Always The Forgotten Borough

Teamwork means reaching across the aisle — or down Pennsylvania Avenue — so that you can build the coalitions needed to get things done:

Congestion pricing has been touted as a boon for the entire city, yet no one from Staten Island is included on a commission to study the controversial plan.

A search of official records indicates that the 17-member panel announced yesterday by city and state politicians has no one who either lives on the Island or represents it.

The revelation infuriated several of the borough’s elected officials, who ultimately would vote on the plan in the City Council and state Legislature.

“What that has done is made a very difficult sell to the people of Staten Island nearly impossible,” said City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn).

Oddo contended the commission would lack a voice defending the needs of the Island, where commuters generally feel mass transportation alternatives are lacking and tolls are too expensive.

“Can you imagine Manhattan not being represented?” he asked. “Can you imagine the [former Mayor Rudolph] Giuliani administration creating a 17-member commission of whatever that didn’t include a Staten Islander?”

. . .

Oddo was not alone in his outrage.

State Sen. Diane Savino and Councilman Michael McMahon, both North Shore Democrats, also slammed the composition of the group.

“We are the most under-served and most overlooked constituency by mass transit, and again we are getting short shrift here,” Ms. Savino said.

Amateur Guitarists Everywhere Are Wondering Whether Open-Mic Nights Might Be Next

Governor Spitzer turns his finely tuned ear towards the inherent fraudulence of cover bands:

Knockoff music acts that impersonate the real performers can face fines up to $15,000 under a new law in New York.

“Music artists work for years to build names for themselves in the entertainment industry,” Gov. Spitzer said yesterday after signing the amendments to the Arts and Cultural Affairs Law. “We should not allow others to impersonate their work and profit from that deception.”

Called the “Truth in Music Advertising Law,” it prohibits copycat performances that attempt to cash in through false and misleading representations like names, billings and promotions similar to the original artists.

The measure was inspired when well-known recording artists like the Platters, the Coasters and the Drifters suffered financial losses when their acts and routines were copied without permission, according to the governor’s office.

State Law Stops The Inexorable Flier

A state law went into effect yesterday that allows property owners to opt out of receiving unwanted fliers and circulars:

If menus madden and advertisements annoy, city dwellers will soon be able to stop them before they land on their doorsteps, thanks to a state law that hit the books yesterday.

The pizzeria, barber shop or delicatessen down the street will be banned from dropping its advertisements at buildings that post a sign saying unauthorized fliers are not welcome. Violators will rack up fines ranging from $250 to $1,000 per violation.

Sponsors of the law say the circulars not only create litter but are also a safety hazard. “You leave your house for three days, you come home and there’s 11 fliers on your lawn,” said Assemb. Mark Weprin (D-Little Neck). “Then people know nobody’s home.”

The city will wait to enforce the law until the Legislature reconvenes in the fall, Weprin said.

That’s because city lawmakers want to modify the law for multifamily buildings. Under the change, if some tenants still want menus, the owner can post a sign indicating how many residents want the advertisements and where they should be dropped.

Be Sure To Stop By Sally’s In New Haven On Your Way . . .

Islanders go to great lengths to protect the honor of their womenfolk:

A father-and-son team who resemble Ward and Beaver Cleaver more than they do a pair of thugs took a 159-mile road trip from Eltingville for the express purpose of threatening a teenager at knifepoint, authorities said yesterday.

“If you ever go near my girl friend again, I’ll slice you up,” the 16-year-old Eltingville teen told another youth in a East Windsor, Conn., supermarket parking lot Sunday night, said East Windsor Police Detective Matt J. Carl.

The teen made the trip with his father, Donald DeOrio, 48, of the 100 block of Augusta Ave., “just to threaten the guy and pull a knife on him” in response to the girl’s call that she’d had a fight with her boy friend, Carl said.

Cops reported finding six knives and a pair of black handcuffs in the car, and some clothes packed into a duffel bag.

The father and son were arrested, along with the girl.

East Windsor, a town of 10,000 in north-central Connecticut, is at least three hours by car from Staten Island. It’s about 13 miles north of Hartford, and another 13 miles south of the Massachusetts border.

The Eltingville teen met with the girl, then confronted the boy in the parking lot of Geissler’s Supermarket just before 8 p.m., Carl said.

. . .

Someone called 911, and the boy was able to give police a description of the vehicle the teens rode off in.

Cops tracked the car, with DeOrio at the wheel, on Route 140, near the border of East Windsor and Windsor Locks, Carl said.

What, Frighted With False Fire?

As city officials stumble upon even more impressive ways to waste money (a $114,762 electricity bill for a building not even open, for example*), one of the better Leona Helmsley anecdotes is resurrected:

In 235 counts in state and federal indictments, the Helmsleys were accused of using money from their hotel and real estate empires to buy a $1 million marble dance floor above a swimming pool, a $210,000 mahogany card table and $500,000 worth of jade objets d’art. Mrs. Helmsley was also charged with defrauding Helmsley stockholders by receiving $83,333 a month in secret consulting fees.

Mr. Helmsley, then 80 and suffering deficiencies in reasoning and memory, was found mentally unfit to stand trial. As Mrs. Helmsley was tried, a series of prosecution witnesses described a spiteful, extravagant, foul-mouthed woman who terrified her underlings. In the most celebrated line of testimony, a former Helmsley housekeeper testified that Mrs. Helmsley had once told her, “Only the little people pay taxes.”

*They must not have gotten to the David Owens’ piece in last week’s New Yorker that refutes the argument for security lighting; maybe it’s still sitting next to the leaky toilet?