City Council votes for huge pay raise

From AM-NY:

Members of the New York City Council on Friday voted themselves a $36,000 raise — $10,000 higher than an advisory salary panel — to $148,500.

By a vote of 40-7, the council got their first raise since 2006, when the salary went up to $112,500.

“Every dollar is a worthy investment in a government that works full time for the people,” said Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), who was one of the legislation’s lead shepherds.

Backers noted that the legislation also prohibits most outside income, eliminates stipends for leadership posts and converts the job of council member to full time from part time.

Council members said they deserved the additional $10,000 because of the outside-income ban, which passed 45-2.

De Blasio scrambles to get lawmakers raises while city workers starving

Angelo Torres lives in his car.  Photo by Geoffrey Croft

From the NY Post:

But even if you wonder how someone can hit rock bottom while raking in a salary, however small, plus enviable fringe benefits, paid vacations, sick pay, the chance to earn overtime pay and a retirement pension, consider this: De Blasio, man of the people, is moving heaven and earth to boost the bottom lines of himself and his closest political allies.

In keeping with his penchant for creating new layers of government bureaucracy to find solutions for questionable problems, de Blasio announced this month that he has formed a three-member advisory commission to determine whether all city officials who are elected deserve to get the potentially fat pay raises they’ve been denied for the last eight years.

I’m not crying for city brass. The 51 members of the useless City Council each earns $112,500 annually, plus “lulus” — most get stipends between $5,000 and $20,000 annually for heading committees and subcommittees. Public Advocate Letitia James rakes in $165,000 a year, essentially for finding ways to make cops miserable. And does anyone know what the five borough presidents do to justify their $160,000-apiece annual pay?

And then there’s the mayor.

He gets paid $225,000 a year and lives rent-free with his family in Gracie Mansion, where a 12-person staff cooks, cleans and tends the yard, plus cops are on call to drive him around. (De Blasio’s spokesman said he’d decline a pay hike now, but the mayor opened the door to sharing in the wealth if he’s re-elected in 2017.)

But where is the committee to determine whether peons like [park worker Angelo] Torres deserve monstrous pay hikes?

DC 37 locals represent a total of 121,000 workers, and some full-timers earn as little as $24,000 a year.

That's a real lulu

From the Daily News:

Eleven of the 51 members refuse the [lulu] money on the principle that all lawmakers should be paid the same, as is the case in Congress for everyone from the least to the most senior.

Here are the local heroes: Jimmy Van Bramer of Queens, who turns back $20,000 yearly; Brad Lander from Brooklyn and Dan Garodnick of Manhattan, who say no to $15,000 each; and Rory Lancman of Queens, Alan Maisel, Carlos Menchaca and Mark Treyger of Brooklyn, Andy Cohen of the Bronx, Ben Kallos, Mark Levine and Helen Rosenthal of Manhattan, all of whom relinquish $8,000.

Despite having told this Editorial Board or the good-government group Citizens Union that lulus should be limited only to the top leadership, six members pocket the money: Corey Johnson and Ydanis Rodriguez of Manhattan, Daneek Miller, Danny Dromm and Paul Vallone of Queens and Vinny Gentile of Brooklyn.

Seventeen supposed reformers take the money and claim without proof to donate it to charity: From Brooklyn, Robert Cornegy, David Greenfield, Antonio Reynoso, Darlene Mealy, Mathieu Eugene, Rafael Espinal, Chaim Deutsch and Inez Barron. From Queens, Costa Constantinides, Julissa Ferreras, Peter Koo, Karen Koslowitz and Eric Ulrich. From the Bronx, Fernando Cabrera and Ritchie Torres. From Staten Island, Debi Rose. From Manhattan, Inez Dickens.

The rest of the Council makes no bones about grabbing the cash even as they cheapen their offices.

Speaker gives lulu to council member accused of sexual harassment

From the Observer:

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has appointed Bronx Councilman Andy King—the subject of a $1.25 million sexual harassment and wrongful dismissal claim against the city—chairman of the Committee on Libraries.

Ms. Mark-Viverito, an outspoken feminist and advocate for women’s issues, picked Mr. King to replace Queens Councilman Costa Constantinides as part of a re-shuffling to fill a vacancy left by former Councilman Mark Weprin, who left office to work for Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The new position will grant the Bronx legislator an $8,000 bonus—known in the Council as a “lulu”—on top of his regular $112,500 salary, and give him access to roughly one dozen new staffers.

The claim lodged with Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office, first reported by Capital New York, alleges Mr. King made untoward comments and advances and created a “hostile work environment” for a staffer of the Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, which he currently co-chairs. The staffer’s complaint also alleges that she was not the sole recipient of unwanted sexual attention from the lawmaker.

The claim asserts that when she rebuffed his advances, Mr. King had her fired—without a full caucus vote, which the Council by-laws require.

