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Mayor, Council Go Ponzi

To The Editor:

As a candidate for City Council, it is my strong belief that elected officials should welcome scrutiny and invite dialogue. My public service to Lower Manhattan, in a variety of capacities, dates back to 1981. This experience has bought with it the privilege of having direct contact with virtually every city agency. I can say with certainty that I have never witnessed any governmental entity more mired in incompetence and in need of oversight than the current City Council.

To the casual observer, the City Council may seem like a collegial lot —more akin to Delta House than Madoff Industries. However, the similarities between our local legislators and the Ponzi Pirate's now-defunct empire are striking.

In our present system of government, some of our tax revenue is hidden in plain sight, earmarked as discretionary funds. These discretionary funds are the excess taxes that were collected to be later used to give the public the false perception that somehow the party dolling them out or falsely reporting them was a fiscal genius.

Mayor Bloomberg has used our tax dollars to entice Council Members, eager to slip into their Daddy Warbucks persona, to not only sell their souls, but damage our democracy in the process by supporting the change to term limits.

There is strong public support for the fine Democratic candidates for Mayor, yet there is a sinking private notion that Bloomberg will once again buy the election. He was able to buy the affection of the City Council at a rock-bottom price using our tax dollars. It's no secret that these funds should instead be used for a citywide initiative such as keeping firehouses open and Police Academy classes turning out newly minted recruits.

However, with his self-financed three-peat, we should force him to spend not the $100 million he has earmarked for his self-stimulus spending, but let's shoot for $1 billion. At least that will help our local economy.

My message to fellow Democrats—if Bloomberg is truly going to buy the election, then let's make him pay for it!

PETE GLEASON Editor's note: Mr. Gleason is running for the Council seat held by Alan J. Gerson.