of the USA Goldman Sachs Gouverneur Hospital Great Performances Guardian Security H&M Hallmark Health Plus Hilton Hotel Hospital for Special Surgery HSBC iConcept Media Group Israel Discount Bank Javits Center Jewish Home & Hospital JPMorgan Chase Keyspan/National Grid Kings County Hospital Liberty Taxes Long Island Jewish Health System

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Lutheran Hospital Macy’s Madison Security Group Madison Square Garden Mana Products March of Dimes Menorah Home & Hospital Merrill Lynch Met Life Methodist Hospital Metropolitan Jewish Health Services Millennium Hotel Modell’s Morgan Stanley MTV Municipal Credit Union (MCU) Nassau County Police Department National Securities Corporation NBA Stores New York City Bar Association NYC Board of Education NYC Department of Corrections New York City Transit NYMEX New York Community Bank New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens New York Life New York Presbyterian Hospital North Central Bronx Hospital North Shore LIJ Health System Northfork/Capital One Bank Old Navy Pfizer Planned Parenthood Primerica Regal Entertainment Group SEIU Local 1199 SmartServ Solutions SONY Sony Music Entertainment Sony/BMG Sovereign Bank Staples Steiner Studios Stroheim & Roman TCE Systems, Inc The Gap The National Basketball Association The New-York Historical Society The Reise Organization The US Postal Service TIAA-CREF Time Warner Cable Toys R Us Transit Transit News Magazine Transport Workers Union Local 100 Tribeca Film Festival Tully Construction United States Tennis Center UPS Verizon The Verizon Next Step Program, (Verizon, Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) Viacom Visions Camp for the Blind Weil, Gotshal & Manges White Castle Woodhull Medical Center Wyckoff Medical Center YAI (Young Adult Institute)