Bloomberg gives his campaign helpers lots of extra jingleNo knock on Bloomberg for this story, those folks created an enormous mandate in an election that could just as easily have seen unparalleled voter apathy.
BY DAN JANISON
STAFF WRITER
December 31, 2005
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is spreading lots of holiday cheer among his inner circle this year, handing out bonuses of up to $400,000 from his personal funds to top campaign staff.
Kevin Sheekey got the largest holiday present - $400,000 for managing the effort, while Patricia Harris, Bloomberg's longtime deputy, got $350,000, according to Bloomberg sources. She joined the campaign later in the season.
Both, who have served stints on Bloomberg's public payroll, will hold the rank of deputy mayor in the new administration. As a current deputy mayor, Harris, who took leave to join the campaign in the summer, has been paid just over $180,000 annually by the city. Sheekey is expected to be paid that rate when he becomes the new deputy mayor for intergovernmental affairs next week.
A whopping $1.55 million in bonus checks was mailed out Friday, the sources said.
Still, you wonder how this plays with the unions that Bloomberg has had to and will have to deal with over the next four years. For example, the firefighters union went three years without a contract, which they have just ratified, with ten months' left to go on it.
Think they're connecting the dots...Bloomberg hands out (admittedly his personal funds) millions for overachieving, but makes us snuffle for the scraps off the city's dining table...and then calls us "thuggish" to boot.
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