Here is a piece by Harry Siegal at the Village Voice about the continuing fallout from the City Council slush fund scandal and how it will impact the Mayoral prospects for Speaker Christine Quinn. There is also a cameo by our very own Cash and Carry Larry Seabrook.
She's the slush-fund queen!
ReplyDeleteHere's a related report by Adam Dickter in The Jewish Week:
ReplyDeleteTURNER HITS WEPRIN ON 'SLUSH FUND'
The race for Anthony Weiner's congressional seat is getting ugly, with Republican Bob Turner rehashing the 2008 controversy over the City Council's creative bookkeeping that allowed millions to go to fictional organizations that later went to projects in members' districts. The issue is bound to haunt Speaker Christine Quinn in her expected bid for mayor . . . . /
READ MORE: http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political_insider/turner_hits_weprin_slush_fund
Let's face it: The City Council's member-item system is inherently corrupt. And as the City Council Speaker, Christine C. Quinn is at the top of that system.
ReplyDeleteThe slush-fund scandal should be the last straw. Voters, it's time to wake up!
I will NEVER vote for her!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHere's a one-sentence summary of CHRISTINE QUINN’S SLUSH FUND SCANDAL so it’s easy to remember:
ReplyDeleteIn 2008, it was discovered that staffers to Council Speaker Quinn regularly reserved large sums of budget money for dozens of fictitious community organizations and used the money later for grants to favored neighborhood groups.
The Citizens Budget Commission (an independent watchdog group dedicated to economy in government) has been sharply critical of NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s shady budget maneuvers:
ReplyDelete“There is no excuse for fictional items in a budget,” the commission said in a statement on April 4, 2008. “All elected officials bear responsibility for the budgets that they adopt, and Speaker Quinn, in particular, should be held accountable for the City Council’s fiscal practices.”
The best way to hold Ms. Quinn accountable to is to Vote For Another Candidate!
Hmmm, let's see . . . why won't I vote for Christine Quinn?
ReplyDelete1) Term Limits
2) Member Items
3) Slush Fund
Nuff said.
Quinn has a big war chest, lots of influential friends/connections and its a weak field with Weiner out of the picture.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ August 12, 2011 10:05 AM is assuming that the field of candidates we see today is the same field we will see when we go to the polls.
ReplyDeleteAlso, think about what happened to the mayoral hopes of Councilwoman Christine C. Quinn's two predecessors as City Council Speaker: A. Gifford Miller (2002-2005) and Peter Vallone, Sr. (1986-2001).
In the Sept. 2005 Democratic Primary for Mayor, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, who was a formidable fund-raiser and had all the unions behind him, got only 10% of the vote! That was a big shocker.
ReplyDeleteSpeaker Quinn did not invent these budget accounts. They go back in one form or another to the 1980s, and they really started to expand when Quinn was still only a rank-and-file council member.
ReplyDeleteHere is a newspaper article about it:
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times
April 4, 2008
Legislators’ $500,000 Rainy-Day Fund Swells Into $4.5 Million Headache
By Diane Cardwell
It began as a way of managing the fringes of a gigantic and complex city budget: filling little pots with extra money to cover miscalculations, oversights and politically popular programs that might arise throughout the year.
At least as far back as the late 1980s, according to current and former city officials, the City Council included so-called holding accounts in its discretionary budget to fill in future gaps at certain agencies.
By retaining some discretionary funds in reserve, the City Council kept control over some spending and avoided any messy battles with the mayor’s office when funds ran short.
Under Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone Sr., there were initially only a few such accounts, including one each for the Department for the Aging, the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Youth and Community Development, totaling roughly $500,000, several former officials said.
But in recent years, under Speakers Gifford Miller and Christine C. Quinn, the practice has mushroomed to dozens of accounts tied to fictitious organizations; in the most current fiscal year, 18 fictitious groups were allotted $4.5 million, according to records provided by Ms. Quinn’s office. Still, the approach has avoided scrutiny in part because the stakes are so small, representing not even 1 percent of the city’s overall budget.
Ms. Quinn said on Thursday that she informed investigators from the United States attorney’s office and the City Department of Investigation of the practice last fall, although she believed the funds were eventually directed to legitimate programs.
Each year, since gaining the power to approve the budget in 1989, the City Council has negotiated a package that includes restored items the mayor had cut, new citywide programs and the so-called local initiatives more commonly known as member items or pork. Together with the mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, the Council sets the dollar amount of this package, but the specific contents are determined by the speaker.
Just as the budget is finalized, Council officials release the list, known as Schedule C, showing Council members which of their requests for financing to particular organizations have been granted. The list, which names the myriad groups that are to receive contracts for services, is also given to the mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, which then transmits the information to the agencies.
Under Mr. Vallone, the list began to include placeholder appropriations — technically authorizations to spend money — with names resembling the agencies for which they were meant.
Over the years, however, as the number of appropriations grew, the names began to resemble those of actual organizations. Until Ms. Quinn decided to end the practice, it was so embedded in the budgeting process that Council analysts would acknowledge the reserve amounts to their counterparts at the mayoral agencies, according to former Council officials. It was simply part of how business needed to be done, in the estimation of Council finance leaders, to skirt bureaucratic delays — not to misappropriate money.
