|
FOR THE RECORD FOR THE RECORD Nobody ever confused Peter Kalikow with Jennifer Holliday, the show-stopper in the Broadway hit "Dreamgirls," but the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman sang his opening chorus of "And I'm Telling You, I'm Not Going" last week.The occasion was his reappointment by the State Senate to a new six-year term, one that is expected to end about 5-1/2 years early when a new Governor takes office. Mr. Kalikow answered in the negative, however, when asked during the hearing whether he would resign if asked by whomever replaces George Pataki as Governor, saying he viewed his employer as "the people of the State of New York ... as long as I thought I could serve them well, I would stay." State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the man widely presumed to be the next Governor, apparently wasn't impressed by Mr. Kalikow's sudden burst of populism. He said through a campaign spokeswoman that he hoped the MTA Chairman "will allow the next Governor the opportunity to appoint someone new to enable the leadership change that is drastically needed at the MTA." Veteran political consultant George Arzt said that if Mr. Spitzer was elected, there was little question that Mr. Kalikow would soon be sent packing, new term or no. "I've never heard anyone try to stay over," he said. "Everyone knows you serve at the pleasure of the Governor, and Eliot has been talking about a reorganization" of the MTA. Marty McLaughlin, a consultant and lobbyist who has long been an adviser to Mr. Kalikow, said the MTA Chairman was standing his ground to ensure that the new Governor proceeds with projects that he's championed. They include the 2nd Ave. Subway, the East Side Access project, the extension of the 7 line down to 34th St., a new 1 line station at the Manhattan terminal of the Staten Island Ferry, and the rebuilding of the Fulton St. station complex. "He likes it a lot," Mr. McLaughlin said regarding Mr. Kalikow's feeling about his job. "And he really wants to know that the projects he's busted his ass for are going to happen." Of course, any new Governor could reverse that sort of pressure by letting Mr. Kalikow know that he would ax one or more of the projects unless he departed swiftly. *** A member of District Council 37's Civil Service Technical Guild was given a tongue-lashing at last week's delegates meeting for a supposedly lascivious comment he said he didn't even make involving DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and Mayor Bloomberg. In a speech pounding Ms. Roberts's leadership, Mitchell Feder, president of the Housing Authority chapter of Tech Guild Local 375, asserted that the DC 37 leader was "in the Mayor's pocket," that "she has a tin cup in her hand," and that "she is on her knees." Mr. Feder claims another member then cried out that Ms. Roberts was "in bed with the Mayor." Tech Guild Second Vice President Michelle Keller - who has frequently clashed with Mr. Feder - responded by launching a campaign for a resolution reprimanding Mr. Feder for alleged use of degrading sexual innuendo. It was approved by a 43-35 vote. "The obvious reference is that they are in cahoots with one another, but Sister Keller and others purposely took these statements out of context and turned them into a sexual connotation, which is not what was [implied] or intended," Mr. Feder said in an e-mail. He emphasized that his reference to Ms. Roberts being "on her knees" was tied to begging, not sex. Ms. Keller responded in a June 23 phone interview, "I stand by the resolution, as passed by our women's organizing committee, as well as the delegate body of this committee." Following the vote on the resolution, the delegates voted to boost their pay for attending the meeting from $35 to $45, and then adjourned. *** The Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, which represents school Principals, Assistant Principals and other administrators, hired Antoinette M. Isable, a graduate of City College of New York, for its communications department.
Ms. Isable has previously worked for Cohn and Wolfe Public Relations and the New York Alliance for Donation. |
||