Mayor Giuliani yesterday ratcheted up his war on Alan Hevesi, firing new accusations that the city comptroller improperly meddled in decisions on which companies are tapped to handle lucrative city bond sales.
In his third consecutive day of bristling assaults on Hevesi over his ethics, Giuliani opened a new line of attack during a crucial time in the four-way Democratic primary for mayor.
Giuliani charged “the comptroller involves himself directly in” the process of selecting the firms that arrange the city’s multi-billion-dollar bond sales.
“He has from the beginning – and he shouldn’t – and we’ve had some problems and disputes there,” Giuliani complained on his weekly WABC-AM radio show, in response to a caller’s question about Hevesi’s conduct.
“I’m saying it because I have a great concern that the level of his involvement is different than it should be,” Giuliani added, without giving specifics.
Decisions about which companies are picked to underwrite bond sales are made by a panel made up of staff appointees from Hevesi’s office and the mayor’s office.
Giuliani insisted the selections – which can provide handsome profits to the bond companies should be made at arm’s length, without his and Hevesi’s direct involvement. Giuliani’s latest tirade comes after the mayor first tore into Hevesi on Wednesday, saying the comptroller should be investigated for setting up a meeting for a campaign contributor. On Thursday, Giuliani kept up his attack.
Hevesi wouldn’t respond to the mayor’s bashing, but his spokeswoman, Cathie Levine, said Giuliani was telling “another lie” and got his facts wrong.
Levine said bond sales are arranged under a competitive bidding process and there’s no improper interference from Hevesi.
Meanwhile, Republican mayoral candidate Herman Badillo sent a mailing to targeted primary voters featuring a picture of his rival, Mike Bloomberg, standing with former Mayor David Dinkins.
Dinkins, who is unpopular among Republican, is actually backing Democratic front-runner Mark Green. The mailing also shows Badillo, who polls show getting trounced by Bloomberg, standing with Giuliani.
The mailing notes Bloomberg’s recent party switch and calls him a ” ‘liberal Democrat.” Badillo switched his own registration three years ago.
“A picture tells a thousand words, in this case, the word is desperate,” Bloomberg spokesman Ed Skyler said.
.00>