City Hall - July 20, 2009 by City Hall News

Council hopeful Ydanis Rodriguez, below, is having a good week (Page 8), Coney Island is getting a makeover (page 14)

Vol. 4, No. 2

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July 20, 2009

and Randi Weingarten, above, stakes out her New York legacy (page 22).

ONCOMING

TRAFFIC

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

Carolyn Maloney swerves into the Senate race

CITY HALL

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JULY 20, 2009

Forethought

Sign On For Petitioning Changes dd to the list of things Miguel Martinez should be ashamed of: his duplicitous gathering of signatures to petition his way onto the ballot for re-election at the same time as he was negotiating with law enforcement officials about resigning his seat as part of a deal to avoid jail time. Whatever else positive or negative can be said about Guillermo Linares, what is certain is that none of the people—or most—who signed Martinez’s petitions did so with the expectation that they would be empowering a committee on vacancies to place someone else on the ballot. Unfortunately, this is just the latest tale of the absurd that New Yorkers have been forced to live through courtesy of the current petitioning system consistently managing to inject a fair amount of cronyism and fundamental unfairness into what should be the most basic expression of democracy. Critics insist that the convoluted petitioning process is a surefire way to suppress the number of people who run in elections. But really, done right, the process should be one of the best ways to force candidates out of their closed events and meetings and onto the street to meet broad swaths of New Yorkers. The problem is not with the idea of petitioning itself. The problem is with the rules and regulations that have been built up around petitioning, to everyone’s detriment. Serious review needs to be conducted, with the idea of making drastic changes. Even the ban on voters signing two petitions in the same race is worth examining. Some challenges are done with devious intentions, meant to propel underhanded political ends. True, there are regularly legitimate questions to be raised. But the greatest problem is with the Board of Elections’ officially blasé attitude to the paperwork received unless a complaint is raised. Everyone involved should be ashamed of a system that does not force the Board to check every signature on every ballot petition received—rudimentary computer programs would make this incredibly simple—and then automatically determine who has qualified for the ballot and who has not. There would not be much to argue about, except in cases where, perhaps, some handwriting was unclear.

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What a difference that would be from the current system, in which some candidates drop off petitions that are incomplete, short of the number of valid signatures they need, or, in some cases, outright falsified (those people who have not seen the name of a cartoon character or two on petitions have not spent enough time looking at petitions). We all know what happens next: some candidate, usually for political gain (though insisting that the move is simply standing up for principle), finds a staffer or friend to stand in on a challenge to the signatures. The connections are very quickly raised, and no matter what happens, the candidate responsible for the challenging draws the ire of reform groups and all but forfeits the chances of getting endorsed by the New York Times. In other words, ulterior motive or not, a person who forces the Board of Elections to perform what should be a standard review risks severe political consequences. And no one can reasonably claim that this is how a proper system of government should operate. Even past the high-minded rationale of getting candidates out to meet the people they represent, there is reason to keep some minimum threshold for getting on to the ballot. Running for office is not something to be taken lightly, and setting limited requirements to gauge the seriousness of whether a person is really presenting himor herself to the voters as someone interested in serving them only makes sense. And after all, being an elected official usually requires work more complicated than gathering petition signatures. Making candidates prove they are able to put together enough support and organization to collect a few thousand valid names seems a fair hurdle to put in front of them. This should be the last year and the last election cycle in which the current petitioning system stands. Led by those who will first be elected this year, the Council and mayor should set changing the petitioning laws as a top priority, taking it up at the very latest on the day after Election Day in November, for the sake of avoiding any confusion given all the races underway this year for which petitions have already been filed. Changing the law to allow themselves to run for third terms took the Council and mayor less than a month. Changing the law to make elections match up more clearly with democratic ideals should not take more than four.

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Bloomberg spokesperson Marc LaVorgna said the administration had simply set “aggressive” deadlines for beginning the Brooklyn Bridge and St. George’s projects. Despite the delays, he noted that the city was still comply with the federal deadlines in the stimulus bill. “We always want to move as fast as we can, but we’re dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars here,” LaVorgna said. “We can’t just stick a shovel in the ground.” Once the city got its ducks in a row, delays have continued at the state level. The state did not certify the Brooklyn Bridge project until June 30. And the state has not yet signed off on the St. George’s project. Projects can take up to two months to line up contractors and vet them once they are approved. One reason for the delay in the St. George’s project is that in late June, the state suddenly decided to seek funding for the project through the Federal Transit Administration, rather than through Federal Highway Administration. The delays at the state level may also come from Red tape entanglements on the differences in the the city and state level have types of projects New York resulted in major delays in City and rural areas have projects meant to be funded sought. Rural municipalities by stimulus dollars at the requested stimulus dollars Brooklyn Bridge and Staten for road resurfacing and Island Ferry Terminal. repaving projects, while New York City selected big-ticket items such as bridge expansions and ferry projects that are far more complex to plan. Since the state was in a rush to meet a June 30 deadline to line up half of its projects, it had an incentive to move more quickly on these less complex projects first, said Owen Gutfreund, an associate professor of history and urban studies at Columbia University. “Urban areas are always more complicated, from environmental impact, to land use acquisition, to cost of labor,” Gutfreund said. “It is easier to turn first to projects in rural areas when there are dole out 70 percent of the transportation these tough-to-solve—or impossible-tofunds, while 30 percent is given out by local solve—problems in cities.” Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Bloomberg and other mayors had (MPOs). Yet the MPO funds—which are lobbied for all of the funds to go directly primarily given to big cities—do not have to the city, given that New York City to be obligated to projects until next makes up such a large portion of the February. Across the country, funds from state’s population and economy, and their this pot of money are being spent more worry about the ability of Gov. David slowly than the money given to states. Paterson’s (D) administration to handle Meanwhile, the larger chunk of money the workload. distributed by the state has also moved Five months later, the state has met into the city slowly, though for different federal deadlines in lining up projects. reasons. For one, Mayor Michael But as for funding of city projects, fears Bloomberg (Ind.) did not announce the about bureaucratic delays in the process city’s wish list of projects until Mar. 31, appear to have been realized, said Kate months after most other municipalities Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State flooded the state with project requests. It Transportation Commission. then took New York City’s MPO another “The process of getting those funds month to complete the documentation into New York City has been cumbersome needed to meet tough federal standards, at best,” Slevin said. “It’s a bureaucratic which were not relaxed at all despite the delay at two levels, rather than one.” cbragg@cityhallnews.com requirement that stimulus flow quickly.

None Of $261 Million For City Transportation Stimulus Projects Has Yet Been Spent

Despite plans, city lags behind in construction and job creation BY CHRIS BRAGG efore the recession, the St. George’s ferry terminal in Staten Island was booming. Ten thousand units of condominiums were rising. Manhattan transplants were flooding the real estate market. But over the past year, construction has halted. Economic activity in the area has followed suit. “There are nowhere near as many people around here as there used to be,” lamented Helen Albanese, a local restaurant owner. Help was supposed to be on the way this summer. The city had planned to begin work on a $175 million economic stimulus project to repair the ferry’s ramps on May 20. This would have brought more than 4,800 new workers into the local economy. The project has been delayed, however,

and is now unlikely to begin until, at the earliest, the fall. A $47 million project to rehabilitate the Brooklyn Bridge, meanwhile, has also been delayed. And the four other transportation infrastructure projects receiving stimulus funding are not set to begin until at least next January. In fact, with unemployment creeping above 9 percent, none of the $261 million for transportation stimulus projects has yet been spent and no new jobs have been created. One problem is that a sizable chunk of stimulus money does not have to be spent as quickly in cities as in rural areas. Of the 81 transportation infrastructure projects across New York State that have lined up contractors, none are in New York City, according to data provided by the state comptroller’s office. Under the stimulus bill, states get to

JULY 20, 2009

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CITY HALL

Bloomberg Allows Citywide Republicans To Run, But Not With Him Advocate and comptroller candidates rebuffed by mayor’s campaign operation, despite outreach BY SAL GENTILE

“

s he here?” one woman whispered, rushing into the spacious wood-paneled hall of the Metropolitan Republican Club, the Manhattan GOP’s East Side headquarters. “I’m here for the mayor.” “Bloomberg NYC” placards lined the walls. Volunteers manned the tables. The crowd, mingling and signing petitions for local candidates, waited for the man they had reluctantly invited back into the Republican fold: Michael Bloomberg. An hour later, they gave up hope. “I guess he blew us off,” shrugged Neal D’Alessio, a Republican candidate for City Council on the Upper East Side.

As a result, the Republicans have been left in the awkward position of fielding a split ticket, with their standard-bearer refusing even to recognize publicly the two candidates running alongside him. That divergence has produced some uncomfortable moments out on the campaign trail, with stories being told of angry Republican voters refusing to sign the mayor’s petitions but agreeing to support Zablocki and Mendola. One GOP official who has been out on the street estimated that as many as 6 in 10 registered Republicans balk at supporting the mayor. But since Zablocki is running independently of the mayor—though he does support Bloomberg—the public advocate hopeful has been able to stake

“My gut would be the mayor has no clue about any of this—I would doubt even vaguely, as to who’s running where for what,” said one Republican official involved in the ballot line negotiations. “He’s got the line and that’s all he needs, and that’s that.” Bloomberg aides have ignored requests by Zablocki and Mendola for even limited logistical support, such as permission to leave literature in the mayor’s midtown campaign offices. “Tusk didn’t give a flying—you know,” said one GOP official recounting a meeting with Bloomberg campaign manager Bradley Tusk. Republican leaders concede that they do not expect much from the man at the

out some clear policy differences that appeal to GOP voters. “I do not agree with some of the things the mayor does,” Zablocki said. “The taxes are killing the middle-class and lowerclass families of this city … Any elected official that goes and passes a budget that raises taxes during hard economic times is wrong.” Zablocki has come to accept that he will be running without the mayor’s support. Others, though, have been less willing to settle for that answer. “He’s certainly going to hear from those of us, Republican leaders, who gave him our endorsement,” said Annarummo, the Brooklyn district leader. “If he has not made a decision, he’s going to hear from us.” sgentile@cityhallnews.com

Bloomberg’s failure to show up at his own petitioning party, which his campaign claims he had never planned on attending but which the room full of people were expecting him to do, underscores the uncomfortable reality facing Republicans this year: they may be running with Bloomberg, but Bloomberg is not running with them. “The drawbridge seems to be up at City Hall,” said one Republican operative of Bloomberg’s indifference toward the GOP. For the first time in 12 years, the Republican Party has fielded candidates to run on the GOP line for the downballot citywide races: 26-year-old public advocate candidate Alex Zablocki and comptroller candidate Joe Mendola, a Greenwich Village resident and securities broker. Neither is expected to win. But as the Bloomberg team pushed for the GOP ballot line earlier this year, they strongly implied—and, in some cases, explicitly promised—that they would support Republican candidates like Zablocki and Mendola. Bloomberg ’09 campaign operatives met with both during that process, asking them what they needed from the Bloomberg team. “In the past, they’ve let it be known that they were not getting involved,” said Clorinda Annarummo, a Republican district leader from Brooklyn who voted in March to give Bloomberg the party’s ballot line. “That’s not the message that we received.” But since winning permission to run on the GOP line in this fall’s mayoral election, Bloomberg has kept his distance, to the consternation of many local GOP activists.

top of their ticket, whose promises to help rebuild the Republican Party helped him win his place on the ballot. “I don’t know that I have any expectation of the mayor to support one or either of these candidates,” said John Friscia, the Staten Island GOP chair. Bloomberg campaign spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker denied that the mayor had ignored Zablocki and Mendola, saying the process for deciding whether to endorse either of the GOP candidates was ongoing. She also denied that either of them played a role in securing the GOP line for him. “Both were supportive of [Bloomberg] being endorsed by the GOP but neither lobbied on our behalf,” she said. “Both have asked for [Bloomberg’s] endorsement and both asked to be on our petitions.” Neither Zablocki nor Mendola were on Bloomberg’s petitions, though they did appear on each other’s. The 2001 and 2005 Bloomberg campaign quashed efforts by Republican officials to field citywide candidates to run with the mayor, leaving the GOP lines for comptroller and public advocate empty. (Under Rudy Giuliani, the GOP ran a full slate.) But since he left the Republican Party, Bloomberg has lost that kind of leverage. As a concession to GOP leaders, his team was forced to let Zablocki and Mendola run. “They don’t have that kind of juice with the party leaders anymore,” said a Republican operative involved in the discussions. “They can’t call the shots. The rank-and-file are still very angry at the administration.”

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

“The drawbridge seems to be up at City Hall,” said one Republican operative of Bloomberg’s failure to support GOP candidates.

Joe Mendola (l) and Alex Zadocki are running on the first full citywide ticket for Republicans in 12 years.

Mendola Aims To Chop City Contracts And Reform Pensions

reenwich Village is not the strongest Republican base. Which was just one of the problems GOP leaders had when Joe Mendola approached them about becoming their candidate for comptroller. “It was a bit of a challenge for the Republican Party to embrace a single dad who lives in the Village with two small children,” he said, mingling at a fundraiser in the backyard of a duplex townhouse

he owns on Bedford Street. “Pro-choice, in favor of gay marriage—I did get some resistance.” Mendola, a securities broker who began his campaign as a registered Democrat, needed permission from the GOP county chairs to run on the Republican line. He has won four of the five counties’ endorsements, and is working toward a fifth from Queens. (Queens had backed its own candidate, Daniel Maio, who dropped out this month.)

