Darlene Mealy

The bloc of City Council members opposed to changing the law on term limits legislatively just got one more supporter.

Councilwoman Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn, according to a line buried in this NY1 story, has now said she supports putting the issue up for a referendum. Mealy had initially declined to comment on the issue.

Mealy's position was pointed out by the Working Families Party spokesman, who is keeping a running tally of where the Council member stand on this issue.

Among the funding requests cut by the Council from its budget was one for the Bronx African American Chamber of Commerce, which was slated to get $10,000 at the request of City Councilman Larry Seabrook. The organization earned some attention when it came out that they never accounted for the ultimate destination of $994,488 they received last year.

After voting in favor of the budget, Seabrook told me, “I didn’t put it in -- that was a mistake on their end,” referring to the Council staff.

A spokesman for the City Council explained the mistake, saying that Seabrook had initially asked for the money but later recsinded the request.  read more »

Christine Quinn is pushing back on the notion that she squashed a hearing on legislation here because it was aimed at supporting a bill in congress authored by Barack Obama. Quinn, a Hillary Clinton supporter, just sent a letter to City Council member Darelene Mealy explainng why the hearing on her bill didn't take place last week.

“Our intention was to delay, not cancel, this hearing,” Quinn wrote to Mealey, who sponsored the local bill in support of Obama's Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act.

“We find these hearings are most effective when held in conjunction with more complete state or federal legislation. Last week, this bill was still in the process of being amended in Washington.

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“Our suggestion to delay this hearing had nothing to do with the bill’s sponsor, Senator Obama. As you know, this bill was included in the Council’s federal agenda.”

The city’s Independence Party, which is currently rallying around Lenora Fulani’s 2009 citywide race, is looking for fund-raisers. A reader passed on this help wanted ad from Craigslist, which says, “The New York City Independence Party is seeking energetic callers for 6 week fundraising drive, with possibility of long-term work.”

Other jobs on that zany electronic message board:

Policy analyst for Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Communications Coordinator for Rory Lancman.

Communications Director for the Working Families Party.

Constituent liasion for Diana Reyna.

Part-time legislative director for Darlene Mealy.

A “Press/Community Relations/Legislative Intern” for Darlene Mealy.

And campaign staff for the Working Families Party.

Here is Hiram Monserrate, one of only five City Council members to have voted against a 25 percent pay raise for the council.

The others were Michael McMahon, Andrew Lanza, Darlene Mealy, and Tony Avella.

One insider gave me some speculative reasons for why some of them might have voted this way:

McMahon hopes to run for Staten Island Borough President and this vote will give him ammunition to repel Conservative Party accusations that he's a free-spending liberal.

Lanza doesn't care about Council pay because he's going to the state Senate.

Avella, the only declared mayoral candidate, always objected to increases salaries and taking lulus.

My secret brain trust didn't crack the mystery of Mealy.  read more »

As for Monserrate, he explained himself to reporters after the vote by saying that he simply doesn't like the process of awarding himself a pay increase.

Here he is. -- Azi Paybarah

A few days out from last week's primary results, and it does look like the only really unexpected outcomes came in Brooklyn.

There had been general resignation that family dynasties in poor, politically disorganized neighborhoods were unavoidable; Darlene Mealy's decisive victory over Frank Boyland disproved that one.  read more »

And there had been an assumption that, particularly outside Manhattan, where the Times holds sway, judicial races take place so far from voters' consciousness that the candidates with money and party support inevitably win. But a reform judicial candidate, Margarita Lopez Torres, narrowly took the plum Surrogate's job away from the party-backed candidate, dealing a real blow to elements of the Court Street bar and the Brooklyn Democratic Party. (Of course, the Party went ahead and got a second, presumably more cooperative Surrogate created by the State Legislature, so they won't go hungry.)

It's unclear whether those were isolated wins or stirrings of a reform movement, but Brooklyn's local races have certainly become worth watching.

They've finished counting ballots in that East Harlem City Council race, and the winner is Melissa Mark-Viverito.

The former 1199 staffer prevailed over Felipe Luciano by 84 votes.

Mark-Viverito's win, along with Darlene Mealy's win in central Brooklyn, is a mark of how powerful the "progressive" wing of the labor movement, and its agent, the Working Families Party, have become in local races that have dropped off the radar for unorganized citizens and other interest groups.

Some commentators, notably Fred Siegel, are dismayed at this trend, but at this rate, the City Council may just have to declare itself an 1199 local one of these years.  read more »