New Yorkers Stop Acting Like Sheep Use Social Media to Force the Mayor to Veto the Pay Raise
City council members give themselves a 32 percent raise (NYP) The three Republican members, Steve Matteo and freshman Joe Borelli of Staten Island, and Eric Ulrich of Queens, issued a joint statement explaining why they voted no. “There is a critically important reason the City Charter requires any changes to salaries for elected officials be evaluated and ultimately recommended by an independent body: because there is an inherent and obvious conflict of interest in having to vote oneself a pay raise,” the trio said.
Daily News Demands the Mayor Veto the Council Pay Raise
Veto the pay raise (NYDN Ed) Washington by the United States Constitution. There, to avoid conflicts of interests, members of Congress seated in one term may vote hikes only for members after an election in another term. On that score, the mayor’s hands will be germ-free when the Council’s pay-raise bill lands on his desk. At that point, to further clean up the mess the members have made, the mayor must veto the measure.
NYC Council members Williams, Viverito & Dickens get $36,000 increase and don't have to give up outside rental income.
De Blasio cannot in good conscience give his stamp of approval to the Council’s excessive hike after limiting the general municipal workforce to smaller boosts — and right now holding fast to 1% annual raises for cops. some members seriously advocated for a $192,000 salary for themselves. So, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito settled without justification on $148,500 — taking the unprecedented step of blowing past the recommendation of the salary commission by more than $10,000. Police officers, who risk their lives, make roughly half what a Council member does. The two cops shot Thursday night have incomes of $55,189 and $56,870. The mayor cannot let a hyper-privileged 51-member bunch exceed the generous pattern he set for almost 300,000 employees. Seven members voted no, and they are to be praised. De Blasio must slap sense into the rest.* New York City Council Votes to Raise Members’ Pay (NYT) * Immigrant Killed in Manhattan Crane Collapse Recalled as Decent and Humble (NYT) David Wichs, 38, graduated with a degree in mathematics from Harvard University Worth Street in TriBeCa shortly before 8:30 a.m. Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.* New YorkCity Council raises its pay but limits members’ income (WSJ)
Council Members Not Only Offered Pay Raise Also Offered Member Items, Campaign $ to Pass Horse Bill
Rodriguez's District Residents Who Make Average $39,000 Furious That He Said He Needs $175,000 to Feed His Family
NUTS: Pols Who Fear Homeless on the Streets Do Not Fear Lowering the Quality of Life
In A City Where 73% Upset About Homeless Council Moves to Decriminalized Quality of Life Crimes
The Post Played the Broken Windows Damage the Move Cause to Crime Fighting
New York is headed back to chaos in the streets (NYP Ed) Nearly three in four New Yorkers say the city is doing too little to help the homeless — and a majority disapprove of the way Mayor de Blasio is handling the problem. But that’s not stopping the City Council from moving full-speed ahead on legislation to back away from police enforcement of crimes so often seen among the street homeless, like urinating and drinking alcohol in public. Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is determined to undo the highly successful “broken windows” policing policy that has played such a key role in driving crime down to record low levels. A package of eight bills to be introduced at the council Monday would steer even more “low-level” non-violent crimes to civil proceedings, where fines would replace jail sentences. But those minor crimes, and others like turnstile-jumping, have often proved to be precursors to more serious offenses. Broken windows gets thugs — and, often, their illegal guns — off the streets before they “graduate” to more serious crimes. It’s the difference between preventing crimes before they occur and stepping in only after crimes have been committed. And it comes as a new Quinnipiac University poll shows continued public discontent over the growing homeless crisis — and what New Yorkers see as the downward spiral of the city’s quality of life. Fully 73 percent said City Hall needs to do more to help the homeless, and 55 percent say the mayor is mishandling poverty and homelessness — despite his recent initiative aimed at responding more quickly. In fact, 58 percent said they see more homeless people on the streets these days.
