CM'S FIRST AT BAT

Dear Councilmember:

Happy New Year!  A big one for you, for sure!  New everything!

New Yorkers are concerned about the Speaker's race.  We're taken aback at the Mayor's meddling in the vote, no less at his choice for Speaker:  Melissa Mark Viverito is damaged goods.  Elections keep breaking records for lowest voter turnout.  Certainly 2013 did.  Bill de Blasio won HUGE -- with three/quarters of the quarter of registered voters who bothered to show up.

The fight for Speaker looks like the return of Tammany Hall,  horse trading, arm twisting and bribing to install the Mayor's  pick.  Melissa Mark Viverito, born to wealth, snags a no-interest mortgage intended for home buyers of low income, exploits tax breaks for herself and just this week we learn she's also failed to report rental income.  Is she being censured by the Council?  No!  She's the leading contender for Council Speaker!  Is it any wonder people are increasingly cynical about government?

Kids waiting table have to report tips as income.  Yet Mayor de Blasio excuses this lawmaker's flouting the law:  "I'm sure she'll catch up on that disclosure and make it right."  When?  The hidden income dates back a few years.  The Mayor isn't worried.  He calls her "a person of tremendous integrity."  We call her a common cheater.  The Mayor says he knows her "very well."  Well enough that they think as one:  As Speaker she'll push the Mayor's initiatives through and deliver the votes.  No mess.  No fuss.  No check.  No balance.  Straight one-party rule.

If that's what the new administration means with the cry "ONE CITY!" we've been played.  Those of us in the still-voting minority were elated and relieved to be able to fill in the circle on the ballot for Bill de Blasio.  Twelve years of Bloomberg were a lone time ending.  We were thrilled to have elected a  fresh face with new ideas for old problems.  The last thing we thought our new Mayor would do is set up a Mini-Me Speaker of his own.  Christine Quinn played that role for Mayor Bloomberg.  It cost her the Mayoralty.  That's how much we voters dislike puppets for public servants.

We don't like party enforcers either.  Is Frank Seddio the Progressive standard bearer these days?  Funny if he is because he looks like an old political boss from the bad old days.  We didn't elect him and aren't pleased to learn he's lined up the votes of the entire Brooklyn delegation for Mark Viverito.  In return for their cooperation the Brooklyn delegation have been promised plum Council assignments.

We heard you had originally planned to vote for Dan Garodnick.  What changed your mind?

Today's vote is a big one for you right out of the box.  We constituents are concerned with what we're watching.  We're the "e pluribus" not the ruling-party "unum."  We're the many individuals, the many ideas, not ONE CITY.

We hope you will cast this critical vote according to your own lights, not Frank Seddio's.  If you do vote for Melissa Mark Viverito we hope it will be because of virtues you know she possesses that you think could compensate for the disturbing ethical issues the press has brought to light.  

It's your first at bat.  We're watching the pitch you go after.