David Weprin

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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 »

While we're on the subject of staff changes... David Weprin's communications director Austin Shafran is leaving next week to take a job with Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf.

Shafran had previously worked for Congressman Gary Ackerman.

About that talk going around that City Councilman David Yassky of Brooklyn will enter the already-crowded City Comptroller’s race in 2009...

"I’m not trying to be coy about it," Yassky just told me. "I want to stay in government. I love this work. I think I’ll want to keep doing it after my term is over. And I think I’ll be in another election," but 2009 is "too far away and I have not decided. We’re not there."

Though there are at least five candidates, it's not that outlandish for Yassky to calculate that there may be room for one more. The list of announced and likely candidates for comptroller include Simcha Felder and James Brennan of Brooklyn, and John Liu, Melinda Katz and David Weprin of Queens, if I'm not missing anyone. The pool of voters in Manhattan, in the absence of another entrant (Scott Stringer, maybe?), are anything but locked down.

Yassky is popular with the New York Times and with Michael Bloomberg, who has already held two fund-raisers for Felder, but has shared national TV time with Yassky. So, if he can line up backing uptown and in his part of Brooklyn... who knows?

Gotham Gazette just released a nice analysis of individually sponsored member items from this year’s city budget.

According to the group, the king of member items is David Weprin of Queens, who got $736,500 for his district by funding 31 projects there. Councilman Leroy Comrie, also of Queens, funded 80 projects for a total of $710,857.

The district with the fewest dollars brought into it is in Brooklyn, where the Council’s newest member, Mathieu Eugene funded 10 programs for a total of $46,500. Helen Foster of the Bronx funded just one project, but it was worth $102,187.

The full report is here.

Melinda Katz is going full steam ahead with her bid to be the next city comptroller in a race that, technically, doesn't happen until 2009.

“I’ve been in it for two or three months,” Katz, a Councilwoman from Queens, told me.

She's already picked up a major endorsement from RWDSU, the union representing sales and retail workers, to be announced formally tomorrow.

And aside from process, Katz is casting herself as the most experienced candidate for the job, reminding me that she is the chair of the Council’s Land Use Committee, a former state Assembly member, and former associate at Weil, Gotshal and Manges.

“I’ve become the known entity in this race,” she said, on her way to City Hall. That's where two of her three likely opponents for the race currently work: fellow Queens-based Council member David Weprin and Councilman Simcha Felder of Brooklyn.
Also considering the race the race is Assembly member James Brennan of Brooklyn.

Maybe it’s the Mayor’s belief in the power of persuasion, or maybe it’s just protecting the rear flank, but Mr. Bloomberg’s long-term planning team is meeting even with the harshest of congestion pricing critics.

On Tuesday, Rohit (Rit) Aggarwala, the planner behind the Mayor’s PlaNYC, met for an hour with Queens City Council Member David Weprin, according to Mr. Weprin.  read more »

Yesterday, one of the quirkiest traditions returned to a major Memorial Day Parade that starts a few blocks inside Nassau County before winding its way through the Little Neck-Douglaston section of Queens.

“I refused to march on the Nassau side,” Weiner told me. He stood on the border, next to the 'Welcome to Nassau' sign and waited for the parade to get into New York City territory before joining in. A person who has been marching in that parade for a couple of years told me that the most notable politician to do that in the past was Rudy Giuliani.

Also attending the parade were regular marchers Mike Bloomberg Frank Padavan, Chuck Schumer, Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Adolfo Carrion, Eric Gioia, Melinda Katz, David and Mark Weprin, and Peter Vallone, Sr.

A special election for ex-Assemblyman Vincent M. Ignizio's seat in the 62nd District will be held today.

11:30 a.m. A ground breaking for renovations will be held at Gravesend Park on 18th Avenue between 56th and 58th streets in Brooklyn.  read more »

11:30 a.m. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer announces a free tax preparation campaign for low-income neighborhoods at the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union at 37 Avenue B at 3rd Street.

With much less chatter and attention than some other citywide elected officials, Queens Councilman John Liu has raised $1,002,771 for an undetermined race, according to recent figures filed with the city's Campaign Finance Board.

Liu seems to have capitalized to spectacular effect on his status as the first Asian-American elected to the council, drawing heavily from Asian-American New Yorkers for his total.

Other notable filings include Councilman David Weprin's $817,136 for the city comptroller's race, Councilman Eric Gioia's $726,618 for an undisclosed race, and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum's $163,965.

UPDATE: The CFB updated some paperwork which puts Weprin's contributions now at $978,011.

-- Azi Paybarah

I just ran into Councilman Simcha Felder on the City Hall steps and asked him about his possible bid for city comptroller.

He said he's eyeing that seat first because, as a certified public accountant and tax auditor for a number of years, "I have a better understanding of numbers than most of the people" who are considering that race.

That would be a reference to the Chairman of the council's finance committee David Weprin, Brooklyn Assemblyman Jim Brennan and possibly Queens Councilman John Liu.

And being known as a jester in the Council doesn't hurt either, he said.

"People tend to relate to someone they like," he said, "We've seen that over and over again in elections. Personalities certainly come into play."

-- Azi Paybarah

Another sign the debate over congestion pricing for auto-heavy areas, if not congestion pricing itself, is coming our way: The Manhattan Institute (whom one would think would be against these things) is holding a breakfast next Thursday on the topic. And it seems like toll-foe David Weprin will be outnumbered. - Matthew Schuerman

If Fantasy Congress is too legislative-heavy for your taste, there's the more March Madness-like game of Campaign Guru circulating its way around a small group of folks following races nationwide.

