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Bloomberg actually started on the right track fiscally. He had a study done which indicated some problem areas within various agencies. He cleaned up the School Construction Agency, made it more difficult to order unneeded supplies and consolidated some operations. Then he seemed to have lost interest in continuing in that direction. SCA is back to their old tricks again,and accountability doesn't seem important anymore.

After Congress reformed welfare the costs went down. But programs such as Medicaid are still rife with fraud and waste. Even worse, medical practitioners who get caught in fraudulent practices are allowed to plea bargain, and often keep their licenses. The Times had an article on this some time back, but I'm not sure whether it had any effect on how such matters are handled now.

Anyone who is serious any changing the way things are done has a lot of work to do.

Sorry...the above post was made by me in response to Lisanne.

Lisanne,

In terms of the financial meltdown, I disagree with you completely. The local politicians had nothing to do with it. If anything, to make the long story short, the tone is set in Washington. I have my own theories on why it happened that I do not want to get into since it is off topic.

My main concern is New York City and it's fiscal policies. The spending is out of control.

I am waiting for a real fiscal conservative mayor to come along and say that he is cutting the budget fat across the board (eliminating fraud - there is plenty of it, making city agencies more efficient). I am also waiting for a real and meaningful welfare reform (this is where I had deep respect for Rudy Guiliani). If you want welfare, work for it! There are no free handouts.

Alex, the Democrats are all for free market capitalism. NY Democrats did much to create the lax free market environment that led to last year's financial meltdown. After all, New York thrives on business. Mostly large businesses, however. Again, no real difference between the two parties here.

Smaller government is a campaign promise that can only be so effective. What we really need is less wasteful government. We need to eliminate duplication of effort or responsibility, we have to look closely at the effectiveness of current programs. We have to eliminate totally the graft and inefficiency that swells the cost of running agencies and completing projects.

Not an easy task. These things are embedded in the system so well that while lots of people know about it few will come forward to help ferret it out. The people at the top can know but little of what goes on at the various government agencies.

Bill W: Thank you. That was the same document I referenced. I was referring to the number at the bottom of the page instead of page 61 of 408. Looking at it your way the monies referenced in my post are on page 266.

I don't know how Williamsburg/UJO relates to the 46th and others Council Districts not in Williamsburg, but it would be interesting to understand.

In the new budget I didn't notice any monies being allocated to the Sephardic Community. Perhaps I missed it.

Again Bill, thank you for your assistance.

Alex - you're absolutely right. I'll go into a detailed response on my campaign site (boy, that promise I made to the site is getting harder and harder to keep with all the good comments recently!)

Simon,
The official Council site is
http://council.nyc.gov/downloads/pdf/fy_2010_sc...

Starting on page 61 are all the councilmen's discretionary allocations. They are not in alpha order so you need to go thru line by line. No one said democracy is easy!

Page 293- allocations for Aging. They are in aplha order of councilmen

Page 348 to 350 are allocation for Youth. They are in alpha order of councilmen.

To perform what you want, download the the PDF and convert to a data base and manipulate it at will. Otherwise, all the information is there and maybe some other sites do the manipulation you require. I guess that is what keeps investigative reporters in business!

If Republican party wants to be relevent in NY, they should start acting as Republicans instead of a warped version of Democrats. In the NY state lansdcape currently there is minimal difference between Republicans and Democrats.

I am frankly tired of both parties taxing and spending binges.

As a small example, lets discuss property taxes. Each year, the taxes are going up (substantially and way above the rate of inflation). Department of Finance would attrbute the increase to increased property values. However for tax years 2009 - 2010, they dropped the propery value on my house but increased the tax rate. As a taxpayer I feel cheated either way.

If Republicans want to be relevent, they need to stand up to the injustices and fight for free market capitalism and smaller government.

I took the article out of context, the reporters fact's are out of context. There must be an Out Of Context disease going around.

