On June 12th, in an interview Democratic candidate Comptroller John Liu made it clear that he would honor the previous "City pattern" for the teachers (UFT), supervisors (CSA), and nurses (NYSNA). The three unions that were shafted by Mayor Bloomberg. Mr. Liu is the only candidate to agree to give the "City pattern", two 4% raises to the three unions. Mr. Liu went on to say his previous statement that the retroactive raises would need to be negotiated on the City's financial condition was with regard to the retroactive 2011-12 contracts and not the 2009-10 contracts. In fact, Mr Liu has shown that he would review and rollback the more controversial aspects of Mayor Bloomberg's school policy.such as control of the PEP and changes to Mayoral control.
Mr Liu also took on the charter school movement by making those schools pay rent to City buildings and opposes co-locations. Mr Liu also showed his willingness to eliminate the phony school grades and his auditing of the useless "Children First Networks", that siphon money from the schools that they are supposed to serve.
It was Comptroller John Liu who exposed all the consultant corruption in the schools and the City that Bill Thompson failed to do. The big prize being the "CityTime payroll timekeeping project". Finally, John Liu has proven to be a friend of the New York City Public Schools by donating computers to a special education school in his district when the DOE refused and giving technology to a large high school that the DOE shortchanged. Mr. Liu has stated that he can save $15 billion by cutting unnecessary consultants and contracting that is a hallmark of the Bloomberg Administration. This would easily pay for union raises and increase the police force by 5,000.
Mr Liu has been endorsed by DC 37, Communication Workers of America, the Elecirical Workers and many other smaller unions. Therefore, the UFT should follow their lead and endorse Comptroller Liu for Mayor.