Compiled by George Fontas, a former aide to Councilman David Weprin, Campaign Guru offers a quick snapshot of various house races and the candidates. It was conceived of more out of sense of sport than propaganda, so it offers shows what really political-sports hounds consider the races to watch. Only one is in New York (Reynolds v. Davis). The other New York races considered to be in play are on the questionnaire, but only as bonus points.

The format can be downloaded over here.

Fontas is offering the winner $30 gift certificate to J&R. This site will offer bragging rights and a lifetime of notoriety.

Good luck.

-- Azi Paybarah

As visiting political contingents go, it will be a small one.

But with a (relative) minimum of fuss, Dov Hikind and David Weprin will be taking off for a three-day tour of the north of Israel on Saturday night with a group that also includes one college student and a handful of business people.

"Because it happened so fast, we never advertised it," Hikind explained.

He says that he'll be hand-delivering about $27,000 he raised to buy equipment for the crews that collect body parts after bombings.

Hikind also said that "a couple of other" officials made inquiries about tagging along on the trip, but ultimately decided against going. He didn't say who.

-- Josh Benson

This Tuesday, the Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation wil be holding a discussion on the Javits Center, moderated by Charles Bagli, of the New York Times. Participants include Kent Barwick (President, Municipal Art Society), Henry Wollman (Director, Steven L. Newman Institute Baruch College), and David Weprin (Chair, Finance Committee New York City Council).

Full release is after the jump.  read more »

The City Council's entry in the St. Patrick's Day Parade seemed almost entirely without Council Members, who followed the lead of the boycotting Speaker, though David Weprin of Queens was there.

And, speaking of absences, Governor Pataki was absent from his own Governor's Breakfast, despite being included in the progam. Prayers were said for his speedy recuperation, but that can't be good. Purely politically, the illness has already cost him what was basically the only edge he had in the 2008 Republican sweepstakes: frequent, energetic, early attention to New Hampshire and, especially, Iowa.

Forget that patriotism stuff. Over at the City Council, they've moved on to monarchism.

From the Daybook:

"Speaker Christine Queen, Finance Chair David Weprin and Council Members deliver response to Mayor's Preliminary Budget; Red Room, City Hall."

Yesterday may have been the marked by the ceremony surrounding the Mayor's inauguration, but it was the Speaker's race that made for the most interesting political theater, or at least choreography.

As speaker candidate Christine Quinn stepped out of Gifford Miller's office, she stopped dead in her tracks, noticing that her main rival for the job, Bill de Blasio, was speaking frantically on his phone in a City Hall foyer crowded with just about every commissioner and pol in city government. Quinn's entourage quickly closed ranks around her, and they all stepped back, strategizing in whispers about how to make it to the door without bumping into de Blasio. Their apparent solution was to form a tight circle around her, using a Councilmember buffer to get her safely to the door.  read more »

According to this blog,which keeps an eye on the race, Queens county leaders have given up on electing one of their own, and are planning to again cash in their voting bloc in the form of key chairmanships.

"Where Queens goes, the Speaker goes," Queens Councilman David Weprin told The Politicker yesterday.

On Wednesday evening, Housing Here and Now will sponsor a second forum for the Speaker candidates; details here. I'm not sure if, or how, the format will differ from the last time around.

In related news, this week's issue of New York Magazine examines would-be Speakers' donations to their City Council colleagues.  read more »

"It's not quid pro quo," David Weprin told the magazine. "No councilman would want to sell their speaker vote to the highest bidder. If they did, it's not a vote you would want anyway."

Last night, the seven City Council members running for Speaker participated in a public debate at Baruch college, an odd forum for an election that will ultimately be decided through the deal making and power bartering of their colleagues in the chamber. Nevertheless, the debate for "who will hold the second most powerful job in city government" (according to its organizers) was not entirely bereft of entertainment, which was supplied mostly by the zingers of Lewis Fidler from Brooklyn.

Mr. Fidler sat on one end of the panel, as far away as possible from Bill de Blasio, who last year led a coup against Fidler to gain control of the council's Brooklyn contingent. But de Blasio proved to be Fidler's greatest fan, commenting to panel neighbors David Weprin and Christine Quinn "Oh, now that's good!" every time Fiddler delivered a lively line. When Fidler compared elections to polo as increasingly reserved for the rich, the rather wonkish de Blasio exclaimed "He's fabulous!"  read more »

But not all of the target audience got to see Fidler's crowd pleasers. According to some of the organizers, the fire marshal stopped letting people into the packed hall and forced some tardy council members back out into the cold.

ALSO: Over at New York Press's blog, Azi has a wrap-up, along with the evening's most memorable line: "I did a colonoscopy to show people it could be done."

At first glance, rolling back term limits in the City Council seems like an incredibly impolitic act: it would contervene a referendum, and draw down the unceasing wrath of various editorial boards and other sages.

So why is it now seen as all but guaranteed that the City Council will act to extend, if not de-limit, its members terms next year? The answer is the race for speaker.

One candidate, David Weprin of Queens, has already assured potential supporters that he's open to revising term limits. Another, Chris Quinn of Manhattan, is on the record as opposing term limits outright. I wasn't able immediately to determine the positions of Bill de Blasio and Lew Fidler of Brooklyn on the issue.

The point is that candidates for speaker have to promise something, and little is as valuable to people as their jobs. So look for the candidates to compete in offering strong anti-term limits proposals, ranging from the weakest, extending them another term by referendum; through doing the same thing legislatively; through a referendum on abolishing them entirely.  read more »

"It's an issue that's on the minds of a lot of members," Weprin told The Politicker, adding that he expected it to wait until a new Council takes office in January. "It's a major part of the agenda."

With his New York City convention judged a big success and providing him with a formidable bounce in  read more »