Mayor Seeks Control, Albany Plugs Holes

When Mayor Bloomberg reacted to the State Senate transit bailout plan May 4 by declaring, "Stop-gap measures that kick the big problems down the road must be rejected," the thought occurred that he might have gotten something better if he had retained a few of the balky Senators as campaign consultants.

Albany, after all, is the world capital of such stop-gaps. It is also, judging by the continuing revelations about former city and state officials who collected overly generous fees as middlemen (so far only one woman— Shelly Silver's former Chief of Staff Patricia Lynch—has been identified as sharing in the gravy) between investment firms and the state pension fund, a rich repository of consolation prizes for those who fall a bit short of the top of the political heap. Can't get any higher than City Council President or State Comptroller? Relax, there's a lucrative career awaiting you as a placement agent.

Staying One Step Ahead

Unfortunately, long-term thinking is not high on the agenda in the state capital unless feathering one's nest is part of the plan. And so the Legislature and Governor Paterson signed off on new funding sources for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that might produce enough revenue to get it through the year, and allow for some capital spending, while scaling down major fare increases and eliminating the need for massive service cuts.

SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME?: Mayor Bloomberg's inability to persuade state lawmakers to adopt a comprehensive long-term bailout package for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority may signal a tough road ahead in his bid to preserve mayoral control over the school system as is. State Sen. Diane Savino said she believes the system should be renewed, but with the City Comptroller and the Independent Budget Office gaining access to Department of Education financial data.

The plan doesn't provide for long-range needs, and even the capital funding being made available over the next two years did not fit the Mayor's notion that capital projects are about improvement and expansion. "Fixing it up," he said of the transit system, "I do not think of as a capital project. I think of it as maintenance that can be covered with operating funds."

But the MTA's famous capital program of three decades ago put together by its then- Chairman, Richard Ravitch, was the mother of all fix-ups, made necessary by years of deferred maintenance that produced an ancient subway fleet and tracks in such poor condition that derailments were almost routine.

The grand capital projects—the Second Ave. Subway and the East Side Access connection between Penn Station and Grand Central—were almost beside the point in the discussions in Albany, which revolved around the plan put forward five months ago by a commission headed by Mr. Ravitch—at the Governor's request—to address both capital and operational needs without undue pain to riders and employees.

That plan had two major components: a payroll tax on employers in the city and seven suburban counties for which the MTA is a vital provider of transportation services, and tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges. Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Paterson both lauded the proposal when it was unveiled, but once legislators were asked to act on it, it got whittled away and watered down until Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith finally produced the lumpy porridge that became acceptable for the sole reason that it had the votes to be enacted.

'Mad As Hell' and Lobbying

At one point during the process, Mayor Bloomberg channeled the spirit of the unhinged TV anchor played by Peter Finch in "Network," urging residents to let Albany know that they were mad as hell and weren't going to take it anymore. But that didn't have much effect, and apparently, neither did what one source described as his efforts to lobby Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos.

None of the three city GOP Senators— Marty Golden of Brooklyn, Andrew Lanza of Staten Island and Frank Padavan of Queens —returned calls, and mayoral spokesman Marc LaVorgna went no further than to note that Mr. Bloomberg previously said "he has been talking to everyone in Albany about the need to move a comprehensive package forward quickly."

As part of what proved to be an unsuccessful effort to help Senate Republicans hang on to their slim majority last year, Mr. Bloomberg gave $500,000 to their campaign committee. This sum would usually buy a large ration of gratitude, but apparently that was outweighed by an insistence by Mr. Skelos on a straight party-line vote.

One Senate Republican recently described Democratic control of Albany as a case where "the inmates have taken over the asylum." Given the machinations of Mr. Skelos's predecessor as Republican leader, the currentlyunder indictment Joe Bruno, it's hard to argue that the GOP was a font of good government, unless you think that allocating 800 parking spots to its Senators and staff while giving just 30 to the Democrats constitutes the merit system in action. But Mr. Skelos appears willing to absorb some editorial board criticism for not offering any alternative to the Senate plan he led the charge against if he can convince the electorate that the Democratic leadership is so dysfunctional that it's time to reverse gears in 2010.

Political consultant George Arzt suggested the Mayor couldn't turn to some of the recalcitrant Senate Democrats who balked at Assembly Speaker Silver's slightly scaled-down version of the Ravitch proposal, with bridge tolls cut roughly in half, because of the bad will he produced among them by contributing so heavily to prevent them from gaining control of the upper house of the Legislature.

"He made a terrible mistake in giving so much money to the Republicans, especially when everyone knew the Senate was likely to go to the Democrats," Mr. Arzt said.

Loyalty Has Its Limits

Yet the same Senate Democrats who led the charge against the Silver bailout plan—Carl Kruger, Ruben Diaz Sr. and Pedro Espada Jr.—had already shown they weren't exactly dogmatic party loyalists when they opposed Mr. Smith's elevation to Majority Leader until they pried loose some personal perks. Mr. Bloomberg couldn't have legally hired them the way he did some of his vocal critics of the past—hello, Howard Wolfson— but he could have lavished some extra goodies on their districts, as he has for City Council Members who voted his way on key issues, if a "comprehensive package" had been important enough to him.

Mr. Arzt said he believed the Mayor feared being blamed if he got too publicly involved and the end result was no better than it actually turned out to be.

Noting Mr. Bloomberg's past failures to get the Legislature to approve a West Side stadium for the Jets and a congestion pricing plan that would have had some of the same impact as the bridge tolls, he said, "He's never been successful except in the initial takeover of the schools" on controversial initiatives that needed Albany's approval.

