Has Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer been using the perks and powers of his office to assist his ambitions to become the next NYC Comptroller? The lines are clearly blurred between his day job and the new job he seeks. Stringer has been engaged in a non-stop series of daily press conferences, news releases, issuance of various reports, letters to the editor, guest columns in newspapers and publicity stunts for years. All of this was at taxpayers’ expense to raise his name identification with voters and grease the wheels for his previous ongoing 2013 mayoral run which he abandoned months ago for an easier NY Comptroller race. Don’t forget his visiting every local and county Democratic Party clubhouse from the day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg took his last oath of office in January 2010.
Stringer should have avoided the appearance of any conflict of interest by resigning as Manhattan Borough President. He could have ended the charade and been honest enough to run full time for Comptroller on his own time and dime.
Hard working municipal civil servants work full time. They can’t campaign part time during the day like Stringer. They would have to either take a leave of absence or quit their day job.
According to Driving the Beep by Lisa L. Colangelo and Irving De John which appeared in the New York Daily News on June 7, his office has spent $118,000 of $170,000 for drivers to date. How many hours were spent driving him to campaign fund raisers, campaign events or speeches, especially outside of Manhattan, on the taxpayers’ time and dime? Shouldn’t his campaign reimburse taxpayers for many of these trips, which were clearly related to his quest to become NYC Comptroller?
Larry Penner
