$15,000 Isn't Enough To Save Monserrate

Campaign finance reports have shown that Senator (ugh) Hiram Monserrate has spent $15,000 with a reputation management firm. It took him a while to file the reports (which aren't finished either), possibly to let this nugget of information slip out a little later, once the spotlight was off of him a bit more.

From PolitickerNY:

ALBANY—State Senator Hiram Monserrate brought his elections filings up to date, and records show he paid $15,000 to a reputation management firm two weeks after he was accused of assaulting his girlfriend.

Monserrate's January filings show his campaign committee paid $15,000 to Dolce Goldin, the home firm of former Inside City Hall host Davidson Goldin.

"Like most elected officials, I receive, from time to time, advice from media consultants," Monserrate said when asked if the payment was for services rendered related to the alleged assault. (Monserrate has pleaded not guilty and his accuser has publicly changed her story.) "It's all part of what we do, and that's what I contracted them for.

Paying a reputation management firm to do what? I thought being found innocent of those (alleged) crimes was supposed to be good enough. Perhaps he was having so much trouble keeping his stories straight, that he hired someone to do it for him with the ability to try and make it seem plausible.

Hey M.T.A. Cut The P.R. Before You Slash Service

It's well known that the M.T.A. has engaged in some wasteful behavior but the notoriety hasn't stopped them from continuing it. With all the talk of service cuts and fare hikes, the transit authority is serious about making the straphangers pay for economic bad times. The only problem is they aren't doing their part to make it easier on us, instead the M.T.A. wants to fool us into thinking it isn't that bad. For that mission, they are certainly spending quite a bit.

From The NY Post:

The MTA is weighed down with managers, marketing types and p.r. staffers - fat the agency should trim before it slashes service, hikes fares or creates new bridge tolls, state auditors told The Post.

The agency has a growing roster of 70,000 employees - including thousands of redundant and nonessential positions - and is still slated to hire hundreds more, the auditors found.

MTA records show 288 New York City Transit employees in "corporate communications," 70 Long Island Rail Road staffers in "market development and public affairs," and 52 at MTA headquarters in "corporate and community affairs."

Now most of those 70,000 employees are necessary to make the transit system move but plenty of excess jobs can be cut. The problem is those at the top want to keep the plum jobs even in bad times. In exchange, all we get are deceptive advertisements in the subway cars that try to convince us that the price hikes aren't as bad as we make them out to be. Also, claiming that the 2nd Avenue line is "overdue" is grossly misleading. Perhaps if it was supposed to be finished last year or the year before, o.k. Yet the damn thing had broken ground for the first time in 1929, yes, 1929!

Now quit it with those shameful ads and cut the fat before cutting the already crowded trains!!!