Paterson Signs Mayoral Control Bill, Senate Passed It After Seven Weeks
By Henry J. Stern
August 11, 2009
This afternoon, Governor Paterson signed legislation which extends mayoral control of the New York City school system for another six years.
The bill was approved by the State Senate on August 6. It had been held up for seven weeks following its passage in the Assembly on June 17. For much of the summer, the Senate was paralyzed by a June 8 political coup, in which two Democrats temporarily switched political parties, giving the Republicans a majority in the house and allowing them to elect Senate leaders. Soon after defecting, Senator Hiram Monserrate returned to the Democrats, creating a 31-31 tie, from which no quorum could be attained nor any state business transacted by either side.
After the impasse ended with Senator Pedro Espada’s rediscovery of his Democratic roots, the mayoral control bill was bottled up for another four weeks while senators pecked away at it with various amendments – and then began their summer recess. Then, after another month of contemplation, rustication and germination, the legislation was permitted by la nouvelle regime to come to the floor on August 6, where it received a heavy majority from the same senators who supported it a month ago, but were not allowed to vote on it at that time. Seven members absented themselves from the chamber, eight voted against mayoral control, and the remaining 47, freshly allowed to vote, answered the roll call in the affirmative. The total number of Senators is 62, which is the same as the number of counties in New York State, although that numerical identity occurs entirely by coincidence.
The Senate final vote on mayoral control was 47-8, the dissenters being five Brooklyn Democrats -- Carl Kruger, Eric Adams, Shirley Huntley, Velmanette Montgomery and Kevin Parker -- joined by Tom Duane and Bill Perkins of Manhattan, and Ruben Diaz, Sr. of the Bronx, whose son is the Borough President. Diaz, Jr. was elected after Bronx BP Adolfo Carrion resigned in February to become director of the White House office of urban affairs and a domestic policy advisor, a role similar to that played by Stuart Eizenstat in the Carter administration in the late ‘70s. Carrion has not been heard from substantively since March.
DIGRESSION: Some counties share a state Senator, while other Senators share a county. Kings County (Brooklyn) is the most populous in the state, with eight Senators. Hamilton County, nestled in the Adirondacks, is the smallest. It has just 5400 residents, which is less than two per cent of the number needed for its own senate seat (Hamilton shares its senator, Betty Little, with four neighboring counties). Although the smallest county in population, Hamilton occupies 1808 square miles, which makes it about five times the size of New York City. Its population is 97.73 per cent white,1.06% Latino, .45 % African American, .26% Native American, .15% Asian, .06% Pacific Islander (that’s three people, which is the average population per square mile in the county), .67% other races, and .69% mixed races. Census figures on race are sometimes based on self-identification, so they are unlikely to be entirely exact ethnically, except as an expression of what the county folks believe or wish themselves to be.
Last Thursday, the Senate placed four amendments (provisions for funding for a parent training institute, annual public hearings on school safety, some additional powers for district superintendents, and the creation of parent advisory councils for the arts) in separate bills, approved the Assembly bill, and sent the latter to Governor Paterson, who signed it today. The Mayor said he would consider the added provisions whether or not they were formally enacted into state law (approved by the Assembly and Governor), but he did not commit to any expenditures. Even if he had, such a promise is unenforceable unless the deceived party is in a position to exact revenge. The extension will grant the mayor control of city schools until 2015, which is a political off year, the one time during the perennial quadrennial cycle in which there is no election for President, governor or mayor. Turnout of voters is usually low.
The bill passed in large part because it was supported by two of the most powerful players in Albany, Speaker Sheldon Silver and outgoing UFT president Randi Weingarten (who is outgoing only because she is now president of the UFT’s parent union, the American Federation of Teachers, which was once led by the late and now revered Albert Shanker). We don’t know what, if any, quid pro quo there was for their support for the extension of mayoral control, a scheme which they had once viewed critically. It is possible that their decision was made on the merits, but even if a log was rolled rolled here or there, that is permissible in a good cause (i.e. a cause you favor).
