It was always amusing to the press corps that Mayor Street refused to remove the term “acting” from his Acting Director of Communications, Joe Grace. Grace, a former Daily News reporter and City Council candidate, took over as the mayor’s spokesman in June 2005 and held onto to a volatile job that has been filled by four different people this term alone. 
On Friday Grace (pictured in a Daily News photo) received perhaps the highest honor the quirky Street could offer – a letter praising his service, with a removal of the “Acting” word from his title, retroactive, good for Grace's whole tenure. Street said in his letter that it should have been done much earlier -- but Grace still got to enjoy his new moniker as "Communications Director" (sounds so permanent!) for three days.
“It meant a lot,” Grace said by phone Sunday night in what he claimed would be his final press call. “It was a gracious gesture and I appreciated it very much.”
Street’s fondness for retro activities inspired him last month to lay claim to $111,000 worth of raises he had spurned since 2004. Could Grace be in for such a bonus? Nope. Getting out of politics will have to be bonus enough. Grace will become executive director of CeaseFire PA, a gun-control organization based in the city.
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