Bill’s rage Thrives
Rips Stringer for slap at school psych-aid program
Apparently, the haters are still hating.
Mayor de Blasio ripped into one of the main critics of his wife’s pricey mental health program Thursday — accusing Controller Scott Stringer of getting his facts wrong.
Hizzoner was following up on First Lady Chirlane McCray’s remarks Wednesday dismissing scrutiny of the $1 billion program by saying “haters gonna hate.”
Asked if that was an appropriate response given Stringer’s finding that Thrive NYC had not yet identified metrics for tracking the success of 29 of its 41 programs, de Blasio tore into his fellow Democrat. “With all due respect to the controller, we consistently disagree with his analysis,” de Blasio said. “He’s often wrong about his facts.”
De Blasio then mounted a lengthy defense of Thrive — but never actually disputed Stringer’s finding that the city had not identified metrics for more than half of Thrive’s programs.
“Here’s the problem, guys, if everyone knew it worked already, we would have just reached on the shelf, taken out the handbook, and done that. Because there hasn’t been a mental health strategy, the only way to find out is to talk to the experts and try ideas that look promising and figure out what works and doesn’t work,” de Blasio said.
Stringer fired back — saying he’d continue to do his job scrutinizing the results of city initiatives de Blasio “has no interest in measuring.”
“I appreciate his travel schedule around the country, Iowa and New Hampshire and that ridiculous roadshow, but while he’s doing that, he has to remember that he has an obligation to monitor programs, monitor city agencies,” Stringer told reporters at City Hall.