FED UP WITH TEAM BLAS
New Web czar quits, rips ‘political hacks’
Mayor de Blasio’s new social-media director couldn’t stomach the gig after only eight weeks — writing in a scathing Facebook post that he can’t work with “political hacks” and “a boss who just couldn’t get it.”
Scott Kleinberg, hired from the Chicago Tribune on May 3 to give Hizzoner a p.r. boost, ran for the exit door over the weekend when he abruptly announced he had to go to maintain his “sanity.”
“Well, that was fast. I moved to NYC for a dream job, and that’s not what I got. I tried to stick it out, but it was impossible. I don’t even know the word quit, but for the sake of my health and my sanity, I decided I needed to do just that,” he explained on the social-media site.
“I ended up with political hacks, plus a boss who just couldn’t get it. It was a bad combination for sure,” he wrote about life with Team de Blasio.
Dozens of supporters flooded his Facebook feed with words of encouragement plus derision for the administration, whose fund-raising is the focus of federal and state corruption probes and has been at the center of a number of fiascoes.
“I’m sure it’s impossible for someone of your caliber with your work ethic and honesty to survive in a sea of cut-throat political hacks,” wrote a pal, Jack Yoset of Georgia. “I know you will land squarely on your feet.”
Kleinberg said the hours and constant interference made it impossible to remain at City Hall.
“No one should have to go to bed every day with pains in their chest, and no one should have to work 13 hours a day week after week plus weekends,” he wrote.
“And when someone offers you a job and then takes pieces of it away so it’s no longer the job that you were offered, it’s time to pack it in and find something else. I haven’t slept more than 3 hours a night — 4 if I’m lucky — in at least a month.” The social-media maven — whose LinkedIn page contains glowing testimonial after testimonial — said he couldn’t even post on his personal accounts online unless the content was approved by his paranoid superiors.
“I couldn’t post anything without getting it approved. Crazy but true,” he said. “Just one of the many things wrong with everything.”
Kleinberg, who declined to comment when reached by The Post, removed his post late Wednesday.
In response to Kleinberg’s cri- tique, the mayor’s office suggested he was not up to the “fast-paced job” — as if Chicago were Podunk.
“New York City government is a tough, fast-paced job that is not for everyone,” sniffed City Hall spokeswoman Andrea Hagelgans. “We wish him well.”
Another City Hall aide said Kleinberg had “several bosses” — but the mayor wasn’t one of them — so it’s not clear who he was referring to in his post.
Kleinberg might not have to search long for a new gig, though.
NYC Deserves Better, the campaign to unseat de Blasio launched by political operative Bradley Tusk, quickly released a supportive statement.
“We will gladly meet with Scott, if he’s interested,” said the organization’s spokesman, Patrick Muncie.