Winners & Losers 7/10/15

This week, one man did the unthinkable—nay, the impossible. He overcame the odds and will go down in history as the epitome of the American dream. But since we didn’t think we should base our winners on hot dogs (62 of them!), Nathan’s champion Matt “Megatoad” Stonie didn’t quite make our list. Read on to find out who did.

WINNERS

Susan Arbetter – The reign of Campbell is nearing its end, and the House of Arbetter is on the rise. Ascending to the presidency of Albany’s venerable Legislative Correspondents Association is none other than the host of The Capitol Pressroom. Although, as a Cuomo spokesman joked on Twitter, the job is a “cursed monkey’s paw.”

Howard Wolfson and Gale Brewer – In what could have been a serious sports jinx, Wolfson suggested to de Blasio officials that the city should throw a ticker-tape parade for the U.S. women’s national soccer team if they won the World Cup—hours before the final against Japan. Luckily for Wolfson, the Americans won 5-2, but the Mayor’s team was still left trying to gauge New Yorkers’ interest in the parade. Leave that to Brewer, who circulated an open letter asking the mayor to stage the parade, which quickly spread across the New York media sphere. Now the Canyon of Heroes will be adding a women’s sports team to its list.

Jamie Post Candee – With the testing company Pearson getting failing grades among New York parents and lawmakers, the state Education Department looked elsewhere for its next five-year contract—and signed up Minnesota’s Questar Assessment to develop English and math tests for a hefty $44 million. And as long as the state comptroller and attorney general sign off, that’s a big deal for Candee, Questar’s president and CEO.

The Occupy Wall Street Six - They were protesting issues of income inequality and now they are getting paid. Six Occupy Wall Street participants were pepper sprayed by New York City police officers four years ago, making the movement much more visible, and this week they all settled lawsuits against the city, with each set to be paid between $50,000 and $60,000. We’re pretty sure this was not what they meant when talking about closing the income gap, but at least they’re getting something.

Ruben Wills – Politics 101: If you want to make yourself look better, go beat up on someone REALLY unpopular. The New York City councilman—who’s potentially facing prison time himself—used old-fashioned measuring tape to prove that a homeless shelter was 922 feet away from a school (78 feet too close), meaning a slew of registered sex offenders who were living there had to go. The effort made him a very unconventional hero to local Queens parents.

LOSERS

Gerrard Bushell – It’s been widely reported and audited that the state does a better job than New York City when it comes to contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses. But in the case of at least one state agency, just how much better was recently called into question when the state comptroller dropped a report finding that the Dormitory Authority has been overstating the amount of business it does with such firms. The extra scrutiny made for a bad week for the DASNY president and CEO. 

Thomas Galante and Bridget Quinn-Carey – The past and present leaders of the Queens Library may want to peruse a legal library next. New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released an 18-month audit that concluded ousted library president Galante and his replacement, Quinn-Carey, charged more than $310,000 in personal expenses on library credit cards. Stringer urged the Internal Revenue Service and local prosecutors to open criminal probes into both officials’ actions. The comptroller’s team noted that while Galante bemoaned deficits of up to $8 million before the City Council each year, he never revealed that some unrestricted library funds contained surpluses as large as $20 million.

Steve McInnis – This week the District Council of Carpenters got called out by a federal judge for violating several labor agreements and hundreds of workers sprawled across as many as 20 jobs sites were ordered back to work. Negotiations between the union and the Cement League, a group of organized contractors, had fallen through, which means there are quite a few carpenters working without a contract as talks continue. With the strike card off the table, McInnis is now dealing from a weaker position.  

Bill Larkin and James Skoufis - You figure you get a bill passed with bipartisan support in both the Assembly and Senate and it's a good days work. Well, the legislation on annexations by the Orthodox Jewish community Kiryas Joel may have been popular with lawmakers, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo wasn't sold. His veto sends the two sponsors back to the drawing board, and you can bet they will have to deal with some angry constituents to deal with. 

Ken Thompson – The Brooklyn district attorney can't seem to put the cuffs on unflattering Post stories. This time, the tabloid reported at least 11 women have departed from Thompson's office during the past year because he is tougher on them than on male personnel. Which is odd, since Thompson previously found success representing women in harassment and sex abuse cases.