Bloomberg taking Liu to court over former commissioner's contract

From the NY Times:

Fed up with what he views as a pattern of obstructionist behavior, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has taken the rare step of filing a lawsuit against the city comptroller, John C. Liu, for rejecting two municipal contracts.

The contracts would pay Aguila Inc., a company run by Robert V. Hess, Mr. Bloomberg’s former commissioner of homeless services, a total of $67.6 million to operate homeless shelters in the South Bronx and on the Upper West Side. The shelters on the Upper West Side, on West 95th Street, have long been a target of criticism from local residents and elected officials, who say, among other complaints, that the area has an excess of similar facilities.

Mr. Liu rejected the contracts on July 3, saying they were too vague as to how many people would be offered services. And in a criticism of Mr. Bloomberg’s record on homelessness, Mr. Liu argued that “it would be unconscionable to compound past errors with these faulty contracts.”

But Mr. Bloomberg, in a lawsuit filed on Thursday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said the courts had long held that registration of contracts was “not a vehicle for the comptroller to usurp the mayor’s authority to enter into contracts.”

So what do you think is really going on here? Bloomie trying to get his buddy a contract before he leaves. So loyal to this particular individual that he will waste taxpayer money on a lawsuit to make sure he gets paid. Sounds like honest graft to me.