With friends like these...

From the NY Post:

Liberal East Harlem Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, a contender for City Council Speaker, is pals with Bolivia’s socialist, anti-American president, The Post has learned.

The pol even traveled to support Evo Morales — whose buddies included Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — during an ultimately unsuccessful recall election in 2008.

Mark-Viverito, a Democrat, flew to the South American nation to “observe” the vote of Morales “at invitation of government of Bolivia,” according to papers she filed with the Conflicts of Interest Board.

That same year, Mark-Viverito, Comptroller John Liu and Councilman Robert Jackson praised Morales after he spoke at the American Indian Community House in Lower Manhattan.

During the speech, Morales denounced an American “conspiracy” to interfere with his socialists agenda, because the US had sought to reduce coca farming because it can be processed into cocaine.

Morales, a coca farmer by trade, was elected president with heavy support from the country’s farming community.

The three Americans responded by presenting him with a framed proclamation “recognizing his work on behalf of indigenous peoples’ rights,” according to local press reports.

The Bolivian trip didn’t break Mark-Viverito’s bank. The city’s powerful healthcare workers’ union, where Mark-Viverito worked before her 2005 election to the Council, shelled out up to $5,000 for her airfare and hotel, records show.

Last week, the union — which also backed Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio — threw her a party in Puerto Rico to kickstart her campaign for speaker.

Porking the public

From the Daily News:

Two City Council members running for Manhattan borough president have showered taxpayer cash on nonprofit groups whose boards and staffers have contributed to their campaigns.

City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan) raked in nearly $250,000 in hundreds of campaign contributions from board members at 46 nonprofits she's slathered with pork.

And a Daily News review of the 25 groups that got the biggest grants from Councilman Robert Jackson found that at least 20 of them had board members or employees who have given to his campaigns.

All 51 members of Council are given at least $400,000 to hand out to nonprofits that help people in their district plus sometimes millions more to help nonprofits with new construction projects.

The pork has a checkered history with several Councilmembers busted in recent years for illegally using the funds to enrich themselves or their careers.

Council Member says fare-beating not a big deal

From the Daily News:

There's a time and a place for everything — even farebeating, in one City Councilman’s opinion.

Councilman Robert Jackson said he told his wife to duck under the turnstiles at the 181st St. station on the A line, which had a broken MetroCard machine, rather than walk to a staffed entrance at 184th St.

“I told her to go under,” Jackson said. “I would have gone under.

“Whoever goes to buy a MetroCard should be entitled to a free ride if the machines aren’t working, if there’s no token booth clerk there,” he added.

The MTA swiped back.

“Farebeating is a crime,” MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said. “It’s wrong. It’s illegal, and it deprives the MTA of the money it needs to carry you on the subway.”

Parking free-for-all

This reporter is somewhat annoying, but effective.

A little on the side

This comes from the Gotham Gazette. Interesting ranges there...

Klein takes axe to school budget

From WNYC:

Back in March, when the city was still trying to get a handle on its education budget, City Councilman Robert Jackson noted that there were two different scenarios for the coming fiscal year: "bad" and "horrid."

Today, the education committee chairman said, there's only one: "horrid."

Jackson repeated that word at least nine times during the education committee's hearing on proposed budget cuts. He said the loss of $500 million in state aid would mean laying off 4,400 teachers, letting another 2,000 go through attrition, and eliminating almost 600 other support staffers and cafeteria workers. Which was why he wanted to know how Chancellor Joel Klein could justify hiring two more deputy chancellors who are each paid almost $200,000 a year, and giving raises to several more. He noted that there are now eight deputy chancellors.

Klein testified that one of those deputies is actually a new Chief Operating Officer and said the job is needed now more than ever because he's cut $38 million from central offices. The chancellor said another deputy is dealing with new schools and enrollment, and said the rest were given promotions. As for the raises, he called them "small adjustments" and said their salaries had been "out of line."

The chancellor insisted he had done all he could to protect classrooms from budget cuts. Several council members expressed great skepticism about his department's contracts with outside vendors at a time when it's projecting teacher layoffs. But Klein said the city retained a $5 million contract with The New Teacher Project to hire new teachers because there aren't enough with special education licenses to meet demand. And he said most of the city's other contracts are for special education services and busing that's legally mandated.