Columnists: David Seifman

Latest Columns

• Lopez di$penser

  Rivals of embattled Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez — who is enmeshed in a sex-harassment scandal and is on the ropes politically — are now taking aim at the $120 million social-services empire that has served as his...   September 30, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• In just 3 years, this B’klyn hosp doc has charged taxpayers for $1M in overtime

  This is nuts.  A city shrink at Kings County Hospital, who consistently puts in 80 hours a week or more, has now accumulated more than $1 million in overtime over three years.  Records obtained through the Freedom of...   September 23, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Brooklyn

• Ax & you shall receive 300G

  A City caseworker accused of falsifying official records not only beat the charges, but also walked off with a $300,000 payout from taxpayers after her case dragged on for six years.  The worker was fired in 2005 for...   September 16, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Delusional Lopez is eyeing council run

  It sounds delusional, but besieged Assemblyman Vito Lopez has told some people he might run for the City Council next year. “He was saying this right after he was charged with sex harassment,” said one stunned source....   September 09, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• City shelters in the storm

  The city is desperately scouring the five boroughs to find space for a record number of homeless — but when officials had a chance a few years ago to open a 400-bed shelter in The Bronx, they took an abrupt pass.  And...   August 26, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• De Blasio’s bike warpath

  Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is refusing to go along with the city’s aggressive program for rolling out bike lanes and pedestrian plazas, describing Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan as a “radical” for...   August 19, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Mayor’s Christine nod now in doubt

  There's been a subtle shift in the 2013 mayoral race that has gone unnoticed by all but a few insiders: Mayor Bloomberg isn't as sold as he used to be on Council Speaker Christine Quinn replacing him. "I think it's fair...   August 05, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Council cut out

  A funny thing happened after the City Council passed a law in March requiring all agencies funded by the city to submit justifications for issuing service contracts worth $200,000 or more — nothing.  Not a single...   July 29, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• City pols rewriting records

  Wikipedia entries for some of the candidates running for mayor next year are being re-written — by aides to those candidates.  The biography of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio used to report that he was born Warren...   July 15, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• $pecial school ‘bus’

  The Department of Education will spend nearly $100,000 next year to transport a single student with severe disabilities to and from school.  The student has debilitating conditions that require an advanced life-support...   July 08, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Plan half-biked

  The city considered doing a test run for the bike-share program that gets rolling later this month, but ultimately decided to speed ahead without one, according to documents obtained by The Post.  The pilot project was...   July 01, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Petty political bickering puts 9/11 Museum at standstill

  This is getting to be an embarrassment.  The battle between Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg over funding of the 9/11 Museum has entered its 10th month with no resolution in sight, despite optimistic statements from both...   June 24, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Rangel foe’s charity caper

  A nonprofit funded with hundreds of thousands of dollars secured by state Sen. Adriano Espaillat through legislative “member items” quietly wound down last year and threw its four paid staffers out of work.  But it didn...   June 17, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Pork medallion$

  The stakes are about to get a lot higher in the bitter war between Mayor Bloomberg and the yellow-cab industry.  Sources said industry leaders hope to convince members of the mayor’s own Taxi and Limousine Commission...   June 10, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• ‘Vito’ charity $hocker

  The price for restoring integrity at the much-investigated Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council is $2.5 million and counting.  Tax returns filed last month by the politically connected nonprofit show that’s the...   June 03, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Manhattan

• Mike’s Weiner secret

  When former Congressman Anthony Weiner was under siege last year, Mayor Bloomberg took a kinder approach to his longtime critic than most Democrats.  A chorus of party leaders, led by President Obama, called for Weiner...   May 27, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Mayor is Mitt or miss

  They’re at it again, those mischievous political elves whose job is to keep Mayor Bloomberg in the national spotlight.  Mayoral aides are spinning a yarn that Bloomberg might make an endorsement in this year’s...   May 20, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• MTA: Un‘fare’ billboard war

  It’s the Family Feud, government edition.  The MTA and the city are at cross-tracks over more than $1 million worth of billboards, with each side claiming it has the power to tell the other what to do.  The Buildings...   May 13, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• ‘Abu$e’ crew all get away

  See no evil. Hear no evil. Read no evil.  The Department of Investigation has chronicled multiple abuses committed by former Finance Commissioner Martha Stark in a scathing 111-page report that also raises questions...   May 06, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Manhattan

• SI: Don’t tread - or dump - on us!

  There are few touchier issues on Staten Island than garbage.  So when Mayor Bloom-berg proposed soliciting companies to build a high-tech waste-to-energy plant last year, City Councilman James Oddo (R-SI) met with top...   April 29, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Quinn ‘elbows’ Stringer

  There may not be room for two Manhattan candidates in the race for mayor.  Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is telling friends that people linked to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn are maliciously...   April 22, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Tix-scofflaw pols

  Don’t pay the fine, and you can’t park on the taxpayers’ dime.  Three members of the City Council found that out the hard way when their official government parking permits weren’t renewed because records showed they...   April 15, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Crane-op union hits Mike

  The crane accident on the far West Side that took the life of a construction worker last week has ratcheted up a ferocious fight over who will get to control the hiring of crane operators for decades to come.  On one...   April 08, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Blame game in jobs fraud

  Disturbing findings that a respected nonprofit falsified employment data it provided to the city led to a flare-up between two of Mayor Bloomberg’s top aides, The Post has learned.  Sources said Deputy Mayors Robert...   April 01, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Rangel tangle

  A furious fight over Charlie Rangel’s congressional seat could spill over into next year’s mayoral race. State Sen. Adriano Espaillat has begun circulating petitions to take on Rangel in what may become an explosive...   March 25, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• CityTime-keepers

  There was one thing wrong with the $500 million settlement in the CityTime scandal: the timing.  SAIC, the company chiefly responsible for building the corruption-infused timekeeping system, agreed to the extraordinary...   March 18, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• In ‘Liu’ of cash: No matching $ for John

  Even if he makes it past the widely publicized federal investigation of his campaign finances, Comptroller John Liu is in for a rough ride if he intends to stay in elective office.  Sources say the Campaign Finance...   March 11, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• City eyes ad subtraction

  It’s taken Buildings Department officials eight years, but they’ve finally figured out that Yankee Stadium is nowhere near Yonkers.  So the giant billboard off the Yankee Stadium exit ramp from the Major Deegan...   March 04, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• Mike’s in-house Muslim critic

  There’s no shortage of Muslim leaders attacking the NYPD for secretly monitoring their communities as part of its strategy to head off new acts of terrorism. But only one of the critics sits on a city panel as an...   February 26, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local

• ‘See no election evil’

  It should be a simple question to answer.  Either Mayor Bloomberg violated the law or he didn’t by shipping $1.2 million to the state Independence Party in 2009 without quickly disclosing it.  But with more than two...   February 19, 2012 12:00 AM

  From Local