In Washington, the corruption is being linked to the Bush Administration and the Republican Party. In New York, the corruption is led by the Democratic Political Machine. Corruption really has no affiliation, it's just everywhere there is money.

Former Queens Assemblyman and labor leader Brian McLaughlin allegedly fixed bids for streetlights. This huge story needs to be broadcast throughout the USA. Why? He is one of the most powerful labor leaders in America, and a confidante of New York Mayor Bloomberg as well as United Federation of Teachers' President Randi Weingarten. Are these two going to be brought in to this scandal? If not, why not? Oh, I see. Officials in the Bloomberg administration say Mayor Mike knew of the investigation but not what Mr. McLaughlin was being investigated for. I dont think so. And then there's Ed Ott, who was McLaughlin's Education Director and is , we believe, still close friends with Randi Weingarten. Let's see how many people say, in the next couple of weeks, what they didn't know and when they didn't know it. Mayor Bloomberg appointed Ott.
Betsy Combier

October 18, 2006
Labor Leader Accused of Taking $2.2 Million
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS and STEVEN GREENHOUSE, NY TIMES

Brian M. McLaughlin, a Queens assemblyman who as head of the nation’s biggest municipal labor council personified New York City’s politically powerful labor movement, was arrested yesterday on federal racketeering charges involving embezzlement, receiving bribes, fraud and money laundering. Conviction on all 43 charges could send him to prison for decades.

A 186-page indictment charges Mr. McLaughlin, 54, with illegally obtaining $2.2 million from taxpayers, labor unions and contractors over the last decade since he became president of the New York City Central Labor Council, a federation of 400 union locals with one million members.

The accusations range from the Dickensian (stealing $95,000 from Little League baseball teams to pay his rent) to the brazen (creating two no-show jobs on his legislative payroll and keeping part of one salary), according to the painstakingly detailed racketeering indictment unsealed yesterday.

Mr. McLaughlin surrendered early yesterday. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Federal District Court in Manhattan before Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV, and was released on $250,000 bail. His lawyer, Jonathan Bach, did not return a call for comment.

Law enforcement officials said that Mr. McLaughlin used subordinates as “personal servants,” to take his dog to the veterinarian, hang Christmas lights, trap rodents in his basement and clean out his barn.

He is also charged with making an aide use his E-ZPass at tollbooths to make it appear that he had returned home from Albany later than he really had, allowing him to bill for daily allowances given to legislators.

He is accused of using more than $330,000 from his re-election campaign funds to pay for personal expenses like a rehearsal dinner for his son’s wedding, renovation of his $760,000 house in Suffolk County near Long Island Sound, payment of his country club membership fees and the purchase and installation of a plasma television for a female friend.

He is charged with using stolen money for an $80,000 Mercedes-Benz for his wife, marina fees, school tuition for one of his children, rent payments on his Albany residence and rent payments on his Queens residence.

Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney for Manhattan, said the extent of the thefts was “stunning in its breadth and scope,” at a news conference yesterday announcing the indictment.

“This case lends a new meaning to the term ‘hand in the till,’ ” he said.

Asked why Mr. McLaughlin would go to so much trouble to steal money when he was making what many would consider much more than a decent living — $263,600 in combined salaries and expenses as an assemblyman and labor council president — Mr. Garcia said he could not offer any insight, except to say, “What we have here is really a story of greed.”

For more than a decade, Mr. McLaughlin was among the most influential labor leaders in New York City and in the state, providing pivotal early support for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s re-election and supporting the failed effort to build a football stadium on the Far West Side of Manhattan. He led the fight to keep Wal-Mart out of the city and lent strong support to transit workers during last year’s strike.

The investigation became public seven months ago when the F.B.I. raided Mr. McLaughlin’s offices.

Some labor experts said they were shocked by the scope of yesterday’s accusations, which could represent a huge embarrassment for organized labor and elected officials.

“If these charges prove true, it’s certainly a blot on the union movement, and whenever there’s a corruption case involving a high-profile union leader, it has to hurt that much worse,” said Joshua Freeman, a professor of labor history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Mr. McLaughlin, a Democrat, is the eighth state lawmaker accused of crimes in recent years. He announced in January that he would not run for an eighth Assembly term.

Republicans did not hesitate to capitalize on the indictment. “Today, New York’s Assembly Democrats continued their long tradition of corruption,” Stephen Minarik, chairman of the Republican State Committee, said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, would say only that the Assembly had cooperated with the inquiry.

Denis Hughes, president of the state A.F.L.-C.I.O. and chairman of the labor council’s executive board, responded to the indictment with a statement: “Everyone should keep in mind that Brian McLaughlin has not been convicted of a crime and will be afforded the opportunity to respond to and defend himself against these allegations.”

Although Mr. McLaughlin was credited with injecting a new dynamism into the labor movement as the labor council president, some union leaders criticized him as being too eager to please, and of doing too little to shake up the city’s sometimes slothful unions.

