Mayor Bloomberg’s reputation for fis cal competence took one on the chin this week with a troubling report in The New York Times about some unexplained city funding of two politically connected nonprofits.
Indeed, incompetence is the kinder word. Absent an explanation for how the groups — Agudath Israel and Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services — got $3 million in city cash from 2002 to 2008, New Yorkers might be forgiven for thinking the worst.
The money was part of a $20 million pork pot ladled out to nonprofits suppos edly on behalf of City Council members.
Bloomberg’s folks say they wrote the necessary checks at the request of Councilman Simcha Felder. But Felder says he never requested the money, and the groups say they dealt directly with the mayor’s office — which has no records to resolve the issue one way or another.
Terrific.
Remember, most folks never would’ve even heard about such funding, if not for last year’s bombshell Post report about the council’s own phantom pork funds.
In that sordid affair, council staff parked some $4.7 million of city funding with groups that didn’t exist.
Some council pork went to friends and relatives of council members. Two council aides were indicted. Councilman Miguel Martinez pleaded guilty to misusing public funds and quit.
The Post’s story prompted Speaker Christine Quinn to institute reforms; Bloomberg just quit distributing cash.
No one has yet challenged the integrity of the two groups in question. And if Felder never asked for the cash, as he claims, then Mike’s folks broke the law, which bars City Hall from disbursing pork directly to any group.
Frankly, the possibilities go downhill from there.
Plenty of questions here clearly need answers. Better yet would be to do away with all discretionary funding (the council still doles out millions).
That, of course, won’t happen.
Which is why Mike Bloomberg needs to keep his records in substantially better order than this episode demonstrates.