Daneek, Danny and Paulie V. are "slugs" for keeping lulu cash

From the Daily News:

By law, the standard salary for a member is $112,500. But the Council gets around the limit by awarding lulus, supposedly for “extra” work on committees.

All told, 47 of the 51 members get the additional dough, ranging from $5,000 for those with little clout or seniority to $25,000 for Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

Who gets what is determined by the speaker, empowering her to reward friends, punish enemies and buy obedience. Independent lawmaking goes out the window.

Which is why every member of the U.S. Congress, from minority-party freshmen backbenchers to the most senior committee chairmen, gets the same salary. Not so in the Council. There, most take the money and run.

...12 members keep the cash, including six who had pledged to restrict lulus. The slugs are Corey Johnson and Ydanis Rodriguez of Manhattan, Daneek Miller, Danny Dromm and Paul Vallone of Queens and Vinny Gentile of Brooklyn.

Their word is worthless.

Lie-lies on lulus?

From the NY Post:

Fifteen current and former City Council members promised to donate their annual taxpayer-funded bonuses to charity in recent years — but only three could offer any proof they had, a Post review found.

Despite being given at least three weeks to show that they put their money where their mouths were, only Councilmen Eric Ulrich (D-Queens) and Steve Levin (D-Brooklyn) and former Councilwoman Gale Brewer, now Manhattan borough president, could do so. They provided a mix of donation lists and thank-you notes as proof.

The remaining dozen officials — who have been public credited with not pocketing the annual political handouts from the council speaker of $4,000 to $28,000 — declined to offer documentation, provided scant detail of recipients or ignored The Post’s requests entirely.

The bonuses, known as “lulus,” are doled out to members who take leadership roles or otherwise curry favor with the speaker.

This included Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens), who for eight weeks was unable to provide a single receipt documenting what he has done with the $60,000 in lulus he has been allocated since 2010.

It was only after a Post reporter confronted him in person that Van Bramer’s office provided a short list of recipients, including the NAACP of Astoria and the 108th Precinct Community Council, but no amounts, dates or documentation.

Those two groups confirmed they had received donations of $100 each from Van Bramer.

But his minimal list was more than what was offered by the bulk of council members, who provided no detail of charitable giving from their bonuses.
Those include current Public Advocate Letitia James, Mathieu Eugene and Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn; Fernando Cabrera of The Bronx; Julissa Ferreras, Karen Koslowitz, Ruben Wills, and Peter Koo of Queens; and Rosie Mendez of Manhattan.

Why can't they just check their tax returns?

Meet the new City Council. Same as the old City Council.

From last October in the Daily News:

The newcomers who pledged to abolish the stipends are: Corey Johnson, Helen Rosenthal, Mark Levine and the winner of the David Garland/Ben Kallos race in Manhattan; Alan Maisel, Robert Cornegy, Antonio Reynoso, Carlos Menchaca, Inez Barron and Mark Treyger in Brooklyn; Costa Constantinides, Rory Lancman, Daneek Miller and the victor of the Paul Vallone/Dennis Saffran election in Queens; Andrew Cohen and Ritchie Torres in the Bronx; and Steve Matteo in Staten Island.

We’ll see if they are true to their word.

From CBS New York:

Members of the New York City Council have voted to give themselves stipends.

As WCBS 880′s Rich Lamb reported, council members already get paid just over $112,000 annually from taxpayers.

In its first meeting, the new council approved a long list of extra pay to be doled out to members.

The speaker gets $25,000 and the majority leader $20,000, while ten members get $15,000 apiece. Thirty four other members get $8,000 each.

The stipends, known as lulus, are extra payments given to members in lieu of expenses.

“New Yorkers elected a reform-minded city council and this was an opportunity for them to deliver on that promise and they missed it,” said Dick Dadey of the non-partisan watchdog group Citizens Union.

“Over 30 members of the city council pledged not to accept lulus when they were elected and now they all voted in support of the committee recommendations and the lulus. So they’ve broken a promise that they made to New Yorkers.”

Lulus may be history come January

From the Daily News:

The City Council convenes in January with a fresh crop of members and a two-thirds majority that has called for eliminating bonus pay for being good little boys and girls.

Seventeen incoming freshman pledged to bar lulus, while 17 incumbents have done so. Total: 34 out of 51 members, well more than necessary to enact a prohibition.

But let us not count our chickens. Thirteen of those incumbents have dodged by accepting lulus they profess to oppose — and reporting that they have given the money to charity. This allows them to say they don’t pocket the stipends while reaping the political benefits of charitable giving.

These 13 are: Rosie Mendez of Manhattan; Fernando Cabrera of the Bronx; Debi Rose of Staten Island; Mathieu Eugene, David Greenfield, Steve Levin and Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn; and Julissa Ferreras, Peter Koo, Karen Koslowitz, Eric Ulrich, Jimmy Van Bramer and Ruben Wills of Queens. Incumbent Danny Dromm, of Queens, says he is against lulus but keeps the money, asserting that he wants them eliminated, but not individually.

