Update: The text preceding Patrick Markee's comments has been clarified.
Bloomberg administration officials have consistently tamped
down expectations that the mayor will replace a substantial number of his
commissioners in a third term. As one aide put it, “I don’t see any major,
substantial, huge shift in what goes on in the agencies.”
Nonetheless, political observers and City Hall insiders have
continued to offer their own suggestions for who should stay and who should go.
The chatter has centered mostly on commissioners who have been in the
administration for a long time, but includes some who have been the subject of
media scrutiny and have been criticized by the mayor’s opponents.
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Robert Hess, Homeless Services
During the mayoral campaign, Bloomberg was forced to deal
with a number of less-than-flattering stories about his record on homelessness,
including the revelation that the number of homeless families in the city had
actually increased during his term.
The chorus of criticism has only grown louder in recent
months, as City Council members and advocacy organizations have called for a
change in direction at the Department of Homeless Services.
Staffers at DHS admit that all the chatter
about Hess’s future, and the torrent of negative stories during the campaign,
has some of them anxious. “All commissioners, at least the ones who want to
stay, have got to be walking on egg shells,” said a DHS source. “Especially
measuring what messages resonated during the campaign.”
The current commissioner, Robert Hess, has only been in
place since 2006, and many Council members say they respect him despite the administration's poor record on homelessness. Nonetheless, advocates and members of the Council suggest that replacing Hess would be a gesture by the Bloomberg that his administration intends to chart a different course on homelessness in a third term.
“If it also signaled a change in his strategy, I think it would be very welcome to see new leadership there,” said a Council source close to the general welfare committee, which has purview over homeless issues. “It wouldn’t shock me if they used that as a way to retool how they’re doing homeless services.”
Still, others cautioned that the mayor is unlikely to bend
to the will of his critics in the Council. As one administration official put
it: “If anything, that would get you a promotion around here, a pat on the back
from the mayor.”
Even some of Hess’s Council critics seem resigned to the
fact that the mayor will ignore their pleas. “Never has the mayor given into
any cries that come from the Council,” said a second Council source. “If his
firing was based on what Bill de Blasio or any other Council member thought of
him, I’d doubt it.”
Administration officials also say that overall homeless policy emanates from City Hall rather than DHS—specifically from Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda Gibbs. If the mayor were to change tack and introduce a new homelessness prevention strategy, the shift would likely come at City Hall rather than DHS.
Patrick Markee, of the Coalition for the Homeless, said a shift in policy would be welcome.
“For a mayor that talks a lot about accountability for homeless people, we haven’t yet seen any accountability for the failures of the Bloomberg administration’s approach to homelessness,” said Markee, adding that his organization had no formal position on whether Hess should be removed
Heather Janik, a spokesperson for DHS, would not say whether Bloomberg had asked Hess to stay on for a third term.
“Commissioner Hess is focused on meeting shelter demand
head-on every day and housing New Yorkers in need,” she said. “He has great
respect for Mayor Bloomberg and serves at his pleasure.”
But according to the DHS source, City Hall has so far given
no indication that Hess is on the chopping block. “The commissioner would be
the first to know,” the source said. “And right now no one’s said boo to him.”
Adrian Benepe: Moving up?
Rumors continue to swirl about Parks Commissioner Adrian
Benepe possibly being promoted within the administration to a more powerful
role. Several sources outside the administration have said Benepe could be in
line for a deputy mayor position, but have no more information as to whether it
would be an already existing slot or a newly created one. The parks department
did not return a request for comment.
Benepe has long been eyed as a rising star within the
administration, and mentioned by some as a possible citywide candidate himself
one day. Through organizations such as the Central Park Conservancy and the
Friends of the High Line, Benepe has cultivated relationships with the city’s
power-brokers and executed Bloomberg’s mission of marrying private investment
with public funding.
Upon first taking office, Bloomberg reshuffled his cabinet to fit his own administrative style, creating new deputy mayor titles and doing away with old ones. Creating a new position for Benepe would be in line with the mayor’s previous reorganizations.
Rob Walsh, Small Business Services
When Michael Bloomberg was first elected, business owners in
the city were excited by the prospect that a businessman like themselves would
finally be in charge.
Since then, many small business owners and advocates are
wondering what exactly went wrong. Critics estimate that over Bloomberg’s eight
years in office, over 150,000 small businesses have been forced to close down,
while controversial enterprises like business improvement districts have been
allowed to flourish. Meanwhile, the Village Voice reported last year that the
Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE), a signature program for the
Small Business Services (SBS), has
floundered since first being announced in 2005, taking a back to seat to other
business incentive initiatives.
Despite these perceived missteps, Robert Walsh, commissioner
of SBS since 2002, appears poised to reclaim
his title for another four years, with several sources confirming that Walsh
will be re-appointed as head of the agency.
But rumors persist that Walsh will be steered out, with a few
critical Council members appearing to favor new leadership at the agency.
“The department of Small Business Services needs to discover
its mission, it needs to define itself,” said Council Member James Sanders, a
vocal critic of the agency’s handling of the MWBE program. Sanders said that
Bloomberg needs to ask himself whether commissioners like Walsh are actually
carrying out the administration’s core mission to help create jobs in New York.
“If they are, then he should keep them,” Sanders said. “But
if they are not, then I plead that he find the strength to do what’s right for
New York City.”
An SBS spokesperson
declined comment.
But most critics say the problem is less with Walsh, a
former business improvement district executive and member of the Koch
administration, and more with the mayor’s response to the increasingly dismal
economic environment for small businesses in New York.
Several advocates criticized the way SBS
communicates with the business community, particularly with regard to
effectively linking economic policy to job creation.
“Small businesses are the city’s engine of job creation. But too often what comes out of City Hall contradicts that message,” said Bettina Damiani, project director at Good Jobs New York. “For example, SBS should be screaming their heads off about the proliferation of big box stores in the city.”
Others say that big development deals, like the Yankee
Stadium project, has had a deleterious effect on small businesses, which sends
the wrong message to struggling businesses across the city.
“A small business person will look at a deal like that and say, ‘Where do I rank with the mayor?” said one small business advocate who asked not to be named because of financial ties to SBS.
