On Diversity, Room to Grow

Bloomberg's picks mirror Giuliani's earlier cabinet

By Dan Janison | STAFF WRITER

January 13, 2002

Mayor Michael Bloomberg talks with a staff member in his new City Hall digs yesterday. (Newsday Photo / Mayita Mendez / January 2, 2002)

With most of his major appointments in place, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's top staff is about two-thirds white - similar to the early Giuliani crew - despite the new mayor's hints of greater inclusion.

It is also about two-thirds male, and heavy on Democrats and commissioners drawn from former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration.

In many ways Bloomberg has done what Giuliani predicted last month as transition plans were drawn up: replace the top echelons at City Hall but keep holdovers further down in the hierarchy. At the top, he has installed a mix of business colleagues, academics, nonprofit veterans and political operatives.

Eight years ago, the new Republican mayor's first 32 upper-level appointments included five blacks and four Hispanics, by one news organization's count.

That's about 28 percent nonwhite.

Giuliani called the numbers inaccurate but didn't offer an alternative count. Instead, he defended his appointments as made on merit, and disputed demands for diversity.

As of Friday, the first 43 top picks by Bloomberg included six blacks, six Latinos, and two Asians.

That's about 32 percent nonwhite.

But Bloomberg's non-combative rhetoric on the subject contrasts with his predecessor's.

"I haven't sat down and looked at the numbers, but it's never going to be as good as you'd like," he said at a news conference where the issue arose Thursday.

"But I think so far we're doing better than - " he began to say, then paused.

"I don't know it's better than any previous administration," Bloomberg resumed. "But my first criteria, and in the end, the criteria that matters is, I want the best and the brightest for New York City. I do believe that if you have that as a goal, and if you have a process that gets lots of input from various communities, you will wind up with an administration that is reasonably diverse."

One Bloomberg adviser later added that the current mix is more varied than it was on Dec. 31, the end of Giuliani's two terms.

Just like Giuliani, Bloomberg has chosen as deputy mayors two white men, including a wealthy $1-a-year appointee; one white woman; and one Latina. But Bloomberg also has an African-American well-known in political circles: Dennis Walcott, longtime head of the Urban League, whom he put in charge of schools and hospitals.

"Obviously we are drawing from all segments of society," Walcott said of the diversity goals. "There are ebbs and flows to it. So far it's been diverse in terms of race, ethnicity and income.

"We have officials working for $1 a year," he said. "We have others who were on welfare and have lived in housing developments. Diversity will always be key."

As for judging the results, "it's still too early to tell," Walcott said.

During the fall mayoral campaign, Bloomberg challenged the diversity of Democratic opponent Mark Green's top staff in the public advocate's office, at the same time selling himself as Giuliani's logical successor in white neighborhoods where the incumbent was popular.

In the election, Green got most of the black vote and Bloomberg most of the white vote; Latinos were almost evenly split.

Beyond ethnicity and gender, the biggest identifiable group on the level of city agency heads is former Giuliani appointees - and a partially overlapping cadre of former Ed Koch and David Dinkins appointees.