DN Editorial: City Council gives city commissioners a pass

OF ALL the arguments for abolishing the row offices, and in particular, the City Commissioners' Office, the strongest one so far came this week, during City Council budget hearings.

After listening to the testimony of Marge Tartaglione's stand-in (the commissioner is recuperating from surgery), during which the office requested more money above its current budget of $8.8 million, Council had the chance to ask questions that might shed some light on the operations of the office, including details of the resignation of Commissioner Renee Tartaglione due to an investigation of her electioneering activities. Or why this office is asking for more money when it already spends about twice as much per voter as any other major city spends. Or what, if anything, the commissioners have done to correct problems found in a 2007 city controller's audit. Or why the commissioner should still be an elected office.

Instead, the hearing consisted of not much more than Councilman Rizzo's asking how much the commissioners spent on postage, and suggesting they get a postal consultant in to review costs.

Less than 20 minutes after the hearing began, it was over.

This kind of performance from Council is not surprising; we've been criticizing the Council budget process for a while. But this friendly tete a tete is especially disappointing in a year when controversy has surrounded the commissioners - from Marge Tartaglione's DROP payment to her daughter's scandal to increasingly loud questions on why this office is not organized differently.

It was almost as bad as the lovefest between Council and the Sheriff's Office last week.

While many departments must confront unpredictable and unplanned expenses, like the Managing Director's Office dealing with snowstorms, the commissioners' domain - elections - is as predictable as it can get. And yet every year, the budget has risen. Why?

We deserve to know why. We deserve a Council that does its homework and holds city departments accountable for their budgets. And if that doesn't happen during budget hearings, when will it?

Here's our real fear: That Council members, currently campaigning in primary battles, are wary of making other elected officials look bad during an election season. And that goes double for the office that handles elections. *