Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz makes his grand entrance. (Kathryn Kirk)
Cheerleaders, music videos, school choruses, parading pols: A borough president has no better chance to bask in the spotlight than the annual State of the Borough speech.
The five borough presidents have few official tasks — and giving a yearly address isn’t one of them. Yet paying for the offices and staff for the ceremonial positions will cost taxpayers $23 million this year.
The State of the Borough speech, a red-letter day on each borough president’s calendar, eats up massive amounts of staff time and resources. Squeezed by their shrinking city budgets, the Beeps have taken to supplementing the taxpayer outlays for their showcases by soliciting cash from corporate sponsors and from nonprofits. But these “charities” often owe allegiance to Borough Hall.
“There’s a difference between self-promotion and public service,” said Susan Lerner of Common Cause. “Sometimes politicians seem to confuse the two.”
The whiff of ego gratification is hard to avoid at a State of the Borough speech, typically an hour-plus-long laundry list of “accomplishments” and promises for the coming year.
“All they’re used for is to pat themselves on the back,” said state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens). “BPs already put out newsletters to publicize their projects. Didn’t they ever hear of a press release?”
Brooklyn’s extravaganza on Feb. 1 included rappers, an R&B group, a youth chorus, Greek dancers and a Barbra Streisand impersonator. Beep Marty Markowitz entered Brooklyn College’s Whitman Auditorium to a team of cheerleaders chanting “M-A-R-T-Y, we love Marty!”
Staten Island opened its Jan. 26 show with paeans from the powerful, including Mayor Bloomberg and Sen. Charles Schumer. Then, Staten Island Beep James Molinaro screened a spoof music video that sent him into outer space, along with a clip from an in-production movie about the Fresh Kills Landfill his office is financing. It was put together by Borough Hall’s own staff filmmaker (whose $55,000-plus salary is paid by taxpayers).
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall brought out Mr. Met to help honor a pair of hero sanitation workers when she spoke at Queens College on Jan. 24.
With one eye on the mayoralty, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer gave his address in the dignified surroundings of the New-York Historical Society on Feb. 2 and covered big-picture issues like city tax policy. In The Bronx, borough boss Ruben Diaz Jr.’s speech on Feb. 23 also made listeners speculate about his hopes for higher office.
“In a city with an extreme concentration of political power, the borough presidents provide a non-City Hall take on things,” said Fred Siegel, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow.
But outside funding for an activity like the State of the Borough address is troubling, he said. “If developers or sponsors are funding this, they could be subverting the remaining virtue of the office.”
Markowitz’s office estimated that his event cost “several thousand dollars” this year. All of it was paid by Best of Brooklyn, a nonprofit controlled by Markowitz that receives both city and corporate funding and that critics charge is an avenue for influence-peddling in Borough Hall.
Staten Island pushes its venue and other costs onto the local nonprofit community television station, whose board is appointed by Molinaro and whose funding comes from Staten Islanders’ cable bills.
Queens had Delta Air Lines cover its $2,500 catering tab. Manhattan got money from a Borough Hall-founded nonprofit, Community Fund for Manhattan, as well as its own budget to pay for venue fees, teleprompter rental charges and other expenses.
Putting the program together is a major undertaking for every Borough Hall staff. “Our planning begins the day after the previous year’s speech,” said Mark Zustovich of the Brooklyn borough president’s office. Preparations heat up about six weeks before the speech’s scheduled delivery date.
The grand effect? Not much. The speeches don’t even sell the boroughs to outside businesses, since most of the people in attendance are local.
Yet each borough president’s office carries a full-time staff of 41 to 60 that may include chauffeurs, computer managers, graphic artists and project planners, with salaries ranging from $31,000 to $169,000.
The borough speech isn’t their only job, but it is a big one. Leading to the most important question: Why?
“All these resources are paid for by the taxpayers,” Avella said. “That staff time could be put to better use actually solving the problems that we have.”