Gotbaum Accuses Quinn Of Political Payback For Opposing Term Limit Extension

Three cheers for Betsy Gotbaum this morning, when she proudly stood in front of City Hall and lambasted Speaker Christine Quinn for not restoring funding cuts to the Public Advocate's office. Gotbaum, with just a few months left in office, pulled no punches and accused the Speaker of withholding funds for the city's watchdog office because Gotbaum opposed Quinn's push to extend term limits from eight to twelve years.

Norman Siegel Skewers Betsy Gotbaum

Generally politicians will say nice things about their predecessors (unless they're George Bush), especially when they are of the same party and not running against each other. That was what all the Public Advocate candidates did last night, except for one. Norman Siegel gave his audience a heaping dish of what he actually thought of Betsy Gotbaum's performance as New York City's Public Advocate.

From The Daily Politics:

“If you think Betsy Gotbaum did a good job as public advocate, you should vote for one of the other three people," he said. "I think she was not a good public advocate. She was not visible, she was not vocal and most people in the city do not know who the public advocate is."

"This office has had atrophy since Mark was there and that is unacceptable," Siegel continued. "The office now is up for debate on whether it will continue. So for everyone to continue in this Alice in Wonderland world and talk about how she is a good advocate, I respectfully disagree."

Say what you want, but Siegel was 100% honest about how he truly feels. That might be a quality New Yorkers should consider when deciding who will advocate for their best interests in the course of the next four years.

Gotbaum Goes HuffPost, Comparing Bloomberg To Anti-Stimulus Governors

Michael Bloomberg is certainly not on the top of my list of favorite elected officials, but I hadn't thought of comparing him to the ilk that Republican Governors Sanford and Jindal are. Now thanks to a Huffington Post article written by the generally laid-back NYC Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, I've got good reason to call out the Mayor not only for his bad leadership and power plays, but for putting stipulations on Federal assistance that our city desperately needs.

From The Huffington Post:

President Obama's stimulus package is expected to bring billions of dollars into New York City at a time when we desperately need it. Included in this package is a provision that will suspend the limit on how long able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDS) can receive food stamps through September 30, 2010 -- it is a provision designed to address hunger during a time of high unemployment. However, we recently learned that Mayor Bloomberg has refused to accept the provision without conditions, a decision that could cause the city to miss out on millions in federal funds for the local economy.

This is nothing new for Mayor Bloomberg: New York City, as a locality with high unemployment, had previously been eligible for a waiver to extend the time limits, but despite the urging of myself, other elected officials, and hunger advocates -- and even the advice of his own appointees -- the mayor has never accepted the ABAWD waiver.

Mayor Bloomberg refuses to extend federally funded benefits to hungry, out-of-work New Yorkers while they look for jobs, but when it comes to another group of able-bodied adults -- his friends in the financial sector -- he isn't so strict. He has announced that he is willing to spend millions of dollars in city money to retrain and support former financial services workers.

It isn't news that Bloomberg is out of touch with people who make less than a mid-six figure salary, but this adds more fuel to the fire. It is a cruel act of a man engorged with power and money that would deny the lengthening of food stamps to those that are barely getting by. If New Yorkers want a mayor that cares about the non-millionaires, electing someone other than Bloomberg is a necessary choice.

Cheers to Betsy Gotbaum for writing this and bringing attention to our heartless mayor. When she wants to, she is definitely able to step up and be a worthy advocate of the people. Her message to go around Mr. Scrooge the mayor is also a smart idea.

Betsy Gotbaum's Mediocre One Minute At The Fair Share Rally

I took this video in the afternoon during the Fair Share Tax Rally downtown. The crowd was great and at first Gotbaum sounded pretty decent and enthused about being on stage. The ending however, especially the last twenty seconds and her laughter was not as inspirational as I'd have hoped it to be.



Could you imagine Mark Green, Norman Siegel, John Liu (he just dropped out) or Eric Gioia sounding like that? Yeah, I don't think so either.

Some Advice For Christine Quinn's Blog

It is always nice to see more and more public officials blogging these days. When Congressmembers, Senators and ex-Presidents come around DailyKos, things get interesting to say the least. On the local level, the Governor drops by The Albany Project and many other officials give interviews to blogs and even create one for themselves. Last week the controversial Speaker Christine Quinn came up with the aptly named Red Room Blog hosted at the Council's website. Almost immediately, there were ideas thrown out to her.

From Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum:

In my opinion, it's only a matter of time before elected officials blogging will be the rule, not the exception, and I am glad to see more of my colleagues joining me in the blogosphere. The Public Advocates Corner has already helped me let more people know what I’m working on, and what I care about, and hear more from New Yorkers about issues that concern them.

I hope the Red Room blog also serves to create an online conversation around legislative happenings and other council news (can we expect to see a space for comments?), and I look forward to reading it over the coming months.

Yeah, my first thought was about the comment section as well when I saw the blog. It was apparently and dare I say, intentionally missing. See Betsy, Speaker Quinn doesn't generally like to get feedback on what she does. I remember during the term limits extension "public forum" time, she didn't even bother to show up to the chambers to hear citizens' grievances. Instead she went to small events around town that suited her interests.

Public officials that blog can be divided into two categories. Most politicians write online in order to spread their message, as if they were giving a speech and everyone in the room is honored just to listen. Then there is a smaller group that comes to participate, not only presenting a vision but responding to people's comments, concerns and suggestions. Quinn is clearly in the former.

With that said, I wish her goodluck in her blog. I do hope she follows that advice to open a comment section. And of course that she reads it from time to time, or at least has an intern or staffer that can read it to her when she isn't busy kissing Bloomberg's behind.