Merryl H. Tisch and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly

William Rapfogel and Janet Napolitano

MET COUNCIL
NYPD Commissioner Lauds
Homeland Security Chief

STORY AND PHOTOS BY TIM BOXER

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LTHOUGH Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was the guest of honor at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty’s 36^th annual legislative breakfast, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly got his share of plaudits too.

"NYPD has the finest security department of any police in the world," Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared while praising the city’s longest serving police commissioner at the Roosevelt Hotel.

Kelly affirmed she has been "an indispensable partner" with the NYPD in keeping New York safe.

Met Council CEO William Rapfogel presented the organization’s National Leadership Award to Napolitano for her role in advocating the rights of New Yorkers.

Sen. Charles Schumer noted that the Homeland Security chief "has gone to bat for New York in ways that are unpublished."

Napolitano told about her meeting with New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver at his downtown office. "I got the skyline tour of the Lower East Side and most of all Henry Street where the assemblyman grew up."

She said that her department partners with organizations like Met Council to help communities respond to disaster and other hardships. "Homeland security begins with home town security. And you can’t have home town security without organizations like Met Council."

She added, "We coordinate things specifically for the Jewish community. The Jewish Federations of North America were one of the first partners in the ‘See Something, Say Something’ Homeland Security campaign."