The indictment charges that Mr. McLaughlin took more than $140,000 from the street lights division of Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, for which he served as business representative. It also accuses him of taking $185,000 from the Central Labor Council, more than $35,000 from the State Assembly, and more than $330,000 from his own re-election committee. In addition, the indictment charges that he illegally received more than $1.4 million from street-lighting contractors and other companies and that the lighting contractors gave him three cars — one of which he gave to his son and another to a second woman with whom he had a close personal relationship.

The Little League program was run by the Electchester Athletic Association, which collected donations for children at a union-sponsored housing development in Queens.

Prosecutors said he installed an unnamed relative in a job as head of the Commission on the Dignity of Immigrants, and then demanded that the relative turn over his salary, a total of $55,000 over six months.

Mr. McLaughlin, who took a six-month leave of absence last month from the labor council, was a protégé of one of the city’s greatest labor leaders, Harry Van Arsdale Jr., who once headed the council and helped throw labor’s weight behind efforts to organize municipal and hospital workers. Mr. Van Arsdale was succeeded by his son, Thomas, and when Thomas Van Arsdale floundered, Mr. McLaughlin was elected, charged with re-energizing the council.

Like the Van Arsdales, Mr. McLaughlin came out of Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, long the most politically active building trades union in New York.

The 400 union locals in the labor council represent workers ranging from public school teachers to crane operators to employees at the Bronx Zoo. The council’s main responsibilities are coordinating the various unions’ political activities and placing labor’s overall weight behind individual unions during organizing drives and strikes.

Mr. McLaughlin could often be seen at street rallies, speaking in a strong, often bellowing voice to members of various unions involved in labor disputes, including curators at the Museum of Modern Art, secretaries at Barnard College, and janitors and doormen for the city’s office towers.

Michael Cooper contributed reporting.

October 19, 2006
Labor Council Leaders Pledge Reforms
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, NY Times

With the New York City Central Labor Council’s longtime president facing 43 federal racketeering charges, the leaders who have stepped in to oversee the organization pledged yesterday to make major changes in its ethics procedures and its role in helping New York workers.

Ed Ott, the council’s acting executive director, said the board of directors had been too passive and needed to be more involved in overseeing its leaders.

While mindful of the presumption of innocence, Mr. Ott said many labor leaders felt betrayed by Assemblyman Brian M. McLaughlin of Queens, the council’s president, who was indicted Tuesday on charges of obtaining $2.2 million through embezzlement, bribes and kickbacks. “I’m extraordinarily upset,” Mr. Ott said.

He said he planned to reach out to immigrant workers and to create a committee to help veterans. But he said the labor council, an umbrella group of 400 union locals representing one million workers, had a lot of repair work to do.

“It’s our responsibility to re-earn our credibility,” said Mr. Ott, who was the council’s political director under Mr. McLaughlin. “This is a collective responsibility and collective burden. I’ve always been willing to talk about corruption in the labor movement. We have to be held to a higher standard.”

Mr. McLaughlin is accused of misappropriating funds from the central labor council, the State Assembly, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, various political and campaign committees and a Little League association in Queens. He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday and is free on $250,000 bail. His lawyer, Jonathan P. Bach, did not return telephone calls yesterday.

Union leaders who had worked closely with Mr. McLaughlin said they were stunned by the breadth of the indictment.

“If Brian did what he’s accused of, it’s disgusting and we’ve all been betrayed,” said Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and a member of the labor council’s board. Denis Hughes, the chairman of the council’s executive committee and the president of the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O., has proposed far-reaching constitutional changes at the council to ensure more financial accountability and transparency.

“We also want to have some ethical practices and procedures that make some sense and have some real teeth,” said Mr. Hughes, who has pushed for ethics seminars for state and city union leaders.

Mr. Hughes declared that no future head of the labor council should simultaneously hold a political office. “This job requires full attention from that individual,” Mr. Hughes said. “You can’t have two full-time jobs and expect to get it done.”

He said the council needed a strategic plan. “We have to look at what exactly is our mission,” he said. “Our members are losing economic security. Many workers can’t afford to live in the five boroughs any more in ways we were able to a generation ago. We have to help fix our education system, supporting the needs of students as well as the teachers.”

Mr. McLaughlin began a six-month leave last month and Mr. Ott, 56, who has become the acting executive director, is now his probable successor. Mr. Ott began his career in labor in 1970 as a glassware washer at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, helping 1199, the hospital workers’ union, organize employees there. He said Mr. McLaughlin had helped revitalize the labor council, but he promised to do much more, planning to create a health and safety program and to train small unions on how to organize nonunion workers.

Mr. Ott vowed to work on reversing labor’s decline in membership. “There is not a culture of organizing at the center of the labor movement in New York City,” he said. “It’s left to individual unions. We have to get union leaders and union members thinking all the time about organizing.”

Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, said the council needed to form more alliances to help workers, perhaps with parents or immigrant groups. “No movement can operate as an island anymore,” she said. “We have to focus on what the labor movement is all about — working to make sure that the next generation of workers is better off than this generation.”

