Wednesday, December 14, 2011

What Quinn should and could do

From the NY Post:

...the Seabrook scandal wasn’t an isolated action but part of a persistent pattern. The responsibility for deterring corruption in the City Council lies with Quinn, who has failed to hold her members accountable.

In April 2008, the putrid swamp of slush funds touched the speaker herself. Her office apportioned millions of member-item dollars for what The Post called “bogus” or “phantom” grant groups, so the speaker could ladle out the member-item gravy later, at more propitious political moments. Moreover, the speaker benefited from this trickery: The Post reported then that about a quarter of the mystery funds went to Quinn’s own district in Manhattan.

In June of 2009, it was revealed that Councilwoman Carmen Arroyo directed member-item dollars to a charter school headed by her nephew, who was forced to resign after being charged with embezzlement. The next month, Councilman Miguel Martinez resigned and pleaded guilty, admitting to stealing more than $100,000 that he had directed to a not-for-profit he controlled. More than half of those pilfered funds were member-item funds. Only after all that did the Seabrook case come to light.

A principled speaker would have connected these dots and moved decisively to close the doors for such abuses. But Quinn has instead preferred to go along to get along.

She keeps a breathless schedule of thinly veiled campaign stops, using her colleagues as validating props, rather than putting protections in place to protect taxpayers from her members’ avarice.

What could she have done differently?

First, set up an independent system to review the quality of member-item proposals. Independent eyes should provide a thumbs-up on substance before a project is funded.

Second, institute a system where no member item gets funded without a signed statement from the sponsoring member of the City Council. That statement would attest that the member (and also his or her family and staff) has no business relationship with and has received no money (even indirectly) from the entity receiving the member item.

Had this provision been in place, Arroyo and Seabrook’s actions would have been per se violations of City Council rules. This reform should be augmented by a state law, treating a violation as a felony.

Third, announce that no member items will be funded until both those reforms are enacted. Cutting off the slush-fund spigot would get her members’ attention.

In fact, if Quinn were serious about protecting taxpayers, she could put all three measures in place now.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

No wonder Koch endorsd her for Mayor. They both are willng to let the wolves run wild in order to stay in power. They are worse than crooks, they are opportunists. They enable theives in exchange for power not kickbacks.

Anonymous said...

Shoulda, coulda, woulda...
Don't expect anything from a career politician.

Anonymous said...

I think that a lot of the blame is with the public.

Everyone knows what the problem is. It does not take rocket science and the politicians are not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

But they understand human personality very well.

We would slit a reformer's throat in exchange for ice cream money and as long as we do, nothing will change.

The ice cream money disappears when the reformer is taken out.

We do their dirty work for them every time.

Anonymous said...

which Democrat to vote for in primary? Quinn? Liu? Thompson? DiBlasio? Weiner? anyone else?

Anonymous said...

"What Quinn should and could do"

Pull her head out from her butt???

Anonymous said...

She needs to pull her head out of Bloomberg's butt and take a stand for the people. She will never do that. It's all about the money. That's why they are "career" politicians. They don't care about the people they are supposed to represent. The people need to rise up and throw ALL of them out of office and start from scratch. Unfortunately, that will never happen. Quinn will be the next mayor and it will be business as usual, with Mike Bloomberg holding the puppet strings and Quinn holding the cash.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't there more than a token contribution to this fiasco by the finagler in chief? What is it about "beware carpetbaggers bearing gifts" that they didn't get in their blood lust for slush money?The fish is rotting from the head down as always!

Anonymous said...

"What Quinn should and could do"

Pull her head out from her butt???

She needs to pull her head out of Bloomberg's butt and take a stand for the people.
______________________________________________
I stand corrected!!!

Anonymous said...

We need change in New York and the only way this will happen is if we vote out the politicians who continue to ignore the issues.

Anonymous said...

it is time for a n.y.c. house cleaning of gangster government by a g.o.p. mayor, Robt. Turner.....