“The mayor is getting tired of pushing and pushing from the sidelines and then be[ing] criticized in public by the chancellor . . . This relationship is on its last legs.” AN INFLUENTIAL ADMINISTRATION INSIDER
Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew is as good as gone, an influential administration insider has told The Post.
“It’s over and it’s only a question of time before Crew leaves,” said the high-level insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The mayor is getting tired of pushing and pushing from the sidelines and then be[ing] criticized in public by the chancellor.
“The fact is, we’ve had to push the chancellor every step of the way … This relationship is on its last legs.”
Giuliani’s communications director, Cristyne Lategano, tried to downplay the official’s statements, saying: “I think it’s somebody speaking for himself … We’re not pushing him out.”
But at a news conference in Central Park, Giuliani didn’t give a single word of encouragement to Crew and eventually told reporters he wouldn’t answer any more questions about the chancellor.
“Rudy Crew should present an agenda for reform. That is the only thing that will impress me now,” Giuliani said.
The mayor earlier said he wouldn’t take responsibility if Crew threw in the towel, saying: “People have to make their own decisions about what jobs they want, what jobs they don’t want.”
Told by reporters that the mayor didn’t express any confidence in the chancellor’s leadership of the schools system, Crew said: “I have confidence in my leadership … I don’t work for the mayor. I work for the Board of Education.”
He also denied he plans to leave.
“No, I’m not on my way out. I can guarantee that.”
Over the last month, the two have battled over Giuliani’s support of taxpayer-funded school vouchers to subsidize private-school tuition and the mayor’s proposal to “blow up” the Board of Education and replace it with a system run by a mayoral appointee.
At a scheduled Board of Education meeting in its Brooklyn headquarters, Crew initially ignored a crush of reporters but then returned to answer questions about his future.
“I can work with the mayor,” Crew said. “I’ve always been able to work with the mayor and continue to want to do that.”
Deputy Mayor Ninfa Segarra, a mayoral appointee to the board, said she was also hopeful that the two Rudys could hammer out their differences.
“I think they will be able to mend it,” she said.
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, who also wants to abolish the board, said he wants Crew to stay.
“We should do everything we possibly can to keep him here. It’s a very frustrating situation – I can understand that – for everyone concerned,” Vallone said.
Crew’s spokeswoman, Chiara Coletti, expressed frustration over reports the chancellor is on his way out.
“Who’s planting this rumor that he’s resigning?” she asked reporters.
“It’s got to be coming from somewhere.”
Crew has also been unsuccessfully trying since Tuesday morning to schedule a sitdown meeting with the mayor this week, Coletti said.
“The mayor’s a busy man,” she said with a laugh.
Lategano said Crew canceled his weekly Monday meeting with the mayor and that the two men would meet next Monday.