Dog Day Disputes
By Henry J. Stern

August 7, 2003

 
MAYOR v. GOVERNOR: The Mayor and the Governor have joined issue (disagreed sharply) on the legislature's plan, passed over the Governor's veto, to relieve the City of $500 million in interest payments for each of the next five years on Municipal Assistance Corporation bonds, a total benefit to the city of $2.5 billion.  This would be accomplished by the state issuing new 30-year bonds, which will cost $5.1 billion to retire, more than twice as much as the existing balance due on the city MAC bonds.
   
    The proposal contains good news and bad news.  The good news is that the city is relieved of $500 million in annual payments until 2008.  This is totally justified because the state consistently treats the city as a chicken to be plucked, and the city is entitled to whatever relief it can secure from the legislature.  The bad news is that it will cost the state double what it saves the city, with the bonds that extricated the city from its 1970's fiscal crisis not being paid off until 2024.

    One solution is to give the city the money, and find another way for the state to pay for it.  The state should not renege on its obligation to provide the city substantial help.  But city residents are also state taxpayers.  If there were any subject suitable for compromise, or alternate solutions, this be it.  The participants should sit down and negotiate the issue, rather than having the Court of Appeals govern in their stead.
 
OPENING PARK ROW: Since the fall of 2001, the Police Department has closed off Park Row, a wide two-way thoroughfare between Worth Street (the southern entrance to Chinatown) and City Hall.  NYPD also took over James Madison Park, bounded by Madison St., Pearl St., and St. James Pl. (get it?), and is using the parkland as parking space for their vehicles.  The cops' cars are protected by a manned booth.

    After complaining for a year, people from local high-rises (Chatham Green and Chatham Towers) and neighboring Chinatown sued, saying the closing was bad for their business, their health and their convenience, since bus routes had to be lengthened to avoid Park Row.  The police defended on the ground that the security of the city required that no evildoer be able to get within a block and a half of One Police Plaza, and that police officers needed their cars and SUVs to transact the people's business.  They noted that the Municipal Garage under One Police Plaza was out of commission, and said more parking was needed until the garage reopened.

    Judge Walter Tolub, a highly respected jurist, denied the community's request for an order opening the street, but he directed the police to prepare an EIS (environmental impact statement) on the closing, and to open James Madison Park within ninety days.  It will be difficult for the police to prepare a defensible EIS because one cannot really compare adverse environmental effects (noise, delay, inconvenience, traffic rerouting, etc.) with unquantifiable security considerations.
 
    The wise decision for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly would be to reopen Park Row now.  This major, heavily-used thoroughfare in lower Manhattan will not stay closed forever, and it would make more sense for the police to open it themselves, rather than having to be dragged into compliance by the courts, the community, elected officials, and eventually the mayor.  Let my people pass, sooner rather than later.
 
CROSSING EAST RIVER:  The Gotham Gazette has posted a satiric comic, "So, You Want to Be a Brooklyn Judge". District Attorney Hynes has charged Judge Gerald, who is Judge Robin's husband and Judge Michael's cousin, with bribery (we use first names only because they are all Garsons).  The previous charge was for 'official misconduct', but when Gerald's lawyer pleaded that his client should not be prosecuted as an misdemeanant for an ethical violation, the DA raised the charge to a felony.  "I am quite confident that there is going to be positive action by the grand jury in terms of indictments," Hynes said. Considering the late Bronx DA Mario Merola's statement that a DA can get a grand jury "to indict a ham sandwich", Hynes is probably right.
 
    Meanwhile the torment of Mark Green continues.  If people have not taken bribes,  but may have been extorted into making payments, you can still pursue them for perjury on matters unrelated to the original investigation.  If two witnesses make diametrically opposed statements of fact, one may be indictable for perjury, provided there is corroboration. Usually the witness who denies wrongdoing is threatened by prosecutors in an effort to induce him to turn on his own master.

    About twenty years ago a state senator in Queens took the rap for a higher elected official.  Fifty-five years ago (under Mayor William O'Dwyer) Fire Lieutenant James J. Moran, a bagman who left his boodle in a briefcase on the back porch of Gracie Mansion, went to prison for twelve years, rather than discussing the provenance of his portfolio.  Moran was regarded in his circle as a paragon of loyalty and principle, a man who did his time and kept his mouth shut.  We may learn whether people of his caliber can still be found in the 21st century.


Henry J. Stern is the director of NYCivic.