CITY HALL “I’ve got to keep my focus and try to convince all these folks that, though I didn’t fit within whatever Republican persona they were looking for, that in fact the comptroller doesn’t get involved in social issues,” Mendola said. “If you’re going to win a citywide election, you’ve got to move outside the box.” Winning, of course, will be an uphill battle for Mendola, who has raised just over $6,000. He gathered enough signatures to get on the ballot, and Republicans and Democrats alike have been receptive to his argument that the comptroller’s office needs a Wall Street professional to shake things up. “We’ve got to take the pay-to-play politics out of it. We’ve got to start making it be what the office originally was,” he said. “It was designed to be a fiduciary, the gatekeeper, if you will, of city funds. Somebody that was non-partisan, that judged who held the city’s money based on how well they performed, not on how well they gave political contributions.” Pursuing that reform, Mendola admits, will require going head-to-head

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with Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind.), his party’s standard-bearer, who has maintained a cozy relationship with the city’s public employee unions. “The mayor signed some very generous contracts a few years ago, extremely generous,” he said. “Those contracts are going to come back to haunt us, because the financial obligation to these retirees is astronomical.” Like his four potential Democratic opponents, Mendola is running primarily on his résumé—and not just because his positions on social issues have already angered some in his own party. “These managers that we have, they don’t see these pension funds for what they are, which is a group of retired middle-class people that are counting on this money for the rest of their life. They see it as this big amorphous fund that they can scrape off the top, skim off the top, and shove it into their pocket,” he said. “We can’t do that anymore, and that’s what my campaign is all about.” —SG

Zablocki Runs For Advocate To Reign In Liberal Council erving as public advocate is supposed to be about causing trouble for the mayor and others in government. But already just by what he has done in running for the job, 26-year-old GOP candidate Alex Zablocki has caused trouble between his boss, State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), and Bloomberg administration officials who called to complain about Zablocki’s criticizing the mayor for cutting the public advocate’s budget by 40 percent, according to a person with knowledge of the call. That kind of pushback has not deterred Zablocki, who is running a spirited longshot campaign for an office that has only been held by progressive Democrats. Even the people who ran on the GOP line for public advocate in 1993 and 1997 were registered Democrats. “I’m probably the first real Republican to ever run for this office,” he said. Running as a Republican for an office that is in many ways the official incarnation of the Democratic platform—more city services, expanded rights for New Yorkers—may seem counterintuitive. But Zablocki wants to turn the position on its head, using it to curb the excesses of the liberal City Council rather than the broad powers of an often dominant mayor. “With a City Council that’s overwhelmingly Democratic,” he said, “and a mayor that could one day be a Democrat—although a mayor that’s right now independent—you really need an

independent voice in city government.” Zablocki said he has been fighting to convince people, particularly members of his own party, that the public advocate can in fact be a Republican. “It’s just a Democratic position because we live in a Democratic city and Mark Green was the public advocate for eight years, and people have ‘Democrat’ stamped all over it,” he said. The campaign itself has had its share of setbacks. Raising money has been a chore, with a significant chunk of the little money he has raised coming from people also named Zablocki. He has also had to forfeit the Conservative Party line because of his stance on gay marriage—he supports it— and lost his one chance at a newspaper endorsement when the New York Post called for eliminating the public advocate’s office. (Zablocki got into an argument with one Post reporter after the paper questioned why a Republican candidate would not want to eliminate the office as well.) Those disappointments have at least freed Zablocki to run as a Republican who might be palatable to the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate, and assure them that he is not, in fact, a fringe candidate. “I’m not coming from some right-wing, non-compassionate type of views some people have of Republicans,” said the Staten Island native. “I’m a regular person from Richmondtown, right here in New York City.” —SG

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In A Blink, Rodriguez Goes From Long Shot To Frontrunner BY JOE WALKER week before resigning as part of a deal with federal officials, the man seated in the front row of a community forum hosted by the attorney general’s office was, according to Andrew Cuomo, “your great Councilman, Miguel Martinez.” The man standing out on the sidewalk trying to gather petitions was Ydanis Rodriguez. Things can change quickly in New York politics. The rapid shift of Rodriguez, a 44-yearold high school history teacher, from dark horse to front horse in the race for the northern Manhattan Council seat began with a Monday evening phone call informing him that Martinez was going to resign the next day. By 2 p.m., Tuesday, at a hastily arranged press conference Rodriguez was striding through the City Hall parking lot with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (D) and Manhattan District Attorney candidate Cy Vance (D) at his side. Supporters, aides and reporters waited for him to speak. Vance, who received Rodriguez’s endorsement the week prior, said that he happened to be in the neighborhood and “heard that there was a speech, so I came to see it.” Stringer announced his endorsement (a decision made that morning) and introduced Rodriguez as “the councilman of the future.” A tall man with a Dominican accent and doe eyes, Rodriguez obliquely addressed the real news of the day in his race. “I learned to live my life with honesty, dignity and transparency,” he said. “I will conduct myself always with those values, something we’re missing from certain elected officials.” Without prompting, he turned the page on the race. “I want the best for Miguel Martinez,” he said, and with that bade farewell to

the soon-to-be federally indicted official, the man who had beat him twice already in 2001 and 2003, and whom almost everyone had expected to beat Rodriguez again in 2009. “Ydanis had been saying for months that there is a tremendous amount of noise in the community and in political circles” about Martinez’s legal problems, said one of the candidate’s advisers the next day. “Forty-eight hours ago, the noise got loud, especially among political folks.” Rodriguez spent the morning of the resignation handing out campaign fliers at the Dyckman Street subway station in Inwood. Around 11 a.m., with the news of Martinez’s resignation breaking, he rushed downtown to meet with advisers from the Advance Group at City Hall Restaurant for an emergency strategy and endorsement meeting. Meanwhile, on Wadsworth Avenue and 177th Street, a frenetic but jovial air filled the Rodriguez campaign headquarters. Rodriguez’s brother, Carlos, wearing sandals and a polo shirt, continuously shuffled out of the office to make calls while standing on the sidewalk. A former high school student of Rodriguez’s, Yokarina Duarte, 21, rifled through database printouts to find people to shepherd downtown, a photograph of Martinez smiling out at her from a blog post open on her computer screen. “I know it’s short notice, but we’re having a press conference at 2 p.m. at City Hall,” Duarte said, with Bruce Springsteen’s “Secret Garden” softly playing on the Panasonic boom box behind her. The question going into Wednesday morning was, would Rodriguez be able to

keep up his momentum, as former Council Member Guillermo Linares, who resigned his job in the Bloomberg administration, takes Martinez’s spot on the ballot? Rodriguez is a disciplined candidate. He deflects process questions in favor of a honed message that emphasizes a commitment to social services, quality education and affordable housing. Still, the only solid endorsement he had while Martinez was still running was from Queens Democrat and comptroller candidate John Liu, and that of the Audubon Reform Democratic Club, where Rodriguez is a dues-paying member. The other Manhattan political clubs either backed Martinez or made no endorsement in the race. The Working Families Party, which had run Rodriguez on its ballot in 2001, endorsed Martinez this year. The thinking was that, “Ydanis wasn’t really going to give him a serious challenge,” explained a WFP staffer the week before the resignation. “There are only so many races in which you can seriously challenge the incumbent.” By an hour before the press conference

Unexpected resignation hit your desk?

CITY HALL where Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat endorsed him, all that had quickly changed. A cell phone in the office rang. “Hold on, Eric,” Rodriguez said, kneeling down in his dark blue pinstriped suit to write down a phone number. “Schneiderman,” Rodriguez said, sotto voce, a slight, fleeting smile on his face. “He’s on board.” Ten minutes later, Yokarina entered. “Senator Bill Perkins for you,” she whispered, handing him the cell phone. “With your support I will win this race,” Rodriguez told Perkins. “Denny Farrell, I heard, will be at the press conference today,” he said, referring to the Assembly member and boss of the Manhattan Democratic Party. (Farrell did not show.) An hour later, he stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of campaign headquarters to meet Espaillat. Rodriguez had had the support of Espaillat’s mother, who also came to the press conference for months, but having the Assembly member himself on board was a major boost. Asked why he had waited until that point to make an endorsement, Espaillat alluded to his split with Martinez and their primary race against each other last fall. “I had taken a position, my club had taken a position, that we would stay neutral,” he said. “We didn’t want to create the impression of a negative backand-forth.” He added: “Things have changed. This is an open seat.” Espaillat predicted that the whole of the upper Manhattan political establishment would come out to support Rodriguez, along with labor unions like SEIU 1199, and even the WFP. As the outsider who is suddenly riding down the mainstream, Rodriguez said he has a clear model for moving forward. “My name’s not Obama, it’s Ydanis Rodriguez. He went to Harvard and I went to City College,” he said. “But I’m picking up his message of local change.” jwalker@cityhallnews.com

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David Jones And The Never-Ending Crusade Seasoned anti-poverty leader uses campaign season to highlight need to respond to recession t a candidate forum in February, Peter Colavito, the political director of 32BJ, told the audience that if they do not know David Jones, they probably should not be running for office in the first place. But Jones is no kingmaker, and the organization that he heads, the 160-year-old Community Service Society is non-partisan, makes no endorsements and gives no donations. Instead, Jones’ political power stems from the moral force of his arguments and from the light he shines on the city’s most disconnected residents—those 200,000 young people who have no job, little education and scant prospects for the future. “I think he is one of the consciences of our city,” said Council Member Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn), chair of the General Welfare Committee and a candidate for public advocate. “He’s had a huge impact on policy and also on direct service to people in need.” Jones says that a commitment to eliminating poverty should be a priority for anyone in public life. “I think the question for many of the people who are elected or are looking to be elected, do they see the issue of the poor as essential to governance?” Jones said. These days he is pushing local officials to adopt a tax incentive program that would encourage private companies to hire disconnected youth. At the state level, he is one of the strongest champions for expanding health coverage in poor neighborhoods. To ensure his issues get in front of the right people, Jones also spends tens of thousands of dollars on lobbying, mostly through top firms such as Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman and Dicker. He is also working in tandem with groups like 1199 and the United Federation of Teachers in the creation of a wideranging anti-poverty agenda, combining his group’s brand of trusted, non-partisan advocacy with the strength and political reach of the city’s labor unions, in the hopes of applying extra pressure to government officials. Mike Fishman, president of 32BJ, New York’s largest private sector union, said he became convinced of

Jones’s expertise on poverty after serving with him on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (Ind.) anti-poverty panel. The union solicited a study from the Community Service Society on the socio-economic problems faced by security officers, which helped inform 32BJ’s position on poverty among its own members. “It was very helpful, setting a tone and getting the facts together, for us to make a case that security officers should be paid better and treated better on the job,” Fishman said. Jones traces his interest in social justice issues back to the influence of his father, Thomas S. Jones, who was part of a pioneering class of black lawyers, David Jones cautiously approves of some of Bloomberg’s clergymen and other professionals who more radical anti-poverty schemes, such as cash incentives transformed Brooklyn politics in the for poor families who take their children to the doctor, but post-World War II era, advocating for warned the mayor against trying to oversell such programs. civil rights and urban development. As an Assembly member, and later as a civil court judge, the since Bloomberg became mayor in 2002, but so has the elder Jones was successful in challenging Sen. Robert F. population. Last year, Bloomberg successfully modified the Kennedy on the redevelopment of Bedford-Stuyvesant. The younger Jones went on to intern for Kennedy, formula for determining poverty, defined as earning less whom he fondly recalls as a committed man and a than 150 percent of the official federal poverty threshold, saying the federal equation fails to account for regional fiercely competitive touch football player. “If I’d drop a pass, I’d catch hell,” Jones recalled, variances in housing costs. Jones applauds this move, but thinks they should go even further. laughing. “One hundred and fifty percent is what the city has Since then, Jones has worked with every New York mayor since Ed Koch, crept to,” Jones said. “But that puts you right on the cusp under whom he served of homelessness.” He cautiously approves of some of Bloomberg’s more as a special advisor on issues of race, radical anti-poverty schemes, such as cash incentives urban development, for poor families who take their children to the doctor. But he warned the mayor against trying to oversell immigration reform and education. Bloomberg such programs. With the economy continuing to lag and appointed Jones unemployment rolls expanding, the time for action is to serve on several at hand, Jones said. And this year’s election provides a commissions, including his transition team and anti- unique opportunity to make some noise. “There’ll be a huge surge every year of young people poverty panel. While the poverty rate has improved in New York without adequate skills being poured into the lowest rung over the years—one of only 12 states to record such a and competing with each other, driving down wages and bump—the gap between rich and poor, already one of the creating their own challenges for the city,” he said. “We highest in the nation, continues to widen. The number have some real challenges.” of people living below the poverty level has increased ahawkins@cityhallnews.com ANDREW SCHWARTZ

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS

“I think he is one of the consciences of our city,” said Council Member Bill de Blasio.

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Rose Hopes For Sweet Scent Of Victory In Third Run For Council Seat

BRONX

Mitchell stakes strengths from incumbency against opponent’s unified base uring the February special election to succeed Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island) in the Council, Ken Mitchell frequently talked about the experience and connections he had amassed as McMahon’s chief of staff. Now five months later, he is again touting his connections and experience in a rematch with his main challenger, community activist Debi Rose, whom Mitchell beat by a scant 341 votes back then. He may need all the help he can get. The Conservative, Republican and independent voters that supported Mitchell’s non-partisan special election campaign will have to sit out this Democrats-only primary. Plus, this time around, after splitting the African-American vote in the special election with Rev. Tony Baker (who pulled 844 votes), Rose is the lone black

candidate in the field for September. In his brief time in office, Mitchell has showered money on his constituents, doling out $893,621 in member-item money to the community, religious and ethnic organizations in his North Shore district. He delivered the ninth-highest amount of member-item money of all Council members. “The constituents are served well,” Mitchell said. “And listen, the existing relationships helped me greatly in the Council.” Mitchell has made a rapid transition from backroom staffer to full-fledged Council member, holding a slew of press conferences with some of the Island’s most recognizable faces and other elected officials. Council Speaker Christine Quinn

