Bloomberg hid resigned deputy’s arrest

Yesterday, Bloomberg’s instinct to protect, rather than disclose, engulfed his administration in controversy as city officials criticized his decision to keep the episode hidden from the public for a month.

The deputy mayor, Stephen Goldsmith, who had overseen the city’s police, fire, and transportation departments, was arrested July 30 after an altercation with his wife at their home in Washington, where, his wife told responding officers, he shoved her and smashed a telephone against the floor.

Goldsmith, who spent 48 hours in jail after the episode, reported the matter to Bloomberg. But when Goldsmith abruptly resigned five days later, the mayor’s office declared in a statement that he was “leaving to pursue private-sector opportunities in infrastructure finance.’’ language the mayor reviewed himself, people with knowledge of the situation said.