Abuse of power
NY Daily News
“Speaker Christine Quinn is moving into a new luxury condo in Chelsea — five months after pressuring a city agency to resolve a dispute over garbage near the building. The trash stink …. ended up costing the city housing authority $785,000.”
Fed Up New York
“The incumbent speaker has led the city council in an orgy of greed, corruption, and deception unprecedented in New York’s modern political history.”
Urban Justice Center
“The Speaker herself recently admitted that she only moves bills that she supports to the Council floor for a vote….The substance of the Council’s legislative agenda is therefore a reflection of the Speaker’s priorities.”
Wall Street Journal
“City Council Speaker Christine Quinn awarded some council members more than four times as much discretionary funds as their colleagues, reviving accusations that she is playing favorites. ‘Those who are in favor get more, those who are not get less,’ Council Member Charles said. ‘It should be given on a need basis—the communities that are the neediest, not the councilmen who are the most cooperative with the speaker.'”
Occupy the Pipeline
“Quinn has ignored thousands of petitions calling for action on Spectra, and on radon. Over the past 2 years, multiple groups have been politely lobbying her staffers for attention to these issues. They’ve been asked for one simple measure: that City Council conduct a hearing, something completely within their authority, no sweat off their noses, to allow residents and experts an opportunity to explain and explore the issue. And that’s been too much for Chris Quinn.”
Queens Courier
“Under Speaker Quinn’s reign, it continues to be the usual political quid pro quo with councilmembers. Vote as instructed by the speaker and members will continue to receive the perks of office. These include salary bonuses for chairing Council committees, extra cash for local district offices, staff and mailings along with your share of several hundred million dollars available for funding local neighborhood pork-barrel projects to grease the wheels of re-election.”
Queens Courier
“There are clear consequences when you vote against the wishes of Speaker Quinn and speak your mind on behalf of constituents, taxpayers and common sense . . . Speaker Quinn sent a clear message to Councilmember Vallone when discretionary spending for his district was cut from $1,400,000 to $850,000 in the recently adopted 2011 municipal budget.”
NY Daily News
“Speaker Christine Quinn and her members only pretend that everyone who applies for so-called member item funding – for Little Leagues, senior centers and other local programs – has an equal shot at success. In fact, as far as the Council is concerned, some New Yorkers are much more equal than others.”
Queens Chronicle
“Beware the wrath of Christine Quinn. The City Council speaker is throwing a $600,000 temper tantrum that will cut directly into the quality of life of thousands of Queens residents — all because Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. of Astoria stood up for our borough.
The speaker is miffed that Vallone vocally opposed the renaming of the iconic Queensboro Bridge in honor of former Mayor Ed Koch. . . Now, because the retaliatory Quinn controls the purse strings on discretionary funding, groups like the Variety Boys and Girls Club, area little leagues, senior centers and other nonprofit organizations will lose out.”
NY1 News
“City Council Christine Quinn has millions of dollars at her disposal. It is public money that each year the speaker divvies up among members, and in turn they give it to local organizations. Critics charge that the way the money is distributed is deeply flawed – and a way for the speaker to reward political pals.”
NY Daily News
Scott Stringer on Quinn’s distribution of discretionary funds: “Politics has been driving the distribution of these tax dollars for years. There should be no financial reward in toeing the party line.”
NY Daily News
“Council Speaker Christine Quinn is about to move into a luxury condo building where she used taxpayer dollars to resolve a conflict with a neighboring building over garbage.”
Wall Street Journal
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer on Quinn’s efforts to silence her critics, “Both the mayor and the council leadership have been complicit in this attempt to silence independent elected officeholders by going after our budget . . . and, you know something, there was no slush fund in my office.”
NY Daily News
“Awards of lulus (bonuses given by the Speaker to Council Members)— and the threat of removing them — are blatant vote-buying tools. Good government groups rail against them.”
NY Times
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.”
NY Post
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.”
Wall Street Journal
“Council Member Fernando Cabrera of the Bronx, who was toward the bottom of the pack with roughly $550,000, said Ms. Quinn uses the [discretionary] funds to reward her allies. He said wide disparities show ‘we are not attending to the poor and the needy in an equitable way. What’s the point of some members getting more than others? That’s the way they control the council. A system shouldn’t operate on the basis of fear.'”
New York Daily News
Jumaane Williams has two things in mind when it comes to Quinn, “Keeping Council Speaker Christine Quinn and her mayoral ambitions insulated from attacks by progressives who want to push hot-button issues like paid sick leave… Not ticking off Quinn, who controls the money members get for use in their own districts.”
Huffington Post
“This is not ineptitude or dishonesty due to lack of intelligence or know how. Instead, it is the result of a common pattern of cynicism. Christine Quinn puts her political ambitions ahead of the public good again and again and no one challenges her for this.”
DNA Info
“‘Many City Council members are wary of endorsing candidates in the 2013 mayoral race until after budget season because they’re afraid a vengeful Speaker Christine Quinn will cut their share of $50 million in discretionary funds, DNAinfo.com New York has learned. ‘It’s a legal form of blackmail,’ said a Council Member.”
