December 2002

Take My Office….Please

By James Eugene*

Can anyone explain to me why certain City offices exist? Take the Public Advocate… please. Now I have nothing against Betsy Gotbaum. She is a very nice lady and is earnest in her job, but the next Public Advocate candidate who runs on the theme that they will eliminate the office has my vote. Now that the latest City Charter revision has made it so the Public Advocate does not succeed the Mayor, what is its relevance?

Come to think of it, what was ever its relevance? Let's face it, the office existed for one reason only. When the Board of Estimate was eliminated and the power of the City Council President (who was really not the head of the City Council, but that is too long a story to explain) was decreased to the size of a pea, there was talk of eliminating the office. However, the holder of the Council Presidency was Andrew Stein. And Andy Stein wanted to be Mayor. But it is easier to run for office if you are an elected official than if you are just John Q. Public (at least it was in the days before billionaire Mayors). So Andy huffed and puffed and the 1989 Charter Revision Commission kept the office. Of course, the Speaker of the Council, Peter Vallone, did not care for the title "City Council President," mainly because people confused Andy Stein's office with his, and Andy Stein's office had no power, and Vallone's office had lots of power. (And the worst thing in the world is for one politician to receive homage that is due to another politician.) So the title "City Council President" became "Public Advocate."

So what are the main powers of the Public Advocate? Well, once upon time, the Public Advocate was in line to succeed the Mayor, but no more. Next real power… well, you got me.

Fortunately, the budget for the Public Advocate has been cut and cut and cut and cut, making an ineffectual office, well, ineffectual. But the Public Advocate's office is not the only one for which I have a hard time finding a raison d'etre. My next favorite entity is the Independent Budget Office. Formed in response to a budget of good government groups' wishes (and who ordains these groups "good government" anyway), the "Independent" Budget Office is really anything but. Its director is appointed by a special committee consisting of the City Comptroller, the Public Advocate (oops, might have a real power here), a borough president (chosen from the august league of county executives who have, you guessed it, no real power) and a council member (chosen from a body that does have some power, but has in the past had a preference for rubber stamps and chickens). With all these elected officials choosing the director of the Office, you know it will never go to far afoot. So then, just who is the "Independent Budget Office" independent of? Are you looking at me for an answer????

And why do we have an "Independent" Budget Office? The Comptroller does audits. The City Council oversees the budgets and issues budget reports. The Office of Management and Budget performs audits. For goodness sakes, even the State Comptroller audits City agencies. Do we really need another audit body? One would think the City is subject to more audits and investigations than Enron. (Hold it… that might be true.) But even the audits of the Independent Budget Office, no matter how interesting, never really seem to get much mileage. Could that be because it has no specific godparent (hey, it's a political column, I must be PC)? Maybe the name should be changed to the "Irrelevant" Budget Office?

And while I like the Borough Presidents (a really competent group of individuals… and I am serious here), their roles could easily be subsumed by the Council Members. Yes, I know the argument, each borough needs some official to make policy for the borough. But don't you think the caucus of Council Members for each borough couldn't just (i) agree to elect a lead City Council member from the borough, (ii) work together to subsume portions of the current Borough President staff that the borough's Council Members could use independent of Council staff (sort of like an independent staff for the caucus of Council Members from that Borough), and (iii) have that staff work on just issues of relevance to the borough. While this would not eliminate all the positions at the borough-level, it would allow for downsizing.

But of course, none of this works politically. How could I be so stupid? I'm sorry. Forget I said anything. Never mind.

A Rose by Any Other Name….

One of the great mayoral and legislative achievements of 2002 was the renaming of the City's Department of Business Services to the Department of Small Business Services. Now could someone explain for me… does the word "Small" modify "Business" or "Services"? Just asking.

* James Eugene is the pseudonym of a veteran of NYC government affairs. Inside The Big Apple will appear exclusively on the Empire Page. If you want to send tips or column ideas to James Eugene, email them to jameseugene@empirepage.com.