The Scandal's Afterlife
April 16th, 2008
City Hall was abuzz over the indictment of several City Council staffers today, and many city officials don’t foresee this being the last we’ll hear of it.
Some predict the corruption “runs deep,” while others wonder whether this will spark even more drastic reforms for the allocation of the council’s member item funding.
Others laughed, or even rolled their eyes, when asked whether they thought Councilmember Kendall Stewart knew nothing about his chief of staff’s alleged embezzlement scam.
What this will mean for Speaker Christine Quinn’s reforms proposed last week, much to the chagrin of a majority of the council, we don’t yet know. While her proposal took aim at the speaker’s discretionary pot — which accounts for more than $20 million of the council’s discretionary money — the indictment released today shows it was Stewart’s discretionary money that primarily funded this sketchy nonprofit.
Could greater oversight or control now be sought for individual member item funding? We shall see.
By Courtney Gross on April 16, 2008, 5:29 pmIn category: Crime & Safety, Gotham City, Law | No Comments »
