Before I became a journalist seven years ago, I always viewed politicians as people who are elected into office by their peers to represent us in City, State and Federal Government and ensure that our interests, concerns and needs are something they will dedicate their entire tenure in office to fighting for. Over the last seven years, both as a journalist and a member of City Government – I have discovered that some politicians’ priorities are definitely not the interests and concerns of their constituents – but to get their name and face in the paper as much as possible – and to take credit for things that they have absolutely nothing at all to do with.

For probably the millionth time since he was sworn in as State Senator of the 21st Senatorial District on February 15, 1994, Carl Kruger has made a career out of “voicing his concern” about local issues and “making a difference” when it comes to problems in his district, when in all reality – he has done nothing but come to local meetings and take pictures with community leaders that I am sure he does not even remember the next day, and telling the papers that something is wrong and he is going to do “everything in his power” to fix it. As a journalist, I have taken many pictures of the esteemed Senator with the aforementioned community leaders he no doubt forgets the next day – but for the first time last week, I had the pleasure of being on the Legislative end of Carl Kruger’s latest “concern”.

There is a fifty foot stretch of privately owned land along Knapp Street and Allen Avenue in Brooklyn, New York that for the last God-knows-how-many years, has been nothing but a grassy hill that slopes down into the beginning of Gerritsen Creek. While there is a highway guardrail along a ten foot stretch of the land along Knapp Street, another twenty or thirty feet of the land, which stretches along both Knapp Street and Allen Avenue – is unprotected. Suddenly seeing this as “dangerous” to his constituents – although it has been this way since he took office in 1994 – he held a Press Conference at the site and stated that the area is, “a tragedy waiting to happen.” He further stated that the Department of Transportation and the Department of Buildings, “are unwilling to fix it.”

While Senator Kruger’s statement to the press was printed verbatim because Lord forbid our fine collection of New York journalists bother to fact check all the “news” they fine fit to print – his statement was an almost mirror image of his seven years as State Senator – a complete fallacy.

First of all, the Department of Buildings (DOB) does not have the jurisdiction to erect a structure on privately owned land. Second, highway guardrails fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation (DOT). And third – perhaps if the Senator would take the time to research what each agency does – he would have a little more knowledge of the Government he is supposed to represent.

When the story appeared on Friday in one of our City’s ethically challenged daily “news”papers entitled, “Pol Gets Runaround On Street Peril Fix For Marine Park” – both DOB and DOT were portrayed as “passing the buck” – because when a Senator that makes a career out of bashing City agencies gets interviewed by a “news”paper that thinks N-E-W-S stands for, “Non Ethical Wasteful Stories” – City agencies have no chance in Hell.

When the “story” appeared in Friday’s paper, I received a call from a local television morning “news” program who told me that they were going to interview the Senator Monday morning at the location in question. The morning news program is as ethically challenged as the paper that printed this story in the first place – no wonder it was the only television program to pick up the “story”. The “reporter” that was going to do this “story” is by far the worst reporter to ever grace the airwaves in the history of broadcast media. In his many years as a journalist – if he even deserves that title – he never learned that a true reporter does not editorialize or give their opinion on the story they are reporting. That might explain why he has been at the same job for over ten years and never offered another position.

So both myself and my counterpart at DOT had a dilemma. We could do nothing and let the Senator go on TV Monday morning and say that he contacted us and we did nothing – or – we could do something – but what?

While everyone was pondering what we could do, I had a suggestion – DOT could extend the guardrail that was already in place from one end of the property to another. So got all my paperwork together and headed over to DOT to try and convince the Commissioner of DOT to consider my proposal.

When I met with the DOT Commissioner, I had photos, documents and pros and cons to back up my suggestion. I did realize, however, before I even headed to DOT, that I had absolutely no authority to tell the DOT Commissioner to erect a guardrail. I am simply a Press Secretary from a different agency with no authority in any other agency, including DOT. I just hoped that by explaining the situation and giving her both sides of the “spin” – that she saw my idea as a viable solution to a “created” problem – she did.

The next morning, DOT officials erected a guardrail and sealed off the property on Knapp Street and Allen Avenue – and Senator Kruger took all of the credit.

Personally, I don’t care if he claims he did it – because I will forever look at that guardrail and know that I was the one who convinced DOT to erect it – and I will also forever know that Senator Carl Kruger cannot accomplish anything on his own – so he has to create “concerns” and whine to the press loud enough so the agency that handles his “concern” can fix it, while he tells the world that it was his “power” that rectified the situation. I will also forever know that this type of politician is the reason why voter turnout is less and less with each election, because when a politician goes from a representative of the people to a self-promoting camera hog – the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.

The one thing that I will never know, however – is how this man keeps getting re-elected.