Bloomberg: "At Some Point Democracy Has To Stop"

Bloomberg Has a Temper Tantrum on the Radio, Demands Senators Agree To Continue His Control Over Public Schools

Mike, what are you afraid of??

We, educated parents who know the disaster that you have made of the New York City public schools, simply dont want you to have any say in what happens to our public school children anymore. The time has come for you to resign and give the children $1billion of your personal fortune. Bully tactics are yesterday's news and unacceptable by you or anyone.
my opinion - Betsy Combier

Check out below; a rough transcript below – about governance he actually says, “at some point democracy has to stop.”

John Gambling Show With Mike Bloomberg July 17, 2009 (scroll to 7:22/35.08)

more on mayoral control:
“Everybody – even the democrats agree is the right thing to do. We’ve negotiated. Total bull, we negotiated w/ the Senate and the Assembly. The Assembly chose to stop negotiating. Then they [the Senate] come back and did the old Albany trick… and ask for more. The time is to stop.” …At some point here democracy just has to stop and enough, we aren’t going to take it anymore.

He identifies his allies as Jeff Klein and Liz Krueger.

Gambling: “what can it be? those who voted no? What do they want – say they want.”

“The only thing I can think is that they want to ruin the schools… Duane, why does he want to go to his constituents and say he wants to deliberately ruin the schools. Stavisky, Addabbo , Hiram Monserrate – a former cop -- he wants the cops should be out of the schools? He should understand We brought crime down 44%. But Our teachers deserve a safe place to go to work, our students deserve the right to be in charge of their own destiny…it just goes on.

It just goes on and on…Sampson voted for Mayoral control the last time and his district test scores have gone up dramatically. And he wants to Keep klein out of office?

Slush fund to train parents so that parents can disrupt the schools. Parent coordinators should be working w/ someone else to force change in the schools.

I want teachers and principals to run the classroom, they’re professionals.

We’re going to have people in the streets to tell police how to work?

….This is just….we’re going to teach the city a lesson…we’re tougher than they are, we’re in charge. it’s our way or the highway. The time we have been negotiating, the teachers union, in all fairness, Randi has been helpful. …. There’s always more more more. The time for that is over. If mayoral control hasn’t – cutting achievement gap in test scores in half, if that isn’t enough… there is no rational way to have a discussion.

What’s the practical aspect what will happen?

The seven person school board will continue the policies; they voted to give Joel klein more power than he would under the new bill. The next school year will go fine…but we’ll get to the future where they won’t and the other things will be coming back.

The governor can call back the state legislator every single day in Albany and send the state troopers to drag them back. He should do that… I’ve defended the Governor up till now… this is what he should do. Giving them the summer off is meshunigah.

People phrase this as the administration loses if they don’t pass this…it’s the kids that lose. Those are the people who lose. And the property owners. We are the role model of how to fix the school system and Albany is the role model of how you can destroy it. And it’s a very small group of State Senators. It’s time for the others to say I don’t care….. About time for everyone to call their State Senator which I have done, and will gain today, its time to say it’s enough.

Have you talked to the people, the Duanes etc.? No my staff has.

Bloomberg Unleashes On The Senate Dems
July 17, 2009

Using some of his strongest language to date, Mayor Bloomberg gave the Senate Democrats a tongue-lashing this morning - even calling some of them out by name - for failing yet again to pass a bill reauthorizing his control over the public school system.

During his weekly WOR radio show, Bloomberg told host John Gambling Gov. David Paterson should force the Senate to return to Albany "every single day" for the rest of the summer until they pass a mayoral control bill, even employing the State Police to "drag them back" if necessary.

"This is what he should do," Bloomberg said of Paterson, noting that he has been "defending" the governor throughout the Senate stalemate. "Giving them the summer off is as we say in Gallic, ‘Meshugenah'".

"I cannot for life of me understand what the agenda is of the people, there were 15 people last night who voted for a bill which would end all of the progress that we’ve made in the schools, in terms of bringing down crime and improving test scores and graduation rates and bringing down the drop-out rate."

"You wonder what goes through their heads, and they all come from neighborhoods where improvements in the schools have been dramatic. And you wonder what on earth they are thinking about in term of voting for a bill that would literally end all of that.”

Bloomberg accused the opponents of the Assembly bill, which would largely preserve his power, of wanting to "ruin the schools: and accused them of trying to establish a "slush fund to train parents so parents can disrupt the schools."

He also called the allegation that the administration refused to negotiate "total bull".

Bloomberg went on to single out a number of the senators who had voted in favor of Sen. Kevin Parker's so-called "Better Schools Act," which critics say would gut his control over the system. (The bill failed).

"(Sen). Tom Duane...I always thought was a smart guy, represents a district in Manhattan, why he wants to go to his constituents and say, ‘I’m trying to deliberately ruin the schools.’"

"(Or) Toby Stavisky, or Joe Addabbo , who just got elected. Some of these people you wonder, Hiram Monserrate, I don’t know what the heck he wants. A former cop. He wants the cops out of the schools. He should understand we brought crime down 44 percent."

"...John Sampson, who I always thought was a smart guy. He voted for mayoral control the last time. And in his district, test scores have gone up dramatically. Now he is against it, trying to push a bill that would keep [Joel] Klein from serving as chancellor."

(Thanks to the DN's Frank Lombardi, who was on Bloomberg radio duty this morning, for sending in the quotes).

