David Weprin

Despite some evidence suggesting that Michael Bloomberg doesn’t have the authority to stop the $400 property-tax rebate checks from going out, the mayor told reporters this afternoon that the issue is fiscal, not legal.  read more »

After Christine Quinn delivered a speech to the Citizens Budget Commission this morning, I asked her if if the beneficial continuity she thinks Michael Bloomberg's third term will provide extends to the City Council's committee assignments. 

My question was prompted by the New York Post article that reported City Councilman David Weprin risks losing a coveted spot as chair of the Council Finance Committee because he is not supporting the term-limits legislation.

Quinn said the rumor that she is threatening to take away committee assignments is false.

If term limits are extended, the convention wisdom is that incumbents City Council members are basically shoo-ins for their current seats, in no small part because they’ve raised tons of money campaigning for higher offices already.

But they’ve also spent lots of money. Too much, perhaps.

Some City Council members have raised and spent money with eye towards a borough-wide or citywide races, but they then turn around and run for their old seats, the contribution and spending limits are much lower.

For a City Council race, the spending limit is $322,000 ($161,000 for the primary and $161,000 for the general election).

According to the Campaign Finance Board, Christine Quinn’s campaign spent $285,535.  read more »

Councilman David Weprin, a Democrat from Queens, sees a funny side in the failure of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill in the House.

“It’s very ironic that it’s the Republicans who are responsible for the federal markets tanking," he said. "It was a Republican administration pushing a Republican package and it’s the Republicans who usually are defending business interests.”

“It’s kind of an ironic, bizarre twist of politics,” he said.

The city comptroller's race continues to shrink as Assemblyman Jim Brennan just announced he's out of the race. 

Brennan, who's from Brooklyn, dropping off the ticket is a boon to City Councilman David Yassky, also from Brooklyn.

Another Brooklyn candidate, Simcha Felder, dropped out in June. That leaves Yassky competing most intensely for votes in Queens, where City Council members Melinda Katz and David Weprin are from. Another candidate, Adolfo Carrion, is from the Bronx.

Of course, there's still plenty of time for someone else to jump into the race.  Here's Brennan's email:   

State Assembly member Jim Brennan (D.W-F, Bklyn) will not seek the office of the Comptroller of the City of New York in 2009.

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I showed up just after the start of the press conference David Weprin held yesterday to express opposition to extending term limits legislatively.

It was to ignore the fact that there were only two other City Council members with him: Bill de Blasio and Eric Gioia. (Ken Moltner of the Ron Lauder-funded group Citizens for Term Limits and Susan Lerner of Common Cause also attended.)

As they spoke, you could hear City Council Speaker Christine Quinn speaking at a rally for same-sex marriage in City Hall Park.

In the clip above, Weprin cautions against reading too much into attendance at the event. Also, de Blasio and Weprin did not rule out running for re-election if term limits are extended.

Tony Avella got some major coverage today for sponsoring a bill to block the City Council from extending term limits legislatively.

He's not the only one. David Weprin has also asked that bill drafters in the Council write up a bill opposing the possible extension, his office said.

Also, Weprin is organizing a press conference for this Sunday at noon on the City Hall steps about his own bill. Expected to attend the event are groups like Citizens Union and New Yorkers for Term Limits--Ron Lauder’s group.

UPDATE: According to this document, Weprin's request to draft a bill on this issue was made on September 5. 

City Comptroller candidate David Weprin is having a fund-raiser this Thursday at the Sheraton Hotel downtown.

The invitation doesn't show a dollar amount, but Weprin told me the ticket price is $250 and up.

Looking ahead to other 2009 citywide races, all three mayoral candidates are expected to be in Denver for the convention. Bill Thompson arrived yesterday, Anthony Weiner is arriving today, and Christine Quinn's office said she will be here.

In an appearance last night on the Perez Notes radio show, Council finance committee chair (and comptroller candidate) David Weprin discussed David Paterson's speech on the budget, congestion pricing and development in the city.

