Council Speaker's Phantom Groups Go Beyond Quinn's Office

It is now a little more than a day since the story broke about the phantom groups in the City Council Speaker's budget that went to "other" causes (such as those people that do what the Speaker's office wants them to). Quinn claims to have only found out recently and that the people in her office who utilized the slush fund were fired months ago. Somehow though there is no paper trail of her documenting them being fired for these acts, so we have no idea why they left. Nevertheless, some blame lies on Speaker/Mayoral candidate Christine Quinn for not inspecting her budget more thoroughly. Then again, there is blame to spread on to another candidate for Mayor, Comptroller William Thompson.

From The NY Sun:

Mr. Thompson, who is running for mayor, said in a statement that the allegations against budget practices of the council raise serious concerns.

"If there were any attempts to subvert the New York City Charter or to hide money in non-existent organizations, these actions would represent a breach of the public trust," he said. His spokesman could not be reached for comment about the damage the disclosure may have on Mr. Thompson's political future.

A former parks commissioner who is the director of New York Civic, Henry Stern, said the budget accounting practice implicates officials outside the council as well as in, and is "totally wrong." "He's in his seventh year as comptroller. She's only in her third year as speaker," he said, referring to Mr. Thompson and Ms. Quinn. "All these books are in print, how come the comptroller didn't know anything about it? It's their job to audit all these city agencies. I think although it's primarily the speaker's fault, we should look closely at what the comptroller knew and when he knew it."

Stern makes a very good point. Why didn't Thompson catch this? For that matter, what about the Comptrollers before him and the same goes for all of the Speakers from Peter Vallone to Christine Quinn. This lack of accountability goes across the city's political spectrum and this is just one instance of corruption. Now two candidates for Mayor are being fingered in this story, and their credibility, even this far out is going to be tarnished. Criminal charges should be coming soon, but we'll see if the law or the public will have the greatest effect on their political and legal futures.