Viv’s ‘secret-vote’ plot ‘shocks’ judge
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is accused of making a power grab that even a Manhattan judge said he found “shocking’’ on Monday.
Manhattan Democratic Party leader Keith Wright is suing political rival Mark-Viverito in state Supreme Court, claiming she is trying to usurp years of tradition to appoint her pal to a major patronage post instead of allowing Wright to lead the selection.
The job — Manhattan commissioner of the city’s Board of Elections — oversees the appointment of more than 100 workers, and helps determine who gets on the ballot in primaries.
The board has 10 commissioners, two from each borough.
Mark-Viverito is so desperate to have her buddy Andy Praschak get the post — ensuring she remains a Democratic power broker when her council tenure ends — that she planned to hold an illegal secret council vote Tuesday afternoon to make sure she gets her way, argued Wright’s lawyer, Arthur Schwartz, in court.
Justice Alexander Tisch admitted he was stunned.
“I find it shocking that the council was going to move on this appointment without any sort of notice to the public,” Tisch said.
“I was searching through the council Web site to find out where this was noticed, where the public would have an opportunity to say, ‘Oh, gee, I might want to go to that meeting,’ ” Tisch said, noting that he didn’t see any such posting. “This is all being done in secret.”
Under the state’s Open Meetings Law, notice of the City Council actions is required one week before they occur.
Mark-Viverito’s lawyer, Stephen Kitzinger, didn’t deny the planned council huddle — but told the judge to butt out because it hadn’t even been held yet.
“You cannot have a violation of the Open Meetings Law where no action is taken,” Kitzinger said. “This court should not be asserting itself in the legislative process with a hypothetical meeting.”
By longstanding custom, the county party, led by Harlem Assemblyman Wright, nominates the commissioner and then the City Council rubber-stamps that choice with a vote.
But this year, the council rebuffed Wright’s selection of his staffer, Jeanine Johnson, who took a plea deal over drunken-driving charges last year. The council also snubbed Wright’s second pick, lawyer Sylvia DiPietro.
Tisch noted that this case would be precedent-setting.
The judge said he would issue a ruling Tuesday morning.