He's on board.

Governor Andrew Cuomo is not the only person praising his latest appointment to the MTA Board, his predecessor David Paterson. As the Daily News' Albany bureau chief Ken Lovett reported earlier today, Governor Paterson will be replacing trucker girl Nancy Shevell (whom The Observer wrote perhaps the definitive profile of last year). A number of transit advocates and even the head of the MTA greeted the appointment of the former governor as a promising sign for the too-often-troubled transportation agency.

"Once confirmed by the Senate, former Governor Paterson will bring a unique and practical perspective, particularly with respect to issues affecting minority communities and disabled New Yorkers," MTA executive director (and Cuomo appointee) Joe Lhota said in a statement. "I look forward to former Governor Paterson bringing to our board deliberations the charm, wit and compassion he has shown throughout his public life."

Mr. Lhota praised Governor Pateron's 35 years of public service, which, like Mr. Lhota's own, is seen as a hopeful sign that he could wrangle concessions out of a stingy legislature in the fare fights to come. "With another planned fare hike looming in January 2013, Paterson’s experience as a governor and state senator will prove critical to working with Albany lawmakers to find new funding for our transit system, sparing overburdened New Yorkers yet another fare hike,” said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives.

He pointed to the governor's record on the MTA, which had been widely lauded if for no other reason than his appointment of the well-respected Jay Walder, who was essentially cut loose by Governor Cuomo in favor of his guy. Governor Paterson also had his deputy governor Richard Ravitch work out a plan to at least temporarily solve the MTA's financial problems, though they did not stick, with those new cuts looming.

"Paterson knows well that straphangers can’t handle another hit to their wallets—as Governor, he saw New Yorkers endure back to back fare hikes and reap service cuts in return," Mr. White continued. He also created new funding for our transit system. If anyone knows New Yorkers are tired of paying more for less and how to find fairer ways to invest in transit, it’s David Paterson.”

Actually, with a record like that, you would begin to question him as an ally. Still, some believe he will be an important champion for minorities within the system. "The former governor will add badly needed diversity to the MTA board, and should make it more sensitive to the needs of African Americans and the disabled, among others," Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers campaign said.

As for the governor himself, he is already taking the job very seriously. On his radio show earlier today, one of Governor Paterson's producers asked if he would follow in Ms. Shevell's footsteps on the board. The governord smartly responded: "Two are dead. She's got Paul McCartney. That only leaves Ringo."

A wit like that may be just what the MTA needs to straighten out its absurdist thicket.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

"What I want to convey to them is, unfortunately, some of the realities of life are such that you will be discouraged sooner or later.  And in this case it will be sooner," he said.

Paterson said that he intends to cite his political career as an example, when he longed for over two decades to have the kind of decision-making ability that he inherited when he became governor in 2007, only to find once he got there that his abilities were extremely limited by the dire fiscal shape the state found itself in.

I kind of knew by October or November, by six months into office, that it was not likely that I would be coming back. It wasn't a foregone conclusion, but I could see that you upset people, that you cut health care, you cut education, doing layoffs, taxing the rich, I did it all. At least I was an equal opportunity offender. I pissed off everybody. And sometimes as difficult of times many of these students are going to face, there are always opportunities. So if there is no job there is still education. There are still libraries. They are free. There are still ways to make oneself relevant. So I want to be encouraging. 

Paterson also said that after his experience as governor it was unlikely that he would seek another office.

"It's not a burning desire. What would I run for?"

Police Scandal: "Police Headquarters and City Hall, where officials are preparing for a police scandal the likes of which the city has not felt in decades." [Murray Weiss]

2012: Trump "is making a fundamental miscalculation about what we can get away with." Critics wonder "has all [this] gone from being a cynical branding exercise to something a little darker and scarier?" [Josh Benson]

2012: Trump's birthe strategy angers a conservative. [WNYC]

Taxes: Paterson says they should go up, in Washington. [Anna Sale]

Same-Sex Marriage: Support rising, says Ellner. [Windy City]

Bloomberg's Third Term: Good news includes extension of No. 7 subway, technology sector and the economy. [Erik Engquist]

Pension Costs: 55 bills introduced to raise pension benefits. [Glenn Blain]

Pension Costs: Larry Littlefield doesn't like how the issue is covered. [Room 8]

Redistricting: it helps Democrats, says Sampson. [Nick Reisman]

Homeless NYC: 8 percent uptick in people in homeless shelter. Advocate numbers: 113,553 people, including 42,888 children. [CBS]

Matzah Connoisseur: John Liu. [Youtube]

Negative Ads: Students randomly aim at Cuomo. [loveski19]

Photos: Margaret Chin, Scott Stringer and others open a local baseball league in Manhattan.

