Winners & Losers 1/1/16

In our first Winners & Losers list of 2016, it’s an auspicious beginning to the new year for our weekly winners. For our losers, it’s a chance to put the past behind and get off to a better start.

WINNERS

Jonathan Lippman – Sure, the state’s chief judge ultimately didn’t get to stay on an extra decade. But at least he is going out in style, garnering a glowing review of his tenure in the Times and securing support for his new rules standardizing the discipline process for lawyers.

Norman Seabrook – Having a contract with New York City is almost always better than not having one, and the COBA president called the more-than-$350-million contract “a major accomplishment” for his union. Everyone should be happy this process is over, since a recurring issue has been dealing with inmates “splashing” corrections officers with urine, feces, or other bodily fluids.

David Suker – New York City lost its four-year legal battle to fire Suker, a teacher arrested during Occupy Wall Street protests, and frittered away a whopping $1 million in its failed effort to oust him. The Bronx teacher, who was charged with riling students up during an NYPD presentation, won his job back and $260,000 in back pay. He will be fined $7,000, but that’s a pretty poor return on investment for the city.

Loree Sutton – New York City officials have been getting a lot of bad press lately for the city’s homelessness problem, but Sutton, the veterans affairs commissioner, finally scored a big public win for the de Blasio administration when it was announced that chronic veteran homelessness has been virtually eliminated. Now they just have to deal with all the other homeless people.

Dale Zuchlewski – As the director of the Homeless Alliance of Western New York, Zuchlewski heads one of many organizations working to end chronic homelessness in the Buffalo region. Working with the federal government through its Housing First initiative, the groups have been able to place all but 25 of the 400 chronically homeless people in the area in their own apartments since 2011 – a stark contrast to homelessness crisis in New York City.

LOSERS

Dennis Gabryszak – If this bizarre video didn’t tell you all you needed to know about the character of former Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak, JCOPE has released a damning report documenting his years of sexual harassment while a legislator. Former female employees described a litany of crude acts – asking them to play sexy elves to his Santa Claus, invitations to sunbathe topless outside his Albany apartment – and an environment of intimidation where negative reactions could cost you your job.

Norma Gonsalves – The presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature faces upwards of $28,000 in fines for missing campaign finance filings, becoming the first target of a new state Board of Elections hearing process aimed at politicians who fail to comply with election law. The BOE, long regarded as toothless, accused the longtime legislator of failing to properly file disclosure reports numerous times, although her campaign claims that she is “is in full compliance with election law.” Whatever the case, we’ll find out soon enough.

Ray Kelly – People who police glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. That is to say, maybe the former NYPD commissioner shouldn’t be accusing the current one of underreporting crime statistics when an internal investigation found precincts under his watch doing the same? Bratton has denied all wrongdoing while fighting back, asking Kelly to “man up” and provide a source. Is Kelly is just trying to sell books? Or court big-time donor John Catsimatidis?

Joanie Mahoney – The Onondaga county executive got some bad press this week for her public fight with Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner. Women in politics don’t exactly have it easy to begin with, so it never helps when someone like Mahoney calls another female public official “emotional.”

George Pataki – Apparently being popular enough for three terms as governor of New York translates to approximately 0 percent in the GOP presidential polls. Pataki has been lampooned since the beginning of his campaign for being too boring, too irrelevant, and way too far to the left for the modern Republican electorate. We all wish him a peaceful retirement with lots of time for birdwatching.