Yes, i am sure Lew Fidler has more important things to do than answer the issues I raised which he said I know little or nothing about regarding inept management and possible fraud and corruption in the City's Agencies which are negatively impacting the public's pockets. Addressing these issues and fixing them will generate more monies for Quality of Life programs than any Councilmember is presently spending in their respective district. I will continue to voice my opinion in the hope that the public gets tired of being led like lambs and starts demanding answers to the tough questions from their elected officials. I am not looking to pick a fight with anyone, just answers to legitimate questions.

Bill W: Please advise if this is the correct site "City Council Fiscal Year 2010 Adopted Expense Budget", 408 pages where pg 61 does not reference Fidler but lists his name in various other places. I would like very much to view the correct website for accuracy. In this report on page 206 it references three budget items for Mr. Fidler to United Jewish Organizations (UJO) of Williamsburg. $5,000, $5,625 and part of $200,000. Do you know a website that lists specifically each budget/grant/contribution by Councilmember and in total within and outside his district Thank you!

Once more....

The article that Mr Belsky claims I am quoted in, four years old to boot, does not actually quote me. And I repeat, that reporter got his "facts" out of context.

Second, for the past three years---may only be two but I believe it is three---the allocations are listed in Schedule C of the budget which is available on the City Council website. In fact, it is so readable, that reporters have written numerous articles about how much money is given out by which Council Members.

I don't know why Mr. Belsky insists that the fight "won't be over until there is full transparency". Well, there IS full transparency for anyone who is computer literate enough to get on this website.

the Times article which does in fact implicate the Bloomberg Administration and not the Council....is about a practice that the Bloomberg Administration engaged in two years ago that appers to be patently illegal It was NOT the Council, nor was it CM Felder.

And last but not least, I have no desire whatsoever to debate Mr. Belsky. I did in fact participate in a debate last month with all of the candidates who were actually running against ME at the time, including Mr. Berardelli. I have more inportant things to do than to stop and indulge everyone who wants to pick a fight with me.

As most of you know, I am not exactly a shrinking violet....

Lew from Brooklyn

Arthur B-
Yes - I expect anyone who is interested (or complains) in where our money goes should read original sources as much as possible. The first link is the 2010 budget and starting on page 61 of the file council members, incl Fidler, are listed with the amounts given out and to who. In too many situations we rely on second hand interpetations or other peoples word of what is available. Isn't this what transparency means?

Arthur: I just got home and saw your comment. I remarked about a similar comment on another website today. Great minds thnk alike!

http://www.gerritsenbeach.net/2009/08/08/proper...

Simon and others: Please refrain from copying full length articles from other websites to the comments section. I'm not sure where the law stands on this, but either way, it's bad form. Simply include the link address, beginning with http:// and readers will go on their own. Short excerpts are also okay, but please don't be abusive.

If you put a link it's possible it may not come up right away. This is because our spam filter requires review for posts with too many links, and it will post within a reasonable amount of time. If not, feel free to e-mail or call me and I'll look into the matter. Thank you.

I think the article implicated Bloomberg more than Felder.

"Even Agudath officials acknowledge that they went straight to the mayor’s office — not to Felder — for the money, and were surprised to see it come back in the councilman’s name.

The Bloomberg administration disputes this account, saying an internal audit shows that it had requests for all the money it gave out. And it contends that it financed many groups on behalf of council members in the absence of written requests — perhaps as many as 16 groups.

Mr. Bloomberg has acknowledged that his discretionary financing process lacked sufficient record keeping and transparency, which he says is why he shut it down in 2008"

Comments from NY Times readers on the articles: If you feel this much information is not informative I wil redude the length of these posts as I don't know how to input links:

20 Comments

1.
1. August 6, 2009 10:55 am Link

The inevitable knee-jerk whining about anti-semitism should not sway the U.S. Attorney’s Office from looking into this matter. There’s a strong whiff of graft to this story.
— dip
2.
2. August 6, 2009 11:15 am Link

How about a complete list of nonprofit groups that get money from City Hall and how much they get annually? Also how much do they pay their on staff people? I have a problem when staff members get benefits and more than median wage from discretionary and unaccounted for money paid by taxpayers which could be used for things such as hiring cleaners to clean subway stations….e.g. or gasp lower fees like bus fare and tolls…
— “hetty greene”
3.
3. August 6, 2009 11:17 am Link

Who are these groups and what do they do … and how many votes do they deliver to Bloomberg?
— John H.
4.
4. August 6, 2009 11:35 am Link

“…maybe it’s just bad memory. When you get to be my age, I’m telling you get to forget some things, too.” — Mayor Bloomberg.

