Why should NYers know that our departed deputy mayor was arrested?

Plus: What to watch for in the Teabaggers' Delight presidential debate (see below)

Former Deputy Steve (the urban wonderman) and Mayor Mike in happier times -- which is to say with no snow falling and nothing of note being reported from the D.C. police blotter

"I thought the immediacy of my resignation mooted the need for further explanation. I was wrong. The lack of a fuller disclosure I now regret as I regret the loss of my public service career and the intrusion my children have experienced."

-- former NYC Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith

by Ken

This expression of regret from former Deputy Steve is farther than the deputy's former boss, Mayor Mike, is willing to go. However, if you read deep into the story, you'll find that Mike and Steve are in agreement that any disclosure should have come only from the deputy.

Bloomberg Says Disclosing Deputy Mayor's Arrest Not His 'Responsibility'

September 5, 2011 12:13pm | By Tom Liddy, DNAinfo News Editor

MANHATTAN — Mayor Michael Bloomberg refused to apologize Sunday for failing to disclose that former Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith had been arrested in Washington D.C. just days before he stepped down.

Breaking his silence after a church service at the Christian Cultural Center in Canarsie, Brooklyn, Bloomberg said that it was not his "responsibility" to tell the public about the July 30 arrest, according to the New York Times.

"I did not believe it was right for our administration to put out a story about an incident that had the potential to [bring] even more suffering to the Goldsmith family," he said, WCBS/Channel 2 reported.

The mayor, who canceled an appearance on his weekly radio show with WOR's John Gambling Friday in the wake of the revelations, said that while he had an obligation to his constituency, he also had a duty to treat his employees fairly.

"I also believe as an employer, employers have a responsibility to treat employees with some consideration and that is how I built my business, that’s how we run this government and that’s how we will continue to do so," he said, according to CBS.

However, Bloomberg added that if Goldsmith, once touted as a superstar but widely blamed for the administration's disastrous response to the Christmas 2010 blizzard, had not resigned, he would have been fired.

"Given the high standards we set for government service and the serious circumstances surrounding his arrest, Mr. Goldsmith could no longer continue work at City Hall," Bloomberg said, according to WCBS.

Bloomberg's comments drew quick fire from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

"Unfortunately the Mayor has this backwards: His first obligation is to protect the public, not to protect a staff member," he said in a statement. "The City Council should hold hearings, so we can get a full accounting of the facts in this matter."

The revelation last Thursday that Goldsmith, the former mayor of Indianapolis, had been arrested for allegedly shoving his wife during a heated argument at their D.C. home sparked a flurry of criticism from local politicians, including Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

Bloomberg, who reportedly accepted Goldsmith's resignation at a meeting the day after his arrest, merely said that his deputy was leaving office to pursue work in the private sector.

"Your claim that Deputy Mayor Goldsmith was 'leaving to pursue private-sector opportunities in infrastructure finance' was a misrepresentation of the facts," de Blasio wrote in a Sept. 2 letter to Bloomberg.

"I cannot accept the leader of the City of New York lying to its citizens."

In a statement, Stephen Goldsmith said that he did not reveal the reason behind his resignation because he did not want to embarrass his family, nor did he want to become "a distraction to the important work of City Hall."

"I thought the immediacy of my resignation mooted the need for further explanation. I was wrong," Goldsmith said. "The lack of a fuller disclosure I now regret as I regret the loss of my public service career and the intrusion my children have experienced."

Goldsmith also said that it was his responsibility to disclose the reasons for his resignation, not the mayor's.

"I regret the criticism of the Mayor for his support of my family," Goldsmith added.

If city officials are arrested within the five boroughs, their arrest is reported to the Department of Investigation. However, those arrested outside the city's boundaries are not subject to the same rule.

The public advocate plans to introduce legislation to close this loophole.

According to a Washington, D.C. police report obtained by DNAinfo.com, Goldsmith, 64, allegedly shoved his wife, Margaret, into a counter.

"I should have put a bullet through you years ago!" Margaret Goldsmith yelled, according to the document.

Goldsmith then broke a phone and grabbed his wife and would not let go, the report said.

The Goldsmiths have disputed the account in the police report.

