Week of 4 September 2000:
In And Out
Nicholas Scoppetta, the head of the Administration of Children's Services
since Mayor Rudolph Giuliani created the agency in 1996, announced he would
be stepping down at the end of the year. Spurred by the 1995 murder of
six-year-old Elisa Izquierdo by her mother, the agency took over all city
services to protect abused or neglected children and oversee foster care and
adoptions. Advocates for children give so much credit to Scoppetta for
improving these services that one standard question they have had for
mayoral candidates is whether they would reappoint him.
William Bratton, Mayor Giuliani's first police commissioner until he was
forced out and the one credited with a strategy that helped reduce the crime
rate, told the Daily News
that he would like to return to his old job. Bratton has endorsed Mark
Green, who has made no commitment to reappoint him.
New York Votes
For information on the primary races, see our special election coverage on
Gotham Gazette's Searchlight On Campaign 2001, especially our Guide For The
Last-Minute Voter.
And, starting today, you can read interviews with election officials, poll
workers, critics, and complaints about the electoral process from fellow
Gotham Gazette readers - and complain, ask questions or make comments
yourself -- in New York Votes: An Interactive Diary. First Q and A with the
head of the Board of Elections and other election experts: Will New York Be
Another Florida?
Appeal Denied
Federal judge Eugene Nickerson rejected Police Officer
Charles Schwarz's bid to win a new trial in the Abner
Louima case yesterday. A former police sergeant had
appeared in court last month to challenge the
testimony of the chief witness against Schwarz, who
has twice been convicted for his role in the 1997
police torture case. But Nickerson said that former
sergeant, Patrick Walsh£s, testimony was riddled with
misperceptions and inaccuracies.
Schwarz now has only a federal appeals court to turn
to in his two-year campaign to reverse his conviction.
His lawyers said they were not surprised by
yesterday£s decision and would press before the
appeals court.
In the Spotlight
With the mayoral campaign in its final days, the media
focuses on Fernando Ferrer, whose rise in the polls
sparked news coverage and speculation as to whether he
can preserve his black-Latino coalition without
scaring away many white voters.
Suburban Exodus
The city lost more than 3,000 teachers to the suburbs in the last three
years as they seek higher pay and better working conditions, according to a
report from the United Federation of Teachers. Mayor Giuliani said the
number was normal, represented just a small percentage of the total
workforce, and that there will be "more teachers this year than ever
before." The greatest number of teachers left for Nassau and Westchester
counties where the median incomes are more than $68,000 and $70,000
respectively. The median income for teachers in New York City is $49,000.
City teachers have been working without a contract for the last 10 months
and are seeking help from the state in negotiations.
A new Quinnipiac poll released yesterday showed Fernando Ferrer in a
statistical tie with Mark Green for the Democratic nomination for mayor. For
more campaign coverage see Searchlight on Campaign 2001.
One More Week
There is exactly a week left until the September 11th primary. According to
several polls, Mark Green, who has been the front-runner in the Democratic
race for mayor, remains in front, but it is not clear that he will garner
the 40 percent of the vote needed to avoid a runoff. If not, the polls are
indicating that Fernando Ferrer may be in second place, and will thus face
him in a runoff September 25. Green was endorsed by the New York Times this
weekend (see the September 2nd entry in Campaign Trail
for the details); the Daily
News and the New York Post earlier endorsed Peter Vallone. In the West
Indian American Day Carnival and Parade yesterday, Green was accompanied by
former Mayor David Dinkins, who has endorsed him; Ferrer marched with the
Rev. Al Sharpton, who recently announced his support for the Bronx borough
president. The labor unions are splitting their endorsements, some labor
leaders saying it is because any of the four leading Democratic candidates
would be acceptable to them. The teachers' union is backing Alan Hevesi, law
enforcement unions and the largest municipal union is going for Vallone,
though the largest union local within the municipal union, representing
25,000 cafeteria workers and crossing guards, is endorsing Ferrer. Mark
Green has the support of the largest apparel workers' union, a 70,000-member
janitors' union and the United Auto Workers.
For more on the primary races (and there are many more than just the race
for mayor), and on the electoral process itself (i.e. will there be a
Florida-style mess at the polls?), see our special election coverage on
Gotham Gazette and Gotham Gazette's
Searchlight On Campaign 2001 , especially
our Guide For The Last-Minute Voter.
Back to School
Public school begins this week with unusual attention, thanks to an
electoral season where most candidates have made the improvement of
education their first priority, and a budget process that leaves the New
York City Board of Education with $242 million less to spend than it had
last year, according to an analysis by the Independent Budget Office. Many
school districts throughout the state are reducing pre-kindergarten and
after-school programs, jettisoning plans to reduce class sizes, holding off
on filling teacher vacancies and even raising tax bills. But school
superintendents and union officials in New York City said that the budget
cuts ordered by Schools Chancellor Harold Levy would not require layoffs and
will not affect most day-to-day activities in regular classrooms.
Money is not the only problem. For example, with some 8,000 new teachers
recruited to replace those retiring or leaving for better jobs elsewhere,
school principals fear that many will not measure up, and, in particular,
that the 700 recruited from abroad will have an insufficient grasp of the
English language.
Last week's stories...
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