Whether you left city government with good references or under investigation, chances are a cushy academic position awaits you at the City University of New York.
Four former commissioners in Mayor Bloomberg’s administration — two of whom who resigned amid scandals — currently hold teaching and administrative posts at CUNY, funded by taxpayer dollars.
Former Finance Commissioner Martha Stark — forced out the door in disgrace last April after she was outed for dating a subordinate and hiring relatives — currently holds a “distinguished lecturer” position at Baruch College. She collects an annual salary of $103,285.
The city’s former commissioner of correction and probation, Martin Horn, stepped down in June. Under his watch, three guards and a dozen inmates were indicted on charges of beating to death an 18-year-old Rikers Island inmate. In June, red-faced Correction Department brass were caught allowing an inmate to hold a jailhouse bar mitzvah for his son in the lower-Manhattan jail.
Horn is now a distinguished lecturer at John Jay School of Criminal Justice, where he earns $107,142 a year.
Bloomberg’s taxi and limousine commissioner, Matthew Daus, announced his resignation Feb. 13 — just weeks before he said he was told of an $8.3 million taxi-meter-tampering fraud, in which thousands of cabbies overcharged unsuspecting riders
In addition to pursuing private-sector business ventures, he will become a distinguished lecturer at CUNY’s Transportation Research Center. A spokesman for the Taxi and Limousine Commission said the salary has not yet been determined.
Members of the Bloomberg administration lobbied CUNY on his behalf, City Hall sources said. Daus also has longtime ties to CUNY.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s former transportation commissioner, Iris Weinshall, rakes in $233,730 a year as vice chancellor for facilities, planning, construction and management at CUNY.
As commissioner, federal probers singled her out for poor oversight in management that led to the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash that killed 11 people. Weinshall, who is married to Sen. Charles Schumer, remained in office, resigning five years later to take the higher-paying post.
City sources said Weinshall was poached from her government post by CUNY and that Bloomberg was sorry to see her go.
The distinguished lecturers teach full time, but serve without tenure, a CUNY spokesman said. Their appointment must be renewed annually, and they make between $40,844 and $114,104, depending on their experience level.
Bloomberg isn’t the first mayor whose resigning staffers have found a second act at CUNY.
“CUNY has a lot of institutes like the Graduate Center where they can park people,” said a source with inside knowledge of city government. “It’s long been a dumping ground for former politicians, girlfriends and people who have to leave office.”
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s deputy mayor Ninfa Segarra became a vice president at CUNY’s Research Foundation, where she reportedly raked in a salary of $146,000 a year. CUNY faculty reported that she rarely made appearances on campus. She has since left the post.
Giuliani’s head of the Health and Hospitals Corp., Rosa Gil, stepped down to take a healthy $150,000-a-year post at CUNY.
And former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned from office in 2008 amid a prostitution scandal, still gets a small piece of the action. Last year, he took home $4,649 for teaching one political science course at City College.
Some elected officials said they were shocked by the hires.
State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Higher Education Committee, said she is “quite concerned about the hiring of Daus, Horn and Stark, who left the administration under clouds. These people have been hired to teach at colleges where 50 percent of the teaching body are adjuncts with Ph.D.s in their areas of expertise,” she said.
“You have to wonder if the people who are making these decisions are dazzled by a high-profile former political appointee. It’s really shocking that they have been hired.”
Glick said her colleagues plan to introduce a bill in Albany that would prohibit governors and mayors from appointing their own staffers to board positions.
Some watchdog groups said the relationship between CUNY and City Hall might be healthy, even if a few cases raise red flags.
“Stark is a qualified public servant who clearly made mistakes,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens Union. “Those shouldn’t disqualify her, but they do raise questions as to why she was hired. CUNY is a growing, thriving public institution that benefits from the knowledge of retired public officials — disgraced or not.”
CUNY is currently facing serious financial cuts from the city and the state. Gov. Paterson is looking to cut $84.4 million from CUNY’s senior colleges and graduate programs and $21.8 million from CUNY community colleges. The city is also looking to trim its contributions to community colleges by 8 percent.
Bloomberg has a close relationship with CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, whom the mayor picked to chair his Charter Review Commission earlier this month.
Bloomberg has also funneled close to $1 million to CUNY since 2007 in donations through his Carnegie Corp. And he appointed former Deputy Mayor Marc Shaw to serve as a CUNY trustee while Shaw was still working in the Mayor’s Office.
CUNY Board of Trustees Chairman Benno Schmidt said: “In every case in which I am aware, they came to CUNY because we really wanted people with their talent. I am very confident that their hiring is strictly on their merits.”
Martha Stark:
Former job: Finance commissioner, 2002-09. Stark quit in disgrace amid revelations that she dated a subordinate and hired relatives.
New job: Distinguished lecturer at the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College
Salary: $103,285
Martin Horn:
Former job: Commissioner of correction and probation, 2003-09. Under his watch, three guards and a dozen inmates allegedly beat to death an 18-year-old at a Rikers Island jail. In June, The Post revealed that top brass OK’d a lavish in-jail bar mitzvah for an inmate.
New job: Distinguished lecturer at John Jay School of Criminal Justice
Salary: $107,142
Iris Weinshall:
Former job: Transportation commissioner, 2000-07. A federal probe blasted her for “inadequate oversight of the ferry service management” before the 2003 Staten Island crash that killed 11 people.
New job: Vice chancellor for facilities, planning, construction and management at CUNY
Salary: $233,730
Matthew Daus:
Former job: Taxi and Limousine commissioner, 2001-10. Resigned a month before the $8.3 million meter-cheating fraud was exposed in March. Daus was not aware of probe. Hasn’t started new job yet.
New job: Distinguished lecturer at University Transportation Research Center of CUNY
Salary: To be determined
Eliot Spitzer:
Former job: Governor of New York, 2007-08. Resigned after he was caught on a federal wiretap arranging a meeting with a prostitute.
New job: Political science instructor at City College
Salary: $4,649