Metro

Mark-Viverito, Letitia James avoid mayor-pastor controversy

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Public Advocate Letitia James on Friday refused to challenge the mayor’s unusual involvement in the arrest of a pastor pal in Brooklyn — even as they admitted they’ve taken no steps to determine whether proper protocol had been followed.

Bishop Orlando Findlayter was spared a night in the clink after Mayor de Blasio called a top NYPD official to inquire about his arrest following a traffic violation late Monday night.

Findlayter was pulled over in Brooklyn while driving with a suspended license and found to have two outstanding warrants for skipping court appearances on minor civil disobedience charges.

Mark-Viverito, a close mayoral ally who got the top Council post with de Blasio’s intervention, said it was time to move on – even though she’s never commented on the incident publicly.

Bishop Orlando Findlayter, left, at an event with Mayor Bill de Blasio Tuesday, was taken into custody on outstanding warrants, but was released without spending the night in jail.Paul Martinka

“I think again this issue has been discussed enough in the press, and I think it’s time to move on to the issues that matter,” she said a number of times.

When asked whether proper protocol was followed in the Brooklyn precinct commander’s decision to release Findlayter – rather than holding him overnight – the speaker admitted she doesn’t know.

“That particular issue I need to look at details in terms of how procedures are done,” she said at City Hall. “But that’s not something I’m really at liberty to discuss now. I don’t have the details.”

James, in an odd conversation with reporters during which she never stopped walking from City Hall to her nearby office, cited media reports as her source for the fact that protocol appeared to have been followed.

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“I believe that’s the policy from what I understand, according to [what] I believe I read in the media,” she said.

After initially talking about the protocol for school closings and declining comment on the Findlayter incident twice, the normally outspoken public advocate repeated four times, “I defer to the decision of the mayor of the city of New York.”

James also admitted – but only after repeated questions – that she “know[s]” the bishop, while downplaying their relationship.

“I live in Brooklyn, and obviously I’ve come across the bishop – I know him. I know most of the clergy in the borough of Brooklyn,” she said.

James was a guest at the bishop’s 50th birthday blowout this past summer at the Tropical Paradise Ballroom in Brooklyn, photos on the bishop’s Facebook site show.

In a press conference Thursday, de Blasio insisted his phone call was a simple inquiry for information about a supporter’s arrest, and that he never asked for Findlayter to get special treatment.

He said NYPD protocol had been followed “100 percent,” and that the precinct commander decided to release the bishop before the mayor’s call.

Former Council member and mayoral candidate Sal Albanese suggested the silence from top elected officials — who are close to de Blasio — would have been different if the incident occurred when Mike Bloomberg was running City Hall.

“I can assure you if Bloomy called the PD for a pol ally, [Mark-Viverto] … et al would demand an investigation & holding hearings,” Albanese tweeted.