The Piss Bill is Back to Change the Way the City Handles Low-Level Offenses
The NYC Council is set to introduce a package of bills that would broadly reshape the way the city handles low-level offenses such as public urination and drinking alcohol in public, in some cases removing them from the criminal justice system.* New York Council to Consider Bills Altering How PoliceHandle Minor Offenses(NYT) * City Council wants to decriminalize quality-of-life offenses (NYP) The plan to decriminalize the offenses — which also include littering, breaking park rules, making excessive noise and failing to appear in court — and lessen penalties for scofflaws are included in eight bills, collectively dubbed “The Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2016,” that are up for a public hearing Monday.* New York City Is Set to Adopt New Approach on Policing Minor Offenses (NYT) The measures would affect low-level offenses such as littering, public urination and public consumption of alcohol, in some cases removing them from the criminal justice system.*New York City is poised to reshape how it treats many quality-of-life offenses, softening its stance on low-level infractions like public urination and drinking alcohol in public by steering those cases away from the criminal court system, The NewYork Times reports:
How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers
The Teamter Killed the Horse-Carriage Deal Not the Shameless Corrupt Council and Mayor
Someone Put Pressure on the Teamsters Union, The Horse-Carriage Drivers A GoodFellow in Albany?
De Blasio’s bid for horse-carriage deal collapses (NYP) Mayor Bill de Blasio’s months-long bid to push through a deal to shrink the horse carriage industry and restrict it to Central Park fell apart suddenly on Thursday, after the Teamsters Union, which represents drivers, backed out. “The Teamsters’ first priority is always our members and their livelihoods. With the legislation now finalized, our members are not confident that it provides a viable future for their industry,” said Teamsters Joint Council 16 president George Miranda. “We cannot support the horse carriage bill currently before the City Council.” Carriage license owners started to make waves earlier this week by arguing that the union, Teamsters Local 553, had made a deal without their consent. Told of the parent union’s pullout from the deal, carriage license owner and driver Ian Mckeever — who has been a vocal opponent of the deal — was elated. Just Wednesday, de Blasio had dismissed questions about the apparent discord between Local 553 and its members. De Blasio’s 2013 campaign for mayor and his progressive nonprofit — formed since becoming mayor — have benefited from nearly $900,000 from just two animal rights activists and their associates: former Edison Properties honcho Stephen Nislick and Hugo Neu Recycling director Wendy Neu. The mayor later issued a statement saying he intends to continue pressing the issue.* Mayor de Blasio vows to keep trying to rein in horsecarriage industry after Teamsters scuttle City Council vote (NYDN) * When asked for a comment about collapse of horse carriagedeal, a spokesman for @NYGovCuomo responded "Neigh" (AP)
de Blasio Another Humiliating Defeat Was Ubered
Incompetent de Blasio earns yet another humiliating defeat (NYP Ed) Last year, de Blasio sought to cap the growth of e-taxi services such as Uber, Lyft and Gett. Why? Because wealthy donors of his, city cab medallion owners, knew that the increasingly popular services were a significant threat to their bottom line. Instead of innovating and improving the service they offered to riders, these fat cats went to de Blasio, reminded him of their prior contributions and called in their chits with one goal: kill the competition. De Blasio dutifully tried. And he failed, backing down in the face of industry opposition and public outcry. The horse-carriage deal followed a similar trajectory. It was pushed by an organization, NYCLASS, that was established under the guise of animal welfare, but really was a way for its wealthy donors to seize the valuable land belonging to the horse-carriage industry and develop it for their own personal gain. Noble. On Thursday, as news spread that de Blasio had once again lost a big political fight, he sat in his SUV outside City Hall, surrounded by the very people whose jobs he wanted to eliminate: the carriage drivers. The men and women whose livelihood de Blasio had threatened surrounded his car and the mayor sat there . . . for 16 full minutes — he probably wished he was back inIowa where nobody knew who he was. There were other instances of de Blasio proposing a big policy and losing. His push to build housing on Sunnyside Yards in Queens would have added 11,250 affordable-housing units to 200 acres of undeveloped land and ultimately rivaled Peter Cooper Village