Maybe it’s just that we need a younger mayor, with a sounder mind, possessed of all the faculties required to govern this city and lawfully manage allocation and distribution of public funds.
— Nat
5.
5. August 6, 2009 11:41 am Link

I see how it works: Hizzoner’s staff remembers it one way & since there is no written record to support their memories, they must be right; Mr. Felder’s recollection must be faulty. Nevertheless, one of the two groups was quoted yesterday in the NY Times as saying they never went to the City Council for funds, they went directly to the Mayor’s office. Let’s face it, both groups are important politically to Bloomberg’s re-election and were going to get funds by hook or by crook. This merely demonstrates the hypocrisy of Mayor Bloomberg’s claims that it is not business as usual with him. First, he has the Council repeal the term limits law, flying in the face of 2 referendums on the issue, & now he provides funds to political supporters by using a council member’s name. He’s been a good mayor, no issue with that. However, these political shenanigans are reasons for him not to be re-elected.
— Miguel J. Cernichiari
6.
6. August 6, 2009 12:41 pm Link

It appears that the collective memories of both the Mayor’s Office and the City Council are in question.

Who in the world forgets who they gave $3,000,000.00 to; whether directly or through a second or third party?

Somebody is lying through their teeth. I hope the NYC Department of Investigations gets to the bottom of this, no matter where it leads or to whom it leads to!
— adriane paniagua
7.
7. August 6, 2009 1:01 pm Link

Governor Blagovich will say I should have been mayor of New York city and no one will dare touch me.
— David Robertson
8.
8. August 6, 2009 1:08 pm Link

I’ve worked for this City for 10 years and you have to CC about 18 people just to move 50 bucks. I got one this morning with 23 people copied on it to replace one broken blackberry.

This is comical. And obvious.
— T
9.
9. August 6, 2009 1:18 pm Link

3 term Bloomberg is a know it all when it comes to good publicity but when criticism comes his way he just shoos it away like swatting a fly.

His reasoning for the 3rd term is to get us through the economic crisis. How’s he doing? WTC constuction stalemate has not been solved and now this decretionary funds issue which can not be authorized by the mayors office. The driving ban/traffic problems has been solved in Lower Manhattan due to high vacancy rates which is on the Mayors economic teams to do list.

So when his third term begins and the economic recovery begins he will be in the front of the line looking for a big plate of praise.

It must be the office (see Guiliani/Koch) of the mayor not the man that creates this extreme lack of humility.
— Mike
10.
10. August 6, 2009 1:24 pm Link

Reminds me of the song from the Broadway show, “Fiorello,” that has the politiciians singing that they each put missing New York City funds into, “A Little Tin Box, that a little tin key unlocks.”
I for one can’t wait until the results of the slush fund investigation are fully revealed and we all find out just how many little tin boxes exist and who has the little tin keys that unlock them!
— Perley J. Thibodeau
11.
11. August 6, 2009 1:55 pm Link

“When you get to be my age, I’m telling you get to forget some things, too.” - Mayor Bloomberg

” … get to forget some things, too.” provides legal cover for lying about some things.

Bloomberg is suggesting to Felder they shoud both forget about some things.
— JB in NYC
12.
12. August 6, 2009 2:05 pm Link

Nat, you read my mind! Great mind’s think a like ; )
— blast
13.
13. August 6, 2009 2:17 pm Link

Mayor Bloombergs says that “When you get to be my age, I’m telling you get to forget some things, too.”

Well Mayor, Perhaps that’s your indication that you’re to old to run for a illegitimate 3rd term..
— Simon
14.
14. August 6, 2009 2:21 pm Link

This looks more and more like a fiasco for the Republican mayoral candidate Mike Bloomberg. My prognosis is that in January 2010 the city of New York will have a new mayor: Democrat Bill Thompson.
— Lara
15.
15. August 6, 2009 4:27 pm Link

The hurriedlly diagnosed excuse of a parttime faulty elderly memory also brings to mind this Wikipedia entry for the song, “Little Tin Box.”