(D-Manhattan), who Livingston endorsed Mitchell in the Mariner’s special election, recently Port Richmond Harbor Stapleton joined him to promote Staten DISTRICT Island’s “Little Sri Lanka” Westerleigh neighborhood—all in an effort to BROOKLYN show registered Democrats that his Concord close relationships are bringing resources to the district. “The fact that I’m a known entity will STATEN appeal to them,” Mitchell said. ISLAND But being an incumbent Council member comes with baggage. He also voted to Rose is hitting Mitchell hard on two of approve a controversial his votes that she says mark him as out appointment to the City of touch with the district’s progressive Planning Commission appointed person to the City Planning constituency and undermines his claim made by Borough Commission.” that he is the most experienced. President James Molinaro Rose, however, says the vote matters Mitchell joined the Council’s three (C). Molinaro, a staunch ally of Mitchell, Republicans—two of whom are from tapped a relative—a real estate agent because poor city planning has plagued Staten Island—in voting against a bill without a city planning background. Staten Island with traffic congestion, that protects a woman’s access to Critics slammed the appointee as tightly packed housing units and lack of public transportation. Plus, Mitchell reproductive health clinics. unqualified and a product of nepotism. Mitchell told the Staten Island opened the door to criticism, Rose said, Advance that he was unaware he was by staking his campaign on being the voting on the confirmation. He later most experienced candidate—as in the called that a mischaracterization of his party name he chose for the non-partisan vote, saying the approval was part of a special election, “Experience Now.” “He portrayed himself as a candidate legislative package. A prominent Staten Island Democratic who can hit the ground running,” Rose Party member supporting Mitchell said. “He obviously hit the ground running dismissed the vote’s effect on his re- in the wrong direction.” But if Mitchell’s controversial Council election campaign, calling it “inside votes do not derail his re-election baseball stuff.” “It doesn’t speak to his job campaign first, Rose is confident that performance,” the Democrat said. “How the Democrats who have supported her he performs on budget negotiations, previous two races—she also lost to hearings, and what he’s brought McMahon in 2001 by 170 votes—will put back is going to go a lot further than her over the top in September. Rose’s backers say that her third an uninformed vote related to an attempt at the seat might indeed prove After barely losing the February the charm. special election, challenger Debi Last February, Rose refused to Rose, left, is eager for a re-match challenge Baker’s petition signatures, against Council Member Ken even though they contained some Mitchell, below. irregularities. Taking the high road, she said, is paying dividends now. Baker’s campaign manager and other volunteers carried petitions for her this time around. So far, however, Baker has withheld an endorsement. He said that he has entertained the possibility of lending support, but sullenly said he is “devoid” of politics right now and would rather focus on pastoring his church. Rose, meanwhile, is lining up support from key progressive organizations, already earning the endorsements of CSEA, the Working Families Party and DC 37. “My base is energized,” Rose said. “We captured a larger number of Democrats than our opponents. This is our race to win.” drivoli@cityhallnews.com

ROBIN GEORGE

BY DAN RIVOLI

QUEENS

CITY HALL

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July 20, 2009

Critics And Supporters Sound Off On Horn As Commissioner Departs Separate replacement heads for Correction and Probation departments expected from mayor did not feel comfortable bringing their concerns to the [department] administration,” James said. Before 18-year-old Christopher Robinson’s death, there was ample evidence of brutality occurring at the juvenile unit at Riker’s, which was allegedly encouraged by jail guards in order to maintain order. And the liberties taken by jail chaplain Rabbi Leib Glanz at the Tombs were an open secret. John Boston, director of the Jailers’ Rights Project of the New York City Legal Aid Society, said stronger independence in the department’s investigations division was necessary to ensure the problems did not snowball. As of now, Boston insisted, the division seems too willing to ignore internal wrongdoing. “There needs to be a law enforcement approach taken within the department,” Boston said. “There doesn’t seem to be much of a will at the top to do this. But this a system out of control.” Norman Seabrook, head of the city corrections officers’ union, put some of the blame on what he called a distant relationship between Horn and the Bloomberg administration. Seabrook said because Horn was outside the mayor’s inner circle, problems were allowed to fester without gaining the mayor’s attention. Instead of reporting to Bloomberg directly, Horn reports to Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs. Not having direct access to the mayor may have also deprived the department of necessary resources, including adequate staffing and training of guards, which contributed to the Riker’s scandal. “If Martin Horn had a relationship with City Hall, I don’t think a lot of this stuff would have happened,” Seabrook said. “When you treat someone as a stepchild, sooner or later they’re going to stop doing their homework.” Seabrook put most of the blame, however, at the layer of the department just below Horn, calling for the firing of Chief of Department Carolyn Thomas, who is in charge of the jails’ day-to-day operations. Some speculate that Horn was spread too thin, leaving him unaware of the problems going on in the ranks beneath him. Since 2003, Horn has served as commissioner of both the Department of Correction and of the Department of Probation, which oversees the city’s parolees. The mayor has indicated that he will now likely fill these vacancies with two people instead of one. According to one source with

knowledge of the situation, the process of selecting a new corrections commissioner is ongoing and there are currently three finalists, including one who comes from outside the orbit of New York City corrections, and two that are well known. Among the most immediate decisions facing Horn’s successor will be whether to continue pursuing Horn’s signature policy of decentralizing the city’s jail system. Horn believed that instead of housing most inmates at Riker’s Island, prisoners should instead be moved to jails near courthouses where they would have easier access to their attorneys and families. For this purpose, Horn has sought to double the size of a jail in downtown Brooklyn and to build a new jail in the South Bronx with an estimated

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“If Martin Horn had a relationship with City Hall, I don’t think a lot of this stuff would have happened,” Norman Seabrook said. “When you treat someone as a stepchild, sooner or later they’re going to stop doing their homework.”

A recent scandal at “The Tombs” in Manhattan has helped cast a shadow over the Department of Correction just as the longtime commissioner departs. By Chris Bragg

or most of Martin Horn’s six-year tenure running the city’s Department of Correction, the agency was perceived as a leading light of big-city jail systems across the country. Horn, the longest serving corrections commissioner in 50 years, worked to improve conditions in city jails, treat inmate addiction issues and reduce recidivism. But just as Horn is set to leave the job at the end of July to take a teaching position at John Jay College, the department has begun making all the wrong kinds of headlines, with, first, the murder of an 18-

year-old inmate at Riker’s Island and then a bar mitzvah thrown for an inmate at the Tombs. Defenders of Horn say these scandals unfairly tarnish his otherwise sparkling legacy. Nonetheless, whoever is picked to take Horn’s place will have to try to deal with the fallout, and critics say there are some lessons to be learned from his tenure. Council Member Letitia James (DBrooklyn) criticized the department for a culture of “see no evil speak no evil.” James said she believes that Horn did not do enough to change this. “There was a culture whereby members of the Correction Department

cost of $500 million. Community groups in the South Bronx have resisted the construction of the new jail, but the project is slowly proceeding. Meanwhile, the jail in Brooklyn has faced fiercer opposition, with community groups, joined by Comptroller Bill Thompson (D), filing a lawsuit opposing the expansion. A judge determined in March that an environmental review must occur before the Brooklyn jail can be expanded. Since then, the project has turned into a game of political football between mayoral opponents, with Thompson’s office holding up the project over a contractual issue. Randy Mastro, the plaintiff’s attorney, said the idea of expanding jails into neighborhoods was an unfortunate sea change in policy under Horn. Having a jail in the midst of downtown Brooklyn would slow economic development there, he said. “It’s a colossally bad idea,” Mastro said. “If the Bloomberg administration is so supportive of the concept of economic development, they should look at permanently closing this jail and further accelerating the regeneration of this neighborhood.”

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JULY 20, 2009

ISSUE FORUM

CITY HALL

TRANSPORTATION

The Third Way: Bus Rapid Transit For New York City BY JANETTE SADIK-KHAN

ew York’s economic growth, quality of life and environmental sustainability all demand we find new ways of getting around the City. Our transit system is overcrowded and in the midst of its worst financial crisis in nearly three decades. To address these problems, the NYC Department of Transportation and NYC Transit have developed a major addition to New York’s transportation network— the Bus Rapid Transit program. In today’s climate, we must look for transit service improvements that are cost-effective, and they must be delivered as quickly as possible. However, subway system expansion can take years, if not decades, and can cost up to $1 billion per mile. Bus expansion projects, in contrast, are relatively low cost, but until now have not been able to offer the speed or reliability of a subway. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a surface subway, offers a third way, with frequent service and less stopping, faster boarding and less time stuck in traffic and congestion. Buses

arrive every five to 10 minutes, stops are spaced about every half-mile, riders pay their fares at stations before boarding and buses receive an extended green at traffic signals and operate in their own lane. NYC Transit and NYC DOT are collaborating on the first phase of a rapid bus network of five planned routes. The first route, the Bx12 Select Bus Service, was launched in June 2008 on Fordham Road in the Bronx. The results have been striking: Travel times have decreased almost 20 percent and ridership has increased by more than 5,000 passengers per day. Based on this success, the City and the MTA are developing further projects for Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan’s East Side. Our first phase of projects are being implemented in areas that have the following characteristics: (1) in highdensity neighborhoods beyond easy walking distance of the subway; (2) where transit trips with high demand take more than 30 minutes; (3) near subway lines that experience severe rush-hour crowding; and (4) in growing neighborhoods with limited rail access.

For example, the Bronx’s Soundview neighborhood lacks rapid transit service, Brooklyn has limited east-west transit options, the Lexington Line is severely overcrowded and much of eastern Queens is underserved by transit. We have recently begun planning for a second phase of BRT projects that will improve our early work. These projects will build on features in place on Fordham road and include:

Brooklyn, has some of the longest average commuting times in the U.S.—often taking more than an hour and 45 minutes to get to work. As a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I know that many of these challenges are unfortunately not unique. Despite increased mass transit ridership, the current economic downturn has forced localities to scale back capital programs and slash services to meet growing budget deficits.

Addressing these complex challenges is going to take a major federal commitment to rebuilding our transportation infrastructure. We began this process through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included $64 billion of infrastructure investments. And, bang for the buck, nothing beats the return on transportation investments. In fact, it is estimated that every $1 billion in public infrastructure spending helps create approximately 37,000 jobs. New York received a significant injection of transportation dollars from the Recovery Act, including $1.1 billion for highways and bridges and almost $1.4 billion for mass transit, to support projects like East Side Access, the 2nd Avenue Subway, the Fulton Transit Center, as well as efforts in my district to renovate the entire D/M line in Brooklyn. But for anyone who has used our pothole-filled highways or aging transit network, you know that these stimulus funds are just a drop in the bucket. China and Europe are pouring billions and billions into their transportation networks, and we need to give our nation the modern,

• Improved bus lanes, including fully separated busways • High-capacity BRT vehicles such as three-door buses • “Next Bus” displays at stations • Payment systems that accept credit cards • Traffic signals that can give buses a head start through congested intersections Our agencies are meeting with elected officials, community boards, business groups, civic organizations, bus riders and other stakeholders. Later this year, we will select eight to 10 potential BRT corridors for further development. At the core of the planning effort for each corridor will be a community advisory committee. New York’s fortunes have long been tied to the success of its public transit system. BRT—green, fast and highly efficient—is the perfect match for our needs in the 21st century.

Janette Sadik-Khan is the commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation.

Investing In Mass Transit Is The Key To New York City’s Future BY REP. MICHAEL MCMAHON

ew York’s transportation network is the vital lifeblood of the city. From the creation of the Erie Canal to the construction of the subways, key infrastructure investments led New York City to become the nation’s most important trading port and largest city. Without our subways, our buses and commuter rail lines, the city would grind to a screeching halt. In fact, New York is the most transit-reliant region in the nation: almost 30 percent of all transit rides in the country are made by commuters in the tri-state area. Since the 1980s, transit officials have worked to bring the subway system back to a state of good repair. But there is still much to be done to meet this goal—not to mention the importance of investing in new transit projects that can increase capacity or lay the foundation for future economic growth. Additionally, many of us often find ourselves forced to endure grueling commute times. My district, which includes Staten Island and portions of

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

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

D8IKP

Vol. 3, No. 8

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January 2009

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intermodal system we deserve. That is why we are beginning the reauthorization process for the critically important surface transportation bill. Despite some administration concerns about timing, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is advancing an ambitious plan to redouble our commitment to public transportation. In particular, the draft proposal seeks to dedicate more resources to congested metropolitan areas, streamline construction timetables, eliminate duplicative programs and dramatically increase federal support for transportation with a $500 billion bill. But given that gas taxes will only support half the cost of the bill, there is a significant funding gap that will need to be addressed before this bill can move forward. Regardless of how this plan plays out, there is no doubt that the time has come for the federal government to establish a modern, comprehensive and far-reaching transportation policy. It is critical to our economy and to the quality of life of every American to repair what is broken, to invest in a modern transportation network and set our country on a path that will expand opportunities for economic development in an environmentally sustainable way.

Rep. Michael McMahon, a Democrat representing Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn, is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Working With: • NY City Department of Transportation • NY City Metropolitan Transit Authority • Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority

• NY State Department of Transportation • The Port Authority of NY/NJ • NY State Bridge Authority

Kieran Ahern • President • 718-639-1636 Dan O’Connell • General Counsel • 973-549-7160

CITY HALL

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JULY 20, 2009

In Rare Spat With Administration, Recchia Stands Up For Sitt Fight over Coney Island development dollars puts member at odds with mayor BY DAVID FREEDLANDER hen Domenic Recchia was elected to the Council in 2001—pulling just over 35 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary and then fending off a spirited Republican opponent—he pledged to his constituents that he would do something about Coney Island. The “Playground of the World” had been a blight on the landscape for decades. Weeds grew where rides once spun. The neighborhood had slowly become undone by grinding poverty. After years of waiting, Recchia’s moment has finally arrived. Later this month, the Council will decide the fate of the Bloomberg administration’s $133 million plan to revitalize Coney Island with a mix of hotels, housing and an expanded amusement zone—and, as Council tradition dictates, Recchia, the local Council member, will have the final say. “If I can divorce myself from my selfinterest in this, it is going to be fascinating to see what Domenic Recchia does or doesn’t do,” said Dick Zigun, a local activist known as the “Mayor of Coney Island,” in an interview at the Coney Island museum before a sword swallowing class was set to begin. “Hopefully he will rise to the occasion and be brilliant and launch his career to become a congressman or the next borough president after Marty Markowitz. It depends on how he navigates all of this.” As of press time, sources said a deal was rapidly approaching. The Bloomberg Administration has been a whirlwind of rezonings, remapping one out of every six square feet of the city in the last eight years. Administration officials say that the mayor is personally viewing a remade Coney Island as a major piece of his legacy. “This is the best opportunity we have had to do something in Coney Island,” said Seth Pinsky, president of the Economic Development Corporation. “It really is a question that in the worst economic downturn we have seen since the Great Depression, in a neighborhood devastated before that downturn, how can we responsibly not seize this opportunity to save an icon of the city, to grow the economy, to create jobs and create services?” One would expect that in this endeavor the mayor would have a partner in Recchia. He has closely aligned himself with Bloomberg (Ind.) and Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), and has so far refrained from endorsing Democrat Bill Thompson in the mayor’s race. Recchia, however, is being pulled in another direction as well. He is close with Joe Sitt, a real estate mogul and CEO of Thor Equities, which bought up key parcels

