Did Christine Quinn Negotiate Her Speakership With Mike Bloomberg In 2006 ?

Did Mayor Bloomberg Select Christine Quinn As Speaker In 2006 ?

After Christine Quinn was named speaker, she appointed Michael Keogh to become the City Council finance director. In that position, Mr. Keogh would help the City Council negotiate the budget with City Hall. The appointment created a conflict of interest, because it was not known if Mr. Keogh's former role with the Bloomberg administration would compromise the City Council's independence in the budget process. Mr. Keogh had previously served as a member of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Office of State Legislative Affairs. In 2008, Mr. Keogh resigned after he was implicated in the slush fund scandal.

Mr. Keogh's initial selection followed a pattern of politically-motivated appointments that were seemingly made to reward the powerful political supporters, who had helped to broker Quinn's speakership. For example, after the party bosses in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn, had each helped Quinn to cinch the speakership, Quinn announced that powerful City Council committees would be chaired by members from the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn delegations.

• Joel Rivera from the Bronx became chair of the Health Committee.
• Melinda Katz and David Weprin from Queens remained chairs of the Land Use and Finance Committees, respectively.
• Erik Dilan from Brooklyn was named chair of the Housing & Buildings Committee.

Voters often cite Speaker Quinn's subjugation to Mayor Bloomberg as one reason citizens are promising to vote for "Anybody But Quinn." Now, Flores asks in Chapter 8 of his book, Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn : when did Speaker Quinn make the deal to become Mayor Bloomberg's chief enabler in the City Council ? Did the deal get made during the time Quinn was negotiating her speakership with the political power brokers in late 2005 and early 2006 ? Was Mayor Bloomberg among the power brokers with whom Quinn negotiated her speakership ? Was Mr. Keogh's appointment as the powerful City Council finance director a way to reward Mayor Bloomberg for his support of Quinn's speakership ?

2013-08-28 Roots of Betrayal - Mike Bloomberg Speakership Press Release by Connaissable

Quinn Walters Bronx Connection ?

Is Christine Quinn connected to Wendell Walters's Department of Housing Preservation and Development Bribery-Kickbacks-Racketeering Scandal ?

Last Thursday, Wendell Walters, an assistant commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, was arrested and charged with accepting approximately $600,000 in known bribes. His arrest was part of a sting operation that also resulted in the arrest of six real estate developers.

Mr. Walters was charged with demanding bribes and kickbacks from developers, who had been awarded contracts, by Department of Housing Preservation and Development, to building about $22 million in moderately priced housing in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.

The racketeering conspiracy, extortion, bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering charges against Mr. Walters once again raises questions about the integrity of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ill-fated and karhmically-doomed third term. The Bloomberg administration had launched a hugely expensive $8.5 billion affordable housing program, and nobody knows how much of that massive budget is being wasted on bribes and other forms of corruption. Authorities in Mr. Wendell's bribery case told The New York Times that the developers and contractors, who were paying Mr. Wendell bribes and kickbacks, inflated their invoices to New York City in order to cover the costs of their racketeering operation.

Already, the blogger and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy has called into question the shady dealings of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in the Bronx, one of the areas where Mr. Wendell operated his bribery scheme. After the New York Community Bank foreclosed on eight Bronx rent-regulated apartment buildings in the Bronx, tenants sued the bank for money to repair the slummy apartments, and naturally the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn were trying to get into the action because of the real estate development contracts that would be ordered to make costly repairs.

According to The New York Times, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is the largest municipal developer of affordable housing in the United States. Separately, The New York Daily News reported that, ''One of Walters' codefendants is Sergio Benitez, a developer who is currently at the heart of an ongoing corruption probe involving City Councilman Erik Dilan.''