Mystery deepens over state senator's mayoral control report

I spent nearly an hour earlier today trying to cobble together out of several askew, truncated, and fuzzy faxed versions a single shareable copy of State Sen. Martin Dilan’s explosive mayoral control report. I should have spent my time on something else, because Liz Benjamin at the Daily News just posted an impeccable version on her Daily Politics blog; I’m sharing it below the jump. 

Benjamin’s copy of the report, which recommends that lawmakers place substantial checks on mayoral control when the school governance structure expires June 30, is easier to read than the one I just trashed. But the version I was working with looked about as muddled as debate over the report has been since it was first revealed in the Post yesterday. At issue is whose opinions the report contains and whether the report was meant to be released this week at all.

Gail Robinson at the Gotham Gazette wrote yesterday that her copy of the leaked report didn’t indicate anywhere that it was a draft version. But City Hall, which condemned the recommendations, told the Post that it considered the report to be in draft form, and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith’s office said the report doesn’t reflect his position on mayoral control. Later yesterday, Dilan, one of the two chairs of the school governance task force convened by Smith, issued a statement saying that the leaked report represented only his own opinions, not those of his fellow committee members. 

This afternoon, I called the office of State Sen. Shirley Huntley, the task force’s other chair, to find out how her position compared to Dilan’s. A spokeswoman who works in Smith’s office, Selvena Brooks, returned my call on Huntley’s behalf. “The task force is still convening hearings,” Brooks told me. “She feels it’s a bit premature to make recommendations.”

At least one more public hearing is scheduled for this spring, Brooks told me. I’ll add it to the GothamSchools calendar as soon as I can confirm the date and location.

Draft Report- Task Force on New York City School Governance[1]