Rudy’s lawyers are already pretty busy defending themselves against freedom- of-information lawsuits. So they must be cancelling vacation plans with the news that the Albany-based budget watchdog Fiscal Policy Institute is looking to open a local branch in the city. The tax and budget brain-trust already enjoys funding from DC37 and the United Federation of Teachers, but its expansion could be bankrolled by transport and communication workers unions. Cece Tkaczyk, the amply-consonanted executive director of the statewide Neighborhood Preservation Coalition of New York retires in July–to tend her garden–after seven years pleading on behalf of local housing groups.
Jane Spinak is hoping she can go home again. In May she returns to her teaching gig at Columbia University after three years spearheading Legal Aid Society’s juvenile justice wing.

And the esquire exodus continues. Sam Sue (of course it’s his real name) leaves the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest next month for a job in the career planning office at CUNY’s Law School. Sue is best known for such mayor-maddening moments as forcing the city to develop siting regulations for waste transfer stations and helping to open the Independent Budget Office.