Peter Brandt was also here, looking very sharp in a gray pinstriped double-breasted suit--no wonder he's back with his gorgeous wife! The whole week has been a Condé Nast bonanza; on Thursday we had Si Newhouse eating with Leonard Lauder, and on Monday CEO Chuck Townsend lunched with former Vogue publisher Tom Florio. And nearby Richard Beckman was eating with Alan Grubman!

Dolly Lenz was here, sharing crudités with two dark-suited gentlemen. She came in last week with Howard Lorber, but it was so crowded I had to have them wait 15 minutes for a table! They must have been discussing something important because they were drinking a really good red wine, which is a lot to handle in the middle of the day.

The prince arrived at his usual time, but he didn't like any of the tables that were available so he just shook his head and turned around and left. I think he went shopping. He was wearing a suit the color of split pea soup with a pale green tie and matching pochette--like a leprechaun!

Bethenny Frankel finally came but left the camera crew at home. She and her husband, Jason Hoppy, celebrated their one-year anniversary with a very quiet romantic dinner in the Grill--just the three of us, hee-hee. They drank pink Champagne, and she was all elegance in a cashmere sweater dress and pearls--but don't worry, I reminded her about the ice bucket and made sure it was available at all times.

Daphne Guinness was here on a date with her boyfriend, Bernard-Henri Lévy. I think he was celebrating his New York Times article about how he was responsible for rescuing all the Libyans. Ms. Guinness' blond hair looked like a crown, and she was wearing the most amazing shoes--they had no heel! Speaking of sartorial splendor, later this week I'm going in for a fitting for my starring role in Arbitrage at Michael Reslan's atelier. I can't wait--Richard Gere is going to look so shabby next to me in my fresh suit!

While most Albany observers seem to consider the new tool to be his administration's lasting legacy, the former governor said he was most proud of his stewardship over the state budget in the years leading up to last year's show-down.

Paterson noted that, despite a fiscal crisis that hit Wall Street disproportionately hard, New York never quite plummeted as far into the fiscals depths as California and some other states did, and never had to downgrade its all-important credit rating.

"In terms of saving the public grief, that's what I consider to be, I guess you could call it, my best legacy," he told me.

Paterson listed a number of accomplishments he counts with pride--the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, the Rockefeller Drug Law reform, the addition of Tier V--but he also lamented the fact he didn't have time to properly assemble a staff upon taking office, and that he never paused to do a complete "diagnostic" of the team he inherited.

"My regret is that if I had to do it over again--coming in on March 17--first I passed a budget, so I was living crisis to crisis," he said. "Sometimes you've just got to stop the clock, do a review of who wants to stay and who wants to leave. Because some people, quietly, they were just shattered. They had devoted themselves to Governor Spitzer, and then in a flash he was gone, in such a high-profile way. And they tried, but in a month or two, they were gone. So my inner staff was changing, I'd say month to month."

Paterson rejected the notion--advanced by some--that his blindness might have plagued the management of his administration, though he conceded that some of the obstacles, like having to memorize his speeches, made his job more difficult.

"There was one period in 2009, when in a 30-hour period, I made 17 presentations," he said. "After that, I was almost incapacitated. And you know, it took a long time, the State of the State was 63 minutes and I took--I don't know--50 hours to do that.

"You know, I'm sure there were times when my blindness got in the way, it certainly did. But if there were problems with my management style, maybe I just had problems with management," he said.

"That was exactly what I would resent: Anything that went wrong got blamed--it was almost like they were saying, you all should never have picked a blind lieutenant governor in the first place. All these people who say this will go out and campaign like they want equality for the disabled. So I think they're actually hypocrites."

The withering attacks on his disability spurred some of Paterson's post-politics endeavors.

"Nobody likes to be criticized and often bashed, and I was so shocked at the way I thought I was treated by Saturday Night Live, that I actually went to work consulting for the National Federation for the Blind when I left office just so I could lend my voice to those who are trying to even the playing field for that segment of the disabled community. That actually stunned me," he said.

