Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Edward KocheEdward Koche
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 617

office. John Lankenau interviewed. And we selected nine super people and one patronage appointment. The one patronage appointment was a special kind of patronage. I felt that I had to somehow or other reward the Italian community -- Dina Nolan and Wallie Popolizio -- for having worked so hard for me that I had to get an Italian on my staff who had worked in the campaign. And so we picked one. He was absolutely incompetent for this purpose. He may be competent in other things, but not for this purpose. And later on, just to go ahead, I can only tell you that the people who I had worked with very closely -- the kid I had picked was not one of these people. He was just in the campaign. They said, “What the hell did you hire him for? He's no good.” They were incensed. They didn't care about having someone who was Italian on my staff. That never entered their minds. I had decided that it would be something they would be interested in. They weren't interested in it at all. They were angry - in a nice way - that I would even think of that. Really, it's remarkable; they're so much better than the reformers or the others in politics who would definitely think of that. But he was the only one that I did that with, and then I got rid of him later. But the other nine were so competent.

For example, there was one guy, whose name is Harold Weissman, who was then in the Department of Social Services, and he was going to advise me on social welfare. He may have been not in the department itself but a professor at one of the universities.





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help