Hizzoner Prefers Free Cell

A City employee was fired after the Mayor saw an open game of Solitaire on his computer:

Mayor Bloomberg had a city clerical worker fired after visiting his office — and getting enraged when he saw a solitaire card game on his computer, The Post has learned.

Edward Greenwood IX was canned last Tuesday from his approximately $30,000-a-year job with no warning or severance pay after six years working in the city’s Albany lobbying office.

A source told The Post that Bloomberg was fuming after he made a rare visit to the office a few blocks from the Capitol before Gov. Pataki’s Jan. 4 State of the State speech — and spotted a game on the employee’s computer.

In an interview yesterday at his home just 10 miles outside of Albany, Greenwood, who is married and has a 3-year-old son, admitted he had a solitaire screen on his computer during the mayor’s visit, but said he was “running around working” and not playing the game at the time.

. . .

A few hours later, Greenwood recalled, he overheard his boss, chief city lobbyist Anthony “Skip” Piscitelli, telling a co-worker that the mayor was upset someone had been playing solitaire at work.

“Skip seemed upset, but no one talked to me about it directly,” Greenwood told The Post. “I know I’m not the only one who ever played solitaire there.”

Aside: Who knew the City had an office in Albany?

A source familiar with Bloomberg’s visit to the office confirmed the mayor hit the roof about the computer game, as well as believing that the office was too spacious.

A few weeks after Bloomberg’s visit, Greenwood, who is a non-union employee, was suddenly axed by Piscitelli and an official from the city personnel office.

“They told me to pack up as fast as I can and get out,” Greenwood said yesterday. “I was kind of shocked at the expedience of the whole thing.”