Paterson has never been involved in blindness advocacy organizations before, but said he's enjoying it. He recently appeared at the office of Brooklyn Congressman Ed Towns for a press conference with the N.F.B., and said his own experience serves an inspiration.

"The idea that I ever served as governor, it's explosive to them," Paterson said. "It really heightens their morale. The National Federation for the Blind really uses that to encourage people."

Asked about his appointment of Kirsten Gillibrand to the U.S. Senate--a controversial pick that was ratified by voters in November--Paterson rattled some numbers off the top of his head. According to Paterson, governors have made 41 Senate appointments since 1960, with 22 losing and 19 winning.

"Gillibrand is in the top five of being appointed by the governor and having it ratified by the public, in other words her percentage victory was in the top five," Paterson said. "And I was able to replace Hillary Clinton with a woman--which if there wasn't a woman capable enough, I wouldn't have--but since I had one, I thought that was a great idea. And she was from upstate, where we hadn't had a senator from in 43 years. So I think the public vindicated me on that one."

What Paterson's level of political involvement might be going forward is a question that remains unanswered. He attended the Inner Circle dinner on Saturday night, where he got a chance to chat with old Albany friends, and said he very much enjoyed Mayor Bloomberg's performance alongside the cast of Mamma Mia.

"I'd seen previous mayors, they'd have a couple of cast members come on, and that kind of thing, but that was a production," he said.  "I was tired, and I almost left. I'm really glad I stayed. I felt like I had gotten a free ticket to something, and you know how I don't really like to get free tickets."

As for whether he might stand for office again, should his legacy ever come to be viewed in a suitably positive light?

"You never say never," Paterson said, before citing how much he's enjoying his work with the N.F.B., his teaching at N.Y.U., and the possibility of getting involved in energy policy. "At least right now, that's what's exciting. But you really never know what's going to happen. I didn't know I was going to be governor until a couple hours before."

Despite a "dismal" record in office, David Paterson (along with another predecessor, George Pataki) "helped blaze the path that Cuomo followed," wrote the Post's state editor, Fred Dicker, who had previously accused Mr. Paterson of lying about everything from smearing Caroline Kennedy to accepting free World Series tickets.

The ironic circumstances of this minor correction to the legacy of the former governor--who left office with a 32 percent approval rating--by one of his fiercest critics is not lost on Mr. Paterson himself.

"Oh my Lord, there is a God," Mr. Paterson laughed upon being told of Mr. Dicker's grudging praise on Tuesday afternoon.

Last year, long after Mr. Paterson had ceased to be a credible candidate for governor--but while he still had seven months left in the term he was serving as Eliot Spitzer's replacement--he and his budget director stumbled upon a strategy for forcing its budget cuts upon the recalcitrant Legislature: If legislators wanted the money to keep state government afloat while they debated their own budget well past the April 1 deadline--through the so-called "extender bills"--they would have to approve Mr. Paterson's reductions.

For four heady weeks, Mr. Paterson was on the offensive against a Legislature that had taken to ignoring him, and was able to ram through a package of corrective cuts, followed by a big omnibus extender that finally prompted the Legislature to write its own budget, much of which he selectively vetoed.

It was an amazing thing to be a part of, apparently.

"It was a game-changer," Mr. Paterson said. "It really shocked everybody."

And it had come about because of a miscommunication, after his budget director, Robert Megna, suggested that his stopgap measures were already stripped down.

"So one time I said in a radio interview--about a month and a half late--that people shouldn't worry because it's a bare-bones budget and we're getting cuts now," Mr. Paterson explained. "In other words, we're already reducing spending even though we haven't passed a budget yet.

"So Megna calls me up and says, 'You can't say that because that's not exactly what we're doing.' He said, 'We're just not adding anything.'

"So I said, 'In other words, we're continuing the same spending level?'

"He said, 'Yeah.'"

This bothered Mr. Paterson, who would now have to squeeze a year's worth of cuts into almost 10 months.

"I said, 'Well, why can't we put the cuts in?'" he recalled.

Mr. Megna, according to Mr. Paterson, cautioned that the tactic had never been tried before.

"In my interpretation of Albany, when someone says that, it means it's time to do it," Mr. Paterson said.

The administration vetted the idea through their legal counsel, which researched the history of extenders in the context of the broad authority granted the governor under the Silver v. Pataki decision in 2004.

