Sometimes It’s A Matter Of Blood Flow

And you need a little blue pill to direct democracy in the right direction:

The bills follow some of the recommendations made by the Quadrennial Advisory Commission, a panel with members chosen by Mayor Bill de Blasio, convened to assess lawmakers’ salaries. They include recommendations that Council seats be reclassified as full-time jobs, and institute limitations on most forms of outside income. The bills also accept the suggestion of eliminating “lulus,” the small bonuses given to committee leaders.

But the amount of the raise is notably higher than what the commission suggested — an increase of about 23 percent, to $138,315, from their current base pay of $112,500 — and some feared that the higher salaries might be a result of a different sort of concession, tied to the mayor’s plan to shrink the horse-carriage industry in Manhattan.

The machinations to sign off on the pay bill were occurring under a deadline of sorts: Because the bills were finalized by the end of the day on Thursday, they could be voted on next Friday, the same day the Council is expected to vote on the horse-carriage plan.

Several Council officials described a full-court press by City Hall, including from Mr. de Blasio’s top political adviser, Emma Wolfe, to secure Council support for the horse-carriage bill, an initiative that has been a top goal of wealthy political supporters of the mayor, a Democrat.

The City Hall officials were said to be focusing on city lawmakers alarmed by a hearing last week, where administration officials could not answer basic questions about some of the bill’s provisions, like the cost of a new stable in Central Park.

The apparent timing of the votes came despite the objections of some Council members, who believed it created an unseemly appearance, and could undermine what they believe is the sound policy of the pay bill, according to several people familiar with the conversations.

Asked about the timing of the two bills being voted on together, Councilman David Greenfield, a Brooklyn Democrat, said, “I don’t think it reflects well on us.”