Incompetent de Blasio earns yet another humiliating defeat (NYP Ed) Last year, de Blasio sought to cap the growth of e-taxi services such as Uber, Lyft and Gett. Why? Because wealthy donors of his, city cab medallion owners, knew that the increasingly popular services were a significant threat to their bottom line. Instead of innovating and improving the service they offered to riders, these fat cats went to de Blasio, reminded him of their prior contributions and called in their chits with one goal: kill the competition. De Blasio dutifully tried. And he failed, backing down in the face of industry opposition and public outcry. The horse-carriage deal followed a similar trajectory. It was pushed by an organization, NYCLASS, that was established under the guise of animal welfare, but really was a way for its wealthy donors to seize the valuable land belonging to the horse-carriage industry and develop it for their own personal gain. Noble. On Thursday, as news spread that de Blasio had once again lost a big political fight, he sat in his SUV outside City Hall, surrounded by the very people whose jobs he wanted to eliminate: the carriage drivers. The men and women whose livelihood de Blasio had threatened surrounded his car and the mayor sat there . . . for 16 full minutes — he probably wished he was back in
Coming Soon:
Who Crushed Political Dissent in NYC
Who Crushed Political Dissent in NYC
All Power Mayor Council Puppets Deserve A Big Pay Raise as Media Dissed
City Council members really think they deserve a 32 percent pay hike(NYP) Membe rs of the City Council spent hours Wednesday trying to justify a 32 percent pay hike they plan to award themselves, but they didn’t convince the head of a special panel that recommended they get $10,000 less. “For me this is a big compromise we’re doing today. Our salaries should be $175,000,” said Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan). “We have a right to make a living to support our families.” Rodriguez, whose Washington Heights
The Mayor, Speaker and Council Who Have No Clothes Live In A Clueless Bubble
“One-third of the 51 council members have zero significant prior work experience, except as aides to elected officials—frequently the council member whose seat they now occupy. Another six council members are former public school teachers. Several, including speaker Mark-Viverito, were union staffers or community organizers. Aside from a handful of lawyers who could possibly maintain private practices and an evangelical minister who continues to preach every Sunday, it’s hard to imagine that many members of the New York city council have much earning potential in the real world.”Six-figure Schmoozers (City Journal) Overpaid already, New York City lawmakers propose a big, fat raise.
“When we go to eat in a restaurant, we have to allocate time to speak to our constituency,” he said. Schwarz brushed off Rodriguez’s concerns. “Everybody needs to feed their family,” he said. “We thought we did an appropriate raise for all offices.” Councilwoman Inez Dickens (D-Manhattan) argued that the commission’s proposed raises amounted to being “penalized” because members often give needy constituents money “out of our pockets in order for them to eat.” The raises are scheduled to be voted on Friday, the same day members will be asked to approve Mayor de Blasio’s bill to downsize the horse-carriage industry and limit the animals to Central Park . The mayor said he supports the raises. He dismissed criticism from good-government groups that the timing makes it appear he’s holding the raises hostage to the horse-carriage bill.* The City Council’s pathetic case for a windfall raise (NYP) Frederick Schwarz just nicely punctured the City Council’s excuses for its obscene pay-hike plan. Schwarz chaired the outside panel that recommended a 23 percent raise for council members, to $138,315. The council promptly turned around and tacked on another $10,185, for a 32 percent bump — and is rushing the vote through on Friday. Never before has the council raised its pay more than the outsiders suggested. Another first: The hike’s retroactive to Jan. 1, rather than kicking in after the next election. At Wednesday’s required-by-law hearing, Councilmember Margaret Chin (D-Lower Manhattan) claimed the higher number would attract “more good people to government.” Schwarz answered, “There’s no shortage now.” Darn right: Candidates flock into council races. * Council clowns’ modest pay proposal (NYDN Ed) * De Blasio: Move of horses to Central Park will pass (NYDN) * A City Council Raise That Raises Questions (NYT Ed) There are good reasons for a pay increase, but there are also good reasons for taking the time to explain why such a large raise is needed.