“Little Tin Box”, in which they imagine a series of Tammany politicians attempting to explain to a judge that their wealth came from their scrupulous habits of saving (”I can see Your Honor doesn’t pull his punches/ And it looks a trifle fishy, I’ll admit,/ But for one whole week I went without my lunches/ And it mounted up, Your Honor, bit by bit./ Up Your Honor, bit by bit.”)
Excuses never change-Politicians never seem to either.
— Perley J. Thibodeau
16.
16. August 6, 2009 4:44 pm Link

True that Bloomberg went on a Boss Tweed building spree but, let’s hope he stops short of restoring Tammany Hall.
— Perley J. Thibodeau
17.
17. August 6, 2009 9:45 pm Link

the mayor deviated from his normal modus operandi by not putting a little extra in an agency’s budget for a “friendly” council member. he probably still does it. it works like this, rather than raising alarms by having one council member disproportionately receive discretionary funds, he usually has a commissioner reach out to a council member after the budget is adopted (or sometimes state legislators) and have their nonprofit of choice receive some money. this is on top of what some council members get from the speaker who has also been known to park money.

this issue will be the downfall of the bloomberg administration.
— sam c
18.
18. August 7, 2009 7:53 am Link

While I am interested in why “these groups”, I don’t see how they did anything wrong. Felder appears to be the most honest man in City Hall for telling the truth. So it is on the other end of City Hall that prosecutors must look.
— Bruno
19.
19. August 7, 2009 8:22 am Link

head of the highline park makes $280,000 with 8 others making over $100,000 there…
— Kenny
20.
20. August 8, 2009 11:35 pm Link

bruno,

i agree with you in that it is the mayors office that should be investigated.

council members are not given the money to spend. they distribute it to nonprofit organizations that mayoral agencies are responsible to oversee and make sure all is in order before they receive the funds. a great deal of paperwork is required in order for a nonprofit to receive funds provided by a council member.

but if the mayor provides the funds, then i am sure things get expedited a bit……
— sam c

14 Comments

1.
1. August 6, 2009 6:22 pm Link

The first rule is don’t commit anything to paper and only supply audio tapes with a goodly proportion of minutes that are conveniently by accident erased.
I’m surprised that Andrew Cuomo hasn’t jumped into the fray.
It’s obvious that the political knives are being sharpened and will soon be flashing in their own highly reflective light.
Let’s hope they reach to all of their justified intended targets.
— Perley J. Thibodeau
2.
2. August 6, 2009 6:49 pm Link

Let’s see where this goes. There has to be paperwork for this. If the law wasn’t followed and the Mayor’s good buddy Simcha didn’t ask for it, “on paper” then the money never should have been given out. Here is another example of the City of New York’s policy of looking the other way as crimes are committed. On November 3rd come together as a people and vote out this man as he cannot relate to the dignified hard working citizen of the City of New York. running4mayor.com God Bless
— Kevin Coenen
3.
3. August 6, 2009 7:31 pm Link

I would like to point out a few things about Thompson for those of you who think he is an alternative to Bloomberg. I think both of them are 2 peas in a pod and SHOULD BE working together to make the city a better place. Thompson worked for Richmond, a US representative who was charged with soliciting sex from a minor and from an undercover police officer then Thompson went to work for him as Chief of Staff and Richmond eventually wound up in the slammer for tax evasion and a improper payments to a federal employees according to America Online look it up. Village Voice: Thompson broke 1/2 dozen securities regulations by operating with a suspended securities license. He failed to file his taxes a few times once failing to pay his fair share. He headed the Board of Education and drove it 3 billion dollars over budget and that agency was a nightmare during his reign. Now he is Comptroller and receives campaign contributions from investment firms from all over the U.S., who get N.Y. Citizens pension funds to invest and drove it down 25% in value. He is currently the Comptroller and the city is in its worst financial shape it has been in 50 years. Think about these things before going into the booth and voting for him. All of these things can be found with sufficient research. the time has come. running4mayor.com God Bless
— Kevin Coenen
4.
4. August 6, 2009 8:17 pm Link

him and quinn… the little groups fight for $2000 while the fat cats divide millions and pour it back into re-elections, ala the Highline park
— Jung’an
5.
5. August 6, 2009 9:36 pm Link

perley,

ag cuomo will never look into bloomberg. when the city council held hearings on term limits, mario cuomo was brought in by bloomberg as the lead witness for overturning the will of the people on term limits. he blasted term limits while talking about how great a mayor bloomberg is.