SCOOT WILLIAMS

In the struggle over the future of Coney Island, Domenic Recchia finds himself caught between developer Joe Sitt and EDC President Seth Pinsky. in Coney Island just as the administration was turning their attention there. In most rezonings, the local Council member positions himself as a fierce advocate for the neighborhood, squeezing concessions from the city on issues like jobs and affordable housing. In Coney Island, however, much of the negotiation to this point has centered around what price the city is willing to pay for Sitt’s land to realize their vision. The city offered $105 million for the land, over $10 million more than Sitt paid for it, but the developer turned them down. Administration officials and others involved in the process charge that Recchia has been an advocate more on Sitt’s behalf than for the neighborhood. “A deal involves the elected officials of Brooklyn saying to Joe Sitt that the future of this neighborhood is too important to try to hold the city up for,” Pinsky said, adding, “This is a plan that would basically go forward, but comes down to how much we are going to pay somebody of taxpayer money. It’s frustrating.” Sitt’s supporters say that the administration does not want him there because they prefer to have their own Manhattan-centric developers like Vornado, General Growth and Related. Though Recchia and Sitt are often referred to in the press as “childhood friends,” both men insist their relationship

dates back to much later than that, and is only professional. “I did not know Domenic Recchia in elementary school,” Sitt said. “I did not know him in high school. I did not know him in college. I know him through the Coney Island project. He reached out to me because he couldn’t get anybody else to develop Coney Island.” Recchia also denied that he is on the side of Sitt. “I am not doing no private developer’s bidding,” he said. “That is totally wrong. I am advocating for the people of Coney Island to make sure that we get our fair share and we get something done and that commitments that were made were honored.” Recchia pointed to the example of the Willets Point rezoning, where the city spent millions of dollars to relocate and retrain tenants, businesses and small businesses. Sitt, by contrast, would deliver the whole parcel to the city, and Recchia believes the developer should be compensated for doing so. “Thor Equities is saving the city millions of dollars. They assembled all this for you. Yes, Thor wants a number for his properties, but you also have to take into consideration what you spent at Willets Point,” Recchia said. “You made promises and commitments to Thor Equities that you are not living up to here.” Few South Brooklyn politicos doubt

that somehow, someway Recchia will be able to square these circles and emerge at a Blue Room press conference victorious, holding Bloomberg’s and Sitt’s and the tattooed arms of a sword swallower up above his head as they announce a deal. This is, after all, an Italian-American politician who is expected to cruise to re-election in a district dominated by Russians, Jews and African-Americans. He has only token opposition. Insiders see him as someone who deliberately plots his political path. He is close with the mayor in one of the areas of the city that the mayor is most popular. In 2006 he helped ease out an unpopular incumbent, Adele Cohen (D), from the Assembly and threw his support behind Alec Brook-Krasny, the first Sovietborn state legislator, endearing him to a growing part of his base. “People tend to underestimate his political talent,” said David Greenfield, involved with politics and the community in the area. “Is there an interest group out there that does not like Domenic Recchia? The Orthodox community loves him, the unions love him, liberal Jews love him. Who else can you say that about? He is someone who manages to walk away from situations with everybody believing that he is their friend. That’s a pretty significant accomplishment.” dfreedlander@cityhallnews.com

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Oncoming

TRAFFIC Carolyn Maloney swerves into the Senate race here is Carolyn Maloney, after throwing her back out from unloading another candidate’s posters from a car, laying on the floor of campaign headquarters that election night with her feet in the air, calculating vote tallies in her head as the results of each machine arrive. There is Carolyn Maloney, so caught up in a speech about getting people involved in Al Gore’s presidential campaign ahead of the 2000 primaries, suddenly declaring, “We’re going to charter a plane! And we’re going to fly to New Hampshire!” There is Carolyn Maloney, literally pulling campaign literature of opponents of candidates she is backing from the hands of strangers. There is Carolyn Maloney, who can boast of an extensive record of substantive bills passed in her 16 years in the House, but who still has many in the delegation more willing to call her a lightweight than a close friend. There is Carolyn Maloney, who has taken advantage of demographics and national trends to methodically oversee the reduction of the Republican Party in the Silk Stocking district into an organization that has readjusted to dreaming, maybe one day, of breaking 36 percent in any local election, Carolyn Maloney, a woman eager to show power by constantly exercising that power, still picking candidates for civil court and the executive committee of the Lexington Democratic Club. There is Carolyn Maloney, ripping into Kirsten Gillibrand broad and hard for voting against the two stimulus bills and for changing her positions on several core Democratic issues, sounding out her case on the fly as, “It’s the NRA, it’s immigration, it’s all these other things. In fact, I got a call from someone from Puerto Rico, said [Gillibrand] went to Puerto Rico and came out for English-

only [education]. And he said, ‘It was like saying n—r to a Puerto Rican,’” she said, using the full racial slur. “I don’t know—I don’t know if that’s true or not. I just called. I’m just throwing that out. All of her—well, what does she stand for?” There is Carolyn Maloney, a latently ambitious member of Congress who never expected to actually be running for Senate, but who people are starting to believe might just be crazy enough to go through with her run against the bareknuckled political player picked by David Paterson and backed by Charles Schumer and Barack Obama—and if all goes right, to wage another gleefully underestimated campaign that might just be crazy enough to work.

n those final days before Caroline Kennedy imploded, Paterson met with back-ups while down in Washington for the inauguration. Gillibrand, Rep. Steve Israel and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown were re-interviewed. Maloney, who had pushed surprisingly hard and even picked up some endorsements during the process she now will only talk about as “the thing,” was not invited. Four nights later, post-Caroline, Maloney was sitting in her Washington home, still holding out hope. Everyone knew the pick would be announced the next morning and speculation had already settled on Gillibrand. But in a decision fueled by equal parts anxiety, frustration and superstition, Maloney rushed to Union Station to catch a train for New York. Somewhere along the way, she missed a call from Paterson to tell her she was not getting picked. When they finally connected later that night, he pressed her to come to Albany along with all the other runners-up for the appointment announcement. She pressed him to tell her who his pick was. Neither said yes.

Though she kept up the façade of being interested in running over the next few months, the plan gradually developed that she would support someone else. Israel moved quickly to put his campaign together, and she was ready to endorse him before he called to let her know his decision to accept the president’s request to step aside. Israel was non-committal about what she and the other prospective candidates might do next. He still supported the idea of primaries, but he was not about to get mixed up with another one just yet. “I specifically told her that she should not allow my situation to define her situation, that she should make her own independent judgment,” Israel said, recounting the call. What Maloney heard was him encouraging her to run in his place. Unintended consequences have defined Maloney’s career. Increasingly active as an advocate in Spanish Harlem and as a staffer, she ignored warnings against entering a special election for City Council in 1982 in a district drawn to include Carnegie Hill instead of Central Harlem as a way of giving the lock to the leaders of Spanish Harlem. Several candidates ran. When the dust settled, the Latino candidates had split the vote. The barons of El Barrio suddenly had a Southern belle as their woman at City Hall. Still nurturing the obsession with the allocation of city money that originally drove her into politics, the new Council member began poring through contracts late into the night. She started harping on the approvals being passed and got thenCouncil Speaker Peter Vallone, Sr. to create the Contracts Committee for her to chair, delving deeper and deeper until she eventually started worrying about how close her investigations were taking her to mafia connections. Frightened to the

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

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www.cityhallnews.com point of sometimes wondering whether she could start her car safely, she went to see then-Police Commissioner Lee Brown about protection. “Don’t worry,” Maloney remembers Brown telling her as he pointed out the mob’s conservative attitude toward assassinating politicians, “they’re not going to kill me, and they’re not going to kill you.” The mafia was not the only enemy she had made. By then, the Dinkins administration was fed up with the problems she had caused, and in an attempt to stop her, they redrew her Council district for the 1991 election to include a much more significant piece of the reliably Republican Upper East Side. Maybe she would lose. At least she would be given a significant scare. Either way, they figured, they could get her to shut up. Instead, Maloney won by another safe margin, even with a primary challenger put up by a rival Assembly member. Meanwhile, the campaign forced her to make significant inroads to many new areas of a Congressional district that by then had already voted against Bella Abzug, Mark Green and Andrew Stein in

JULY 20, 2009

and the White House stepping in to scare Israel—and, with him, several other potential challengers—out of the water, Maloney has had the competition cleared to run against Gillibrand, and enough blowback from the D.C. bigfooting to give her more momentum than anyone would have guessed.

aybe the White House did not take her seriously, or at least did not take the idea that she would really abandon her seniority in the House seriously. Maybe it was because no one in the political office knew if she could be counted on to say yes to the president when he called. Or maybe, Maloney suggested, there was not really such a desperate desire to see her leave the race. “I’m not so clear the White House wanted it,” she said. “If the White House wanted it, why didn’t they get off their duff and call me?” Running now, she said, is simple common sense. “I consider myself cautious. I generally plan ahead,” she said. “Look at Moses. He was in the desert for what, 50 years? Because he didn’t have a plan. I always have a plan. I have a plan on how to pass Sept. 11 health. Has it been successful? I keep trying. I have a plan on the Second Avenue Subway and the East Side QueensManhattan connector. I have a plan on the CFIUS [Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States] bill.” Talking about the Senate race is no departure from that kind of caution. Just look at the polls, like Marist’s, released on July 1, showing her up 38 to 37, or Rasmussen’s, released July 16, which had her up, 33 to 27. But what has her really excited is the poll she commissioned from Doug Schoen, which showed her up 34 to 32 percent over Gillibrand on the straight horserace question, up 43 to 28 percent after respondents heard positive arguments about Maloney, and up even more, at 49 to 25 percent, after respondents heard negative arguments on Maloney and Gillibrand. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy’s consistent showing of just under a third of voters was good news, too—not only has McCarthy taken herself out of the running and said she would support Maloney, but their names are so similar that many people would probably pull the Maloney lever next September under the impression they were in fact voting for the heroic anti-gun advocate drawn into politics by the heart-wrenching murder of her husband on the LIRR. “On paper, the race looks very strong,” explained Richard Fife, the campaign manager Maloney has hired. But things are not so simple as that

Left out of the version of the internal poll provided to reporters was a question that asked whom they would vote for if they knew Gillibrand had the support of Schumer and Obama. Those people chose Gillibrand over Maloney 50-24. favor of the very popular Bill Green. And so came another unintended consequence. Maloney wavered on a final decision about challenging Green, not committing to the race until the night before petitioning. Even when she did, few Republicans were aware of her running, let alone taking her seriously. But she whipped up some effective campaign attacks, including a piece of literature with a graph showing how much federal appropriations to the city had declined over Green’s years in Washington—“74 percent, undisputed number,” Maloney still proclaims—and a line of “Who needs a member of Congress who votes against the economic interests of New York City?” Helped by Bill Clinton’s strong showing in New York that year, she narrowly edged out Green. In 1994, she dispatched Charles Millard—a handsome young Council member then seen as the bright star of the local GOP—by a 64-35 margin by simply hanging Newt Gingrich, elsewhere quite popular that year but reviled in New York, around Millard’s neck. And now, once again, another unintended consequence: With Schumer

portion of the poll might suggest. Maloney had Schoen pull the kind of probing questions that most candidates use to assemble baseline opposition research into themselves before moving forward. Instead, the poll presented her negatives by conflating Maloney’s votes on school choice, empowering law enforcement to fight terrorism and raising taxes into one question, and found 50 percent of those questioned saw that as a convincing argument against her. By comparison, 44 percent of people found a question about her being out of touch from living on the Upper East Side a convincing argument against her. The number of people convinced by other arguments the poll raised against her—that she has spent most of her energy fighting for the largely ignored Equal Rights Amendment, that she is a career politician and that she was passed over by Paterson—went steadily down with each question. Not that these are the kinds of things regularly considered negatives by Democratic primary voters, as opposed to the arguments presented against Gillibrand (of which there were more in the poll), including questions that pointed out that she is “too conservative,” “has not told the truth about her work for the tobacco industry,” and interned for Al D’Amato. No question, all these statements would be problematic in a Democratic primary if voters knew them. Whether Maloney will amass the money, resources and attention to make that happen, all while combating what Gillibrand throws at her, is much less clear. But the biggest problem discovered by the poll, according to one person

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who saw the results before they were made public, might be the responses to a question not included in the version provided to the press. Asked whom they would vote for if they knew Gillibrand had the support of Schumer and Obama, people chose Gillibrand over Maloney 50-24—no small factor given that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has so far stuck by the commitment to back Gillibrand, and Schumer will himself be up for election to a third term next year, allowing him to actively campaign with the junior senator at his side in neighborhoods where he runs strong but where she needs the boost. Many expect that Schumer could go so far as to jointly pay for commercials and other campaign promotions with Gillibrand (federal law allows this coordination), both lifting her popularity by constant association with him and enabling her to do even more with her increasingly sizable war chest. “By the end of the race, people are going to think her name is Kirsten Gillibrand-Schumer,” as one person closely watching the race joked. Already, the Gillibrand team is beginning to sharpen its knives for Maloney. They are preparing, as was going to be the case for Israel, to paint her as not liberal enough, though the lift will be much harder given Maloney’s consistent leftward record. Gillibrand will counter Maloney’s record and rhetoric of “before someone tells you what they’re going to do, ask them what they’ve done” by putting herself forward as the senator for New York’s future, an Obama-like candidate of promise and character not bound up in the mistakes of the past.

nce Rep. Carolyn Maloney gets into the race, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has been assuring people, the mass of politically ambitious East Siders will not let her turn back. Gillibrand would know. Up until moving north to run for Congress, Gillibrand was a politically ambitious East Sider herself, a member of the County Committee (appointed by Assembly Member Jonathan Bing) and a woman in search of an office. Had things gone just a little differently, Gillibrand might have been running for Maloney’s House seat, or perhaps for one of the other openings that will be triggered by the Senate run. The action would, of course, start with the competition for Maloney’s seat. And though State Sen. Tom Duane (who lives across town but represents Stuyvesant Town) has talked about running, and some

