Although the New York City Charter accords much more power to the mayor than to the city councilmembers, events of the last month have shown that Michael Bloomberg doesn’t always have the last word. In one fell swoop, the City Council overrode several of the mayor’s vetoes. The laws passed by the City Council have serious implications for welfare recipients, cell phone owners, schoolchildren and their parents.

The greatest debates flared up around the CATE law (City Access to Training and Education)—about counting time spent in English-language classes, vocational training in colleges and business-schools and classes to prepare for job placement as “workfare.” Mayor Bloomberg categorically rejected this law, arguing that its adoption would have a negative effect on the sum of federal grants in the welfare program. “The federal law regarding workfare is much stricter, and they could reduce our subsidies several times over,” he said as he vetoed CATE. However, councilmembers disagreed with the city boss. In their opinion, instruction in colleges, in classes and in business schools will help those receiving benefits get off welfare sooner, while the work found by former program clients will pay better, given the higher educational level of the new specialists. Furthermore, the City Council limited the number of study hours to be counted towards “workfare” to 16 per week.

Harlem Councilmember Bill Perkins and Brooklyn Councilmember Bill de Blasio said in a press conference outside City Hall that the end has come to the period in which welfare requirements could only be met by picking up trash in parks, offices and off the streets. When it comes to Russian-speaking immigrants, this can only be good news. No one argues with the need to work for welfare benefits, but sending former doctors, librarians, lawyers and engineers to clean parks and wash garbage trucks much to help them find jobs quickly. Just as irrational was the choice between studying at a higher learning institution and the chance to receive very meager benefits. At the same time, the City Council clearly overdid it by counting English language courses as “workfare.” One can study a language until the end of time without working at all. Actually, the councilmembers placed strict criteria on class attendance and performance. The mayor’s veto was overturned with a record count of 46 to 5 (all Democrats “for,” all Republicans “against”).

Nor did the City Council heed the mayor’s argument not to ban the use of cell phones in theaters, museums, concert halls, lectures, dance and musical performances. Some 48 councilmembers protested Bloomberg’s veto, first exempting City Hall from the new law (isn’t it, after all, a concert hall?). The fine for violating the ban is $50. Owners of cinemas, museums and concert halls are to put up signs informing patrons of the new rules. The mayor vetoed the law, claiming that it’s impossible to enforce. “Who’s going to chase after the cell phone users? Who’s going to fine them? Why give theater owners this headache?” However, the New York Association of Theaters and Museums welcomed the adopted law, apparently hoping for voluntary compliance by city residents and tourists. A fine will be imposed only for calls that disturb other patrons rather than for conversations in public places. At the last moment, the paragraph prohibiting the use of cell phones on public transport was omitted from the law (most likely out of fear of angering parents, who always want to know where their children are at any given moment).

And finally, the City Council overrode Bloomberg’s veto on a bill that demands from the Department of Education a quarterly report on expenditures for the construction and renovation of schools. Manhattan Councilmember Eva Moscovitz, chairman of the education committee, long pushed for some regulation of the billions spent on building schools. In 2000, more than $1.2 billion of the budget intended for these purposes disappeared into thin air; they are still trying to locate this money. The new law sets firm controls on the process of distributing profitable contracts in the school system, a process hitherto hidden from the public.

So far, the City Council has outdone the mayor. But Michael Bloomberg is not of the weak-spirited. He already promised hard times to those councilmembers who argued more than others against his initiatives. He hinted that he would use his money to help the opponents of obstinate lawmakers who go up for re-election this year. You don’t fool around with billions of dollars...