Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958
"I just announced to the Cabinet at the conclusion of the Cabinet meeting, a very sad task but also a very happy one. Sad because I, as the rest of the Cabinet hate to lose Peter Powers because he's been such a great leader, and he's been so effective; a very happy task because this was a job very well done.
Peter has done more in his 2 1/2 years as a First Deputy Mayor than probably any First Deputy Mayor in the history of the city. Many of the changes, much of the direction was supplied by Peter, he has been the source of a tremendous amount of personal support for me, but governmentally, he's really been exceptional.
I remember when I first turned to Peter in 1989 when my campaign was 29 points behind, and in August of 1989, I turned to Peter, and I asked him if he would take over the campaign because I knew, as he is my life long friend, of his capabilities to pierce through very complex problems and find solutions while bringing people closer together. Peter took on the task and from that point on it was probably the best run Mayor's campaign ever in the history of the city. We came within 2 points of victory, not by accident, as many people think, but because of a very well crafted, very well designed, and very well administered campaign and organization.
In 1993 when I was running again, obviously there was no one else I would turn to but Peter to run that campaign and that had a successful outcome, a very successful outcome. As I said before to the people in the Cabinet, it isn't always true that someone who is as exceptional in politics as Peter is, is also exceptional at governing. Sometimes the two talents aren't the same thing. I knew in Peter, that the two talents were precisely the same. Although there were doubters when he was first appointed, within weeks all the doubts were resolved. Peter has done an exceptional job.
The three things that I think Peter has contributed are first of all the reorganization of the budget process and the budget of New York City. We all have been living here in New York City and we don't realize how things have changed, I do because I remember when I ran for Mayor about four years ago the condition of the city. My critics on the budget are people who used to vote for and support out of control, over-spending without ever considering it. Because we changed the agenda, Peter and myself, the budget of New York City now has been reduced by 6 or 7 billion dollars. The budget of New York City is now a budget in which we asked the questions, 'How much more can we reduce, how can we reduce it , and how can we get it around to stimulating the economy of the city?' We have reduced government jobs more than ever before in the history of the city without being forced to do it by the state of New York.
And we've been able to maintain services and improve services in many areas where that was thought impossible. Peter Powers is at the core of much of that. The improvement of services will continue by his own intervention and his management of the agencies that reported directly to him and very often the management of the agencies that didn't report directly to him.
The second that I'll mention now is the watershed agreement. When I was running for office and coming into office, New York City was looking at the possible expense of 6 to 9 billion dollars to have to build a filtration plant if we didn't accomplish the watershed agreement. With the change in administration from Governor Cuomo to Governor Pataki, the chances of accomplishing what we needed to with the watershed community was really very small. It's the relationship that Peter developed with the Pataki administration, with the upstate communities, within our own administration, and it was his leadership, that made that agreement possible. I can guarantee you there would be no agreement if it weren't for Peter Powers, he made it happen, and he made it happen by enormous hard work, by personal intervention and by the kind of creativity that marks everything that he does.
And the same thing is true with the recent decision that Judge Bear just made in relieving New York City of an enormously onerous consent decree affecting the Department of Correction. Peter, from the very beginning, developed a strategy for having that consent decree eventually looked at again and overturned. Originally, with the cook-chill facility, and now with the entire consent decree being lifted, it relieves the city of an enormous, unnecessary financial burden. As he did with the cook-chill facility, it gives the city once again the autonomy to run its jail system the way it should be run.
The most important thing about Peter Powers to me though, is personal. He's a wonderful, and, a terrific man, and I'm going to miss him tremendously being there every single day in government. But he's my best friend, and any time I call on him I know he'll be there and I will for him."