MANHATTAN

NYU’S HIGHEST-PAID ADMINISTRATOR STEPS DOWN

New York University’s highest paid administrator is stepping down from his post to join the private sector next month, and he’s not the university president. For now, the executive vice president, Jacob Lew, is being coy about where he is going after NYU. He has worked there since 2001. Mr. Lew received $907,415 in wages and benefits for the 2003-04 fiscal year. The president of the university, John Sexton, received $897,139 in that fiscal year. Mr. Lew is the former director of the United States Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton. NYU is also home to the lawyer who defended Mr. Clinton during his impeachment trial, Cheryl Mills. Ms. Mills is a senior vice president of the university. Mr. Sexton last week hailed Mr. Lew’s five-year tenure at the university in a letter to the NYU community, saying that it was his fiduciary leadership and organization that led the university to its premier place in academia today. At NYU, Mr. Lew oversees the budget and finance operations, human relations division, as well as the real estate, planning, and construction operations. The dean of the NYU College of Dentistry, Michael Alfano, will take over for Mr. Lew, beginning on July 17.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

COUNCIL INVESTIGATES HOW ADMINISTRATION IS HELPING CITY SLIM DOWN

A City Council committee convened yesterday to find out what the city is doing to help New Yorkers shrink their bulging waistlines. More than half of New York adults are either obese or overweight, and childhood obesity in the city appears to be “significantly” higher than in the rest of the country, an assistant commissioner of the health department, Lynn Silver, said. The health emergency is particularly acute in poor and minority communities, Dr. Silver told the committee. Efforts to combat obesity have ranged from school and playground fitness programs for youths to encouraging restaurants to remove transfats from the food they serve. Several council members said they will consider examining citywide marketing restrictions for unhealthful food advertising.

– Special to the Sun

COUNCIL WEIGHS PROTECTING EMPLOYEES WHO TESTIFY AT CITY HALL

In a hearing yesterday, the City Council weighed the benefits of a law offering protection to those who testify at City Hall and harsher punishments for employers who penalize employees for their testimony. The commissioner for the Department of Investigation, Rose Gill Hearn, said she feared the bill was redundant, and that any further laws would step into the jurisdiction of the DOI, endanger the confidentiality of its investigations, and allow disgruntled employees protection if they slandered their bosses.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN

L TRAIN DERAILS IN BROOKLYN RAIL YARD

An L train yesterday derailed in a Brooklyn rail yard when a train driver had a seizure, transit officials said. The accident happened around 12 p.m. at the Canarsie yard. One of the cars that derailed hit the bumper bar where the tracks end, injuring three transit workers and the driver. The four men were taken to Brookdale Hospital, but weren’t seriously injured. A transit spokesman, Charles Seaton, said the driver never drove trains with passengers and that he was restricted to the rail yard. The first two cars of the train were derailed from the track.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

TEENAGER FATALLY SHOT IN ROCKAWAYS

An 18-year-old Queens woman was killed early yesterday morning when police said an unidentified suspect opened fire on a group she was standing with near a Far Rockaway housing project. Police said Latina Bilbro of Hassock Street was standing outside of the Redfern Houses when a group approached and started shooting, striking her once with a 9-mm bullet in the back. Police said the two groups had fought earlier, although they did not believe Bilbro was the intended target. Police responding to the scene found Bilbro alone on the ground and took her to St. John’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1:40 a.m.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

LEGISLATURE BOOSTS UNION POWER IN CONTRACT TALKS

State worker unions could get “significant leverage” in contract negotiations with Albany under a bill passed by the Legislature with little notice, a government watchdog group said yesterday. The bill was one of many agreed to in the waning days of the legislative session that is scheduled to end today.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

SPITZER ACCUSES DEBT COLLECTION COMPANY OF ILLEGAL PRACTICES

ALBANY – The office of the attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, has sued a national debt collection company, charging it with illegal and abusive practices that include threats of lawsuits and arrest, officials said yesterday. The suit filed Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan charges JBC & Associates, its successor companies, JBC Legal Group and Boyajian Law Offices, and their operator, Jack Boyajian of New Jersey, with violating state and federal laws.

– Associated Press

COMMITTEE FINDS ATTORNEY LIABLE ON CHARGES OF MISCONDUCT

The Disciplinary Committee for the Appellate Division of the First Judicial Department determined that a former U.S attorney for the Southern District of New York, Morton Robson, was liable for the charges brought against him in January 2004 of misconduct in connection with $6.2 million entrusted into his escrow account. Mr. Robson’s misconduct resulted in the Regency Foundation, an investor in his client Cresbury Screen Entertainment Ltd., losing $6.2 million. The committee found him liable on counts of conduct involving misrepresentation, misappropriation of funds, and conduct reflecting on his fitness as a lawyer. They did not, however, find him liable on a count of failure to render accounting. The committee recommended the most severe sanction allotted for Mr. Robson – disbarring him and having his name be stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law. They added that his cross-motion should also be denied.

– Special to the Sun

IN THE COURTS

GOVERNMENT CLAIMS GOTTI LIVES LAVISHLY WHILE CLAIMING POVERTY

Prosecutors are accusing John “Junior” Gotti and his family of living lavishly on Long Island with a swimming pool, a horse barn, and a staff of gardeners, drivers, and housekeepers, while Gotti claims he is going broke.

– Associated Press