City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced a new application for local groups seeking city money, in which groups will now apply for the money directly through a soon-to-be launched new web site created by the Council. New groups created within the last two years will have their funding capped at $10,000.
Previously, City Council members submitted to the city the names of groups they wanted to receive funding.
The announcement comes after Public Advocate Bill de Blasio launched a web site that is supposed to publicize the funding requests the members were submitting.
Here’s the main difference between the de Blasio site and the Quinn sites:
On Quinn’s site, groups apply for money, and either get it or they don’t. It’s designed, basically, to be an open door for any group in the city. A Council member may not even be aware of a group in their district applying for money.
On de Blasio’s site, the members submit a list of the funding requests they’ve received from groups in their district. The idea is to make members of the Council more accountable for the requests they’re submitting. On de Blasio’s site, members’ names appear in a category called, “requested from.”
Quinn said she welcomed any of her members to give that information over to de Blasio, but that she herself would not.
Video from Quinn’s press conference coming up shortly.
