Melinda Katz 2009

Description

Melinda Katz was born and bred in New York City and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, after which she pursued her law degree at St. John's University. Upon graduation, Melinda worked at Weil, Gotshal and Manges as a mergers and acquisitions attorney. In 1994, she entered electoral politics when, at the age of 28, she was elected to the New York State Assembly. There, she authored 16 bills, including the first in the country that required HMOs to provide women with direct access to OB/GYN care without forcing them first to visit a primary care physician for a referral. In 2001, Melinda won election to the City Council and was then selected to Chair the Committee on Land Use, where she expedited New York's recovery and rebuilding after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As Land Use Chair, Melinda funded 90,000 units of affordable housing, protected more than 7,500 New York City blocks in historic neighborhoods from development, built new schools in all five boroughs of New York City and created tens of thousands of jobs. Now Melinda is running for New York City Comptroller, where she will use the resources of that office to guarantee Federal stimulus dollars free up credit and create jobs, as opposed to fattening the bonuses of Wall Street executives. For local companies that are profitable but struggling under unsustainable debt racked up in periods of easy credit, she will tap pension funds as a source of capital while restructure their balance sheets in order to return them to viability. The return on these distressed debt investments is two-fold: save jobs while simultaneously generating profits for our retirement system. Melinda will also beef up the Comptroller's auditing bureau to identify areas of abuse and mismanagement where the City can save millions. She will end pay-to-play and no-bid contracts, and she will fight to win auditing authority over the New York City Department of Education to ensure that our children are not being shortchanged when it comes to the scarce education dollars that are funding their future. Many elected officials and key supporters already have been won over to Melinda's cause. The Comptroller's office serves as the fiscal adviser to the City.