Perez also brought up the Council slush fund incident, which Weprin was quick to characterize as a minor blip in the face of a roughly $60 billion budget.

“I’m not proud of these scandals or these misappropriations of some small amount of money in a very large budget, but in the end I think the process is stronger for it, and we’re all better off for all the scrutiny that came out of this,” he said.  read more »

A legislative breakfast for a Brooklyn-based educational group, Shema Kolainu, on August 5 will be something of a who’s who of New York politicians.

Amusingly, attendees will hear both “remarks” from State Senator Kevin Parker, and “greetings” from one of the Democrats looking to unseat him, Simcha Felder.

The chairman of the event is possible mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, whose company, Gristedes, is the sponsor.

(Honorary chair status is given to Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton, which may help sell a few more tickets.)

The event is paying tribute to, among others, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, the State Senate minority leader, Malcolm Smith, comptroller candidate and City Councilman David Weprin, and City Councilman Bill de Blasio, who is also a candidate for Brooklyn borough president.

Campaign finance filings for the city comptroller race show candidates getting ready for what looks like it will be one of the more competitive 2009 races. (The latest filing period is January 12 to July 11, 2008.)

According to a search of donations for those candidates between those dates:

David Yassky--$463,575

David Weprin--$334,499

Melinda Katz--$206,154

Jim Brennan--$84,577

Adolfo Carrion’s campaign finance numbers are not posted yet on the Campaign Finance Board’s Web site, but his campaign spokeswoman said he raised $600,000 this filing period.

Melinda Katz's numbers are lower than expected, but then she did just have a baby.

UPDATE: Here are the contribution numbers for the comptroller candidates:

Adolfo Carrion: $570,052
David Yassky: $452,075.00
David Weprin: $316,899.00
Melinda Katz: $192,938.00
Jim Brennan: $83,677.00

(These numbers take into account any refunded donations the candidates dealt with.)

Since campaign finance numbers for city candidates are due tomorrow, a few have begun releasing them, including two candidates in the competitive comptroller's race, David Yassky and Jim Brennan.

Yassky’s campaign said they raised almost $500,000 this period, from a total of 600 donors, bringing his cash-on-hand total to $1.25 million.

Jim Brennan’s campaign spokeswoman said he raised $104,000 this filing period, bringing his total raised to $507,000. The spokeswoman, Jill Harris, also said the campaign is eligible to receive more than $750,000 in matching funds.

Numbers for the other comptroller candidates--Melinda Katz, Adolfo Carrion and David Weprin--were not immediately available.

UPDATE: Weprin told me he raised $336,000 this filing period, bringing his cash on hand total to $1.7 million.

Even in these days of increased transparency when it comes to the City Council's appropriation of member items, the process remains, unavoidably, one that rewards people who know people.

For example, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a non-profit group whose executive director, William Rapfogel, is married to the Assembly Speaker's chief of staff, Judy Rapfogel, got $556,250 in member items this year.

The Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center, a group founded and closely associated with Vito Lopez, an Assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic County Leader, got $658,089 in member items.

 

In the comments section of my original post on these member items, Mendy points out that Leib Glantz, a politically active Satmar rabbi, is a big winner because his group, UJCare, got a $200,000 member item to fund "a variety of services.  read more »

Here's an invitation for a David Yassky fund-raiser tonight on the Upper West Side.

One of the event's hosts is Andrew Tomback, a long-time Yassky contributor who has also given some money to Eric Gioia and, once, back in the day, to Alan Hevesi.

Other notable names include John Alschuler, who has contributed to progressive Democrats like Mark Green and Ruth Messinger. Alschuler has also given money to another comptroller candidate, Melinda Katz ($250 on July 7, 2007).

And there's also Charles Simon, who ran in a special election for an Assembly seat, but was defeated by Linda Rosenthal.  read more »

Councilman Simcha Felder is not getting into the city comptroller race, but he will run for the Brooklyn State Senate seat currently held by fellow Democrat Kevin Parker, according to a source.  read more »

As this dispatch from intern Bharat Ayyar shows, Eric Gioia wasn't the only Council member who yelled at Mark Page today:

High above the action, seated on the upper level at the Council Chambers at City Hall, third and fourth grade students from P.S. 60 observed Friday's hearings on the budget.