The renewal of mayoral control had already been approved by the Assembly in a bipartisan 121-18 vote on June 17. The Assembly bill arrived in the Senate during the month-long impasse which followed the June 8 Espada-Monserrate leadership coup. After the Democrats regained control of the Senate on July 9, their new leadership (the former dissidents) would not allow the Assembly bill to extend mayoral control to reach the Senate floor for a vote, even though a substantial majority of the Senators supported it. So much for the new, enlightened, equitable and transparent Senate rules of which some reformers are so proud. Someday, someway, these rules may take effect and become meaningful. But as long as the legislators kowtow to the leaders when obedience is demanded, and the balance of power remains with the party management, the most egalitarian rules will not be worth a sou.
Since the coup preceded the arrival of the Assembly’s mayoral control extension bill by ten days, one cannot say that the latter event precipitated the former. However, along with the sales tax delay, which cost the city $2 million per day (although it benefitted the city’s taxpayers by a like amount), the school control bill was the most important matter caught in the squeeze because mayoral control would expire June 30, 2009 unless the legislature acted, which it did not. The protracted political snarl tied up both parties, and the prodigal pariahs who seemed to pass back and forth between Democrats and Republicans gained attention, status and bounty with each reincarnation. What impact these antics will have on the prosecutors who will try their cases and the juries who will decide them remains to be seen. At this time, the beneficiaries in this tableau are the plotters. The ready acceptance of their peregrinations by colleagues thirsting for their lulus and member items has further defined the New York State Senate as bereft of any recognizable ethical standard.
One man who deserves some credit for his efforts in this unfortunate situation is Governor Paterson. Although the Senators ignored his pleas for peace and reconciliation, both sides mocking him as he attempted to get them to transact state business, Paterson's appointment of Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor on July 8, illegal as it may have been (the Court of Appeals will consider the case on August 18), was an attempt to break the log jam. The legislative branch had been entrapped for a month by the avarice and ambition of some lesser elected officials, whose power derived only from the historic accident of a close split between the parties. Television watchers saw these little men puff themselves up like frogs in an effort to justify their fifteen minutes of fame. One might even enjoy the sight of rogues trying to sound like statesmen
Another result of the contemporary Babylonian captivity was the ransom that had to be paid by the taxpayers in funding the member items demanded by the conspirators. Public funds are now to be appropriated in part to go to newly-created organizations to distribute to selected beneficiaries: some to their friends, relatives employed by nonprofits, campaign contributors and other insiders more difficult to identify. The total pot is about eighty-five million dollars for the Senate and a similar sum for the Assembly, which has 150 members compared with the Senate’s 62.
Not every penny that goes to member items is wasted. The funds can provide incubators for successful social programs, or supplement inadequate services in underserved (poor) communities. But the lack of management oversight and fiscal audits, combined with the proclivity of some legislators to keep the money as close as possible to themselves are serious drawbacks to the program. Another negative is the fact that, by manipulating the amounts each member receives, the leadership is enabled to exert additional control over the members, and by rewards or threats, influence their votes on substantive issues.
The latest book (2002) to appear in Robert Caro’s monumental biographical series on Lyndon B. Johnson is “Master of the Senate”. It describes how a skilled leader can dominate a legislative body, for better or for worse. There are no shining stars in Albany to compare with LBJ, but Sheldon Silver is the most competent legislator around. Unfortunately, there is no Silver in the state Senate, in either party. Can it be that the only thing worse than dictatorship is anarchy? But Silver is guided to a considerable extent by the Democratic conference. The negative feedback on congestion pricing influenced his decision to defy the Bloomberg administration and its civic claque to reject the proposal. Silver has other issues, in part connected to his permitted outside employment. So do others.
The keenest of observers, Lord Acton (1834-1902) said it briefly: “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We concur. Absolutely.
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