Mr. Appelbaum said labor should ally itself with groups like Make the Road by Walking, an immigrant advocacy group in Brooklyn, and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, which is pushing for economic development and improved housing.

“We can’t keep on going the way we’ve been going,” he said. “We have to find new ways to do things.”

October 17, 2006
Labor Leader Is Expected to Face U.S. Corruption Charges
By ANDY NEWMAN and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, NY TIMES

LINK

The union leader Brian M. McLaughlin, the head of the country’s largest municipal labor council and a powerful force in New York City politics for more than a decade, is expected to surrender on federal corruption charges today, two law enforcement officials said last night.

Mr. McLaughlin, 54, the president of the New York City Central Labor Council and a seven-term Democratic state assemblyman from Queens, has been under investigation in a possible scheme to rig bids on multimillion-dollar city contracts for streetlights, officials have said.

Investigators were also looking at whether he received improper payments from electrical contractors.

Details of the charges were unavailable last night, but an official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said that they would be announced at a news conference today.

Neither Mr. McLaughlin nor his lawyer could be reached by phone last night. Mr. McLaughlin has consistently denied wrongdoing.

The official said that Mr. McLaughlin would probably be the only person charged today but that the investigation, by the F.B.I., the federal Labor Department, the city’s Department of Investigation and the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, was continuing.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. and a spokeswoman for the United States attorney in Manhattan declined to comment last night.

Mr. McLaughlin’s group, which represents a million workers in 400 union locals, has been a prominent supporter of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, lending its weight both to Mr. Bloomberg’s re-election bid last year and to the mayor’s ill-fated plan for a football stadium on the West Side of Manhattan.

The F.B.I. raided Mr. McLaughlin’s union office in March, as well as his Assembly district office in Flushing. In August, Mr. McLaughlin went on paid leave from his union post, which he has held for 10 years. Although he had publicly entertained the notion of running for mayor himself not long ago, he announced in January that he would not run for re-election to the Assembly this year, in order to devote more time to the labor movement. Mr. McLaughlin, a former electrician, was also the longtime director of the street lamps division of the city’s main union of electrical workers.

In March, law enforcement officials said they were looking into whether Mr. McLaughlin played a role in a scheme in which contractors were thought to have divvied up the work of putting up traffic and street lights in the city. They also said that contractors may have given Mr. McLaughlin use of an American Express card.

The city’s streetlight contracts were bid on every three years, and each year the same companies won the contracts, law enforcement officials have said.

One firm alone, Petrocelli Electric Company, has been awarded more than $90 million of the $150 million the city has paid for new lights since 1999. Investigators have also raided Petrocelli’s headquarters.

A spokesman for Petrocelli Electric said in March that the company’s lawyers had been told by officials at the United States attorney’s office that neither the company or any of its officers or employees were under criminal investigation.

A telephone message seeking comment left with the company’s answering service late last night was not returned.

The inquiry into the streetlight contracts goes back to at least 2001, law enforcement officials have said.

After Mr. McLaughlin’s offices were raided in March, city officials acknowledged that Mr. Bloomberg knew Mr. McLaughlin was a target of an investigation even before the mayor accepted the labor council’s support, but said that he did not know the details of the investigation.

Mr. McLaughlin worked intensely with officials from more than a dozen unions to line up the council’s endorsement of Mr. Bloomberg.

A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg declined to comment last night on Mr. McLaughlin.

For years, Mr. McLaughlin led the annual Labor Day Parade and led the union campaign — successful so far — to keep Wal-Mart out of New York City.

He has been courted by business leaders, bishops and real estate developers and was a major figure in last year’s transit strike. Labor leaders said he restored the Central Labor Council’s influence and prestige after years of decline.

March 4, 2006
Mayor Knew of Investigation of Labor Leader
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, NY TIMES

Correction Appended

City officials acknowledged yesterday that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg knew of an inquiry involving Brian M. McLaughlin, a labor leader whose group gave important backing to the mayor's re-election campaign and vigorously supported the mayor's West Side stadium plan.

The officials said Mr. Bloomberg had learned early in his first term that Mr. McLaughlin and several electrical contractors were being investigated as part of an alleged scheme to rig bids for millions of dollars worth of city streetlight contracts.

The City Department of Investigation stressed that Mr. Bloomberg did not know specific details of the department's inquiry into Mr. McLaughlin.

"D.O.I. has a responsibility to tell him of such an investigation," the department said in a statement. "But D.O.I. has a responsibility not to disclose details."

Last year, Mr. McLaughlin, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, worked intensely with officials from more than a dozen unions to line up the council's endorsement of Mr. Bloomberg. A mayoral aide stressed that the endorsement came from the labor group itself, not Mr. McLaughlin personally.

