But in a news statement, Mayor Bloomberg explains that he had an allegedly  “courtesy” to use the helicopter to fly his pets to the Hamptons. Lawmakers disagree. The official news statement reads “While the heliport’s waiting rooms are closed on weekends and you can’t get fuel, we always thought that pilots could still take off and land — a courtesy that, it turns out, had been extended to mayors over the years.”

But Bloomberg was not using the helicopter for official government business. Rather he was flying to his homes in Westchester County and the Hamptons. His passengers were not his City staff but his companion Diana L. Taylor and their two dogs, yellow Labradors named Bonnie and Clyde.

“There are times it’s so noisy I have to go in my bathroom to talk on the telephone,” Dr. Sticco told WABC-TV. “I don’t doubt the mayor has essential business to perform. But, going back to Fiorello La Guardia, they didn’t need the perpetual use of a heliport to govern the city.”