In late January, Mayor Bloomberg released plans for his twelfth and final budget. In it, we see an attempt on behalf of the Mayor to leave the City in a fiscally solvent manner when he leaves next year, including a culmination of spending preferences (higher city agency budgets) and an unfortunate reality of cutback measures (layoffs, attrition, etc.). We're left with a budget totaling about $70.1 billion to close a $1.1 billion deficit shortfall.

On a larger scale, City Council is exactly like most ordinary Americans (read: us). New York City's budget racks up bills that eventually have to be paid off one way or another, all of which are promises made in the past by politicians to give this amount money to so and so. Following this trend, the IOUs gradually take up a larger portion of the budget. And this time around, it looks like these "legacy costs" will suck up nearly 25 percent of all of our government's funds in the next two years.

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Even Oprah couldn't save this terrible idea.

As we reported yesterday, the Bloomberg administration lost its lengthy and expensive legal battle against a Freedom of Information Law request by Sergio Hernandez, then a Village Voice intern, requesting the administration's emails concerning the ill-fated hiring of former Schools Chancelor Cathie Black in 2010.

Well, now the emails have been released. And while it's hard to see what was so damning in the emails that the City saw fit to spend tens of thousands of dollars fighting to keep them secret, there's still plenty of interesting material inside. The emails, between Black and various administration aids and officials, illuminate the public relations campaign City Hall orchestrated to help smooth the way for its unpopular and inexplicable nomination of Black, who had no previous educational experience.

The strategy is best summed up by an email from Micah Lasher, at the time the mayor's legislative director: "All our focus needs to be on getting allies to come out in support."

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All legal avenues exahusted, Bloomberg must make public emails concerning the hiring of Cathie Black.

Mayor Bloomberg's fight to keep emails concerning the hiring Cathie Black, whose catastrophic career as school chancellor lasted all of 100 days, has finally ended, and Bloomberg has lost.

The story stretches back to 2010, when Sergio Hernandez, then a Village Voice intern, filed a Freedom of Information Law request for emails related to Black's hiring. The city first delayed, then refused. Hernandez appealed, and the city refused again. So he sued, represented pro bono by Schlam Stone & Dolan, and he won.

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MayorBloomberg

Bloomberg told NYPD leadership he's got their back.

Judging by NYPD crime metrics, 2013 is shaping up to be a pretty good year so far--there have been fewer murders than this time last year, and 2012 was itself a record low. Shootings are down, too. And yet, when it comes to public relations, 2013 has been an annus horribilis for New York police: weeks of protest in East Flatbush over the police killing of 16-year-old Kimani Gray, near-daily newspaper stories from the federal class-action suit against the department's stop-and-frisk policy, and a field of mayoral contenders falling over each other to be the most vociferous critic of the city's current policing regime.

Mayor Bloomberg may be a lame duck, but he's not going to take all this criticism of his police department lying down. Today, in a surprisingly scorching speech to NYPD brass, he fought back against people calling for police reform.

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Eugene Reznik

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly delivered a press conference at City Hall this afternoon, revealing information about the Boston bombers' plans to come to New York City. Upon earlier information and belief, Dzhokar Tsarnaev said he had planned to come to New York to "party," but Bloomberg and Kelly told reporters that, in fact, Dzhokar and his brother spontaneously decided after the Boston bombings to bomb Times Square.

"God forbid they had gone to Times Square," the mayor said, but added that if they had, "they would not have seen the extensive networks of cameras."

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Thankfully, companies are much nicer with Bloomberg when it comes to cutting greenhouse gas emissions than they are with banning soda.

In 2007, the Mayor announced the "Carbon Challenge;" an initiative from PlaNYC - the city's sustainability program - that dares any organization in New York to lower its carbon emissions by 30 percent over the next decade. In the last six years, almost every university, hospital and municipal building in the city has hopped on the pro-Earth bandwagon. And, yesterday, Bloomberg added ten more (recognizable) names to the list.

