Page 39 - Demo

Six Months Later:Bellamy Running Even HarderBY RICHARD J. WALTONThe editor was really quite stern: not another Valentine to Carol Bellamy, he said firmly, remembering perhaps that when she was considering running for City Council President I endorsed her for Mayor, Governor or even President (of the United States, not the City Council).So if you have the impression that Ms. President is a young, attractive, intelligent, hard-working, honest and imaginative public servant, one of the most appealing political figures hereabouts, you must have heard it someplace else.We met to discuss her first six months in Carol Bellamy%u2019s big, high-ceilinged, chandeliered office in the east wing of City Hall, handsome but a bit shabbier than a superb room in so superb a building should be, an indication, no doubt, that the fiscal crisis spares no one, not even the number two person in city government.FIRST QUESTIONThe first question was the obvious one: what does the City Council President do? Everyone knows that the Council President is the number two city official, but does that make Bellamy a municipal version of the Vice President or Lieutenant Governor? As Bellamy goes to great pains to explain, the answer is %u201c yes%u201d and %u201cno,%u201d but more no than yes. The similarity is in her titular function as presiding officer of the City Council. There the analogy with the Vice President and the Lieutenant Governor is exact. She wields the gavel, votes in case of a tie and has whatever influence (limited in any case) she can muster by virtue of her political, as opposed to institutional, strength.But even in this, the most limited function of her job, Bellamy has made a difference. The Council, in recent decades at least, has been notoriously disorganized and undisciplined. The Council was often hours late in convening for regular meetings, its members lacking in selfdiscipline. But political discipline it has never lacked. As long as anyone can remember, the Council has been rigidly controlled by the oldline regular Democratic organization, represented for some years now by majority leader l orn Luite ot Brooklyn.Since Bellamy took office, however, at least the meetings start on time. And she will not tolerate disorderly meetings, a practice that seems inherent in the decorum of many members. And watching the Council President in action recently, wielding the gavel as a whip, is like watching an animal trainer with a menagerie ot barely trained lions.%u00ab.s in most things, Bellamy is candid in discussing the City Council. She says she has received many letters complaining about it and that it has not entirely lived up to the procedural reforms it adopted. %u201c It has not met as often as the rules prescribe and it is not as open as it should be,%u201d Bellamy maintains. But she also says that most New Yorkers do not understand how limited the Council%u2019s legislative powers are. Much of power normally exercised by a local legislature has been retained by the state legislature and other important functions are exercised by the Board of Estimate.Despite its limited powers, Bellamy does %u201cthink there is potential there%u201d in the Council%u2019s enhanced powers of legislative oversight. %u201c It is tentatively moving in that direction, although it could be doing it faster, especially in a time of financial crisis.%u2019' The council, she says, %u201c can%u2019t ignore the fact that it has to carve out an area for itself; there are too many people mad at it.%u201d And she believes the way the Council can convince the people that it is serving a useful function is to become %u201c particularly aggressive in the area of legislative oversight,%u201d that is, observing carefully the administration of the city government and ensuring%u2014especially in a time of fiscal austerity%u2014that it works efficiently and economically.That, however, is the least important part of her job. Whereas any other work done by a Vice President or Lieutenant Governor depends on what, if anything, is assigned by the chief executive, the City Council is not only elected independently but has independent, and important, statutory powers under the City Charter.MOST IMPORTANTMost important, the Council President is a member of the Board of Estimate, a body unique to the City of New York, that not only votes on the capital, expense and Community Development budgets but also has jurisdiction over land use, planning, franchises and contracts, thus making it far more important than the City Council. On the Board the City Council President has four votes, the same as the Mayor and the Comptroller and twice as many as c ad i uf the five borough presidents. Since the Mayor, under the new City Charter, cannot vote on the budget for agencies under his control%u2014which is to say most of the city government%u2014this gives the Council President even more than her already considerable leverage on these matters.Further leverage is provided by the Council President%u2019s role%u2014greatly enuaiiCcu u iiu ct the iiC%u2019vv