The City Council is expected to hold a hearing next month on cost overruns and construction delays that have plagued the Whitehall and St. George terminals of the Staten Island Ferry. One fine witness would be Mayor Bloomberg, who, at the end of the day, is the person responsible.

As our Adam Piore reported last month, the city’s project to rebuild the St. George terminal is $31 million over its original budget and a year behind its original schedule for completion. The Whitehall project is $55 million over its original budget and almost two years behind schedule.

The 200,000-square foot ferry terminal seems to have taken longer to build than the new headquarters on Lexington Avenue for Mr. Bloomberg’s business news service, Bloomberg LP. The Lexington Avenue project is many times the size of the ferry terminal, but, unlike the ferry terminal, it was built by a private developer using private funds.

Mr. Bloomberg was elected in part on voters’ hopes that, as a successful businessman, he could bring private-sector efficiency to the city government. Construction of these ferry terminals seems to be an area where he has not succeeded. It’s not as if he harbors any animus toward Staten Island or the ferry. In his speech to the Republican National Convention, the mayor said, “let me give you an insider’s tip: my own personal favorite thing to do in this city. At least once, one morning while you’re here, begin the day with a ride on the ferry to Staten Island.”

Still, with the city government not up to the job of either building the terminals or, for that matter, running the ferry, on which a crash last year killed 11 and exposed the city to tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits, it’s time to start asking whether the ferry and its operations would be better turned over to the private sector. There, at least, those who bear the liability for negligence, lateness, and cost overruns are owners who choose to assume such risks, not taxpayers once again left paying the bill.