Reporter Dan Rivoli spoke to GOP-stalwart David Casavis, who is determined to unseat Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer so he can then dissolve the position entirely. From the West Side Spirit:
“The only person who can do this is me; the only one willing to say, “That’s it. Enough,’” said Casavis.Casavis, who ran for an East Side Assembly seat last year, said eliminating all five Borough President offices will be his sole goal. “If I can get elected, it is one step in getting rid of this job,” Casavis explained.
Casavis will follow in the footsteps of 2005 Republican Borough President candidate Barry Popik, who received nearly 41,000 votes against Stringer’s 200,152. Popik also ran on a platform of eliminating the Manhattan Borough President position.
Each borough president receives a salary of $160,000 a year plus millions of dollars in discretionary funds that are given to local organizations and nonprofits. The offices have been criticized as a ceremonial position since the U.S. Supreme Court dissolved the Board of Estimate, which gave the borough presidents a say in land use and budget issues, in 1989.
“There’s no purpose,” Casavis said. “It’s having a captain of the ship with no ship.”
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