Jul 3, 2009 4:28 pm US/Eastern
NY Senate, Paterson Fail To End Standoff
ALBANY (CBS) ―
Battling leaders of New York's Senate who met with Gov. David Paterson say there is no power-sharing agreement to end a standoff over control of the chamber.
After Friday's one-hour, closed door meeting the Senate remains gridlocked after a June 8 coup by a Republican-dominated coalition over the Democratic conference.
The Senate is now evenly split after one of the dissidents defected back to the Democratic conference. Action on critical bills has been stymied for weeks.
Up for grabs weren't just lucrative chairmanships and the distribution of resources and staff, but power to put their ideology into policy and law. Despite ridicule and condemnation by pundits, lawmakers defend the fight for control as their responsibility to their constituents.
Meanwhile, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took over as ringmaster of the Albany circus on Wednesday, cracking the whip to make sure the political chaos didn't cripple education in New York City.
The mayor told CBS 2HD he hopes the Legislature returns to sanity, soon.
Senate Democrats may have thought they were dealing Bloomberg a blow by allowing his precious school governance law to expire at midnight Tuesday. But the mayor demonstrated that he can lead while they can't. He quickly established a new Board of Education packed with people who support him, including three deputy mayors.
In effect, he's still running the schools.
Deputy Mayor Dennis Wolcott, who was actually named to the panel by Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, was elected board president.
"Since the Senate refused to exercise its duties responsibly we here in the city are moving to protect our children. We'll do our best to keep them from becoming victims of the Albany train wreck," Bloomberg said.
The new board picked Schools Chancellor Joel Klein as the "new" chancellor and demanded that Albany pass a mayoral control bill. The mayor lambasted the do-nothing Senate.
"The current paralysis in Albany is making the New York State government a laughingstock from coast to coast," Bloomberg said.
The next meeting of the Board of Education was not until Sept. 10.
Officials hoped that by then Albany will have gotten its act together and passed mayoral control.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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