FOR THE RECORD

Did a New York Times article criticizing how Mayor Bloomberg's alleged generosity at the bargaining table had inflated city pension costs influence the timing of the announcement of last week's deal with the United Federation of Teachers on a form of Tier 5?

It depends on whom you believe about how close the two sides were to a deal prior to last Monday, when the agreement was finally committed to paper about 6 p.m.

In less than a half-hour, some reporters were alerted that the city had a pension deal and was preparing a press release, which was issued at about 7. It was treated as major news in the following day's New York Post— rightfully, we think—but appeared as just a brief in the Daily News. (The accord was reached about an hour after we went to press June 22.)

The Times, which normally devotes more space than the other dailies to the sort of complex financial matters at the heart of the pension deal, essentially took a pass on the story. It included less than a paragraph on the agreement that was inserted midway through a story headlined, "Mayor Warns on Pension Costs but Gave Hefty Pay Deals."

Much of the impetus for the piece came from criticism by Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute and Charles Brecher of the Citizens Budget Commission, both of whom have been constant critics of municipal employees' compensation in the form of both pay raises and pension benefits. (Another longtime Manhattan Institute stalwart, Fred Siegel, also chimed in, accusing Mr. Bloomberg of becoming "more and more accommodating to unions over time.")

It lacked perspective, however. The Mayor's first round of contract bargaining began with a contract settlement with District Council 37 that was too cheap for his own good. When the city sought to invoke it as a pattern during its contract arbitration with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the panel's chairman, Eric Schmertz, dismissed its relevance, forcing city representatives to persuade him to scale down the costs of generous raises he awarded incumbent cops by drastically slashing the pay scale for new officers.

That created a major recruiting crisis, which the PBA hoped to capitalize on by taking its next negotiation into arbitration as well. Concerned that Mr. Schmertz's decision to disregard an existing bargaining pattern had opened the door for future arbitrators to do the same in addressing the pay problem, Deputy Mayor for Operations Ed Skyler sought to box in the union by reaching a 74-month deal with the Sergeants Benevolent Association that even some officials at other unions described as more generous than it had to be.

To some extent, the strategy worked out, although the next arbitrator did not adhere to the SBA terms in awarding a twoyear contract in May 2008. Three months later, the PBA reached its first negotiated settlement in 14 years by accepting similar terms to what was in place for Sergeants over a corresponding four-year period.

Because City Hall knew that the Times piece, which had been sitting for a bit, was about to run, it may have decided to defuse its impact by announcing the pension deal with the UFT just prior to its publication. It's notable, by contrast, that a health-benefits deal reached with the city unions a month ago on a Thursday was not announced until the following Tuesday.

Amid the tumult in Albany last week, it was good to know that one former confederate of Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate still had his priorities straight.

Ruben Diaz Sr. , who joined the two of them and Carl Kruger last December as the "Gang of Four" (cut down to three when Mr. Monserrate had to interrupt his pre-Senate induction activities because of his indictment) that strong-armed onand off Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, responded to Governor Paterson's denunciation of the warring Senators last week with a press release of his own.

Calling the Governor "so out of touch with New Yorkers that he does not know what he is doing," Senator Diaz scoffed at Mr. Paterson's claim that he was punishing legislators by keeping them in Albany.

"The reality is," he continued, "he is blessing us. Each day spent in Albany, every Senator is paid an additional stipend of $160.00, which is paid by the people of New York."

We're not sure that chortling about being paid for doing nothing was the best way to defend himself and his colleagues. Then again, given the climate in Albany, perhaps it's no surprise that it made perfect sense to Mr. Diaz.