"Pay attention. There'll be a test later," quipped Finance Committee Chair David Weprin.

As different members of the council lined up to grill Mark Page, the director of the city Office of Management and Budget, on the '09 budget, which must be approved by the end of June, it quickly became clear that much of the debate would center on education.

District 7 Councilman Robert Jackson of Manhattan butted heads with Page at the hearing on issues of funding and what he said was the city's wavering commitment to the Contracts for Excellence with the state.

At a hearing earlier this week, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said that it would take $400 million to maintain city schools at 07-08 levels. Without that money, Klein made it clear that cuts would be made. The mayor's proposed budget allocates $428 million less for education than what had originally been planned. Various Council members have said that they will not allow the budget to pass if "there's a dime being cut from the classroom."

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Councilman Eric Gioia grilled the city’s budget director about the slush fund scandal during a heated Council hearing in City Hall just now.

Gioia asked, pointedly, whose job is to make sure there are no phony organizations in the city budget and what guarantees exist to ensure there are no fake groups in this year’s budget.

The budget director, Mark Page, said at one point that he felt like he was “being grilled by a local prosecutor.” He added, “I’m not sure this is the forum for you to be asking me these questions.”

When pressed about whose job it was to catch the phony groups, Page said that his agency got a list from the City Council, implicitly laying the blame with the head of the City Council, Christine Quinn. (One of her top aides, Chuck Meara, was sitting in the front row in the City Council chambers during the hearing, taking note of the exchange.)

Page told Gioia, “Your question about assurance from me that there’s nothing fraudulent in the line items [of the budget], logistically, is -- looking backwards -- is a problem for me as to how to do it.”  read more »

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Technically, Michael Bloomberg’s $59.1 billion budget increases spending -- albeit by one tenth of one percent -- but the loudest critcism it's facing so far is from officials and interest groups that want him to spend more.  read more »

 

David Weprin, the City Council Finance Chairman, emerged from the closed door meeting that members had with Christine Quinn yesterday to discuss the council's accounting problems and and the indictment of two staffers.  read more »

 

After rallying against congestion pricing on the City Hall steps this weekend, City Council Finance Chair David Weprin fielded some questions about how nonexistent groups were slated to get thousands of dollars from the council.  read more »

 

At an anti-congestion pricing rally at City Hall yesterday, Councilman David Weprin claimed that the program isn’t supported by a majority of city lawmakers, even though it passed the Council recently by a vote of 30 to 20.  read more »

Assemblyman Jim Brennan of Brooklyn, who is also running for city comptroller, introduced his own congestion pricing bill today. A spokesman, when asked, did not say whether he will support the plan as it is currently presented to lawmakers.

Brennan's new bill would ensure the program comes up for renewal in three years, and wouldn't allow the state to issue bonds against the program's future earning. Critics say allowing the bonds means the current congestion pricing plan wouldn't be temporary enough because it would last for the life of the bonds.
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A reader sent along this invitation for a May 1 awards dinner hosted by the Independent Neighborhood Democrats, a political club in Brooklyn. Among the honorees is the organization's councilman, David Yassky, who is also a candidate for city comptroller.  read more »

Last night two city comptroller candidates -- Melinda Katz and David Weprin -- voted against congestion pricing, while three of their likely opponents in the race -- David Yassky, Simcha Felder and John Liu -- voted for it.
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During an interview on The Perez Notes last night, Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf delivered a hypothetical negative ad against Councilwoman Melinda Katz, one of the leading candidates for comptroller in 2009.

