Speaker Miller '92 brings youth, vision to New York City Council

Four months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks rocked lower Manhattan, Gifford Miller '92 became the second most powerful politician in New York City.

The city was in human and economic turmoil. One of the most racially divisive mayoral elections had just concluded with a one-time long shot headed to City Hall — just blocks from the wreckage being removed around the clock from Ground Zero.

At 32-years-old, Miller is also the youngest person in recent years to hold the position of Speaker of New York City Council. His boyish face and comments are closer in age to a college student than his Ivy League counterpart and sparring partner on budget issues, political neophyte May-or Michael Bloomberg.

Miller now has more political experience than Bloomberg will have by the time term limits or a possible unsuccessful bid in the next mayoral election force him from office.

During an April 15 University lecture hosted by Ivy Club, Miller reflected on his time in office and the path that led him to his current position.

"When I started off I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do," Miller said.

Though he was a politics major at the University and wrote his thesis on international relations, he was never involved in politics on campus.

But, he says he liked politics and he liked arguing about issues.

After graduation, Miller traveled to Europe for a couple of months. When he returned, he still lacked a clear vision of where his future would take him.

He worked briefly for the Parks Council in New York City before a local council member, Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), realized a longshot bid to become a congresswoman from Manhattan.

And with her election, Miller moved down to Washington, DC.

"She didn't know anybody so I started off manning phones," Miller said.

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In three years, he was her chief of staff and represented Maloney in her Manhattan district office.

"I hung around in the office willing to do anything," he said of his enterprising efforts in the office. "People will always offer you something."

A binder on NAFTA provided his ticket to move up the office ranks, he said, half-jokingly. A binder with tabs.

"She really liked binders and tabs and she made me her district manager to bring binders up to the city.

"It's a joke, but not really a joke," Miller said. "People have very short attention spans. Presentation is very important."

In addition to compiling binders with tabs, Miller helped to draft legislative proposals in-cluding a na-tionally recognized package of foster care help to streamline the system.

But after three years, Miller had had had enough of "telling people what [Maloney] thought."

He decided to run for City Council in 1996 from the Upper East Side, his home stomping grounds.

The 51-member council is the legislative body in New York City, offering the traditional checks and balances to the mayor.

It was a special election and only 45 days long. At the time "nobody else was running, there was no race," he said.

Miller formed an election committee, stood on street corners, shook hands early in the morning at subway stops and begged people for money. He also learned political tricks like eyeing prospective voters.

"People are very interested in their dogs," Miller said. "If you see somebody with their dogs you go right at them because they are a voter."

Miller would become the first Democrat in five years to represent the silk-stocking district Republican home. Time and place were on his side as the Republicans in Congress were making government look inefficient.

Miller capitalized on the national climate with a well-marketed flyer.

"Say no to Dole, Gingrich, and Pata-ki. Vote Gifford Miller," the flyer said.

Voters did as they were told.

In his reelection in 1997, Miller received more than 70 percent of the vote.

In city politics, Miller could focus on targeted needs and see results first-hand.

"When you put money into local garbage and cleaner streets, you certainly see cleaner streets," he said. "I really liked local government — the feeling of how government interacts with people at a local level."

Miller's unanimous election to New York City Council Speaker caps his six-year career on the council.

During this year's overhaul of city government, he campaigned and endorsed candidates and helped to raise money. Term limits brought 38 new members onto the council, some of whom were first-time politicians.

He formed a political action committee to help new candidates run for vacant seats. Of the 25 candidates who he supported, 13 won seats and were obligated to support him in the speaker's race.

However, going into the speaker election, amidst an election season that raised questions about race in local politics, Miller said he was not overly confident.

"In this race, being white and from Manhattan it was a little bit of a handicap," he said. "I was fighting against [former New York City public advocate] Mark Green. Having two white Democrats from the Upper East Side — it would have been hard if [Bloomberg] had not been elected."

With Bloomberg elected, Miller jockeyed with party chairmen from the different boroughs to build the coalition that would vote him speaker on Jan. 9 of this year.

"I think he is off to a terrific start," said David Yassky '86, a Democrat council member from Brooklyn. "The council has gotten up and running and started functioning in a way that many people thought would take a year or so because of term limits."

With the energy that comes with new leadership in city politics, the first few months have been action-packed.

During the lecture, Miller emptied his pockets before he took the lectern, handing his guard two cellular telephones.

Miller is driven around the city in a car with a television and men who are armed, he said.

"The problem is that there are so many committee meetings that city agency heads complain that all they do is testify in front of city council," Miller said.

The biggest hurdle for Miller will be passing a budget to reduce the nearly $5 billion deficit resulting from the terrorist attacks.

"We face the largest budget gap since the crisis in the mid-1970s," Miller said in his first address to city council, "and the problems confronting our city before Sept. 11 also continue to demand our attention."

The need for recovery is clear. Yet Bloomberg and Miller have differed on how they think the city should attempt this task.

Bloomberg has spoken out against raising taxes and favors cutting back on city expenditures for services, including public education. Miller and the city council, on the other hand, support a tax increase to help reduce the budget shortfall.

"I think there is a difference of opinion," Yassky said. "A lot of the council members think that the mayor's budget was too hard on schools."

Comparing the city's economic situation to a struggling business, Yassky said New York needs to cut costs but also invest in the future.

"[Miller] has led the council in shaping a [counterproposal] budget that's fairer than what the mayor proposed and more progressive," Yassky said.

A top priority like education is,"good in good times and good in bad times," he said.

"I have never had anyone call me that they are moving out of the city because of hard times," Miller said. "They have called me be-cause of public education." ....With four months under his belt in his last term on city council — progressive term limits will deny him another term and he will have to step down in two years — Miller said he is unsure of what he will campaign for next.

"It's the first time in my life that I don't know where my next move is," he said.