Crain’s Indiser – Thursday, June 30, 2011

Crain’s Insider

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Today’s News Thursday, June 30, 2011

Ulrich A No-Show

Although he was invited, Eric Ulrich was not among the half-dozen or so prospective candidates vying for Anthony Weiner’s former House seat who met with Queens and Brooklyn Republican leaders yesterday. Some party insiders now speculate that the 26-year-old councilman won’t run. “He’s just stirring the pot,” said one insider. “It’s tiresome.” Ulrich did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Brain-Scan Funding Cut

The City Council did not allocate funds in the new city budget for the Brain Tumor Foundation to conduct brain scans of New Yorkers. Money from council members helped pay for the foundation’s $1.2 million scannermobile, a 70-foot trailer with an MRI unit that visits the districts of members who fund it. The foundation has conducted more than 2,000 free scans, on the premise that early detection saves lives. But the website for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke says, “Early treatment for many types of brain tumors does not improve quality or prolong length of life.” One primary care physician said, “It is breathtakingly stupid to imagine that screening the general population will improve health.”

Reformers Eye Open Seat

Brooklyn’s reform Democrats are fielding a candidate to succeed Assemblyman Darryl Towns, who joined the Cuomo administration. District leader Lincoln Restler will host a fundraiser tonight for Jesus Gonzalez, a community organizer running against both Towns’ sister, Deidra, and Rafael Espinal, the chief of staff to City Councilman Erik Dilan. “We are standing up to the Brooklyn Democratic machine and fighting their attempt to coronate the new Assembly member,” said Restler. The district includes parts of Bed-Stuy, Bushwick and East New York. Efforts to tout a newcomer might not be enough to outmaneuver party boss Vito Lopez, who is backing Espinal. “This is turf that Vito knows house by house, block by block,” an insider said.

Money Time

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., who spent years as an investment banker and director of nonprofit housing in Manhattan, is scrambling to raise enough money to ward off a Republican challenger in his Greenwich district. “If we have the early resources, and show that self-funders and Tea Party crashers are not what we need here, we may be able to avoid an aggressive challenger next fall,” he e-mailed supporters this week. Republicans held the seat for years before Himes won in 2008. Federal campaign contributions made through tonight are reportable in the next disclosure filing.

CityTime contractors are now city employees

Comptroller John Liu has used the CityTime scandal to criticize Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s use of outside consultants—several of whom have been charged with defrauding the city—and to push for increased use of city employees.

While the lead CityTime contractor, Science Applications International Corp., ends its involvement with the project today, some SAIC consultants who worked on the timekeeping system have been hired by the city to maintain it, an insider said.

A spokesman for the mayor said there were “probably” former SAIC consultants now working as city employees, but he could not say how many. A spokeswoman for Liu said that anyone working on the CityTime project would be “subject to extensive background checks conducted by an independent third party.”

That policy is not new. The Office of Payroll Administration and SAIC have been required since 2005 to conduct background checks on consultants for the CityTime payroll project. The checks did not prevent fraud from permeating the project, as prosecutors allege.

The use of a contractor to build the system has always meant that a transition period would be needed so that city employees can learn how to run it. It costs about $3.8 million a month to have consultants maintain the system.

The city believes that it can knock that number down to $2 million starting tomorrow, when 71 consultants will be dropped. The city will retain 83. It’s unclear how many it has hired as permanent employees. What is certain is that the city’s relationship with SAIC is over, the insider said.

SAIC did deliver on its April 2010 goal of having 167,000 city employees clocking in through CityTime by the end of June 2011. The comptroller, who last September said SAIC would face penalties if it missed that deadline, patted himself on the back in a statement yesterday for achieving “rapid completion of the project.”

Liu also won favor from unionized workers who dislike biometrics. He got the Bloomberg administration to agree to install other technology so that 20,000 workers would not have to use palm scanners. The cost to taxpayers: $1.65 million.

At A Glance

MOVING IN:  Chad Marlow, founder of lobby shop Public Advocacy Group, will start July 11 as the first senior legal policy counsel of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He will help develop, promote and defend the city’s new health policies.

CORRECTION:  Wednesday’s Insider  misstated the work force reduction that the city’s fiscal 2012 budget is expected to achieve. It is 3.7%.