“I haven’t written it yet," said Sheinkopf. "I’m going to write it write now. Somebody can steal this and do what they want with it:

"‘Melinda Katz wants to be comptroller of the city of New York. Her credentials? Well, she was the Land Use Chair of the City Council. Here are some facts. During her Land Use [Committee] chairmanship, New Yorkers lost more affordable housing than in any other time in history. Rents skyrocketed. She’s taken millions from land lords. Some of those landlords'--lets do it this way--

"'She’s taken hundreds of thousands from landlords, slumlords, the worst kind of people. Those who want to jack up our rents and throw us on the street. So there you have it. Melinda Katz, for the landlords. Think she ought to be comptroller? Ha. Absolutely not.'

Response from Katz's office after the jump.  read more »

Adolfo Carrion just announced two more co-chairs for his city comptroller campaign: former city comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman and Merryl H. Tisch, chairperson of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

Last month, Carrion rolled out two others: former state comptroller Carl McCall and business executive Leo Hindrey Jr.

Locking up the support of two former comptrollers gives Carrion, at least, a distinction among a field that also includes Melinda Katz, David Yassky, David Weprin, Simcha Felder and James Brennan.

The official statement is after the jump.  read more »

In case you had any doubt, fedoras are so much back in style I spotted them on City Council members--and candidates for higher office--David Weprin and Jim Gennaro at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Sunnyside yesterday.  read more »

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, and so is the big parade, meaning it's once again for local politicians to make a statement one way or another on the organizers' decision not to allow gays to participate under their own banner.

I asked a few possible citywide candidates about their parade plans, and here’s what I heard back so far.

Mayoral candidates:

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The co-chairs for Adolfo Carrion’s comptroller campaign will be former state comptroller H. Carl McCall and business executive Leo Hindrey Jr. of InterMedia Partners, the campaign announced this morning.

Hindrey, the former C.E.O. of the YES Network (which broadcasts Yankees games) also helped raise money for another Bronx politician seeking citywide office: Fernando Ferrer, who ran for mayor in 2005.  read more »

To the fund-raising numbers for comptroller candidates Adolfo Carrion, Melinda Katz, David Yassky, and David Weprin -- all hovering around the million dollar mark -- add a total for one more candidate.

Jim Brennan’s campaign announced just now that he’s raised $144,000 in this most recent fund-raising period, bringing his total amount of contributions up to $405,000, they said. That leaves him with $280,000 on hand, according to spokeswoman Linda Gross.

Brennan’s campaign estimates they are also eligible for about $670,000 in matching funds from the city’s Campaign Finance Board.

In a morning sure to be rife with Jim Dolan-bashing, the City Council is holding a hearing Monday on a Madison Square Garden tax break, as elected officials are calling for an end to the approximately $11 million-a-year property tax exemption. The movement to revoke the break is gaining steam at the same time that Mr. Dolan, the owner of Madison Square Garden and a true darling of the media, is in negotiations to move across the street into the Farley Post Office as part of a complex redevelopment of Pennsylvania Station.  read more »

After months of raising money, David Weprin is having an official comptroller campaign kick-off event on January 10th at the Carlton Hotel, from 6 to 8 p.m.

That happens to be one of the last days to raise money that will count towards the this disclosure period (figures available January 15 from the Campaign Finance Board).

Email invitation after the jump.  read more »

Perhaps legislators all received new gavels for the holidays, as there seems to be a whole bunch of hearings in the next few days relevant to economic development.

A list for those that like sitting in the uncomfortable chairs of City Hall and elsewhere:  read more »

 

 

This evening, David Yassky kicks off his City Comptroller campaign with a fund-raiser at the Harvard Club.

He's part of a fairly crowded field in which some of the candidates have already started to raise money and endorsements: Melinda Katz, David Weprin, Jim Brennan and (all-but-declared) Simcha Felder.

The next Campaign Finance Board disclosure filing deadline is January 15. Any predictions as to what the candidates will show?

UPDATE: Also tonight is a birthday party/fund-raiser for Assemblyman Micah Kellner of Manhattan at XES Lounge, 157 West 24th Street, starting at 6:30 p.m.

