Yanks
Not On The Ball
The New York Yankees might be scoring runs
on the field, but when it comes to lobbying in Albany the team just can’t seem to
play by the rules. And now, with three strikes against it, the team could be fined up to
$25,000.
The Yanks have neglected to file required
state lobbying reports on time for the past three years. Last year, the team’s report
was filed 144 days late.
The Yankees were not alone. A total of 36
organizations, which hire lobbyists to push their issues in Albany, filed tardy reports.
The problem, according to the state’s Temporary
Commission on Lobbying, is new rules that went into effect late last year. The new rules
toughen reporting requirements, and require firms that hire lobbyists to file even when
they do not lobby on any particular issue. The commission will be holding a hearing to
determine how large a fine to assess against the Yankees and the other miscreants.
Reba's Hood
Sen. Bob Kerry of Nebraska raised
the bar among city colleges when he was named Prez of The New School earlier this year.
Hunter College’s top post has been
vacant since ex-prez David Caputo moved on to a similar post at Pace University
last year, but that’s reportedly about to change.
Sources say Reba White Williams, who
last year spent a whopping sum of money on her losing campaign for City Council, has
emerged as the person with the best shot for the Hunter job.
Williams has an undergraduate degree from
Duke, a Harvard MBA, two masters from Hunter, a PhD from City College, and is back at
Hunter taking more classes. Hunter’s Board of Trustees is reportedly working
feverishly to get Williams out of the classroom, and into the President’s Office.
"Reba’s fundraising skills couldn’t possibly
have anything to do with her becoming Hunter’s next president, could it?"
quipped one East Side academic.
Bossy
The only "Boss" in town this week
was Bruce Springsteen, and he put on quite a show. Meanwhile, Yankees
"Boss," George Steinbrenner, took center stage in Beantown, plotting his
latest coup on those in his employ.
Sources tell NYConf
"there’s more than meets the eye" in Steinbrenner’s presence at Fenway
Park to monitor the struggling Yankees take on the Bosox. "George had commitments in
the city to lend his support to charity, but diversions could not wrest him away from the
team."
Steinbrenner’s maneuvers are
reportedly far more wide-reaching than adding a bat to the lineup, or some youth to a
rapidly aging pitching staff. One source said, "Each move that George is making now
is to leverage the Yankees into a better position to raise as much private money as
possible to get a new Yankee Stadium built on Manhattan’s West Side. He’s
probably not going to get the money from the city, so George is after his friends to put
up the money to make it happen."
Although a lot of names of players have been rumored to be
coming to New York, sources say that "George will not rest, and will be willing to
overspend for $ammy $osa to come to the Yankees, and better his chances at getting
a stadium in Manhattan."
NYPD Phone Home
Cops who were assigned on Sunday, June 11
to traffic posts and some spots inside Central Park tell us that they would not have been
able to help victims in the "water wilding" incident – even if they wanted
to.
Insiders tell us that about one out of six
cops in the park detail were sent out on the street without a radio.
"There were maybe three or four cops
assigned to traffic around the park who were issued radios," sources told NYConf.
"The rest of us were told to go out and direct traffic – just to direct
traffic, that’s all.
"It’s my guess that they think
you don’t need a radio to work a traffic detail," one source said.
It seems that the extra cops assigned to
the Central Park detail on June 11 caused a crunch for radios – a precious commodity
at precincts citywide. Quite often, we’re told, radios are down for repair, or
precincts aren’t issued enough battery packs. That makes it necessary for radio car
partners to share a mobile radio for their tour of duty.
"When you try to stretch the radio
supply, somebody goes out without one," inside sources said.
Each precinct used to have someone in-house
who knew how to make minor repairs to the radios. But that changed in about 1997, when an
order was issued for all defective radios to be sent to a central repair. And it takes
forever to get them there and get them back, the sources said.
One group of cops recalled a fellow officer
who was on a scooter inside the park at the time of the attack and ran into trouble when
he stepped in to help a victim.
"He had a radio and called for help
when the crowd surrounded him," the sources said. "But they became more
aggressive, rocked the scooter and harassed the cop until backup got there," they
said.
"It was scary."
What would they have done to a cop who was
out there without a radio, unable to call for help?
Trump Card
As if real estate mogul Donald Trump
needed any more ego-inflating, The UJA-Federation of New York saluted Trump with the
"Hotel and Real Estate Visionary of the Century Award" at a reception at The
Pierre on Wednesday. The event attracted high-profile names such as Morgenthau, Tisch,
and Baldwin. The speakers spent as much time roasting The Donald as they did
specifying what he did to earn his honor. The theatre-producing husband and wife team of Fran
and Barry Weissler hypothesized names of a musical about Trump that they could
bring to Broadway. "Hair" and "Rent" were two of the names that the
two admittedly unfunny Nichols & May wannabes came up with.
Reacting to the festivities, one high-level UJA official
said, "Frankly, I have no idea why we’re even giving this award to Mr. Trump,
tonight."
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