By FRANKIE EDOZIEN

March 20, 2008 — The number of city cops will plunge to levels not seen since the early 1990s, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly testified yesterday.

Kelly told City Council members that he will follow Mayor Bloomberg’s order that agency heads cut their budgets by not hiring 1,000 officers that had been planned for.

The NYPD has had trouble in recent years hiring, and officials point to the current $25,100 starting salary as the chief reason.

“Right now, we have to do something to reduce our budget, and the 1,000-officer reduction seemed practical because we can’t hire,” Kelly said.

“We had no recruitment problems until June of ‘05 when the arbitrator lowered the starting salary . . . It’s been very difficult to recruit these past 21/2 years with a $25,100 salary in this most expensive city in North America.”

An arbitrator is expected to come up with new salary scales in the coming months.

Officials at the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association disputed Kelly’s assertions that starting salary was the problem and said overall cop salaries are the issue across the board.

They said focus groups show that salaries in general are a problem.

“The NYPD has turned its inability to maintain staffing levels into budgetary savings at a time when local community precinct houses are screaming for more police officers,” said Pat Lynch, the PBA president.

He said Kelly’s plan to reduce cops by 1,000 will “strain to the breaking point the work force that is already burdened by fighting crime and terrorism.”

But Kelly told lawmakers that the reduction would not affect current operations.

Crime is down to record levels, with murders down to 496 in 2007 - 17 percent fewer than the year before.

By July, cops would number 36,838. Right now, there are about 35,800. In 1992, there were 35,802 cops.

But lawmakers, who were full of praise for Kelly for the city’s continually dropping crime levels, were skeptical that fewer boots on the ground could sustain the low crime levels.

“Your force is so over-extended that we will not be able to continue to make the gains that we have seen in the past. I believe that we are about at that point now,” Public Safety Committee chair Peter Vallone Jr. said.

Councilmember Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) pointed out that the city had more cops in 2001 than now.

“During the worst crisis that this city ever faced we had 38,630 police officers and now we have approximately 35,548, somewhere around that. I don’t think that makes much sense.”

Monserrate, a retired cop, added, “I know if there was a Mayor Kelly right now, we would not be facing this issue.”

Kelly said after the hearing that cops would continue working to keep streets safe no mater what the numbers are.

“The Safe Street/Safe City head-count was 38,310, I believe, and the head-count that we are shooting for now is 36,838, so the numbers speak for themselves but a number of efficiencies have been brought to bear since that time.”

WENT BALLISTIC ON GAL PAYING WITH PLASTIC

 The New York Post

By FRANKIE EDOZIEN

CRAZY CABBY: A driver may lose his license after screaming at a passenger who tried to pay by credit card.

March 18, 2008 — A cabby who unleashed a frightening foul-mouthed tirade on a female passenger who tried to pay him with a credit card - and then drove off with her cellphone and wallet - now faces the loss of his license.

When passenger Nicole Omara, 25, reached her destination at East 75th Street and Third Avenue last September, she swiped her credit card in the yellow cab’s machine. That triggered a screaming rant from driver Ilias Jerhada, she testified at a recent hearing before an administrative law judge.

“Bitch, give me my f- - - ing money,” Omara quoted him as yelling.

She said the driver snatched her open purse, took out her wallet and cellphone and tossed the bag on the sidewalk before driving off.

Using a friend’s phone, she called police. Then she called her own phone, which Jerhada answered, still boldly demanding his money, she said.

He returned to the spot where he dropped Omara, triggering a new round of screaming just as cops pulled up.

Police had to separate the two, authorities said, but wound up arresting Jerhada when they found Omara’s property on him.

Administrative Law Judge Faye Lewis substantiated the allegations from the 4 a.m. dustup, noting Jerhada’s license had been suspended several times.

He failed to show up for the hearing, so he did not defend himself.

Lewis recommended that the Taxi & Limousine Commission fine him $500 and revoke his license. The ruling was made public last week.

Jerhada has several more days in which he can make a defense in the case.

TLC Commissioner Mathew Daus, who will issue a final decision, said yesterday it was a “particularly egregious case and we are thankful that Ms. Omara was not injured.”

Omara declined to be interviewed, pointing to criminal charges still pending against the cabby.

The case comes as the TLC is cracking down on drivers who tell riders they can’t pay by plastic.

