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Passing A Budget
By MICHAEL SCHENKLER
I had no intention of writing about the State Legislature again.
My wife Lil told me reading another column about the dysfunctional State Legislature would be worse than going with me to Home Depot or a computer store.
Now, she doesn’t think they don’t deserve everything I’ve been saying about them, and more, but she prefers those occasions when I forsake politics and write about life, or anything else.
This could have been one of those cases, except for a Thursday phone call.
“They’ve reached an agreement on the budget,” a reliable Albany insider told me.
They — in case you haven’t been paying attention for the past decade — are Assembly Speaker Democrat Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Republican Joe Bruno, the only two men in the entire State who have any say over the budget presented to the Governor for signature.
“They are not touching the education issue; they are leaving that one to the court,” my not-so-Deep Throat told me.
“They just have to tweak the whole thing with the Governor, let it age . . . and pass it.”
And so my friend informed me that the adventure of the latest budget in New York State history was coming to an end.
Not so!
I’m not going to forget this one; the kids and parents of New York City schools, who remain without the court-ordered funding, are not going to forget this one. And I’m going to do my darnedest not to let my readers forget.
Nor should anyone forget about the prior 20 years of late budgets, the backroom bargains, the self-perpetuating dealing, or the failure by members to represent their constituents without becoming part of the vilest game in town.
Now, my phone caller didn’t say all of that. But every Albany insider, every government watcher and every elected official knows just how dysfunctional and morally bankrupt the State Legislature is — just ask them off the record.
The State is pretty close to financial bankruptcy, too. Year after year, in league with the Governor, they play fool-the-public and defer expenses to the future so that our children will be paying for their incompetence for decades to come.
I can’t be positive that my phone companion’s info was totally reliable, although he is. Nor can I be sure that the budget, more than a third of a year late, won’t hit another snag on its way to final backroom sign-off.
But primaries are a coming, followed by general elections. And even in the most gerrymandered, self-mapped districts to ensure seats in perpetuity, incumbent legislators don’t want to face the people without having appeared to have done their jobs.
Sadly, as you’ll see when Election Day roles around, the systemic problem is deeper than I’ve previously related.
Back at home, political parties continue the efforts to perpetuate the status quo. Even in districts that could conceivably swing to the other party, incumbents are often given free rides or only nominal challenges.
State Senator Serf Maltese, the Queens Republican Chair, seems to always get a free ride by the Queens Democratic Organization. We wonder what he’s doing for them to return the favor?
Statewide, these incumbent legislators don’t lose. They don’t even face serious challengers. That is the way they have made the rules and drawn the lines.
So when you get a chance, or we get a chance to evaluate an incumbent who is in a serious election race, evaluate carefully.
Because any incumbent you contribute to, support, or vote for is likely to go back to Albany and perpetuate the system which will shortchange our children, bankrupt our State and continue to be a government that is not responsive to the needs of the people.
The choices are few.
At times, all you can do is yell loudly.
We’ll be listening.
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City Aids Ferry Boss: Saving Patrick Ryan
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| HENRY STERN
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By
HENRY STERN
The City of New York is standing behind its director of ferry operations, Patrick Ryan, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on manslaughter charges arising from the Staten Island Ferry tragedy.
Ryan is clearly not the world’s best director of ferry operations, but that is a long way from an indictment for causing the death of 11 people. The city is right to defend its employee from criminal charges involved in the performance of his duties, unless his crime was intentional. No one believes Ryan wanted the ferry to crash; his misconduct is said to stem from failing to notify employees properly about the rule requiring two pilots in a cabin, which was enforced sporadically or not at all for years.
The Coast Guard, which has oversight responsibility over ferries, is said to have its own rule requiring two people to be in the cabin at all times. There was testimony that a second crewmember was in the cabin at the time of the collision but was either preparing an incident report or doing a Daily News crossword, and therefore not looking at the slumping pilot. Others say that the reason the deckhands were not on deck at the time of the crash was that they were holding their regular afternoon card game.
