POLITICS MAKES DIRTY MINDS

Politics Makes Dirty Minds

Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 of District Council 37 has long been referred to as a "crazy" local because of the contentiousness of its large and vocal contingent of activists, who fall into three or four political camps and sometimes change sides.

It is not that surprising, therefore, that one activist's remarks suggesting that DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts had become a supplicant to Mayor Bloomberg rather than standing up to him spurred a dispute led by Ms. Roberts's supporters at the Guild.

But even by Local 375 standards, new territory was carved out - and not in a positive way - by the approval of a resolution condemning the Roberts critic, Mitchell Feder, for allegedly using degrading sexual innuendo about DC 37's leader.

According to Mr. Feder, he said Ms. Roberts was "in the Mayor's pocket," "has a tin cup in her hand" and "is on her knees." Another union official, he said, interjected that the DC 37 leader was "in bed with the Mayor."

Those remarks led one Guild vice president, Michelle Keller, to draft the resolution, which was approved by delegates by a 43-35 vote.

Mr. Feder's comments, while hardly flattering, seem unambiguous: he was accusing Ms. Roberts of not being aggressive enough in dealing with City Hall. Even the comment he claims he didn't make, about her being "in bed" with Mr. Bloomberg, suggested a cozy relationship rather than a sexual one.

To our knowledge, no one has ever called Ms. Keller dumb. And so her resolution, and its approval by a majority of delegates, should be viewed as a political hit by one union faction against another as they gear up for elections later this year.