Last night at David Weprin’s fund-raiser for his city comptroller campaign, I learned that the City Councilman’s long-time chief of staff, Jack Rubin Friedman, is leaving in January to become the head of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. One attendee told me that Rubin might run for Weprin’s seat in 2009. (Rubin was standing nearby and interjected that it’s only a possibility at this point.)

The event at the Woolworth Kitchen and Towers drew a number of notable attendees: Dan Gardonick, Eric Gioia, Dave Pollak, Hank Sheinkopf, Domenic Recchia, Diane Savino and George Arzt.

Press-shy top aides to Christine Quinn, Ramone Martinez and Chuck Meara, were also there, and probably weren’t thrilled when Weprin announced their presence over the microphone.

As the law stands, 36 of the 51 City Council members will be term-limited out of office in 2009, which explains the slew of councilmembers who seem to be running for higher office. But not all the members have given up on changing the law that will keep them out of their current position.

“I still think there is going to be a move to change it, to be honest” David Weprin, who is affected by the term limits and running for comptroller, told me. “There’s plenty of time to get a referendum on the ballot for ‘08. That’s what I would be looking to do. And there is still time to do a legislative tweak, in ‘09, similar to the Gifford Miller tweak, and just do it for a third term. It’s not overturning term-limits totally, but a tweak, legislatively.”

More after the jump.  read more »

City Councilman David Weprin, a Democrat, is getting some unusual help in his campaign for city comptroller.

The first name listed as a host of his November 29 fund-raiser is Adam Barsky, the former Deputy Secretary for Republican Governor George Pataki.

Barsky later became the Director of the New York City Office of Management and Budget under Rudy Giuliani, and the mayor's Chief Financial Officer.

Which should make for some interesting conversation around the hors d'oeuvres table about the fiscal prudence of the previous Republican administrations.

Invitation after the jump.  read more »

Eliot Spitzer’s driver’s license plan just got endorsed by Clark Kent Ervin, the former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In a public statement distributed by Spitzer's office, Ervin, now the Director of the Homeland Security Program at the Aspen Institute, said:

“Absent federal action, states have no choice but to deal with the realities of illegal immigration. Governor Spitzer is right to be guided by reason and reality rather than emotion. It might make some feel good to deny driver's licenses to those here illegally. But such a policy will do little, if anything, to protect the security of a state’s residents, and may in fact make the already difficult job of identifying terrorists even harder."  read more »

It's official: David Yassky is running for comptroller.

He filed paperwork with the Campaign Finance Board late last week and it just popped up on the CFB’s web site a few minutes ago.

Earlier, I noted the strategy will likely be to pick up support in his vote-rich section of Brooklyn and, since the race is full of outer borough candidates, scoop up the largely unclaimed votes in Manhattan. The other candidates in the race are David Weprin, Melinda Katz and possibly John Liu, all from Queens, plus Simcha Felder and James Brennan from Brooklyn. There's low-level grumbling about Adolfo Carrion getting into that race (although Carrion indicates he'd prefer to run for mayor).

When I spoke with Yassky on Friday, he didn’t confirm or deny he was entering the race. Instead, he said, “I still feel like it’s a long time away. And when given that we still have a city that is almost entirely reliant on diesel fuel to heat itself, when there is biofuels that would make so much of a difference, in terms of carbon emission, and we’re still spending all this money on tax breaks that would happen anyway, which we shouldn’t be doing. I feel like those are the things to be focusing on. Over and above atoning for my sins.”

He added, “It seems too far away to be talking about 2009.”

UPDATE: Just to clarify, Yassky's statement about atoning for sins was a eference was to Yom Kippur, which started on Friday, the day we spoke.

Councilman and all-but-announced city comptroller candidate Simcha Felder of Brooklyn hired another staffer: Eric Kuo, who will be the new new press person.

Kuo previously did press for Councilman Vincent Gentile, a Democrat in the conservative-leaning Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn (the same area that produced Democratic operatives George Fontas, Scott Gastel and Sam Cooper). He also worked for Councilman Oliver Koppell in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. (There are probably some notable operatives from there too, but I'll need some help on that one.)

More on Kuo after the jump.  read more »