NYCivic - Crossing Newtown Creek

CROSSING NEWTOWN CREEK IN SEARCH OF
HONEST AND COMPETENT JUDGES
By Henry J. Stern
July 8, 2003

Last week I wrote: "Let no one believe that, in other counties, the judicial selection process is pristine."

This week the Daily News takes aim at Queens, in a full-column editorial Monday (except for the apparently obligatory diversion at the bottom, something about a Romanian theme park and Count Dracula), "Queens Under King Manton's Thumb," and in two two-page spreads about the state of justice by Doug Feiden, a solid investigative reporter, "Trial and Error in Queens Courts: Some judges make travesty of justice" July 7, pp.4-5, and "Justice is Blind to Bad Jurists: Sanctions, foul-ups, but no pink slips" July 8, pp.8-9 The News also printed a very prompt letter to "Voice of the People" defending the Queens county leader: "Manton is a prince."

On a different aspect of the Brooklyn scandal, the Sun's lead yesterday, "Money Laundering Eyed By Brooklyn Prosecutor" pursues the trail of the $245,000 Mark Green's campaign paid to the Thurgood Marshall Democratic Club in 2001. (Dead people have no protection over the use of their names by others who may have lower standards.) We learned Monday in the story by Jack Newfield and Colin Miner that the DA is "also trying to trace a separate payment of $230,000 the Green campaign made to the for-profit subsidiary of ACORN, the radical grassroots group." (I didn't know ACORN had a for-profit subsidiary, and would like to learn more about what they do, and how much profit they make.)

Newfield and Miner either rested or researched on Monday, because the Sun Tuesday morning had no judge story. Instead the paper led with a sharp attack by Congressman Rangel on Mayor Bloomberg for seeking nonpartisan elections, which would diminish the Congressman's political influence by abolishing Democratic mayoral primaries. As luck would have it (Rule 17-A), the Sun's lead editorial buttressed Rangel's indictment of the Mayor.

There is no doubt that Tom Manton runs a much smoother operation than his fellow county leader Clarence Norman. And his prosperous law firm legitimizes the tribute paid by Queens aspirants in search of local counsel for sundry matters. Although indiscretions may be discovered, the bulk of the Queens business is probably conducted within the law. The issue here is that the concentration of power in one individual leads to decision making on the basis of that person's needs and desires, personal and political, rather than the welfare of the people, defined here as the competent and impartial administration of justice. The more able and relatively kindly the leader is, the greater will be his power and influence, and the longer his tenure. So the Queens situation differs from Brooklyn, but the result, a mediocre, undistinguished, occasionally ignorant judiciary, is sadly similar.

Each day I hope to select one column, of the many published in the five New York dailies and numerous weeklies, to hyperlink. A limitation on print media is that no one who has anything else to do during the day has the time to read most of it. As you know, NYCivic specializes in New York City government, particularly agency performance and impediments to reform.

Today, may I bring to your attention a fine column by William Tucker, "The City of the Snoozing Teachers," (NY Sun, July 8, p.7). It is too long (1125 words) to read off the internet, as are a number of articles linked above, so I suggest you print it out now and save it for the subway, the bathroom, the nightstand, or wherever you have a chance to practice the declining art of reading. You could even forward it to people you know in the school system, and see what they think.

By the way, Sol Stern, whose book is described in the Tucker column, is not a relative of mine. Neither are any of the rich, famous or academic Sterns in New York. My father was a tentmaker and my mother a bookkeeper, when she was not raising four children in Inwood (north of Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, not one of the Five Towns of southwestern Nassau County).