The inquiry into Mr. McLaughlin, who is also a state assemblyman representing Queens, came to light on Thursday, when F.B.I. agents raided the labor council's offices as well as his assembly district office. On Thursday, city officials acknowledged that the city's own Department of Investigation had also been involved in the inquiry, raising questions about the mayor's political alliance with someone being investigated by a city agency. Mr. McLaughlin has insisted that he is not guilty.

Mr. McLaughlin, 53, is a formidable power as leader of a labor federation that includes 400 union locals and more than one million workers.

In recent years, he has been courted by not just the mayor, but also bishops, corporate C.E.O.'s and real estate magnates. He has also emerged as a major player in some of the biggest municipal battles of the last year, including the transit strike and the West Side stadium fight.

Law enforcement officials assert that Mr. McLaughlin is tied to allegations of rigged bids for street-lighting contracts. These officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, also said that they had evidence showing that electrical contractors had given him an American Express card and paid the card's bills.

"He fully denies any wrongdoing," said Carolyn Daly, a spokeswoman for Mr. McLaughlin. "He hasn't been charged with anything. He believes he will be fully vindicated.

"And remember," she continued, "this is a man who has a 20-year history of accomplishments."

As president of the largest municipal labor council in the country, Mr. McLaughlin leads the annual Labor Day Parade and has spearheaded the union campaign to keep Wal-Mart out of New York City. Not only did he line up his labor group's endorsement of Mayor Bloomberg, he has also worked closely with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York on programs to help immigrant workers.

Labor leaders credited him yesterday with reinvigorating the Central Labor Council in a city where unions were once far more powerful.

"Brian took over the Central Labor Council when it was at its lowest point in terms of power, prestige and stature and made it into an important institution again," said Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers. "One of his big strengths is that even if you're in a fight that's unpopular, he'll stand with you."

The F.B.I. raid casts an unwelcome spotlight on Mr. McLaughlin, who has made a remarkable rise from his start as an apprentice electrician. His father and grandfather were electricians before him. His grandfather was an immigrant from County Cavan, Ireland, and his father worked for years as chief electrician at The New York Times.

As an apprentice, Mr. McLaughlin stood out immediately — he was a burly 6-foot-4, and he often took unofficial charge of other young workers.

His second apprenticeship was with Harry Van Arsdale Jr., widely viewed as New York City's greatest local labor leader. Mr. Van Arsdale, president of the Central Labor Council in the 1960's and 70's, tutored Mr. McLaughlin on the ins and outs of labor politics and electoral politics.

In 1981, Mr. Van Arsdale gave the ambitious young electrician a huge responsibility — to organize the first Labor Day Parade in the city in decades.

"Brian was Harry's protégé," said Denis Hughes, president of the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O. and a friend of Mr. McLaughlin's since they were electrical apprentices together. "Brian is a natural leader. He has a knack for making people work comfortably together. He's a very personable guy."

Mr. McLaughlin, a Democrat, has been an assemblyman since 1993 and has headed the labor council since 1995.

Those two positions have given him a solid income. He received $167,627 in salary and expenses from his labor post, and his legislative job paid him $96,000.

In addition to the apartment he owns in Queens, he purchased a home for $760,000 in 2003 in Nissequogue, N.Y., not far from Long Island Sound. Property records also show that he bought a home in Melbourne Beach, Fla., for $81,000 in 1999.

Labor leaders yesterday came to Mr. McLaughlin's defense.

"I've been walking around all day stunned," Ms. Weingarten said. "It's like when you hear someone you're close to has suddenly died. But nobody wants to jump to any conclusions."

She said the F.B.I. might have conducted a spectacular raid largely to pressure Mr. McLaughlin and others to provide evidence against others.

Mr. Van Arsdale's son Thomas, who served as the labor council's president after his father died and before Mr. McLaughlin took the council helm, said, "Brian's been a credit to us and everyone who knows him every step of the way."

He added, "The people who know Brian certainly feel there has to be a mistake."

The Van Arsdales and Mr. McLaughlin all came out of Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

On Thursday, the F.B.I. also raided the offices of the Petrocelli Electric Company in Queens.

Law enforcement officials said that the city put out to bid contracts involving streetlights every three years and that the same contractors, including Petrocelli, repeatedly won the contracts.

Since 1999, the city has spent more than $150 million on traffic lights and street lamps, with Petrocelli receiving more than $90 million in such contracts, according to city records.

Steve Aiello, a spokesman for Petrocelli Electric, said yesterday that the company has done nothing wrong. He said a representative of the United States attorney's office has advised Petrocelli's lawyers that neither the company nor any of its officers or employees were the target of a criminal investigation.

"We have cooperated and will continue to cooperate with the F.B.I.'s investigation," he said.

Kevin Flynn, Winnie Hu and William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting for this article.

Correction: March 7, 2006

An article on Saturday about Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's knowledge of an investigation into Brian M. McLaughlin, a New York City labor leader and state assemblyman whose labor group backed the mayor's re-election campaign, referred incorrectly to the extent of that knowledge, according to the city's Department of Investigation. The department said Mr. Bloomberg was told only that Mr. McLaughlin was a target of the investigation; he was not told that the inquiry involved an alleged scheme by Mr. McLaughlin and several electrical contractors to rig bids for city streetlight contracts.

