Five weeks ago, the New York Post broke a story that millions of tax dollars were officially earmarked by the City Council to nonexistent accounts so that they could be allocated later to legitimate nonprofit organizations. The idea was that since all funding is required to be made at the beginning of a fiscal year, and many groups don’t know how much they’ll need six, eight, or ten months in advance, some system needed to be created to make that money available.

There’s not much new. Different kinds of phony allocations have been used for decades for the same purpose. It is becoming clear that there was never any intent to deceive, or to send money to groups that don’t meet whatever set of official criteria is in place for such “member items.”

Of course, the widening investigation has turned up a number of these earmarks that have at least the appearance of favoritism or conflict of interest, and two City Council staffers have been arrested for stealing some of this money. But that’s not the real problem, and until we identify and fully address the real problem, what we’re seeing now will reappear again and again.

The real problem is

With the resignation of Councilmember Dennis Gallagher after pleading guilty in a sexual assault case, a special election for the 30th District seat (Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, Glendale, Richmond Hill) will be held on June 3. In a special election for city offices there are no primaries and no nominations, and all candidates are on the ballot as themselves alone, with no official party affiliation.

But...

Both parties have made it clear whom they are supporting. Of the three Republicans in the race, the party is supporting Anthony Como, a Board of Elections commissioner and aide to state Senator Serphin Maltese. Former Councilmember Tom Ognibene is running for his old seat (he was term-limited out in 2001). Also in the race is Joseph Suraci, who is pissed off at the party for passing over him for a Civil Court judgeship five years ago.

Read on for where it gets ugly...

When I was growing up, I was taught that a legislative body made up entirely, or almost entirely, of members of one ruling party, whose leaders are chosen by a few unelected party "leaders," was the kind of bad thing they did in the Soviet Union.

Welcome to the New York City Council!

With today's expected resignation of Dennis Gallagher, the special election that will be held in May may reduce the Republicans to two seats out of 51. Granted, in New York City, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5.5 to 1, it stands to reason that a truly representative legislature will be overwhelmingly Democratic. But when all but two or three of the 51 seats are one-party, there is no chance for an opposing viewpoint to be heard.

But wait, there's more!

There's a pothole on my block.

Okay, that's not news. There are potholes all over the city, and the Department of Transportation (DOT) isn't doing much to fix them. What makes this one special is that tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 20) at 1:00 pm we're going to have a press conference about this particular pothole.

Some local residents, who were sick of being awakened in the middle of the night when a truck would hit the pothole and make a racket, and who complained over and over with no result, decided to take matters into their own hands. They bought some cement and filled in the pothole by themselves. The job wasn't exactly professional, but everyone was able to sleep at night. Meanwhile, potholes all over the city are causing noise and damaging cars and trucks, costing a LOT of money.

Council Member Darlene Mealy has a bill (Intro 614) that would require the DOT to fill every pothole within three days of being informed that it exists. Currently, over 1/3 of potholes aren't fixed in a month. Anyone interested in attending the press conference should e-mail me; I'd love to have a big crowd.

While most of the country thinks 2008 is THE BIG YEAR for elections, New York City knows the really, REALLY big year will be 2009. Term limits is forcing out many city council reps, and all those term limited reps are looking to mob the runs for mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, etc. Some may be eyeing the Congressional seats that might get freed up when Congressional reps run for the Senate seat Clinton will vacate if she wins the Presidency.

But there is another mob of candidates: those trying to replace those term limited City Council candidates.

To date I have met scattered candidates for various City Council seats, including Costa Constantinides (who is on the steering committee of the Democratic Lawyers Council working on voting rights and is running in Astoria, Queens...with the name to match the district) and Steve Behar (running in district 19 in Queens).

But to date I have yet to have the chance to review the whole field running for a seat.

Last week Joy and I had a fundraiser for our friend, Josh Skaller. He actually had two parties that night, raising some $1500 that night, I am told. I suspect my party was the lesser of the two...but sounds like a good night overall for a solid grassroots candidate. For those who missed it, here is ANOTHER chance to meet Josh:

Come to a House Party for Josh Skaller, a Progressive Voice for City Council

Host: Wayne Brooks
Location: Wayne's apartment
262 Court Street #2/Butler Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 US
When: Sunday, January 27, 3:00PM
Phone: 347-645-0581

Dear Friends,

I'm having a house party at my apartment for my good friend Josh Skaller, who is running for City Council in Brooklyn's 39th District in 2009.

Josh is running for what will be an open seat now held by Bill de Blasio. The district covers much of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens, along with parts of Windsor Terrace and Kensington.

Josh is President of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID), one of the most dynamic and influential political reform groups in New York. He also serves as a board member and field director for DFNYC (Democracy for New York City).

This month there are four fundraisers I am pushing. One I am on the host committee of, two I am full on co-host (one of which is at my apartment) and one I am merely plugging for friends.

The first one was last Sunday, and I now have results from that. Sunday, Marjorie Gersten, Joy Romanski and I hosted a fundraiser for Norman Siegel, running for NY Public Advocate. You can read about my (3-year old interrupted) comments on the event here. And you can read another participant's obeservations here at the Brooklyn Optimist. But now I would like to add that the fundraiser did quite well for a small scale event put on by people like me who almost never do fundraising. We brought in $1400 for Norman Siegel. Now I am sure many out there see that as small potatoes, but it's damned good in my world!

If you want to add to this, please call his campaign at 212-448-6271. Tell them Marjorie, David and Joy sent you.

Just got back from a Norm Siegel for Public Advocate fundraiser in Brooklyn Heights (will blog it when I have a money report...turnout was good by my standard and lots of people were writing checks, but don't know the final tally)...

And just got off the phone with Jimmy Dahroug, running for NY State Senate, who is having a fundraiser Wednesday, January 9, 2008, 6 pm at 1050 Park Avenue, NYC (at East 87th Street). But I already blogged about that fundraiser (hope you all can make it! Jimmy's a great guy).

Tonight I want to invite you all to my apartment. Really! We will clean up all the toys lying around. Joy and I are hosting a fundraiser for my good friend, Josh Skaller on Thursday right in my own Park Slope, basement apartment.

Below is a link to a story positioning Steve Harrison as the candidate of the people and Domenic Recchia as the Brooklyn machine's choice in City Hall News.

The article mentions the Daily Gotham, but the reporter didn't contact Bouldin and Mole as I suggested when he was writing the piece.

http://www.cityhallnews.com/news/128/ARTICLE/1316/2007-11-12.html

Brooklyn Attorney Steve Harrison and Staten Island educator Mark Zink will announce the forming of the non-partisan SIBRO Civic Association in a 7 PM July 18 press conference at the Staten Island South Beach Boardwalk Gazebo overlooking Southwest Brooklyn. For disclosure purposes, I'm SIBRO's acting corresponding sec.

SIBRO (Staten Island/Brooklyn) Civic Association is dedicated to narrowing the Narrows and bridging the gap between people who live on opposite sides of the bridge, focusing issues that impact Staten Island and Southwest Brooklyn residents together.

They brainstormed the idea in January 2006, before Steve ran for congress, in popular Staten Island hangout Schaffer's. Schaffer's is one of my favorite Staten Island bars because of their extensive beer selection (I'm a beer geek) although I'm always puzzled how they can close before midnight on Saturdays.