“A private, members-only park in Queens . . . has steadily received more taxpayer-funded grants under the watch of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.”

“Every year, the Council sets aside $50 million to give to favored groups and causes. The spending is unnecessary and serves, in effect, as reelection campaign financing. Worse, Speaker Christine Quinn apportions these so-called member items so as to reward loyalists and punish independent-minded members. Still worse, the program has been rife with ripoffs. To add a veneer of respectability, Quinn established rules that are supposed to ensure that money does not go awry. For example, recipients are supposed to be nonprofit groups that are registered as such with the Internal Revenue Service. Well, Daily News reporter Ben Lesser did some checking. He discovered that 27 Council members, a majority, had tried to direct a total of $300,000 to 39 groups whose nonprofit status had been revoked by the IRS. The offenders included Leroy Comrie, Lew Fidler and Domenic Recchia — all top Quinn lieutenants.”

“The money, in effect, became a slush fund for the speaker and was later used at Quinn’s discretion to reward groups that were loyal to her and to fund favored council members’ pet projects. The scheme gave “the speaker a stash of cash with which to thank or pay off politically important allies or cooperative council members.”