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Domino Effect O

Schumer’s Gambit

he benefits to Sen. Charles Schumer for promoting Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand are obvious: by helping lobby for her appointment and then forcing a reluctant White House to keep Rep. Steve Israel from launching his primary against her, Schumer has both won a grateful apprentice colleague and further established himself as the state’s top Democratic kingmaker. If things work out as he has engineered, he will have even more power over things than before. But with Rep. Carolyn Maloney apparently not getting the message, Schumer could all of a sudden have a lot on the line. Many in the delegation reacted angrily to his involvement so early in the primary cycle, and were livid that he pulled the White House in on his behalf. Whatever happens, they warn that there may be bad blood between the senior senator and the members of the House

Maloney will argue that she led the charge for years on behalf of the Sept. 11 health bill, while Gillibrand will point out that there was not the groundswell of support for its passage before she helped rewrite several of its provisions in signing on to be the lead sponsor of the Senate bill (with Schumer making sure she got the

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

delegation that could linger for years. “On this he may have overplayed his hand,” grumbled one dissatisﬁed member. “There’s resentment, and I think there’s resentment that he’s trying to have his cake and eat it too by telling some people he had no involvement and by telling other people that he orchestrated the whole thing.” Before the Israel incident, Schumer chance and the limelight for doing so at a perfectly timed moment to take a shot across the bow of Maloney’s nascent campaign). Gillibrand’s campaign will attempt to garrote Maloney with her own record, pointing out contradictions between promises and actions over the years, harping on her votes for the

would not be surprised to see a candidacy from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, most expect the main action to be among East Side officials. Bing’s hunger to succeed Maloney in Congress has been well known for years, and he was the presumed frontrunner to get the county committee nod for a special election had Maloney been appointed to the Senate. In an open election, though, Bing would not have the same insider lock on the seat, but would benefit from the connections he has built up over the past several years as the congresswoman’s top local political lieutenant, as well as his four terms as a popular Assemblyman from a district that lies completely within Maloney’s congressional district. Bing would have early strength, and may be able to claim at least the unofficial Maloney imprimatur. Initial conventional wisdom was that Bing’s presence in the race would keep Council Member Dan Garodnick from running, both because of their personal relationship—each was the best man at the other’s wedding—and because of the Council Member Dan Garodnick, State Sen. Liz Krueger and Assembly many constituents they share. But open Member Jonathan Bing (far right) are all likely contenders for Maloney’s Congressional seats do not come along House seat. Assembly Member Micah Kellner (center), meanwhile, is very often, and Garodnick may not be hoping to run for Krueger’s Senate seat if she makes the race. able to turn away from the race. He would

CITY HALL seemed less concerned about Maloney. Their relationship has never been warm: he feels she is not up to snuff intellectually; she feels he does not give her the respect she deserves. There is also some basic competition for the spotlight—when Schumer was reportedly working behind the scenes to keep Maloney from succeeding him as chair of the Joint Economic Committee last year, most people assumed that he was reluctant to have another powerful voice on ﬁnancial issues in the same media market. Maloney claims to have been unaware of those rumors and unconcerned about the expectation that Schumer will do whatever necessary to keep her from running or to punish her if she wins. “I didn’t go into politics to be threatened,” she said. There is even speculation that Schumer, whose interest in becoming Senate majority leader one day has become something of an open secret, might have put his future plans on the line by forcing the White House’s reluctant hand. If Rahm Emanuel has to hold to his promise to make Barack Obama a major factor in the primary and get the president linked to Gillibrand’s more Patriot Act and the Iraq War. Both, a Gillibrand advisor confirmed, will be made into issues in the campaign, even as they prepare to spar over who has had the more progressive-palatable record of rolling back funding or statutes in the years since. The C-SPAN clip with Maloney’s floor

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conservative record—and especially if Maloney continues to lead the polls, or even pulls off an underdog win—people in the West Wing could hold a grudge, if they do not already, and be inclined to influence a future conference vote. Meanwhile, by throwing down the gauntlet in New York, Maloney is in effect making an open challenge to his dominance. By staying in the race, she will open the door to others to ignore the silent threat of going against Schumer. Even if he thought more of her, even if he had not years ago fired her chief-of-staff Ben Chevat, even if he were not already extraordinarily competitive by nature, he would have a very good reason to do everything in his power to make sure she loses. For now, there does not seem to be much concern about his work on Gillibrand’s behalf. Schumer’s office responded to questions about what he thinks of Maloney running, or of how the situation so far has affected his standing with the rest of the delegation, with a simple statement from his spokesperson, Josh Vlasto: “Senator Schumer is working hard to ensure Kirsten Gillibrand is an effective, strong and successful senator for the people of New York.” —EIRD statement in casting her vote to authorize George W. Bush’s use of force could quickly become a mini-Internet sensation. Watch the video one way, and it is vintage “kooky Carolyn,” a somewhat rambling three minutes touching on her veteran brother’s birthday, a long quotation from Abraham Lincoln and a conversation she

have his base of support from a lifetime of living in and now representing the treasure trove of primary voters in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. And in what could be read as an interest in larger things than the Council, Garodnick recently joined the Council on Foreign Relations, drawing him into discussions at the organization’s Upper East Side headquarters that concern things somewhat farther afield than the 4th Council District. Garodnick also deferred speculation. Also in the mix is Council Member Jessica Lappin, who is likewise headed into a safe race for a second term in the fall. “Right now I am running for re-election to the City Council,” she said, “but if Carolyn decides to run for Senate, I will at that point evaluate the situation and take a look at the race.” Being a woman in a part of town that has often elected women might also give her strength. And most expect that if one of the East Side Council members gets in, the other will too—if only because neither would have to give up a seat to run. More importantly, with both seen as potential 2013 Manhattan borough president candidates, at the very least, the Congressional race could serve as a sort of advance intramural primary: whichever one does better could lay claim to being the East Side candidate, if and when Scott Stringer makes his anticipated mayoral run, which would leave his position open. State Sen. Liz Krueger could also benefit from the East Side’s love affair with female politicians if she decides to

JULY 20, 2009

had just had with the British permanent representative to the United Nations— before she almost breaks down in tears as she casts her vote. Not only did Maloney vote the wrong way, Gillibrand can argue to Democrats, but she did it in a way that hardly embodies bold, decisive leadership. Watch it another way, though, and the video documents a politician’s sincere (or masterfully acted) emotional attempt to put a bundle of conflicted thoughts into words. (Several years later,

Unintended consequences have deﬁned Maloney’s career. Maloney recanted her vote on the war, calling it a mistake. These days, she says she was swayed by Colin Powell and the other military men whom she believes were telling the truth to her, though she does not know if she can say the same of the Bush administration.) Fast forward to the campaign trail next year. In many respects, the two women are remarkably similar: both have gotten ahead in politics in races they were expected to lose, both have interpersonal styles that have won them more political successes than political friends. “Gillibrand will storm into a room, knock you out of the way, and not even make eye contact with you. Maloney will walk into the room, make eye contact with you, and then use an elbow,” explained one person who has worked with them

make the run, which many have begun to take as a given. An effective and popular legislator, she has expressed her frustration with Albany in light of the June 8 coup and its still-unfolding aftermath, but leaving the Capitol behind now would mean abandoning many of the efforts toward reform that were at the heart of her original rationale for running against Roy Goodman in 2000. “I am keeping an open mind,” she said. “I could make just as good an argument for staying in the Senate seat I have as I could for leaving it.” Should Krueger skip the House race, she will leave at least two people disappointed: both Assembly Members Micah Kellner and Brian Kavanagh have been circling around a run for the State Senate seat Krueger would have to vacate to run for Congress. And they will not be alone. Greg Camp, a liberal Republican who lost the special election that first sent Kellner to Albany, withdrew from a prospective race for Manhattan district attorney in anticipation of Maloney running for Senate, with plans to either seek Krueger’s seat or Maloney’s. Nor would the political dominoes likely stop there. Dan Quart, who ran against Lappin in the 2005 Council primary and was preparing to run for her vacated seat had she gone through with a public advocate race, said he plans to run for Bing’s seat if Bing runs for Congress. He could face Lolita Jackson, the Republican, AfricaAmerican woman who is the Manhattan director of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Community Assistance Unit. Of course, the district also covers parts of Queens, leaving some to wonder if a few of the elected officials

both. “It’s not like you have this huge contrast between likeable and unlikeable or great depth and little depth.” No one doubts Gillibrand’s performance throughout will be perfectly polished, erudite, pumping out answer after answer of reasoned, road-tested, compelling statements. Maloney, meanwhile—barring a major change of persona or consultant intervention—will be much like she was in that floor speech, armed with a number of firm talking points that go right for the gut, but powered more by an instinctual ability to seize voters at their cores. Some people will feel embarrassed by her. Some people will feel connected with her. Some people will feel smarter. Some people will feel like she is just like them. How many there are of each could go a long way in determining who wins the nomination. aloney knows she is going to be outraised and outspent. Even with the speculation about her Senate campaign rising in the last few weeks of the quarter, she put only $600,000 in the bank compared to Gillibrand’s $1.5 million (Maloney’s staff insists that the lower take is a result of her intentions not being clear or fullthroated before the deadline). She also knows that the main argument quoted for the Senate Democrats’ forcing the White House to shove Israel out of the race was to preserve money for more competitive general elections elsewhere around the country, given that the conventional wisdom has a New York primary costing at least $20 million. All the more reason for the candidates

from across the river might try to benefit from a multiEast Side candidate field. Council Member Eric Gioia’s name is the one most often mentioned, with the race seen as a natural back-up plan should his public advocate campaign fail this year. And there will almost certainly be non-politicians involved, with rumors swarming about former attorney general candidate Sean Patrick Maloney and Board of Regents Meryl Tisch running, and Doe Fund founder George McDonald openly considering a run. But in a race that has already drawn rumors of runs by Chelsea Clinton (who has privately deflated the idea) and Karenna Gore Schiff (who has publicly denied it), most people admit, the possibilities are endless. Maybe Kevin Kline will run? Or Emma Bloomberg? Barring a major self-funded candidate, though, the more candidates, the greater the advantage someone with an established constituency will be. Which means, most of those involved admit, that a massive street brawl is coming. “I think it’s good for the people, I think it’s good for democracy,” said Kavanagh. “And I don’t mind a little competition among friends.” But the bigger problem could come in 2012. New York is set to lose at least one, and likely two, congressional seats, which means that whoever runs could be looking at a two-year job or a run against Rep. Jerrold Nadler in a redrawn, crosstown district. That calculus could very well make a race most expect to be crowded much, much calmer. —EIRD

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ANDREW SCHWARTZ

ot long after he announced he was launching another campaign to be New York’s junior senator, Jonathan Tasini headed up to Saratoga Springs for the Democratic Rural Conference convention. He was the unexpected hit of the party. Rep. Steve Israel (D-Suffolk), then quickly putting together the pieces for his Senate run, greeted him with a hug. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan/Queens) took to him immediately, spending only a few minutes in conversation

to agree at the outset to a self-enforced spending limit. “I would go, ‘Let’s have public debates and not spend anything,” she said. “But I know she’s not going to go for that. So I thought $5 million be reasonable. Don’t you? I think that would be reasonable.” When pressed for details about the cap, she changed her mind. “Do you think $5 million’s reasonable or should it be $3 million?” she asked. “Maybe $3 million. I’m going to go for $3 million. I think $3 million’s more appropriate.” In the absence of such an agreement, and with the Gillibrand fundraising and political operations ramping up, some have suggested that Maloney might choose to self-finance. She had a reported household net worth of between $11.5 and $62 million last year, making her one of the wealthier members of Congress. She declined to discuss whether this had been considered as an option. “That’s a personal question. And, you know, it’s my husband’s money,” she said. “So you better call him up.” Reached at his office, her husband, Clifton Maloney, declined comment on the question. Meanwhile, the congresswoman is beginning, also somewhat on the fly, to craft statewide policy proposals beyond campaign ground rules. As a senator, she would plan to continue focusing on women’s and financial issues, saying she

is eager for the chance to push parts of her agenda that have floundered on the other side of the Capitol. More specifically, she wants to see a high-speed rail link not just up to Buffalo, but on into Canada, she said, and would like to see a new convention center built in Seneca Falls. Maloney’s larger proposal is to create a coordinated network between the state’s research centers, biotech companies and a new industrial base. Medicines and techniques are being discovered in the leading research centers already here, she explains, so the natural next step is to create the infrastructure to market and manufacture the discoveries in-state as well. Maloney approaches issues less focused on the details and more on the broad rhetoric and long-term tactics for how to get things passed. She tends to talk of both politics and policy in blackand-white terms: there is her way to go forward, and then there is the morally reprehensible, nonsensical, wrong option of not doing whatever she is discussing at the time. Depending on who is telling the story, her career is either the product of dumb luck or playing dumb—her fans sometimes compare her to Columbo, always pushing with just one more question that ultimately reveals that she knew what she was doing all along. Now, thanks to an accelerated timetable courtesy of the White House’s early intervention, Maloney has only

weeks to begin showing which one of these is right. So far, she has been doing a wily wink-and-nod, constantly implying that over the last six months, every politician who has spoken kindly of her, every person who has attended one of her events, every dollar that she

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

Tasini Redux

with him before turning to State Committeewoman Trudy Mason, who had introduced them to each other, and whispering, “he’s terriﬁc—we should really run him for something.” He is, of course, already really running, and unlike in 2006, when he waged a small but determined campaign against Hillary Clinton mostly in protest of her vote for the Iraq War, this year he has a four-person campaign operation (only one person is full-time) and is already doing fundraising calls every day. Though he knows he will never raise as much as the professional politicians, compared to Kirsten Gillibrand’s more public conservative positions, he said, his relative obscurity is an advantage. “It’s much harder to remake a negative image than to establish a new image,” he said. “She’s going to have to

spend $40 million to reset her image.” Just as he was the forerunner on the issue of protesting Clinton’s war vote in 2006, the labor activist and writer believes he is already emerging as the forerunner of economic populism ahead of the 2010 race, he said, laying out his case over a cup of coffee, his brightly colored striped socks peeking out from beneath his suit leg. In The Audacity of Greed, his book due out this fall, he will elaborate on the argument. While he does not rule out eventually endorsing Maloney or Suffolk County Legislature Majority Leader Jon Cooper, whom he had a four-hour meeting with a week before July 4—“I want the most progressive senator possible, but obviously, if it comes down to someone being a strong candidate… ,” he said, trailing off—Tasini said he worries about endorsing someone who might later drop out of the race. So as for Maloney, he said, “I won’t believe she’s in the final race until she files her petitions.” In the meantime, he plans to continue moves like the critical press release he fired off in response to reports that the congresswoman would consider voting for a health care bill that does not include a public option. “Rep. Carolyn Maloney Abandons New York Progressives” blared the subject line of the e-mail with the Jonathan Tasini for U.S. Senate logo. He is, at least for the moment, in it to win it, noting that he only needs to get 10 more percentage points than he did in 2006 to have a realistic shot at the nomination in a multi-candidate field. He also notes that he got more Democratic votes in 2006 than Gillibrand did (though, admittedly, he was running statewide and she was running in one congressional district). “At this point, short of Nelson Mandela becoming a U.S. citizen and getting into the campaign,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anyone who could make me leave.” —EIRD has raised, might very well be taken as an indication of the support she has going into a race against Gillibrand. This is not quite the case, and once she actually does announce—even if it is the more timid announcement of an exploratory committee rather than a

Maloney has a long road ahead in her run against the Democratic establishment, but with funding for the construction of more Second Avenue Subway tunnels and other signature projects secure, she seems confident she can proceed without major consequences.

