NY1 Exclusive : More Than 600 Hours Blacked Out Of Speaker Quinn's 2011 Schedule
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's schedule for 2011 is full of holes.
NY1 received Council Speaker Christine Quinn's schedules through a Freedom of Information Law request.
More than 600 hours were blacked out. Hours council officials say include events that if disclosed would be an unwarranted invasion of the speaker's personal privacy.
They could be instances when she goes to spinning class in TriBeCa. They could also be certain instructions to staff or interagency deliberations that aren't finalized.
"It seems that there might have been names, names of staff members for example, public employees, other people that Ms. Quinn might have met that did involve the performance of her duties," said Robert Freeman of the State Committee on Open Government. "It would be difficult to understand why those names would be redacted."
The schedules do reveal that Quinn has met with at least four campaign fundraisers during the work week. Half were in the council's offices.
One of them had an application to develop a parking lot before the City Council. His office says the meeting wasn't about the project, but about banning horse carriages, an issue stalled in the Council.
The project was approved five months after the meeting and four months after he bundled nearly $27,000 for Quinn's campaign.
Quinn also met with a senior executive at Related, who raised nearly $28,000 for her campaign.
According to the schedules, none of these meetings were related to her potential mayoral campaign.
The speaker also steers clear of most so-called "political events" like ribbon cuttings during the work week.
According to the schedules, much of her time is spent on conference calls, meeting with staff and discussing public policy.
She met at least 10 times about Walmart. Hours were spent on the controversial living wage proposal.
And, of course, she makes time for Mayor Bloomberg. She is by his side at press conferences on average every other week.