You might've heard of these guys. American International Group, BlackRock, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Google, JetBlue Airways, JPMorgan Chase, PVH and Bloomberg's little company, Bloomberg LP? All together, these conglomerates take up 17 million square feet of residency in New York. "Their leadership on this issue is not only going to move our city toward a more sustainable future; we also hope it will inspire others to follow suit," the Mayor commented.

Let's give credit where credit is due: that's a ton of ozone we're saving here.

[jsurico15@gmail.com/@JohnSurico]

With Rep. Gabrielle Gifford alongside him, President Obama called it a "pretty shameful day for Washington." Nearly five months after the massacre at Sandy Hook, the gun control package making its way through Congress shut down in the Senate yesterday. Democratic politicians were unable to muster the 60 votes necessary to push forward provisions that would require universal background checks for all gun users. It was a defeat for the Obama administration and a heavily paid victory for the NRA.

Enter Bloomberg.

In recent weeks, the mayor of New York City has posited himself as the anti-NRA figure, the head of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns with enough financial firepower to pressure senators into voting for the reform bill. That bill's death proves to be a setback for Hizzoner's group but it doesn't look like the mayor and his colleagues are giving up anytime soon.

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Last week, we reported on the Community Safety Act--a big legislative package floating around City Council that is espousing serious comments from everyone involved, including the Mayor, NYPD Commish Ray Kelly, and a handful of your mayoral hopefuls.

The main stipulation of the bill under fire calls for an inspector general, a position that would oversee the actions of the Boys in Blue. Bloomberg and Kelly have both stated that the position would add another layer of bureaucracy, stalling an agency that needs to be fast on its toes. And, against their will, it had the support of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who argued that, in light of recent controversies involving surveillance and stop-and-frisk, an inspector general was needed now more than ever.

So it was only a matter of time before this happened.

In a move that posits Joe Lhota directly in opposition with Quinn for the first time in this race, the Republican frontrunner and Giuliani apostle held a conference at City Hall yesterday. There, he lambasted the Speaker for supporting such a "reckless and dangerous" proposal. He even threw in a pun for fun: that the measure would "handcuff" NYPD procedure.

Aside from the strange undertones of Giuliani, the comments made by Lhota confirm yet another major theme that we predicted last week: The NYPD's activities will shape up to be the hot-button issue of this mayoral election.

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Looks like Christine Quinn has won... on a few levels.

Last Friday, we reported on the paid sick day bill in City Council, where it's been garnering support for a few years now. The legislation sought to mandate employers to give their workers at least five paid sick days if they had at least 20 employees.

And, after a compromise with exemptions for smaller companies, it finally picked up the attention of a much-needed player: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

That was due to mayoral consequences. Quinn didn't want to halt a bill that would please the labor vote. Her rival, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, has been calling her out left and right on her lack of attention towards the bill. But, of course in the end, it's all about Bloomberg: she has used the opportunity to distance herself from an electorally overbearing mayor who threatened to veto the bill this weekend.

And it could work out for her: News sources reported yesterday that it looks as if the speaker has collected enough votes to 1) pass the bill and 2) overturn the veto. Look at this victory as a legislative beginning of Quinn's full-fledged attempt to cast herself as the "middle class" candidate who's not antonymous with 'Hizzoner.'

Oh, and New Yorkers: Enjoy your shiny new paid sick days.

[jsurico15@gmail.com/@JohnSurico]

No, it's not Christine Quinn. No, it's not Joe Lhota. No, it's not John Liu. And, no, it's definitely not John Catsimatidis (though wealth-wise that would make the most sense).

Even after saying the other day that the candidates this year are a weak bunch, Hizzoner is keeping his mouth shut on who he thinks should be the next Mayor after he gives up his 12-year throne this November. And he wants reporters to do the same with their questions about it. No, but seriously.

He made that point perfectly clear at a press conference yesterday.

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