FOR THE RECORD

For a soft-spoken career civil servant whose talents have been prized by Democrats and Republicans both liberal and conservative, Marc Shaw seems to have made a lot of enemies lately.

So much so, in fact, that Governor Paterson last week lectured his fellow Democrats in the State Senate about their public criticisms of Mr. Shaw, who is under consideration to return to the job of running the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that he previously had a decade ago.

"I'm really getting tired of this castigation of personalities out in the public," the Governor said May 13. "If it keeps up, maybe I'll illuminate my feelings about some of the people who are commenting."

Sen. Martin Malavé Dilan of Brooklyn, who heads his body's Transportation Committee, has expressed his displeasure with Mr. Shaw's conduct when he represented the Governor during negotiations on the MTA bailout plan. (Given the shoddy substitute the Senate passed for the original plan put forward by the Ravitch Commission, Mr. Shaw may have been guilty of nothing more than reflecting the exasperation of the Governor and other leading officials.)

One source told us last week that the real obstacle to Mr. Shaw taking the helm at the MTA may be the objections of Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, who had frosty dealings with him during both his MTA stint and as a Deputy Mayor during Mayor Bloomberg's first term. "His entire opposition [is generated] from the TWU," the source claimed.

Democratic Sen. Diane Savino said that was an oversimplification. "I don't think it was them, totally," she said regarding Local 100. "The opposition seems to be coming from the [Democratic] members of the Senate. If Marty Dilan says it's not going to happen, it's not going to happen."

There is fairly widespread sentiment within District Council 37 against supporting Mayor Bloomberg's re-election, as the union did in 2005, because of hard feelings remaining from the last contract battle, his willingness to shut down New York City Off-Track Betting until it was rescued by the state last June and the failure of the administration to implement a court order to further civilianize in the Police Department.

Going against an incumbent is never easy, however, particularly when he looms an overwhelming favorite to win another term and at a time when he is threatening to lay off up to 3,700 workers, many of them represented by DC 37.

And so word spread through the union's headquarters May 12 that when City Comptroller Bill Thompson was endorsed for Mayor by ex-Mayor David Dinkins the following day, anyone from DC 37 who wanted to join in the proceedings should feel free to do so but refrain from wearing clothing with union insignias.

It appeared that they complied: none of the 50 or so supporters on the steps at the east end of City Hall for the endorsement were wearing union shirts or hats.

It was hard to miss, however, OTB Local 2021 President Lenny Allen sitting on the steps at the west end of the building while Mr. Dinkins conferred his blessing on Mr. Thompson perhaps 20 yards away.

"The last thing I need," he remarked, "is to get too close and end up in the picture and people misconstrue."

It is expected that the 125,000-member union will not declare a preference in the mayoral race until the fall.

When Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta made the case last week that the 64 engine companies operating with five Firefighters be reduced to crews of four plus one officer, he noted that the Boston Fire Department has engine companies operating with three line Firefighters and one officer. The point stirred the ire of Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy at a City Council hearing on the matter, but it also raised the eyebrows of the union leader's Beantown counterpart.

"It's clearly not enough," Ed Kelly, the president of Local 718 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said in a phone interview. "When you look at a six- or seven-story building, the time it takes to stretch a line up to that fire floor, it takes two or three companies."

For Mr. Kelly, Boston's three- Firefighter crews that Mr. Scoppetta praised are inadequate. But he also underscored Mr. Cassidy's argument that the FDNY shouldn't be looking at other cities on how to cut corners.

"You can't compare the City of New York and the City of Boston," he said. "The building stock is so much taller than it is in Boston. We have tall buildings. We have hundreds of them as opposed to thousands of them."