It looked legal enough.

So, emboldened by a prior win in his fight to appoint a lieutenant governor, and having already decided not to run for reelection, Mr. Paterson began including them.

On Sunday, in the Red Room of the Capitol, Mr. Cuomo announced his deal to close a $10 billion budget deficit, an agreement he was able to compel the Legislature to accept in no small part because of the threat of using the Paterson-conceived budget-extender trick to threaten a government shutdown for which the lawmakers would almost certainly be blamed.

"It's almost like [Paterson] snuck in this strengthening of the governorship, right at the end," said Doug Forand, a longtime adviser in Albany, who is now working on behalf of rent regulations. "And this is his legacy item. This is the thing above all else, coming off his tenure as governor, that is going to change how Albany does business, and I'm not sure it was intended to be that."

This year, in the hands of a powerful executive with staggering poll numbers, the game of chicken devised by Mr. Paterson wasn't much of a game.

In private conference meetings, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver urged his members to take the meager restorations Mr. Cuomo was offering rather than test the mettle of the popular governor.

Some legislators objected to the strident focus on such a hard-and-fast deadline.

"I think it's important for people to understand that timeliness is not the most important thing about a budget," said Dick Gottfried, one of the longest-serving members of the Assembly. "I think the substance of the budget is at least as important."

Although Mr. Gottfried said he planned to vote for the budget, he worried about the shifting power dynamic.

"I think 200-plus years ago, the Founders had a pretty good idea about balancing power in the government," he said. "I think the Silver v. Pataki court decision and its aftermath has really undermined the checks-and-balances concept."

Mr. Paterson said he agreed with that kind of criticism, at least in theory.

"I actually think, believe it or not, as the architect of this, that they're right," said Mr. Paterson, who cited the chronically late budgets as a "catalyst" for the public's negative opinion of Albany. "This isn't the best government; I actually think it's a blunt instrument. ... But these critiques are coming out of the mouths of people who were willing to let the budget go until August of last year. And now they're going to give us a lecture on government?"

"It's kind of nuclear deterrence," said Carol Kellerman, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, who said Mr. Paterson would be an "unsung hero" if Mr. Cuomo's budget deal does get certified on time.

Whether history will sing Mr. Paterson's praises is another matter.

"Someone is floating that it's all Cuomo's idea," noted Ms. Kellerman, "which shows how great it is, that now everyone is trying to take credit."

Ms. Kellerman was referring to Monday's New York magazine cover story, which reported that the current governor had been working through Mr. Paterson even before taking office, and had "quietly encouraged" the outgoing governor to set a precedent he could use to balance future budgets.

That was news to Mr. Paterson.

"Nobody knew that we were going to do this," he told The Observer. "Nobody suggested this to us. This is just something we did."

For his part, the former governor says he found Mr. Cuomo's new-and-improved use of his extender tricks to have been masterful.

"He's gone through the entire budget process, which usually cuts everyone down to size and he's still prevailing," Mr. Paterson said.

The two have spoken a handful of times since Mr. Cuomo took office, and Mr. Paterson insisted there are no hard feelings, even though the two were briefly rivals.

Now that the "rumors and innuendo" have faded, Mr. Paterson sensed that people might be able to begin considering his own record as a government official, "rather than as a cartoon character in the newspapers."

"When there's a great deal of scrutiny on a lot of things, as there was with me, it blurs some of the areas that you would like people to focus on," he said. "And you know, perhaps with risking a second glance, there were a number of things that we were able to accomplish that will stand for a long period of time."

Mr. Paterson said he began to feel a growing goodwill even before he left office. In the fall, he was at the Crossgates Mall in Albany with some longtime friends who were surprised at the number of people who wanted photographs and autographs, despite all the governor's bad press.

"This one kid comes up and he's looking at me and he shakes
my hand, and I don't see anybody with a camera," Mr. Paterson said. "And he says, 'Hi, how are you?' And I said, 'I'm fine how are you?'

"And he says, 'You're Mr. Cuomo, right?'"

rpillifant@observer.com

"I really like the task forces he put together to give people a chance to air their differences to each other personally, which I think is actually brilliant," Paterson said yesterday in Brooklyn.

