FOR THE RECORD

That slightly barbed sense of humor Mayor Bloomberg occasionally takes off the leash was on display June 5 as he announced a series of campaign finance reforms he had reached with the City Council.

After lavishing praise on Council Speaker Christine Quinn, with whom he has had a markedly better working relationship than with her predecessor, Gifford Miller, Mr. Bloomberg turned to the head of the Council's Governmental Operations Committee, Simcha Felder.

Mr. Felder, he said, "probably didn't think he had a lot of input on this bill, and he probably shouldn't."

As nervous laughter rippled through the City Hall Blue Room, Mr. Bloomberg tried to dispel any impression that the Brooklyn Council Member might have felt dissed, saying, "As long as you're talking about him, he's happy."

During the question-and-answer period of the press conference, a reporter asked the Mayor why the reforms did not include spending limits on candidates who fund their own campaigns.

"The Supreme Court has ruled that an individual has the right to spend their own money," Mr. Bloomberg replied. "I've done it and I make no apologies."

He noted that numerous well-heeled candidates had spent significant sums of money running for office and had lost, meaning a personal fortune was no guarantee of political success.

On the other hand, the Mayor continued, "I would suggest that if you want to run for office, first go out and become a billionaire - it makes it a lot easier."

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Steve Cassidy, the president of the Uniformed Firefighter's Association, was appointed to the National Advisory Council, which will serve the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for a one-year term last week.

The Department of Homeland Security established the council to gain input from leaders in the private and public sectors on emergency management as a result of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006. The agency put out a public call for applicants to the council in early February of this year.

"The mission of the NAC is to ensure effective and ongoing coordination of Federal Preparedness, protection, response, recovery and mitigation for natural disasters, acts of terrorism and other man-made disaster," R. David Paulison of the FEMA wrote in a letter to Mr. Cassidy.

FEMA became an agency in the DHS in March of 2003. "I thought it was a no-brainer to accept," said Mr. Cassidy.

Federal funding for emergency response in New York has long been a critical issue for his union.

"New York remains the number one target for terrorism," he said. "Our point of view will be covered."

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Perhaps the best clue that a final resolution to the various threads of "The Sopranos" would have to wait for a movie (if it occurred at all) was the use during Sunday's final episode of three separate riffs from The Vanilla Fudge's version of "You Keep Me Hanging On," the last of which was on the SUV radio when Phil Leotardo got popped.

David Chase never consulted us, but our own theory about how the saga should have wrapped up would have included these plot twists:

Dr. Melfi, feeling guilt-ridden about having let her own shrink, Elliott (played by director Peter Bogdanovich), talk her into severing her therapy sessions with Tony, comes to his office for counseling. As she walks in the door, Phil is exiting.

Realizing that her shrink's spiel about how sociopaths use their therapy sessions to polish their skills as con artists had been intended to take away Tony's security blanket during a moment of great vulnerability, Dr. Melfierupts in anger. She takes the gun she has been carrying since Season 3 from her purse, shoots Phil, and then shoots Elliott for his betrayal of her trust.

Vice President Cheney belatedly replies to Uncle Junior's letter and has him released from the psychiatric facility to which he's been confined in order to replace Scooter Libby as his Chief of Staff.

And Tony picks up some business from the Bush Administration's effort to privatize U.S. Labor Department functions.