Whistleblowers Protection Bill Would Face Veto
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Mayor Bloomberg said he would veto a City Council bill aimed at protecting city employees who report the “educational harm” of a child, and suggested yesterday that the teachers union is behind the proposal.
At an anti-smoking event at a Queens middle school, Mr. Bloomberg stood beside a cigarette industry whistleblower, Jeffrey Wigand — made famous in the movie “The Insider” — and said the expanded whistleblower protections were unnecessary.
“I think that everybody has to be able to be sure to come forward and say what’s on their mind,” he said. “There also should be some responsibility. You can’t just go and stand up and accuse somebody without any merit of doing something just to be nasty and mean or to hurt them.”
The mayor said the union had fought for the expanded whistleblower protections to be included in their contract last fall, but the proposal was dropped during negotiations. He said the union now was trying to “run around” its defeat.
The bill overwhelmingly passed a City Council education committee vote yesterday. A spokesman for the mayor, Stu Loeser, later confirmed that the mayor intended to veto the bill if it passes.
City law protects whistleblowers that report criminal activity, corruption, conflicts of interest, mismanagement, or abuse of authority. The bill is written to protect city employees who report actions by their superiors that harm the “health, safety, or educational welfare of a child.” The bill defines educational welfare as “any aspect of a child’s education or educational environment that significantly impacts upon such child’s ability to receive appropriate instruction, as mandated by any relevant law, rule, regulation, or sound educational practice.”
The president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, has said the bill is necessary while the school bureaucracy undergoes a major transformation this year.
“This is not about contract issues,” she said. “The mayor and the chancellor should want to have teachers blow the whistle on misconduct, cheating scandals, or anything else that hurts children.”
