By Ayala Ben-Yehuda
Deputy Mayor for Operations Marc V. Shaw, who lived in Bayside at the time of his appointment to the Bloomberg administration a year ago, has recently received threatening phone calls at his City Hall office, a published report said.
The administration would not confirm the Jan. 15 report in The New York Times that Shaw's office had gotten at least two anonymous phone calls last month in which the callers referred to his public statement that firefighters “are hanging around doing nothing … 95 percent of the time.”
The report also said the callers made remarks about Shaw's family.
Shaw's comments about firefighters came at a Dec. 7 conference on the city budget hosted by the Citizen's Budget Commission at which Mayor Michael Bloomberg addressed business leaders on the property tax hike and retention of city services, including police and fire personnel.
As deputy mayor for operations, Shaw advises the mayor on budget matters and public services.
The 111th Police Precinct could not confirm that officers had been assigned to guard Shaw's house.
In response to Shaw's comments, Uniformed Fire Officers Association President Captain Peter L. Gorman wrote in a Dec. 10 letter to union members that “this city is being run by a blithering idiot who has never been elected by anyone to do anything.” He called for Shaw to be fired.
About the reports of threatening phone calls, Gorman said “we've had labor issues with Marc Shaw, but this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable” and urged the Police Department to investigate.