Once the budget was approved, agencies would post the placeholder appropriation, but the money would not be spent until a real service was selected through the city’s contracting process . . . /
READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/nyregion/04council.html?ei=5088&en=800fa4a2831103f5&ex=1365048000&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1313203734-qGjK3FdTamXMvrPc+lbTJQ
Compairng Quinn to Gifford is laughable - he was a virtual unknown among voters whereas Quinn has been a media whore her whole tenure. She also championed a popular NYC cause - gay marriage - and also unlike Gifford, she has a built in voting bloc in gay NYers who a) Vote and b) will vote for her when they do.
ReplyDeleteSo who then - none of the BPs can pull it off, DeBlassi and Lui have baggage and are empty suits to boot. No other council person has any citywide name recognition, with apologies to Charles Barron! Same goes for our congressmen and women.
Quinn = Shenanigans
ReplyDeleteI just saw a report from Citizens’ Union criticizing the ability many of New York City’s lawmakers, who were described as "Lazy, ignorant and superficial."
ReplyDeleteThe report states that “Sooner or later the people of the city must face this problem, and finally decide what to do with this huge legislative machine which grinds so little grist.”’
Most interesting was the fact that the report was issued on Sept. 29, 1919, and the lawmaking body that it referred to was the city’s Board of Aldermen (the predecessor of the modern New York City Council).
Sadly, 92 years later, the report’s criticism of our city’s lawmakers it still rings true.
Wow … a report from the year Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen!
ReplyDeleteSo today, Tammany Hall is long gone but we still have a city council whose members are LAZY, IGNORANT and SUPERFICIAL!
There should be a permanent scam alert for NY's City Council. That Council is rotten from the head down.
ReplyDeleteThe New York City Council is a collective crime against English grammar and composition.
ReplyDeleteThe Council Members need to start with the basics, so let us begin:
There are many thousands of different words in the English language. But there are only eight different kinds of words. These eight kinds, which are called "parts of speech," are the noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
NY's city council is one big grammatical gaffe
ReplyDeleteChristine Quinn is a council creature and would be totally out of her depth when it comes to the qualities it takes to be a good mayor.
ReplyDeleteSurely we can do better?
ReplyDeletethere is something fishy about this
ReplyDeleteTurbulent times call for grown-up politics, but not in our city council.
ReplyDeleteRe: NYC City Councilmember/Council Speaker Christine Quinn:
ReplyDeleteI have known Christine Quinn for several years and she is currently the front runner to be the next Mayor of the city of New York in 2013.
I strongly disagree that Miss. Quinn has what it takes to be the next mayor of the New York City, how can we trust and expect her to run the city of New York as Mayor if she can’t even control her councilmembers from getting in to trouble, she has a tendency to look the other way when it involves her councilmembers.
Miss. Quinn also has a tendency to make empty promises and give false hopes to people in need., she really talks out of ass.
Some of her current councilmembers have been involved with stealing discretionary funds for their own personal use and have either been found to be guilty and who are currently in jails, she has also distributed those funds to fictions organizations.
Miss. Quinn’s track records for overturning the will of the people by allowing certain elective officials to continue running for the same office when the voters have spoken about term limits
Miss. Quinn’s platform was to clean up City Hall, but to date has done nothing to keep her word; she is too involved with making a name for herself and rubbing shoulders with business people, the very same people who are ripping off taxpayers every single day.
Miss. Quinn has stated several times that she was going to put a stop to the member items and pork slush funds but today hasn’t done a damn thing about it, she continues to align herself with corrupted, unscrupulous people and then there was her promise to protect each and every voter and give everyone a say in policies, but I guess that changed, because when she decided to push down the throats of the voters by forcing Gay Marriage, she has violated her trust and her duties, Miss. Quinn says that everyone has a say but when it involves something that efforts, her, then everyone else has no say in anything.
Miss. Quinn has violated the trust of the Gay Community and the voting public, she say one thing but does another, Miss. Quinn can’t be trusted with anything, she is nothing more than a lying, two face career polician, whose only concern is for herself and her image.
If the people of the New York City are smart, they would not cast their vote for Christine Quinn, but rather for someone else who they can control to make sure that those people put in office will actually do what the voting public wants and needs, Miss. Quinn is nothing more than a pathological liar like the rest of all the other elective officials , I have only met two elective officials who actually have the voting people’s interest at heart, unlike Miss. Quinn who has been known to flip-flop on everything she says.
I can personal tell you that she has made me empty promises and false hope when she said she was going to help me when I had my lawsuit against the New York Yankees, the very same organization that Miss. Quinn has sucked up to for money and tickets.
Don’t vote for Christine Quinn for mayor, you will be making the biggest mistake of your lives.
These are my own personal opinions and beliefs from seeing Miss. Quinn in action.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Paul Priore
Re: NYC City Councilmember/Council Speaker Christine Quinn:
ReplyDeleteI have known Christine Quinn for several years and she is currently the front runner to be the next Mayor of the city of New York in 2013.
