Patricia Harris is about to become a very busy woman. In what the Times described as “a move without precedent in New York City government,” Mayor Bloomberg has appointed Harris, the sitting deputy mayor in his administration, to also run his charitable foundation, naming her the chief executive and chairwoman of his Bloomberg Family Foundation. Harris, the highest-paid City Hall official, with a salary of $245,000, will not be paid in her position running the foundation. Good-government groups and philanthropy experts weren’t so keen on the pick: “It’s a conflict of interest, which links politics to philanthropy,” a Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership fellow at Georgetown told the Times. “They shouldn’t mix.” [City Room/NYT]
