But Hints at Cutbacks
Mayor Thinks Big With City Agenda

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

In an upbeat State of the City speech Jan. 17, Mayor Bloomberg emphasized the use of technology to improve city government and long-term planning to stimulate the economy, combat poverty while making caseworkers' jobs easier and better match the city's education system to the needs of industry.

MICHAEL MULGREW: 'Mayor sends a message.'

Mr. Bloomberg, who at times sounded as much like a crusading, reform-minded presidential candidate as the Mayor of a big city, acknowledged the advent of tighter economic times but did not back away from any of his most ambitious plans to transform the city, including his affordable housing initiative, infrastructure improvements and development projects.

Seeking Union Help

Details of his proposal to expand the vocational high schools, connect the computer systems of 12 city agencies and place GPS systems in school buses will be laid out this week when he unveils his budget. But a slightly ominous note was sounded for city workers when the Mayor said that the budget would "rely on support from our partners in State government and our municipal unions, which have always stood with the city during difficult times."

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Downplays tenure pledge.

A spokeswoman for District Council 37, which is in negotiations for a new contract for 120,000 members, said that the union was studying the specifics of the address and had no comment immediately after the speech.

The expansion of career and technical education, emphasized by the Mayor in his speech, has long been a priority for the United Federation of Teachers.

"This year, we're going to begin dramatically transforming how high school students prepare for technical careers in a number of growing fields," the Mayor said. "Traditionally, such career and technical education has been seen as an educational dead-end. We're going to change that. College isn't for everyone, but education is."

Would Implement in '09

The State Board of Regents will vote at the end of the month on a plan to expand vocational education statewide, and Mr. Bloomberg hopes to use the opening to offer new vocational options in September 2009. He has appointed a task force to prepare the groundwork for this expansion chaired by New York Life CEO and Chairman Sy Sternberg and former Mayor David Dinkins.

The Chief-Leader/Michael O'Kane WE CAN REBUILD IT: Mayor Bloomberg emphasized the use of technology to improve government services and grow the city's economy in his Jan. 17 State of the City address. 'We are in a competitive struggle, and the stakes couldn't be higher,' he said. 'It means thinking about problems in new ways and using the most powerful new technology from everyplace to solve them.'

"He's sending word to the [Department of Education] that these programs are real and should be expanded," said UFT Vice President Michael Mulgrew. "Right now there's not a structure in place to do so."

Despite higher-than-average graduation rates and a drop-out rate of just 5 percent, enrollment in the city's Career and Technical Education high schools has dropped from 116,458 in the 2001-2002 school year to 103,172 last year.

Mr. Mulgrew said that a recruitment campaign for Teachers with skills in new technologies, linked to developing industries, was needed and that state certification policies would have to be modified to expand the programs. "Every child should have access to one of these programs," he said.

Tightening Tenure Rules?

The UFT was less enthusiastic about Mr. Bloomberg's surprise announcement of a Web-based "tenure tool kit," which the Mayor said would "empower Principals to make tenure decisions the right way: Rigorously, fairly, and based on student learning and progress."

"The Web-based program for Principals to help make tenure decisions," said UFT President Randi Weingarten in a statement, "speaks to the DOE's apparent reliance on technology to compensate for the fact that, under the current structure, there are few, if any, managers who can help Principals make this decision."

Ms. Weingarten continued, "Given that evaluation of Teachers is a mandatory subject of bargaining, typically dealt with in contract negotiations - and since the contract was resolved in November 2006 and the tenure law debate resolved in April 2007 - it appears that this is an implementation, not a policy decision." Technology was also the theme for improving public safety, whether through "Digital 911," which will allow New Yorkers to send photos from their cell phones to the police, or deploying 30 new police vehicles downtown with automated license plate reading devices. Mr. Bloomberg said the he would also push Albany to allow the taking of DNA fingerprints from anyone arrested.

The police unions have long supported expanding the city's DNA database and enhancing digital technology to help fight crime.

Assisting Caseworkers

The Mayor announced that the city would link the computer systems at more than a dozen agencies with a program called Health and Human Services Connect. The system would allow caseworkers throughout the city access to a fuller range of information about their clients, whether they were assisting them with employment, foster care or housing. "For the caseworkers this will mean less time pushing paper," the Mayor asserted, "more time with their clients and, most importantly, a more comprehensive picture of the people we are trying to help."

Mr. Bloomberg also announced that the city would also begin testing GPS systems on school buses "to help us measure on-time performance and keep track of our fleet in the event of a citywide emergency."

The Mayor did not announce any new budget cuts since asking agency heads to impose a hiring freeze and cut 2 percent from their budgets in the fall. But he did commit to extending the 7-percent property tax cut and the $400 property tax rebate for homeowners.

Continuing on the theme of good government, the Mayor will appoint his second Charter Revision Commission, this one to take the first extensive look at the structure of city government since Mayor Koch's panel 20 years ago that paved the way for the abolition of the Board of Estimate and the transfer of its powers to other elected officials. The commission will conduct a top-to-bottom review over the next 18 months.

And Mr. Bloomberg went after the city Board of Elections, calling it "perhaps the only agency that still has the party bosses directly calling the shots."

Sounding a theme he has floated during his non-campaign for President, the Mayor said his administration would work with the Citizens Union to revamp the Board and "build a nonpartisan coalition that unites the left and the right."

In Praise of Immigrants

In another national moment, Mr. Bloomberg took time to cite the importance and contribution of immigrants. "Their presence is a two-way street. New York gives them unlimited opportunities and these families help make New York the nation's economic engine," he said. "And that's one of the messages I've been speaking out on, to those who are wailing against immigration, to those politicians who, all of a sudden, have embraced xenophobia, I say: open your eyes."

Motioning to five families seated behind him, all of whom had emigrated to the city, four from other countries and one from South Carolina, the Mayor said forcefully, "Take a look behind me. This is what makes America great. This is New York City. This is freedom. This is compassion, and democracy, and opportunity."