Don’t Fire the Watchdog

Mark Peters has been a surprisingly independent chief of the city Department of Investigation — surprising to us, and to Mayor de Blasio, since he’d been treasurer of de Blasio’s 2013 campaign. But if the mayor reacts to Peters’ recent power plays by firing him, it would be a mistake on a par with President Trump firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Yes, Peters may have overstepped his bounds. He recently absorbed three inspector general offices set up to monitor the NYPD, the School Construction Authority and the NYC Health + Hospitals Corp. — then moved to control the special commissioner of investigation for the public schools.

The NYPD monitor was created by the City Council, and while Peters reached out to council leaders before making that move, the takeover’s still remarkable.

Especially when he released a basically concluded IG report on the Special Victims Unit as if his own team had done the work.

Weirder still was Peters’ move to fire Special Schools Investigator Anastasia Coleman — just months after he hired her.

It seems he belatedly realized he wanted more oversight of the position, since under Richard Condon the agency did lots of investigations, but markedly few systemic ones.

But Peters also insisted that Coleman issue no independent subpoenas, a power her job clearly enjoys under the law. After she refused to yield her independence, he axed her.

So far, de Blasio has merely issued an executive order specifying that the DOI commissioner can only fire or hire the schools investigator with the mayor’s consent. But the mayor wouldn’t comment this week when asked about firing Peters, who has embarrassed him with hard-hitting reports on the Department of Correction, the Administration for Children’s Services and NYCHA, among others.

Peters’ record has won him support from the City Council, including strong praise from Investigations Committee chief Ritchie Torres for “investigating systemic failures in city government.”

This city’s vast government needs watchdogs as determined as Peters has proved. The mayor may hate hearing bad news, but shooting the messenger is a recipe for disaster.