I would agree that under Gotbaum the office has been nothing but ceremony - and very bumbling incompetent ceremony at that. But because of its very vagueness, it is ripe for definition by somebody who has a cohesive vision for how it should operate. With a mere 4 million dollar budget, I think it's hardly been a great expense on taxpayers -- and with a watchdog like Siegel in office, who has specific plans to switch seniors and food stamp recipients over to federal programs that would pay them higher benefits and get them off the city's dole -- the office could actually SAVE NYC taxpayers a lot of money, much like the comptroller ideally does.