The New York Post
By FRANKIE EDOZIEN

March 4, 2008 — Commissioner of Aging Edwin Mendez-Santiago told skeptical lawmakers yesterday the frozen meals the city is considering for seniors aren’t the average TV dinner.
“It’s not the same as when we take our own leftovers and stick it in the freezer,” the commissioner said.
“Within seconds of when the food is cooked, it’s immediately flash frozen so that when it is reheated, it’s as if it were as fresh as coming off the stove,” Santiago-Mendez testified in the City Council yesterday.
“When you go to your local supermarket to get something that might look green and fresh, that might have been flash frozen to retain its nutritional value while it was transported,” he added, saying the flash technology is used by reputable nonprofits such as God’s Love We Deliver.
After years of testing the program in The Bronx, the Bloomberg administration wants to give seniors the choice of either getting one hot meal daily or flash-frozen meals delivered twice a week.
A typical menu for the 17,000 lunches now served to seniors every day consists of appetizers, a main dish, fruits, vegetables and dessert.
Right now, officials said the myriad of contracts for senior meals cost between $2.60 to $26.04 per meal, but fewer contracts with the flash-frozen option would average $6.88 a meal.
That change would lead to fewer contracts and the ability to handle more specific requests, such as catering to diabetics, and being more culturally sensitive and offering more choices to seniors.
Currently, seniors only have two choices; kosher or regular.
Helen Foster (D-Bronx) wondered about the sodium content of the meals because she heard the food was a tad salty and asked, “Have you tasted the food yourself? I want to make sure we’re not offering something we haven’t tasted ourselves.”
Mendez-Santiago said his office and service providers had conducted numerous taste tests. “We even had Mayor Bloomberg do a taste test with some of the members of the bullpen [his office staff], and generally, across the board, people were very satisfied with the meals.”
He stressed that no senior would be forced to get the frozen meal - it would be a choice for those who would prefer not to wait for daily deliveries that might conflict with doctor’s appointments or other commitments.
Many lawmakers are concerned that the administration’s wholesale revamp of senior centers and senior meals might be moving too quickly. Lawmakers are also reluctant to sign off on a plan that takes away the daily human contact some homebound seniors have with those who deliver the food.
“Was there an outpouring of seniors who wrote the Department for the Aging, who wrote the mayor and said, ‘Listen the current system isn’t really working for me’ ” asked Melinda Katz (D-Queens).
Maria del Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx), the chair of the committee. “You guys have a year and change left in this administration. You are locking in contracts for six months. What’s the rush?
“This is a lot to bite off. I’m not confident that [the Department for the Aging] is going to be able to chew this and digest it in a year and 10 months. Whoever comes in after is going to deal with the fallout. It takes six months to a year to understand if you were successful,” she added.
City officials are taking comments on their revamp proposal from now until March 14 at conceptpaper@aging.nyc.go

The New York Post

By FRANKIE EDOZIEN

March 3, 2008 — At least one American politician is sorry to see Fidel Castro go.
City Councilman Charles Barron said yesterday Cubans get some of the best health care in the world and he wants to study their system.
Barron leaves today for a nine-day tour of the communist island nation, where last week Castro - after 49 years at the helm - announced he would step down.
The Democratic Brooklyn councilman is going with a group of students from the City University’s Center for Worker Education, and will also tour educational facilities.
Barron told The Post he has a special fondness for Castro because of the Cuban leader’s efforts to help several African nations, particularly Angola, in their march toward independence decades ago.
“I think we should lift the embargo and normalize relations with Cuba,” said Barron, a former Black Panther Party member. He said the economic embargo was hurting Cuban citizens.
Barron’s support for Castro isn’t the first time the outspoken lawmaker has embraced an international political outcast.
Five years ago, Barron hosted a City Hall reception for Robert Mugabe, the dictatorial president of Zimbabwe, an event most council members boycotted.
Critics said Barron had ignored international outrage over Mugabe’s brutal and economically repressive regime.
It is doubtful Barron will ever get to roll out City Hall’s red carpet for the 81-year-old Castro.
The revolutionary leader hasn’t been seen publicly in almost two years since he ceded provisional authority to his younger brother, Raul.
The elder Castro made that transfer of power permanent last week when he said he was too ill to continue running the country on his own.
Barron said he is not scheduled to meet with either Castro, but said he’d welcome the opportunity should it present itself while he is there.
He added that he was eager to study the Cuban health-care system, which - echoing documentary maker Michael Moore’s film “Sicko” - he says is one of the best in the world.
The fiery councilman said he was paying for his trip with his own funds, not taxpayer allocations to his office, and that all travel was aboveboard. He is expected back March 12.
Officials at the State Department yesterday declined to comment on Barron’s plans, but in general journalists, members of non-governmental organizations and others can visit Cuba without special permission. Students, members of religious groups and relatives of Cubans require special travel documents