De Blasio cites reading The Post, making phone calls as proof of hard work

Happy to help, Bill.

Mayor Bill de Blasio insisted Wednesday that, despite what the seven hours he spent at City Hall in May would have you think, he’s hard at work — citing a few phone calls he made about The Post’s front-page story on a garbage-packed Queens home.

Asked during an unrelated press briefing about the hours he keeps, de Blasio offered his cage-rattling on the unsanitary sty as an example of his tireless efforts on behalf of the Big Apple.

“This morning, one of the papers had an article about this house with a lot of trash in the front yard,” said de Blasio, at no point mentioning The Post by name. “I immediately contacted a group of commissioners and I said, ‘What are we doing about this?’ and it started a back-and-forth.

“I said, ‘We need to figure out if there are legal concerns or if we need to get the Health Department involved. Figure out how to get it done,’ ” added de Blasio. “That happens dozens and dozens and dozens of times throughout every single day.”

De Blasio — who logged less than one full work day at City Hall in May, the month he launched his quixotic White House bid — argued that labor-intensive activities like reading a newspaper and picking up the phone are proof that he hasn’t checked out on the city he was elected to run.

“Perception is never reality. It’s just not,” huffed Hizzoner, insisting that New Yorkers shouldn’t believe what their eyes — or his own schedules — are telling them. “I’m not here to satisfy someone’s perception desires. I’m here to serve the people of New York City and change their lives.”

And that service is worth every penny, de Blasio said.

“I wonder if you think you’re giving fair value to the people who pay your salary, the New Yorkers who elected you, and if you might quell some of the criticism if you were to say that your salary would be prorated based on how many days you spend here?” asked CBS-2 reporter Marcia Kramer.

“No,” said de Blasio. “The work that I have responsibility for continues non-stop. We’re getting things done for people.”

The mayor similarly boasted of his work ethic in an interview on the Pod Save America podcast, released Wednesday, but taped just days before the Post reported on his feather-light May schedule.

“There is no question that if you’re running a campaign, you have to put energy into it and attention into it,” he told host Jon Lovett in the sit-down, taped on Friday.

“I don’t mean this to be pretentious, but it is true,” continued de Blasio. “Yes, I do wake up every morning; in fact, start with a whole slew of emails with a whole bunch of updates and give instructions from the very beginning of the day to the very end of the day.”

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