Charles Barron is fuming at Mayor Bill de Blasio once again.
Months after he bashed the new mayor for naming Bill Bratton his police commissioner and allegedly not hiring enough minority candidates to top administration posts, the fiery former councilman attacked Mr. de Blasio today for not inviting him to a press conference in his former council district.
Mr. Barron blamed the snub on Mr. de Blasio’s “beef” with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg regarding who should get credit for the affordable housing development that officials broke ground on today.
“Don’t come disrespecting us because you got some beef with Bloomberg,” Mr. Barron told reporters after Mr. de Blasio spoke. “By having me there, he would have to say that it was passed in the City Council under my administration and this was just closing and we negotiated all affordability, we negotiated jobs, we negotiated the height of building, we negotiated the greening of the building.”
“So don’t come now and not even want to invite us because you don’t want me to say that, so that you and … your little battle with Bloomberg looks better when you come in here and say, ‘This is what we did.'” Mr. Barron continued. “No, you didn’t do that. We did. Our community did that and you should give credit where credit is due.”
Mr. Barron and his wife, Councilwoman Inez Barron, both attended today’s event and were given the chance to speak. Mr. Barron claimed, however, that he’d only found out about the event second-hand and that he was not invited to be included.
As the event began, Mr. Barron confronted Mr. de Blasio about the alleged snub and stood next to him at the podium.
Mr. de Blasio, smiling, brushed off the confrontation, and said at one point that Mr. Barron was helping him with “assertiveness training.”
Update (7:00 p.m.): A spokesperson for Mr. de Blasio said Ms. Barron was invited to speak at both the ground-breaking ceremony itself and the press conference. Ms. Barron was invited because she is the current councilwoman, a spokesman said.
