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Author Archives: donny
$2 billion in discretionary funds; nothing by merit
“A new analysis of how the City Council allocated more than $2 billion in discretionary funds between 2009 and 2012 has found a wide gulf between the haves and have-nots. . . . (Former Council Member Tony) Avella, an outspoken critic of Council Speaker Christine Quinn, said the results should come as no surprise to anyone. ‘Nothing is done by merit,’ he said.”
Posted in Piggy Bank, Slush Funds
Citizen’s Union Report
“There is also no correlation between the level of need in a given district and the amount of funding it receives. . . This means that some low-income Council districts have received a large share of funding while other low-income districts have been left out. . . . .These funding discrepancies exist because the Council Speaker has too much power in the distribution of the Council’s discretionary funds, which totaled more than $578 million in last year’s budget.”
Posted in Piggy Bank
Citizen’s Union
“The (Citizen’s Union) report analyzed budget data from fiscal years 2009-2012 and found a wide disparity in how much discretionary funding different Councilmembers receive, with committee chairs and more powerful Councilmembers receiving a significantly larger share of funds than newly elected members.”
Posted in Piggy Bank
Quinn had been an advocate for transparency
“Back in 2008, a federal investigation revealed that the City Council had been giving money from the Council’s budgeted discretionary funds to fictitious organizations since 2001. The revelation was particularly embarrassing for Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who had been an advocate for increased transparency in the city budget process.”
Posted in Fake Charities, Slush Funds
Alec Baldwin on term limits
“This is a woman who stormed out of an event yesterday after lecturing a group of students who were jeering Bloomberg on the merits of democracy. Yet she single handedly worked with Bloomberg to overturn the term limits for her own personal gain.” – Alec Baldwin
Posted in Term Limits
Introduced only 2 bills
“Quinn was primary sponsor for just two of the 827 bills that have been submitted to the City Council since 2010, a Daily News analysis found. . .Quinn frequently asks colleagues to introduce measures on her behalf, which allows her to curry favor and to avoid angering important voting blocs, insiders say. ‘She’s trying to be all things to all people,’ said Doug Forand, a political consultant who is not working for any of the 2013 mayoral contenders.”
Posted in Dirty Politics
Not enough in it for quinn to support a development
In an article about a controversial development on the West Side of Manhattan, Crain’s includes a quote from an “insider” who inadvertently sheds light on how Quinn makes decisions based on how they will help her instead of the public: “Chris has taken the temperature of the community on this,” said one insider. “There’s not enough in it for her to simply go against them.”
Posted in Backroom Deals, Real Estate
Quinn rewards crook Vito Lopez with discretionary funds
In an editorial about Quinn’s use of discretionary funds to reward and penalize local politicians, the NY Post states, “(Vito) Lopez, a state assemblyman and the subject of a federal corruption investigation, needed a front-end loader to haul away the so-called member-item cash lavished on him in the new city budget by Quinn.”
Posted in Backroom Deals, Dirty Politics
Member items
Member item funds are “lump-sum appropriations that corrupt the political process by giving incumbents cash to curry unfair favor with constituents; simultaneously, these cash goodies give bullying council bosses undue leverage over their underlings.”
Posted in Abuse of power, Assault On Democracy
Quinn helps Giske’s clients
Excerpt from a NY Times article about Quinn’s friendship with lobbyist Emily Giske of Bolton St. James: “The Council has done well by many of Bolton-St. Johns’ clients in recent years. Ms. Quinn and other council members have directed hundreds of thousands of dollars to nonprofit organizations that Bolton-St. Johns represents, including most recently Care for the Homeless; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center; and the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation. Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, also represented by Ms. Giske, has received capital financing from the Council in the last two budgets.”
Posted in Abuse of power, Assault On Democracy