October 16, 2003
PUBLIC LIVES; A Labor Leader by Nature Tests His Political Muscle
By ROBIN FINN, NY TIMES

AS confirmed by a bone-bruising handshake, his brawny palms are bone dry: look, Ma, no nerves, not even when the badgering about running for mayor starts up. And though Brian M. McLaughlin politely permits an interlocutor to steer the conversation, his agenda is on the tip of his tongue -- the magic words being 'Labor for Democracy,' a euphemism for the highly organized backlash against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's hankering to vanquish party primaries with a charter referendum proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot.

He'd much rather ride herd on the current mayor than take his own temperature on the possibility of his becoming the next mayor. That's premature, he scolds affably, with a faint twinkle enlivening his bloodshot baby blues. But yes, he's already raised about $1 million in campaign fodder, just in case.

Even were Mr. McLaughlin, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, to get distracted from the agenda, the portrait above his desk of his mentor, Harry Van Arsdale Jr., the labor evangelist, would put him back on message in a heartbeat. It was Mr. Van Arsdale who convinced him that a job as a unionized electrician and a college degree weren't incompatible. No matter where he settles his ex-athlete's frame in his office off Union Square, Mr. Van Arsdale's motivational gaze follows him. Idealism incarnate. If Mr. McLaughlin, 51 and gray around the edges, is less idealistic, it's by necessity.

Politics ought not to be a beauty contest, Mr. McLaughlin, who is also a state assemblyman from Flushing, Queens, says sadly, or a contest where whoever can afford to flood the airwaves with the most spots wins. So much for vetting candidates; so much for accountability. 'If not the labor movement,' he intones, 'then who is going to stand up and speak out for the working people? Sure, I'm looking cynically at the mayor's proposal; this smells of politics. What's broken? What's he trying to fix? The medicine we're trying to give the patient is not what the doctor prescribed. It imperils democracy.'

If the goal of the charter revision is, he says, to pump up voter participation, then why not expand Election Day to a three-day event? Mr. McLaughlin, who's represented the 25th District since 1992, says he knows of children who didn't have time to vote for their own father when he ran for re-election. Uh oh, this sounds personal. Turns out that his oldest daughter -- his five offspring range from 3 to 30 -- was the guilty party. He understood it was a priorities thing: her job at the Gap won out. It's not for a labor leader to criticize anybody's abundance of work ethic.

Mr. McLaughlin cites another potential cure for voter apathy, this one straight from the mouths of nonvoting working stiffs: Stop making voter registration a conduit to jury duty rolls. 'It's like a poll tax,' he says.

The labor council's president since 1995 and a Democratic mayoral maybe for 2005, Mr. McLaughlin swears he entered politics quite by accident. 'I don't particularly like politics, and I have no ego for it, quite frankly,' he says. 'I guess all of us would say it's disproportionately influenced by money. But in the end, it's a process where you have a limited opportunity to champion and better the situation of the people who elected you. And if you don't have determination, it's an unfriendly process.'

He was drafted into running for Democratic district leader in 1986 with the Queens Democratic Party in disrepair after the suicide of Donald R. Manes; he won by 86 votes. Terrorized by flop sweat the first time he gave a union speech 30 years ago, he recalls that he was initially no prize as a third-generation union activist, either.

But Mr. McLaughlin, whose paternal grandfather, Miles, was a member of Mr. Van Arsdale's so-called Committee of 100, has slicked up his act in the interim. He earned a master's degree in industrial labor relations from the New York Institute of Technology. He honed what he calls 'leadership qualities' and collaborative instincts and is comfortable at the helm of an organization comprising 400 unions with a combined membership of 1.5 million workers, 100,000 of them added on his watch. On Oct. 4, as New York chairman of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, he presided over a rally of 100,000 immigrants and their supporters at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. He is adamant about upgrading the civil rights of some eight million workers who are in the country illegally: 'The labor movement is well placed to redefine itself around the needs of those who most need a labor union.'

HE was born in Inwood, Manhattan, and lived in Queens, and his family moved to Brentwood when he was 10. His father was an electrician; his mother worked for General Motors, and later for Gertz department stores. No one in the family had a college degree. In his high school yearbook, his career ambition was pragmatic: electrician. He dropped out of Bridgeport University and became an electrician, met Mr. Van Arsdale at a union meeting and was persuaded to attend night school.

Within 10 years, he traded his tools for a desk at the union. So far, he hasn't missed them. 'It's kind of like being a lawyer who doesn't give legal advice at home,' he says. 'I don't do too much around the house; you can interview Mrs. McLaughlin about that.'