“Tom Duane, who I always thought was a smart guy … why he wants to go to his constituents and say, ‘I am deliberately trying to ruin the schools’ … or Joe Addabbo, who just got elected … some of these people, you wonder … Hiram Monserrate, I don’t know what the heck he wants.”

So I guess Tom Duane voted for the bill! Good for him. He is just reflecting the wishes of his constituents. The mayor is really out of touch with how parents feel.

This is inaccurate: ”15 Democratic lawmakers voted for a bill early Friday morning that would have largely gutted his control over schools. “

The bill is very mild – and would give him one seat less than a majority on the board. If anyone has the full list of votes, please send it on.

July 17, 2009, 10:07 am
Mayor Assails Senate Inaction on School Control
By Michael Barbaro
LINK

A fuming Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that state troopers should “drag” senators back to Albany — by force, if necessary – if they leave for the summer without voting on a bill to preserve his control of New York City’s schools.

During his weekly radio show, an incredulous Mr. Bloomberg – who seemed to question the intelligence of individual senators by name – said that those holding up the legislation “want to ruin the schools.”

“You wonder what goes through their heads,” he said, adding that the time for negotiations over mayoral control had passed. “It’s over. It’s stopped. You just can’t do that.”

And he turned a frequent criticism of himself – as imperious – back on the Democratic senators. “This is just, ‘We are going to teach the city a lesson. We are tougher than they are. We are in charge. It’s our way or the highway,’” he said.

The remarks seemed to escalate a nasty war of words between City Hall and a group of Democratic senators who refuse to act on a mayoral control bill supported by the Bloomberg administration. The mayor’s control of the schools expired on June 30, though Bloomberg administration officials and allies make up a majority of the newly reconstituted Board of Education, which has voted to retain Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein.

The senators argue that the bill gives too much power to Mr. Bloomberg, who wrested control of the schools from a sprawling Board of Education. City Hall counters that higher test scores and graduation rates are proof that unfettered mayoral control works far better than the decentralized system it inherited.

But it now appears that senators will leave Albany for the summer without taking up the issue — a major priority of Mr. Bloomberg’s — until September.

And that has Mr. Bloomberg boiling, especially since 15 Democratic lawmakers voted for a bill early Friday morning that would have largely gutted his control over schools.

“They all come from neighborhoods where the improvements in the schools has been dramatic,” he said. “And you wonder, what on earth are they thinking about, in terms of voting for a bill that would end all of that?”

Then Mr. Bloomberg made it personal. “Tom Duane, who I always thought was a smart guy … why he wants to go to his constituents and say, ‘I am deliberately trying to ruin the schools’ … or Joe Addabbo, who just got elected … some of these people, you wonder … Hiram Monserrate, I don’t know what the heck he wants.”

As for Senator John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, the Democratic conference leader, who the mayor “always thought was a smart guy,” Mr. Bloomberg had this to say:

He voted for mayoral control the last time. And in his district, test scores have gone up dramatically. Now he is against it, trying to push a bill that would keep Klein from serving as chancellor.

Asked what would happen if the Senate did not vote on the mayoral control bill, Mr. Bloomberg said that a reconstituted Board of Education, filled with appointees blessed by his administration, would “continue the policies” he wanted, for now.

But starting in the fall, he said, problems would likely crop up, necessitating urgent state action now, “not in September,” when the Legislature returns.

Then he suggested that the governor call on state troopers to bring the lawmakers back to Albany.

The mayor, a lover of Yiddish, said that giving the Senate the summer off without passing mayoral control would be “meshugenah.”

July 17, 2009, 4:11 pm

Senate Leaders Promised Vote on School Control
By Michael Barbaro
It’s all there in writing.

On July 9, two Democratic State Senate leaders, Malcolm A. Smith and John L. Sampson, promised in a detailed letter that the Senate would vote on a bill to reauthorize mayoral control of New York City’s public schools by Friday.

“Let us be very clear,” they wrote in the letter, which was provided to The New York Times, “regardless of other factors” the bill “will receive a full vote on the floor of the State Senate by July 17, 2009.”

But it didn’t.

Senate Democrats adjourned early Friday without acting on the legislation.

The letter was written to Senator Daniel L. Squadron, a fellow Democrat who left Albany on his honeymoon this week, but not before seeking assurance from the party’s leaders that they would vote on the legislation. (Mr. Squadron, who was endorsed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is a City Hall ally.)

Mr. Sampson and Mr. Smith obliged, signing the letter (see below) and promising to hold a vote by Friday “in ordinary session, or in an extraordinary session in which both the Assembly and Senate are in session.”

“We commit to you,” they wrote to Mr. Squadron.

Their failure to bring the legislation to a vote – which City Hall was confidant it would win – has infuriated the Bloomberg administration beyond measure.

Mr. Bloomberg, on his weekly radio show Friday morning, accused the Democrats of trying “to ruin the schools” and recommended that state troopers “drag them back” to Albany to vote on the bill. Even for the temperamental Mr. Bloomberg, it was an unusually harsh tongue lashing.

Aides to the senators did not deny that the lawmakers had signed the letter – and had failed to honor their word.

But they blamed the intransigence of City Hall, saying aides to Mr. Bloomberg had refused to negotiate even modest changes to the bill backed by the mayor – such as spending $1.6 million to train parents on how to be engaged in the school system. (The mayor called it a “slush fund.”)

Austin Shafran, a spokesman for Mr. Smith, said:

Yes, a commitment was made to act on the legislation, but our primary commitment is to meet the needs of 1.1 million public school children by improving the bill through increased parental input and strengthened accountability and transparency.