After a press conference today on the Lower East Side about senior services, Christine Quinn told reporters that an audit by Comptroller Bill Thompson of the Council’s recently discovered slush fund "will be of the highest professional caliber," and expressed confidence that Thompson, a likely mayoral rival, will be objective about the matter. (A third likely candidate in that race, Anthony Weiner, declined to comment on the audit.)
Quinn now is in the awkward position of having to field questions in public about an issue that won’t be considered fully understood until (at least) the conclusion of several ongoing investigations and audits.
From the question-and-answer session:
CQ: You know, we are in the midst of an investigation of this with the U.S. Attorney and with the Department of Investigation so I’m not sure I can fully comment on that question, Frank, and I’ll get back to you when we check with those involved with the investigation. That’s not to indicate I’m trying to say yes or no, I just have to be careful of matters relating to the investigation, what I do or don’t say, and I’ll get back to you later, or my staff will.
A full transcript, kindly provided by Quinn’s office, follows.
CQ: Well, I have not seen the letter; I believe it was sent to my offices, but I have not seen it yet. We obviously have concerns about the practices that were uncovered. That is why we gave that information to both the Department of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s. That’s why we’re cooperating closely with the U.S. Attorney and the Department of Investigation. We began conversations with the Comptroller’s office earlier this week about the idea of the City Council retaining outside experts who could help us not just review this practice but look at all of the practices in the budget so we could really develop the best practices possible, so obviously we welcome any and all assistance in making sure that the issue that were raised by what we found out are clearly dealt with and taken care of, but also any other assistance in making sure we have the best practices possible, and we look forward to working with the Comptroller on that, and we will continue to explore what we began with the Comptroller’s office on Monday about the idea of a contract where the Council would retain outside experts who would be of assistance in this as well.
Reporter: Is Bill Thompson objective about this?
CQ: Bill Thompson is the Comptroller of the City of New York he has done a very good job over the past six years auditing city agencies, and I have no doubt that whatever efforts he takes relevant to this will be of the highest professional caliber.
When we began conversations with his office about a potential contract to engage outside experts, which we will continue to move forward on, it wasn’t in any way because we didn’t think he could audit independently. I don’t want to be…misinterpreted on that. I believe that he, in everything he audits, is professional and thoughtful. We think it would be of assistance if we could also engage experts who could look at broad practices for us internally.
Reporter: I just want to follow up: the idea of Thompson’s office reviewing your contracts for member items, how do you feel about that? I mean, that’s never been done before, where Council contracts to groups are actually reviewed by…anybody else.
CQ: Well, you know, all contracts in the City eventually go through the Comptroller’s office. So, obviously we believe that all contracts have to continue to go through the Comptroller’s office. Exactly what type of review the Comptroller’s office is talking about, we are more than happy to have conversations with him about that. Again, I haven’t seen the letter and I don’t know if it’s spelled out, you know, the specificity or the focus of the review, but you know what we want to do is make sure taxpayer money goes to good groups in an efficient and thoughtful process that gives New Yorkers the greatest level of confidence. When we uncover that don’t meet those ends, we turn them over and, we are happy to work with the Comptroller. I can’t really comment at this moment on my thoughts on the review because I don’t know specifically what he’s calling for, and I don’t know how much it goes beyond the Comptroller’s office having to certify contracts presently.
Reporter: Speaker Quinn, where has he been all this time? He’s only done one audit of a Council-related issue, when the prior Speaker was involved in a controversy with printing contracts. Where has he been all this time? All of a sudden he wakes up, and he’s sending you a letter, releasing it to the press before you even get it, at the time he is running for Mayor and you are running for Mayor. So what’s going on? Is it politics?
CQ: You know, I don’t know if there are any actual declared candidates for Mayor in 2009. You know Comptroller Thompson has I…
Reporter: Tony Avella
CQ: I apologize. Beyond Tony Avella, I don’t know if there are any declared candidates for Mayor in 2009. I think Comptroller Thompson has done a very good job as the Comptroller of the City of New York for the past six years. He obviously has done extensive audits. The audit he did of the City Council’s internal budget has certainly been helpful to us in helping us expand best practices, help indicate to us that we were headed in the right direction with some of the things we had already begun. I look forward to any assistance we can receive from the Comptroller’s office as we move forward, and also we’ll continue our efforts to engage the appropriate outside experts who could also help us in this matter.
Reporter: [inaudible]
…
CQ: What I can say is, um, you know obviously when we uncover the practices that we outlined last week we had concerns. We had concerns so we gave that information to the Department of Investigations and to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. We obviously wanna, working with the authorities come to the bottom of what that matter is. We also want to make sure that we have, you know, all of the appropriate practices in place in the City Council dealing with all aspects of the City budget. With that in mind, it why we began you know figuring out how we can do a contract appropriately but quickly, to engage outside services and I welcome any and all assistance in all of our collective efforts in government to do the best
Reporter: Do you understand why we’re asking if there is any subtext here that we need
to be looking at or are we just going overboard?
CQ: All I can comment on is things from my perspective. Ah, and from my perspective, you know, obviously, ah, we would like to engage outside experts and if Comptroller Thompson can bring other experts to the table who can help us, you know, we are happy to work with him in that effort, you know, I cannot comment on the specifity of everything, I’m sure the letter is perhaps waiting for me when I get back to City Hall, but obviously we want to get to the bottom of this matter we wanna fix the books so to speak to make sure they’re appropriate and clear and New Yorkers can, ah, ah, have confidence in as the budget process moves forward and we welcome any and all assist
ance in that and we’ll continue to explore the idea of engaging outside experts who can help us as well.
Reporter: Over the past week there were a couple of pols who were abolishing member item money in the (inaudible) and the councilman talked about the possibility. What would you think about that prospect, is that something that you would consider?
CQ: You know, member items largely go to fund very important community organizations. I would render a guess that the building we’re standing in may in fact even get a member item from the local Council Member. I don’t know that, but we’re in a senior center, many senior centers do, so I don’t think there’s been a question that the money that the Council allocates towards groups goes to organizations that are largely serving the City’s good. The question is how do you do that in the most thoughtful, appropriate, transparent process. Obviously we took steps last year to make it more transparent by putting Council Members names in Schedule C on the allocations they were granted, so we’re going to continue to work to make things as transparent effective and as on target as possible. But at this point we’re not thinking of getting rid of funding that community groups like this get. Maybe we’ll change the way it gets given out or something like that, but we’re not talking about doing away with those funds.
Reporter: Speaker Quinn, are you satisfied at this point that all of the money that was parked in these non-existent accounts has been accounted for and was not misspent, that it actually did go to bona fide non-profit groups?
CQ: You know, we are in the midst of an investigation of this with the U.S. Attorney and with the Department of Investigation so I’m not sure I can fully comment on that question, Frank, and I’ll get back to you when we check with those involved with the investigation. That’s not to indicate I’m trying to say yes or no, I just have to be careful of matters relating to the investigation, what I do or don’t say, and I’ll get back to you later, or my staff will.
Reporter: Can you explain to us, though, how the money…at what stage money was shifted from these fictitious groups to actual groups? Where does that happen and is there any public disclosure about the movement of funds?
CQ: We, I think, in the past week or so, have tried to get as much information out to the press and the public as quickly as we can, and we will continue to do that. There will be some questions we cannot answer because of the investigation, and I will take both of those questions back to City Hall, and if we can answer them later today, then we will, and if we can answer them tomorrow or the next day we will, and we’re going to try to answer every question we can, but some we will simply not be able to answer because we are working with authorities on an investigation.
