Mayor Adams released his executive budget proposal this week, restoring many of the cuts he made since last November. But not everything was restored, notably the libraries -- three separate systems the mayor has, since last year's budget negotiations, painted as somewhat wealthy as he brushed off any criticism of his administration for service cuts. The libraries "did an analysis of what services they wanted to deliver to New Yorkers and they had the options of finding where they wanted to find those savings," he said Wednesday, when asked why money couldn’t be restored for them. All of the libraries have had to cut which days they are open
"All of us had to dig deeper. Some of our libraries have substantial endowments. One of them, they have a billion dollar endowment. This is the time to say as we help New Yorkers get through this unprecedented humanitarian crisis, we all should be stepping up in any way that's possible,” the mayor countered.
As the mayor said, it's true that some of the libraries have endowments; the entire Queens Library system, though, doesn't have one. And as I pointed out to him during the questions, there are restrictions on how the money can be spent. As Jen Fermino, spokeswoman for NYPL said succinctly: “Simply put: this is not how endowments work."
Other budget restorations include police academy classes and education cuts. There will be more reporting on this in the coming weeks as the mayor and council start negotiating, but for now even the mayor admitted the library money was a negotiation tactic.
You can read more here.
Other Mayor Adams stories:
The mayor hasn't officially nominated Randy Mastro to be the city's top lawyer, but his team sure is defending the man like he is. The mayor's own counsel even compared him to John Adams this week while rattling off his long list of accomplishments and accolades.
It won't make the City Council like him any more, and they have the final say. POLITICO reports today that a second caucus in the council spoke out against Mastro.
So is Mastro a brilliant legal mind or a horrible person? Betsy Gotbaum wrote an op-ed for the Daily News praising him. But some say his work for "abusive corporations and vindictive politicians" (I didn't know there were any other kinds) is enough to strike him as an option.
Mayor Adams also had to answer questions on reporting that he pushed out not just Judge Sylvia Hinds Radix to hire Mastro, but that the interim head of the police oversight Civilian Complaint Review Board was also pushed out by his team. Some reporting showed she was given the chance to stay, but would have to be demoted.
Oh, and a poll released last week by the Conservative think-tank Manhattan Institute shows the mayor's numbers remain very low.
🎧LISTEN🎧
We spoke with Andrew Rein from the Citizens Budget Commission about the budget, plus his band Plate O' Shrimp! [FAQ]
🎭INNER CIRCLE RECAP 🎭
This time last week I was preparing for the dress rehearsal of our annual show, this year called "Turks and Chaos." The whole weekend was a blast, the show went well, and the after party Saturday was one of the funnest nights I've had in a while.
This is my second year as a member. I enjoy the writing and the singing but my favorite part of being in this organization is talking to and hearing from so many generations of journalists. I have gotten a LOT of great gossip on the folks I’ve seen on TV my whole life right from the folks I’ve seen on TV my whole life — and that’s worth all the late rehearsal nights!
Here are some photos, all but the first on disposable cameras. First photo credit to Anthony Behar/Sipa Press:
Thanks for reading!