Loving those lulus

From the Daily News:

About half of the City Council’s 51 members say they disagree with Speaker Christine Quinn’s blatantly wrong practice of giving cash bonuses, called lulus, to favored members.

The lulus, in theory assigned for committee chairmanships and the like, range from the yearly $28,500 Quinn pockets down to $4,000. That’s over and above the very healthy $112,500 the pols earn in salary for their part-time positions.

It’s not only wasteful, it’s corrupting — because it gives one elected official undue influence over her colleagues. No wonder that outside New York, every other legislature in America, local, state and federal, pays its members equally.

The cash comes twice a year (Jan. 18 was payday), so we present the semiannual list of who is naughty and nice and who lives by his or her word.

Stellar, as always, are Daniel Garodnick and Ydanis Rodriguez of Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Brad Lander. On principle, they refuse the money.

On the other side of the ledger are a quintet of hypocrites, members who have gone on record as opposing the practice yet keep the cash: Sara Gonzalez and Diana Reyna of Brooklyn, Helen Foster of the Bronx, Margaret Chin of Manhattan and Danny Dromm of Queens.

Then there are 15 members who take the lulus and claim to donate the money to charity. New to this list is Peter Koo of Queens. He just got a lulu for the first time and he says he is giving it away.

The other donors from Queens are Julissa Ferreras, Karen Koslowitz, Eric Ulrich, Jimmy Van Bramer and Ruben Wills. In Manhattan, it’s Gale Brewer and Rosie Mendez. Plus, Staten Island’s Debby Rose, Fernando Cabrera of the Bronx and Mathieu Eugene, David Greenfield, Letitia James, Steve Levin and Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn.

Unmentioned by name here are the 22 others who join with Quinn and who happily and shamelessly pocket thousands of dollars they think they are entitled to.

Oh come on, let's name names. The unmentioned from Queens include Dan Halloran, Jim Gennaro, Mark Weprin, Leroy Comrie, Elizabeth Crowley and Peter Vallone, Jr. The last one has a JD degree and is partners in a law firm (the all-important business experience we keep hearing about), but has been going around College Point begging for votes this September with the reasoning that he "has kids and needs a job". So while the lulus may be infuriating, think just how much members of government must collect in unreported perks since Vallone's behavior points to that being more lucrative than winning million dollar settlements and charging clients hundreds of dollars per hour...

No lulus for Tony

From the Daily News:

Avella's office says he's going to pass up the $9,500 committee-leadership stipend (known in AlbanySpeak as a "lulu") he's entitled to receive (at our expense) as ranker on the Senate's Cities and Environmental Conservation Committees.

"The distribution of lulus is just another anti-good government practice in desperate need of reform," said Avella, who joins Manhattan Senate colleague Liz Krueger in turning down the dough.

Lulus on tap today

Editorial from the Daily News:

This is the day when the City Council feasts on lulus. Members who stand securely in the good graces of Speaker Christine Quinn will get the first of two installments of the annual bonuses by which she rewards loyalty.

The Council justifies awarding the stipends - on top of the legally set salary of $112,500 - by depicting them as added compensation for committee work. Virtually everyone gets some such task, along with yearly payouts that range from $4,000 to $28,500. Most typical is a $10,000 boost.

Members of Congress, no matter how senior or how hefty their committee loads, get no added compensation. And for a very good reason. Legislators who are beholden to their leaders for big chunks of money will be far more likely to do as they are told rather than buck the bosses.

Quinn, who gets the biggest lulu, is foursquare behind the system. Others recognize its corrosive influence.

Before the 2009 election, the good-government group Citizens Union surveyed Council candidates. One inquiry read: "What is your position on eliminating or limiting stipends for committee chairs and leadership positions?"

Most of those who were elected backed dropping or reducing lulus. Some have lived up to their word. Daniel Garodnick of Manhattan, Ydanis Rodriguez of Manhattan and Brad Lander of Brooklyn are refusing the money. Good going.

Thirteen say they'll donate their lulus to charity: Gale Brewer and Rosie Mendez of Manhattan; Mathieu Eugene, David Greenfield, Letitia James, Steven Levin and Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn; Karen Koslowitz, Eric Ulrich, Jimmy Van Bramer and Ruben Wills of Queens; Debi Rose of Staten Island, and James Vacca of the Bronx.

Then there are the hypocrites who said they opposed lulus but are taking the money: Fernando Cabrera and Helen Foster of the Bronx; Margaret Chin of Manhattan; Daniel Dromm and Julissa Ferreras of Queens; Sara Gonzalez and Diana Reyna of Brooklyn.

For the record, Foster insists she never filled out a questionnaire expressing opposition to lulus. Strange. Someone signed the name "Helen Diane Foster" to such a document. You can look it up on the Citizens Union website. Foster should check it out herself.