Blacks in Gov't Backing Stark For Comptroller

Blacks in Government, a national advocacy group that has a chapter in the city, last week urged the State Legislature to choose city Finance Commissioner Martha Stark to be the next State Comptroller.

Ms. Stark is the lone African-American candidate among three recommended by a panel of former City and State Comptrollers that had been designated to do a search by Governor Spitzer and the Legislature. Its other two choices were Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman and businessman William Mulrow, who ran unsuccessfully for State Comptroller in 2002.

'A Defining Moment'

In a Jan. 31 statement aimed at Democrats - who make up a majority of state legislators - BIG's Upstate/Albany chapter president, Merton Simpson, described the selection price as "a defining moment in black history. This is not a race-first issue, but rather an issue of merit first and diversity also."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has made no secret of his desire to move one of his members into the post, and expressed anger when the panel offered only three candidates after being told it could recommend as many as five.

Mr. Simpson, however, argued that there were larger issues to consider than a looming turf war between Mr. Silver and the new Governor.

"We have just come out of 12 years of a Pataki administration that decimated the black state work force, omitted blacks from policy-making positions everywhere, and ignored the problems of our communities," he stated. "It is time for wholesale change."