Mallio flubs facts of city
Muddled on min wage, cop-shoot probes
REPUBLICAN mayoral contender Nicole Malliotakis says she’ll be a better manager than Mayor de Blasio — but she was fuzzy on the details of the minimum wage and police-involved shooting investigations Monday.
Both issues are important to the city — but were actually decided in Albany, where Malliotakis has served in the Assembly for nearly seven years.
In an interview with the Daily News Editorial Board, Malliotakis explained her vote against a 2012 minimum wage hike, saying she opposed tying the figure to the Consumer Price Index.
Asked what the minimum wage was, Malliotakis said: “It’s about like, $11.50, or something.”
The current minimum wage in New York City is actually $11 for businesses with 11 or more employees, and $10.50 for businesses with 10 or fewer workers.
The minimum wage schedules were passed as part of the 2016-17 state budget, which Malliotakis would have voted on as a member of the Assembly.
She also flubbed the current procedure for dealing with police shootings of unarmed individuals in the state.
Asked whether she supported having state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman investigate such cases around the city, Malliotakis said local district attorneys could handle them.
“I think that’s something, that is really something that should be thoroughly debated in Albany,” she said. “It shouldn’t just be my decision.”
It was Gov. Cuomo’s decision, however. He issued an executive order in July 2015 giving Schneiderman the ability to investigate those cases, after family members of people slain by police and others argued there’s a conflict in having DAs who work closely with police investigate them.
Malliotakis seemed unaware of that executive order.
“Right now it goes to the district attorney,” she said, “and then they can either recuse themselves and then maybe the AG steps in.”
Malliotakis also stressed the need for better management in City Hall, and said if elected mayor, she would fight for a better quality of life.
Asked about having voted for Donald Trump for President — which the mayor has used against her — Malliotakis said she now has “mixed feelings.”
Malliotakis, who chaired Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s New York campaign, said in retrospect, “I’d write in Marco Rubio so that I could tell you I voted Marco Rubio.”