Two days before they are expected to vote to increase their salaries by nearly a third, New York City council members held the first, and only, public hearing on the package of bills that would raise their pay while enacting significant reforms, the Times reports: * The Times writes that a better-paid New York City Council is welcome, but there are good reasons to be uneasy about how the Council approached the raise and it's reasonable to ask the members to take a bit more time to answer lingering questions: * Political consultant Tom Shanahan in the Journal writesthat a full-time state legislature and barring outside income won’t prevent corrupt practices, and no state in the country limits outside income for its legislators for good reasons: * Many New York City Council members believe the pending horse-carriage legislation that could erase hundreds of jobs and cost the city millions is less about animal rights and more about de Blasio keeping a campaign promise to wealthy donors. But they’ll likely approve it anyway tomorrow, saying they are under intense pressure to do so. * NY horse-carriage drivers brace for city to rein in theirbusiness *
The Transport Workers Union said it will sue the mayor and the City Council, should they pass a law to move a diminished horse carriage industry into Central Park and ban pedicabs outside the park’s tourist areas.* Members of the City Council spent hours yesterday trying to justify a 32 percent pay hike they plan to award themselves, but they didn’t convince the head of a special panel that recommended they get $10,000 less. * The NYT weighs in on the NYC Council’s plan to vote itself a raise: “A better-paid City Council is welcome, on several levels. But there are also good reasons to be uneasy about how the Council got here — and to ask the members to take a bit more time to answer a few lingering questions and to make a better case than they have for the package they are about to give themselves.” * NYC Council member wants to keep outside income amid raise (NYDN) * Horses will continue to trot as Teamsters reject De Blasio'scarriage plan: Horse carriages are free to fully… * Animal rights activists who have been trying to ban the carriage industry for years placed the blame for the deal’s demise squarely on Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.* Mayor de Blasio’s Carriage-Horse Plan Falters in City Council (NYT)
A Misguided Plan for Carriage Horses (NYT Ed) Having failed to kill New York City ’s carriage-horse industry, Mayor Bill de Blasio has settled for crippling it. He has sent a bill to accomplish this to the City Council, which is expected to vote on it next Friday. The Council needs to stop him. As weary as members might be of this issue, which has been festering since the 2013 mayoral race, they need to dispose of it. This means standing up to the administration, to passionate but misguided animal lovers and to real estate interests presenting themselves as animal lovers. Because the deal would reduce but not eliminate the carriages, and confine them to the shady lanes of Central Park , where new stables would be built, it carries the appealing scent of compromise. But it’s a shoddy effort, shot through with dubious assumptions and unanswered questions. Why spend public dollars — perhaps $25 million, though no one knows — to set up a private, profit-seeking business in Central Park ? Why build redundant housing for horses during a human homelessness crisis? Why go after law-abiding small-business owners and employees, and take away jobs? When the uprooted business shrivels — from about 170 horses to 110 by December and 95 by 2018 — how will it survive, and what will become of the displaced drivers and jobless horses? Why punish pedicab drivers, who have no political clout, by banishing them from the parts of the park where the carriages will go? Why was the Central Park Conservancy, which has deep reservations about the plan, left out of the discussion? The deal offers a solution where there was no problem. The industry is well-regulated, drivers make a living, and the horses are safe and healthy. The bill before the City Council smells more like a political fix than good policy. It pays a debt to the mayor’s wealthy donors, and it clears the way for developers who covet the West Side property where the stables lie.
Adrian Benepe @Adrian_Benepe
Daily News Leaves Out Council Pay to Play Pay Raise and the Real Estate Deal As It Attacks the Deal On the Health of the Reduced Number of Horses
They kill horses,don’t they? The City Council must refuse de Blasio’s horse bill (NYDN) Whipped like mules and rewarded with money sweets — good boy, good girl — the City Council is moving to a vote that will hurt humans and animals. Members must understand that Mayor de Blasio is driving them to return the favors of animal-rights activists who funded his mayoral campaign in appallingly cruel fashion. The activists wanted to ban horse carriages from the city, declaring that the horses suffered terribly. With the activists spending lavishly on ads that hobbled Christine Quinn’s candidacy, de Blasio declared that the carriage industry was inhumane. Initially, the Council balked at killing the business. And, now, paid-laborer de Blasio is ramming through a “compromise” that would limit horses to Central Park , where they would be housed in a new taxpayer-funded, wasteful $25 million stable. The members are urged to read the Op-Ed article published today. Susan Kayne, of the Unbridled Thoroughbred Foundation, documents that de Blasio’s scheme would severely overwork the horses.* De Blasio denied the suspicion that NYC Council support for his horse carriage proposal is somehow intertwined with a plan to raise lawmakers’ wages.
Even the NYT is Against the Central Park Horse Deal, But Says Nothing About the Mayor's Pay to Play Pay Deal With the Council Central Park Conservancy Pressuring the NYT
Three major NYC daily newspaper editorials reject mayor's horse carriage plan; will @NYCCouncil listen? Zero community support for plan.
Suzannah B. Troy l@unitedNYblogs is this like Bloomberg Quinn slush money to buy an illegal 3rd term, Bill trying to buy 2nd term?
Saturday NYP's de Blasio's Dirty Real Estate Deal But Nothing About the Election Fix
Bill de Blasio’s dirty deal to kill the carriage-horse industry (NYP Ed) It’s a dirty new low, even for Mayor de Blasio: He’s set to finally impose a death sentence on the carriage-horse industry while lying about it — and (legally) bribing the City Council to OK it. The drivers don’t want it, the stable owners don’t want it, parks advocates don’t want it — and New Yorkers, by an overwhelming majority, don’t want it. But the City Council is poised to pass a bill Friday to destroy an industry that predates the Civil War. Steve Nislick — who dumped some $2 million into making de Blasio mayor. What’s their interest? Valuable West Side real estate, now home to carriage-horse stables, they’d love to seize and develop. (Nislick denies it. Buy that, and he’ll offer you a bargain on the Brooklyn Bridge.). The mayor calls the bill before the council a “compromise.” That’s pure horse manure. It’s actually a way to pay back de Blasio’s rich backers by killing off the horse-carriage trade in stages while pretending to preserve it. The council is wired to go along in exchange for a deal that will hike members’ pay by 32 percent without a public hearing. Anyway, de Blasio’s bill starts sharply reducing the number of carriages right away, years before the facility could open.That will cut the financial legs out from under the stable owners — forcing them to sell. (Hello, Steve!). No, our “progressive” mayor is destroying honest, working-class jobs — and an entire, small-but-iconic New York industry — so he can repay a fat-cat donor. And he’s using taxpayer cash to bribe the “progressive” council to go along.Looks like another case for Preet Bharara.* Albanybillboards ask public to apply ‘See Something, Say Something’ to politicalcorruption (NYDN) *City Council Members: No Deal-Making in Their Potential Salary Increase (NY1) * A Misguided Plan for Carriage Horses (NYT)
Saturday NYP's de Blasio's Dirty Real Estate Deal But Nothing About the Election Fix
Friday's True News
A Result of the Cover-Up by the CFB and Board of Ethics On the NYCLASS Election Corruption, The Council is Openly Bribeable To A Developer Deal
BOSS TWEED WOULD CHEER: Stink of manure as Council plans to vote for big raises on the very day it votes on de Blasio’s horse bill (NYDN) * There was no smell of fresh hay when Mayor de Blasio reached a horse carriage deal with Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito on the very day he blessed pay hikes for her members. Now there’s the stink of manure as the Council plans to vote for even bigger raises for themselves on the very day it votes on de Blasio’s horse bill. This isn’t horse trading; it’s daylight bribery. First, animal rights activists pump a critical $1 million into de Blasio’s election campaign. Next, de Blasio says he’ll spend $25 million on a Central Park stable to keep promises to the activists. Next, a Council that had refused to kill the carriage industry gets a big payday and goes along with a plan that purports to limit the horses to Central Park but, in fact, will starve the industry to death well before a necessary new stable opens. Meanwhile, the Council is writing a pay raise bill in secret with plans to take far more than the hike an independent commission recommended. In doing so, Mark-Viverito and company will violate decades of sensible precedent. In every previous pay raise round — in 1979, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2006 — the Council voted into law the salary recommendations of special temporary commissions set up to provide the public with an independent judgment of how much pay levels should be increased. Never has a Council passed raises greater than a commission thought warranted. This time, the panel recommended hiking the Council salary 23% from $112,500 to $138,315 while abolishing extra stipends doled out to loyalists. Instead the Council is moving to set salaries closer to $150,000. De Blasio got his money, the animal rights activists got their stables, and Council members are sealing the deal with big money in their pockets.* The New York City Council completed a package of bills on that would adopt provisions on outside income and financial disclosures while raising pay to $148,500 a year, far above a city commission’s recommendation, The NewYork Times reports: * The New York City Council has scheduled two separate hearings on Feb. 9 and 10 for de Blasio's controversial zoning plans related to his overall affordable housing goals, though it’s not clear which officials will testify, Politico New York reports:
Will the Fact That All 3 Paper Editorials Oppose Mayor's Horse-Carriage Plan Means Nothing to Council Members
Will the Fact That All 3 Paper Editorials Oppose Mayor's Horse-Carriage Plan Means Nothing to Council Members
Three major NYC daily newspaper editorials reject mayor's horse carriage plan; will @NYCCouncil listen? Zero community support for plan.
As True News Follows Thomas Nass Using It's Editorial Pictures to Explain Corruption the News and Post Go Fleet Street Selling Sex to Get Internet Hits