From the Editor:
NYC's Education "Leaders" - remember their names. And then there's Ed Ott:

CLC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ED OTT APPOINTED TO MAYOR BLOOMBERG’S LONG-TERM PLANNING AND SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY BOARD

New Office and Advisory Board to Create Agenda to Make New York City an Environmental Leader and Guide City Efforts Towards Environmentally Sound Future

CLC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ED OTT APPOINTED TO MAYOR BLOOMBERG’S LONG-TERM PLANNING AND SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY BOARD


Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently announced the appointment of Ed Ott to a new Sustainability Advisory Board to advise the City on environmentally sound policies and practices. The Advisory Board is part of a series of initiatives to move forward the Administration’s plans to create an ambitious environmental agenda for New York City and its municipal government. The key components of the plan include the Advisory Board, the creation of the Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability within the Mayor’s Office of Operations; the undertaking of a major greenhouse gas inventory for City government and the City overall.

“I am very honored to be a part of this important Board and look forward to working with the Bloomberg Administration towards a sustainable New York City,” said Ed Ott. “Sustainability represents a significant economic opportunity for New York City. Together with environmental, government, labor and business leaders, the Mayor’s office is engaging in a real long term planning process that will ensure New York City continues to lead the way in green business and development while creating jobs and increased industry for our working citizens.”

“Sustainability is all about ensuring that economic growth and development today is compatible with the ability of our children and grandchildren to meet their needs in the future,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “To that end, in May I made a pledge to the New York League of Conservation Voters to establish the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, and create an advisory board comprised of New York’s leading experts, activists, and businesspeople in this field to set goals, and create an advisory board comprised of New York’s leading experts, activists, and businesspeople in this field to set goals, and help shape and guide the City’s sustainability agenda. Together, we intend to make New York City a national leader in meeting the challenge of making ours an environmentally sustainable city.”

Bloomberg's Press Release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 335-06
September 21, 2006

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES CREATION OF OFFICE OF LONG-TERM PLANNING AND SUSTAINABILITY

New Office and Advisory Board to Create Agenda to Make New York City an Environmental Leader and Guide City Efforts Towards Environmentally Sound Future
LINK

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced a series of initiatives to move forward the Administration’s plans to create an ambitious environmental agenda for New York City and its municipal government. The key components of the plan include the creation of the Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability within the Mayor’s Office of Operations; the undertaking of a major greenhouse gas inventory for City government and the City overall; the appointment of a Sustainability Advisory Board to advise the City on environmentally sound policies and practices; that Douglas I. Foy, former Massachusetts Secretary for Commonwealth Development, will serve as a special advisor on sustainability; and the creation of a new partnership with the Earth Institute of Columbia University to provide the City with scientific research and advice on environmental and climate change-related issues.

The announcement took place during a visit with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to Bloom Energy in Sunnyvale, California, where the Mayor and Governor talked about the State of California’s groundbreaking sustainability initiatives. Prior to the announcement, the Mayor and Governor toured the facility, which manufactures fuel cells that generate power by converting hydrogen into electricity and produce only water as exhaust.

“Sustainability is all about ensuring that economic growth and development today is compatible with the ability of our children and grandchildren to meet their needs in the future,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “To that end, in May I made a pledge to the New York League of Conservation Voters to establish the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, and create an advisory board comprised of New York’s leading experts, activists, and businesspeople in this field to set goals, and help shape and guide the City’s sustainability agenda.

“Like California, New York City has a long tradition of leadership in environmental protection - from creating the largest municipal park system in the nation, to pioneering water conservation, to banning second-hand smoke in public places. Now, we intend to make New York City a national leader in meeting the challenge of making ours an environmentally sustainable city. To make New York a truly sustainable city, we need a bold plan to use our land in the smartest way possible – not only by developing areas ripe for growth, but also by cleaning up brownfields so that no piece of New York City is too contaminated to be used for employment, housing, or recreation. The water along our shoreline is cleaner than it has been in generations – but we want it cleaner still, so that we can fish, swim, and enjoy the rivers that have always been the City’s most distinctive feature. We’ve made great strides in cleaning up our air but we still have too much pollution. And the constant threat of global warming means that we have to think about the urban heat island effect that makes our summer days even hotter than the greener areas around our City.”

The Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability is led by Director Rohit T. Aggarwala – within the Mayor’s Office of Operations, headed by Director Jeffrey A. Kay – and the Office’s mission is three-fold: to help develop a plan for the City’s long-term growth and development, as the Mayor announced in his State of the City address; to integrate sustainability goals and practices into every aspect of that plan; and to make New York City government a “green” organization. In addition, on an on-going basis, the Office will coordinate the City’s various efforts that contribute to a cleaner environment and make more efficient use of our resources. Finally, once a long-term sustainability plan is established, the Office will be responsible for tracking, measuring, and reporting the City’s performance against the targets set in the plan.