Autocracy
Urban Justice Center
“Very important bills that have been introduced in City Council have languished for years without ever being scheduled for a hearing or coming up for a vote. When this happens, it is usually a reflection of the Speaker’s priorities.”
DNA Info
“The report criticized Quinn for fast-tracking bills supported by herself or Mayor Michael Bloomberg, while leaving other popular bills to languish without a vote.”
Gay City News
When Quinn signed a back room deal with the NYPD to curb freedom of assembly in NYC, a local gay rights group “The military junta in Myanmar has ruled that five or more people cannot gather in the streets there. Does Speaker Quinn really believe the difference between a junta and a democracy is 45 people?”
RHA blog
“When Matthew Shepard was murdered, NYC queers . . . decided to march down 5th Avenue. The NYPD beat countless participants and arrested 96. Back then, Quinn was outraged by the cops’ behavior. How could she have changed so much since then that she has colluded with them to make this kind of political action even more difficult for all minorities and marginalized political groups?”
NY Times
“When Mr. Bloomberg wanted term limits lifted, she tossed aside previous promises and rammed the measure through without a referendum”
The Guardian
“Quinn is not only the most powerful legislator in the city; she’s pretty much the only legislator in the city, and from her perch she has nearly unilateral control over lawmaking. She decides what comes to the floor – including, notoriously, the 2008 bill that scrapped mayoral term limits – and her caucus votes for it, or she makes them pay.”
Queens Politics
“Christine Quinn, as speaker, hurt the residents of Queens multiple times not only on social issues. She cut funding of groups to North Queens and South Queens because she was trying to punish and harass Councilman Tony Avella and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, with no thought of the constituencies that would suffer. . . Christine Quinn has cut funding to districts where she is having petty and caddy outbursts towards some council members. She turned the City Council into a reality show version of the movie Mean Girls.”
Kills veto-proof bills
NY TImes
“Against the wishes of a veto-proof majority in the City Council, the Council speaker, Christine Quinn, effectively shelved a much-debated bill.”
Urban Justice Center
“Since she took office as Speaker, Christine Quinn has prevented debate, not to mention a vote, on at least 13 bills with 26 or more sponsors, and at least 34 bills with more than 20 sponsors.”
Letter from Gloria Steinem
“A majority of the City Council members support this bill. We ask you to take the lead and set an example of letting the democratic process work.”
Center for Urban Justice
“In order to pass, a bill needs at least 26 Council Member votes. Since she took office as Speaker, Christine Quinn has prevented debate, not to mention a vote, on at least 13 bills with 26 or more sponsors, and at least 34 bills with more than 20 sponsors. These include bills that would promote the welfare of New Yorkers.”
Gloria Steinem
In an open letter to Christine Quinn, who has refused to allow a vote on the sick leave bill, which has a veto-proof majority of sponsors, Gloria Steinem wrote, “A majority of the City Council members support this bill. We ask you to take the lead and set an exampleof letting the democratic process work. Please give New York women ± and all New Yorkers the guarantee that if they or their children get sick this year they will not lose a day’s pay or their job. We respectfully urge you to bring Intro 97 to a vote.”
NY Daily News
“Despite having enough votes to pass Speaker Quinn, who has mayoral aspirations, has not allowed the (sick leave) bill, introduced by Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), to be voted on.”
Separation of powers
Urban Justice Center
“We found that the Speaker essentially pushed the Mayor’s agenda during her tenure, and prioritized the Mayor’s bills over that of fellow Council Members.”
NY Times
“She sided with Mr. Bloomberg and against the majority of her fellow council members.”
New York Daily News
“At a time when progressive leadership was needed to curb a business-minded mayor’s ambitions, her opponents will argue, Christine Quinn was instead a rubber stamp.”
Center for Urban Justice
According to the 2010 report card which grades Council Members on their human rights voting records, “The Speaker essentially pushed the Mayor’s agenda during her tenure, and prioritized the Mayor’s bills over that of fellow Council Members.”
Captial NY
“As speaker, Quinn supported Bloomberg on nearly every initiative, from congestion pricing and his controversial trash management plan, to his term-limits overhaul. She backed his ban on smoking in parks and beaches, and his ill-fated selection of Cathie Black for schools chancellor. She refused to allow a vote on a bill that would have required businesses to give employees paid sick leave, even though a majority of the Council wanted it passed. She has allowed a living-wage bill to languish.”
NY Post
“Quinn has been able to get by up to now because she is hiding under the wings of Mayor Bloomberg. His power and money shelter her, and she has repaid him by acting more as a deputy mayor than the head of the legislative branch. He owes her for that, and for organizing the votes that allowed them both a third term.”
Wall Street Journal
“The mayor didn’t advise Mr. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, or Mr. Thompson, a former city comptroller who came close to beating Mr. Bloomberg in 2009, not to run, those people said. But he signaled he is leaning toward supporting City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a longtime ally who leads polls for the 2013 race and has raised the most money, the people said.”
New York Daily News
Quinn “has inherited much of {Bloomberg’s] political apparatus, including some of the most skilled operatives in the city. And she gets equal billing in many mayoral announcements — whether it’s sharing headlines in press releases or getting to stand with the mayor during press conferences.”