This did not make him unique, said Mr. Arzt, a former Press Secretary to Mayor Ed Koch. "The Mayor's Office when it comes to Albany is a bully pulpit, and that's about it," he said. "There are always tensions between Albany and City Hall, and this Mayor does not have a good relationship with legislators."

Saving Up for Schools Battle?

It may be that Mr. Bloomberg is banking his chits for use in the pending battle over renewal of mayoral control of the city public schools and what if any modifications will be made.

It seems likely that the Legislature will vote to continue leaving the system in the Mayor's hands. United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten has endorsed a renewal, though with some amendments, and as Ms. Weingarten goes, so tends to go Mr. Silver, who has been Mr. Bloomberg's thorniest adversary in Albany.

"If people are honest," said Staten Island Sen. Diane Savino, who has clashed with the Mayor on pension and other employee issues, "they'll admit that mayoral control has worked. He was absolutely right on ending social promotion. Graduation rates have gone up. Are they where they should be? No, but it's still early in the process."

The day after she spoke, state exam results were released showing that since mayoral control was implemented in 2002 there has been a nearly 50- percent gain among fourth-grade students meeting or exceeding standards, with the percentage of eighthgraders in that category almost doubling. And the greatest progress over that time has been made by black and Latino students, although their achievement rates still trail those of white pupils.

More than a few minority legislators, both in Albany and at the City Council, have argued that there should be greater parent involvement in the decision-making process, something Ms. Weingarten has also endorsed.

Mr. Bloomberg has rejected some of the devices proposed for bringing this about, including a restructuring of the Panel for Educational Policy so that he would no longer control a majority of its members. He has contended that this would have the effect of rolling back the reforms made to the school system and stop progress in its tracks, saying that whatever complaints people have about aspects of mayoral control, they know who is accountable and can act accordingly in the voting booth.

A Return to Nobody in Charge?

Maureen Connelly, a political consultant who worked for Mr. Bloomberg during his first run for Mayor in 2001, said May 6, "You can make modifications, but ultimately it comes down to whether the Mayor's accountable or not. If you go back to something that looks like the old Board of Education, then it means nobody's in charge."

A day earlier, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein had testified in Albany and clashed with State Sens. Bill Perkins of Manhattan and Kevin Parker of Brooklyn, who told him flatly that holding out for continuing the status quo could be a ticket to more-significant modifications than if the city worked on a compromise.

They are two of the more-combative Senators and don't necessarily reflect the wishes of the Democratic majority. But the fact that Mr. Klein engaged in heated debate with them rather than looking to soothe their concerns reinforced the perception that he lacks the personal touch to be an effective ambassador for the Mayor's education program when dealing with those who can push back.

Ms. Savino alluded to that even while contending that Mr. Bloomberg "should be able to pick the Chancellor the same way he picks his Commissioners. If this Chancellor had to be approved by the City Council, he wouldn't be."

Wants Spending Overseen

She said she thought the Mayor should retain a majority of the appointments to the education policy panel, and that while she believed parents should have a greater say in the system, that should not extend to having a role in deciding where schools are located.

"The big one for us is transparency and accountability," she said, noting that the Independent Budget Office lacks access to Department of Education financial data and the City Comptroller does not have the power to audit it. If the Mayor wants the Chancellor to be considered in the same light as any other city agency head, chosen by and answerable only to him, Ms. Savino suggested, then DOE should act like any other agency when it comes to scrutiny of its finances by outside monitors.

Of course, she's dealing in logic, which is not necessarily how legislators resolve issues once they can't procrastinate any more. And even with the improved school achievement scores, last week was not a complete triumph for the Bloomberg administration on the education front.

There were angry parents protesting in cases where high-achieving eighth-graders did not wind up in any of the high schools they listed among their top six choices, the prospect of pre-school children being moved away from the schools they were slated for to create more space for kindergarten classes, and a City Hall protest against the moving of 5-year-olds out of day-care centers and into DOE kindergartens.

Kindergarten Shell Game

This last one is one of those cases in which Mr. Bloomberg seems more like a garden-variety politician than a practical businessman looking for solutions. The kindergarten move is a budgetary trick, a way of cutting spending at the Administration for Children's Services by moving the kids onto DOE's expense budget that could ultimately wind up costing the city in the form of overcrowded classes.

It's the kind of nonsense Rudy Giuliani used to pull when he would hire consultants to take over work previously handled by city employees, then brag about cutting the municipal payroll, even though he was spending more on the consultants than the people they replaced. It's done in the name of budget equity, but that concept already has obvious exceptions in agencies like DOE and the Police Department where lesser budget cuts were demanded and employees were shielded from possible layoffs in July. The fact that ACS serves the city's poorest kids may place it below the radar of the tabloid editorial boards, but it's clear that some minority legislators both here and in Albany have noticed and aren't pleased.

'Likes Dealing With Leaders'

Speaking of Mr. Bloomberg's relationship with state legislators, Senator Savino said, "He doesn't like dealing with us individually—he likes dealing with leaders."

That's become harder, though, with the changes in the Senate: Mr. Smith clearly doesn't have the control over his majority that Mr. Bruno had over his, and Mr. Skelos has not been as reliable an ally for the Mayor as his Republican predecessor was. And that bully pulpit Mr. Arzt referred to may have helped generate the harsh editorials in the city's dailies castigating Senators from both parties, but it had little impact on the final outcome of the MTA bailout.

It makes clear the challenge for Mr. Bloomberg as the battle shifts to an area where there will be no ambiguity about how fully engaged he is.