As a first step, the City has been undertaking a greenhouse gas inventory to measure the total climate change impact of the municipal government’s operations since a key element in achieving sustainability is reducing the volume of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we discharge into the air. The inventory seeks to measure the carbon emissions from all City government operations – from electricity consumption in City buildings to the tailpipe exhaust of City-owned ambulances – and the results will be released this Fall. Further, the Mayor announced the launch of an unprecedented effort to measure the entire carbon emissions of throughout the City. This much broader effort, with a target completion date within six months, will give us the first picture of the total carbon impact of everyone who lives in, works in, or visits New York City.

The Sustainability Advisory Board will be chaired by Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding Daniel L. Doctoroff, and its kick-off meeting will take place on Wednesday, September 27th. The objectives of the Sustainability Advisory Board will be to assist the new Office in identifying the highest-priority issues the new sustainability agenda should address; setting the targets the City should aim to achieve; and choosing the best methods of achieving those goals. The members of the Sustainability Advisory Board are:

Christine Quinn Speaker of the New York City Council
James F. Gennaro Council Member and Chair of the Committee on Environmental Protection
Carlton Brown COO and Founder, Full Spectrum
Marcia Bystryn Executive Director, New York League of Conservation Voters
Robert Fox Partner, Cook + Fox Architects
Ester Fuchs Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at the Columbia University
School of International and Public Affairs
Peter Goldmark NYC Environmental Defense
Ashok Gupta Program Director of Air and Energy, Natural Resources Defense Council
Michael Northrop Program Officer of Sustainable Development, Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Ed Ott Executive Director, NYC Central Labor Council
Elizabeth Girardi Schoen Senior Director of Environmental Affairs, Pfizer, Inc.
Peggy Sheppard Executive and Co-Founder, West Harlem Environmental Action Coalition (WE
ACT)
Daniel Tishman Chairman and CEO, Tishman Construction Corporation
Kathryn Wylde President and CEO, Partnership for New York City
Robert Yaro President, Regional Plan Association
Elizabeth Yeampierre Executive Director, UPROSE

“I am very pleased to see that the Mayor has made such a strong commitment to developing a sustainability plan for New York,” said Bystryn. “We were enthusiastic about the Mayor’s announcement at our dinner in May, and we are even more enthusiastic to see it come to reality. I look forward to being part of the Board and working with the new Office towards a sustainable New York City.”

Reflecting the City Council’s role in setting the City’s sustainability agenda, the Board’s membership includes both New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member James F. Gennaro, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection, who had currently been working on a bill to address the issue. Last year, the Mayor and the City Council worked in partnership to develop Local Law 86 – which established “green building” practices for municipal construction. This year, the Mayor and Council worked to pass a landmark, 20-year Solid Waste Management Plan that will improve the environment by switching solid waste export from trucks to barge and rail transportation, increasing recycling and reducing waste and pollution.

“Together with environmental and business leaders, the Council and the Mayor’s office are engaging in a real long term planning process that will ensure New York City continues to lead the way in green business and development,” said City Council Speaker Quinn. “Following Council Member Gennaro’s leadership, we will work to make this office relevant and permanent. We are committed to taking real steps that will lead to a protected environment, a stronger economy, and a better City overall.”

“The New York City Council has passed a host of progressive legislation that has helped move the City towards environmental sustainability,” said Council Member Gennaro. “Speaker Quinn and I are delighted to be working with the Bloomberg Administration and the Sustainability Advisory Board in this extraordinary effort to create an environmentally sustainable City for successive generations of New Yorkers. Mayor Bloomberg is to be congratulated for his deep commitment to this vital issue.”

During his visit to California, the Mayor also announced that Douglas I. Foy, formerly Massachusetts Secretary for Commonwealth Development and, prior to that, president of the Conservation Law Foundation, has agreed to advise the City on sustainability issues. Foy brings to the effort the unique perspective of someone who has worked in government with a portfolio that explicitly included economic development and environmental stewardship. His advice will ensure that New York’s sustainability agenda is at once ambitious and pragmatic.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to this monumental and crucial effort,” said Foy. “New York City has the capacity to play a leading role in the global effort to prevent climate change. The City is already a model of urban sustainability nationally and can become an international model of a low carbon city.”

Finally, the Mayor also announced an agreement with the Earth Institute at Columbia University to work with the new Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability as scientific advisors. The Earth Institute will provide pro bono academic and scientific expertise to the Office and participate in Advisory Board discussions. The scholars of the Earth Institute will help the new Office ensure that the City’s sustainability agenda is grounded in hard science, and informed by the most up-to-date research on climate change, environmental impacts, and the health impacts of the environment being done in New York City and around the world.

“Columbia University is delighted to support Mayor Bloomberg in this important effort,” said Sachs. “The Earth Institute looks forward to working with the Mayor’s Office to provide the academic and scientific expertise necessary to build a solid foundation for New York’s sustainability agenda.”

“New York’s premier global university is home to an unparalleled collection of scientists, health experts, planners, and thinkers who can provide the solid scientific advice on which any responsible sustainability plan must be based,” concluded Mayor Bloomberg. “I thank Doug Foy, Columbia University and Jeffrey Sachs, the Director of the Earth Institute, for their willingness to support the City’s efforts in this way.”

