City Employees Say Giuliani Demanded Blind Obedience
Rudy Giuliani has made much of his time as mayor of New York, but a growing number of his former lieutenants are speaking out about his dictatorial ways. As one former city commissioner put it: "People used to say that if Mayor Koch said, 'Let's kill all 12-year-olds, everyone working around him would freely tell him, 'You're crazy,' but if Mayor Giuliani said it, then everyone would say, 'Brilliant, Rudy! Have you thought of killing 13-year-olds, too?' "Rudy Giuliani has made much of his time as mayor of New York, but a growing number of his former lieutenants are speaking out about his dictatorial ways. As one former city commissioner put it: “People used to say that if Mayor Koch said, ‘Let’s kill all 12-year olds, everyone working around him would freely tell him, ‘You’re crazy,’ but if Mayor Giuliani said it, then everyone would say, ‘Brilliant, Rudy! Have you thought of killing 13-year-olds, too?’ “
Other reports suggest that the mayor was quick to deal with anyone who got in the way of his backscratching. Giuliani’s first commissioner of environmental protection says she was pushed out after she tried to fire an incompetent political appointee and refused to dismiss talented employees to make way for Giuliani loyalists.
Remind you of anyone?
Your support matters…Guardian:
“It was an extremely difficult administration to work in,” said Marilyn G Gelber, who was commissioner of the city’s department of environmental protection for the first two and a half years of Giuliani’s eight-year reign. Though the mayor crafted his reputation investigating corruption and patronage under Democrats, he demanded unstinting loyalty in office, the litmus test for which was their willingness to make room for hacks, she said.
Gelber worked out a landmark agreement protecting the city’s upstate water supply, yet was forced out of her high-level post after refusing to get rid of talented staff members at the demand of Giuliani’s deputies and seeking to fire a flagrantly political appointee with no relevant experience who had worked for the mayor’s election. The “disruptive” appointee even failed to show up at a major water main break where a toxic substance was emitted into the air, though emergency response was part of his high-level charge, she recalled.
“Giuliani showed disrespect for the people in government who are competent, knew their jobs and were loyal first and foremost to the broader mission of their agency and the city,” said Gelber, who is now executive director of the Independence Community Foundation, a private community-development foundation in Brooklyn, New York. “In a civilian government, that kind of leadership, a cult of personality, is pretty dangerous. It’s scary to imagine it at the national level.”
Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
Since April, at least 69 people have been appointed or transferred to political jobs within the administration with little or no fanfare. A ProPublica investigation reveals who some of them are.
The Obama administration has seen another key player out the door. This time, it's national security adviser James Jones, whom Obama thanked for his "sacrifices" in his announcement in the White House's Rose Garden on Friday. Who's next?
In alleged retaliation for Republican stonewalling, President Barack Obama will bypass the Senate and make recess appointments to 15 high-level administration jobs. For context, George W. Bush made more than 170 such appointments; Bill Clinton made nearly 140.
Could the current climate in Washington, D.C., be discouraging lobbyists from practicing their persuasive trade in and around the White House? Or does the downsizing of their ranks have more to do with the economy than the political zeitgeist on Capitol Hill?
The bad rap that "faith-based initiatives" got during the last administration hasn't kept the new management at the White House from treating its Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships seriously. It has fleshed out the lineup of advisers to a total of 25 with two new recruits.
Here are the five most-read stories of the last seven days, including Chris Hedges on America's moral meltdown and Robert Scheer on the economic incompetents who find easy employment in the Obama administration. Full list after the jump.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.