The ferry pilot normally cuts the engine speed when the ferry passes a certain buoy, near Staten Island, and that signals the crew to take their places on deck. In this case, since the captain was unconscious, speed was never cut, and the crew played on.
A combination of circumstances, but primarily the concealed illness of the pilot and the negligence of the crew, caused the unforgivable tragedy. But dereliction of duty by the boat staff does not prove that the director of ferry operations committed manslaughter. The indictment suggests overreaction to tragedy and deceit.
The 9/11 Commission found numerous failures by government agencies and individuals. The worst disaster in New York’s history might well have been prevented had FBI and CIA agents done their jobs properly. The stories of agents who gave warnings of terrorists taking flying lessons, which were ignored at headquarters, are heartbreaking. But that does not mean that the people who failed to act when they should have are guilty of manslaughter.
Ryan was negligent in failing to post the rules and not seeing to it that they were obeyed. He was not accurate in speaking with the United States attorney, as federal law requires. Whether his self-serving statements materially misled anyone is another question. In any event, his oral omissions and misrepresentations (call them lies) are a far cry from committing manslaughter. It is known that prosecutors sometimes overcharge as an incentive to defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges. I do not believe that is the case here, but such things do happen, especially to recalcitrant or uncooperative witnesses.
The victims of the ferry tragedy are clearly entitled to compensation by the city for their injuries, expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering. Ryan’s level of culpability should not affect the sum that the victims and their lawyers will share, because all acknowledge that, because of the failures of the pilot and the crew, the city is already responsible for the accident. Scraping the wounds to escalate the city’s liability is not in the public interest.
People should understand that every cent the city pays in tort damages comes out of other services. The amount paid out by the city over the years as the result of tort claims increased to a record high in 2002, and declined somewhat last year. It is still about a half-billion dollars a year, almost three times the Parks’ budget. There are no deep corporate pockets here to be picked; it is your taxes and mine that pay for these jury verdicts, which are often inflated by outrage at the failings of some city employees.
The city is trying to limit its liability to the value of the vessel, some $14 million. From one seven-figure settlement already reached with an injured person, that may not cover all the forty-odd victims. But it would be a far better frame of reference for damages than the blue sky.
The accusation against Patrick Ryan has much more significance than his fate as an individual. The lawyers who are suing the city for over $3 billion on behalf of people injured or killed on the ferry are trying to connect the tragedy to higher city officials in order to generate additional damages for their clients and themselves.
In litigation against governments, the City of New York is treated far differently than the State of New York. When the city is sued, the case goes to a jury. When the state is sued, judges who sit in the Court of Claims, appointees of the governor, decide the case. This frees the state from the threat of extravagant verdicts induced by emotional presentations by personal injury lawyers, or excessive sympathy for the injuries suffered by a claimant.
It would be simple fairness to have claims against the city adjudicated in the same way as claims against the state.
The city has tried to have the State Legislature change the law to accomplish that. But a platoon of personal injury lawyers in Albany, led by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver – who is actually on the payroll of Weitz & Luxenberg, a personal injury law firm, at the same time as he presides over the Assembly – block any consideration of equal treatment of the city. Their dual employment with law firms is legal; in order to prohibit or restrict it, one would have to change the law. Yet legislators are highly unlikely to do anything to limit their personal income, even if the result is blatant conflict of interest.
So the city is justified in coming to the aid of director Ryan in his present difficulties. He may not be a very effective manager, nor is his brother-in-law, who is his assistant. Nine years ago he misused a city car and drove without a state license. If it were my agency and I were aware of those facts, I would not have appointed him.
But Patrick Ryan did not kill 11 people and should not be prosecuted for it. Those who demand his prosecution for manslaughter as a way to punish the city should be aware that we are the city, and in protecting the city we protect ourselves. That is, except for those who are suing the city; it is in the interest of plaintiffs and their counsel to make the city appear as wicked and inept as possible.
That is the subtext to the court proceedings, which complicates the corporation counsel’s difficult and important task of protecting the City of New York while being fair to the victims of the tragedy and their families.
Have a safe weekend.
Email Henry Stern @ starquest.nycivic.org |
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Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato |
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