Rudy Lived Large on City Tab

The revelation last week that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani disguised tens of thousands of dollars in security spending connected to his having an affair with the woman he later married by assigning the expenses to obscure city agencies raised questions as well as eyebrows.

His former Chief of Staff as Mayor and current campaign manager, Tony Carbonetti, insisted that nothing was hidden in charging police expenses to the New York City Loft Board and the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office. He also insisted that had city officials been looking to conceal the spending, they could have more easily done it by chalking up the expenditures to the NYPD, which never details what it spends on security. (The unusual charges came to light because of a FOIL request by Ben Smith, a columnist for Politico.com.)

That response cleverly evades having to explain why they instead charged the expenses to an agency that regulates lofts and one responsible for providing lawyers for the poor. A particularly grating irony is that those were two agencies which Mr. Giuliani regularly shortchanged in his budget.

The only reason this cheesy maneuvering does not rise to the level that forced Alan Hevesi's resignation as State Comptroller a year ago is that Mr. Giuliani could claim legitimate security concerns required that cops travel with him when he was courting Ms. Nathan in Southhampton.

He never asked the Conflicts of Interest Board for an opinion on whether this was appropriate once the affair became public knowledge. But maybe a ruling is due as to whether the city should have to pay the cost for security connected to any significant others a Mayor may have, or whether those who want the luxury of a spouse and a mistress should spring for the added costs such arrangements entail.