charter uS GiTibudsman. Although she does not have a huge agency to monitor and audit the other city agencies, as does the Comptroller, she can investigate abuses or failings or weaknesses brought to her attention by the Community Boards, with whom her office works closely, or by individual citizens. Both of these latter two functions provide an effective platform for reaching the city%u2019s voters.Of course, as Bellamy says, the Mayor could just ignore the City Council President%u2014or try to. But Koch, she says, wouldn%u2019t and hasn%u2019t. Although they don%u2019t always agree, Bellamy says they have good relations. There is, at this point, no reason to doubt her assessment. Their staffs appear to work well together%u2014which is affirmed by people on each%u2014and the differences that have emerged have been taken in stride as perfectly normal.A NEGATIVE VOTEBellamy, for instance, along with Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin, recently voted against the controversial Booth Houses in Harlem, arguing that they were much too costly, would displace people from sound housing and that the entire concept of highrise housing had been discredited. The clash between Bellamy and Koch was real; Koch may share the same view%u2014that this would be that last such project his administration would approve (and only then if certain conditions were met)%u2014but he then voted for the project based solely on the fact that it was already so far advanced when he took office. The Board eventually passed the project.Bellamy also questioned some of the Mayor%u2019s revenue estimates that she thought were unrealistically optimistic and had some influence, she believes, on the budget eventually submitted to and passed by the Board of Estimate and the City Council.But she is also fully aware of the terrible splits that can develop between the number one official and the number two. Obviously referring to the Carey-Krupsak conflict, she says the position of the num ber iwo person is %u201c stran g e%u201d anu %u201ccrazy.%u201d%u201c The job is often wrapped in expectations that can%u2019t be met at all,%u201d she said.Plainly, she can see how the schism between Carey and Krupsak could have developed, but just as plainly, although she has often supported other women politicians, she is backing, unequivocally, Hugh Carey. Bellamy doesn%u2019t think anyAsked if her downplaying of differences with Koch indicated that she was less outspoken than she used to be, Bellamy replies, %u201c No, not at all. I don%u2019t think I%u2019m any less outspoken. I don%u2019t feel any restraint, with one exception.%u201d That, she says, was during the negotiations with the federal government to get loan guarantees. %u201c I wanted to give a sense of unity to the extent possible.%u201d But her differences with Koch, she says%u2014concerning the budget and the approach to economic development %u2014were not so great that they couldn%u2019t be settled %u201cinternally.%u201dKoch has increasingly been criticized for not having enough personal contact with the people of New York. No one can accuse Bellamy of that. She may seem compulsive about doing her office work. But much of her time is spent on an exhaustive schedule that resembles a candidate%u2019s: meetings morning, afternoon, and evening, often with several %u201c drop-ins%u201d during the course of an evening.Asked if it weren%u2019t a candidate%u2019s schedule she%u2019s been keeping, she laughs and says it%u2019s an effort to keep in touch with the people, to learn of their concerns in a way that even the best staff work can't provide. But she doesn%u2019t really expect anyone to believe that was the primary reason for her intense schedule. And in fact she%u2019s decided, she says, to cut down on such meetings to give herself a bit more time to be a person.Bellamy says she's not running for anything but doesn%u2019t try to conceal that she%u2019s a very political person. %u201c I%u2019m probably as ambitious as anyone,%u201d she says but she also says that it%u2019s fun to have a four-year term (as a state Senator she had two-year terms). %u201c It%u2019s nice to go to concerts in the park without having to shake hands and to look at friends and know there%u2019s no fund-raising request on their desk, %u2019 %u2019 she says.She did admit that she was not interested in being Council President for 12 years and since its unlikely she%u2019d challenge Koch, her next bid for office presumably would be state or national. She dismissed a run for Jacob Javits%u2019 seat in 1980. %u201c A lot of people ere &>*%u2022 t^ot air^aHv M chpsays, citing HEW Secretary Joseph Califano and UN Ambassador Andrew Young to the list of New York politicians known to be interested. \Senate seat%u2019s an open target.%u201d%u201c New York State politics are unpredictable,%u201d she adds. %u201cNo Hamilton Jordan two-year plan could possibly work in New York.%u201d Besides, you have to give people aCONTINUED ON PAGE 8July 20,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 7(Jeanie Black. Photo)