Katz taps Liu's former aide for cushy spot

From the Forum:

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz last week announced the appointment of Sharon Lee as communications director.

Immediately prior to joining Borough President Katz’s office, Lee, a borough resident, served as campaign manager for Assemblyman Ron Kim’s (D-Flushing) successful re-election bid. Previously, Lee served as senior advisor and press secretary to former Comptroller and City Councilman John Liu.

Oh, Sharon Lee? You mean this Sharon Lee?

A key aide to embattled city Comptroller John Liu may have talked her way into criminal charges yesterday by admitting under oath that she offered to illegally fund donations to his mayoral campaign.

Sharon Lee testified that she phoned about five friends and relatives and offered to reimburse their contributions to help meet a $1 million fund-raising goal while working as a Liu campaign volunteer in July 2011.

Asked if she knew what she was doing was wrong, Lee answered: “I didn’t realize how bad it was, truth be told.”

After getting scolded by Manhattan federal Judge Richard Sullivan for repeatedly not answering the question, she finally said: “Yes.”

Glad to see we're maintaining a long-standing Borough Hall dirty hack hiring tradition.

Wonder what he's hiding?

From the AP:

The city's overhauled 911 system is beset by delays and errors that could leave callers without help for crucial seconds in an emergency, while the fire and police departments aren't collaborating on how to handle a surge in calls from a massive crisis such as a terrorist attack, a report said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office released an edited version of a consultants' report on Friday. His administration is fighting legal efforts to force it to release earlier versions. When the New York Post first wrote about the report last month, it described a 216-page document, but the version released Friday had 133 pages.

Agencies don't work together

From the Daily News:

The Buildings, Fire and Housing Preservation departments have different missions that can work at cross purposes in the fight to eliminate deadly chopped-up apartments.

Records show that at times, all three agencies cross paths at the same building, yet somehow the suspected illegal apartments stay in place.

Since April 25, five people have died in two fires inside illegally divided buildings. Mayor Bloomberg ordered an internal review and the City Council plans a hearing next week.

A key issue is how aggressively different agencies combat this problem.

Firefighters who see evidence of illegal apartments while responding to emergencies can issue vacate orders - but only for fire-related violations such as blocked exits.

Housing inspectors responding to tenant complaints about bad conditions can cite landlords for operating illegal apartments, but their only weapon is a paltry fine that property owners often ignore.

Fire and Housing often turn to the agency with the most flexibility in shutting down illegal apartments — the Buildings Department.

But records show that building inspectors often fail to take action against illegal apartments red-flagged by Fire or Housing inspectors.

Cop radios don't work underground

From AM-NY:

NYPD street officers are carrying radios that don’t work in the subway, making it impossible to call for help. The city has spent 15 years and millions of dollars trying to resolve the problem, but it’s still unclear when it might be fixed.

“Not being to communicate in this day and age is ludicrous,” said Nicholas Casale, a retired NYPD detective and the MTA’s former Deputy Director of Security for Counterterrorism. He pointed to Madrid and London as examples of transit hubs increasingly becoming terrorism targets.

In NYC, transit police can radio one another, but they can’t talk to street-level officers, who use a different frequency. To bridge the communication divide, the MTA and NYPD agreed in the mid-1990s to create a uniform radio network in the subway using above-ground frequencies.

But after spending $144 million in transit funds, only an FDNY network has been established.

The multiple police frequencies technically are trickier to resolve, and the project has been beset with numerous technical issues, mainly audio interference, experts said.

The NYPD, the Transit Authority and City Hall have deflected responsibility. The mayor’s office referred requests for comments to the NYPD, which in turn directed questions to the MTA.

Bloomberg may have to divulge Bermuda trips

From the Daily News:

The mayor's office has refused to say where Bloomberg was.

When Vallone asked Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith during the hearing whether First Deputy Mayor Patti Harris was in town, Goldsmith deflected the question. He acknowledged being in Washington.

The mayor's office says Bloomberg and his aides are entitled to privacy and don't have to reveal their whereabouts.

Bloomberg says he's in constant touch with his staff by phone, email and even police radio through his NYPD bodyguards when he travels.

But Vallone, who chairs the Council's public safety committee, says that's not good enough.

He's working on legislation that would force the mayor to file a public notice when he leaves town and designate a chain of command in his absence.

In his letter to Bloomberg yesterday, Vallone asked for details on how the mayor complies with a current city charter requirement to appoint a boss when he leaves the five boroughs.

A Bloomberg spokesman declined to comment on Vallone's request but said the administration plans to respond to the letter.

No such thing as a Queens accent?

From the Daily News:

There's a slew of ways to prove you're from Queens. Maybe you're a die-hard Mets fan, or you've perfected the art of crossing Queens Blvd., or you recognize the Unisphere from a mile away.

But one thing that won't prove you hail from the borough is the way you speak, insist experts and some notable Queens natives. That, or the Queens English is fast becoming a dead dialect.

"No offense to my brothers and sisters in Queens who feel that there is [a Queens accent], but I really don't think so," said Forest Hills-born actor Hank Azaria.

"I didn't hear it, and I have a pretty sensitive ear," said Azaria, a chameleon of diction who voices several of the characters on "The Simpsons."

But some locals beg to differ.

"I would say I have a Queens accent," said Frank Barone, 62, a cobbler who has lived in Astoria for 44 years. "We all speak New York slang, but there's a slight difference between boroughs."

Despite the fact that proud locals insist their borough has its own dialect - with drawn-out vowels and a distinct nasal sound - it's just a run-of-the-mill New York accent you're hearing on the streets of Queens, said the city's top linguists.

"People claim that there is a difference, but no one has been able to show it," said Michael Newman, a linguist and Queens College professor.

People are wondering where our street games went, too.