Voting in favor of it was Helen Foster of the Bronx , Alan Gerson of Manhattan, Letitia James of Brooklyn and Helen Sears of Queens.

Liz Crowley of Queens abstained [corrected]. The issue now goes before the full City Council where things may get interesting.

UPDATE: Vinny Ignizio, a Republican from Staten Island, said he opposes the renaming of a street in Queens after Sean Bell.

The first lady recently embraced paid sick days in a talk with the business leaders, according to the Times.

In the November 12 letter, the lawmakers said, “We believe that with the leadership of women like you all Americans will no longer have to make the choice between going to work or taking care of a loved one." It went on to say “we are inviting you to attend the New York City Council hearing on Tuesday, November 17th, at 1 PM to address the importance of cities like New York leading the way for the rest of the nation.”

Locally, the battle over paid sick days is one of the top priorities for the Working Families Party, and is proving to be a thorny issue for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose allies in labor support it, but whose friends in the business community oppose it. Whether or not Obama accepts the invitation, making the invitation public helps spread the impression that the White House backs this kind of legislation. And that's a notion advocates are likely to remind critics about.

The letter was co-signed by City Council members Gale Brewer, Letitia James, Melissa Mark Viverito, Annabel Palma, Jessica Lappin and Helen Foster.

The Katz campaign gathered outside City Hall for a very public photo-op in an effort to offset the notion that John Liu is the only candidate in the race with diverse support.

“I’m honored to have such a good relationship with the people I work with,” said Katz.

Attendees include Maria Baez, Annabel Palma, Maria del Carmen Arroyo, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Helen Foster, Julissa Ferreras, Diana Reyna and Miguel Martinez.

They posed for several photographs as a group, then broke up into smaller groups, presumably to produce pictures for use in more-targeted mailings later in the campaign. They’re all up for re-election this September.

City Councilwoman Helen Foster of the Bronx, who, like Stark, is African-American, said, “I think it’s clear there is a lack of diversity in his administration, and if you just walk into City Hall and look on his side of the hall, outside of his security, you’re pressed to find a person of color. So, that part of it is very simple. There is a lack of diversity."

City Councilwoman Letitia James said that Stark was “an exemplary public servant, highly knowledgeable and a great caretaker of the city's finances.” She also said that “Mayor Bloomberg's administration is looking more and more like Rocky Mountain High.”

Bloomberg’s spokespeople did not respond to questions surrounding Stark’s departure, and whether she was asked to leave. For the record, Stark's departure leaves at least two African-American commissioners in the Bloomberg administration. They are Roger Newman at the Mayor’s Office of Veteran Affairs, and Patricia Gatling at the Commission on Human Rights [added].

After voting in favor of the budget, Seabrook told me, “I didn’t put it in -- that was a mistake on their end,” referring to the Council staff.

A spokesman for the City Council explained the mistake, saying that Seabrook had initially asked for the money but later recsinded the request. That later request was not communicated to the Council staffers in time before the Schedule C document was published.

Another group erroneously listed is called “Man Up, Inc.,” which was slated to get $40,000 from City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn for “personnel, supplies, utilities, etc.” Mealy learned of the group’s “erroneous” funding when I approached her after voting for the budget. “This is the first time I’m seeing this,” she said. When Mealy made the remark, she had a stack of papers in her hands, including the public "note" released by the City Council saying the funding was listed erroneously. (The Council spokesman declined to comment on how she could have been taken by surprise.)

Among the other take-backs:

Parkville Youth Organization’s $5,000 for "sports uniforms and equipment” from City Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez of Brooklyn was withdrawn. According to the group’s web site, it is a “Not-for-Profit corporation chartered by the State of New York,” and has operated since 1963.

A $41,414 request by City Councilwoman Helen Foster for SCAN-New York Volunteer Parent-Aides Association Inc. was also withdrawn . The group had been listed as a fiscal conduit to other, unspecified local groups “within the 6th Council District” for “after school programs/summer camps” and other programs. The group is listed as a funding recipient of $300,000 from the state’s office of Children and Family Services.