for this and probably other reasons, cuomo will never investigate bloomberg’s shenanigans. he has always been loyal to whomever his dad is loyal to.
— sy sigh
6.
6. August 7, 2009 12:44 am Link

whatever Bloomies faults are, he is doing a far superior job than any of the clowns opposing him would.
— Larry
7.
7. August 7, 2009 1:09 am Link

sy sigh
If Cuomo doesn’t do a thorough investigation of Mayor Bloomberg’s illegally taking this city fund money and passing it out to buy further votes then as both New York State Attorney General, and candidate for governor Cuomo has it all over himself too doesn’t he?
— Perley J. Thibodeau
8.
8. August 7, 2009 7:02 am Link

Gypsies tramps and thieves are running our city.

If I never make a request for money from the city government, can I nevertheless still be given $3,000,000.00 ?

No third term for ANYBODY !
— LF
9.
9. August 7, 2009 9:33 am Link

Keep it in the news until November, baby!
— Stuy Guy
10.
10. August 7, 2009 10:57 am Link

Money and resources hidden, stolen, misused for personal benefit, or squandered freely by the ruling class of government has always been the downfall of centralized civilizations.
In my venturing forth last night I couldn’t help but notice even more empty store fronts with FOR RENT or FOR LEASE signs plastered over the windows.
That this is a very serious and deep recession/depression has been brought to my attention by the fact that there weren’t any usual “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE,” signs but, just stores that were there yesterday and gone today.
This makes it quite obvious that the store owners couldn’t meet another month’s rent and were forced to just empty the contents and vacate the premises.
Bangor, Maine has always advertised itself as being the Shopping Center for Northern and Eastern Maine, with customers coming from all the nearby Canadian Maritime Provinces to buy goods because their money bought more at U. S. prices. and so the city of Bangor has invested heavily in new shopping malls.
I was talking to a lifelong friend on the cell phone the other night and every old and every new store in the area we mentioned was followed by his exclaiming that they had closed and gone out of business, too.
No, it’s not a local business failing problem strictly indigenous to New York City.
It’s happening all over the country right now but, city officials in other areas aren’t openly throwing public money away to friends, advisers, and other frivolous pet projects when everybody else is struggling to survive.
History does repeat itself.
The signs are all there that a personal guillotine now looms large over everyone’s head.
— Perley J. Thibodeau
11.
11. August 7, 2009 10:57 am Link

Sarah Palin will say no one dares to go after Bloomberg - he gives peoples money left and right and no paper trail, as Wasilla baroness - i had to catch fish, crab and hunt deer and could not give a penny to my favorite charity NRA - it is double standard.
— david robertson
12.
12. August 7, 2009 12:37 pm Link

Gosh took them long enough to do this….

for politicians in NYC any taxpayer dollar is discretionary funding in case you haven’t noticed….

And the voter financed campaigns where they get up to 750,000 of taxpayer money or is it more?? need to be stopped as well….

what about the friends at lehman who didn’t pay 673 million in tax?? over how many years???

can honesty be taught in the public school?:)
— Hetty Greene
13.
13. August 8, 2009 7:52 am Link

Betsy Gotbaum and Bill Thompson have been firing their little scud missiles at the Mayor for years now. They are always duds. If Comptroller Thompson could come up with any solid reasons why he would be a better Mayor than Bloomberg, he would have a shot at winning. So far Comptroller Thompson has not made his case.