CITY HALL full campaign—the game will quickly have to end. There will not be any more room for the ambiguity over things like the Bill Clinton fundraiser, which she without fail brought up in response to questions about Senate campaign’s mounting progress in the weeks leading up to the event, but when pressed about whether his attendance constituted an endorsement, said only, “You’ll have to ask him. He knows I’m running for Senate. He knows I’m running for Senate. I can’t, I can’t answer for other people. And it’s very difficult now because Mrs. Clinton is now the secretary of state. She is in a non-political position of great importance for our country.” She added, “I’m very close to both of them.” Underlying this and the Gillibrand camp’s rapid response to the news of the fundraiser by reminding everyone that the former president had done an event for the senator as well, is a grasping for at least the tacit approval of the woman who held the seat until January. Unfortunately for both, though, Clinton’s only demand for the appointee to her old seat—that the person picked had backed her in the presidential primaries, unlike Caroline Kennedy, whose “candidacy” she was viscerally opposed to—will be met no matter whether Maloney or Gillibrand wins the primary. But while former Clinton staffers have joined and left Gillibrand’s staff, the secretary of state will likely be too focused on international diplomacy, or at the very least, too wary of returning to the entanglements of New York politics, to provide either candidate with the massive game-changer endorsement that given to one could easily end the other’s viability in a primary. Which means that the Maloney campaign, despite delays that have been explained by everything from concern over how the Clinton fundraiser would appear to the news of Mark Sanford’s affair dominating the political headlines, is for real. Probably. Maloney always thrives on chaos, but these days have been more chaotic than ever. Surrounded by consultants who she has sometimes complained are pushing her into the race, staffers in her Congressional office worried about losing their jobs if she loses and a close circle prone to sniping at each other while all claiming to know her true thoughts, she has been determined to run and convinced she can win in the morning, then wavering again by the afternoon. No matter who she talks to about running, she almost always eventually admits that if things do not go well in the race, she has until the state convention next May to drop out and run for re-election to her House seat. There is a rough strategy being mapped out on the second floor of the converted East Side townhouse apartment that serves as campaign headquarters and over frequent conference calls. There is

www.cityhallnews.com not the level of staff hired nor the kind of intricate month-long schedule going forward from the announcement that Israel’s campaign had planned. Given the forces aligned against her and the money Gillibrand is raising, this inaction and indecisiveness could quickly become a problem, especially with concerns about how many years have passed since her last competitive election and the worry that on some level, she is stumbling into the race only out of boredom now that there are no other competitive local races that need her attention. But if she does get moving, the fact is that the overwhelming majority of the primary electorate is from New York City, that Maloney has decades of relatively high name recognition from a reliably progressive record, that Gillibrand really is—or was—further to the right than the vast majority of New York Democrats. Executed correctly, a Maloney for Senate campaign could prove more of a problem than anyone expected. And at this point, there may be no one but Maloney herself who can stop it from happening. On the one hand, Maloney has everything to lose. She is already chair of the Joint Economic Committee, and, considering her age (63) and the ages of those ahead of her in seniority on the Financial Services Committee (Chairman Barney Frank is 69, Pennsylvania Rep. Paul Kanjorski is 72 and California Rep. Maxine Waters is 70), she has an allbut-certain path to a gavel that has only grown more powerful in recent months with the government’s long-term stakes in private businesses. She is far from poor, and no one doubts she would land on her feet as the head of some foundation or advocacy group if she wanted, but ceding nine terms of seniority in Washington and the status as queen bee of the Upper East Side would not be easy. On the other hand, though some of her policy initiatives might suffer if she ran, with the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights signed into law already, much of the financing for the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access in place, and enough steam behind the Paid Family Leave Act and Sept. 11 Health Bill to give her confidence they will pass, there is not much to hold over her head. She is older than Israel and has more seniority, and there is less of a future political career to realistically be able to threaten her about impeding. And as just about everyone who knows her says, the surest way to get her into the race is for people to keep telling her that she cannot run and cannot win. She has heard that line before, in all the other races she was not supposed to be in and win. This time, unlike her other surprise upsets, they already see her coming. But she remains as confident as ever nonetheless. “I’ve never lost an election,” she said. “I don’t intend to start now.” eidovere@cityhallnews.com

JULY 20, 2009

THE

The weird and woeful mayors through hizz-tory

The Pirate of Peru When William Russell Grace became New York’s first Irish-Catholic mayor in 1881, he had other things on his mind. Namely, the Chilean Army was overrunning the Peruvian capital of Lima! The west coast of South America was embroiled in war! Peru’s territorial integrity hung in the balance! Run for the hills! Actually, Grace had good reason to be concerned with Peruvian affairs, far removed as they were from the mayoralty of New York. The new mayor had spent the previous three decades establishing such an economic influence over that country’s affairs that by 1881, he nearly owned the place outright. It wasn’t for nothing the guy was known as the “Pirate of Peru.” Unlike those New York mayors who generally William Russell Grace do not have pirate nicknames, Grace was a Democrat, 1881–1882, genuine, full-tilt adventurer. Born in Ireland, he 1885-1886 ran away from home at 14 and took to sea aboard a ship bound for New York. After a year in the city he would later run, he ended up in Peru, where the future mayor started a business selling provisions to ships harvesting guano off Peru’s coastal islands. Having proved a natural at supplying the bat crap trade, Grace moved on to shipping. By 1881, W.R. Grace & Co., based in New York, controlled much of Central and South American shipping, was a principal builder of railroads in Peru and Costa Rica, and had a large hand in the booming Brazilian rubber trade. As one might guess, this afforded the mayor some serious scratch. During his second term, Grace essentially paid off Peru’s national debt (a feat as yet unmatched by Michael Bloomberg) in return for massive silver mining, oil and mineral interests, as well as guano deposits and more railroads. Grace’s nomination for mayor was unique in that he was largely unknown, had no previous interest in politics and few political connections in the city. He also came in at a strange time for Democrats in New York. By 1880, the Democratic Party had splintered into various factions following the backlash against the Tweed Ring. Another faction, Irving Hall, backed Grace, hoping Tammany Boss “Honest” John Kelly would choose a different candidate. Turns out, Kelly took a shine to Grace, who got the nomination and bested Republican William Dowd in the general election. (Post-mortem note to Irving Hall: in the 1880s, putting up an Irish-Catholic candidate is not the surest way to keep your Irish-Catholic rival boss from rejecting him.) As mayor, Grace is most often remembered for accepting the Statue of Liberty from France during his second term. After leaving office, he continued to expand W.R. Grace & Co.’s South American empire, and was an early advocate for a canal through Nicaragua. It ended up in Panama instead. Today, Grace & Co. operates in 40 countries, including the U.S., and has reportedly been on the receiving end of 250,000 asbestos-related lawsuits tied to its mining activities. Currently, five ex-Grace employees are on criminal trial for the asbestos-related deaths of 200 people in Libby, Mont., a Grace mining town. In addition to the documentary Libby, Montana, Grace & Co. has also been honored on the silver screen in A Civil Action, the 1998 John Travolta vehicle about a ground-water contamination lawsuit against a Grace-owned company in Massachusetts. —James Caldwell

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JULY 20, 2009

Weingarten Departs

Hints Of Future Action Seen In New York Legacy Modulated tone in last few months in New York frustrates and impresses activists BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS ritics howled when Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind.) stacked the newly constituted Board of Education with several top aides, as well as supporters of Chancellor Joel Klein. But Randi Weingarten, the outspoken United Federation of Teachers head who had been a consistent thorn in the side of Bloomberg’s education agenda, did not add her voice to those critics. Instead, she stood right next to the mayor at the post-board meeting press conference, wearing a beige pant suit and smiling, while Bloomberg vowed to stay the course. This, of course, is the same Randi Weingarten who once accused Klein of “demonizing” teachers, butted heads with Bloomberg over teacher pay and accused both of “grandstanding” on their successes in schools. With her departure to Washington to assume her full-time duties as president of the American Federation of Teachers imminent, Weingarten toned down her rhetoric. And some say she does so with an eye toward making a graceful departure from the city where she has dominated the labor scene for over a decade. After the press conference, Weingarten defended her appearance alongside Klein and Bloomberg, her two occasional adversaries. “I do applaud—and you very rarely hear me say it that way—I applaud the actions of the mayor and of the borough presidents today,” she said, “because instead of contributing to the chaos, they took a step forward and said, ‘Our civic responsibility is more important than our rhetorical argument.’” But she has taken some hits in recent weeks for her decision to endorse a bill reauthorizing mayoral control with few of the checks and balances she previously demanded. Some of her critics speculated it was President Barack Obama’s support for mayoral control that most influenced Weingarten’s stance. Others say the shift was a tactful move by Weingarten to improve her union’s standing during the most recent round of contract negotiations. “With Randi Weingarten, like a lot of very smart politicians and leaders, it’s never about one issue,” said Steve Sanders, who authored the original mayoral control law when he was chair of the Assembly Education Committee. “Her temporary opposition

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

to the renewal of the law was probably also strategically calculated to help her leverage the matters she was dealing with at City Hall.” Hewing close to Bloomberg in her final days as UFT president probably will not cost her too much political capital, observers say. After all, Weingarten fought hard for her membership, negotiating a 43-percent increase in salaries and securing bonuses for teachers in schools where poor children show broad gains in test scores. Many teachers say they are grateful for the bump in compensation, but some say they still feel slighted by her about-face on reforming mayoral control of schools, griping about Weingarten losing some of her luster during her final months as UFT president. “We were looking to Randi to be a leader to us and to represent the sentiments of the teachers themselves,” said Lisa North, a teacher at P.S. 3 in Brooklyn and a member of the union taskforce to consider changes to mayoral control. “And that’s not what happened.” But as Weingarten prepares to decamp, many New Yorkers say her imprint on the city’s labor unions is just as big as her imprint on education.

Her colleagues in labor say she will be mostly remembered for her skills navigating the city’s political landscape, which should serve her well as she prepares to take on her national role full time. And while some were critical of Weingarten’s tendency to take her fights to the press, rather than confront her opponents face-to-face, they said that should serve her well in Washington, where unions are in need of a highly visible face to represent their interests. Lillian Roberts, executive director of District Council 37, noted that the vast differences between her and Weingarten’s union memberships often led to disagreements at meetings of the Municipal Labor Committee, but added that Weingarten had a rare ability to understand where other people were coming from. “We had the lowest-paid people in the city, and she had some of the highestpaid,” Roberts said. “And sometimes there would be differences. It was not recognizable by others, but I’d have to point them out, and I did in a very strong way. I would have to be very forceful and point out what it all meant. And she would recognize it.”

But even when they disagreed, Roberts and Weingarten would often end their monthly lunch dates with a friendly hug. “When we had differences, we had strong differences,” Roberts said. “Two strong minds.” Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association and Weingarten’s replacement as chair of the Municipal Labor Committee, said her greatest legacy has been her fight for increased teacher salaries—something any union leader would respect. “The main thing how you judge a labor leader is by the people that she represents,” Nespoli said. “I haven’t met a teacher yet in New York City that had a bad word to say about this girl.” Weingarten may be leaving behind some frustrated members, as well as some loose ends in the area of school governance. But she said she never anticipated tying up all the threads before the time came to push on to Washington. “Over the course of the last year, I’ve been trying to weigh when was a good time to leave. But there’s never a good time,” Weingarten said. “When you’re a New Yorker, you’re always leaving something undone.” ahawkins@cityhallnews.com

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, RANDI from the officers and staff of the United Federation of Teachers for your visionary leadership, your dedication to the children and educators of our city, your commitment to engaging communities and addressing the needs of children inside and outside the classroom, and for all that you have done for the members of our union New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s loss is the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gain OFFICERS: Randi Weingarten, President Michael Mulgrew, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President Michael Mendel, Secretary Mel Aaronson, Treasurer Robert Astrowsky, Assistant Secretary Mona Romain, Assistant Treasurer

VICE PRESIDENTS: Karen Alford Carmen Alvarez Leo Casey Richard Farkas Aminda Gentile

www.uft.org

CITY HALL

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JULY 20, 2009

Weingarten Departs

Good Luck Randi Weingarten

As Ms. Weingarten Goes To Washington, Expectations Run High

Job Well Done and Good Luck in Washington from

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

BY JOE WALKER ver a decade of heading the city teachers’ union, Randi Weingarten made a name for herself as a savvy political player. But as she leaves for D.C. at the end of the month, questions remain about whether she can carry those skills over to the national stage. “New York politics are all power politics: sharp elbows and infighting and quid pro quo are part of the game,” said Grover Whitehurst, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a former Department of Education official. “In Washington there is a greater premium on straight dealing and a public persona where you at least appear to be facing the issues head-on.” The job of a union leader is to promote the interests of her members, which can often lead to conflict with the goals of reformers. The UFT, for example, has been resistant to charter schools (most of which are not unionized) and merit pay for teachers. Yet Weingarten has shown flexibility on the hot-button issues, as in her eventual acquiescence to mayoral control, noted Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation in D.C. Her reputation as a strong-willed but pragmatic union leader has created some high expectations. “People see her as sort of the most exciting figure in teacher unionism today,

THE EXECUTIVE BOARD Of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association Local 831 IBT Harry Nespoli

President

Nicholas Pisano Jr.

