Cojo the derelict

NY Post 

New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson wouldn’t say how much time he spent on Cape Cod over the summer as he defended his job performance amid findings that lawmakers posted their least productive summer in two decades.

“I was spending some time with my family this summer and I hadn’t seen my mother since before the pandemic,” Johnson said in his first public remarks about The Post’s story since it published Tuesday. “I’m not ashamed of me taking some personal time, while at the same time the Council was continuing the hard work.”

The Post revealed this summer has been the Council’s least productive in two decades — with committees and its other bodies meeting or scheduled to meet just 61 times between July 1 and September 30.

That’s the lowest number over the three-month period since 2003, an analysis of Council records shows.

It’s also a dramatic drop in the meetings and hearings when compared to the numbers posted in the summers of 2017, 2018 and 2019 — and even a decline from the number during the pandemic-ravaged summer of 2020.

The decline was especially notable this summer as the Council failed to hold an oversight hearing on the reopening of schools until Sept. 1, days before students returned to classrooms; and didn’t hold an oversight hearing on the crisis at the Rikers Island lockup until Sept. 15.

A half-dozen Council insiders and observers pinned the plummet in productivity on Johnson’s trips to Provincetown, Massachusetts, a summer hot spot renowned for its art galleries and beaches.