Who is Ed Ott?

October 27, 2006
Public Lives
The Accidental Union Boss
By ROBIN FINN, NY TIMES

LINK

AS it was a federal indictment bloated with racketeering charges, not retirement, that precipitated the departure of the suave old boss, perhaps it is understandable that the blunt-spoken new one, Ed Ott, interim executive director of the shellshocked New York City Central Labor Council, is not exactly in his element in the expansive, expensively outfitted office involuntarily bequeathed to him by Brian M. McLaughlin.

“I’ve been in the union business 37 years, and I don’t want to go out tarnished,” says Mr. Ott. “Everything I’ve ever learned, I learned from the labor movement. I still have a passion for the work we do. And I still see unions as a vehicle for progress.” If the council’s reconstruction goes as planned, Mr. McLaughlin, also a Queens assemblyman, will be replaced as president by a leader from one of the council’s member unions. Mr. Ott will remove “interim” from his title.

Damage control is a growth industry that Mr. Ott, who prefers city concrete to the home in Montclair, N.J., where he and his wife raised two sons, hadn’t dabbled in until Mr. McLaughlin’s ugly exit. Feeling abandoned by a man he looked to as a leader hadn’t happened since he was a child in the Bronx: his father walked out on the family. Call him hurt and infuriated both times around. Mr. Ott, whose mother was a hospital health care worker, labels himself a “chump” and an “idiot” for not suspecting anything was amiss here at 31 West 15th Street. Then again, nobody did.

Mr. Ott remains dumbfounded that his boss of 10 years, a boss “who could never be accused of sloth among the seven deadly sins,” is charged with picking the pocket of his own union, among many others. He didn’t like thieves: “If you took a pen off his desk, he’d look at you funny for the rest of your life,” he says.

With 400 union locals and a membership of one million workers to answer to, Mr. Ott’s first order of business is to make amends to the folks whose union dues give the council its policy-making leverage. “Labor at its deepest core is an antipoverty movement,” he says, “and I still believe we are the most effective antipoverty program this country has. We believe that the benefits of working go beyond the paycheck,” he says. “Like it or not, organized labor is specifically a creation of capitalism. It’s capitalism that knows how to make them, move them, and build them, but the problem with capitalists is that sometimes they’re greedy, so you’ve got to watch them. Just like you’ve got to watch labor leaders.” Ahem.

MEET the ruddy-faced, pugnaciously articulate new boss, a short, graying, mustachioed guy who blithely describes himself as vain (“I want to be a good-looking corpse”), mildly regrets dropping out of college for union organizing, and pigeon-holes his political proclivities in an unorthodox way. “I consider myself to be a worker-intellectual, a Left Social Democrat with Conservative leanings. I would never describe myself as a Republican or a Democrat.” He’s definitely not on the same wavelength as his former boss.

For starters, “I’ve got a clear conscience,” says Mr. Ott. “If even 10 percent of what the indictment says about him is correct, it’s terrible. This council is the victim of a crime. He’s destroyed our credibility.”

In late August, Mr. McLaughlin requested and received a six-month paid leave of absence from the council’s board to attend to his legal difficulties, a leave angrily retracted six weeks later when the severity of the indictment sank in: 43 racketeering charges that accuse him of padding his personal coffers with $2.2 million obtained through embezzlement, bribes and kickbacks. So Mr. Ott, a passionate union strategist wooed and recruited by Mr. McLaughlin to be the council’s public policy director in 1996, finds himself in charge for the foreseeable future. The job fits him even if the office furniture does not.

“That big leather chair doesn’t work for me,” says Mr. Ott, on the small end of the stature stakes at 5-foot-6, about the green leather armchair with hobnail trim where Mr. McLaughlin once sat. “And a smaller desk would be fine. This is a very fancy room; nice, but fancy. Those yellow walls don’t do it for me.” When it is pointed out that the faux-finish walls, which he has camouflaged with black-and-white photographs of union laborers, are actually a mellow shade of gold, Mr. Ott is not mollified.

He hates gold; just check out his jewelry (some is as old as his union career). Sure enough, the bracelets jangling on his wrists, and the setting for the hefty hematite ring he bought in Woodstock (he was a ’60s flower child of sorts, and antiwar despite a soul-searching stint with the Army National Guard), are sterling silver.

“I’ve had this thing about gold ever since I read somewhere as a kid that gold is for materialists and silver is for the spiritual,” he says. “I like to think I’ve got some spirituality in me.”

The only holdover from Mr. McLaughlin’s decor is the portrait of his mentor, the labor leader Harry Van Arsdale Jr., that was positioned behind the gigantic desk so that it hung above Mr. McLaughlin’s head like a halo. Mr. Ott moved the portrait to the opposite wall. “If anybody’s spinning in his grave about what’s happened around here, it’s him.”