Martha Stark

City Finance Commissioner Martha Stark isn't sure how much wrongdoing there actually was in connection with the recently discovered slush fund at the City Council.

Speaking last night on The Perez Note, an online radio show hosted at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Stark said [around the 14:20 mark], “I can’t figure out what, if anything, went wrong. And I’m not sure when all is said and done that anything did.”

She added, “It never seemed that a check was cut to a false organization. This is discretionary money. That is exactly what our budget and our system is set up to do. We give elected officials, whether it’s a borough president, or the speaker of the Council members, a certain amount of money that they can, in their discretion, both give out to groups in their neighborhood and the like."  read more »

Here are some lines from last night's birthday roast of United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, who turns 50 on December 18:

“I’m sure many people have gotten you Depends and other things like that, so get used to it.” -- Bill Thompson

“I do remember, and will always remember, that you left me, for Joel [Klein].” -- Former Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew

“She runs through relationships like she runs through her staff directors.” -- Finance Commissioner Martha Stark

More after the jump.  read more »

A quick trip into the counterfactual: Let’s say Mayor Michael Bloomberg meets Governor Eliot S  read more »

Martha Stark got the vote of at least one senate Republican.

Global Strategy Group just hired one of Eliot Spitzer's top campaign aides, Ryan Toohey.

Is there some flexibility in Rudy Giuliani's position on partial birth abortion?

Rick Carlin has notes on Albany's idea of ethnic diversity.

Harry Siegel, who is obsessed with the NYPD's stop-and-frisk numbers, thinks the huge increase in that statistic comes down to a change in paperwork, not policy.

Get ready for the Conservative Party's state convention, taking place in Albany starting on the 11th.

Bill Murphy wonders how Craig Johnson's new colleagues will react to Johnson calling the legislature "dysfunctional" during his campaign.

Tim Russert took the stand in the Scooter Libby trial today.

The political blog for the Staten Island Advance has moved to a new site over here.

ReformNY compares electronic voting machines to ATMs and has some words from the head of the NYU Brennan Center on the issue.

Aaron Naparstek has more info about city employees driving the wife of the city's police commissioner.

And pictured above is Joe Bruno and Tom DiNapoli engaged in a handshakey kind of hug.

-- Azi Paybarah

As an astute reader notes, state Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., who in 1994 moved to prevent the Gay Games from coming to New York on the grounds that they could lead to an increase in AIDS, seconded the comptroller nomination moments ago of Martha Stark.

Stark is openly gay.

-- Azi Paybarah

Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith just said that his conference is going vote Martha Stark for comptroller.

Here's a snippet of the exchange Smith had with a radio reporter who asked why they're backing Stark.

Smith: "It's a conference decision."

Reporter: "But why is she more qualified than the other two?"

Smith: "Because Martha Stark is the person we voted for."

Reporter: "I didn't ask why, who you voted for. I asked why is she more qualified than the other two?"

Smith: "Did you look at her background?"

Smith wasn't much clearer when addressing the claim that two Republican senators were ready to switch parties, which would give the Democrats control of the Senate and make him majority leader. Citing the theoretical notion of "Zones of Potential Agreement" he said he learned about at a seminar at Harvard, Smith said that some other members of the legislature were "in the zone."

He declined to name names.

-- Azi Paybarah

Bill Hammond has the comptroller list from the independent screening panel. It's three people, not five.

Businessman Bill Mulrow NYC Finance Commissioner Martha Stark and Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman

Discuss.

-- Azi Paybarah

There's a forum Monday morning at Baruch on the intricate way New York divides the property tax burden, a system that is all about making single-family homeowners feel loved and tenants not realizing they're getting screwed. Not to mention business-owners.

Various senior wonks, including Martha Stark, Dick Netzer, Larian Angelo, and George Sweeting will be there.  read more »

Not sexy, but one of those weird little inequalities that are part of the texture of the city.