Mayor Bloomberg has done a good job throughout these very difficult economic times. I don’t see any candidate for Mayor who has demonstrated that he or she would perform better than Bloomberg.
— LaughlinSue
14.
14. August 8, 2009 11:29 pm Link

lets look at government efficiency. the highline park is about 2.5 acres and has dozens of park police officers. in my travels to other parks in the city i realized that parks with hundreds of acres (van cortlandt park, highland park, forest park, cunningham park, prospect park et al) rarely have 1 park police officer driving around. it pays to be in the right district does it not?
— sam c

Bill: Do you expect anyone here to trudge through 400 pages to find the entries relating to Mr Fidler?

I did a character search of the PDF and searched for Mr Fidlers name hoping to find the monies he donated. My search showed zero results. So either Mr Filder's name doesn't appear in that document or I did something wrong.

Bill W: The article I posted is 2004. As evidenced by the inquires into Quinn's allocation of monies last year, it appears that the problem has not gotten any better. I believe that Simcha Felder denied requesting monies for two Jewish Organizations. I will get the latest article and post it in order to get the facts straight. I believe it was in the NY Times.

Here are three articles that raise serious questions why you should vote for any incumbent. I hope it's not too lengthy.

Quinn Offers Apologies to Council

Article Tools Sponsored By
By DIANE CARDWELL
Published: April 18, 2008

In a series of private meetings with rank-and-file members of the City Council on Monday, Speaker Christine C. Quinn kept apologizing. She told them she had blundered badly in her response to revelations about the Council’s appropriation of money to fictitious organizations.

“I’m terribly sorry for the way I did this, with no consultation,” one council member recalled her saying. “You read in the paper about people in crisis situations doing things and you say, ‘How could they have been so stupid?’ And now I know how they could have been that stupid.”

But several Council members said that Ms. Quinn’s expressions of regret did little to ease their anger.

Two weeks ago, Ms. Quinn was facing her first major public embarrassment: the disclosure that she had not known, or had been less than forthright, about the strange way the Council handled its discretionary funds. Now she is facing what may be a more serious threat to her political future: the growing rebellion of council members who have criticized her attempts to limit damage from the revelations as amounting to a surrender of power to the mayor.

With little notice or briefing to council members, Ms. Quinn held a news conference last Friday to unveil a plan to allocate discretionary grants through a competitive process overseen by the mayor’s Office of Contracts, severely curtailing the Council’s latitude.

Some have called her dishonest. Some have called for her to resign. William C. Thompson Jr., the city comptroller and a potential rival in a race for the mayor’s office, has said he would police the Council’s spending. And Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said he wanted the administration to oversee all but the smallest Council appropriations.

So Ms. Quinn has spent days calling and meeting with council members; she has agreed to rethink the reform measures she championed a week ago; and she has hired her own lawyer. The full scope and impact of criminal investigations into the Council’s spending are unclear and may yet be evolving. But its specter — rising from fact or conveniently buoyed by competitors — is likely to continue to tax Ms. Quinn’s political survival skills as she pursues a run for mayor.

“That Friday press conference that she had was a last-ditch effort to save her political career at the expense of the institution,” said Councilman Tony Avella, “and that’s what I think really pushed people over the edge.” Mr. Avella, a Queens Democrat who plans to run for mayor, added, “She’s thrown everyone to the wolves except herself.”

For her part, Ms. Quinn acknowledged that she should have consulted more with her fellow lawmakers, but said she wanted to send New Yorkers a message that the Council was moving to fix what had gone wrong. She deflected questions about her political future.

“This is obviously a difficult time for, I think, everyone in the City Council and all of us are going to have to do what we’ve always done in the City Council, which is to pull together and keep moving forward,” she said in an interview at City Hall on Thursday, calling this period “perhaps the most tense time for us so far in the two and a half years that we’ve all been in this term together.”

But many council members said that Ms. Quinn’s political interests and those of the Council were colliding, and that they resented being tarred as corrupt and in need of reform by her proposals.

Indeed, as she has been quietly laying the groundwork for a mayoral bid during the past year, Ms. Quinn has been privately casting herself as a reformer who could best extend the legacy of Mr. Bloomberg if she became the next mayor.

