NYC COMPTROLLER | 4th Annual FOCEA Reunion, Florida

FOCEA, Florida 2019. L to R: Eric Wollman, John Tepper Marlin,
Steve Newman. Photo by Alice Tepper Marlin.

January 27, 2019–Today we had the fourth annual Florida meeting of the Former Office of the Comptroller Employees Association, which goes by the name of FOCEA.

Eric Wollman (in the Kingsborough Community College shirt, not to be confused with the Kansas City Chiefs) has joined Steve Newman and John Tepper Marlin in retirement from the Office of the Comptroller. Eric wondered whether he should retire the FOCEA name. No, we said.

We talked about how hard it was to figure out 2018 taxes, and how some people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are going to be (or already are) nastily surprised by the impact of the anti-blue-state cap of $10,000 on state and local taxes in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of December 2017. There has long been a steady stream of retirees to Florida and this will encourage the flow.

Previous FOCEA Florida meetups (number of former employees): 1st (2), 2016 . 2nd (3), 2017 . 3rd (2), 2018

COMPTROLLER'S OFFICE | 3rd FOCEA VB Reunion, 2018

FOCEA meets again at Citron Bistro, Vero Beach, Florida. L to R: Eric Wollman,
John Tepper Marlin. Photo by Alice Tepper Marlin.

January 28, 2018 – On this date, Eric Wollman, the founder of FOCEA, the Former Office of the [New York City] Comptroller Employees Association, paid his annual visit to Vero Beach, Florida. This is our 3rd annual reunion.

Last year we had with us former 1st Deputy Comptroller Steve Newman (http://bit.ly/2EkNo01). This year it was back to the two of us.

Eric and I had lunch with Alice Tepper Marlin at Citron Bistro on the Barrier Island of Vero Beach, off A1A near the Indian River Shores Village Hall.

Eric attends the annual Uniformed Services Patch Collectors' meeting in Titusville, Florida, and then drives down to visit on his way to relatives farther south. I asked him whether FOCEA would continue to exist now that he himself is retired and was heart-broken to discover that in his own retirement Eric is losing touch with retirees.

Can anything be done?  Meanwhile, I will continue to post on informal FOCEA get-togethers, such as the one with my successor as Chief Economist, Frank Braconi, last year (http://bit.ly/2Gv2hhi).

Here is a story from Eric Wollman about the retirement this month of Yvette Hibbert, whom I knew well at the Comptroller's Office:

NYC COMPTROLLER | 2nd Annual Florida Meeting

Standing, L to R: Steve Newman and
Eric Wollman. Seated: John Tepper
Marlin. Photo by Alice Tepper Marlin.

The second annual Florida meeting of the Former Office of the Comptroller Employees Association (FOCEA) took place in Vero Beach, Fla., with a 50 percent increase in attendance over last year! That is, attendance of full members rose from two to three:

• Deputy Director, Contracts, Bureau of Asset Management, Eric Wollman, Esq.
• Former First Deputy Comptroller Steve Newman.
• Former Chief Economist John Tepper Marlin. 

The combined number of years of NYC Comptroller's Office service of those attending the Florida meeting was 40+24+13=79.

The meeting occurs annually during the week following a collectors' convention in Titusville, Fla. But this is not a rule–FOCEA has no rules.

The meeting started at 12:30 pm with drinks, chips and avocado dip, and continued with crusted tuna slices and salad, finishing with blueberries and ice cream and coffee.

Spouses, FOCEA Florida Meetup, 2017. L to R:
Alice Tepper Marlin, Rosemary Polsky-Newman.
Photo by JT Marlin.

The main topic was Transitions, it being the end of the first week of the Trump Administration.

(The lineup of NYC Mayors and Comptrollers is unchanged from the 40-year list shown in the 2016 meeting report.)

The attendance of spouses doubled, from one to two:

• Rosemary Polsky-Newman.
• Alice Tepper Marlin.

The meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm. 

More photos
2016 Florida FOCEA Meeting.
1992-93 NYC Gatherings.

NYC COMPTROLLER | Eric Wollman of FOCEA

Eric Wollman
Not an ol' man.
On way to Delray
Via A1A.
Clerihew by JT Marlin;
Eric is dubious.

January 31, 2016–I am down in Florida for a few weeks and had the pleasure of a visit today from Eric Wollman, Esq., on the road, traveling from a convention in Titusville, Fla. to see a relative in Delray Beach. Our location is en route, if you go the scenic route on  A1A.

That's Eric on the left, in front of where we are staying. He drives the activities of the Former Office-of-the-Comptroller Employees Association (FOCEA). The Comptroller in this case is the Comptroller of the City of New York.

As the holder of the CEO spot and (so far as I was able to elucidate) every other office at FOCEA, Eric's responsibilities are to notify former employees of the Comptroller's Office when retirement parties are happening.

FOCEA operates on the motto: "No dues, no rules, no meetings." You could count retirement parties as meetings, but FOCEA adheres rigorously to its announced mission by restricting itself to publicizing these meetings, not organizing them.

Eric and your Blogger. Selfie by JT Marlin.

I have occasionally posted on the activities of the Comptroller, where I worked in 1992-2006 as Chief Economist (and for a time Senior Policy Adviser) to three elected Comptrollers–Liz Holtzman, Alan Hevesi and Bill Thompson, who served concurrently with Mayors David Dinkins, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg.

On length of service, Eric has me beat by a wide margin because he was an attorney in the Comptroller's Office before I arrived, working for Jay Goldin, who was Comptroller when the late Ed Koch was Mayor; Goldin is still alive and active, and still sends a card with a holiday poem every December. After I left the Comptroller's Office, Eric has worked under John Liu and now Scott Stringer.

Here is a list of all these NYC Mayors, #105 to #109, because sometimes I forget some of the dates and maybe you do too. The terms of the Comptrollers were coterminous with the Mayors except for Michael Bloomberg, who had Bill Thompson as Comptroller for his first two terms and John Liu as Comptroller for his third term.

105		1977 12 Years	The late Ed Koch January 1, 1978 – December 31, 1989 Comptroller: Jay Goldin		Democratic
106		1989 4 Years	David Dinkins January 1, 1990 – December 31, 1993 Comptroller: Liz Holtzman		Democratic
107		1993 8 Years	Rudy Giuliani January 1, 1994 – December 31, 2001 Comptroller: Alan Hevesi		Republican
108		2001 12  Years	Michael Bloomberg January 1, 2002 – December 31, 2013; Comptrollers: Bill Thompson and John Liu		Republican (until 2007)8
					Independent (from 2007)
109		2013 2 Years so far	Bill de Blasio January 1, 2014 – Present Comptroller: Scott Stringer		Democratic

Postscript:  Eric contacted me to say that all this is true, but his civil service career goes back even further, to the administration of NYC Mayor #103, John Lindsay, under whom he took his civil service exam. He was then "picked up"–hired off the list of successful exam-takers–under Mayor #104, Abe Beame. He first worked for the Department of Finance starting in 1970 and then moved over to the NYC Comptroller's Office in 1974 under Comptroller Goldin; he was hired by Steve Newman.

See also (more posts in preparation; click on number):
Holtzman Era 1
Holtzman-Hevesi Era 1
Hevesi Era
Hevesi-Thompson Era
Thompson Era