Public Employee Press

Bloomberg vetoes the voters

The mayor stole the public’s right to vote on term limits, killed state legislation against contracting out, sued to stop workplace violence protections and now aims to block a federal cleanup of the toxic Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg reversed his longstanding support for the two-term limit on elected politicians late last year by strong-arming a City Council majority into letting him run again.

Arguing that the city needs his financial wisdom for another four years to get through the recession, Bloomberg trampled the results of two public referendums that overwhelmingly approved the 16-year-old term limit law. His claim fooled few: While his own wealth tripled to over $16 billion during his eight years in office, working people’s wallets shrank and local unemployment rose above 10 percent.

“The mayor and the Council members who supported him on the term limits override made a self-serving power grab that, in effect, hijacked democracy and stole New Yorkers’ right to vote,” said DC 37 Political Director Wanda Williams. Many City Council members also got to run for third terms, and others said funding for their community projects was threatened.

Bloomberg has echoed the Bush-era economic mantra of “Don’t tax the rich,” and his third-term grab won the support of business leaders. But extending term limits was a risky move that pitted the mayor’s personal interests against the majority of New Yorkers. A recent poll found that 56 percent of city voters oppose letting incumbents run for a third term, and in the Sept. 15 primary voters threw out several Council members who backed the plan.

“The number of City Council Democrats whose constituents rejected them Sept. 15 is a preamble to what voters will tell this mayor in the election Nov. 3,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

Protecting waste and contracting out

Mayor Bloomberg is busy killing off state legislation to toughen regulation of independent authorities, limit their ability to contract out work normally done by union members, and save city and state funds.

The Legislature passed two bills overwhelmingly this spring, but as PEP went to press, the mayor succeeded in getting Gov. David Paterson to veto the restrictions on contracting out. Negotiations on the other continued as PEP went to press.

DC 37 and other unions defended the “good government” proposals sponsored by Assembly member Richard Brodsky and Sens. Bill Perkins and Diane Savino against Bloomberg’s intense effort to get the governor to veto them both.

The hundreds of authorities statewide contract out billions of dollars each year with virtually no public oversight. The remaining proposal would create an Authorities Budget Office to review their spending, require them to submit contracts of over $250,000 to the state comptroller for approval, and institute cost effectiveness and affirmative action requirements.

Bloomberg has complained to the governor that passing the bills would infringe on the city’s rights and collective bargaining agreements.

“There is no infringement here,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. “These bills protect taxpayers’ money and workers’ jobs. They would create transparency, weed out corruption and cronyism, curtail privatization and stop union busting.”

Allied with DC 37 in urging Paterson to sign the bills are DC 37’s parent union, AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, Public Employees’ Federation, Civil Service Employees Association and Technical Guild Local 375.

Fighting job safety and toxic cleanup

Also on the mayor’s hit list: federal action to clean up Brooklyn’s toxic Gowanus Canal and a state plan to halt workplace violence.

The city has sued the state Dept. of Labor to knock out a regulation that would require public agency management to work with unions to assess the risk of assaults against public-sector workers.

According to union experts, including DC 37’s Lee Clarke, the city is trying to avoid the “power sharing” involved in getting union input to protect members’ safety.

Federal and state environmental agencies have called for adding the Gowanus — one of the city’s most polluted sites — to the Superfund National Priorities List, which would provide the means for a comprehensive cleanup plan. Bloomberg is trying to stop the move in favor of a much smaller city plan.

The water, soil and air around the canal are full of untreated wastes and pollutants, including pesticides, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals, such as PCBs and volatile organic contaminants that combine into the putrid stench that area residents call the canal’s “aroma.”

The residents support the Superfund listing, but Bloomberg’s opposition puts him in the camp of the developers who have invested in the area.

— Diane S. Williams and Jane LaTour