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Bloomberg Must Release Likely Embarrassing Cathie Black E-Mails
By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 8, 2013
Modified Feb 8, 2013
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 8, 2013
Modified Feb 8, 2013
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The handling of the Blizzard of 2010 remains one of the bigger blemishes on Mayor Bloomberg's career, but it isn't the only one. And today, with snow on the way, it seems like some of his "greatest" hits are coming out of the woodwork. Not only did his embarrassing pick for Deputy Mayor, Stephen Goldsmith, pop back into the news—but thanks to a court decision, we also get to remember just what a disaster Bloomberg's selection of Cathie Black to run the Department of Education was. Yesterday, a court ruled that the Bloomberg administration must release the contents of redacted e-mails between the mayor's office and Black.
The city has been actively fighting to keep the e-mails, covering the span of time leading up to Black's appointment, away from the public despite repeated rulings telling them to turn them over. The City Law Department had previously argued that the e-mails were exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Law and still appears to believe that to be the case. According to a spokesman, "The City believes that releasing communications sent before an appointee takes public office can discourage public service. We are still reviewing our potential next steps."
The e-mails were initially FOILed by former Voice reporter Sergio Hernandez and, while the exact contents of the e-mails are obviously unknown, he believes they "will reveal public-relations strategy over Black’s controversial appointment, given that she had no background in education." Considering just how bad Black's 95-day tenure atop the Department of Education was (see this, this and this for a quick refresher) we suspect that communications with her before she even started the gig could be really interesting.
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