New York City’s New Comptroller Demands Respect

New York City’s new comptroller, John Liu, has ordered his staff to rise whenever he enters the room and to address him as “Mr. Comptroller.” The new presidential-like formalities were laid out during a series of meetings last week that had veteran denizens of the Municipal Building snickering behind his back, sources said.

“I am making the adjustment myself. I’m used to calling him J.L.,” said his press secretary, Sharon Lee. “This is universal, for people who have known him for years or people who are meeting him for the first time.”

Staffers are generally complying with the practice, which Lee said is not a formal policy. Liu, she said, typically tells them to retake their seats and to call him John after the first formal greeting each day.

By contrast, Liu’s immediate predecessor, William Thompson, had staff call him “Billy,” a former aide said.

When disgraced state Comptroller Alan Hevesi was city comptroller, he bristled at formalities, an ex-staffer said.

“Alan would do just the opposite. If someone called him Mr. Comptroller, [he would say,] ‘What is this Mr. Comptroller? Call me Alan.’ That went for maintenance people as well as deputies,” the aide said.

Neither required employees to stand when he entered a room.

Former Comptroller Liz Holtzman said she also dispensed with formalities.

Over the past eight years, Mayor Bloomberg never asked staff to rise, and they always called him “Mike.”

“I think for someone who campaigned as a man of the people on a very progressive platform, this doesn’t help,” said Patricia O’Conner, author of “Origins of the Specious, Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language.”

“I don’t know if the city comptroller would have chosen ‘your highness’ if he could,” O’Conner quipped.

Liu, a former councilman from Queens who is the first Asian-American to hold citywide office, is referred to as “the Comptroller” or “Comptroller Liu” in all written correspondence from his office, including e-mails.

He was just called “John” as a councilman.

Liu’s new protocols were the brainchild of First Deputy Comptroller Eric Eve, an ex-Citigroup banker and adviser to former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall, according to Lee.

“It is important to note John is the same John, and he hasn’t changed,” Lee said. “At the same time, we want to address the office with the seriousness it demands.”

{NY Post/Matzav.com Newscenter}