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By ROBERT GOLOMB

Tell John Burnett, the

Republican Party nominee

for New York City comptrol-

ler in the November election, that

there are six registered Democrats

for every registered Republican in

New York City, and you’ll be a bit

surprised to see a smile coming to

his face. Tell him that in New York 

City’s last citywide election in 2009

the Republican candidate for comp-

troller, Joseph Mendola, won less

than 20 percent of the popular vote

in losing to current and now retiring

Comptroller Democrat John Liu,

and you’ll see the smile remaining.

Tell him further that you have to go

back to Joseph D. McGoldrick, who

served from 1938-1945, to find the

last elected Republican comptroller

of New York City, and you will see

that he still appears unbothered.

When I brought all this New York 

City electoral history to Burnett’s

attention during an interview in his

Manhattan campaign office

held Sept. 11 — the first

interview he has granted fol-

lowing the previous day’s

Democrat Party primary

won by Scott Stringer —

he appeared undaunted.

“Actually, I am well aware of the disparity [between

Democrat and Republican

registered voters], and I know

how handily John Liu defeat-

ed Joe Mendola, but none of 

that alarms me,” he said.

The reason the 6-1 outnumbering

of Democrats to Republicans in the

city fails to alarm Burnett is simple,

he said. “If you look at the

Republican victories in the last five

mayoral elections, the elections of 

Mayor Giuliani and Mayor

Bloomberg clearly show that New

York City voters have the ability

and intelligence to put their party

affiliation aside and vote for the per-

son whom they believe will best

serve them.”

Equally simple for Burnett is the

reason Mendola was so crushingly

defeated by Liu four years ago. “I

like and respect Joe, but he did

not run an active campaign,

and the Republican Party quite

frankly did not encourage him

to do so. I promise you I am

running to win and will have

the Republican Party fully

behind me. In addition, unlikeJoe, who had an opponent run-

ning against him on the

Conservative line, I will be on

the Republican, Conservative

and the Independent School

Choice lines.”

As to the point about

McGoldrick, Burnett maintained

the same glass-is-half-full outlook 

on his chances in November. “I

know it’s been a long time since a

Republican was elected as comp-

troller. To me that means the time is

long overdue [to elect one].’’

Burnett, who told me h

extensive research on th

New York City comptro

prepared for the race and

 just who McGoldrick w

“While its been almos

since a Republican last

comptroller], many Democrats [who served

trollers] were fiscally co

That includes Mario P

[1966-1969], Harriso

[1974-1989], William

[2002-2009] and to a cer

even John Liu now.”

While both Dem

Republican party

that Elliot Spitzer, with

publicly well known pe

political baggage, would

the easier opponent for h

said he looks forward

against Stringer, which

began the moment St

declared the winner o

election night.

“Whether I ran ag

 Trying to Reverse the TrendWill John Burnett become NYC’s first Republican comptroller since 194

continued

12 JEWISH WORLD • OCTOBER 25-31, 2013

John Burnett, Republican candidate for New York City comptroller.

ELECTION 2013

‘As comptroller, I will always remember that we are makinginvestments for millions of men and women whose

retirement benefits are financially crucial to them.’

7/27/2019 Long Island Jewish World and Jewish Sentinel Profile Of John Burnett

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Spitzer or against Mr. Stringer, the

critical issues confronting New

York City as a municipality and its

eight million good citizens remain

the same. ... I am using the opportu-

nity of this interview to challenge

Mr. Stringer to a series of televised

debates where we can present our

views, which contrast sharply onthe three most vital issues — pen-

sion plan enhancement, government

accountability and transparency,

and job growth through private sec-

tor economic development.’’

We discussed Burnett’s pension

plan reform plan, a controversial

proposal to combine the five sepa-

rate pension plans of New York 

City public employees into one

comprehensive plan. “I don’t know

why it would be considered to be

controversial,” he asserted. “This is

a plan that John Liu believed in,

and, in fact, had started to work on.

It will reduce by millions of dollars

the redundant administrative costs

and fees incurred by running five

separate systems. When they retire,

these savings will go directly to the

pension plans of our hard-working

police officers, firefighters, teachers

and sanitation workers as well as to

all other New York City civil serv-

ice employees. ... It is true, I fully

understand, that people do not like

change, but this is a change which

studies show will benefit all New

York City retirees.”

Burnett, whose mother, Mary, a

cook and dietician at a child-care

center, died in 2005 of congestive

heart disease and whose father,James, a chef, died in 2006 of can-

cer, told me that pension plan

reform is a deeply personal matter

for him. “My parents depended

greatly on their pensions,” he said.

“This dependence increased as they

became ill later in their lives. So I

have a deep personal understanding

of why maintaining a healthy pen-

sion plan is so important to so many

people. ... As comptroller, I will

always remember that we are mak-

ing investments for millions of men

and women like my mom and dad,

people whose retirement benefits

are financially crucial to them both

today and in the future.”

Less controversial is his plan for

a greater degree of accountability

and transparency in the city govern-

ment, about which he contended,

“Every candidate for [New York 

City] comptroller over the past

years has promised to reduce waste

and fraud in government. Few have

made good on that promise. But,”

he promised, “this is something I

will begin to address my first day in

office. I have 20 years’ experience

with auditing and compliance with

multimillion-dollar businesses and

corporate and individual invest-

ments. I will utilize this experience

to formulate risk assessments and

corrective action plans, which will

save our hard-working citizens mil-

lions of their tax dollars.”