Vice President

Michael Bove

Secretary-Treasurer

Anthony Lenza

Recording-Secretary

Anthony Rodriguez

Trustee

Thomas Bacigalupo

Trustee

Dennis Schock

Trustee

25 Cliff Street, New York, NY 10038 212-964-8900

someone who’s willing to compromise where necessary on education reform issues,” Kahlenberg said. “She’s trying to bridge the role of union leader and education reformer, which hasn’t been tried for some time.” If New Yorkers expect that having one of their own in D.C. will bring added benefit to the city, Andrew Rotherham, of the Education Impact think tank, says not to count on it. “One of the keys to her succeeding in the national role is not getting tied down to the stuff in New York,” he said. That might be hard when two of her legacies—a state law prohibiting the connection of student performance to tenure evaluation and the cap on charter schools—have been called out by President Barack Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan. These statutes might disqualify New York from applying for the $4.3 billion in stimulus funds available to states, Duncan has said. After years of brawling with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein over education policy, Weingarten will face an entirely new set of challenges in Washington. “I think she’s on a potential collision course with the reform agenda of the Obama administration,” said Whitehurst. “And that will be the test of her political skills and whether they translate between New York and Washington.” jwalker@cityhallnews.com

CITY HALL

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JULY 20, 2009

Weingarten Departs

New UFT Leader Takes His Seat As Head Of The Class BY AMY LIEBERMAN chool is out, but when Michael Mulgrew assumes his post as the United Federation of Teachers’ interim president on Aug. 1, a stack of homework will already be waiting: classroom overcrowding, meritbased teacher pay and approximately $400 million in public school budget cuts. Yet Mulgrew, 44, says he plans to spend his first day on the job not at the UFT’s 52 Broadway headquarters, but out among his constituents. “I’m going to go to a school, to talk to the teachers and talk to the students,” he said. “I always like to keep up community involvement, working with parents and advocating for students. We do a lot of that now and that’s what we need to do more of, to help the schools that are struggling and to figure out ways the UFT can support and help them.” This direct, concrete approach mirrors the veteran teacher’s style, colleagues say, and part of the reason why he was picked last month to succeed Randi Weingarten, the UFT’s president since 1998. Mulgrew says he is not underestimating his position’s challenges, and noted the need for the union to support teachers, who now must face greatly reduced budgets in a school system that has become increasingly decentralized. “Brand new principals are supposed to understand how to run their own multimillion dollar budgets and there is no one sitting there saying, ‘This is what you should be doing.’ We have to find a balance where we can provide these types of support that are not in place right now,” Mulgrew explained. In his new job, Mulgrew will find himself dealing with some of the hotbutton education issues of the day. Already, he is sounding off on many of them, even as some question how bold he will really be without the time in his position and stature that Weingarten possessed. He denounced individual merit-based teacher pay saying, “That is not good for education.” He supports the premise of mayoral control over schools, noting, “we will continue to advocate for that,” while questioning if mayoral control critics believe the “good ol’ days” of school board control were actually “good ol’ days.” People who have worked with Mulgrew during the years he spent in the public school system say he is a natural fit as head of the teachers’ union. Frank Carruci, the former UFT vice president for career and technical education, first met Mulgrew in the late

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New UFT head Michael Mulgrew 1990s, when he was teaching at Brooklyn’s William E. Grady High School. Carucci says Mulgrew—who generally works 16-hour days, now weaned off the 10 cups of coffee he used to down daily—instantly stood out as someone possessing a unique brand of leadership and dedication. “He is someone who really cared, and you don’t always get that. That’s why he has moved along so quickly and I’m sure that everyone is relieved he will fill this position.” Carucci said. Yet some critics remain unmoved by the new, tall, bald man in town, saying his perceived loyalty to the union and public education fails to mask his subservience and lack of originality. “He’s a good soldier,” said Jeff Kaufman, the former chapter leader of East New York High School and a UFT executive board member. “He has never had an opinion, and that is what makes him a good person to fill this position. He does exactly as he is told.” And though Lundahl says that UFT members are standing behind Mulgrew “100 percent,” one candidate, James Eterno, has already stepped forward to challenge him in the UFT’s presidential elections next spring. Eterno, chapter leader of Jamaica High School, says he expects Mulgrew to deliver more of the same, feeding the UFT “machine.” He remarked that he hopes to inspire actual, as opposed to “largely cosmetic,” modification in the UFT. Mulgrew, meanwhile, remains uncertain of the mark he hopes to leave on the UFT, but will generally strive, he says, to “leave the union as a better place, just like every other president has done thus far.” Direct letters to the editor to editor@cityhallnews.com

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JULY 20, 2009

Rock Realities

What sentencing reform does and doesn’t mean treatment, sidestep prison sentences and quickly return to their illegal activities, with the net result of a resurgence of violent crime in the city. Other law enforcement officials echo those fears. “It clearly will put criminals back on the streets,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a March 31 City Council hearing. Kelly added that because budget cuts have reduced the size of the NYPD at a time when terrorism is an added concern, “This is the worst time. It is clearly not a time to experiment.” At that same hearing, Bridget Brennan, the New York City special narcotics prosecutor (who declined to comment for this article) said the recent change to the Rockefeller drug laws “seems to have a lot for the convicted defendant. It doesn’t seem to have a lot for the community.” Even Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, who started the nation’s first prosecutor-run Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison program in 1990, based on the idea that “chronic offenders will return to society in a better position to resist drugs and crime after treatment than after spending a comparable amount of time in prison at nearly twice the cost,” pans the latest reforms. “They took away our discretion,” he says. “Foolish.”

THE BIG SCORE Each year, the NYPD seizes tons of illegal drugs. Much of the haul is shipped to an out-of-state incinerator that contracts with the city. Source: New York City Mayor’s Management Report

Heroin

Cocaine

Marijuana

Pounds of Drugs Seized by the NYPD 60,000

50,000

40,000

30,000

20,000

10,000

2007

2006

2005

2004

2002

2001

2000

1999

0 1998

Thirty-six years later, some of those onetime opponents are among the staunchest defenders of what’s left of the Rockefeller drug laws, which the state legislature and Gov. David Paterson reformed in early 2009 for the third time in five years. The judges, district attorneys and law enforcement agencies aligned against Rockefeller in 1973 were concerned that his laws, which imposed harsh mandatory minimum sentences on drug offenders and limited plea bargains, would clog the court system and hamper efforts to turn smalltime pushers against bigger narcotics traffickers. At the same time, the more traditional “soft-liners,” like the New York Civil Liberties Union, worried about the fairness of mandatory sentencing for most drug charges—especially the proposed life sentences for the most serious offenders, which, as a New York Times editorial pointed out, treated “a drug dealer more harshly than a murderer.” The most draconian of the Rockefeller measures were removed in 2004 and 2005, when the legislature erased life sentences for nonviolent drug felons, reduced the minimum penalty for the most serious drug offenses and doubled the weight of drugs required to convict defendants of the top charges. The newest set of reforms, passed into law in March, will give judges in the state’s drug courts total discretion—in cases involving most felony drug charges—to place nonviolent defendants in courtapproved treatment programs instead of prison as long as it is the defendant’s first or, in some cases, second offense. Offenders facing charges for property theft and other nonviolent crimes that are determined to have stemmed from their

1997

A selection from

1996

n May 8, 1973, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller signed into law what he called “the toughest anti-drug program in the nation” and then congratulated himself and the legislators who stood fast “against this strange alliance of vested establishment interests, political opportunists and misguided soft-liners who joined forces and tried unsuccessfully to stop this program.” Pushed by reporters to identify this “strange alliance,” the governor included the state’s district attorneys and some police officials as having opposed the new laws.

addictions are also eligible for diversion programs. Some people already in prison on drug charges can apply for new sentences under the reforms. In the past, the prosecutors’ offices alone got to choose which defendants would be eligible to participate in drug court. Now judges have that power in a wide swath of cases. And that’s what has the opponents of this latest reform upset: the idea of prosecutors’ authority being usurped. “Why would you take away our power?” asks Richmond County District Attorney Daniel Donovan, who is also president of the New York State District Attorneys Association. “There are going to be times when the judges are not going to know what we know about somebody, but we’re not allowed to talk about it in open court,” like, he says, a guy arrested for drugs who is also a suspect in two homicides. “The people in the best position to be able to identify who should go into treatment and who deserves jail are the prosecutors.” Donovan says the district attorneys’ association’s “biggest fear” is that drug dealers are going to finagle their way into

1995

BY SEAN GARDINER

The predictions of a crime explosion are not new. Gabriel Sayegh, director of the State Organizing and Policy Project at the Drug Policy Alliance Network, a nonprofit drug law reform organization, says anti-reform legislators and law enforcement types tried playing the fear card during the debate over the 2004 reforms to the Rockefeller laws. The reforms passed. “It was the same type of ‘There’s going to be hell to pay’ stuff, but of course, nothing happens,” says Sayegh. Approximately 1,000 inmates were eligible for resentencing in 2004 and 2005. About half of them were released, and the recidivism rate turned out to be only 2 percent. Crime continued to decline. But the district attorneys aren’t the only critics of the law that emerged this year. Some reform advocates feel it does not go far enough. While supportive of the reforms, the Correctional Association of New York notes that “Over 10,000 drug offenders will be left behind bars without an opportunity to appeal for a reduction in their prison term.” Randy Credico, one of the cofounders of the New York Mothers of the Disappeared, a group that Sayegh credits with starting the ball rolling on the Rockefeller reforms, says the current reforms did not address the fact that judges can still sentence someone to up to nine years for possessing trace amounts of cocaine or heroin. “They needed to blow up the whole system,” Credico says. “Just repeal [all the drug laws] and start from scratch.”

2003

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Drug courts face a big test

fter the Rockefeller drug law reforms were passed in March, Brooklyn Treatment Court judge JoAnn Ferdinand’s phone started ringing off the hook. “We’d been doing this for 12 years, and suddenly everyone wants to know about this new court thing we’re doing in Brooklyn,” Ferdinand says. The interest from reporters and court officials was sparked by the fact that drug courts have been made a centerpiece of the reforms. Drug felons who might have faced a mandatory prison sentence under the old laws might now, if a judge approves it, get diverted to a treatment program administered by one of the state’s 175 drug courts (another 23 are also in the planning stages). The details of how the new system will work are still up in the air, but what happens every day in Brooklyn Treatment Court might be the model. People arrested in Brooklyn for felony drug possession or sale who meet a list of eligibility criteria for the treatment court are chosen by the district attorney’s office to participate. They are given the option of pleading guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge and entering a court-approved drug treatment program. The defendants who comply with the court-mandated treatment have their charges dismissed. The length of the treatment program is a year, based on a schedule of advancing every four months to a new “phase.” But because most of the participants run afoul of one rule or

another and have time added to their treatment schedule as a sanction, the average graduate typically takes about 18 months to finish, Ferdinand says. From June 6, 1996, when the treatment center opened, to June 30, 2008 (the date of the most recent statistics), 3,809 people arrested for drug felonies in Brooklyn have participated in the program and 1,902—about half—graduated and had their cases dismissed. Thirty-five percent failed and had sentences imposed, and another 5 percent stopped attending treatment and had warrants issued for their arrest. Nine percent were still receiving treatment as of last June. The court operates as a “collaborative team” including the judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, clinical staff and even court officers. Most of these players are permanently assigned to the drug court. There are also eight social workers, a doctor who does health screening, an employment coordinator and a computer learning center. There’s a clinical center on the floor below the courtroom in which program participants are screened for 10 different drugs every time they come to court. The screening machine also tests the samples for temperature to detect fake samples. Francisco Colon, a case technician, says people try a million ways to beat the test, including using the Whizzinator, a kit that includes dehydrated urine, heating packs and a fake penis. Colon recalls that one time a faker’s Whizzinator, which is supposed to keep the urine at body

Go to www.citylimits.org to learn more about these issues, and to obtain a copy of the full article

Over the past three decades, the pattern of narcotics arrests in New York City shifted dramatically. Misdemeanor arrests soared as felony busts declined. And marijuana arrests went from a minor aspect of enforcement to a dominant factor.

Heroin

60,000

Cocaine

Marijuana

Crack

50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 2000

Courtroom Drama

1989

Source: New York State Department of Correctional Services

1998

2008

2005

2000

1995

1990

1985

1980

1975

1970

1996

10%

1995

10%

1994

20%

1993

25%

1992

30%

1991

30%

1990

Drug Convicts Among New York Prisons

40%

1989

In 2008, 12,000 people were incarcerated in New York State on drug charges— one in ﬁve state prisoners. Over the past 40 years, the share of state prison cells occupied by people convicted of drug crimes rose sharply in the 1980s, then fell from the late 1990s onward as the NYPD increasingly focused on low-level drug criminals who don’t usually do state prison time if convicted.

