The courts are interfer ing so much in city administration that “we have one hand tied behind our backs” in trying to preserve vital services while grappling with severe budget deficits, a top city official charges.
Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith said in an interview that he’s worried about the city’s ability to manage itself during these tough times because of court rulings that can delay action for months and, in some instances, years.
“We’re in a very complicated period of time where the mayor and his agents, myself included, have to find ways to protect the public, treat employees fairly and provide the services we need while saving $2 billion,” he said.
Only last month, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Alice Schlesinger granted a temporary restraining order blocking the municipal-hospital system from laying off 450 unionized workers, part of a previously announced plan to restructure a system facing a $1 billion deficit.
City lawyers asked Schlesinger to convert the order into a preliminary injunction, which would have forced the municipal union bringing the case, District Council 37, to post a bond. She refused.
The city is appealing.
But in the meantime it has to keep the axed employees on the payroll while the case winds its way through the judicial system.
“It’s not this case in and of itself that presents financial disaster,” Goldsmith said.
“We’re worried there may be more. The question becomes: who in the final instance gets to decide on behalf of the voters and taxpayers which employees should be laid off, a judge or the mayor?”
In some cases, it’s clearly the judges who are driving city policy.
It took years before the city’s attempt to regulate billboards could be enacted because of a series of court challenges.
Bloomberg next month releases his latest plan for reducing agency spending by another $2 billion.