Yet Burnett believes his most

important responsibility will be in

the area of private sector job

growth. “A mixed economy which

includes small businesses, corpora-tions, construction and the financial

industry are vital to the financial

well-being of our city. It creates

well-paying jobs and is responsible

for generating the tax dollars that

pay for the services the city pro-

vides. ... We must have tax policies

that encourage already-existing

businesses to remain in the city and

which attract other businesses to

come here. There is nothing in our

economy that can take the place of 

thriving and growing businesses.”

B

urnett’s rise in the business

world evolved from working as

a teenager at a cash register at

Pathmark to serving in a mid-man-

agement position in the financial

industry to, while still in his 30s,

overseeing multimillion dollar cor-

porate and private investments on

Wall Street. Holding a B.S. with

dual honors from NYU and an

MBA from Cornell, he credits his

parents for his success.

“My parents always stressed the

importance of getting a job and per-

forming your best at every job you

ever have,” he told me. “They also

stressed the importance of studying

hard and receiving the best educa-

tion available. ... I am thankful thatmy dad was alive to see me receive

my undergraduate degree. It is my

greatest sorrow that my mom,

whom I promised I would complete

my education, was not there to see

me graduate from NYU and

Cornell, which not coincidentally,

were among the schools she wanted

me to attend.”

The father of a 19-year-old

daughter who is a sophomore at an

out-of-town college, Burnett

explained to me that he wants his

daughter to live in New York City

after she graduates from college in

three years, but said that his daugh-

ter, like thousands of other young

adult New Yorkers, might find it

difficult to secure a suitable job. On

that note, our conversation returned

to the economy. “The city’s unem-

ployment rate is a staggering 7.5

percent, on par with the national

average. Hardest hit are the young

 just graduating from high school or

college and African Americans and

Latinos of all ages.”

To reverse this trend and create

well-paying jobs in the city,

Burnett, promised, if elected, to

“use the power of my office to sup-

port and facilitate and create proj-

ects such as the renovation of 

Midtown East [a plan supported by

Mayor Bloomberg to pass new zon-

ing laws in the immediate area sur-

rounding Grand Central Station,

enabling real estate developers to

replace old, supposedly out-of-date

buildings with high-tech, energy-

efficient new constructions]. This

plan, and others like it, will help

New York City retain its status as

the business capital of this growing-

ly competitive world, and also cre-

ate thousands of new jobs in the

construction industry, which will

then mushroom into thousands of 

more jobs in restaurants and other

local retail establishments.’’

Reiterating a previous statement,

Burnett also promised to “use my

experience in auditing and assess-

ments to fight fraud and waste in the

city government and reinvest the

cost savings to lower taxes on both

small and large businesses. Such

lowering of taxes will, as they have

when implemented in the past,

encourage small and large business-

es to expand and make new invest-

ments. Once this occurs, I promise

that you will see many thousands of 

 jobs created in our town.”

Burnett noted that as city

comptroller he will be respon-

sible for the investment of pension

funds in foreign nations. He prom-

ised to continue the longtime prac-

tice of making investments of NewYork City Employees Retirement

System (NYCERS) only in coun-

tries that are aligned with America

politically, culturally and econom-

ically. To Burnett, the nation that

best meets that criteria is the State

of Israel. “Israel and America,” he

stated, “share the Judeo-Christian

heritage, democratic principles,

and an entrepreneurial-driven eco-

nomic system. That is why New

York City comptrollers since the

birth of Israel have felt comfort-

able making investments there.

That is why I will continue and

expand upon that tradition.”

One of the specific areas that

Burnett said he would look to

expand NYCERS investments is in

the Israel Bond sector: “John Liu

deserves credit for reinvesting $15

million [NYCERS] funds in State

of Israel Bonds. Israel Bonds have

in fact become an intricate part of 

the fixed income allocation of the

pension fund portfolio. I believe

that we should look into increasing

our investments [in thes

Noting that Israel has n

to make payment of

principal since the f

Bonds were issued bac

Burnett added, “Wha

looking for in investin

funds is security. And Is

provide that security.”

When I asked Burn

prospect of Iran

nuclear weapons, p

weakening Israel’s s

long-term security, woinvestments in Israel l

tive, he responded, “Ce

We can never allow n

seek to destroy us to inf

behavior. When I thi

threat that Iran poses t

am reminded of the wo

Martin Luther King, w

know, was a great frien

porter of Israel. Dr. K

that a threat to justice a

a threat to justice ever

that same spirit, a threat

a threat to our own free

our own survival. ... W

common enemy who,

our common freedom,

and goodness, hates us

Americans we will alw

by Israel and make certa

mutual enemies never

us and never prevail.”

 Robert Golomb is a

 published columnist wh

a range of educational, c

 political topics.

 Trendcontinued from page 12

JEWISH WORLD • OCTOBER 25-31, 20

‘There is nothing

in our economy 

that can take the

place of thriving

and growing

businesses.’