Democrat's SHAME NYC Slavering Dyke Councilwoman Stained by Slush Fund Probe

http://www.newsmax.com/us/council_slush_funds/2008/04/05/85699.html

NYC Pol Caught in Slush Fund Probe

Saturday, April 5, 2008

NEW YORK -- Christine Quinn was widely thought to have a shot at becoming

New York's first female and openly gay mayor. But that bid may be

complicated by revelations that the city council, under her leadership,

allocated millions of dollars to fake organizations.

Quinn admitted this week that the council has appropriated some $17.4

million dollars since 2001 to groups that didn't exist, listed in the budget

under made-up names like the Coalition for Strong Special Education and

Senior Citizens for Equality.

Quinn, who is considered a likely Democratic mayoral candidate for the race

to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg next year, has tried to make open

government a hallmark of her agenda. With federal and city investigators now

looking into the fake funding and other council finance issues, she could

end up paying the political consequences.

Political analysts said the scandal would let opponents raise questions

about her leadership and fiscal competence. Those are traits that will be

particularly important as city voters elect a successor to take over from

Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman who has been praised for his handling

of the city's finances and who has enjoyed high approval ratings in his

second term.

Doug Muzzio, professor of public affairs at Baruch College, said Quinn's

opponents could have a potentially powerful weapon to use against her.

"They're going to say, implicitly or explicitly, 'How can she expect to run

an operation with a $60 billion budget plus a couple hundred thousand

employees if she can't control her own shop?'" he said.

The Democratic field is expected to be crowded next year, with a potential

mix that includes U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, City Comptroller William

Thompson Jr. and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Possible

independent and Republican challengers include Police Commissioner Ray Kelly

and billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis.

Quinn, who is in her third year as speaker of the 51-member council, is the

third council speaker since 1989, when the position was created. It is

widely considered to be the second-most powerful seat in city government,

largely because of its influence over budget matters.

In addition to possible attacks from political opponents, Quinn may get heat

from other directions. A nonpartisan budget watchdog group on Friday said

there was "no excuse" for hiding public funding, and laid the responsibility

on Quinn.

"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 Citizens Budget Commission said in a

statement.

After the story was first reported in the New York Post on Thursday, Quinn

said she first learned about the practice of faking budget appropriations

last spring while working on the fiscal 2008 budget plan.

The maneuver of setting aside what she called "reserve funds," which could

then be doled out later in the year, dates back at least 20 years, she said.

Using phony names to conceal where the money was going goes back to 2001,

she said.

She insisted that she ordered an end to the reserve fund practice when she

learned of it, but said her staff kept doing it anyway.

She said she did not know it was still going on, and that bogus names had

been faked in the budget, until a few months ago when the council was

pulling together information at the request of federal and city

investigators for a broader probe into council finances.

"I was obviously deeply troubled when I found out about this information. I

had no knowledge of it," she said. "It's something that I believe is

completely inappropriate and should not have gone on and will no longer go

on."

Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said she was smart to cast herself as

trying to halt the shady budgeting practice, and if her story ultimately

proves true, it lessens the political fallout for her in a mayor's race.

"If she's successful in portraying herself as the one who blew the whistle,

she will be well-positioned," Sheinkopf said. "A year in politics is a long

time _ the public may very well forget about this and see her as a victim of

a staff that didn't listen."