A $10,000 request made by City Councilwoman Carmen Arroyo of the Bronx for the group called “For a Better Bronx” was withdrawn. According to their web site, the group works for “environmental justice and countering institutional racism.”

And a $51,714 request for funds made by City Councilwoman Maria Baez of the Bronx for the Alliance for Community Services to “fund trips and recreation activities” was withdrawn. The group is still slated to get a total of $146,500 for similar purposes, at Baez’s request.

In the meantime, it's a scene. Lobbyists have been a permanent fixture on the City Hall steps and in the City Hall rotunda for days, if not weeks, hounding lawmakers, staffers, and even reporters for any information.

Yesteday afternoon, I bumped into City Councilman Tony Avella across the street from City Hall. When I asked about the budget, he threw up his hands up--it seems he's waiting for information, just like the rest of us. Downstairs in the basement of City Hall, I saw Helen Foster and Diana Reyna walking by. When I asked if we had a budget deal yet, Foster said, “Am I a size 4 yet?”

So, if you want to know what’s going on, try prying information out of the City Council’s budget negotiating team [an earlier version left off some members]:

Robert Jackson

Gale Brewer

Melissa Mark Viverito

Dan Garodnick

Miguel Martinez

Melinda Katz

David Weprin

Helen Sears

Larry Seabrook

Maria del Carmen Arroyo

Maria Baez

Jimmy Oddo

Erik Dilan (Tish James sometimes substites for him)

Sara Gonzalez

Diana Reyna

Vinny Ignizio

Helen Foster

Tom White

Joel Rivera

Bill de Blasio

Lew Fidler

Inez Dickens

Leroy Comrie

Mike McMahon 

Velazquez supported Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, but endorsed Obama with the rest of the New York Congressional delegation yesterday.

Here’s what she said during an appearance on NBC's News Forum, which she and City Council member Helen Foster (an Obama supporter) taped earlier today. A partial transcript sent over by the station:

A story in the Riverdale Review (still not online!) this week quoted Foster’s father, the former Councilman in the area, at a February 7 meeting saying, “The last two borough presidents we've had were not and are not sympathetic to the black community.”

Helen Foster, who was at the meeting, defended the remarks. She told me in an interview yesterday afternoon, “In terms of Freddy Ferrer and Adolfo Carrion, I don’t think those statements need further explaining. It is what it is.”

She continued, “I think they have furthered the polarization between the black and Puerto Rican community in Bronx County.”

Proof?

“I think where you need to look is look in his office, and see who is hired and who is working on projects and see the projects he’s endorsed,” she said.

The Riverdale Review article had also quoted Foster saying, “Queens is the last plantation, and I'm not talking about the residents, I'm talking about the elected officials.”

That would be a reference to Queens Democratic County Leader Joe Crowley.

When asked about the comment, she told me, “I’m not limiting it to Joe Crowley. What I’m saying is it is a stronghold for people that are into County organizations and it’s an example to look to where the County leader controls how people vote, controls everything.”

UPDATE: When asked for comment, Ferrer emailed to say, "How very sad."

According to the group, the king of member items is David Weprin of Queens, who got $736,500 for his district by funding 31 projects there. Councilman Leroy Comrie, also of Queens, funded 80 projects for a total of $710,857.

The district with the fewest dollars brought into it is in Brooklyn, where the Council’s newest member, Mathieu Eugene funded 10 programs for a total of $46,500. Helen Foster of the Bronx funded just one project, but it was worth $102,187.

The full report is here.

Ask City Council member Helen Foster of the Bronx, who was among the first local officials to support Barack Obama.

Foster chatted with me on the City Hall steps just now about what it's been like to come out -- in opposition to the local establishment -- as an Obama supporter in New York.

“It’s absolutely exciting,” she said. “I have gotten more people coming up to me because they know I have been openly--as people come up to me and say, ‘out of the closet’ with Obama--people are excited. Young, old, you are seeing a swell in New York and I think that it’s a mistake for anybody to write him off in New York City and especially in Bronx County.”