1988

DOING TIME

JULY 20, 2009

40 percent of those referred were rejected by the courts as unfit for treatment. The city’s drug court system is currently a hodgepodge of three misdemeanor courts, three felony courts and a court that handles adolescent felony cases. And each court has its own sets of rules, policies and tendencies. In Brooklyn, for instance, the DA won’t allow anyone into the program who has previous arrests for “offenses against public order,” which include loitering. The DA also nixes any current cases that involve search warrants, drug sales during school hours near schools, any sale made indoors or “any drug sales occurring through the use of a beeper.” Manhattan Treatment Court will accept no one with prior felony convictions. The Bronx and Queens drug courts are for misdemeanants only, while Staten Island’s is exclusively for felony offenders. Glenn Martin, vice president of the Fortune Society inmate services agency, worries that drug courts treat a defendant’s failure to maintain his treatment program as grounds for punishment. “Drug addicts fail most of the time,” Martin says. “Relapse is part of treatment.” Even for fans of drug courts, there are questions about the courts’ ability to handle any significant caseload increase and how that will be funded. In 2007, when there were more than 112,000 drug arrests in the city, only about 1,000 defendants were accepted into all the city’s drug court programs. Greg Berman, director of the Center for Court Innovations, a nonprofit think tank aimed at improving the performance of the court system, says it’s hard to predict the effect of the Rockefeller reforms on drug courts. He notes that with the threat of prison reduced for these offenders, it’s an open question whether they will obey their court-imposed treatment plans.

temperature, malfunctioned. “It was 120 degrees,” he says with a laugh. On March 31, Brooklyn Treatment Court alternately resembled a toneddown episode of Judge Judy and an Narcotics Anonymous meeting. After each case was called, Ferdinand greeted the defendants and asked how they were doing, as she scanned the defendant’s urinalysis, treatment attendance and discipline records on the court’s computer system. “Are you taking your medicines?” “Tell me about this curfew violation.” “You have not been truthful about your employment, have you?” A guy who hadn’t showed up to treatment in four months and had been arrested in the interim was sent to prison for 18 months. Another guy was caught “water loading,” drinking a lot of water, trying to beat the drug test. He was ordered to retake the test the next day. But for the most part, it was a positive day in drug court: A 20-year-old who is starting his second semester at Kings College tells the judge he’s planning on studying philosophy; a woman receives a certificate from Ferdinand for being drugfree for four months; and even Richard Martino, perpetually on the verge of having the judge send him off to prison, appears to have finally turned the corner. “I feel good, Your Honor,” Martino answers with a smile. Then, unsolicited, he tells Ferdinand, “I’ve got to say ‘Thank God,’ you know, and ‘Thank you.’ You didn’t give up on me. You should have given up on me a long time ago, but you didn’t.” But while drug law reformers see drug courts as preferable to prison, the courts do have critics. Drug courts can be extremely selective in choosing defendants to participate, perhaps in an effort to boost their success rate: In 2007, the city’s drug courts were referred a mere 7 percent of drug cases, and some

1997

CITY HALL

Source: NYPD “Arrests and Complaints,” which stopped publishing after 2000

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JULY 20, 2009

Campaign Rollout

No word on why his bid was turned down. Mostly, though, he said his disappointment with the mayor stemmed from his extension of term limits last year. “The voter referendum said two times,” Iwachiw said. “He’s rewritten the law.”

District 1 Council Member Gets H1N1

Shortly before releasing his latest accountability report, Mayor Michael Bloomberg shows off his pitching skills at the Goodhue Camp on Staten Island.

Bloomberg Pays The GOP Pipers, But Skips Staten Island

long history of supporting party building activities.”

Thinking about running for mayor? Need a ballot line? Have $100,000 lying around? You’re in luck: The New York City Republican Party has an opening, and wants to hear from you. Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut checks for as much to the Manhattan and Queens Republican committees in April, in $50,000 installments, according to the most recent state Board of Elections filings. The donations came at the height of the mayor’s bid for the GOP ballot line. At the time, Manhattan and Queens were two of three holdouts among the city’s five Republican county committees. Oddly, the three other county committees—Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx—showed no contributions from the mayor during the same period.

Bloomberg’s GOP Opponent Rails On

Bronx chair Jay Savino and Brooklyn chair Craig Eaton could not be reached for comment on the lack of Bloomberg dough in their coffers. As for Staten Island, the check might just be in the mail. “I have no comment about any donation that may or may not have been made to the Staten Island Republican Committee at this time,” said Staten Island chair John Friscia when asked about the donations. Bloomberg, according to campaign spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker, “has a

Republican Walter Iwachiw is running against Michael Bloomberg for mayor. Or, if you ask Iwachiw, things are really the other away around. “I’m the Republican,” he said, collecting signatures outside the Metropolitan Republican club, the Manhattan GOP’s headquarters. “So then, he’s running against me.” Iwachiw has been causing problems for city Republicans by encroaching on their turf during the petitioning period. He was thrown out of the Met club for coming to an event there and trying to collect signatures for his own campaign. He returned a day later, on July 7, to canvass the sidewalk outside a petitioning party sponsored by the Bloomberg campaign. Manhattan GOP pleaded with him to leave—or at least move down to the corner—but, with a reporter and a photographer on site, were reluctant to exert force when those efforts failed. Several Republicans signed Iwachiw’s petitions as he arrived at the Met club, not realizing he was unauthorized by GOP leaders. He described himself, in addition to owning an information technology company, as a “registered nurse, nursepractitioner and doctor.” He has run for the Green Party’s mayoral nomination in the past. Iwachiw billed his effort on July 7 as a “Counter-Bloomberg Petitioning Drive.” He said he was angry at the city for, among other things, denying bids he had placed through a company he runs to provide information technology services for the new World Trade Center site.

Everyone was wondering where Council Member Alan Gerson (DManhattan) had gone. He did not show up at two fundraisers thrown for him. He canceled a long-awaited hearing of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee. It turns out Gerson had a pretty serious reason for his absence: He had the swine flu. “He’s doing fine,” said campaign manager David Hartshorn. “Now that he’s over the flu, we’re getting all around the district.” Despite being back in action, Gerson is still lagging behind two of his opponents in fundraising—he raised $54,000 through the latest campaign filing period—so he will have a smaller initial payout in matching funds. Gerson did not receive a campaign donation between June 25 and July 11, according to his campaign finance filing, which coincides with the period he was ill. Nonetheless, Hartshorn said he was still confident Gerson would max out his fundraising, and that the fundraisers had gone relatively well without Gerson. “We got started late, which was our fault,” Hartshorn said. “But we’ve been doubling it every filing.” Gerson has also recently had some tough luck with union endorsements, with the DC 37 endorsement going to opponent P.J. Kim. Meanwhile, the Working Families Party has declined so far to make an endorsement in the race. A source at the party said that Gerson’s vote to extend term limits was a factor in not endorsing him, but that none of his three opponents stood out enough to throw the party’s support behind them either.

Architect For God Has Designs On City Hall Before He Gin Lee, a noted church architect from Queens, decides on the final design of a new house of worship, he takes three days to pray for guidance and inspiration. Lee relied on this same divine strategy before embarking on his long-shot campaign for mayor. “I’d like to make a beautiful city,” he said. “That is my goal.” While most voters will likely overlook his candidacy, Lee says he is motivated to run by his loyal supporters, many of who are parishioners of churches he has built. Posters featuring Lee, looking stoic in a pin-stripe suit, have begun popping up all over the Korean-dominated neighborhoods in Flushing and Midtown Manhattan.

CITY HALL Lee says he will run in the Democratic primary. He has registered with the Campaign Finance Board, but is listed as a non-participant, making him ineligible for matching funds. In a race dominated by Michael Bloomberg’s willingness to spend millions of dollars to be re-elected, Lee says modesty may be the key to winning. “I don’t think too much money is needed,” he said, “because a lot of church members already give me a lot and petition a lot.” He added: “They love me, because I’m a poor man. Michael Bloomberg is rich, but I am very poor. I’m a humble guy.” Named “Architect of the Year” in 2004 by the New York City Chamber of Commerce, Lee says he is confident that his reputation as a god-fearing man with a love of beauty will propel him to City Hall. “I’m going to pray to god. God power is unlimited, you know that,” Lee said. “That’s why I believe in my god. He’s going to help. That’s why I’m not worried who is the richest, I don’t care about that. I have power.”

Seven Years After Sowing Gay Discontent In Queens, Van Bramer Reaps A Snub When the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens recently chose to endorse Deirdre Feerick in the race to replace Council Member Eric Gioia (D-Queens), the move seemed odd on the surface. That is because Jimmy Van Bramer, who is running against Feerick, is trying to become the first openly gay Council member from Queens. But a longstanding feud between the club and Van Bramer helps explain the rift. After Van Bramer ran for the Council in 2001 against Helen Sears—a race during which the club provided him money and resources—Van Bramer nonetheless soon founded a rival Democratic club, saying that the LGDCQ was not open enough to diversity. (The seed money for the club was provided by then-Council Member Hiram Monserrate.) The club—called the Guillermo Vazquez Independent Democratic Club of Queens—soon fizzled. But a rift between Danny Dromm, who founded the LFDCQ, and Van Bramer continues today. Ironically, each is now running in adjacent districts to become the first gay city councilman. Larry Menzie, the spokesperson for the LGDCQ, said Van Bramer could have worked his way back into the club’s good graces, but chose not to, showing back up at the club last spring for the first time in years to ask for the group’s endorsement. “He had seven years to work on gaining back the support of the club and he didn’t,” Menzie said. “We did everything we could for him during his Council race. Clearly, this was a battle that was started by Jimmy.” —by Chris Bragg, Sal Gentile and Andrew J. Hawkins

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Retail Politics

or a soft-spoken guy, Stuart Appelbaum has been making a lot of noise lately. The head of the powerful 100,000-member Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, Appelbaum decided to come out of the closet earlier this year, in an effort to personalize the issue of gay marriage for members of the Senate. More recently, Appelbaum was the swing vote that gave the Working Families Party’s mayoral endorsement to Comptroller Bill Thompson (D), despite intense lobbying from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (Ind.) campaign. Sitting in his office, he discussed why he ultimately chose to back Thompson, what the Bloomberg campaign did to try and woo him and what finally convinced Appelbaum to put his private life in the spotlight. The following is an edited transcript.

City Hall: What was the determining factor in your endorsement of Thompson? Stuart Appelbaum: I think that the most important factor for us was who was going to promote the interests of working people in the city. If we create jobs that keep people in poverty, we’ve accomplished nothing. We felt that Bill Thompson’s approach to economic development recognized that working people in the city are hurting and something needs to be done about that. I also worry about our democracy and the role that money plays in our democracy. I think that the process is very important, and we have to find some way to minimize the effect that money has in determining what the results will be. I’d like to think that points of view need to be heard and not be drowned out by another side that has overwhelming resources. CH: In terms of economic development, what specifically has the mayor done that you disagreed with? SA: Right now, we are fighting in Kingsbridge over the Kingsbridge Armory. And the Related Company is saying that if people received living wages, which means that if they work full-time for $21,000 a year, that would be too much. We are arguing that the city has the right to demand standards from developers, that if they are going to benefit from the tax exemptions or any other largesse of the city, there should be responsibility to give back to the city, to give back to the communities. The Related Company, for instance, is going to receive approximately $15 million in tax benefits. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that they create jobs that are meaningful to the community.

wanted the Independence Party line. I see no rationale for doing that other than for a purely Machiavellian—I don’t want to use that word—a purely political calculation. There are many concerns about the people who are running the Independence Party in New York right now. I would say there are many questions about the role that Lenora Fulani and Fred Newman played in New York City politics. And I would have thought that the mayor would not have associated himself with them. CB: How do you think the gay marriage debate will play out? SA: I’m actually confident that there are votes to pass marriage equality in the state when it reaches the floor. I would think that people’s human rights are not something to be negotiated the way you do the size of a fare increase. And I would expect that the bill will come to the floor and be signed—I’m pleased that the governor has gone as far as he has and supported the bill. And it’s something that affects a lot of members of my union and of all unions. It’s human rights. We were active in the civil rights struggles a few years ago, until today, and we’re also active in the fight for marriage equality.

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

JULY 20, 2009

Stuart Appelbaum has been the center of attention recently, both in the fight over gay marriage and as the swing vote in the Working Families Party mayoral endorsement. CH: How did the Bloomberg campaign try to win your vote? SA: The week of the Working Families Party vote, the deputy mayor’s office set up a meeting for me with someone in the vice president’s office to talk about proposed boycotts against Israel, how to respond to them. They knew that that was something I’ve been involved in. And I hadn’t asked for the meeting, but I appreciated the meeting when it was first proposed. And the meeting was set up. The meeting was set up by the mayor’s office a day or two before the Working Families Party vote. A time was set up, the location was set up. CH: What happened after you voted for Thompson? SA: My office received a call from the mayor’s office saying that the meeting was cancelled. And so we called up the vice president’s office and asked why the meeting was cancelled. And they said that they had received a call from the mayor’s office that morning telling them that the meeting was no longer necessary. I was really surprised. I think that what the mayor was doing in relation to boycotts with Israel should not have been for his own political advantage. And I don’t really think that if you don’t like the way I voted, you don’t punish the people of Israel as a result.

I don’t really think that if you don’t like the way I voted, you don’t punish the people of Israel as a result. CH: The Bloomberg campaign has said that you pledged to support them and then changed your mind. Is there any truth to that? SA: That’s not true. I haven’t heard that—but a couple of people have heard that from the campaign. That’s not true. I don’t know what grounding there is. But I know the thing they’re very upset with is what my union did. I have been speaking to both candidates, both major candidates, throughout the year and my focus has been on economic development.

CH: Do you see a schism between the non-partisan political image Bloomberg projects and his campaign tactics? SA: I think that the mayor is a very engaged politician. And I think we have seen that with the way he received the Republican Party endorsement. I was particularly upset, and I told the mayor’s people that I was upset, that he

CH: Why did you decide to come out of the closet at this time? SA: I came out to make a political statement. I’m 56 years old. I don’t know how much difference it’s going to make, but I got a beautiful note yesterday from Hillary Clinton, which really moved me. She’s the best. And, you know, I was trying to push the bill forward by giving my own personal example. I’ve spoken to a number of state senators about my own personal situation and why it’s so important that it passes this year. The reason I came out was because of marriage equality. CH: Is there any dissension over gay marriage within your union? SA: If there is dissension, it hasn’t come to me. We’ve been involved in a lot of social issues. I got more of a negative response from a lot of people when I negotiated Ramadan as a paid holiday in a contract, the first contract in the United States to recognize Eid ul-Fitr as a paid holiday. After that, my name was included in a lot of blogs and elsewhere saying I was leading to the Islamization of the United States. There were people on Fox News criticizing it. Radio hosts talked about it. There was a lot of negative commentary, which I found amusing because I’m also head of the Jewish Labor Committee. But I really think that when we respect other people’s rights, we’re respecting all people’s rights. I keep in my office one poster, and it says, “Justice, justice thou shalt pursue.” And it’s a quote from Deuteronomy. And in Hebrew it’s, “Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof.” And what’s really interesting about it is that the Bible is known for its brevity of language, and it’s the only place anywhere in the Bible that a word—“Tzedek” (“Justice”)—is repeated. And I think that’s moral imperative for us that we have to pursue justice in all its permutations. CH: Do you have any regrets about putting your personal life out on public display? SA: I was very comfortable in the closet, but I felt that I couldn’t very well talk about pursuing justice for other groups and exclude justice for the LGBT community. And, you know, I felt that I had a responsibility to come out if I could be of any help. — By Chris Bragg cbragg@cityhallnews.com

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