Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio met with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and police counterterrorism experts for what’s believed to be his first major briefing on terrorism with the NYPD, The Post has learned.
Among those who sat in on the meeting Monday was Chief of Department Phillip Banks III, one of de Blasio’s finalists for the post of NYPD commissioner, according to sources.
On Tuesday, de Blasio continued pushing universal pre-K by appointing a panel to plan for implementation of more early-education classes, although he hasn’t secured a way to pay for them.
The incoming mayor even cracked wise about his funding problem while reading “Where the Wild Things Are” to preschoolers at Harlem’s Northside Center for Childhood Development.
“This dragon represents the fiscal challenges that we face,” de Blasio told the children.
He also tried to clarify his promise last year to allow for a “serious public screening” of his schools chancellor pick.
De Blasio said he was referring to an “unfortunate chapter in our city’s history” when media exec Cathie Black was named chancellor despite protests, and not that he wanted the public to weigh in on his choice.