From DNA Info:During her eight-year reign as City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn has been accused of running the group with an iron fist — doling out cash to supporters while stripping the same from dissenters, and holding back broadly popular bills from coming up for a vote.
But in the wake of Quinn’s significant loss in the Democratic primary last week, four returning City Councilmen are reaching out to the rest of the membership in hopes of coming up with a plan that would significantly check the power of the next speaker and instill a measure of balance in the chamber.
While all four of the councilmen say conversations with other members are just beginning, they have a set of initial ideas for checks and balances in mind.
First among them is a plan to get proposed legislation on the table for discussion with or without the speaker's approval.
“The idea is that if you have legislation, there should be a mechanism that it can actually be written, whereby it gets introduced, and whereby it can get a hearing,” Greenfield said.
“We’re looking at making sure that bills and laws have a larger space to be discussed, no matter who put it in and no matter what it is," said Williams.
Another idea is to bring greater equity to the distribution of funds to members. Quinn's critics have regularly accused her of using the process of doling out member items to reward friends and supporters, while cutting back funds to her enemies, regardless of overall needs in individual members’ districts.
6 comments:
How about they just do away with member items altogether and stick to legislation.
Gee, do you think the Queens penny savers will tear themselves away from the local state senator beaming in front of a new stop sign or your city councilman posed in the center of a stage troop from Cuzco ...
and treat us like adults for a change and report or discuss this?
Naw, why look for trouble by stirring the greasy oily muck that our electeds expect us to live with?
What are these funds that are doled out and why are they going to council members? Do the council members distribute these funds to "community groups" or do they get to wallow in the funds themselves, like pigs at a trough? When can these expenses be reigned in so that our taxes become reasonable?
Just end member items.
Right. Make every single civic group plan two years ahead and then try to survive the budget process. That will sure level the playing field against Manhattanites and other protected species.
The Manhattanites have an advantage for two strong reasons:
1. They stand up to the elected officials and are not that quick to cut someone's throat who has the courage to do so. In Manhattan they earn funding rather than getting a bounty for delivering someone's head.
2. the elected officials in Manhattan actually provide for their communities. In Queens they fund things by dicking everyone that they don't have money until we grovel. Then they fork over money in exchange for control and votes.
Post a Comment