FOR THE RECORD

Among public officials, it is an article of faith that the best time to release news you'd rather not get widespread attention is on a Friday or just before a holiday. Not only are the papers published on Saturdays and holidays usually small and therefore likely to exclude all but vital news, they are the least-frequently read.

And so it probably wasn't an accident that Peter Vallone Jr., the Chairman of the City Council Public Safety Committee, waited until Christmas Eve to issue a statement criticizing the Mayor and his City Council colleagues for a deal reached six days earlier to allow the hiring of 500 additional cops between now and the beginning of July.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn hailed that agreement as a victory, given that Mr. Bloomberg had previously announced the postponement of a January police class (which will now proceed with 250 officers rather than the 1,000-plus who were originally scheduled to enter the Academy) and indicated that the July class might also become a budget casualty.

Mr. Vallone, like his father—who as City Council Speaker played a key role in the "Safe Streets, Safe City" legislation that significantly built up the NYPD during the 1990s—is a strong proponent of making sure the force is adequately staffed. But just as Peter Vallone Sr. preferred to work cooperatively rather than seeking confrontations with three different Mayors, the younger Vallone has apparently decided not to tilt too conspicuously against City Hall.

Delaying his statement allowed him to strike a political balance: while his words were forceful, they came at a time when they would not attract a whole lot of attention.

"Saying we are adding 500 officers when we are in fact decimating the police force is a head-in-the-sand attitude that we cannot afford to have," Peter Vallone Jr. said in a statement titled, "Less Cops, More Crime." (He meant to say fewer, but that's a quibble for another day.)

"Public safety is the catalyst that allows the city to prosper," he continued. "By cutting cops, we are not saving money but wasting it."

He noted that the 500 new cops would not come close to replacing the 2,000 to 3,000 officers the NYPD loses annually to attrition. He predicted the force could dip below 33,000 uniformed officers by next year, compared to nearly 41,000 at the start of 2001.

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After a deal was reached in June under which the state took control of the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation, there were those who believed it was the first step in combining the state's six regional OTB operations into a single network.

"It has to happen," Marty Golden, the Brooklyn State Senator who was heavily involved in the negotiations to save the city OTB when Mayor Bloomberg threatened to shutter it, predicted at the time.

Not yet, however, according to State Racing and Wagering Board Chairman John Sabini. In a recent interview, he said that the current focus is on seeing which services—presumably in areas like phone-betting and data systems— can be consolidated, rather than folding the six betting corporations into a single entity.

The greater the cooperation from the regional OTBs in maximizing profits through that kind of streamlining, Mr. Sabini said, the stronger the argument for keeping them independent.

That doesn't mean the legalized bookie parlors are flourishing, however. It has recently been reported that both nationally and in New York, racetrack betting handle was down roughly 10 percent in 2008, and it was likely that OTB—which still imposes a surcharge of five percent or more on winning bets above what the racetracks take out—would show a bigger drop than that when its final receipts for the year were tallied.

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The Captains Endowment Association Dec. 26 endorsed a former NYPD Captain for a special City Council election in Staten Island.

CEA President Roy T. Richter said the union supports Paul Saryian because it is important to have "one of us" in the City Council. CEA Vice President Chris Monahan said, "Paul Saryian will stand up for our needs and rigorously fight for our interests in the City Council and express these concerns to City Hall."

Mr. Saryian is running for the seat vacated by Michael E. McMahon, who was elected to Congress in November. After serving 23 years in the NYPD, he is vying to represent Staten Island's North Shore in a special non-partisan election sometime in February.