I strongly disagree that Miss. Quinn has what it takes to be the next mayor of the New York City, how can we trust and expect her to run the city of New York as Mayor if she can’t even control her councilmembers from getting in to trouble, she has a tendency to look the other way when it involves her councilmembers.
Miss. Quinn also has a tendency to make empty promises and give false hopes to people in need., she really talks out of ass.
Some of her current councilmembers have been involved with stealing discretionary funds for their own personal use and have either been found to be guilty and who are currently in jails, she has also distributed those funds to fictions organizations.
Miss. Quinn’s track records for overturning the will of the people by allowing certain elective officials to continue running for the same office when the voters have spoken about term limits
Miss. Quinn’s platform was to clean up City Hall, but to date has done nothing to keep her word; she is too involved with making a name for herself and rubbing shoulders with business people, the very same people who are ripping off taxpayers every single day.
Miss. Quinn has stated several times that she was going to put a stop to the member items and pork slush funds but today hasn’t done a damn thing about it, she continues to align herself with corrupted, unscrupulous people and then there was her promise to protect each and every voter and give everyone a say in policies, but I guess that changed, because when she decided to push down the throats of the voters by forcing Gay Marriage, she has violated her trust and her duties, Miss. Quinn says that everyone has a say but when it involves something that efforts, her, then everyone else has no say in anything.
Miss. Quinn has violated the trust of the Gay Community and the voting public, she say one thing but does another, Miss. Quinn can’t be trusted with anything, she is nothing more than a lying, two face career polician, whose only concern is for herself and her image.
If the people of the New York City are smart, they would not cast their vote for Christine Quinn, but rather for someone else who they can control to make sure that those people put in office will actually do what the voting public wants and needs, Miss. Quinn is nothing more than a pathological liar like the rest of all the other elective officials , I have only met two elective officials who actually have the voting people’s interest at heart, unlike Miss. Quinn who has been known to flip-flop on everything she says.
I can personal tell you that she has made me empty promises and false hope when she said she was going to help me when I had my lawsuit against the New York Yankees, the very same organization that Miss. Quinn has sucked up to for money and tickets.
Don’t vote for Christine Quinn for mayor, you will be making the biggest mistake of your lives.
These are my own personal opinions and beliefs from seeing Miss. Quinn in action.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Paul Priore
To All Concern:
ReplyDeleteAs a gay man, I strongly support Rick Santorum stance on Gay Marriage and I strongly believe and feel exactly what he is, Mr. Santorum is right, Gay Marriage will the destructive fall of the United States and the world in the near future, we must eradicate Gay Marriage, Civil Unions and Gay Adoption now before it is too late.
These are my own personal opinions and belief based on what I have seen and experienced in Gay Life.
I don't apologize for speaking the truth.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Paul Priore
To all concerned about the Greg Kelly rape case, you are automatically doubting the victim without any proof whatsoever about whether or not she is telling the truth, I know for a fact that Commissioner Kelly and his NYPD don't always follow through with serious cases that include high profile celebrity, so instead of judging the victims without true facts, let’s just wait and see what happens and whether or not Commissioner Kelly and DA Vance will do the right thing and do a though investigation in to Commissioner Kelly's son involvement.
ReplyDeleteI don't think she is making up anything, I just think she was scared because Greg Kelly is the Commissioner of the NYPD son and she probably thought no one would believe because of that, I know all too well what it's like not to have anyone believe you when you are attacked, because I too went through a similar experience and everyone refused to do the right thing and do a proper investigation in my situation, so what I am saying is I standby the victim until otherwise proving and all of you should do the same.
These are my own personal opinions and beliefs based on what I had experienced myself.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Paul Priore
To all concerned about the Greg Kelly rape case, you are automatically doubting the victim without any proof whatsoever about whether or not she is telling the truth, I know for a fact that Commissioner Kelly and his NYPD don't always follow through with serious cases that include high profile celebrity, so instead of judging the victims without true facts, let’s just wait and see what happens and whether or not Commissioner Kelly and DA Vance will do the right thing and do a though investigation in to Commissioner Kelly's son involvement.
ReplyDeleteI don't think she is making up anything, I just think she was scared because Greg Kelly is the Commissioner of the NYPD son and she probably thought no one would believe because of that, I know all too well what it's like not to have anyone believe you when you are attacked, because I too went through a similar experience and everyone refused to do the right thing and do a proper investigation in my situation, so what I am saying is I standby the victim until otherwise proving and all of you should do the same.
These are my own personal opinions and beliefs based on what I had experienced myself.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Paul Priore
Re: New York Yankees General Manager:
ReplyDeleteBrian Cashman is nothing more then a contemptuous little weasel, who has no boundaries, morals or scruples whatsoever.
His wife did the smartest thing by filing divorce.
Brian two publicized infidelities are the tip of the ice burg.
Brian is pathological in ever way, shape or form.
I have known Brian and his duplicities for years and I can't begin to start by telling you about this miscreant little nim.
You should continue to dig for dirt on him, because Brian is not what he appears to be.
Paul Priore-(Ex- NY Yankees Clubhouse Attendant.)