Today's New York Times reports the city's pension funds trailed behind most comparable funds nationwide in the seven years since Bill Thompson became comptroller. And the story says Thompson took more than half a million dollars in campaign donations from money managers -- some of whom were then hired to help invest the funds.. But Thompson says over the past seven years and in tough times.. The funds grew from 75 billion to an estimated 90 billion this month and that the campaign contributions had nothing to do with which money managers were hired.After the Bloomberg team proposed some new reforms today Thompson's spokesman fired back at the self-financed Bloomberg campaign, which has rejected spending limits. What the Bloomberg campaign did not point out today was that the mayor himself oversees 4 out of 5 the city's pension boards, appoints the people who chair the boards and and approves their investments.And Bloomberg spokesman Howard Wolfson could not answer questions about whether the fiscally savvy mayor or any of his representatives ever raised any concerns in the last 7 years about Thompson's stewardship.Several of the democratic candidates now running for Thompson's job seemed to throw their fellow democrat under the bus while promising to do better if elected... Several union leaders also demanded Thompson return those contributions.