Several observations:

(1) I'm sorry to say I don't pay close enough attention to municipal affairs to have any meaningful insight into how good a job Deputy Steve, the reputed (if only by himself and Mayor Mike) urban wonderman, did. Sure, he f**ked the blizzard up royally, but maybe that was the solitary blemish on an otherwise splendid record of job performance. It's merely my unsupported impression that the guy's a highfalutin stiff.

I do recall Mayor Mike insinuating repeatedly that we should be on our knees celebrating our good fortune in having such an august one as Deputy Steve, an authentic urban wonderman (a former mayor of Indianapolis, after all), as our deputy mayor for administration. And Mayor Mike would know. I guess.

(2) Pursuant to the above, I spent some time perusing the reader comments posted on some website or other when the story of Deputy Steve's, er, embarrassment first broke. There was one category of comments which annoyed, maybe even scared, the heck out of me; we'll come back to that. But I recall one solitary soul raising the first question I had when I was trying to digest the original report, which as I recall made reference to the incident in question taking place in the Goldsmiths' home in D.C..

So I was immensely relieved that that one commenter thought to pose the question: What was a deputy mayor of New York City doing with a home in D.C.? In some account or other I did find the explanation that Deputy Steve split his time between NYC and D.C. Not quite good enough, I think. The question simply changes to: What was a deputy mayor of New York City, authentic urban wonderman or not, doing splitting his time between NYC and D.C.?

Perhaps we should be grateful, not just that the urban wonderman deigned to take this job but that he spent some of his precious time in our city, and the rest of his "home" time however-many-miles away in D.C., as opposed to setting up his urban-wonderman laptop in -- oh, I don't know -- Cabo San Lucas.

(3) As to the comments that distressed me, it was the strain of "why's everybody bustin' the guys balls?" and "what marriage doesn't include disagreements?" comments. To which I can only say: Ferchrissakes!

While it may well be that the Goldsmiths, as the above report notes, "have disputed the account in the police report." It's clearly true that whoever might have pressed charges declined to do so. That said, I'm not aware of any dispute that:

(a) Mrs. Deputy Steve called the cops on her husband.

(b) Deputy Steve was arrested. (As in "arrest report.")

It should go without saying that neither of these considerations, separately or together, establishes guilt, and I'm making no such presumption. I do, though, wonder at the sanity of anyone who suggests that a wife calling the cops on her husband is a "what's the big deal?"-type occurrence in a marriage, and I wonder at the suggestion that when a deputy mayor is arrested, the people he serves don't have a right to know about it.

With, of course, appropriate explanation from the parties of the first and second part. Deputy Steve, you notice, takes a sort of in-between position: that if he hadn't stepped down as deputy mayor (forgetting for the moment Mayor Mike's revelation that if he hadn't, he would have been fired), then sure the public would have had a right to know, but since he did quit, it's nobody's business and his family is entitled to its privacy. Um no.

One extra observation: Since the Goldsmiths are disputing the account in the police report, it's apparently not definitively certain that Mrs. Deputy Steve indeed said, ""I should have put a bullet through you years ago!" However, could we have a show of hands here? How many people believe the cop who wrote the report made this up?

In the original public accounts, it should be noted, the line was attributed to Deputy Steve rather than the missus, which creates a certain "oh, the brute!" frisson. It is apparently a fact, however, that the police report attributes the line to Mrs. Deputy Steve. One might point out that the erroneous information would almost certainly not have circulated if the actual report hadn't been still under wraps, but never mind. Again stipulating that we're entering here the realm of speculation, not to be confused with either judicial process or full investigative inquiry: If Mrs. Deputy Steve indeed said it, at whatever level of frustration, anger, or whatever, is there anyone to whom the thought doesn't occur that who after all knows the guy better?


MY INSIDER'S TIP: WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN THE
"TEABAGGERS' DELIGHT" PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Okay, I got carried away here, with everybody else offering their personal "what to watch for" tips. But seriously now, what are you, nuts? You would actually consider watching these specimens "debate" in front of a horde of militant, "f**k the facts" doodybrains?

Which bring us finally to today's --

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Good news for Texas Gov. Rick Perry

"In a positive piece of news for the Texas Governor, a new poll shows him leading the pack among voters who describe themselves as delusional."

-- from today's Borowitz Report, "Perry Outlines
Bold Proposal to Repeal Twentieth Century"

#