Ask Bill de Blasio Why

Dear Mr. de Blasio:

As a constituent of your city council district, I am very concerned about the Incarnation Children's Center scandal involving children being enrolled in experimental drug trials.  I believe the investigation of this was in your hands as the chairman of the General Welfare Committee, charged with overseeing the Administration for Children's Services.

Thanks for showing your concern -- any concern at all -- for this matter by publicizing it in a press conference on January 28.  This was the date the Vera Institute's report came out, without the benefit of medical records.  You grasped immediately that the investigation was useless without those medical records, and promptly announced your commitment to getting the state and Columbia-Presbyterian to release them.  I imagine this is a difficult process involving more than a city councilman stating that they should be released.

In any case, you announced that you had submitted a resolution in the city council.  You had already done it.  However, no one I know has been able to locate this resolution.  Will you please direct me to it, as submitted to the council?

If it does not exist, please explain to me why you said it did at the time.

And what else are you doing to work for the release of those records?  Are you working behind the scenes in any confidential way?

What else do you propose to reform the city's child welfare system?

As I requested of you face-to-face after a Public Advocates' debate at Pace University in August, please see my Web site, www.askdeblasiowhy.com and respond to any of the questions I present to you there.  I am publicizing this Web site around the neighborhood, and some members of the Park Slope Food Co-op have told me they are very concerned.  This is not an attack, but a chance to respond, because my purpose is only to call renewed attention to the ICC scandal and the plight of those kids.  If I have distorted this issue in any way, I will apologize to the extent of the damage.  Publicly.  Without reservation.  And I will use this site and advertising in the neighborhood to support your campaign for Public Advocate if I know that you are sincere about helping the ICC children.  I have no public image to protect, only a cause to promote.

Will you help?

Also, what is your impression of Mark Green's involvement in child welfare issues when he was Public Advocate?  Subject to verification, I will be happy to report your comments on my Web site.  I am also contacting Mr. Green.

For the record -- as many people have asked me -- I am not working for any of the other candidates for public office.  This is the purest expression of citizen involvement in politics, as I am doing this as a concerned resident of your district.

Thanks for listening,

Elizabeth (Beth) Ely
Park Slope
718-704-9672