Posted on 02/15/2006 11:47:11 AM PST by neverdem
In a victory for the Bloomberg administration, the state's highest court narrowly ruled yesterday that the mayor does not have to enforce city laws that he deems to be illegal.
The ruling gives Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg a powerful weapon in that he does not have to enforce laws that the City Council passes through mayoral overrides, as it has often done in recent years.
In a 4-to-3 ruling, the State Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that the mayor had the authority to refuse to enforce a 2004 law on domestic partner benefits that he said violated state and federal laws.
The City Council had pushed through the so-called equal benefits law over the mayor's veto. The law was sponsored by Christine C. Quinn, who is now the City Council speaker, and would have required the city's larger contractors to provide health and other benefits to domestic partners.
In siding with the mayor, the majority seemed to give legal standing for the first time to what has been a common, if disputed, practice in the Bloomberg administration, as well as previous mayoralties. In that sense, the ruling was the latest skirmish in a 15-year struggle between mayors and the City Council over just how much power the 1989 City Charter revisions gave to each side.
During his first term, Mr. Bloomberg repeatedly charged that the Council was overreaching its authority and passing laws that violated state and federal laws. Indeed, relations grew so tense that the Council overrode mayoral vetoes a record 35 times, according to city records.
Council members, in turn, complained that the mayor did not treat them as equals in city government, and that he refused to enforce laws they had passed over his objections.
In yesterday's ruling, the judges wrote that while the...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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