The Point: Turning the page
Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, left, Budget Director Mark Page and New York Jets president Jay Cross answer questions from city council members about the proposed West Side stadium during a hearing at City Hall on Feb. 7, 2005. Credit: Jori Klein
Daily Point
Page made his mark
Nassau Deputy County Executive Mark Page, a bit of a municipal budgeting legend, retired on Jan. 1. Page came to Nassau to work for County Executive Laura Curran after he served in New York City’s Office of Management and Budget for 35 years, the final 13 as director.
Curran said Page’s experience, knowledge and insight “assisted my administration in delivering a bare bones, no property-tax increase budget” and credited him with being at the forefront of her “efforts to reform the costly and corrupted assessment roll.”
Page, an attorney and a numbers man, will be replaced by his top deputy, Raymond Orlando, who also worked with Page at NYC OMB and was chief financial officer of the New York City Department of Education.
It’s a tough time to lose a top hand, as the county still faces budget challenges and needs to negotiate new contracts with all five of its unions, then find a way to pay for them. Curran is also set to face a raft of difficulties with the new property-tax assessments, set to be mailed Wednesday, even under the best-case scenario.
Several county officials said they pushed hard to keep Page, 70, on board before accepting that his mind was made up.
Lane Filler
Talking Point
Bench building
Elizabeth Warren officially announced her presidential exploratory committee this week. But the Massachusetts senator has for months been working on her national network, cultivating down-ballot Democrats including on Long Island.
Warren was “incredibly supportive,” says Liuba Grechen Shirley, who lost to Rep. Peter King in the 2nd Congressional District race last year. The U.S. senator endorsed and sent fundraising emails for Grechen Shirley, but also reached out personally.
In an early phone conversation during a hectic day of childcare issues, Grechen Shirley says Warren told her that “we moms, when we run out of milk, we make breakfast with orange juice.”
One of Grechen Shirley’s campaign volunteers, 21-year-old Maddy Bowen, died of cancer in October during the campaign. Bowen had been inspired by Warren and when she went into the hospital, Grechen Shirley’s campaign asked Warren whether she would call Bowen. Warren did, within hours, says Grechen Shirley.
Rep. Lee Zeldin’s Democratic opponent, Perry Gershon, also was endorsed by Warren, got fundraising help, and talked to her by phone, Gershon told The Point Wednesday.
These were small portions of Warren’s national effort known internally as “the Democratic Outreach Team,” according to The Washington Post.
It’s the kind of role typically played by party leaders, to benefit both the leaders and the party.
Grechen Shirley says she is “excited” about Warren’s run. “She knows how important it is to build a bench.”
Mark Chiusano
Pencil Point
A clean slate?
Michael P. Ramirez
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Quick Points
Scathing commentary
- Before taking the oath of office as a new senator from Utah, Mitt Romney wrote in an op-ed that President Donald Trump “has not risen to the mantle of the office.” Romney also wrote that he would not comment on every Trump tweet, but that he will speak out against statements or actions that are “divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions.” Umm, Mitt, how many Trump tweets does that exclude?
- President Donald Trump tweeted that anyone other than him who did what he did in Syria would be a national hero. But anyone other than him who did a lot of other things he’s done would not be president.
- President Donald Trump started 2019 with a tweet telling Americans to “JUST CALM DOWN AND ENJOY THE RIDE.” Was he referring to the amazing journey of the New Horizons spacecraft that now is more than 4 billion miles from Earth, or his own lengthy tweetstorm that quickly followed?
- Brooklyn State Sen. Simcha Felder has often said he’ll caucus with whatever party offers him the best chance to do the most for his constituents. Now Republicans he sat with for several years, giving them a narrow majority, are firmly out of power, and his fellow Democrats won’t welcome him back into the fold. Sometimes, life is rich.
Michael Dobie
