Although you may not believe this actually happened, the Senate Democrats justified the "passing" of a number of bills in Albany yesterday because Queens Senator Frank Padavan happened to walk by them to get a soft-drink...

The day was marked by a bizarre game of "gotcha," in which Senate Democrats claimed Republican Sen. Frank Padavan of Queens had stepped into the Senate chamber for just enough time to be counted as an "aye" vote. 

They passed 121 bills, which the governor refused to sign. 

"It's fraudulent. It's childish. They know that I was not in the chamber voting on those bills," said Padavan.

...and then their new leader, Sen. John Sampson, proclaimed that Mayoral Control of the Schools of NYC was DOA...

"We are firmly opposed to mayoral control of the Senate."

...which is prompting the Mayor to prepare to reorganize the control of NYC's schools to a legally mandated old-version.  The Borough Presidents, along with the Mayor, may have to appoint a new "Board" of seven people to run the schools until Albany's dysfunction comes to end...

When the 2002 statute that granted the mayor control of the schools expired, control of the 1.1 million-student system reverted to decentralized, elected school boards.

Under the old rules, the mayor has two of the seven votes on the Board of Ed. Each borough president has one.

Bloomberg is certain to control a majority, since Borough Presidents Marty Markowitz of Brooklyn, Jim Molinaro of Staten Island and Scott Stringer of Manhattan are solid allies.

"We will not allow our schools to be padlocked or summer school to be canceled," Bloomberg said.

...the Senate, which controls most of NYC's tax policy, then failed to bother passing a sales tax increase requested by the Council and the Mayor - That oversight I'm not so upset about...;) Although the temporary loss of Mayoral Control could lead to some confusion for the education system at large, due to the support most NYC representatives have for the way Bloomberg has run the City's public school system, it's doubtful much will functionally change for our children and the more than 100,000 workers within the system. 

Yet, if this standoff continues until the new year, which shouldn't be ruled out at this point, it oould become a problem and cause public education to take a few steps back.  And if, even worse, the Democrats get control of the body back, there is a chance that the new Democratic leader's negative stance on giving Mayoral Control back to Bloomberg could end the accountable leadership program instituted nearly eight years ago. 

This entire situation in Albany should be a demonstration to voters what rule under Democrats looks like.   Paterson has been, since the moment he took office, an incapable manager of government.  From the take-over after Spitzer's resignation to the Caroline Kennedy infected Senate Appointment debacle to his collapse to the special interests during the budget negotiations to his inability to get the legislature back to work, Gov. Dave has been an absolute failure. 

LEADERSHIP is what is needed most in Albany today.  And although I'm sure there will be many complaining that I'm bringing up his name again - this situation calls for Rudy Giuliani to step into the driver's seat and get Albany back to work again for the people of New York...

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