“This was nothing more than trying to get some political cover for what had happened already,” said Councilman John C. Liu of Queens, “and it was problematic because calling it reform casts the whole body in a negative light as if somehow we needed to be reformed.”

Thus far there has been no serious internal push to oust her from the post she gained in 2006. But several lawmakers, many of whom would speak only anonymously for fear of retribution, said that even though there was still good will left for her in the Council, Ms. Quinn had severely damaged the trust of the Council and would probably find it increasingly difficult to win support for her agenda and her campaign for mayor.

Leroy G. Comrie, a Queens councilman who is the majority whip, said, “People want to see the speaker defend the institution and ensure that the institution at the end of the day stays what it was meant to be by its original mandate: a counterpoint to the executive branch.”

Ms. Quinn has not been fulfilling that role, said lawmakers stung by what they saw as her abandonment of their needs and her pattern of aligning herself with Mr. Bloomberg against the will of the Council.

As she ran for speaker, these lawmakers say, she promised to pursue extending term limits but then retreated after a poll came back with mixed results. She devised unpopular lobbying and campaign finance overhauls with groups outside the Council, and then muscled them through, lawmakers complained. And both she and Mr. Bloomberg promised council members that they would not be forced to take a politically risky vote on congestion pricing to improve traffic in Manhattan until there was an agreement in Albany to approve it as well, council members said. (The measure died in the State Assembly without reaching a vote.)

Ms. Quinn acknowledged that there were tensions on the Council, but said they were natural in a 51-member body.

“I think that on the vast majority of issues we’ve been incredibly successful working together,” she said. “I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that any set of elected officials are ever going to feel that their speaker or their leader is, you know, 100 percent in lock step with them all the time.”

But others said the situation was more dire.

Councilman Lewis A. Fidler, a Brooklyn Democrat, said he was “trying to help her out of this mess.” The way she moves forward, he said, is critical. “She’s got to reconcile the policy agenda she laid out with the constraints that are being placed on that by at least 48 of her colleagues who think what she suggested publicly without consultation was a huge mistake,” he said.

August 6, 2009, 5:55 pm
Thompson and Gotbaum Ask for Mayor’s Discretionary Fund Data
By Ray Rivera

Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum asked the mayor on Thursday for all documents relating to his office’s use of discretionary funds to finance nonprofit groups after The New York Times reported that the Bloomberg administration had sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to two politically connected groups in violation of city contracting rules.

“As Chief Financial Officer of the City of New York, I have the authority under the New York City Charter to investigate all matters relating to or affecting the finances of the city,” Mr. Thompson, who is challenging the mayor in this fall’s mayoral race, said in a letter to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. He called The Times report “extremely troubling.”

In a separate letter to the mayor on Thursday, Ms. Gotbaum, who has disagreed with Mr. Bloomberg over term limits and budget cuts for her office, said, “I urge you to address these allegations immediately and to shed light on your office’s discretionary spending since you have been in office.”

On Tuesday, The Times reported that City Councilman Simcha Felder never asked that City Hall give two nonprofit groups $3 million in what are known as discretionary funds. Without that request, the administration lacked the authority to give the money to the groups, Agudath Israel of America Community Services and Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, except through competitive bidding.

Mayor Bloomberg has questioned Mr. Felder’s memory, and aides to the mayor say a thorough review of the spending last year found no illegality. That analysis detailed nearly $30 million in spending between 2002 and 2008, including nearly $20 million on behalf of more than two dozen council members.

In his letter on Thursday, Mr. Thompson demanded a copy of the audit and all supporting documents.

“Despite my office’s critical role in registering all contracts and agreements, that audit has, to my knowledge, never been shared with my office,” Mr. Thompson wrote.

Asked what Mr. Thompson intended to do with the information, his spokesman, Jeff Simmons, said, “Once we receive it, we will review it as soon as possible and determine the next course of action, including referral to an appropriate investigative body, if warranted.”

The administration did not respond immediately to Ms. Gotbaum’s letter, but in a swift reply to Mr. Thompson, Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler said in a letter that he was “surprised and confused” by his request. Mr. Skyler said the administration had been fully forthcoming with the comptroller’s office at the time of the analysis, which Mr. Skyler categorized not as an audit but rather an “exhaustive review.”