"What the governor is doing is, he's not just thinking about the 2011-2012 budget, he's thinking about the next three years. The state owes somewhere between 50 million and 60 million dollars," he said. "So, as much people see this problem as immediate, this problem is going to be here. And he's trying to cut into it so that it will replicate into those years and I think he's doing a really good job."

The former governor surfaced in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon to join the National Federation of the Blind in presenting an award to Congressman Ed Towns. Towns recently passed a new law that will study how best to implement noise-making technology on the new breed of quiet, hybrid cars, which can make it difficult for blind people to navigate intersections.

(Towns' connection to the blind community stretches back five decades; he served as a cane teacher after leaving the Army in the 1960s, and bragged that he had been given the most difficult students, who were often still adjusting to their blindness.)

Paterson underscored the need for the noise-making technology in talking about his own transition to private life, which he had publicly worried might be difficult without his state aides.

"Personally, I would say--oddly enough--everything is going fine except the other day I was crossing the street and this other pedestrian stopped, and so I stopped, and a bike flew by," he said. "Which reminded me that I was never really afraid of the cars. I was afraid of being hit by a bicycle, because you can't hear them."

But there are parts of private life he is enjoying. Asked about the overheated rhetoric between Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg last week, Paterson said: "It was great, because I didn't have to be in it."

And he said he's enjoying his new teaching position at N.Y.U., where they've been rotating him through different schools to give more students a chance to interact with him.

"I've done a leadership seminar, I've done a civil rights seminar, and I'm going to do one called How to Make Budgeting Interesting," he said with a laugh.

This letter, from former Governor Paterson is hanging on the wall in the New York Observer's conference room. In it, Paterson politely declines my publisher's $5 Starbucks giftcard, due to the strict nature of Albany's ethics rules.

I officially start here tomorrow, but couldn't resist sharing that one. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll have newsier information to post. In the meantime, if you have a tip, suggestions, a tip, gossip, a tip, photo, a tip, a video, or a tip you'd like to share, let me know. I'm at apaybarah[at]observer.com, @azipaybarah on the Twitter, or just stick it in the comments section.

A report released today says that one of every 11 legislators who left office since 1999 has done so on account of ethical or criminal charges, making it more common reason than being voted out of office as a impetus for legislative turnover.

"One would think in a democracy, electoral defeat would be the major reason for a change in representation in the legislature," said Rachael Fauss, policy and research manager at Citizens Union. "Yet since 1999, more legislators have left their seats because of retirement or a private sector job than through losing a competitive election."

Between 2005 and 2010, the number of government officials who have left office due to ethical or criminal misconduct has more than tripled from the previous six-year period. During this time period, 13 government officials left office in scandal, showing a massive jump since the 1999-2004, where only four legislators left office for such reasons.

The study, produced by good government group Citizens Union, comes on the heels of Rep. Chris Lee's recent resignation after shirtless photos surfaced of him contacting a woman through CraigsList.

In the wake of the report, Citizens Union is calling for a quick passage of ethics legislation to prevent further occurrences.

"This acceleration of criminal and ethical misconduct among our state's elected officials over the past four years is alarming and needs strong corrective action," said Citizens Union executive director Dick Dadey.

"If there ever was a need to address this crime wave of misconduct, the time is now to enact meaningful ethics reform," Dadey said.

Former governors Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson are cited in the report for their respective scandals, along with former comptroller Alan Hevesi who accepted a plea bargain for defrauding the government. State Senator Hiram Monserrate received special mention for being the first legislator to be ousted by the legislature itself as opposed to outside legal authorities.

The report was released shortly before State Senate Democrats held a press conference detailing their six-point ethics package that they hope will be brought up for debate in coming weeks.

By way of comparison, the New York Department of Labor says that the state lost 15,600 private-sector jobs from August to September.

"I am pleased to join BlackRock in announcing this expansion of good paying financial services jobs in New York City," Governor Paterson said in a statement.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, meanwhile, said, "BlackRock believes it is important to continue to strengthen our ties with the State."

Strengthening ties makes sense, we guess, when you manage trillions in assets related to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and other government-affiliated credit-crisis strategies. But still, this whole thing is kind of weird. Why would BlackRock publicly commit to hiring more people over the course of next year, why would the government single them out for doing so, and why would the addition of 200 jobs over the course of next year -- when the state unemployment rate sits at a sickly 8 percent? What's the game here?

We reached out to the governor's office and will update should we hear back.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor