NEW YORK CITY — There will be no pasta summit after all.
Both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo declined an offer by former Sen. Al D'Amato to sit down at Rao's in East Harlem to work out their publicly documented differences over pasta.
"I personally am trying to lose weight so I'm staying away from pasta but I do appreciate the good will offer," de Blasio said at an unrelated press conference in Sheepshead Bay.
Cuomo, too, declined D'Amato's invite for a second time Thursday on "Good Day New York," and also used his waistline as an excuse.
“I can’t do the pasta, plus I have to watch my waistline," Cuomo said. "There’s nothing to make up. This is not a mini drama. We’re not a married couple."
But the mayor said he has no regrets about criticizing Cuomo as a vengeful politician and an obstructionist to the city's agenda in Albany last week and Cuomo once again implied de Blasio doesn't understand government as the long-running feud between the two men continued.
"I think it had to be said and I think it's important to make clear to the people of this city who are depending on me to produce for them what's really going on in Albany, what's really going on in Washington," de Blasio said regarding his remarks about Cuomo.
Since de Blasio publicly criticized Cuomo last week, the governor has implied at a couple of public events that de Blasio doesn't know how government works and that the city actually did well during Albany's most recent legislative session.
Cuomo said de Blasio was "clearly frustrated" by the legislative session and that even he did not get everything he wanted, citing a law to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate police killings that did not pass.
Cuomo signed an executive order Wednesday appointing the Attorney General as special prosecutor to examine police killings.
"So, welcome to state government, welcome to life, you don’t get everything you want," Cuomo said.
De Blasio said he has no problem with compromise and certainly understands "a lot about how government works," but that political games were being played in Albany.
The mayor cited his effort to have mayoral control of the schools renewed. De Blasio had asked for the control to be made permanent. The legislature approved only a one year extension. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg received six and seven year terms for mayoral control from the state legislature.
"The very same people who voted for long-term extensions of mayoral control suddenly, suddenly had a different viewpoint when there was a Democratic mayor in place. That's not fair to the people of this city and I'm going to call that out," de Blasio added.
While both men said they would continue to work together, Jeanne Zaino, a professor of political science at Iona College, said the public should get used to the back and forth between Cuomo and de Blasio.
"If they were able to work together as a unified Democratic coalition perhaps more could have gotten done," said Zaino. "I think we will see a cooling off period, but if history is any guide there will be more of this as long as the two of them are in office."