Mr. Skyler said the review included the work of a forensic accountant hired by the Law Department to reconstruct how funds were spent. It resulted, he said, in a pair of publicly issued notices in May and September 2008 explaining the “mechanics and history” of the funds as well as a series of changes in procedure.

“I personally worked closely with your staff both before and after the issuance of the memoranda to discuss the steps the city was taking, and to collaborate on the procurement reforms that have been implemented since this issue arose,” Mr. Skyler wrote.

In an obvious reference to the coming election, Mr. Skyler closed his letter by saying, “I would like to think this is a simple misunderstanding rather than an indication that outside circumstances are impairing our ability to work together on this and related issues.”

In response, Mr. Simmons said in a statement:

It is unfortunate that the mayor’s office would choose to once again cry politics when transparent and accountable government is all that Bill Thompson is seeking. According to The Times, City Hall clearly portrayed that an audit was conducted. The comptroller has continued and will continue to call on City Hall to make public any of those documents. Ascribing a different agenda is clearly a smoke screen.

Politics aside, Mr. Thompson and Ms. Gotbaum should not expect any big envelopes in the mail. The mayor’s office has said that there is little paperwork supporting the review and that it relied on interviews with staff members to reconstruct the financing. When The Times asked this week for a copy of the audit, a spokesman for the mayor said the report was really little more than a “spreadsheet that detailed what was funded and by whom.”

August 6, 2009, 10:50 am
‘Bad Memory’ Cited in Dispute Over Mayoral Funds
By Michael Barbaro

The Bloomberg administration is calling it a case of poor record keeping and “bad memory.”

On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Councilman Simcha Felder never requested that City Hall give two nonprofit groups $3 million in what are known as discretionary funds, as the mayor’s office has claimed in documents.

Without Mr. Felder’s request, City Hall lacked the legal authority to dole out the money to the groups, Agudath Israel and Ohel. By law, the funds could be distributed only at the request of a council member or borough president.

“People disagree on what they remember,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference on Wednesday, disputing Mr. Felder’s recollection.

He added:

I really asked a thousand times of my staff, and we remember it one way. It’s one of these things that was never documented, but when I talk to my staff it makes sense that they’re right. They wouldn’t have any reason to not, and there was lots of history before and afterwards that would suggest that, you know, maybe it’s just bad memory. When you get to be my age, I’m telling you get to forget some things, too.

Documents from the fiscal years 2007 and 2008, obtained by The Times through a Freedom of Information Law request, may help explain why Agudath and Ohel stood out for Mr. Felder: they are the only two groups that City Hall financed in his name for which he did not file written requests.

In 2007, Mr. Felder filed formal written requests to City Hall seeking funds for nine groups or causes, like the purchase of garbage cans. City Hall gave money for all nine — plus two more for which there were no written requests, Agudath and Ohel.

In 2008, Mr. Felder wrote requests for 18 groups or causes he wished City Hall to finance. Again, City Hall gave money to each — plus two more, Agudath and Ohel, despite no written request forms from Mr. Felder.

The Bloomberg administration said it had no written requests from before 2007.

Mr. Felder has said the explanation for the missing request forms for Agudath and Ohel is that he never asked for the money. In 2007 and 2008, he agreed to allow City Hall to use his name to finance the two groups, even though he said did not seek the money. From 2002 to 2006, he said, City Hall financed the groups in his name without his knowledge. Even Agudath officials acknowledge that they went straight to the mayor’s office — not to Felder — for the money, and were surprised to see it come back in the councilman’s name.

The Bloomberg administration disputes this account, saying an internal audit shows that it had requests for all the money it gave out. And it contends that it financed many groups on behalf of council members in the absence of written requests — perhaps as many as 16 groups.

Mr. Bloomberg has acknowledged that his discretionary financing process lacked sufficient record keeping and transparency, which he says is why he shut it down in 2008.

I think the above links are what everyone is looking for. Check out page 61 on the PDF file.

"3. The Speaker’s Money
Another large sum of money belongs to City Council Speaker Gifford Miller..."

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